Joruus C'Baoth
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Joruus C'Baoth (70 BBY-9 ABY this is disputed though, as he was cloned after 27 BBY) is a fictional character from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. He was the sole known surviving clone of the Old Republic Jedi Master Jorus C'Baoth. The name "C'Baoth" is possibly derived from the Hebrew word Sebaoth or Tzebaoth (צבאות), which means hosts or armies; thus the pronunciation (IPA pronunciation: ['dʒorʊs sɑ'beɪ.ɒθ]).
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[edit] 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 (4/3/74). 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.
[edit] Activities
The original C'Baoth was a highly respected, active (although some would say overly ambitious and publicity-hungry) Jedi. He was unusually active in Old Republic politics, participating in a demilitarization observation group on the planet Ando (8/82-7/81), the Galactic Senate's "Inter-species Advisory Committee" (9/81-6/79), was a member of the task force the Jedi Order assembled to eliminate the Bpfasshi Dark Jedi's revolt (7/77-1/74), gained fame for mediating the contention surrounding Alderaan's Ascension , deciding in favor of the House of Organa (11/70) and similarly mediated (along with his fellow Jedi Master Tra's M'ins) the Duinuogwuin-Gotal war (1/68-4/66). He then became Ambassador-at-large to the Xappyh sector (8/21/62); while Ambassador-at-large, he was crucial in supporting the Outbound Flight Project, going so far as to become one of the six Jedi Masters who went with it when it departed Yaga Minor (4/1/64).
The Outbound Flight Project never returned — it is recorded in his secret archives that the then-Chancellor Palpatine dispatched 15 top-of-the-line combat ships of his private Trade Federation army (Operating under Viceroy Kav) to destroy it and especially the six Jedi Masters onboard. However, they were intercepted by one of the Chiss' Expansionary Defense patrols of 12 small ships, under Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo (Grand Admiral Thrawn), beyond the Outer Rim, and an amazing battle ensued. Although outnumbered and vastly outgunned by the Trade Federation C-ring carriers, frigates, and droid starfighters, Mitth'raw'nuruodo's tactical brilliance led the small Chiss fleet to victory against all odds, destroying one enemy carrier, all the enemy frigates, and most of the droid starfighters. Palpatine's shadow advisor, Kinman Doriana, was aboard the sole spared ship. During the interrogation of the survivors, Doriana persuaded the patrol's commander, Mitth'raw'nuruodo, the future Grand Admiral Thrawn, to launch a pre-emptive attack on the Outbound Flight Project - an action utterly against Chiss morality which would eventually lead to Thrawn's exile to the Outer Rim and his "discovery" by the Empire. Amid a terrible, bloody battle between the Chiss, the Vagaari, and the Jedi of Outbound Flight, Outbound Flight was tragically destroyed.
Master Jorus C'baoth perished when radiation bombs (originally meant to cripple the Vagaari capital ships) struck the six dreadnaughts of Outbound Flight, and fifteen of the sixteen other Jedi aboard Outbound flight perished with him. Only 57 of the tens of thousands of people aboard Outbound Flight survived the catastrophe. It was due to the heroic efforts of Jedi Lorana Jinzler and Thrass (the brother of Thrawn) that those few people survived. Both Thrass and Lorana gave up their lives, placing the number 4 dreadnaught (along with the survivers) on top during an emergency crash-landing, placing themselves on the bottom of the doomed wreck. With Lorana Jinzler dead, not a single Jedi survived the catastrophe of Outbound Flight.
NOTE: Obi-wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker had traveled on Outbound Flight for most of the trip before the catastrophe. However, Chancellor Palpatine made sure to personally get the two of them off of Outbound Flight before the disaster struck.
[edit] 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. Another time he rendered a non-force user stiff and silent by gagging and immobilizing him through the force. He also held three non-force users 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.
During C'baoth's brief and deadly 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. In fact, this is one of the longest ranged force chokes ever recorded in all of Star Wars literature. Unfortunately for Master C'baoth however, his misuses of the force cost him, and all the people on Outbound Flight, their lives. His attack on Thrawn failed when Thrawn's radiation bombs struck Outbound Flight.
[edit] Joruus C'Baoth (clone)
It is believed that a tissue sample was procured from Jorus C'Baoth during his tenure as Senator Palpatine's personal Jedi advisor (6/79-5/77) (it has been conjectured that the Outbound Flight Project itself, since it was first proposed after C'Baoth's period as advisor, was a personal project of Palpatine himself, intended to eliminate easily some Jedi Masters and discourage exploration; but this can be neither proven nor disproved) prior to Anakin Skywalker's appointment to that position. Sometime after Palpatine procured his Spaarti cylinders early in the Clone Wars, several clones were 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 clones would prove to be no exception. Clones in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones 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. Only one clone would have a command of the Force comparable to the original, and be mentally stable enough that Palpatine would twist it into a Dark Jedi and entrust to him the responsibility of guarding the Mt. Tantiss storehouse on the planet Wayland.
This at least, is the most probable story; the sequence of events that Coruscant's archives and Thrawn's researches lead one to believe; there seems little reason to believe the later, mad Joruus C'Baoth's assertions that he killed the Dark Jedi guardian of Wayland himself and took over, as this account offers no explanation of who cloned him, or why.
In any case, several 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 managed to enlist the mad dark Jedi Master into his cause by promising him Luke Skywalker and his sister, as well as his sister's twins to be his to mold to whatever his whims desired. C'Baoth's insanity is best measured by his belief 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 efficacy of Thrawn's forces, and he could use his mastery of the Force to penetrate cloaking shields, rendering them of practical use, or for devastating precision timed attacks. That same 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. Those reinforcements planted explosives on the yslaamiri within Mt. Tantiss, the very yslaamiri that were making it possible to grow clones in a score of days rather than months, and incidentally, blocking C'Baoth's powers. This led to the death of anyone whose mind C'Baoth had altered, as there was too little brain tissue left for the people to manage on their own once C'Baoth had gone. When they distracted the garrison after their sabotage, C'Baoth prophesied that Jade and Skywalker would infiltrate the warehouse and come to the throne room where he awaited them.
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. After a brutal prolonged fight, during which Mara Jade killed a clone of Luke Skywalker, (Luuke Skywalker) , which C'Baoth had ordered grown from the hand lost on Bespin, Joruus C'Baoth was slain by a kneeling Mara Jade, and detonated in an explosion of blue Dark Side energy.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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
