Difference between revisions of "Vodo Bonias"

Latest revision as of 22:28, 25 July 2023

Vodo Bonias
Biographical Information
Race	Human
Homeworld	Corellia
Mother	Unknown (Deceased)
Father	Unknown (Deceased)
Spouse	Kammy Bonias (Divorced)
Siblings	Unknown sister
Children	Unknown son (Deceased)
Born	Unknown
Imperial Service
Branch	Imperial Throne
Positions	Exiled
Prior Service	Emperor of the Galactic Empire Dark Lord of the Sith
Awards	Unknown

Vodo Bonias was the third and tenth Galactic Emperor. He also ruled as Emperor of the separatist Dark Empire and was a well known Sith Lord. He earned the nickname "Butcher of Kashyyyk" when he ordered Imperial troops to mass-murder the Wookiees on Kashyyyk for defying the Empire. He was also known as Darth Gwar and later, Darth Imperius.

Personal History

Bad Youth

Vodo Bonias was an orphan who never knew his birth parents and was adopted by a Corellian family of smugglers. When he was only ten years old, the Galactic Republic raided their home on Corellia and executed his adoptive parents, who had been aiding enemies of the Republic and caused the death of a Republican officer. His little sister of five years old was taken away to protect her from the dangerous influence of her family, leaving the young Vodo alone with his grandmother, who took care of him until he reached the age of sixteen and considered himself old enough to take care of himself.

He had always known he was force sensitive, but his family discouraged him from developing his skills out of fear that the Galactic Republic would take him away, or that perhaps he would grow too powerful and fall to the Dark Side. After leaving his grandmother, he met a young Jedi named Barak Golan who offered to teach him the ways of the Force. Together, they travelled to Tatooine to train. His training progressed well until a few years later, a Republic commando unit raided the Meleenium shop owned by Golan and killed him for crimes committed against the government, including several acts of terrorism. Not considering the young Vodo a threat, they left him unharmed. But inside, the anger burned at the loss of both his parents and mentor.

Fall to the Dark Side

He recognized how powerful his hatred and anger had made him and in order to protect himself from the Republic, he left Tatooine for the Obsidian Temple, where he studied under Gita Nareek. He joined the Order of the Dark Hand and continued to train for several years until Gita Nareek expelled him from the Order for unknown reasons, although his disobedient behaviour was probably a key factor in his expulsion. Only a few days later, he was contacted by a man named Natah Matrus, who had been expelled from the Order as well. Natah encouraged Vodo to enlist in the Republic military, while secretly training under him. Matrus was a disturbing figure. He murdered people only so he could drink their blood and he often accompanied by a Dathomir witch. His personality would clearly affect Bonias, who would later start to resemble his former master. During his time in the Republic's navy, he would frequent cantinas, where he met a girl named Kammy who was married to a General of the Republic. The two fell in love and worked together to kill her husband, so that they could marry each other instead. However, Vodo would slowly realise that she weakened him by showing that he could still love somebody. It wasn't long before she gave birth to a son, but the child would not survive for long, because his father killed the child as soon as possible, fearing that Kammy Bonias would use the child to manipulate him and weaken him even more. She never forgave him for this act and they parted ways.

One dark night at the cantina, Matrus ordered Vodo to his side, as was their habit. Nobody knows what they discussed that day, but a few hours later, Vodo betrayed his master and murdered him in his sleep. Around this time, he held the rank of Captain. His commanding officer, Admiral Drayson, seized control of the Republic and became the first Emperor. Emperor Drayson appointed Vodo as commanding officer of one of his fleets.

First Reign

Vodo considered himself to be superior to the Emperor in every way possible and plotted against him. Drayson's fleet had begun a routine deployment to fend off another unidentified attack on Imperial territory. Commanding one of the sections of the fleet was Captain Vodo Bonias. Having won the battle, Bonias suddenly turned his ship against Drayson and ordered the troops loyal to him to open fire at the Dread Knight, the Emperor's flagship. Suffering critical damage, Drayson's forces were driven off for parts unknown, while Bonias' forces acclaimed him Admiral and he returned to Coruscant triumphant.

Bonias would not return to the position he might have expected. With the flight of Drayson, the throne nominally fell to his Naval Commanding Officer, Admiral Suntzu. Attempting to mollify Bonias and consolidate his rule, Suntzu approved Bonias' rank of Admiral and additionally appointed him Moff of the Boeus Sector. At the same time, he initiated projects in favour of the Imperial Navy, drawing the ire of General Balseraph, commander of the Imperial Army. This soon resulted in a rebellion led by the General, who claimed Suntzu was nothing but a pawn of Vodo. The resulting campaign was short and brutal, but eventually the newly appointed Moff Bonias would force Balseraph and his forces to retreat, taking as many assets and officers with them as possible.

Heavily beset with troubles and his popularity with the public rapidly decreasing, Suntzu relinquished the throne after a mere month and retired into obscurity. After all this time, Vodo Bonias finally had the throne he had so heavily desired.

Shortly after Bonias' ascent, Drayson revealed that he had survived the coup against him. With Bonias refusing to surrender the throne, Drayson declared the formation of the Order of Darkness while revealing a great secret: he was a disciple of one of the many Sith Orders that had been established since the Battle of Ruusan nearly a thousand years ago. General Balseraph, together with his followers, decided to support Drayson, giving the Order the military resources it required to present a real challenge to the Emperor on Coruscant.

Shortly thereafter, Admiral Dyvel Price consorted with Evax, one of her officers, to defect to the Order of Darkness. Their plans succeeded and the Imperial Navy was deprived of a significant portion of its force. Near simultaneously, many senior military officers were purged. The Order would only achieve a few minor victories before disappearing following Drayson's death however.

Vodo's first reign saw no relief for the Empire. Years of infighting had caused economic ruin on many worlds, and corruption was entrenched in the Imperial bureaucracy. The new Emperor proved to care more about himself than about the Empire and was not capable of controlling himself. When a young female Imperial Army officer was raped in front of, and by, the Imperial High Command, the citizens turned against Emperor Bonias. With the citizenry and Imperial Army posing a constant threat and with only the increasingly deserting Imperial Navy to defend him, Bonias abdicated in favour of his Executor, Spytek, after ruling the Empire for almost a year.

The Banished Warlord

Vodo continued his Imperial service under Emperor Spytek and during this time, he created his own organisation: the Majestic 12, also known as MJ12. This organisation consisted of several secret agents who were loyal to only Vodo and who had to ensure that he always maintained power. It was around this time that Vodo claimed the title of "Warlord".

When Admiral Piett, a Sith Lord and former apprentice of Vodo, ended the conflict between Admiral Gorn Veynom and General Trey Connel and seized the throne, the Empire saw a new age of strength and stability. However, his reign was a conservative one, and many officers wished for drastic reforms to be made. It was the traitorous Warlord who once more sought to overthrow the Emperor, although he cared little for the people's call for change. He had lost control over his old apprentice and he encouraged many high-ranking Imperials to start a revolt against Piett. The coup was unsuccesful and its ring leaders, Grand Admiral Veynom, Admiral Gunther von Esling, and Surface Marshall Trey Connel were arrested and accused of treason. The Sith Master pulling the strings escaped and fled Imperial territory with the help of Captain Machkhit and Fleet Admiral Simms, who were ordered to arrest him but pretended that he couldn't be found. In the end, his failed coup would be one of the reasons of Piett's retirement however. The Emperor was unable to trust his commanders and eventually became paranoid. Fearing further revolts and attempts on his life, he chose to flee the Empire, seeking a peaceful retirement in the Outer Rim.

Rise of the Sith

Warlord Vodo would reappear later, when his Sith Order merged with the Imperial Core, forming the Dark Empire. He claimed the title of Emperor once more and together with his Dark Lord, Simms, who had taken on the name of Darth Knyte, he prepared the reunification of the Galactic Empire, led by Emperor Charon. Charon, ever distrustful of the deceitful Vodo and his followers, stayed on the Throne after the merger, but appointed Count Greyson Uebles, a member of the Dark Empire, as his Executor as part of the compromise. Vodo was allowed his own secretive fleet, the Dark Hand Fleet, placed outside the chain of command that incorporated the officers and Sith loyal to him. Vodo also managed to preserve the secretive MJ-12 intelligence agency, although their attempts to expand would often by thwarted by Charon's Imperial Security Bureau.

There was a lot of conflict and competition between the supporters of Charon and Vodo. When Emperor Charon ordered ISB-General Matrel Byden to arrest the Commanding Officer of the Dark Hand Fleet, Vice Admiral Jennifer Dreighton, and to dissolve the fleet, the Vodoists rose up against the Emperor. Count Uebles revealed himself to be a Sith Lord and claimed the Throne for himself, offering Charon a position on his High Command. The overthrown Emperor turned down the offer and incited his followers to defect. The Charonists would eventually form the New Imperial Order. Uebles remained as the new Emperor, but many considered him to be yet another puppet of Vodo, and in many aspects, this was true. Vodo served as his Executor until Uebles stepped down on Year 5 Day 158, letting his master take the Imperial Throne.

Second Reign

The second reign of Vodo initially proved to be more succesful than his first, but eventually the Empire's growth would come to a halt once more. The newest Emperor introduced minor reforms in several branches and under his rule, the Empire was victorious in two major campaigns, Allied Tion and the Bacta Wars. Problems first started arising in the Navy, where there was growing discontent amongst the officers. They petitioned for Admiral Zerk, Vodo's Commanding Officer of the Navy, to be removed, a request which the Emperor reluctantly approved. Vodo's reign was characterised by favouritism however, and instead of punishing Zerk for alienating the Imperial Navy, he granted Zerk the rank of Grand Moff and appointed him as head of the Regional Government. Several Imperials -Charonists in particular- would use the hate for Zerk to create a revolt against Emperor Bonias. They held a secret meeting to discuss the future of the Empire and came to the conclusion that the Empire could not prosper under the current Emperor. A broadcast was made to encourage all Imperials to rise up against Vodo. With the help of Admiral Slicer and Captain Michael Pangborn, Vodo managed to stay in control and had the Charonists arrested and executed for treason. He could not prevent the reformers from creating the New Imperial Order however, a government that would later pose a serious threat to the Empire.

Although several reforms were made during this reign, many were either minor changes or simply made the state of the Empire even worse. The Empire was marred by corruption, favouritism, defections, conservatism, and so on. The Sith were free to do as they pleased, since their master was the Emperor, resulting in a true reign of terror. However, in his bid for more power, Vodo was responsible for the creation of the Imperial Union, an alliance between the Empire and the Hapes Consortium. With his City-State Accords, he also managed to bring several governments and factions under the control of the Empire, however many of those would eventually betray the Emperor, such as the New Anzat Order. His reign also saw the takeover of the Kathol Republic.

The Sith Master managed to recruit more governments to the Imperial Union, such as Mandalore, the Trade Federation and the Tion Hegemony, although this was mainly accomplished by his Vizier of Diplomacy, Jarek Sankin, rather than by the Emperor himself, who was growing more and more delusional over time, alienating many of the Empire's allies and members. The enemies of the Empire mocked him while his own Imperials were the only ones to fear him, knowing that one wrong action or word could mean their banishment or even death.

The Beginning of the End

In the meanwhile, the New Imperial Order kept growing, and Vodo knew that he needed them to maintain his power. After long negotiations, the New Imperial Order agreed to join the Empire once more, under the condition that their leader, Thomas Cherokee, would become the new Executor. Many of the former members of the NIO still considered themselves to be Charonists however, and as they progressed through the ranks of the Empire, their influence grew once more. Emperor Vodo Bonias, in order to silence voices of protest, promised several times to abdicate in favour of Cherokee. He didn't seem willing to hold his promises however and many Imperials, even those who had never been part of the New Imperial Order, believed it was time for him to leave. Moff Azrakh Raleep, a Sith Lord, and Grand Vizier Seele made plans to have him assassinated, but Raleep feared that the plan would fail and chose to confess their plans to Vodo. They were both banished, although Seele would be pardoned and given permission to return later.

The rule of the Sith would continue until Year 11 Day 291, when Grand Moff Orphaea Imperium and other members of the Imperium family transferred most of the Empire's assets to their own accounts and convinced many Imperial planets to join their cause. The Grand Moff sent a message to every member of the Empire in which he explained his actions, stating that he had only one demand: the removal of Vodo Bonias as Emperor and Thomas Cherokee replacing him. Vodo held a crisis meeting with his High Command and claimed that he would agree to the demands. However, he secretly made an agreement with Executor Cherokee so that Cherokee would only temporarily take over the title of Emperor, until everything had been returned to the Empire. Cherokee had gathered so much support by now however, that he chose not to return the Throne to Bonias and was granted the title and mantle of Emperor, the first new Emperor in more than six years, finally bringing an end to the oppressive rule of the Sith. Vodo was offered the chance to stay as Dark Lord of the Sith, but his pride was too damaged and the fallen Emperor and Dark Lord fled into the Unknown Regions.

Positions

Trivia

• Vodo Bonias had cannibalistic tendencies. He was known to eat the flesh of sentient races he deemed inferior. He even served such a meal to the other leaders of the Imperial Union once.
• He once had a Recruit banished from the Empire because the Recruit was "too friendly".
• Bonias was one of the architects of the notorious Wookiee Soap Factory, proving his great hate for the species.
• He is the only Emperor to have ruled over the Empire twice and also holds the record for longest reign.
• Bonias has attempted to overthrow three Emperors, although he only succeeded twice.