Valik Kodank, a Near-Human female, pledged her allegiance to the Sith Empire during the era known as the Golden Age of the Sith. As both the lover and apprentice of the relatively insignificant Sith Lord Janton Belos, Kodank's power grew substantially. She established her own Sith sect and erected a Sith temple within a star system situated in the Abrion sector. Around 5000 BBY, while attempting a ritual to move her temple into the very core of the system's sun, Kodank met her end, being killed and transformed into a Sith spirit. Her temple was then transported to the depths of the Tascollan Nebula, where she remained for millennia, searching for someone to manipulate into helping her regain a physical form.
During the time of the Galactic Civil War, Kodank managed to seduce Thaum Rystra, a scout serving the Rebel Alliance, into becoming her apprentice. This Sith spirit charged Rystra with the task of resurrecting her, and approximately 7 ABY, the pair lured a group of agents from the New Republic to her temple in the Tascollan Nebula. Kodank intended to possess Sha'lia, a Twi'lek Force adept. However, the agents ultimately triumphed over Kodank, destroying her spirit.
Valik Kodank was a Force-sensitive Near-Human female who gave her service to the Sith Empire during the Golden Age of the Sith. Kodank became both the consort and the apprentice of the lesser Sith Lord Janton Belos. He trained her in the ways of the Sith to keep her happy and attracted to him. As Kodank's power in the Force grew, she hid her true strength from her master. Secretly, she founded her own sect with followers including several Sith acolytes. Behind Belos's back, she took another Sith Lord as her lover. With her lover's assistance, she secretly diverted resources to build the Temple of Pain, a large Sith temple in a system located in the Abrion sector, far from the other Sith's notice, intending it to be her power base.
Around 5000 BBY, as the Sith Empire collapsed after the Great Hyperspace War against the Galactic Republic, Kodank and her lover seized a starship and escaped to her temple, carrying several powerful Sith relics. Kodank arrived at the Temple of Pain to find it nearly finished and was joined by her sect. Some lavishly decorated rooms in the citadel were set aside as Kodank's personal quarters, where she kept a Sith amulet capable of enhancing the user's power. She also used the temple's Room of Change laboratory for experiments and studied a Sith holocron housed in a small chamber to expand her knowledge.
Kodank, wanting to move her stronghold to the center of the star system's only sun, she and her lover placed the Sith artifacts they had brought into the Temple of Pain's central chamber and activated them, hoping to use their power. However, the artifacts did not work as planned. The unleashed power took the lives of Kodank's lover and followers and transported the temple deep inside an asteroid in the Tascollan Nebula. Kodank herself was also killed, transformed into a dark side spirit without a physical body, her essence tied to a large, triangular obelisk in the Temple of Pain that had been the focus of the ritual.
After her physical death, Kodank felt the dark side of the Force mocking her and reveling in her helplessness, feeding on her emotions. For millennia after her demise, she tried to contact someone she could manipulate into helping her regain physical form. During the Galactic Civil War, Thaum Rystra, a Force-sensitive Rebel Alliance scout, traveled to the Tascollan Nebula to map the nebula's star system. Kodank reached out to him through the Force, claiming to know his desire to destroy the Galactic Empire and promising to teach him the ways of the Sith and help him gain true power in the Force if he came to her. Guided by her voice, Rystra journeyed through the nebula and into the depths of the Temple of Pain. In the temple's large chamber with the obelisk to which her spirit was tied, Kodank appeared, and Rystra surrendered to her will, agreeing to be her apprentice.
Rystra studied under the Sith spirit, becoming a Dark Jedi, completely loyal to Kodank. The spirit realized that Rystra couldn't restore her physical presence alone, so she planned to exploit the powers of Caeleb, the prophesied "Child of Light," a boy strong in the Force through whom other Force users could access unlimited Force energy. In 3 ABY, she sent Rystra to capture Caeleb for her. After Rystra failed, she was angry and sent him on a new mission to find the ancient dark side relic the Soulsaber, an artifact that could enhance her dark side power. In 4 ABY, Rystra found the Soulsaber and brought it to her at the Temple of Pain.
For the next three years, Rystra trained under Kodank at the Temple of Pain, and she taught him much about Sith alchemy and Sith sorcery. The Sith spirit filled Rystra's mind with so much new information that he had trouble sleeping, making him more vulnerable to her manipulation. Rystra told his master about a group of Rebel Alliance agents who had interfered with his attempts to capture Caeleb and the Soulsaber. Learning about the strong Force-sensitivity of one of the Rebels, the Twi'lek Force adept Sha'lia, Kodank plotted to possess her body, believing Sha'lia to be the perfect vessel. To that end, she directed Rystra to research how best she could take control of Sha'lia's body.
As another scheme to ensure Sha'lia was delivered to her, Kodank befriended another of Rystra's Rebel adversaries, Maric Tovar, a timid Force-sensitive engineer who had romantic feelings for Sha'lia. Around 5 ABY, while Tovar was on a covert mission for New Republic Intelligence, Kodank reached into his mind and promised him great power and Sha'lia's love if he brought the team of Rebels to her. Kodank didn't reveal her name or identity to Tovar and kept her interactions with him secret from Rystra. Tovar agreed to her bargain, and Kodank instructed him in the use of the Force. As his training progressed, she promised the Rebel engineer that they would soon meet in person, and when they did, their deal would be complete, and Sha'lia would be his.
With her plans to ensnare Sha'lia in place, around 7 ABY, Kodank instructed Rystra to lure the Rebel agents, now serving the New Republic, to the Temple of Pain. Kodank foresaw her plan succeeding. By leaking information about his location, Rystra drew Sha'lia, Tovar, and the other agents to the Tascollan Nebula. As the operatives approached, Kodank ordered Rystra to prepare for their arrival. After the agents landed at the temple and entered the structure, Kodank created an illusion of Rystra sitting on a throne-like chair to greet them. The Sith spirit's Dark Jedi phantom delayed the agents by offering a game of sabacc and asking Sha'lia if she had found her place in the galaxy. To trick the operatives into venturing deeper into the temple, Kodank arranged for an explosion sound to blast the room and had the illusory Rystra falsely claim that all starships in the temple had been destroyed, leaving them no escape but to continue on. Kodank then faded away the phantom Rystra and sent a group of Sith war droids to attack the agents. Once the operatives defeated the droids, Kodank sent a telepathic message to Tovar, instructing him to await her orders and promising him that he would soon have everything he desired.
The New Republic agents found the Sith holocron that Kodank kept in her temple, and one of the holocron's gatekeepers, the fallen Jedi Bavik Vannor, told them about Kodank's history. Another gatekeeper, the Sith apprentice Sansin Koriss, also revealed that Kodank feared the Sith amulet kept in her personal chambers.
Kodank awaited the agents' arrival in a large chamber deep within the temple with Thaum Rystra. Kodank wanted to render Sha'lia unconscious before trying to possess her and ordered Rystra to treat all the agents except Sha'lia as expendable. When the New Republic agents reached the chamber, Kodank and Rystra watched unseen as the operatives fought off several Sith Guardian Spirits, revealing herself only after the spirits were defeated. Kodank asked the agents to join her and Rystra as her chiefs, helping her rule the galaxy, or be destroyed. The operatives refused, and a battle began. Kodank summoned a battle hydra to help her fight. She also begged Tovar to stun Sha'lia for her. The agents ultimately won, destroying Kodank's spirit and defeating Rystra. After her demise, the Temple of Pain collapsed, and the agents fled.
Kodank possessed an exotic beauty and wore loose, silky clothes adorned with jewels. Intelligent and ruthless, she was skilled in deceit and lies. During her life, she exploited her partner Janton Belos and her other Sith Lord lover to advance her rise to power. She ruled her minions through fear and cunning, but her ambition eventually led to her downfall, transforming her into a Sith spirit.
After her death, Kodank's spirit felt emotional. In her incorporeal form, she radiated the dark side and couldn't physically interact with the world, limited to floating within the temple she had built. She became vulnerable to attacks from those using Force artifacts and feared the Sith amulet in her personal chambers because it could be used to destroy her. However, her spirit was immune to certain Force-based attacks, including Force lightning and telekinesis.
As a spirit, Kodank manipulated others as she had in life, convincing Thaum Rystra and Maric Tovar to serve her and was willing to exploit the innocent child Caeleb to achieve her goals. She was eager to regain her physical form and had aspirations to rule the galaxy. When Rystra lured his New Republic agent adversaries to the Temple of Pain, she relished their arrival, smiling for the first time in millennia.
Kodank practiced the dark side of the Force and quickly mastered the arts of the Sith under her mentor and lover Janton Belos. She was proficient in Sith alchemy and Sith sorcery and skilled in using the Force to move objects, sense things, affect the minds of others, and cast illusions. The Sith was also familiar with the Force powers Battlemind, Drain Knowledge, farsight, and Force empathy.
After becoming a Sith spirit, Kodank lost the ability to use some of her Force powers, including battlemind and her abilities to grip objects and perform Sith alchemy. Although her spirit was tied to the Temple of Pain, she could telepathically communicate with others over vast distances, projecting her voice and images into the mind of Maric Tovar when enlisting him. She could also create and control phantom illusions of others. She was multi-lingual, speaking and writing Basic and Sith, as well as Dosh and Ryl.
Valik Kodank was created by Lee Pickler and served as one of the main antagonists of the Child of Light saga, a Star Wars Legends trilogy of roleplaying adventures published by RPGA. She was first mentioned in the saga's opening adventure, Child of Light, in 2000, and appeared in the trilogy's final adventure, Light and Dark, in 2002.
There is an inconsistency between the outline of the Child of Light saga in Child of Light and Light and Dark regarding how Kodank tries to regain physical form. Child of Light states that in the final adventure, Thaum Rystra tries to revive Kodank by drawing Force energy from Caeleb and using the Soulsaber to convert it into dark side energy to restore her body. However, in Light and Dark, Kodank seeks to possess Sha'lia, and Caeleb and the Soulsaber play no role in her plan. This article follows the events of Light and Dark in its description of her resurrection attempt.
In the Child of Light saga, players roleplay as the New Republic agents that Kodank draws to the Temple of Pain, and her confrontation with them can unfold in various ways depending on the players' actions and decisions. During her fight with the agents, Kodank might try to take control of Sha'lia's body. If she fails to possess Sha'lia, she might try to inhabit Maric Tovar's body or that of Mina Dhori Tolas, a former Imperial senator and another of the agents. The battle can end with the player characters destroying Kodank's spirit by stabbing her with a Force-imbued knife, destroying her with the Sith amulet from Kodank's chambers, or obliterating the obelisk to which her spirit was linked. Alternatively, Kodank might succeed in possessing Sha'lia, and the Sith spirit and Thaum Rystra might defeat the New Republic agents.