Dan Vs. The Dark Exile · 3:28pm Mar 16th, 2021
Awakened after the supposed "death" of the entity known as the Director, the Dark Exile is a Sith Lord that managed to conquer his own universe and now has his sights set on Equestria. From his considerable power base on Malachor V, the Dark Exile commands legions of Sith Assassins, slaves, droids and soldiers under his dark rule, manipulating the course of events from the shadows. Incredibly powerful and thoroughly malevolent, he will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, whether he has to gain them through deception or outright force. And in many cases, force meaning the Force, and especially the dark side.
If you've played KOTOR 2, the Dark Exile is the player character if they choose dark side options, only continuing the story that the canon of Star Wars neglected to follow up on. As of this time of writing, anyway. The Director was always based on Kreia/Darth Traya, and as such, the Dark Exile is scouring Equestria in search of his former master. Having defeated her once already but haunted by her teachings and manipulations, Arteem Surik is obsessed with hunting her down just as she once hunted him, now believing her to be the last real threat to his power... aside from possibly, Revan.
The Dark Exile possesses incredible powers in the Force, especially in the dark side, making him a master manipulator and user of illusions. His powers far surpass many other known Sith Lords, and the armies he commands are vast and varied. The Jedi are all but extinct in his universe and the Republic exists as a glorified puppet state for him to control. Though the Senate still exists, Surik is the true power behind the scenes, content to let things exist in a day-to-day state so long as his rule is not challenged. Everything goes through him, and Sith Assassins watch the Senators quietly, ready to dispatch any hint of opposition with deadly precision. Accidents have been known to happen to especially vocal and critical Senators and many have gone missing who dared raise questions.
Like many in the Dan Vs. universe I've created, the Dark Exile has some knowledge of their state of things and the fact that their story has been neglected thus far. Being shunned is not new for Art Surik, and he is perfectly content to rule his own galaxy from behind the scenes rather than in the spotlight. The Mandalorian Wars no longer haunt him as they did, as he has come to terms with his past, albeit in negative ways rather than positive ones. The past is there to be used as power, nothing else.
Constructed by mechanic Bao-Dur, the Mass Shadow Generator is a superweapon that utilizes a planet's own gravity as a weapon, creating a mass gravity disturbance that destroys the planet and everything around it in the process. When activated, the Generator inverts the planet's gravity, turning it in on itself and everything around it, causing the planet to literally crush itself into oblivion along with anything in orbit. Considered a weapon of last resort, it was used at Malachor V during the final battle of the Mandalorian Wars, destroying the majority of Mandalorian forces and many Republic ships as well. Unlike the Death Star, the Mass Shadow Generator kills in a slow and agonizing way, crushing all life and everything caught by it until nothing is left. It has only been used once.
In the canon universe, the Light Exile undid the Mass Shadow Generator's effect, causing Malachor V to be destroyed as well. She then left her past behind and took the Ebon Hawk to search for Revan, to follow him as she did years ago. In this darker universe, Malachor V remains, but the Mass Shadow Generator has mysteriously vanished. In actuality, the Mass Shadow Generator is not a device but a program encoded into Bao-Dur's remote droid, a program that converts starship reactors into deadly gravity-altering weapons. Indeed, the remote itself is in essence the Mass Shadow Generator and vital to the weapon's processes. Without it, it cannot function.
Somehow, the remote has found its way to Equestria and ended up in a museum. Now in the possession of Twilight Sparkle, the Dark Exile is hunting for it, desperate to find the weapon that could potentially threaten his rule. If he finds it, other planets may suffer the fate of Malachor V, becoming ark echoes that only serve to increase Surik's power.
Secretly, the Dark Exile hates being thought of as an 'errand boy.' Having gone through dozens of RPG-style fetch quests and sidequests and missions in KOTOR 2, Surik despises being used as a lackey. He never made it into SWTOR or into canon, and as such lacks the development of some of his counterparts. He can obsess over small details like money or valuables and get distracted easily, mirroring the playstyle of some people who play RPGs. He solves puzzles very easily, is very charismatic and considerably egotistical. He also hates it when things don't go his way or things plans break down, but is as quick thinking as he is quick to anger.
At times, Surik can be ruthless or merciless but not completely. The forces he commands consider his rule to be absolute. Assassins and assassin droids make up the bulk of his armies, though he tends to favor quantity over quality. His soldiers are entirely disposable and he will not hesitate to send them on impossible missions to satisfy his goals. Most of them possess a fraction of his power, but they are quick to learn and adapt as well. The ones Dan, Kent and others have defeated that dissipate into reddish smoke return to Malachor V to recuperate... or face judgement depending on the depths of their failure.
The Dark Exile now commands the assassins that once hunted him, and his invisible army now stalks Equestria in search of the Generator. Vinyl Scratch has appropriated some sonic emitters that can de-cloak the assassins' stealth fields, but they remain undeterred in their goals.
To Dan, Artee(what Dan mockingly calls him) is an annoying, whiny creep in a cloak with an army of creepy weirdos in cloaks and annoying robots at his command. To say the very least, Dan is very surprised that he actually misses the Director's cryptic nature and mostly sees the Dark Exile as an emo wannabe and the Director's fanboy. Compared to the Director/Kreia, Arteem is more direct and cares little to learn about other cultures like Earth or Equestria, and sees them merely as a source for greater power.
In truth, Cleo and the Director are not the same entity, though they do share personality, memories and a connection. A pony version of a character is their representation in Equestria, but the original remains, a result of Equestria's defense mechanism that adapts things to its own universe. Some things, like the kind lawyer Phoenix Wright do not require such interference, while others do. Magic is not something set in stone, and the fate of all those exiled to Equestria is something only time will tell.
Just one enforced system patch at the wrong moment and theres a whole Galaxy of problems?
Yeah, I can understand turning to the dark side because you hate fetch quests. The game does give you plenty of options to just kill people so you don't have to deal with them.
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Force Persuade: You two- give me all of your credits and then jump into the central pit.
-Dark Exile
Also, I asked a Star Wars group to help name evil Surik since the canon one is female and Meetra. And they had no ideas.
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My knowledge of KOTOR is a bit limited to be honest, the only one I beat was the first game, and only the light side path. It's cool having a lot of different option on how to handle things, but I don't usually enjoy doing "evil" playthroughs of games.
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I didn't either, but SWTOR and KOTOR were the reasons I found FIMFiction and so, I wanted to add them to my writing. It's taken quite a long time to find out how exactly, but now I have a way. The Equestria of Dan Vs. was a graveyard anyway, so this makes sense.
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Eeyep.
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Something else I wanted to mention is that one of the main themes of my Dan Vs. crossover is things you don't see in the show. Part of that is the creative process, with the Director/Cleo representing the destruction that comes from creation. Like Kreia/Darth Traya, Cleo hates the way things are in Equestria and desperately wants to change them, going so far as to try and hijack the story in multiple ways, including 4th-wall ones in order to avert the fate she fears: Equestria being erased and replaced. In a way, she's fighting me and my urges as an author to write something else, a fan so obsessed that they fear any type of change. She also represents the chaos that comes from creating a fan universe and the paradox that the universe I've created both is and is not Equestria; it IS the universe from MLP: FiM and yet it's not, because it's not canon. She is unable to reconcile this and in the process, is broken by it.
Artee, being her student actually represents Art itself. The Director's story isn't over, but the Dark Exile will replace her at some point as a villain. Arteem Surik represents the conflict of transitioning from one generation to the next; he wanted to be part of the sequel, KOTOR 3, yet it never happened, or hasn't happened in his universe. Now, he wants to rule and change everything to transform Equestria into his version of a new project for himself and ponies. The same way Rice/Vice pretended he was creating a Generation 5, Art wants to create its own version, the way some fans created concepts of Gen 5 before we got news of the trailer.
So the story's complicated when it comes to themes, but the story itself is mostly just for fun. The themes involve creation, destruction, redemption, revenge, contradiction and the paradox of wanting to change the world and simultaneously having to accept it for what it is along with doing the same for t.v shows and fictional universes. Ultimately, you don't even have to worry about the themes and can be like Dan, who doesn't care about the complexities and just wants what he wants. He just wants to be with his friends, his cat and his car.
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In that same vein, I think big crossover fics are a really good analogy for creativity. Not just because of the literal creative act of writing, but just by taking things you love and working them into the same universe. Something chaotic yet familiar, sort of like the subconscious. There's a lot if themes, but the constant is Dan Vs. well, everything.
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Yes. It can be quite chaotic and yet, stable. Natural in some ways. Like they were meant to be. And it's not just what Dan Vs. that changes, I've changed what Vs. means. Or possibly revealed what it could be. As always, thank you for reading and joining me on the ride. It's a journey of discovery for me, too.
The ending of Season 1 is mostly finished, as are the final revelations. I have it in my head, anyway and it's going to be... more unique than what I've written thus far. I don't want to say it's entirely original or groundbreaking, but I hope it's good and that's more important than anything. It most certainly feels right to me at this phase. There's only one way it could've really ended.
We're on Episode 21. Episode 25 is the final... resolution and 26 wraps things up in a nice fluffy bow.