Chapter Summaries

After the fighting on Dak Planet stopped, Nossori became acting king and declared the planet neutral, while Anakin Skywalker and the Republic withdrew. Chancellor Sheev Palpatine consoled Anakin and urged him to reject peacetime values, leaving him to consider how he could have saved more people.

• Gial Akbar rescued Prince Lee-Char as Edra Kestis and the combat droids withdrew, and Nossori told him the war was over.
• The Republic and Separatist forces ceased fighting, and Nossori announced plans to expel foreign forces, unify Dak Planet, and become acting king.
• Prince Lee-Char accepted Nossori's demands and stepped down temporarily, while Senator Mina Tills formed the Mon Calamari Isolation League on Coruscant.
• Anakin Skywalker and the Republic forces contacted Coruscant, and Master Windu ordered them to withdraw from Dak Planet.
• Chancellor Sheev Palpatine reassured Anakin that the defeat was not his fault and urged him not to be bound by peacetime values.

Nossori shifted blame for Dak Planet’s civil war onto Mina-Tills and secured Republic action against her, while Tang Xiao and Count Dooku discussed their military plans and mutual suspicions. Darth Malthael then left Muunilinst and met Zerakas and Talim aboard a Protoss shuttle.

• Nossori blamed Mina-Tills for starting Dak Planet’s civil war, and the Republic condemned Mina-Tills as a traitor and war criminal.
• Nossori demanded Mina-Tills’s extradition, so Sheev Palpatine secretly sent her away from Coruscant and publicly claimed she had escaped.
• Tang Xiao told Count Dooku that Dak Planet’s deep-sea factories were building five hundred pressure-resistant hulls for Kohl-class Battlecruisers.
• Tang Xiao and Count Dooku discussed the coming campaign at Eriadu, the threat in the Kuna Cluster, and whether the Archangel of Death would intervene.
• Darth Malthael ended his remote control of Tang Xiao’s clone, left Abola Island on Muunilinst, and met Zerakas and Talim aboard a Protoss shuttle.

Darth Malthael traveled with Zerakas to Taris as the Protoss investigated the location and history of Muur's Talisman. They found no definitive location, but Zerakas hoped the artifact could advance research into the Force and psionic power, while Lucien Draay demanded its destruction.

• Zerakas told Darth Malthael that the Protoss had narrowed down the artifact's location and described their new automated factory and combat machines built with Geth assistance.
• Darth Malthael asked Zerakas to send him Protoss interceptors so he could compare them with Vulture droid fighters.
• Darth Malthael and Zerakas arrived at Taris and discussed the planet's former importance and decline.
• Zerakas explained that the Jedi Covenant's records linked Muur's Talisman to Karness Muur and described it as a device capable of creating a Death Army.
• Lucien Draay appeared and urged Darth Malthael to destroy the talisman, while Darth Malthael said he would use it against the Galactic Republic and Darth Sidious.

Darth Malthael and Zerakas searched Taris for the Muur Talisman, guided by Lucien Draay’s account of Force technology and a vague vision of the talisman’s trail. They reached the ruined mine where Celeste Morne was believed to have found it, but what lay beyond remained unclear.

• Zerakas explained that an unseen force concealed the Muur Talisman and discussed Force technology with Darth Malthael and Lucien Draay.
• Lucien Draay refused to reveal anything about Force technology and warned that the galaxy’s troubles would worsen.
• Darth Malthael’s Protoss transport crossed Taris’s devastated continent and landed near the ruins of an old mining town.
• Zerakas said Jedi Covenant records linked Celeste Morne to the Muur Talisman and placed it in Taris’s Lower City.
• Darth Malthael approached a dark mine shaft as Zerakas said his vision showed Celeste Morne finding the talisman and leaving Taris, but nothing beyond that.

Darth Malthael and Zerakas led Protoss warriors into Taris’s ruined mine to investigate the Rakghoul plague and the Muur Talisman. As they followed Zerakas deeper underground, they learned that the Rakghouls had overwhelmed Taris and were still present below.

• Darth Malthael assessed the Protoss warriors’ crystal-enhanced armor and concluded their power justified its cost.
• Darth Malthael and the others crossed Taris’s corpse-strewn surface and found Rakghoul remains near the mine entrance.
• Zerakas identified the monsters as Rakghouls and said the black dust and plague were no longer active aboveground.
• Templar Guardian Talim led the group into the dark, tangled mine while Zerakas explained the Jedi Covenant’s search for the Muur Talisman.
• Darth Malthael recalled how Rakghouls had overwhelmed Taris and the Mandalorian Crusaders, then sensed that the creatures were still underground.

Darth Malthael and the Protoss fought through the Taris underground city as Zerakas followed psionic clues toward Celeste Morne’s trail and the Muur Talisman. After discovering that the Rakghouls were intelligent, Malthael became interested in the plague, and the group reached a cave near a dried-up underground river and several spacecraft wrecks.

• Zerakas explained that Celeste Morne had entered the underground city through the mine shaft and that his tribe’s psionics had led them deeper.
• Talim found Lightsaber-scarred Rakghoul corpses beside a machine-dug passage, and the group entered a vast underground space where living Rakghouls attacked.
• Talim and the Protoss warriors fought through waves of Rakghouls while Darth Malthael noticed that they understood their weapons had failed and chose to attack at close range.
• Darth Malthael realized that the Rakghoul plague threatened ordinary people far more than Force-sensitive individuals and smiled at the power it represented.
• Zerakas led the group to a cave near their destination, where Lucien Draay connected Celeste Morne’s disappearance to a conflict with the Mandalorian Crusaders.
• Darth Malthael checked the terrain scan and spotted the wrecks of several spacecraft near a dried-up underground river.

Darth Malthael and his allies searched the Taris Death Dungeon for the Muur Talisman’s trail and discovered that the Mandalorian Crusaders had taken it to Jubal planet. After escaping the Rakghoul horde, they traveled toward Jubal, while Malthael confirmed he could destroy the virus infecting the wounded Protoss warriors.

• Zerakas detected traces of the Muur Talisman near a crashed spaceship, and Darth Malthael led the group through Rakghouls to investigate the wreckage.
• Darth Malthael found the lingering soul of a Jedi Master and learned from its memories that the Jedi Covenant had pursued the talisman to Jebble, while Zerakas discovered that the Mandalorians planned to take it to a secret base.
• Darth Malthael hurled a spaceship wreckage through the Rakghoul horde to open a path, and the group fought their way back to the mine shaft and escaped aboard their transport ship.
• Darth Malthael and Zerakas concluded that the Mandalorian Crusaders had taken the Muur Talisman to Jubal planet, and their ship set course there.
• Darth Malthael examined a wounded Protoss warrior, found the Rakghoul virus spreading through the warrior’s blood, and used the Force to destroy the virus.

Darth Malthael and his companions discovered that Jubal planet had been reduced to a world of black ice by Orbital Bombardment and the Rakghoul plague. They intercepted a cargo ship and boarded it, with Darth Malthael confronting its crew in the cockpit.

• Darth Malthael explained how the Mandalorian Wars had overrun the Jubal-Vago-Tarnit defensive line and left Jubal planet's fate unknown.
• Darth Malthael, Lucien Draay, and Zerakas found Jubal planet covered in smooth black ice and determined that Orbital Bombardment and the Rakghoul plague had devastated it.
• Zerakas explained that the plague had mixed with dust after the bombardment, turning the frozen seas black.
• Darth Malthael spotted a cargo ship on the radar and ordered the Protoss transport ship to ram it.
• The Protoss transport ship crippled the cargo ship, and Darth Malthael appeared in its cockpit and held a blood-red Lightsaber to the pilot's throat.

Darth Malthael learned that the Jabble box was on Aridus planet and traveled there to find it. He discovered that Kuruuru, the smuggler who had possessed the box, had died six months earlier.

• Darth Malthael interrogated the ice diggers on Jubal planet and learned the black ice contained remnants of the Rakghoul plague.
• An ice digger told Darth Malthael that the Jabble box had passed to Kuruuru, leader of a group of Kubbit smugglers on Aridus planet.
• Darth Malthael killed the ice diggers so no one would know he had been there, then learned Zerakas and the Protoss were excavating a buried structure on Jubal planet.
• Darth Malthael borrowed the Protoss transport ship and traveled to Aridus planet.
• Darth Malthael asked around in a Kubbit city and learned Kuruuru had been killed in a gang melee six months earlier.

Darth Malthael learned that Schurk-Heren had taken a sealed coffin called Jebble's Vault from Kuruuru's ruins aboard the Uhumele. After killing the mercenary who led him there, he arranged to buy the vault from Schurk-Heren, who feared the buyer might be dangerous.

• Darth Malthael paid a mercenary to learn that Separatist droids had wiped out Kuruuru's gang and that Schurk-Heren had carried away a sealed coffin from the ruins.
• The mercenary said Schurk-Heren had taken the coffin, believed to be a legendary treasure, aboard the Uhumele and returned to New Plympto.
• Darth Malthael had the mercenary take him to the ruins, then killed him and drove away.
• Schurk-Heren learned that someone had offered five hundred thousand credits for Jebble's Vault and questioned how the buyer knew he had it.
• The intermediary urged Schurk-Heren to make the deal, warning that refusing might cost him both the money and his life.

Darth Malthael bought Jabble box’s coordinates from Shulk Heron, then killed and resurrected him to force him to reveal the true location. Malthael found the black coffin-like vault in the XH88T1L92 System and recognized that the Muur Talisman was inside.

• Darth Malthael met Shulk Heron on Mimban and offered credits for Jabble box, but Heron demanded a face-to-face transaction and questioned Malthael’s identity.
• Heron revealed that Jabble box was linked to the destruction of Jubal and threatened to withhold its coordinates, so Malthael raised his offer to one and a half million credits.
• Heron gave Malthael false coordinates and tried to leave, but Malthael killed him and his bodyguards, then killed the broker through the communicator.
• Malthael resurrected Heron and forced him to disclose the true coordinates in the XH88T1L92 System.
• Malthael reached the system’s asteroid belt and found a large black box resembling an iron coffin, which he recognized as containing the Muur Talisman.

Darth Malthael recovered Lord Dreypa’s Stasis Pod and brought it to Jubal, where Zerakas recommended decoding the laboratory records before opening it. As the excavation continued, Malthael reviewed the Fourth Civilization’s worsening conflicts on several fronts and asked Volgograd Kanidi whether the Kuna Cluster needed reinforcements.

• Darth Malthael identified the ancient inscription as Lord Dreypa’s Stasis Pod and sensed that it was still functioning, so he carried it to Jubal without opening it.
• Darth Malthael arrived at Zerakas’s camp, where Zerakas identified the recovered facility as a high-security laboratory that had researched the Muur Talisman and advised decoding its records first.
• Darth Malthael reviewed the Fourth Civilization’s military situation as Eriadu’s defenses weakened and the Republic stirred attacks and rebellions across Yago-Dor, the Kuna Cluster, and Cerea.
• Darth Malthael asked Volgograd Kanidi whether the Kuna Cluster needed reinforcements, and Kanidi said he would not request them because that would fulfill the Republic’s strategy.

Darth Malthael refused to prioritize reinforcements for the Kuna Cluster, prompting Shulk-Herun and the resurrected bodyguards to submit to him. Meanwhile, Zerakas’s team recovered records revealing the Mandalorian Crusaders’ history with the Stasis Pod on Taris, and Darth Malthael prepared to open it.

• Darth Malthael redirected Dawn Star Planet’s production toward the Eriadu and Yago-Dul campaigns, and Shulk-Herun begged to serve him in exchange for his life.
• Zerakas and the others recovered and deciphered records about the Mandalorian Crusaders’ expedition to Taris 4,000 years earlier.
• The records explained how Percival found Lord Dreypa’s Stasis Pod amid intelligent Rakghouls, escaped with it after the Mandalorian army was overwhelmed, and planned to take it to Jubal planet.
• Darth Malthael concluded that the site had been an experimental ship, and Zerakas proposed using Percival’s recorded methods to open the Stasis Pod.

Darth Malthael investigated the Muur Talisman’s history and opened the stasis pod containing it. He awakened Celeste Morne, who learned that nearly four thousand years had passed and the Mandalorian Wars were over.

• Darth Malthael deduced that Percival had taken the Muur Talisman from Karness Muur’s corpse after the Rakghoul plague had begun spreading.
• Darth Malthael found records showing that Karness Fett had assembled 8.13 million troops on Jubal to invade Alderaan, but the invasion never began.
• Darth Malthael used ancient Sith words to open the stasis pod and ordered Talim to prepare for a fight while Zerakas returned to the ship.
• Darth Malthael stopped Shulk Heren and the bodyguards from leaving, and Talim blocked their path as the pod opened.
• Celeste Morne awakened with the Muur Talisman around her neck and asked who the people around her were.
• Darth Malthael told Celeste Morne that she had slept for nearly four thousand years and that the Mandalorian Wars had ended two years after she entered the pod.

On frozen Jubal, Celeste Morne awoke from stasis and attacked Darth Malthael after learning the planet had been devastated and the Muur Talisman remained a threat. Malthael and Talim defeated her, and Karness Muur emerged from her body, recognized Malthael as a Sith, and proposed an alliance.

• Darth Malthael told Celeste Morne that four thousand years had passed and a Mandalorian orbital bombardment had destroyed Jubal.
• Celeste Morne realized the Muur Talisman was still around her neck and attacked Darth Malthael with her Lightsaber.
• Temple Guardian Talim blocked Celeste's attack and steadily overwhelmed her in a duel.
• Darth Malthael struck Celeste with the Force, and Talim kicked her down and disarmed her.
• Karness Muur's phantom emerged from Celeste, identified Darth Malthael as a Sith, and offered to join forces with him.

Celeste Morne unleashed immense Dark Side power, transforming a group of Weequay into Rakghouls and overwhelming the people around her. As Darth Malthael fought the Rakghouls, Celeste attacked Talim with Force lightning.

• Darth Malthael moved toward Celeste Morne to take the talisman, while Karness Muur urged her to accept her death.
• Celeste Morne erupted with powerful Dark Side Force and refused to let Darth Malthael and Karness Muur have their way.
• A group of Weequay led by Dross arrived, mistook the gathering for a threat, and tried to leave after realizing their mistake.
• Celeste Morne swept out with the Force, transforming the Weequay into Rakghouls while Shulk Herun and his men remained unchanged.
• The Rakghouls fired at Darth Malthael, who deflected their blaster bolts, but they kept attacking without being hurt.
• Celeste Morne charged at Talim and struck him with Force lightning, sending him flying despite his attempt to block it with his Lightsaber.

Darth Malthael tried to seize Karness Muur while Celeste Moen and Talim fought, but Celeste and Karness joined forces against him. The Celeste/Karness fusion emerged with overwhelming power and prepared to begin the real fight.

• Celeste Moen overwhelmed Talim with Dark Side lightning and hurled chunks of black ice as Darth Malthael joined the battle.
• Darth Malthael seized Karness Muur with Death Force and revealed that he had targeted Karness to take the amulet.
• Talim struck Celeste Moen, but Karness Muur began breaking free and urged Celeste to join him against Darth Malthael.
• Darth Malthael used Kresh's Gauntlet to isolate Karness Muur from Celeste Moen while warning her that Darth Sidious was secretly leading the Galactic Republic toward civil war.
• Celeste Moen unleashed a storm of lightning that blasted Darth Malthael away, allowing Karness Muur to merge with her.
• The Celeste/Karness fusion reclaimed Celeste's Lightsaber, turned its blade red, and advanced to begin the real fight.

Darth Malthael and Temple Guardian Talim fought Karness Muur, who controlled Celeste Morne’s body, on Jubal planet. Malthael recognized Celeste’s unwavering light as Muur’s weakness and summoned the planet’s wronged souls, whose arms began reaching through the ice.

• Darth Malthael prepared to fight Karness Muur and asked Lucien Draay for insight into Celeste Morne and Muur.
• Karness/Celeste overwhelmed Malthael with lightsaber attacks and Force lightning, while Kresh’s Gauntlet shielded him.
• Talim joined the battle, and Malthael protected him with the gauntlet’s Force barrier so they could fight together.
• Darth Malthael realized Celeste Morne’s steadfast light and his own Death Force could counter Karness Muur, whose possession of her body only temporarily protected him.
• Darth Malthael stabbed his Lightsaber into the black ice and called on Jubal planet’s wronged souls, bringing countless black arms up through the ground.

Darth Malthael used the Death Force to turn Jubal’s glaciers into a realm of the dead and weaken Karness Muur’s hold on Celeste Morn. As Karness Muur’s power faded, Malthael revealed that Darth Sidious was controlling the Republic’s civil war to bring down the Republic and the Jedi Order.

• Darth Malthael awakened Jubal’s vengeful dead, spreading a ghostly realm beneath the glaciers.
• Karness Muur, controlling Celeste Morn, dismissed the spirits as illusions and unleashed lightning to destroy the emerging arms.
• Karness Muur gathered a massive lightning strike, but then realized his strength was draining away.
• Darth Malthael revealed that the realm of death was eroding Celeste Morn’s body and tearing Karness Muur’s soul from it.
• Darth Malthael told Celeste that Darth Sidious had engineered the civil war to exhaust the Jedi Order and bring down the Galactic Republic.

Darth Malthael persuaded Celeste Morne to resist Karness Muur by revealing Lucien Draay’s spirit and warning her about Darth Sidious. After Lucien appeared and Celeste broke down, Muur hid inside her body to evade capture, and Malthael used Death Force against her abdomen.

• Darth Malthael appealed to Celeste Morne to fight Karness Muur, citing Darth Sidious’s threat and showing her Kresh's Gauntlet.
• Celeste recognized Lucien Draay’s spirit and collapsed, confessing her guilt over killing the attackers on Jubal planet to protect Alderaan Planet.
• Lucien Draay comforted Celeste and told her that the Republic had survived and Alderaan had been spared from the Mandalorian Crusaders.
• Karness Muur re-entered Celeste’s body to escape Darth Malthael, who knocked her down and tore away her breastplate.
• Talim pinned Celeste’s hands as Darth Malthael pressed Death Force against her lower abdomen.