The Resurrection of Darth Krakatau

The full story, in all its detail, was a stunner, but it explained so many things for Plu, and he made it his mission to find that missing mind trap, and deliver the poor soul trapped within, now that his theorized existence was in fact confirmed. Tracyn and Plu never told anyone else what they had learned, but it was an additional, secret reason for their empire building and their conquests, and especially a reason why they prioritized former Infinite Empire worlds in their travels and their wars.

As Plu became more and more a Mando’ad, and less and less a Sith Lord, he eventually confided to the Mandalorian inner circle, giving them the following explanation of his past at the time of Illuscio Blackhawk’s ascension to the Helm:

"For many years I have been one of the most secretive men in the galaxy. No one knows my past. There is a reason for that. It is a dark past, and it is a unique one. I am, perhaps, the last man alive in the galaxy who can claim to be a descendent of the ancient Rakatans. Let me tell you my story."

“Over twenty-five thousand years ago, a young Rakatan Darkside force user was entrapped in a Rakatan mind prison as punishment for an unspeakable crime. Over time, the Rakatan race died out. The mind trap was stolen from Lehon as an artefact, presumably by a passing smuggler. Somehow it found its way to Mandalore, where an unsuspecting Mandalorian Dark Jedi or Sith apprentice discovered it. He had the misfortune, as history tells us Revan did, of opening that prison."

"However, this young Mandalorian did not succeed in escaping as Revan did. Instead, he was trapped inside the mind prison and the Rakatan Darksider was freed. The Sith took the trap with him when he left Mandalore, and in time, it was lost. Whether this was intentional or accidental, I do not know, but a strange side effect of the encounter was that the Rakatan took the form not of his old Rakatan body but of the young Taung's body."

"This was probably about a hundred years ago. The long-trapped darksider emerged into a world that took him years to comprehend. Eventually, he fell in with a large group of spacers and mercenaries, and secretly began to study all that had happened in the millennia since his imprisonment. He never really associated with the Mandalorian people. Instead, he hid, studied the history of the Sith, and plotted how to take over the galaxy. That man, Darth Krakatau, as he came to be known, was my father -- I never learned his Rakatan name."

"However, he did marry a young Mandalorian human woman whom he met on Kessel. Sadly, she died in childbirth, leaving me as their only child. My grief-stricken father stole away, taking me with him and disappearing into the unknown regions."

"When I grew up, he taught me everything he knew about the Sith, both ancient and modern, and prepared an invasion army to restore the Infinite Empire. For a long time he hid the true story of his past from me, but in the end he told me almost the whole story. The rest I later gathered from my long studies on Lehon."

"My father passed away about 20 years ago, when I was in my late teens. His death tormented me and ultimately drove me to return to the known galaxy about 15 years ago. I joined many Sith Orders, but never felt right in any of them. Something from my long studies stirred inside me, and eventually I rejected the Sith as a whole and became a career mercenary. I captured Lehon and made it my capital, and I studied other points of view on the Force, from Jetii and Siit alike."

"A life of blood caught up with me, and as I grew in influence within my brothers and in knowledge of the galaxy, I eventually forswore the path of the Force two years ago, and have sought ever since to put Mandalore first, and put everything else behind."

The Krakatau puzzle was never far from Plu’s mind, even as his own fame and fortune continued to grow. For a time, he told himself that he could never fully take his place among his brothers as a Mando’ad until he had unraveled Krakatau’s past and rescued his father’s victim. It was a noble goal, but also entirely unrealistic, and eventually Plu had to face reality: there was a decent chance the quest would exceed his own lifetime, if it was ever completed at all. He could not allow the quest to limit his allegiance to the Mando’ade and the Resol’nare.

After a decade and a half of war, the growth of Plu’s own Empire slowed, as he consolidated his outlying territories into the New Infinite Empire, and merged his more central planets as loyal member worlds in the growing Mandalorian Empire. Plu was inspired by Talon Darknight’s teachings and confidence in him, and when the moment came and Mand’alor Blackhawk was exposed for weakness and for collusion with the auretiise Siite, he made his move. Deposing Blackhawk in one swift stroke, he took the Helm of Mand'alor for his own.