Tales of the Jedi

A comic book series from the The Nineties, this began as an attempt to explain the origins of the Sith Lord Exar Kun after his appearance in the Jedi Academy Trilogy and subsequently expanded into a much larger story about the adventures of the Jedi Knights thousands of years before the Star Wars films. The series was mostly written by Kevin J. Anderson, and it is probably his most popular contribution to the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

The Tales of the Jedi series is split into two parts. The first (written by Anderson and Tom Veitch) deals with the fall to the dark side of the Jedi Knights Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun and their subsequent war against the Old Republic, four thousand years before A New Hope. A prequel series (written exclusively by Anderson) was later published, taking place a further thousand years earlier and showing the fall of the Sith Empire during the Great Hyperspace War, explaining and elaborating upon several important points which formed the background of the first series.

The main story arcs in chronological order are:


 * The Golden Age of the Sith
 * The Fall of the Sith Empire
 * Knights of the Old Republic
 * Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon
 * The Saga of Nomi Sunrider
 * Dark Lords of the Sith
 * The Sith War
 * Redemption

Tropes

 * Action Girl: Sylvar, who is quite violent as Jedi go.
 * And I Must Scream:.
 * Art Shift: Several times. It's often rather jarring.
 * The Atoner: Ulic Qel-Droma, who goes into a self-imposed exile after helping the Jedi win the war.
 * Badass Grandpa: Master Arca Jeth, who destroys Krath war droids with "a simple tug of the Force."
 * Badass Normal: Captain Vanicus and Mandalore the Indomitable stand out in particular.
 * Bare Your Midriff: It seems that Nomi loved to show her navel.
 * Big Bad: Naga Sadow and Exar Kun are the main villains overall, but most of the story arcs have their own Big Bads.
 * Bittersweet Ending: The Sith are defeated and Exar Kun is sealed away, but Ulic Qel-Droma, the greatest of the Jedi Knights, fell to the dark side and lost everything he had sworn to protect.
 * Brain In a Jar: In Golden Age of the Sith we are introduced to the Jedi Master Ooroo and the Sith Lord Simus. Whereas the former appears to be an actual alien brain living in a giant crystal, the latter was defeated in combat by another Sith Lord and developed a means of keeping his head alive in a jar.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Exar Kun's Sith converts, whom he poisons with shards of a broken holocron, and.
 * Cain and Abel: Ulic Qel-Droma, who falls to the dark side, and Cay Qel-Droma, who stays with the Jedi.
 * Matches with Cay's Hair of Gold and Ulic's darker shade.
 * Call Forward: Several to the Jedi Academy Trilogy and Dark Empire, also written by Anderson.
 * The Captain: Captain Vanicus to be addressed as captain, even though he seems to be the overall commander of the Republic fleet.
 * The Chains of Commanding: Nomi's position as Grand Master of the Order leaves her little time to spend with her daughter.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Shortly before he is killed by Exar Kun, Master Odan Urr explains a technique to Nomi Sunrider that would allow her to defeat Dark Jedi without killing them by removing their connection to the Force..
 * Coming of Age Story: Redemption, the final arc. It focuses largely on Vima Sunrider when she is old enough for Jedi training.
 * Dark Action Girl: Aleema Keto.
 * Dark Age: One of several EU attempts at this style.
 * Dark Messiah: How Exar Kun presents himself after becoming the Dark Lord of the Sith and returning to Ossus to round up Jedi converts.
 * Does Not Like Lightsabres: Nomi Sunrider initially refuses to become a Jedi because she dislikes the idea of having to kill her enemies.
 * Earthshattering Kaboom: Naga Sadow's flagship was equipped with a device that allows the user to trigger a supernova with the Dark Side of the Force. The Sith use it to
 * Elite Mook: King Ommin's armoured apprentice, Warb Null, who leads the Naddist cult's soldiers.
 * The Empire: There was a Sith Empire in the stories which take place first chronologically. By the time of the Sith War, Mandalore notes that the Empress Teta system has become an empire that's nonetheless "bloated and overstretched by it's many conquests".
 * Fantastic Racism: Kun believes that human Jedi are inherently superior to alien Jedi, although he has no problems with using alien Jedi as pawns he can control.
 * Fat Bastard: Great Bogga the Hutt. Averted by Aarba the Hutt, who has genuine sympathy for the Daragon twins so long as they don't endanger his business inerests.
 * Fate Worse Than Death:
 * Although  did die, his spirit would be trapped inside the darkness of his own temple for thousand of years.
 * Giant Mook: Warb Null.
 * Good Is Not Nice: A thousand years before the main story about Ulic and Exar Kun, the Jedi and Old Republic exterminated the Sith species, who at the time were a thriving interstellar civilization. Yes, it was during a war (that the Sith had started), and they were your average typical space-opera villains, but it's still a whole species of Human Aliens. And yes, it was said that they deliberately hunted down every last one of them.
 * Genocide Backfire: At least until Star WarsTheOldRepublic rolled around...
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Nomi's mission to retrieve Ulic. Subverted, as by that point he's too far gone and the Jedi decide to cut their losses and return home.
 * Jedi Brat: Vima Sunrider is the daughter of two Jedi and grows up surrounded by them (and their battles, once or twice).
 * Karmic Death: While he isn't actually killed for another four thousand years, Exar Kun's fate at the end of the Sith War is fitting for a man who was obsessed with darkness.
 * Kissing Cousins: Implied to be going on between Satal Keto and Aleema.
 * Lady of War: Nomi Sunrider evolves into one as the series goes on, finishing as Head of the Jedi Order.
 * Light Is Not Good: Empress Teta, military dictator of the Koros system and anti-Sith crusader par excellence. She's supposed to be one of the good guys, but there are worrying little things in her portrayal. Like how the POWs from her victorious wars of unification for the greater good are still in hard labor camps a decade after the last war ended. Or how the system is renamed the Empress Teta System afterwards.
 * This might be read either as an attempt by a clever author to introduce some moral ambiguity into the setting, or contrariwise, a not too subtle example of Protagonist-Centered Morality. Given who wrote the story, this troper is inclined towards the latter interpretation.
 * Mad Scientist: Exar Kun, in his spare time.
 * Knights In Shining Armor: The Qel-Droma brothers are this for the Jedi, until Ulic's Start of Darkness. Then things go downhill for them both.
 * Mama Bear: Nomi Sunrider, whose main motivation for becoming a Jedi Knight is a desire to protect her daughter.
 * Master of Illusion: Aleema Keto.
 * Mauve Shirt: The secondary Jedi trio of Shoaneb Culu, Dace Diath, and Qrrrl Toq..
 * Medieval Stasis: Averted. This takes place thousands of years before the main series and it shows (although it may have been retconned by the Knights of the Old Republic series).
 * More Than Mind Control: Happens to Ulic when he infiltrates the Krath.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Ulic Qel-Droma upon  and Gav Daragon when
 * Noble Savage: The Beast Riders of Onderon, who are more civilised than many denizens of the city.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Naga Sadow behaves a bit like a crazy old man to deceive the Daragons.
 * Off-Model: Sometimes.
 * Post Script Season: Redemption.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Mandalore the Indomitable, who willingly joins Ulic Qel-Droma because he believes it will give his warriors a new crusade. Also applies to Kun's Massassi warriors, who he genetically engineers to be deadlier.
 * Redemption Equals Death: Somewhat of a subversion in Ulic's case. He's been turned back for some time and at the end, none of the Jedi are interested in punishing him anymore. His death is a result of the Jedi's pilot wanting a place in history.
 * Religion of Evil: The Dark Jedi Freedon Nadd left behind a cult devoted to his worship on Onderon, which serves as the main opponent for the Jedi until Exar Kun shows up.
 * The Renfield: Crado is slavishly devoted to Exar Kun in spite of Kun's Fantastic Racism.
 * Reverse Mole: Ulic Qel-Droma. He thinks he can infiltrate Cinnigar, gain the trust of the Krath and resist the dark side. Two Out of Three Ain't Bad.
 * Rock Beats Laser: Averted in The Sith War. While not rocks, the weapons of the Krath soldiers are basically antiques and they're no match for the advanced technology of the Mandalorians.
 * Royal Blood: An important element of the power struggle among the lords of the Sith Empire. For example, Naga Sadow possesses minimal Sith blood and takes pride in the purity of his Jedi lineage, tracing his ancestry right back to the original Dark Jedi who fled the Republic and enslaved the Sith species.
 * Royally Screwed-Up: The royal family of Onderon,.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: Even after becoming ruler of Onderon, Oron Kira is the first Beast Rider in the air when the Mandalorian attack begins.
 * Schizo-Tech: A lot of the technology looks like it's made from stone or crude metal. This could just be artistic license, though, especially compared with the Knights of the Old Republic games, which take place not forty years from the end of the comics.
 * She Who Fights Monsters: Sylvar and her quest to bring "justice" to Ulic for serving the Sith and (indirectly) killing her mate Crado.
 * Sheathe Your Sword: Ulic does this to defeat Sylvar.
 * Smug Snake: Satal Keto and Aleema behave as though they will brig the galaxy to its knees, but they're just spoiled brats who dabbled in Sith magic out of boredom.
 * Spiritual Successor: The Knights of the Old Republic games and comics, which are set in the same era.
 * Start of Darkness: For Exar Kun, it's his obsession with ancient Sith history and science. For Ulic, it's his failure to prevent the death of
 * Take a Third Option: Vima can never hold her mother's attention long enough to get Jedi training, so she goes to the man condemned as a traitor by most of the Order.
 * Taking You with Me:.
 * Tongue Trauma: One of several unpleasant things inflicted by Aleema upon her tutor..
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Exar Kun arranges the death of  because she betrayed Ulic Qel-Droma and left him to be arrested by the Jedi, and   because he finds him annoying.
 * War for Fun and Profit: While they're still Proud Warrior Race Guys, the Mandalorians are at least partially motivated by their desire to plunder military technology from the Republic.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: In the middle of the Sith War story arc we see a montage of Exar Kun's Sith converts . At the end of the story these Dark Jedi are still unaccounted for.
 * When Are You Going To Train Me As A Jedi, Mom?: Vima towards Nomi, once Vima is in her teen years.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: Vima is the only one who thinks that Ulic is not the irredeemable monster that the Jedi (and he himself) believe him to be. Her trust in the Force has a lot to do with it.