The Zarites (also referred to as the Zaricites and the Cult of Zaric) were a cult of darksiders who worshiped Zaric and his alleged conquering of death. While largely untrained, their numbers and devotion to Zaric’s legacy made them a dangerous dark side sect.
Little is known about the actual operations or activities of the Zarites, or where they are operating from. The Zarites are largely untrained darkside force-sensitives, and as such lack basic knowledge of things like Force Powers or lightsaber construction, though occasionally one will be armed with a vibroblade or a stolen lightsaber.
History
Zaric was a powerful darkside warrior. After his death at the hands of Jedi Knight Jreygun Kel, he was resurrected by Darth Nixza and her mastery of Sith sorcery. However, Nixza’s resurrection of Zaric was only half-successful. Rather than Zaric himself, a manifestation of the Dark Side its self was inhabiting the fallen Sith Warrior’s body. This “Death incarnate” was able to take full advantage of the strength that Zaric possessed, and was a nearly unstoppable force in battle.
During the Battle of Thule, the resurrected Zaric was able to engage two entire battalions of Clone Troopers as well as several Jedi Knights. Near the end of the battle, Jedi Knight Trapp Radmal sought revenge on Zaric for corrupting his padawan, Joss Iroh. Letting go of his Jedi teachings and tapping into the Dark Side, Radmal was able to temporarily hold Zaric at bay while Zaric’s brother, Rey Nal’Do destroyed Zaric’s crystal amulet, breaking Nixza’s spell and returning Zaric’s body to the state of a lifeless corpse.
After the battle, Nal’Do took Zaric’s body and buried it in the valley near the ruins of the Sith temple on Thule, hoping to erase the legacy of destruction that his brother had left in his wake. However, several survivors of the battle left Thule, speaking of Zaric’s resurrection and the subsequent titanic powers he possessed. Many darksiders who heard of this were inspired, and began to congregate together. They began sending search parties to Thule, looking for artifacts related to Zaric, or the remains of Zaric himself.
Trapp Radmal defended the temple on Thule from the Zarites for more than a decade, before Vaysla Redd defeated him in battle. Redd had infiltrated the Zarites looking for information on the fallen Sith Warrior, hoping to replicate Zaric’s powers for herself. She delivered a killing blow to Radmal, leaving him on Thule to die before she herself fled to Haffrin.
As he lay dying, Radmal finalized his holocron, warning any Jedi who found it of the dangers of the Zarites, and urging them to stop them at all costs. It would not be until years later that the holocron was found by Jek Wyngaard, who ironically was recruited by Neofias Ozzarak, with whom Radmal had defended the Sith Temple ruins.
Neofius’s original mission after Radmal’s death was to find the source of the Zarites, but after being stranded on Haffrin by Darth Zandred’s forces, he and the other Jedi in his company have been forced to deal with their present situation.