House of Marek

The House of Marek was a Force-sensitive Human family that played a prominent role in the formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Prior to the rebellion against the Galactic Empire, the Jedi Knight Kento Marek married Mallie, a fellow Jedi, despite emotional attachment being forbidden in the Jedi Order. The couple deserted the Order after Mallie became pregnant with Kento's child, fleeing to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk where they welcomed a son—the young but powerful Galen Marek. In the aftermath of the Clone Wars, the Sith Lord Darth Vader discovered Galen and, sensing the boy's potential, abducted him after murdering his father.

Bestowing the code name of "Starkiller" on Galen, Vader spent years training his apprentice in the ways of the Sith. Although the Rule of Two forbade him from taking a student while still apprenticed to a Sith Master, Vader encouraged Starkiller to grow stronger with the dark side of the Force so that they could overthrow Darth Sidious—the Galactic Emperor and reigning Dark Lord of the Sith. Starkiller longed to become a true Sith Lord, believing it was his destiny to rule the galaxy at Vader's side as the Dark Lord's apprentice. After Vader betrayed Starkiller, the former Sith assassin embraced his Jedi heritage and saved the nascent Rebel Alliance at the cost of his life. As a result, the Rebels adopted the Marek family crest as their official emblem.

Despite the death of Galen Marek, his family's bloodline was preserved through a generation of clones engineered from his genetic code at the behest of Darth Vader, who endeavored to create a more powerful and obedient version of his former apprentice. In attempting to perfect the process of cloning a Force-sensitive template, the initial clones of Marek were deformed and psychologically unstable. The procedure was gradually stabilized, yielding better results yet each clone experienced an identity crisis caused by the memory imprints of their progenitor. In 1 BBY, a year prior to the Battle of Yavin, a renegade clone escaped from the cloning facility on Kamino.

Text and facts from the “House of Marek” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.