My analysis on Ulic Qel Droma will be drawn from the following sources: The Tales of the Jedi comic book series by Dark Horse Comics, The Tales of the Jedi Sourcebook by West End Games, the Journal of Master Gnost Dural, Jedi vs Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, and the Ultimate Visual Guide: Upfdated and Expanded.
Ulic Qel-Droma was a human male from the planet Alderaan. He was born to the famed Jedi Master Lien-Tsai Qel-Droma. Qel-Droma had a younger brother named Cay with whom he shared a deep bond, and both were Force-sensitives with great potential. They additionally had a cousin named Duron, who was also Force-sensitive and would eventually become a Jedi Knight. Although their mother taught the Qel-Droma brothers well in many subjects, she did not instruct them in the ways of the Force, as she believed that she could not keep the necessary distance between student and Master with her children.
In the time of Ulic Qel-Droma, four thousand years before the Battle of Yavin, The Jedi Council’s governing training were much more liberal than some might think. Master Arca Jeth had three padawans, Ulic, his brother Cay, and the Twi’lek Tott Doneeta. Even after they were appointed to the rank of Jedi Knight, he continued to teach and impart wisdom upon them. Ulic possessed a natural talent in the Force. A voracious learner, the prodigal he easily and quickly mastered the basic techniques taught to him on Arkania.
In battle, Ulic was a formidable lightsaber wielder, specializing in the Djem So form. Through training with blocked vision, Ulic became very skilled at anticipating his opponent's moves with the Force, although this sometimes failed when he allowed his courage to cloud his mind. He was very agile, which aided him in lightsaber combat, and highly accurate with his attacks; he also possessed lightning-fast reflexes.
On their first mission together, the three knights rescued a princess from Onderon and uncovered ancient Sith malevolence planted centuries earlier.
When the corrupt influence of Onderon’s Sith spirits spread off world thanks to two Tetan nobles, Ulic decided to go undercover within the new Tetan “Krath” society to, as he put it, “conquer the dark side from within.” After Ulic master Arca died under the cannons of a Krath war droid, there was no turning back.
The Sith seductions he enjoyed as a Krath disciple overwhelmed Ulic. When another fallen Jedi, named Exar Kun, arrived with the intention of eliminating hi, the two instead joined forces. Kun became Dark Lord of the Sith; Ulic was his apprentice. This campaign of conquest became known as the Sith War.
Ulic commanded the armies of the Krath. After he defeated the warlord Mandalore in single combat, he controlled the Mandalorian army as well. Their combined forces executed a strike on Coruscant, however, Ulic was captured by the Jedi.
Exar Kun rescued his comrade before a death sentence could be carried out. It was not until the invasion of Ossus that Ulic’s actions caught up with him. When Cay Qel-Droma tried to reach his brother through the Sith’s influence, Ulic murdered him with a lightsaber. He was horrified by what he had done, and he did not resist when Nomi Sunrider cast a force technique that blocked his access the Force, potentially forever.
Captured by the Jedi once again, living in silent penance, Ulic led Republic forces to Yavin IV, where Exar Kun’s forces perished in a conflagration. The Sith War was finally over. Exiled by the Jedi, Ulic wandered alone for 10 years. Eventully he charted a vessel to take him to the empty, frozen world Rhen Var where he hoped to live out his days.
Though, Vima Sunrider, Nomi Sunrider’s thirteen-year-old daughter sought out her mother’s friend and convinced him to teach her the ways of the Force. In teaching Vima, Ulic found his redemption, when he was killed by a pilot trying to be a hero, his body vanished and Ulic became one with the Force.
Following Qel-Droma's death, a large mausoleum was built in his honor on Rhen Var, and his coffin was placed within the monument. Several ghostly Spectral Guardians were stationed in the mausoleum's antechamber, tasked with defending Qel-Droma's remains. Qel-Droma's Force ghost took up residency in his tomb. Due to his major part in galactic history, Ulic Qel-Droma was remembered long after his death. In 3980 BBY, his former pupil Vima Sunrider recorded the story of his redemption onto the Great Holocron, the centerpiece of the Jedi Archives—Sunrider went on to become a full-fledged Jedi Master. Qel-Droma's story was taught to Jedi apprentices such as Zayne Carrick and Revan in the time after Qel-Droma's death.
Ulic Qel-Droma assisted the Skywalker family later in the future. His spirit assisted Anakin Skywalker during the early days of the Clone Wars. His memory came to light again in the year 10 ABY, when New Republic member Leia Organa Solo came into possession of the Tedryn Holocron, an ancient device that had existed since Qel-Droma's time and had taught Exar Kun himself. Solo was worried about Luke Skywalker, her brother and a Jedi Knight who had tried to defeat the dark side from within like Qel-Droma had. The holocron's gatekeeper, a representation of long-dead Jedi Master Bodo Baas, told Solo the story of how Qel-Droma had tried the same by infiltrating the Krath, and how he fell to the dark side.
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