Phasasites War

The First Sith Civil War, also known as the Phasasites War, was a conflict that took place in the territories of the Decreton Empire, in the Unknown Regions, during the Old Republic era.

Origins
The origins of the conflict stemmed from the rise of a small paramilitary organization known as the Phasasites, just five years earlier when their leader, Ater Phasas'a, a Sith Lord in the Sith Order of Decreto became disaffected with the Dark Lord Sam Sinays' reign.

At first, Ater Phasas'a movement was small and unnoticeable, hardly drawing the attention of the Dark Lord. It was dealt with mainly by the regional, and sometimes planetary Governors as a sort of Trade Union. Nonetheless, Sam Sinays somewhat disastrous reign continued to fuel the rise of the Phasasites. But this was quickly thrown into disarray with Sam Sinays' discovery of Devastator in 3,943 BBY.

Discovery of Devastator
Following Sinays' discovery of Devastator on, many in the Phasasites movement returned to Sam Sinays fold, fearing repercussions if they did not. But Ater Phasas'a remained steadfast, and set about securing the assistance of several power hungry Sith Lords.

The movement went from strength to strength, with the Phasasites numbers growing on a daily basis. Soon, thousands of citizens form the backwater worlds of the empire had declared their allegiance to Ater Phasas'a, and this began to affect the economies of their homeworlds; effectively choking the planets of badly needed supplies. However even this failed to draw the personal attention of the Dark Lord.

In the next few years, as Sam Sinays powerbase began to return to its original size, Ater Phasas'a organized several small resistance cells began on various planets across the empire. These small and unorganized groups periodically raided Sith installations, but never on a massive scale. As these early resistance cells became known to others unaffiliated with Phasas'a, they began to unite under Phasas'a's banner.

Then, in 3,940 BBY, Sam Sinays committed an atrocious act that sickened many of the honor-based Sith Lords of his empire; the Logi Xenocide.

Logi Xenocide
When Sith warships under the command of Jandi Ban opened fire upon the Logi at the Festival of Light many in the Sith Empire began to believe that Sam Sinays had been consumed by a need to destroy. Many influential officers whose service records stretched back to the beginning of Sam Sinays reign, like Armanas Strasbourg, resigned or retired from Sith service.

Ater Phasas'a, learning of the retirement of Armanas Strasbourg, saw his luck changing and confronted the ageing Sith Lord. Armanas Strasbourg, although aware of Phasas'a's movement, saw their was still much to be done if Ater's dream of removing Sam Sinays from power was to be achieved, and withheld his support. So Ater played to his natural Sith wantings for power, and offered him command of the entire Phasasites fleet. Armanas agreed, and the Phasasites movement gained its first Sith Admiral.

Evance and Taral
With the allegiance of Armanas Strasbourg, Ater Phasas'a set about securing control over his home sector and ordered his fleet to the planet Teca. Upon his arrival, Ater Phasas'a ordered the Sith garrison on the world surrender. The garrison refused, but they had not been the only ones to hear Atar Phasas'a's transmission. The population of Teca, fearing another "Logi Xenocide" and strongly supporting their "homegrown" hero, overthrew the garrison and cleared the way for Ater Phasas'a's fleet to conquer the planet.

With Teca under his control, Ater set about forming a government, so that Teca would be in safe hands while he was away. The Phasas Council was made up of five regional Governors that had supported his rebellion, and was given total authority over the planet. Within a week of his arrival on Teca, Ater Phasas'a and Armanas Strasbourg had left Teca for the rich planet of Tasipar. On their way to Tasipar, Armanas' flagship was singalled by a small fleet of Sith warships. Both Armanas and Ater were suspicious, but agreed to meet with the commander of the fleet, and Sith Lord by the name of Evance.

Meeting with Evance aboard his flagship, Evance told the two Phasasites of his disgust at Jandi Ban's attack on Logi and that he and his fleet had left Sam Sinays' empire. Evance then requested that his fleet be allowed to accompany Armanas' to Tasipar.

Upon their arrival at Tasipar, the fleet were contacted via a transmission from the Taral estate. Contacting them was none other than Taral himself, Master of the House of Taral. Taral demanded to know why Ater Phasas'a had brough his rebellion onto the steps of Tasipar and threatened them with destruction if they did not answer. Evance and Armanas both knew that Taral was highly repected amongst the Sith Lords of the Sith Order of Decreto, and for just reason. Taral had fought alongside Sam Sinays during the War of Twelve Heirs, and had been the reason for Sinays' victory.

At first, Ater Phasas'a disregarded Taral's threats, but when the fleet of the Taralian Guard appeared from behind Tasipar's third moon, he quickly realized the strength behind Taral's threat. Ater offered to meet with Taral in person, to discuss his reasons for coming, and was met coldly upon his arrival on the planet. Taral had no reason for betraying Sam Sinays; he had fought alongside him during the War of Twelve Heirs; he had dueled with him for command of the empire at the close of the war, and then he had been given command of his homeworld, and its neighbouring sectors.

Ater Phasas'a knew that Taral respected Sinays, but that his loyalty was to the empire, and not its Dark Lord. He reminded Taral of Sinays recent failures as Dark Lord, and how he had allowed Ater Phasas'a's movement to rise unchallenged. Sam Sinays was worthy of the title of Dark Lord, but no longer. For the good of the empire, he had to be removed. Taral, despite his loyalty to Sinays, knew this to be true. This, coupled with Ater's promise of a mini-empire of his own should he side with them, convinced Taral; and he ordered his Taralian Guard to stand down.

Battle of Tasipar
Two weeks passed before Sam Sinays learnt of the betrayal of Taral, and in that time, Ater Phasas'a had quickly grown in strength in the outer parts of the empire. Teca, Tasipar, Logi and numerous other worlds had declared their allegiance to the Phasasites; the shipyards of Teca and Tasipar, which had been producing warships for Sam Sinays, were now churning out ships for the rebellion. Sam Sinays realized his mistake in not dealing with Ater Phasas'a sooner, but was not prepared to let his empire erupt into civil war.

Sam Sinays ordered his loyal Commander of the Home Fleet, Jandi Ban, to deal with the rebellion on Tasipar, a mission Jandi greatly enjoyed receiving. Jandi's former Master, Armanas Strasbourg was leading the rebel fleet, and was currently based in orbit of Tasipar. Jandi could destroy the rebellion, eliminate his old Master and maybe even overthrow Sam Sinays in one fell swoop.

Jandi's fleet arrived in orbit of Tasipar, but was outnumbered by the combined strengths of Aramanas', Phasas'a's, Evance's and Taral's fleets. Barely surviving, Jandi fled Tasipar, sacrificing his fleet to cover his retreat. The fleet was soon routed and affectively exterminated.

Enraged by the defeat at Tasipar and the retreat of his Commander of the Home Fleet, Sam Sinays decided that he would have to take more drastic action to deal with Ater Phasas'a and his band of rebels. Sam Sinays personally travelled to the planet, where he had arranged to meet the reclusive Sith Lord, Shae.

Battles

 * Logi Xenocide
 * Battle of Teca
 * Battle of Tasipar

Sith Order of Decreto

 * Sam Sinays
 * Jandi Ban
 * Shae

Phasasites

 * Ater Phasas'a
 * Armanas Strasbourg
 * Evance
 * Taral

Behind the scenes

 * Originally a background character the author had no intention on expanding upon, Sam Sinays was created purely to explain Krayt's reason for having a Sith holocron. The author, in his usual way, decided that the time of Sam Sinays and later Ater Phasas'a was unexplored in both fanon and canon. This left the way open for one of his more adventurous storylines.
 * The Sith Lord, Taral, is obviously based upon one of the options for Jacen's Sith name in the contest.