Master C'baoth

Master C'baoth is a fictional character in the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe. The original, Jorus C'baoth (pronounced "Jaw-russ Ka-bowth"), was a Jedi Master in the Old Republic era. The second, Joruus C'baoth, was an insane clone of the original C'baoth who assisted Grand Admiral Thrawn in his campaign against the New Republic.

Jorus C'baoth (original)

The original Jorus C'baoth (note the spelling) was from the planet Borthras in the Reithras sector (4/32/112, pre-Empire dates). At the age of 17, he began attending Minic University (6/14/95-4/32/90) in preparation for attending the Kamparas' Jedi Training Center (2/15/90-8/33/88). After two years, he began training under an unknown or unidentified Master. C'baoth progressed rapidly; a mere two years later Jorus C'baoth would rise to the rank of Jedi Knight. He would become a Jedi Master 12 years later, although he declared himself as a Master rather than being appointed by the Jedi Council. He is said to have trained many Jedi apprentices (possibly four or more) during his lifetime. The last apprentice he trained to knighthood was a young human girl named Lorana Jinzler.

Activities

The original C'baoth was a highly respected Jedi. He was unusually active in Old Republic politics, participating in a demilitarization observation group on the planet Ando, the Galactic Senate's "Inter-species Advisory Committee", was a member of the task force the Jedi Order assembled to eliminate the Bpfasshi Dark Jedi's revolt, gained fame for mediating the contention surrounding Alderaan's Ascension , deciding in favor of the House of Organa and similarly mediated (along with his fellow Jedi Master Tra's M'ins) the Duinuogwuin-Gotal war. He then became Ambassador-at-large to the Xappyh sector; while Ambassador-at-large, he was crucial in supporting the Outbound Flight Project, pushing solely for it as a means of discovering life in other galaxies - and several darker motives. While bureaucrats threatened to derail his plan, C'baoth's successful mediation of a dispute on Barlok meant he got the support he needed from Chancellor Palpatine to continue the project. He was one of the six Jedi Masters who went with it when it departed Yaga Minor.

However, with no one from the Council looking over his shoulder, C'baoth became increasingly tyrannical, taking more and more personal control of the lives of those onboard the ship. Believing Jedi to be superior to all other beings in the galaxy, he took children from their parents to train as Jedi far later than the Jedi Code saw fit, and often forcibly. He also quelled any dissent from the increasingly agitated populace, even using the Force to keep them from speaking to the Chiss representative, Thrawn. C'baoth gradually began to assume command over all aspects of life on the ship, cutting its official command structure out of the loop, and began to disregard the Jedi Code as and when he saw fit. His reasoning was simple: as Outbound Flight represented a new start for the Jedi and colonists aboard, the rules that had previously governed the Jedi could be disregarded, and the Jedi could take an active leadership role. This dismayed many of the other Jedi and colonists aboard, to the extent that a minor revolt by a group of colonists led to C'baoth's using the Force to sabotage their efforts, upon which he was called to judgement by his peers.

Internal dissent was not C'baoth's only enemy. Palpatine had pushed through the project in hopes of destroying the mission and killing a number of prominent Jedi. In his secret role as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, Palpatine sent his advisor Kinman Doriana and a fleet of Trade Federation warships to lie in wait and destroy Outbound Flight. However, the task force was intercepted and largely annihilated by a small force of ships commanded by Thrawn. Playing on Thrawn's fear of the mysterious Far Outsiders, Doriana managed to salvage his mission by convincing Thrawn to destroy the project to prevent it falling into the Outsiders' hands.

Arriving just as tension between C'baoth and the other Jedi reached its peak, Thrawn brought Outbound Flight out of hyperspace with a gravity well generator. C'baoth arrogantly refused to negotiate, despite the best efforts of his apprentice, Lorana Jinzler. A few colonists survived, however. When the crashed hulk of Outbound Flight was discovered years later, its colonists distrusted and resented Jedi, even to the point of exiling members of their colony who they discovered to be using the Force.

Obi-wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker had traveled on Outbound Flight for most of the trip before the catastrophe, assigned by Mace Windu to keep an eye on C'baoth. However, Chancellor Palpatine made sure to personally get the two of them off of Outbound Flight before the disaster struck.

Abilities

Jorus C'baoth was a powerful Jedi by any standards. His most renowned ability was his talent for orchestrating and maintaining Jedi force melds. It was said that he could orchestrate a very powerful meld using just a handful of Jedi. This he demonstrated when the Jedi aboard Outbound Flight executed a massive mindtrick against every member of the attacking Vagaari fleet, rendering them impotent and vulnerable to Chiss attack. Given the sheer number of beings affected by the mind trick, this was a remarkable feat.

C'baoth was also skilled at the manipulation of non-living matter. Once he stopped a high velocity missile in mid-flight by grabbing it with the force. He held it there for many seconds before the engines finally burnt out. He then rendered it harmless with a Force crush. He is also seen using the Force liberally against those who disagreed with him. On one incident, he gently "guided" a rebellious non-Force user to the door with a prolonged force push. On another occasion he rendered the same colonist stiff and silent by gagging and immobilizing him through the Force. He also held the man's companions in their shuttle against their will by pinning the hatches shut until he was ready to set them free. These uses of the force to basically bully non-force users were not smiled upon by C'baoth's fellow Jedi. However, if anyone ever questioned his usage of the Force, C'baoth would simply rebuke them, using his years of experience as a Jedi Master as his trump card. On multiple occasions, he was heard to state his views that the Jedi were the ultimate power in the universe and that they kept the Republic together. When he fell to the Dark Side, he flatly stated that the destiny of the Jedi was to lead and destroy all threats.

During C'baoth's brief fall to the dark side, he is seen performing a Force grip on Thrawn across several kilometers of space. Given the distance between the two vessels, this was a remarkable feat, as it nearly killed Thrawn where he sat. Unfortunately for C'baoth, his misuses of the Force cost him, and all the people on Outbound Flight, their lives.

Joruus C'baoth (clone)

It is believed that a tissue sample was procured from Jorus C'baoth either during his tenure as Senator Palpatine's personal Jedi advisor prior to Anakin Skywalker's appointment to that position, or shortly before Outbound Flight itself departed. According to Timothy Zahn's novel "Outbound Flight" Palpatine's agent, Kinman Doriana, took at the Senator's request tissue samples from every member of the Outbound Flight project. Sometime after Palpatine procured his Spaarti cylinders early in the Clone Wars, a clone was grown from that tissue sample.

Cloning techniques, and especially techniques early in the war or techniques intended to rapidly grow clones, tended to produce clones that were spectacularly mentally unstable (Later revealed to be due to the Force energy each mind possessed being unable to adapt to the rapidly-increased 'pressure'), and the Joruus C'baoth clone would prove to be no exception. Clones in "" did not manifest these problems, as they were grown slowly, over a number of years, allowing the mind time to grow accustomed to the clones. Unfortunately, C'baoth's clone had a command of the Force comparable to the original, and ultimately ended up on the Mt. Tantiss storehouse on the planet Wayland.

In any case, five years after the Battle of Endor, when Grand Admiral Thrawn finally tracked down the location of the Emperor's private storehouse (the Mt. Tantiss facility), intending to use the cloaking shield and the Spaarti cylinders there to prosecute his war against the New Republic, he discovered that Joruus C'baoth had gone completely insane — only the Grand Admiral's ysalamiri precautions saved him from the death that had found all previous off-worlders since the death of the Emperor. Thrawn enlisted the C'baoth into his cause by promising him Luke Skywalker and his sister Leia, as well as his sister's twins Jacen and Jaina Solo, to be his to mold to whatever his whims desired. C'baoth's believed that Leia and Luke actually "wanted" to learn from him, since he was the only Jedi Master left, as well as his belief that the Old Republic rose up and killed the Jedi because they became too complacent.

Drawing deeply on the dark side, and honing his skills at Battle Meditation, C'baoth greatly increased the efficiency of Thrawn's forces. However the increase in C'baoth's power correspondingly led to an increase in his ego and insanity, while paradoxically, his ability to focus and control his mind--originally very difficult for the jittery-minded clone--improved. He declared himself the true heir to the Emperor and entered into a bitter power struggle with Thrawn. His mastery of the Force alerted him when Luke and Mara Jade plotted the destruction of Mt. Tantiss- he was there and ready for them. Thrawn had ordered him imprisoned in the Royal Chambers of Mt. Tantiss due to his realization that the clone was both too powerful, power-hungry, and unstable to be safely used any longer. Thrawn also intended to take samples and re-clone C'baoth, this time allowing the clone to develop naturally to avoid mental instability.

However, the clone had out thought even Thrawn- en route to Wayland, he corrupted the minds of the reinforcements for the garrison, reshaping their minds so that he could control them via the Force; Thrawn had not considered this because such an act of manipulation had never been done- or even considered- before. For his imprisonment, however, ysalamiri had been planted around Mt. Tantiss to counteract his Force powers. Once they were in range, his access to the Force was blocked, and his mental link with the troops was severed. This led to the death of a general C'baoth had used an experiment in mind control, effectively turning the man into an extension of C'baoth's own mind, leaving him just enough to function for long enough to issue specific orders to his troops. After he was done, the man went to sleep and died, as there was too little of his own my left for him to manage on his own once C'baoth had gone. Building on this success, C'baoth planned to turn all people into an extension of his mind. Despite this, C'baoth arranged for the ysalamiri countermeasures to be sabotaged by secretly having remote explosives planted on all the creatures to kill them and remove the blocks. When the natives he had once ruled attacked and distracted the garrison, C'baoth prophesied that Jade and Skywalker would infiltrate the warehouse and come to the throne room where he awaited them, also foreseeing that Jade would kneel before him.

Detonating the explosives and restoring his dark power, C'baoth made a second attempt at turning Skywalker, but like his first on the planet Jomark, this one too would fail. C'baoth then revealed his plan - as he could now break and reshape minds at will, he planned to do it to the identical minds of Thrawn's clone army, creating an army to serve the Jedi. A brutal, prolonged fight erupted, during which Mara Jade killed a clone of Luke Skywalker, (Luuke Skywalker) , which C'baoth had ordered grown from the hand lost on Bespin. An enraged C'baoth attacked them all - only for his prophecy to come true in a way he never expected, as he was slain by a kneeling Mara Jade with a lightsaber through the chest, and detonated in an explosion of blue dark side energy.

Abilities

Like the original C'baoth, Joruus C'baoth was an immensely powerful Force user. However, his lack of formal Jedi training and clone insanity made him less predictable. He was seen to use Force-lightning on many occasions, against both Thrawn (although that was defused by Ysalamiri) and Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. C'baoth's power in the Jedi meld was such that he could coordinate several Imperial task forces over a distance of several light years, ensuring each one ran at peak efficiency. Interestingly, his first few efforts were immensely difficult and painful for him, with lingering mental aches; these disappeared as C'baoth developed more focus and control. He was also able, merely be touching the minds of a crew he had no sensor contact to time the firing of a beam from a Star Destroyer hitting a shield with another cloaked ship opening fire to give the illusion of one shot. He even took complete control of the "Chimaera's" entire bridge crew on one occasion. Even though he was never seen using a lightsaber, C'baoth still had enough power to shatter the roof of the Emperor's throneroom in Mount Tantiss and manipulate the debris to create a blinding rockstorm, as well as pulling Han Solo's blaster away from him even when in the grip of full clone insanity. However it was this insanity that would prove his downfall, as he genuinely believed Luke, Leia and Mara wanted him to teach them. C'baoth was prone to sudden mood swings, going from calm to furious rage in a matter of seconds. These tantrums, going from rage to petulance, would mean that Thrawn was able to manipulate him despite his great power.

Trivia

*Originally, Timothy Zahn intended for Joruus C'baoth to be a clone not of Jorus C'baoth, but rather of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Similarly, the Outbound Flight Project was merely a throw-away line intended to neatly dispose of the original Jorus C'baoth. Fact|date=May 2008

References

*"A Guide to the Star Wars Universe", 2nd edition, 1994. Bill Slavicsek, ISBN 0-345-38625-6
*"Heir to the Empire", 1st edition, 1991. Timothy Zahn. ISBN 0-553-07327-3
*"Dark Force Rising", 1st edition, 1992. Timothy Zahn. ISBN 0-553-08574-3
*"The Last Command", 1st edition, 1993. Timothy Zahn. ISBN 0-553-09186-7
*"Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters", 1st edition, 1995. Andy Mangels. ISBN 0-345-39535-2
*"Vision of the Future", 1st printing, September 1998. Timothy Zahn. ISBN 0-553-10035-1
*"Survivors Quest", 1st printing, February 2004. Timothy Zahn. ISBN 0-345-45918-0

External links

* [http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/joruuscbaoth/index.html Star Wars Databank] entry
*sww|Jorus C'baoth
*sww|Joruus C'baoth