As a Jedi, Exar felt conflicted, seeing as both of his genetic templates were Dark Lords of the Sith, and their dark side energies were slowly corrupting him and destroying his body. It was in his search for a cure for himself that Exar turned back to the dark side. He came to serve the Scarlet Empire and Darth Etrigan in return for being allowed to kill Ariana Gali, his former love interest as a Jedi, as he believed that Gali was somehow the cause for his affliction.