Post by Darth Exolus on Jan 14, 2021 4:09:21 GMT
A brief outline of Moraband
"Pfah. Korriban's a rock. Mind the Sith."
A cold, unforgiving world of vast, arid plains and sprawling mountain ranges; Korriban is the solitary planet of the Horuset System, in the heart of Sith Space. Laying at the endpoint of the long-decayed Daragon Trail, an ancient hyperspace lane, the system is occluded by the nebulous Styigian Caldera that enshrouds most of historical Sith Space. During the reign of Xim the Despot, Korriban was known as Pesegam ( a High Galactic translation of Pe Kesh-Hagam), and Moraband during the Clone Wars (a mistranslation of the Sith trade language's Kh'mor-Âdan). Though dense with volcano ranges, Korriban is relatively cold at sea level. The native Sith were known to be mountain-dwelling nomads, who clung to the warmer temperatures of the volcanoes. The Massassi, evolutionary offshoots of the Sith, were adapted for more temperate climates found at lower elevations.
Landmarks, Cities & Settlements.
Djurin Kani (The Undying Sea)
One of the two major surface oceans of Korriban, The Undying Sea is so named for its year-round persistence. While other bodies of water are typically seasonal and mostly subterranean in nature, Djurin Kani shrinks to only a third of its size during the height of the dry season, swelling again during the rainy season. It, and its precious freshwater supply has been the sight and prize of countless battles over the centuries.
Djen Kani (The Dark Sea)
A shallow brackish sea, lying at the bed of an enormous basalt impact crater near the warm equator. The propagation of k'lor slugs in these shallow, muddy waters has been a reliable source of food for the cities that once hugged its banks.
Qos River Valley
A network of rivers fed by the Undying Sea, the Qos River Valley is of anthropological importance. Believed by many to be the fertile region in which the Sith evolved, it still plays host to many reclusive cultures who remain uncontacted since the arrival of the Rakata.
The Eternal Pyre & The Mongrel Altar
A large conflagration east of more famous landmarks, the Eternal Pyre was stoked by the bodies of countless slaves, fallen foes of the Sith Empire, and thousands of Rakatan warriors, still burning to this day. Hidden beneath the cairn upon which it burns is a mural to the greatest of the Sith Kings, and a repository of Sith arcana, submerged in deep pools of blood.
Gu'gwa Nefas (The Valley of Golg)
One of several colossal burial valleys stretching for kilometers, the Valley - named after the nearby city of Golg houses many of the early Dark Lords, and late-era Sith Kings and Queens. It is by far one of the oldest burial sites on the planet, save for the nearby graveyard complex of Adu.
Lwh'Onin Nefas (The Valley of the Dark Lords)
Perhaps the most important location on all of Korriban, the Valley of Dark Lords has played host to multiple Sith Academies over the ages. Yet its importance lies in the thousands of tombs that dot the length of the canyon, each housing the mummified remains of the Dark Lords, the alien-hybrid rulers of the Sith people. Thousands of years after its partial excavation, there are still unopened tombs holding dark secrets waiting to be discovered.
Tzjir Nefas (The Valley of the Great Kings)
From rulers of myth, such as the King of Storms, En-Ahrûja, the legendary El-Saqir, father of House Âdzâd, the Valley of the Great Kings hosts the bodies of Korriban's greatest pre-Imperial rulers in great necropolises. A holy site, it is forbidden from outsiders and the Grotthu caste to set foot in the tombs.
Tje-Anu
The northernmost inhabited area on Korriban, and by far the most remote. Tje-Anu is the ancestral home of many Massassi clans, including one of the Twelve Houses; House Het. A harsh and biting cold surrounds the clustered settlements that form this pseudo-city, and is dense with hardy winter predators, serving as the perfect proving ground for the Sith's warrior caste.
Ha-Nunapta
One of Korriban's many fortress-cities, Ha-Nunapta, often simply called Nunap, stretches across the narrowest point of the rocky Nunap Pass, the safest point of egress through the mountains for thousands of miles. Once home to a sept of House Chahjdow, it was razed in the years after the Great Hyperspace War by House Krûkush, who tore the sept's greatest work - The Lapis Gate, brick by brick from its city gates.
Ur-Nurut
A city of great significance to the Sith of House Âdzâd. Not only is Ur-Nurut one of the oldest-inhabited cities on Korriban, it is also the birthplace of El-Saqir; Korriban's greatest King (better known as King Adas). Its importance is such that its inhabitants have fought ferociously to ensure that their great king's home holds the singular distinction of going entirely unconquered or occupied by any foe during millennia of civil war.
Gu'gwh
Better known to the galaxy's historians and architects as Golg - the city from which the Valley takes its namesake from. Founded after the catastrophic destruction of the ancient city Anu, Gu'gwh is thought by many to be a mirrored sibling to the City of the Dead, and a key location of religious significance for the Sith.
Adu
Older than even Golg, Adu was once a Neolithic site of polished basalt and obsidian. Home to countless numbers of catacombs, the so-called City of the Dead was buried and war-battered long before the Rakata shattered its structure. It holds deeper religious significance to practitioners of pre-Imperial religions.
Ka-N'set
As with many former great cities, Ka-N'set, or Kaniset was utterly destroyed during the brief, but cataclysmic war with the Infinite Empire. Once a major population center, its ruined towers and shattered ziggurats lay as a silent testament to the Sith's Golden Age, and the then-unstoppable might of the Infinite Empire.
Va-Adin
Like Kaniset, Va-Adin, or Vardin was a sprawling city, and symbol of the Sith Empire's wealth. In ages long since past, Vardin was host to spectacular tropical gardens. The lush oases and sprawling sandstone skylines were ground down to sand after the Rakata fused it into glass, leaving only the foundations, and vengeful spirits behind.
Dreshdae
The capital city of the Esstran Region, and on-off capital of Korriban itself, Dreshdae has been built and rebuilt countless times. Little more than ruins stacked upon ruins, careless offworld settlers have buried untold amounts of history under their architecture, much to the chagrin of Sith archaeologists. It fell upon the Obsidian Union to gently coerce Zsinj to strip away the layers to unearth their Order's history. The original fortress which the city of Dreshdae surrounded was laboriously rebuilt into the Hermitage, an Obsidian Union settlement, not far from the Valley of Dark Lords.
Mhu'Dinjr
Dubbed The City of Slaves, Mhu'Dinjr is poor, dirty and filled with the dregs of Sith society. The city is old, with most buildings constructed from the battered, self-repairing remains of Rakatan starships. While most cities on Korriban have a clear distinction between caste living, Mhu'Dinjr has only one caste; the Grotthu, and one mentality; survival, at any cost.
The Tjsis
The Tjsis "lit. The Beings", are the native species hailing from the world of Moraband, known in those days as Korriban, Kh'mor-Âdan, Horu-ia, and Pe Kesh-Hagam. Violent and warlike, the Tjsis were once numerous, and spread across Korriban. Long-lived and red-skinned, the Tjsis are a humanoid species strong with the Force - particularly the Dark Side. Tjsis culture was remarkably-sophisticated in spite of the species' relatively-primitive existence. Arranged into tight-knit groups, Tjsis society was a rigid caste-based meritocracy. While outwardly, their practice of ritual sacrifice and civil war seemed barbaric, the Tjsis viewed combat as a basic tennents for life, testing not only one's might, but one's mettle, ensuring only the most intelligent, strongest warriors could emerge from battle while sacrifice held deeper religious meaning than it appeared. Any Tjsis who did not, or indeed could not contribute to their society in a meaningful way were sacrificed to appease their many gods. Sick and infirm were also likewise offered as sacrifice to their death god Saqir in a ritualistic end of life ceremony to allow them passage into the next world, which they called N'wâryâ.
Korriban was isolated from the galaxy at large, hidden with its neighboring systems in a dense, nebulous region of space called the Caldera. Nigh-impossible to navigate through, and harder still to escape from, the few aliens species in sleeper ships unfortunate enough to drift into this region found themselves either trapped on Korriban at best, or either starved on its uninhabited neighbors, or became lost forever in the nebula. These aliens integrated into the Tjsis species as slaves, dubbed "Grotthu", with many of the Basic-speaking races dubbing their overlords "Sith" in kind - a non-literal translation of Tjsis into Basic. It was from this point on, that the Tjsis became multi-lingual, adopting Basic as a commoner's language, and as a means to better understand their new slaves.
Through centuries of war, the Sith came to worship many warriors as demigods, heroes and even came under the rule of Kings, though throughout this long and bloody history, they never truly unified as a species - until the birth of El-Saqir. Born into the noble clade of Âdzâd, the child displayed stark black skin, a particularly-unusual trait for a Sith. Indeed, his people came to revere him, proclaiming the young Âdzâd the incarnation of their Death God, Saqir the Black, whom the child was thusly named after. Saqir proved himself a fiercely-intelligent and powerful individual, mastering many of the Sith's mystic arts and alchemical practices. In time, Saqir took up arms against his own people, crushing countless would-be warlords and shamans, bringing for the first time in their history, the Sith under one rule, and one banner - his own. Declared the immortal Sith'ari or "Overlord", Saqir was both beloved and feared by his people, and lived for many hundreds of years as their King.
One race of aliens however, braved the perils of the Caldera intentionally - seeking to enslave intelligent species for their mighty Infinite Empire. These invaders were known as the Rakata, and proved just as war-like as the Sith they sought to conquer. One of the Rakatan generals, a Predor called Tsao'kai, entered the Caldera with a dozen ships, seeking glory and rich conquest. At first they appeared to be benevolent, teaching the Sith how to construct Rakatan devices, such as holocrons, and Forcesabers, though King Saqir remained wary of their intent. As the Rakata grew impatient and bolder, so too did Âdzâd grow suspicious. When Tsao'kai made his intentions abundantly clear, the invaders brought their technological might down upon the Sith. Expecting a swift and decisive victory, the Rakata were quick to realize that the Sith were more than prepared for them, unleashing a ferocity and penchant for violence unlike anything they had seen before. The Sith commanded powers utterly unknown to the Rakata; spreading great miasma of death, commanding vast, ghostly armies, and even turned the Rakata's own dead upon them. With each battle, the Rakata lost ground, while the Sith only grew in strength and numbers. It became clear that in spite of their primitive technology, the strange power of King Âdzâd and his people was too great for even the Rakata to overcome, and thus they razed many of Korriban's great cities in a bid to cull their enemy, turning vast swathes of green into arid desert in the process. Âdzâd and his people defied these odds, beating back the would-be conquerors, and eventually chased them off-world. Yet this was not enough. Emboldened by their victory, and stoking the desire to dominate, Âdzâd, leading his armies, seized Rakatan ships, and pursued the aliens to other worlds such as Ziost and Malachor. In the final battle that saw the Rakata driven out of the Caldera fully, Âdzâd was betrayed by Yshaar Kael, who defected to the Rakata, feeding intelligence to the Rakata warrior, Sub-Predor Soa'let, who unleashed his army of assassins - The Infernal Council upon El-Saqir. While the Infernal Council were able to finally kill El-Saqir, their victory came at a catastrophic cost to the Rakata, who suffered a near-total decimation of their forces. Fleeing the Caldera, both Soa'let and Tsao'kai were imprisoned by their superiors, and stricken from historical records. In his death throes, El-Saqir was said to have personally turned a hundred thousand warriors to ash. Returned and interred in Korriban, the mighty King was dead, and his many children began squabbling over his throne. The Sith fractured, and once again returned to war, though now armed with the advanced technology of their would-be conquerors.
For countless thousands of years, the Sith would enter into long periods of sustained civil war, broken only by brief moments of tenuous peace, and sporadic rule under many monarchs, including Âdzâd's descendants. Korriban was once again unified by Ka-Dagatt Rhûsh, a bloodthirsty conqueror, who named himself the undisputed King of the Sith. Dagatt sat on the Sith Throne for a mere fifty years, until his rivals orchestrated both his demise, and the ascension of his grandson, Ha-Kurga. Before the Sith nobility could utilize their puppet, an alien starship crashed on Korriban, carrying with it exiled members of the Jedi Order. Cast out for their part in the Hundred-Year Darkness, these Dark Jedi had been thrown into the Outer Rim by the victorious Jedi Knights, whereupon they discovered the natives of Korriban. Aweing Ha-Kurga with their power in the Force, many Sith believed these alien newcomers were their gods in the flesh, while others attempted to sway them to their service with Sith magic. Ultimately, the Dark Jedi subjugated the Sith, and integrated themselves into Sith society as a new social caste; the Jen'ari, or Dark Lords, the first of whom was Ajunta Pall.
Though the Sith and Human/Near-Human Jedi were not capable of producing offspring, alchemist Sozus Syn discovered the genetic structure of the Sith's warrior caste - the Massassi, was amazingly malleable, enough so that with manipulation through Sith Alchemy, Massassi and Humans could produce children. The resulting hybrids produced an entirely new race of Sith called Kissai, who stood above the Massassi as their newly-formed priest caste. In time, Syn's experimentation with the Sith sub-races spawned the engineering caste derived from the Kissai and non-Human species - The Zuguruk, and a more dimorphic Grotthu. The Kissai would later branch off into a Near-Human race of Sith later dubbed 'Purebloods', closet to human stock than their Tjsis ancestors. Many Sith Lords rose to prominence in the generations after Pall and the Exiles, as did a mighty Sith Empire that spanned a dozen worlds. Many new species were taken as slaves, and many planets more subjugated by the Sith Lords. Eventually, a half-blood Sith of Clan Rakuos was born, of unrivalled strength. In any other circumstance, half-breed Sith were often shunned, but this child bore the black skin, like El-Saqir. Named Mja-Ak'nah, the young Sith rose to power, in absolute dominion over the Sith. Revered and beloved, Rakuos ushered in a Golden Age of the Sith Empire, where even the lowliest of slaves shared in wealth and prosperity. Ruling for over a century, Rakuos' untimely death left a great power vacuum in the Sith hierarchy. At first, Rakuos' apprentice Tdji'nah-Bei Drûmit was put forward as a likely candidate, though Drûmit had wisely withdrawn from the Sith political strata, and resigned himself to ruling his homeworld of Medriaas, which he renamed Nathema. Two bold contenders stepped in to fill the void, the Kissai Nah'w-Aga Chahjdow, and the Massassi Urd'jo Krûkush. Both fierce rivals, Chahjdow saw the peaceful Golden Age as an age of unearned decadence and apathy, weakening the Sith as a whole, and sought to replace it with an age of conquest and domination over the Exile's age-old enemies; The Jedi and the Republic. Krûkush staunchly opposed his rival's expansionist dreams and cautioned the Ruling Houses against such a move. While Krûkush shared the end goal of the Empire's galaxy-spanning dominion, he was more cautious than Aga, seeking to build Imperial strength up over time, and overwhelm their enemies.
As fate would have it, two hyperspace explorers lost in the Caldera crashed on Korriban. Natives of the Republic Core World of Cinnagar, Gav and Jori Daragon emerged seeking trade with the native Sith, though were shocked to find humans and many aliens living among them. Taken as prisoners, Chahjdow claimed the pair to be spies from the Republic, murdering his mentor Sima in a bid to frame the brother and sister. While Urd'jo decried Aga's deeds, claiming his ideals would fracture the Sith Empire, Chahjdow preyed upon the descendants of the Exile's fears of the Jedi, manipulating the Dark Council into naming him Dark Lord. Marching to war, the Sith Empire laid waste to outlying Republic systems. Jori Daragon, managing to return to Republic space, warned the Jedi and Senate of impending invasion. When the Sith Empire arrived in the Core Worlds, the Republic Navy was waiting. Though Aga conjured up illusory armies with his strength in the force, Krûkush sought to mitigate the damage done to the Empire; by killing Chahjdow, and sue for peace with the Republic. Unfortunately, Aga unleashed the might of his fleet on the would-be savior of the Sith, killing him in a three-way firefight between the two rivals, and the Republic, splintering the already-vulnerable Sith fleet. Realizing he was outmatched Chahjdow fled from known space, settling with his Massassi army on the fourth moon of the gas giant Yavin.
The Republic meanwhile, charged forth to Korriban, laying waste to the remains of the Sith armada, and every Imperial stronghold in the Caldera. While the Sith threat had been ended, and all but a handful of their leaders dead, the Supreme Chancellor called for what many would come to view even in modernity as an act of genocide. Though the Sith had been neutralized, and posed no further threat, rather than occupy the Caldera, the Chancellor ordered one last crusade against the Sith. The Republic and Jedi Order were sent to Sith worlds to exterminate the Imperial remnants, almost wiping the original Tjsis species out. While pockets survived on Korriban and other worlds in isolation, the species started a long decline, fighting over scraps when the Republic departed, satisfied they had destroyed the Sith. In secret, the Lord of Medriaas, Tdji'nah-Bei Drûmit summoned seventy of the remaining Sith Lords to his world. Desperate for leadership, the former apprentice of Rakuos gave them purpose, only to turn on them and devour their very essence in a cruel ritual that saw Medriaas wiped clean of life. Shedding his identity, Tdji'nah named himself Vitiate, and set about rounding up any who would follow him, stoking the fear that the Republic would one day return to finish them off. Though the majority of the surviving Sith either refused to emerge, or follow Vitiate, thousands of Sith Purebloods flocked to his side in fear, and fled with him to find the ancient Sith stronghold of Dromund Kaas, which had been lost in the Caldera for centuries. Reforming the Sith Empire on the old fortress world, Vitiate prepared for a thousand years, living beyond death in many bodies. Vitiate's new Sith Empire would wage war with the Republic for decades. Living a dual-life, Vitiate split his consciousness into many bodies, with one in particular controlling Valkorion; a human warrior, and later Immortal Emperor of the planet Zakuul. Though Tdji'nah would die a final death, his Empire endured for years to come, until it was dissolved and integrated into the Republic with his second society in Zakuul learning to live without Valkorion. Once again, Korriban was forgotten, leading to new Sith - the survivors of Vitiate's Empire to rise, as the Brotherhood of Darkness. These Sith would continue to fight their ancient enemy, until at last, it seemed the Sith were destroyed at the hand of a Sith named Bane, who deluded his allies into committing a ritual suicide that also destroyed the Jedi Order's Army of Light.
Though Bane would establish a new Sith paradigm, the species were believed extinct. Only pockets of civillization remained in the Caldera worlds. The Tjsis would never make a grand resurgence again. What little remained of their society fell back onto old customs and practices, with the few true-blooded Tjsis subjugating the Purebloods underneath them. Many efforts were made to breed out the Purebloods, though they remained a majority, thus resulting in the decline of many of the ancient bloodlines, who later died out. To date, only sixteen of the major families and their septs survived, with many more commonborn clans, and clanless living in the wilds of Korriban and beyond.
The Twelve Houses & Sixteen High Clans
As their title suggests, the Twelve Houses are a collection of ancient noble bloodlines of the Tjsis. Where once their authority was absolute, it was supplanted by the Dark Council, and later by the Moff Council. In modernity, the Twelve Houses make up twelve of the sixteen surviving nobility, the so-called 'purest' of Sith houses. The terms "House" and "Clan" are often used interchangeably, with little to no distinction given to vassal houses/clans or septs (e.g House Nûrut, a vassal of House Âdzâd)
The Twelve
House Âdzâd (Adas)
House Kj'âlig (Kallig)
House Chahjdow (Sadow)
House Krûkush (Kressh)
House Rakuos (Ragnos)
House Rhûsh (Graush)
House Het (Hekk)
House Sarûs (Sarash)
House Mjol (Mul)
House Drûmit (Dramath)
House Mjor (Mul)
House Rhut (Rath)
The Low Nobles
House Sek (Sek)
House Alut (Althe)
House Krût (Krev)
House Iab'aras (Abaron)
"Pfah. Korriban's a rock. Mind the Sith."
A cold, unforgiving world of vast, arid plains and sprawling mountain ranges; Korriban is the solitary planet of the Horuset System, in the heart of Sith Space. Laying at the endpoint of the long-decayed Daragon Trail, an ancient hyperspace lane, the system is occluded by the nebulous Styigian Caldera that enshrouds most of historical Sith Space. During the reign of Xim the Despot, Korriban was known as Pesegam ( a High Galactic translation of Pe Kesh-Hagam), and Moraband during the Clone Wars (a mistranslation of the Sith trade language's Kh'mor-Âdan). Though dense with volcano ranges, Korriban is relatively cold at sea level. The native Sith were known to be mountain-dwelling nomads, who clung to the warmer temperatures of the volcanoes. The Massassi, evolutionary offshoots of the Sith, were adapted for more temperate climates found at lower elevations.
Landmarks, Cities & Settlements.
Djurin Kani (The Undying Sea)
One of the two major surface oceans of Korriban, The Undying Sea is so named for its year-round persistence. While other bodies of water are typically seasonal and mostly subterranean in nature, Djurin Kani shrinks to only a third of its size during the height of the dry season, swelling again during the rainy season. It, and its precious freshwater supply has been the sight and prize of countless battles over the centuries.
Djen Kani (The Dark Sea)
A shallow brackish sea, lying at the bed of an enormous basalt impact crater near the warm equator. The propagation of k'lor slugs in these shallow, muddy waters has been a reliable source of food for the cities that once hugged its banks.
Qos River Valley
A network of rivers fed by the Undying Sea, the Qos River Valley is of anthropological importance. Believed by many to be the fertile region in which the Sith evolved, it still plays host to many reclusive cultures who remain uncontacted since the arrival of the Rakata.
The Eternal Pyre & The Mongrel Altar
A large conflagration east of more famous landmarks, the Eternal Pyre was stoked by the bodies of countless slaves, fallen foes of the Sith Empire, and thousands of Rakatan warriors, still burning to this day. Hidden beneath the cairn upon which it burns is a mural to the greatest of the Sith Kings, and a repository of Sith arcana, submerged in deep pools of blood.
Gu'gwa Nefas (The Valley of Golg)
One of several colossal burial valleys stretching for kilometers, the Valley - named after the nearby city of Golg houses many of the early Dark Lords, and late-era Sith Kings and Queens. It is by far one of the oldest burial sites on the planet, save for the nearby graveyard complex of Adu.
Lwh'Onin Nefas (The Valley of the Dark Lords)
Perhaps the most important location on all of Korriban, the Valley of Dark Lords has played host to multiple Sith Academies over the ages. Yet its importance lies in the thousands of tombs that dot the length of the canyon, each housing the mummified remains of the Dark Lords, the alien-hybrid rulers of the Sith people. Thousands of years after its partial excavation, there are still unopened tombs holding dark secrets waiting to be discovered.
Tzjir Nefas (The Valley of the Great Kings)
From rulers of myth, such as the King of Storms, En-Ahrûja, the legendary El-Saqir, father of House Âdzâd, the Valley of the Great Kings hosts the bodies of Korriban's greatest pre-Imperial rulers in great necropolises. A holy site, it is forbidden from outsiders and the Grotthu caste to set foot in the tombs.
Tje-Anu
The northernmost inhabited area on Korriban, and by far the most remote. Tje-Anu is the ancestral home of many Massassi clans, including one of the Twelve Houses; House Het. A harsh and biting cold surrounds the clustered settlements that form this pseudo-city, and is dense with hardy winter predators, serving as the perfect proving ground for the Sith's warrior caste.
Ha-Nunapta
One of Korriban's many fortress-cities, Ha-Nunapta, often simply called Nunap, stretches across the narrowest point of the rocky Nunap Pass, the safest point of egress through the mountains for thousands of miles. Once home to a sept of House Chahjdow, it was razed in the years after the Great Hyperspace War by House Krûkush, who tore the sept's greatest work - The Lapis Gate, brick by brick from its city gates.
Ur-Nurut
A city of great significance to the Sith of House Âdzâd. Not only is Ur-Nurut one of the oldest-inhabited cities on Korriban, it is also the birthplace of El-Saqir; Korriban's greatest King (better known as King Adas). Its importance is such that its inhabitants have fought ferociously to ensure that their great king's home holds the singular distinction of going entirely unconquered or occupied by any foe during millennia of civil war.
Gu'gwh
Better known to the galaxy's historians and architects as Golg - the city from which the Valley takes its namesake from. Founded after the catastrophic destruction of the ancient city Anu, Gu'gwh is thought by many to be a mirrored sibling to the City of the Dead, and a key location of religious significance for the Sith.
Adu
Older than even Golg, Adu was once a Neolithic site of polished basalt and obsidian. Home to countless numbers of catacombs, the so-called City of the Dead was buried and war-battered long before the Rakata shattered its structure. It holds deeper religious significance to practitioners of pre-Imperial religions.
Ka-N'set
As with many former great cities, Ka-N'set, or Kaniset was utterly destroyed during the brief, but cataclysmic war with the Infinite Empire. Once a major population center, its ruined towers and shattered ziggurats lay as a silent testament to the Sith's Golden Age, and the then-unstoppable might of the Infinite Empire.
Va-Adin
Like Kaniset, Va-Adin, or Vardin was a sprawling city, and symbol of the Sith Empire's wealth. In ages long since past, Vardin was host to spectacular tropical gardens. The lush oases and sprawling sandstone skylines were ground down to sand after the Rakata fused it into glass, leaving only the foundations, and vengeful spirits behind.
Dreshdae
The capital city of the Esstran Region, and on-off capital of Korriban itself, Dreshdae has been built and rebuilt countless times. Little more than ruins stacked upon ruins, careless offworld settlers have buried untold amounts of history under their architecture, much to the chagrin of Sith archaeologists. It fell upon the Obsidian Union to gently coerce Zsinj to strip away the layers to unearth their Order's history. The original fortress which the city of Dreshdae surrounded was laboriously rebuilt into the Hermitage, an Obsidian Union settlement, not far from the Valley of Dark Lords.
Mhu'Dinjr
Dubbed The City of Slaves, Mhu'Dinjr is poor, dirty and filled with the dregs of Sith society. The city is old, with most buildings constructed from the battered, self-repairing remains of Rakatan starships. While most cities on Korriban have a clear distinction between caste living, Mhu'Dinjr has only one caste; the Grotthu, and one mentality; survival, at any cost.
The Tjsis
The Tjsis "lit. The Beings", are the native species hailing from the world of Moraband, known in those days as Korriban, Kh'mor-Âdan, Horu-ia, and Pe Kesh-Hagam. Violent and warlike, the Tjsis were once numerous, and spread across Korriban. Long-lived and red-skinned, the Tjsis are a humanoid species strong with the Force - particularly the Dark Side. Tjsis culture was remarkably-sophisticated in spite of the species' relatively-primitive existence. Arranged into tight-knit groups, Tjsis society was a rigid caste-based meritocracy. While outwardly, their practice of ritual sacrifice and civil war seemed barbaric, the Tjsis viewed combat as a basic tennents for life, testing not only one's might, but one's mettle, ensuring only the most intelligent, strongest warriors could emerge from battle while sacrifice held deeper religious meaning than it appeared. Any Tjsis who did not, or indeed could not contribute to their society in a meaningful way were sacrificed to appease their many gods. Sick and infirm were also likewise offered as sacrifice to their death god Saqir in a ritualistic end of life ceremony to allow them passage into the next world, which they called N'wâryâ.
Korriban was isolated from the galaxy at large, hidden with its neighboring systems in a dense, nebulous region of space called the Caldera. Nigh-impossible to navigate through, and harder still to escape from, the few aliens species in sleeper ships unfortunate enough to drift into this region found themselves either trapped on Korriban at best, or either starved on its uninhabited neighbors, or became lost forever in the nebula. These aliens integrated into the Tjsis species as slaves, dubbed "Grotthu", with many of the Basic-speaking races dubbing their overlords "Sith" in kind - a non-literal translation of Tjsis into Basic. It was from this point on, that the Tjsis became multi-lingual, adopting Basic as a commoner's language, and as a means to better understand their new slaves.
Through centuries of war, the Sith came to worship many warriors as demigods, heroes and even came under the rule of Kings, though throughout this long and bloody history, they never truly unified as a species - until the birth of El-Saqir. Born into the noble clade of Âdzâd, the child displayed stark black skin, a particularly-unusual trait for a Sith. Indeed, his people came to revere him, proclaiming the young Âdzâd the incarnation of their Death God, Saqir the Black, whom the child was thusly named after. Saqir proved himself a fiercely-intelligent and powerful individual, mastering many of the Sith's mystic arts and alchemical practices. In time, Saqir took up arms against his own people, crushing countless would-be warlords and shamans, bringing for the first time in their history, the Sith under one rule, and one banner - his own. Declared the immortal Sith'ari or "Overlord", Saqir was both beloved and feared by his people, and lived for many hundreds of years as their King.
One race of aliens however, braved the perils of the Caldera intentionally - seeking to enslave intelligent species for their mighty Infinite Empire. These invaders were known as the Rakata, and proved just as war-like as the Sith they sought to conquer. One of the Rakatan generals, a Predor called Tsao'kai, entered the Caldera with a dozen ships, seeking glory and rich conquest. At first they appeared to be benevolent, teaching the Sith how to construct Rakatan devices, such as holocrons, and Forcesabers, though King Saqir remained wary of their intent. As the Rakata grew impatient and bolder, so too did Âdzâd grow suspicious. When Tsao'kai made his intentions abundantly clear, the invaders brought their technological might down upon the Sith. Expecting a swift and decisive victory, the Rakata were quick to realize that the Sith were more than prepared for them, unleashing a ferocity and penchant for violence unlike anything they had seen before. The Sith commanded powers utterly unknown to the Rakata; spreading great miasma of death, commanding vast, ghostly armies, and even turned the Rakata's own dead upon them. With each battle, the Rakata lost ground, while the Sith only grew in strength and numbers. It became clear that in spite of their primitive technology, the strange power of King Âdzâd and his people was too great for even the Rakata to overcome, and thus they razed many of Korriban's great cities in a bid to cull their enemy, turning vast swathes of green into arid desert in the process. Âdzâd and his people defied these odds, beating back the would-be conquerors, and eventually chased them off-world. Yet this was not enough. Emboldened by their victory, and stoking the desire to dominate, Âdzâd, leading his armies, seized Rakatan ships, and pursued the aliens to other worlds such as Ziost and Malachor. In the final battle that saw the Rakata driven out of the Caldera fully, Âdzâd was betrayed by Yshaar Kael, who defected to the Rakata, feeding intelligence to the Rakata warrior, Sub-Predor Soa'let, who unleashed his army of assassins - The Infernal Council upon El-Saqir. While the Infernal Council were able to finally kill El-Saqir, their victory came at a catastrophic cost to the Rakata, who suffered a near-total decimation of their forces. Fleeing the Caldera, both Soa'let and Tsao'kai were imprisoned by their superiors, and stricken from historical records. In his death throes, El-Saqir was said to have personally turned a hundred thousand warriors to ash. Returned and interred in Korriban, the mighty King was dead, and his many children began squabbling over his throne. The Sith fractured, and once again returned to war, though now armed with the advanced technology of their would-be conquerors.
For countless thousands of years, the Sith would enter into long periods of sustained civil war, broken only by brief moments of tenuous peace, and sporadic rule under many monarchs, including Âdzâd's descendants. Korriban was once again unified by Ka-Dagatt Rhûsh, a bloodthirsty conqueror, who named himself the undisputed King of the Sith. Dagatt sat on the Sith Throne for a mere fifty years, until his rivals orchestrated both his demise, and the ascension of his grandson, Ha-Kurga. Before the Sith nobility could utilize their puppet, an alien starship crashed on Korriban, carrying with it exiled members of the Jedi Order. Cast out for their part in the Hundred-Year Darkness, these Dark Jedi had been thrown into the Outer Rim by the victorious Jedi Knights, whereupon they discovered the natives of Korriban. Aweing Ha-Kurga with their power in the Force, many Sith believed these alien newcomers were their gods in the flesh, while others attempted to sway them to their service with Sith magic. Ultimately, the Dark Jedi subjugated the Sith, and integrated themselves into Sith society as a new social caste; the Jen'ari, or Dark Lords, the first of whom was Ajunta Pall.
Though the Sith and Human/Near-Human Jedi were not capable of producing offspring, alchemist Sozus Syn discovered the genetic structure of the Sith's warrior caste - the Massassi, was amazingly malleable, enough so that with manipulation through Sith Alchemy, Massassi and Humans could produce children. The resulting hybrids produced an entirely new race of Sith called Kissai, who stood above the Massassi as their newly-formed priest caste. In time, Syn's experimentation with the Sith sub-races spawned the engineering caste derived from the Kissai and non-Human species - The Zuguruk, and a more dimorphic Grotthu. The Kissai would later branch off into a Near-Human race of Sith later dubbed 'Purebloods', closet to human stock than their Tjsis ancestors. Many Sith Lords rose to prominence in the generations after Pall and the Exiles, as did a mighty Sith Empire that spanned a dozen worlds. Many new species were taken as slaves, and many planets more subjugated by the Sith Lords. Eventually, a half-blood Sith of Clan Rakuos was born, of unrivalled strength. In any other circumstance, half-breed Sith were often shunned, but this child bore the black skin, like El-Saqir. Named Mja-Ak'nah, the young Sith rose to power, in absolute dominion over the Sith. Revered and beloved, Rakuos ushered in a Golden Age of the Sith Empire, where even the lowliest of slaves shared in wealth and prosperity. Ruling for over a century, Rakuos' untimely death left a great power vacuum in the Sith hierarchy. At first, Rakuos' apprentice Tdji'nah-Bei Drûmit was put forward as a likely candidate, though Drûmit had wisely withdrawn from the Sith political strata, and resigned himself to ruling his homeworld of Medriaas, which he renamed Nathema. Two bold contenders stepped in to fill the void, the Kissai Nah'w-Aga Chahjdow, and the Massassi Urd'jo Krûkush. Both fierce rivals, Chahjdow saw the peaceful Golden Age as an age of unearned decadence and apathy, weakening the Sith as a whole, and sought to replace it with an age of conquest and domination over the Exile's age-old enemies; The Jedi and the Republic. Krûkush staunchly opposed his rival's expansionist dreams and cautioned the Ruling Houses against such a move. While Krûkush shared the end goal of the Empire's galaxy-spanning dominion, he was more cautious than Aga, seeking to build Imperial strength up over time, and overwhelm their enemies.
As fate would have it, two hyperspace explorers lost in the Caldera crashed on Korriban. Natives of the Republic Core World of Cinnagar, Gav and Jori Daragon emerged seeking trade with the native Sith, though were shocked to find humans and many aliens living among them. Taken as prisoners, Chahjdow claimed the pair to be spies from the Republic, murdering his mentor Sima in a bid to frame the brother and sister. While Urd'jo decried Aga's deeds, claiming his ideals would fracture the Sith Empire, Chahjdow preyed upon the descendants of the Exile's fears of the Jedi, manipulating the Dark Council into naming him Dark Lord. Marching to war, the Sith Empire laid waste to outlying Republic systems. Jori Daragon, managing to return to Republic space, warned the Jedi and Senate of impending invasion. When the Sith Empire arrived in the Core Worlds, the Republic Navy was waiting. Though Aga conjured up illusory armies with his strength in the force, Krûkush sought to mitigate the damage done to the Empire; by killing Chahjdow, and sue for peace with the Republic. Unfortunately, Aga unleashed the might of his fleet on the would-be savior of the Sith, killing him in a three-way firefight between the two rivals, and the Republic, splintering the already-vulnerable Sith fleet. Realizing he was outmatched Chahjdow fled from known space, settling with his Massassi army on the fourth moon of the gas giant Yavin.
The Republic meanwhile, charged forth to Korriban, laying waste to the remains of the Sith armada, and every Imperial stronghold in the Caldera. While the Sith threat had been ended, and all but a handful of their leaders dead, the Supreme Chancellor called for what many would come to view even in modernity as an act of genocide. Though the Sith had been neutralized, and posed no further threat, rather than occupy the Caldera, the Chancellor ordered one last crusade against the Sith. The Republic and Jedi Order were sent to Sith worlds to exterminate the Imperial remnants, almost wiping the original Tjsis species out. While pockets survived on Korriban and other worlds in isolation, the species started a long decline, fighting over scraps when the Republic departed, satisfied they had destroyed the Sith. In secret, the Lord of Medriaas, Tdji'nah-Bei Drûmit summoned seventy of the remaining Sith Lords to his world. Desperate for leadership, the former apprentice of Rakuos gave them purpose, only to turn on them and devour their very essence in a cruel ritual that saw Medriaas wiped clean of life. Shedding his identity, Tdji'nah named himself Vitiate, and set about rounding up any who would follow him, stoking the fear that the Republic would one day return to finish them off. Though the majority of the surviving Sith either refused to emerge, or follow Vitiate, thousands of Sith Purebloods flocked to his side in fear, and fled with him to find the ancient Sith stronghold of Dromund Kaas, which had been lost in the Caldera for centuries. Reforming the Sith Empire on the old fortress world, Vitiate prepared for a thousand years, living beyond death in many bodies. Vitiate's new Sith Empire would wage war with the Republic for decades. Living a dual-life, Vitiate split his consciousness into many bodies, with one in particular controlling Valkorion; a human warrior, and later Immortal Emperor of the planet Zakuul. Though Tdji'nah would die a final death, his Empire endured for years to come, until it was dissolved and integrated into the Republic with his second society in Zakuul learning to live without Valkorion. Once again, Korriban was forgotten, leading to new Sith - the survivors of Vitiate's Empire to rise, as the Brotherhood of Darkness. These Sith would continue to fight their ancient enemy, until at last, it seemed the Sith were destroyed at the hand of a Sith named Bane, who deluded his allies into committing a ritual suicide that also destroyed the Jedi Order's Army of Light.
Though Bane would establish a new Sith paradigm, the species were believed extinct. Only pockets of civillization remained in the Caldera worlds. The Tjsis would never make a grand resurgence again. What little remained of their society fell back onto old customs and practices, with the few true-blooded Tjsis subjugating the Purebloods underneath them. Many efforts were made to breed out the Purebloods, though they remained a majority, thus resulting in the decline of many of the ancient bloodlines, who later died out. To date, only sixteen of the major families and their septs survived, with many more commonborn clans, and clanless living in the wilds of Korriban and beyond.
The Twelve Houses & Sixteen High Clans
As their title suggests, the Twelve Houses are a collection of ancient noble bloodlines of the Tjsis. Where once their authority was absolute, it was supplanted by the Dark Council, and later by the Moff Council. In modernity, the Twelve Houses make up twelve of the sixteen surviving nobility, the so-called 'purest' of Sith houses. The terms "House" and "Clan" are often used interchangeably, with little to no distinction given to vassal houses/clans or septs (e.g House Nûrut, a vassal of House Âdzâd)
The Twelve
House Âdzâd (Adas)
House Kj'âlig (Kallig)
House Chahjdow (Sadow)
House Krûkush (Kressh)
House Rakuos (Ragnos)
House Rhûsh (Graush)
House Het (Hekk)
House Sarûs (Sarash)
House Mjol (Mul)
House Drûmit (Dramath)
House Mjor (Mul)
House Rhut (Rath)
The Low Nobles
House Sek (Sek)
House Alut (Althe)
House Krût (Krev)
House Iab'aras (Abaron)