Background
The Cult of Skaro first appeared in the double-episode "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday". They are described as an elite organisation created by the Emperor of the Daleks to think as their enemies think and find new ways of surviving - and of killing enemies. Their creative task extends to them developing imaginations and taking on individual names, Dalek Sec, Dalek Thay, Dalek Caan, Dalek Jast. According to the Doctor Who Files book on the Cult Of Skaro, the members of the cult were commanders of different sections of the Dalek army, before they being selected and promoted by the Dalek Emperor. In their task they even outrank the Emperor; however, by the time of their first on-screen appearance they have survived the demise of the Emperor (in "The Parting of the Ways") and believe themselves to be the last four Daleks in existence.
The Cult of Skaro escaped the end of the Time War in a void ship along with a captured Time Lord prison ship containing millions of Daleks, which they call the Genesis Ark. In the episode "Doomsday", it is explained that the Genesis Ark can only be opened by the touch of a time-traveller and The Doctor and Rose Tyler both refuse, but Mickey Smith accidentally touches it, releasing the Daleks. The Doctor ultimately manages to use the vortex manipulator at the Torchwood Institute to suck what he believes to be all the Daleks back into the Void.
Unknown to the Doctor, the four members of the Cult managed to initiate an emergency temporal shift and ended up in New York City of the 1930s. In "Daleks in Manhattan", operating from a laboratory underneath the Empire State Building, the Cult use "Pig-slaves" to capture people for their experiments. As the last of their race, the Cult's situation became desperate, with Dalek Thay sacrificing his rear casing for construction of a mast at the top of the building. Dalek Sec questioned the genetic superiority of the Dalek race, and proposed the evolution into Hybrid Daleks, which he hoped would combine the best traits of both humans and Daleks. In "Evolution of the Daleks", Sec was removed from command by Dalek Caan and eventually killed by Thay. The Dalek Humans turned on the Cult, killing both Thay and Jast. Dalek Caan escaped a confrontation with the Doctor by another emergency temporal shift.
In the 2008 episode "The Stolen Earth", it is revealed that Dalek Caan travelled to the first year of the Time War, despite it being time-locked. Doing so forced Caan to stare into the depths of the Time Vortex and thus cost him his sanity, but it also showed him the course of the future. Whilst in the Time War, Dalek Caan rescued Davros from the wreckage of his command ship, allowing Davros to return to the present day and create a new Dalek Empire with his DNA. Davros holds Caan in high esteem, although the new Daleks believe Caan to be an "abomination" due to his insanity and his possession of emotions.
When he passed though time and space to rescue Davros he saw the carnage caused by the Dalek race and was disgusted by it. In "Journey's End" Caan convinced the Half Doctor to destroy the Daleks and end their reign of terror. Dalek Caan and Davros are believed to have been killed when the Crucible was destroyed by the Half Doctor. However, Russell T. Davies confirmed that Davros may still be alive, as he said "I'd never be the writer to kill off Davros".
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