It is a well-known fact among Star Wars fans that the Dark Side of the Force is a sinister energy harnessed by those who are willing to succumb to its evil in order to gain unimaginable power with Darth Vader being the prime example. However, it seems as though the Dark Side isn’t the only force of darkness in the galaxy as Darth Vader himself confirms the one power even more evil than the Dark Side.
After Anakin Skywalker’s mind was twisted by Darth Sidious into thinking the Jedi were evil and the righteous path forward for the entire galaxy was under the umbrella of the Empire, he became the Sith Lord Darth Vader and under that new moniker went on a number of missions to countless planets enforcing the Empire’s rule. While a lot of these missions’ objectives were to hunt and kill rogue Jedi that survived Order 66, sometimes Darth Vader just needed to be a ruthless enforcer of the Emperor’s will, only adding to the sinister mystique surrounding his reputation.
In the Dark Horse Comics miniseries Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin by Tim Siedell and Stephon Thompson, the Empire defeats a squadron of Rebel fighters and brings one of them aboard a Star Cruiser. This Rebel was different, however, as he was sickly and seemed out of his mind. He keeled over on the floor of the Star Destroyer’s landing dock, ripped off his shirt and revealed the marking of a green, headless snake on his chest. The Rebel screamed, “Death to the Empire!” and exploded, decimating the Star Cruiser in the process. Not long after, the Emperor himself was nearly assassinated after another person with the same headless snake marking on his chest planted a bomb in his throne room. At that point, Darth Vader took it upon himself to track down this organization that he later learned was called the Heinsnake Cult, and stop their attacks on the Empire.
Before Darth Vader takes on this mission, he and the Emperor attempt to use the Dark Side of the Force to sense what this mysterious new enemy could have in store for them after the recent attacks. However, the dark magic wielded by the Heinsnake Cult was strong enough to cloud their minds and force Darth Vader to travel to their moon base himself to uncover the truth. The fact that the magic used by the Heinsnake Cult is powerful enough to cloud the mind of Darth Vader and Darth Sidious is truly an impressively terrifying feat. Darth Sidious hid the fact that he was a Sith Lord while working alongside Jedi Masters everyday for years during the prequel trilogy. The Emperor’s mind is impenetrable and his power absolute, but even he wasn’t immune to the dark magic of the Heinsnake Cult–an organization that wanted nothing more than the galaxy to fall into violent chaos.
While the Heinsnake Cult and their powerful cosmic energy only exists within a Star Wars: Legends story and is therefore non-canon, the idea that there is a power in the universe that is darker than the dark side is quite alarming. The mission of the Heinsnake Cult is that of pure anarchy devoid of both order and community–making itself the enemy of both the Light and Dark Side of the Force. The essence of their magic is so dark that even the strongest Dark Side users–including Darth Vader–couldn’t penetrate it, making it the one power within the Star Wars Universe even eviler than the Dark Side.