Karzanuowonosa

"For it was in those days that from among the oppressed sons and daughters of Korriban there arose one named Asmenys, he at whose name the Builders gnashed their teeth; yea, he at whose approach they who had lashed the stars to millstones rent their garments..."

- Excerpt from the translation

The Kalvgimtistotazis ( compound word derived from kalvgimti meaning "downfall" and stotazis meaning "" ), generally published in as the Downfall of the Rakata, was a Tsis  that chronicled the exploits of Asmenys, the emancipator of the  of Azarac, in his attempts to lead his fellow slaves against the  during the twilight of the. For its encapsulation of the spirit of the Tsis people, the poem served as the of the Tsis Worlds, with passages frequently recited at official events and in public addresses.

Historical background
The plot of the poem was based around the emancipation of the Red Sith slaves of Azarac and the subsequent expulsion of the of the  from their world. The Force-based Rakata-targeting plague that brought about the end of the Infinite Empire arrived on Azarac in early. Bereft of their, the Rakata under the command of Bala'zar were unable to maintain control over their Sith slaves, who arose in concerted rebellion across the planet. One such prominent revolutionary figure was Asmenys, whose continued battlefield success against the retreating Rakata forces won him much support from his fellow revolutionaries.

His eventual conquest of the Rakata capital city of Sferastotazis, culminating in his defeat of Predor Bala'zar in single combat upon the steps of the Temple of Azarac, won him renown among the Sith, though he succumbed to wounds inflicted on him by the Rakata and fell beside the bodies of his foes. Reduced to a primitive existence due to a sustained of their planet (a common last-ditch tactic employed by the Rakata against rogue worlds ), the Sith of Azarac, thereafter known as the Tsis, continued to revere his sacrifice and considered him the archetype of Sith perfection for millennia after his death.

Narrative
The narrative progression of the story was threefold. The first section chronicled Asmenys' life of captivity during the final days of the Infinite Empire, detailing his life in bondage and his first acts of rebellion. The second concerned the birth and development of his slave rebellion, and the increasingly extensive battles he and his constituents fought against the retreating Rakata forces. The third followed his conquest of the Rakata capital and the defeat of the Predor Bala'zar, ending with Asmenys' noble sacrificial death in victory.

The poem began with the Red Sith uprisings against the Rakata already underway. Asmenys entered the scene as a slave to a cruel master, whom he killed in single combat upon learning of the Rakata's diminished Force-sensitivity. Freeing his fellow Sith slaves from captivity, Asmenys and his new followers struck out on their own, fleeing to a nearby forest from pursuing Rakata authorities.

Over the course of seven major battles against the retreating forces of the Rakata (an arc number selected to mirror the Seven Deaths, the worlds of Azarac's star system), Asmenys was shown to grow as a leader in building a following of his own. As Asmenys' revolution grew, each conflict presented in the text increased in scope and scale, ranging from small skirmishes set in dark, foreboding forests to pitched battles on a massive scale that pit thousands of Sith and Rakata warriors against each other upon the plains of Azarac.

The final section of the poem was set on the streets of Sferastotazis, the Rakata capital city on Azarac, where tragedy struck the Sith attackers. Many of Asmenys' followers and friends were shown to perish in the dense urban fighting, with only a few of his trusted circle able to push through to the Temple of Azarac, Bala'zar's seat of power. The action of the final section culminated in the famous duel to the death between Asmenys and Bala'zar depicted in many facets of Tsis artistry, ending with Asmenys' decapitation of Bala'zar with the latter's own. Though wounded to the death by blows from the Rakata Predor's weapon, Asmenys' victory was secure. The final scene was of Asmenys collapsing in death beside the bodies of his foes as the Rakatan morale shattered in the face of the Sith onslaught.

Background
The poem was one of a number of legends about Asmenys and the emancipation of the Sith that existed in the oral tradition of the Tsis people during their dark ages. Though many epics were composed, recited, and forgotten over the course of their twenty millennia-long dark ages, the story of Asmenys was viewed as an integral part of their shared Tsis heritage. Most regional loremasters held to the same general narrative progression as contemporaries on the other side of the planet.

The particular iteration of the legend that formed the basis for the Kalvgimtistotazis was denoted by Tsis historians as the "Miestikamatas" account, in reference to the minor merchant town where the version was most frequently told. This telling of the myth differed slightly from other contemporary accounts in the nature of its central focus. While most accounts illustrated what historians called the "Asmenys-as-actor" paradigm, wherein the character's deeds were emphasized rather than his often-static personality, the Miestikamatas account instead placed greater emphasis on Asmenys as a relatable individual, often exchanging scenes of conflict and battle seen in other iterations of the story with extended s of a deeply personal nature. Though the standard conflicts and progression of events chronicled in most accounts were present, they were punctuated by Asmenys' introspective musings and personal interactions with fellow revolutionaries and friends which helped to vary the pacing of the work and further emphasize the intensity of the battles that did appear.

In a move that was considered controversial for its time (a fact that its loremaster likely capitalized upon to draw large crowds to his/her recitations), the Miestikamatas account included some sympathetic characterizations of the Rakata antagonists of the story. Though the character of Bala'zar was portrayed in keeping with tradition as a irredeemable personification of evil, some minor Rakata characters were treated as honorable foes and worthy opponents and given Tsis-style "soldiers' deaths" by the Sith rebels.

Style
In keeping with Tsis oral storytelling tradition from the Azarac dark ages, the poem made use of extensive verbosity and grandiloquence in its composition, drawing upon many extended figures of speech to tell even the smallest of details. As the recitation of such epics to a tribe's community was an extended affair often lasting several weeks in the telling, loremasters were expected to wax eloquent in setting each individual scene in detail to accurately depict the events of the era for the listeners. The abundant use of repetition, wherein phrases would be uttered and repeated again with different wording, was a staple of Tsis oral recitation, as it helped reinforce certain important narrative elements in the minds of the listeners.

Behind the scenes
The epic and the details of its composition were based upon the classic epics of ancient Greece, such as the and the, as well as , like 's.