Thanks for reading. Here is some context for Part One.
I have been wanting to write a Darth Malgus-Eleena Daru fic for basically a year now. It all came about when I clicked on one of those Snoke theory clickbait articles that came up on my Facebook feed. Darth Maglus was one of the options for Snoke's true identity and I had no idea who Malgus was so I read a bit about him and about his Twi'lek lover Eleena Daru. I immediately thought to myself—I want to write these two!
I find Malgus fascinating for a number of reasons. First, while he has all the zeal of a power mad Sith, in the old EU he is a bit of a reformer at heart in his views on aliens and infighting among the Sith. Those ideas feature prominently in this fic. I made Malgus a man feared but disliked. And that holds him back among his peers. I also loved the idea of the Old Sith Empire where there were Sith everywhere, fighting each other even as they fight the Republic and the Jedi. Malgus sees the limitations of his competitive culture. I like to think of him as a precursor to Darth Bane and the "Rule of Two." There will be a lot of infighting and scheming to come in this fic as it unfolds.
And, for the record, I'm not making this up—not all of it at least. Darths Angral, Serevin, Adraas, and Azamin (to come) all existed in the EU. Adraas was indeed Malgus' rival. Serevin was his ally. Ziost existed too. It was the 'Gateway to the Empire' and a major buffer world between the Republic and the Empire during Emperor Vitiate's reign. Ziost was invaded, but the facts are different than will be presented here. The Battle for Coruscant (to come) existed too. I take liberties with the old EU, but I take inspiration from it as well.
This story takes place in the middle of Malgus' career as he is pushing into the upper echelons of power and experiencing frustration at being shunted aside. Power in the Old Sith Empire is more than just the Force. It's a far more complex game to play than for the Sith of the prequel and original trilogy era. In my mind, there are Old Sith who are lacking in the Force but powerful in politics or in war. And there are Old Sith who are masters of the Force but so secluded as to be irrelevant in the political arena and therefore they don't get their due. Getting the trifecta of political, military, and Force power makes you the ultimate Sith in this time period. But mind you, your peers are all after the same goal. I love the idea of a Sith who struggles for supremacy, only against his peers and not against his master or his enemies. That is unique to this Old Republic SW era.
Malgus is an outsider by his birth and also by his opinions and actions. And that is the initial connection with Eleena. In the old EU, Malgus meets very young Eleena in the slave pens on Geonosis. Seeing she is abused, Malgus kills her master and takes Eleena for his own. They are lovers in private but ostensibly master and slave. This really didn't fit for me. First, no self-respecting Sith is going to be randomly moved by compassion for a slave. It's just not in their nature to be out righting the injustices of the world. (Even Jedi in Episode 1 decline to free slaves). It's not that Sith do not ever have compassion, but that compassion is not the driving emotion behind their everyday actions. In my story, the lovers meet by accident with Eleena as the unaware, unwilling pawn in a plot to kill Malgus. Yes, he has compassion for her, but she also triggers his sense of loyalty and that is why he saves her. Initially, he doesn't intend to keep her. But that's, of course, how it ends up eventually. Like so many of my Sith tales, love comes to a Sith when he isn't looking for it and isn't expecting it. In fact, it usually comes at an inconvenient time. Certainly, this is an inconvenient time for Malgus since he is angling to take a wife.
I really didn't want to write another captive damsel-in-distress story. Most of my Reylo has that aspect to the plot here and there. I also didn't want to write a master and slave relationship. And so, it was important to me that Malgus free Eleena straightaway. Unlike many of my other Sith characters, Malgus isn't out to dominate Eleena. He doesn't have to—with her slave background Eleena has pretty well internalized subservience. This was really important for me—I resisted the urge to make Eleena some sort of long-suffering but sassy slave girl who slays the amused Sith. Instead, I wanted slavery to leave its mark on Eleena. She is a capable person, intelligent and trained in her craft, but with very low expectations for how others should treat her. She's too eager to please and slow to assert her own agency. Why? Because her slave experience matters. It shapes who she is and it's not something that is easily shaken off. Quite simply, I didn't want to trivialize slavery's impact on a person. I also didn't want to make her some teenaged/young twenties girl. I wanted Eleena to be a grown woman with plenty of experience in life.
I have written my share of Sith characters. Most are predators in some respects. They are aggressive, violent men who demand life on their own terms. That can lead to toxic, abusive relationships. Not so for Darker. The lovers in this tale will be together on their own volition. No one will be locked in a literal or figurative cell. This relationship will be remarkably healthy and mutually beneficial. So if you are expecting a tyrannical, manipulator or abuser for Malgus, you will be disappointed. He is no domineering womanizer. No sadistic lover. And while Eleena will at times be a damsel in need of saving, she is by no means weak or passive. That's the crux of her character—if you only see her as her slave background, you miss what it is to be Eleena Daru. She is much more than what she appears, and that is part of what draws Malgus to her. She may have been a victim in other circumstances, but not with Darth Malgus. Rather than steal her agency, Malgus tries to nurture it.
To be clear: it's not that Malgus is an enlightened Sith for our #metoo era, so much as that he would much rather empower Eleena than dominate her. He's also just not that motivated by sex right now. He's got bigger ambitions and problems to deal with currently.
Our Sith is obsessed with power and he decides to empower the slave woman who helped him. He self-identifies with her plight although their experiences are not even close, so it's more like narcissistic self-pity than true empathy. But it's the motivation for our Sith beginning his Pygmalion makeover of Eleena. A version of this happens in every Reylo story I write, usually at the behest of Snoke. It's a Sith thing to recognize potential and start manipulating it. Malgus does much the same here as he elevates the slave woman by treating her well, dressing her up, and teaching her combat skills. He's a Sith who's turned on by power and he's grooming Eleena into a version of his angry, chip-on-his-shoulder self. But Malgus and Eleena are surrounded by rival Sith looking to undermine and betray. Malgus can't be with a slave woman, especially if he is to marry into a good Sith family (shades of La Traviata family slut-shaming to come here). And love is an emotion fraught with peril for a Sith. Ultimately, Malgus is going to want it all—both the aristocratic peer wife and his slave lover. You know that's not going to work out, right?
Eleena does not have the Force. She is like Padme, Lady Vader and like Cresta, Lady Sidious. She is an ordinary woman whose allure is herself and not her power. That makes the relationship very different from my Reylo tales. The balance of the Force and the fate of the galaxy are not at stake here. Only a Sith's heart and happiness. The conflicts for our lovers are of their own making (Malgus' arranged marriage and his many Sith enemies) and more traditional foes (the Republic and enemy Jedi). But do not underestimate those challenges: these two face very long odds.
I like to think of Malgus as being a lot like Darth Vader in mindset. He's a man who is pragmatic about war and about power. And like all my Sith, he thinks he's doing the right thing—my Sith are always heroes in their own minds. I also envision Vader as being frustrated and impatient with his Master and with many of the obligations of his role. (See my very bitter Vader in my fic A New Hope) Similarly, Malgus has not yet achieved all that he thinks he should, and he feels thwarted. And, like Vader, Malgus secretly lusts to rule it all.
I'm not the only person who sees the parallels between the two characters. One of the critiques of Malgus is that's he's another version of Vader. Yeah, they both use a respirator, wear black, and use a red sword. But I don't see those two men having similar personalities. Malgus is bitter for entirely different reasons than Vader. Malgus is also far more patient and far less easily baited. Watch Vader choke the annoying Imperial officer in ANH before Tarkin talks him down. When someone mouths off to Vader or fails Vader, he kills them. But when someone annoys Malgus, he is far more likely to walk on by. Malgus doesn't have time for that shit and he probably figures the annoying person is too stupid to know better. You're more likely to get fired by Malgus than to get choked. Unlike Darth Vader, Malgus doesn't shoot the messenger bearing bad news. He reserves his deadly force for underlings who are truly a threat—like the spy he beheads in Part One.
Physically, Vader and Malgus are also different. Vader has a broken body (the best part of Rogue One is that fleeting scene of the naked, crippled, and vulnerable Sith in his bacta bath before we next him stride forth in full armor appearing his usual public self). Anakin was always a tall, rangy sort of guy. Lean and sinewy. Not so burly Malgus who I envision looking enormous when wearing his full armor. This is a stout and solid man. He has the Sith version of a 'Dad bod'. Like some NFL linebacker five years into retirement. There is still plenty of muscle to his bulk, but he's far from lean. This is not a guy who has Crossfit muscle definition. He doesn't have two hours to spend in the gym every day like some Hollywood leading man.
Darker is not a Skywalker story, but it continues the main theme of most of my Sith tales: the intersection of power and love. What does it mean to put love before everything else? Well, for Anakin Skywalker, it means a descent into Darkness. That sort of gets lost in the prequel trashing that goes on, in my opinion. The idea of love being supreme sounds so romantic on its face, but there is a selfish component too.
That selfish angle was very vividly portrayed in the ending to my Reylo fic Fulcrum. Dark Sith Kylo loves his scavenger love/victim Rey so much that he will sacrifice anything for her. He loves her more than power, much to wily Snoke's frustration (and later, his gain in Fulcrum Part 2—Snoke being Snoke, he always has multiple angles). I think that many readers who howled at the ending of Fulcrum missed that bit. Kylo is willing to put love before his own ambitions and from his point of view that is a huge sacrifice. It's also in many ways a huge step forward for the character of Kylo at the end of that fic. Some readers got it—they understood that this wasn't Kylo having his cake and eating it too. But most seemed to focus only on the horrific sacrifice that was required and now truly tragic it was from Rey's perspective. It's kind of a shame that most of the SW fan fiction world only knows me from Fulcrum. I tried to write something I probably didn't have the skill to pull off. Anyhow, power versus love is a tradeoff in Fifth Wife and again in Tied on a String. It is a persistent theme of my Sith stories. You'll see it again here.
Like so many of my Sith characters, Malgus is not what he outwardly appears. My Sith lords are complicated, sometime contradictory men with big ambitions and big lives. And that tends to draw their ladies into a web of deception and danger. Once my Sith meets his lady, things are irreparably changed for both of them. Though you can try to get away from these men (or they can try to push you away, as is the case in this story), that never works. My Sith and his fated lady keep having their paths cross until love blooms. And then, things tend to get really complicated.
These two lovers are not looking to get together. And they don't hop into bed right away like their younger versions might. Eleena is cautious and scarred by her past experiences. Malgus is not a man who is overly aggressive any more. But still, they find each other. And, recognizing the limitations of their respective situations, they go their separate ways. These are no Romeo and Juliette young lovers willing to flout the unspoken rules of life. These are seasoned people who know what it means to deal with the consequences of bad decisions. Never fear, their paths will cross again.
The social boundaries of life matter and they are remarkably persistent. Some of us for one reason or another will spend our whole lives on the outside looking in. Being peripheral to the world we live in. The ultimate outsider is, of course, the person who is only marginally accepted. They are sufficient to get in the group but will never feel a part of it. With one foot in and one foot out. And that is the push pull of wanting the benefits of belonging and conforming, but not wanting to accept the attitudes that excluded you in the first place. That is the position where Lord Malgus lives.
Darker has none of the family legacy/Chosen One themes that pervade my other stories. Malgus is not a fallen Skywalker prince, he's a self-made man living in a world of mostly inherited success. He's a match for the lowly slave woman who exists at the bottom rung of society. Neither character has any expectations to live up to or natural family allegiances or conflicts. Their conflicts are with a mostly hostile world that wants to hold them back and keep them down. That concept of making my protagonists outsiders was really appealing. Malgus will be brash and obnoxious to his peers but it's his ideas that are truly the most threatening part of him. Eleena is an outsider in every way. It goes beyond her Republic origins and slave status. As an alien Twi'lek, she looks different and that's not something she can hide.
If you are lucky enough to blend in perfectly in your own world, then you don't know what a benefit that is. But those of us who walk through life being different than others' expectations for whatever reason know how pervasive and frustrating others' judgement can be. Transcending other's expectations can be harder than it seems, and societal judgements have a way of burrowing deep into your psyche until you half believe them yourself. I'm no social justice warrior, but there is always an angle of race/class/sometimes gender in my stories. Darker contains some of the most developed thoughts on those themes. (Red contains a lot of this stuff too.)
It's a Cinderella pairing, as usual. Somehow, it always ends up that way for my Sith princes. The Skywalker scion gets a scavenger girl. The Naboo aristocrat Senate candidate gets the ballet dancer who moonlights as an exotic dancer. The ultra-insider, very social, very jaded Muun banker kidnaps himself a Jedi librarian because he is charmed by the gullible girl next door. My Sith are always well intentioned—they usually want to rescue the girl from her travails. And they want to help her succeed. Malgus saving and then freeing Eleena is in perfect keeping with this plot trope. The problem is that in saving and helping the girl, she also gets dragged down into the predatory world of the Sith. Therein lies the drama.
So, I have written some crazy stuff. Kylo Ren as the space pope trying to balance the Force, Luke Skywalker as the real Jedi killer at his own temple, Snoke resurrecting himself and others, Hux martyred by a Resistance firing squad, Anakin's Force ghost telling Kylo to run away and cut himself off from the Force, seductions in Sith temples, aborted executions . . . I could go on. What can I say? I love SW and I like to push things a bit when I write. But the shock of this story is that it's so tame. So human. So not the S-and-M filled tale, with a vaguely abusive father figure and a totally fucked up young victim like everyone expects. Why? Because I think telling the story this way is far more tragic and far more realistic. My Sith are never what they appear and their public deeds often have private motives that few know. The subtext of what is public and what is private is always featured in my stories because, of course, my Sith are leaders.
This story will be written in large chunks, as is my habit of late. I expect this fic will have four parts total. Part One is the lovers meeting and parting. Part Two is the ripening war. Part Three follows our lovers' affair and Malgus' ambitions. Part Four tells the events leading up to the Battle of Coruscant. I am reworking already existing text for Parts One and Two—that's why chapters are coming out so fast. Things will slow down eventually when I get to new writing. I don't plan to rush this story like I rush out my Reylo. My goal all along has been to make Darker really good. I want to do these lovers and their story justice. And I want this story to be better than Ghosts of the Past, which I consider my best attempt so far.
In the original draft of this fic, I described Darker as fairytale of rage. And that description still fits. This Cinderella has a Dark underpinning of anger. She's about to come face to face with frustration and disappointment that will radicalize her fast. That theme of disillusionment will continue and it will be the defining hallmark of Malgus by the end. Sometimes in life, things happen that are so momentous that you are changed and you can't see the world the way you did before. And when you break free of your own expectations and the limitations of others, all bets are off. Especially when you're a Sith . . .