Tsis

The Tsis (self-referential  term for the  species ) were a race of  s descended from  colonists of the planet Azarac. Along with their distant genetic cousins, the, the Tsis represented the last vestiges of the Red Sith species to survive into the  and the.

History
The origins of the species could be traced to the colonists who settled the planet some time after its initial terraformation by the. Having lost their late  to the Infinite Empire's  of their homeworld, many groups of Red Sith fled the planet from the resultant civil war and conflict. Those who sought to settle Azarac were enslaved by the Infinite Empire for millennia before finally breaking free of Rakatan rule and liberating the planet under the banner of their legendary hero Asmenys.

The subsequent Rakatan orbital bombardment destroyed much of the planet's verdant environment and reduced the Red Sith to a primitive state for some twenty millennia, during which time they experienced extreme evolutionary change that radically altered their genetic substructure. Forced to adapt to the harsh conditions of their destroyed world, the surviving Tsis cultivated a strong connection to the Force necessitated by the presence of Force-using creatures like the Metye. Their subsequent expansion out from their home system of the Seven Deaths saw them establish themselves as the regional hegemons of the East Spinward sector and the masters of the Tsis Worlds, and their influence in the region persisted into the era of the.

Biology and appearance
The Tsis were typically classified by as a  of the extinct, though twenty millennia of evolutionary development in isolation had radically altered their generic substructure to the point that some researchers considered them a completely different species of. The only recessive Red Sith traits retained by the species were superficial bone spurs and facial appendages, a preponderance of left-handed individuals, and near-universal. Unlike their generic progenitors, the Tsis possessed heights of roughly, five fingers per hand, and dark, muted red skin tones bordering on charcoal or black.

Culture
The early culture of the Tsis Worlds was profoundly shaped by the two major dark side Force-using species who colonized Azarac, the of the  and the Red Sith of. As a mix of Rakatan and Sith influences, the prevailing culture of the Tsis Worlds was warlike in nature, with a particular emphasis placed upon merit and the importance of strength.

A brutal race unconcerned with honor and not above laying waste to entire worlds for personal gain, the Rakata were the first major culture to establish a presence on Azarac. As the species who discovered it, the Rakata terraformed the planet for their habitation, importing slaves of many different species and levels of sentience to Azarac for experimental purposes. Their culture, which prized ambition, strength, and merit, left its mark on the planet's future society and influenced the cultural evolution of the Red Sith slave population, who were forced to embrace its tenants in pursuit of their continued survival.

Azarac culture was further shaped by the arrival and subsequent enslavement of the Red Sith, former residents of Korriban fleeing the endless conflict on their homeworld. Though, like the Rakatans, the Red Sith were profoundly dark sided with a near-symbiotic relationship with that facet of the Force, they were nowhere near as cruel and brutal as their masters, and still prized qualities like loyalty and sympathy above cunning and ambition. However, millennia of enslavement to the Rakatans influenced the evolution of their culture. As slaves were forced to embrace deception and cunning to circumvent particularly brutal masters, their society became more furtive in nature. The need to prove their strength to their overlords to ensure their continued survival led to the importance of merit and strength in their subculture.

Despite the leaning of the species and cultures of Azarac that preceded them, the Tsis were not a dark side people. As Azarac was a world in possession of a balanced connection to the Force, and since the Tsis had escaped the gradual removal of positive qualities suffered by their Korribani cousins through the 's application of Sith alchemy, the Tsis were a relatively neutral people, neither particularly dark sided nor particularly light.

Despite placing due importance on strength, merit, power, cunning, and ambition as a result of their predecessors' cultural values, the Tsis also embraced certain light sided qualities. Tsis cultural expectations dictated that Tsis engage with one another in an honorable fashion, respecting those who embraced fair play and ostracizing those who used others for simple personal gain or self-aggrandizement. While the pursuit of the ancient Sith concept of perfection-through-strength, the Sith'ari, was still encouraged, it was tempered by an increased emphasis on honorable conduct in one's dealings. A popular Tsis saying encapsulated this aspect of their society: "power without consideration of morality is a weakness."

The Tsis embraced a feudal system of government that required loyalty of its subjects and accountability of its rulers. Though subjects were expected to show devotion and respect for their leaders, they were also encouraged to rise up and replace them if they believed them too weak and incapable of representing the interests of the people. Consistent with the Sith'ari concept, the Tsis believed only the strongest had the right to rule and thus encouraged ambition and rivalry, but differed from the Sith in terms of the nature of the resultant responsibility. Unlike the Sith, the Tsis expected their rulers to view their power and position as a burden and sacred responsibility, not as a means of exerting one's will upon one's constituents. Rulers were expected to represent the living will of the people and act in such a way as to advance their interests as a collective whole.

Technology
Due to millennia of isolation from greater galactic society on an arid world, the Tsis' technological capabilities were limited to what they could salvage from the Rakatan ruins and wreckage that littered the planet's surface.

Bereft of access to the ancient Rakatan dataframes and servers, the Tsis relied upon libraries of primitive s to preserve the histories, teachings, and lore of their ancestors. Distinguished tribal storytellers, bards, and lorekeepers were occasionally invited to join one of several sacred enclaves dedicated to the preservation of the Tsis heritage and legacy. In such precincts, vast libraries of spellbooks and tomes were collected and maintained.

Tsis warriors armed themselves with crudely constructed s and s, relying on to telepathically guide a bullet's trajectory to their intended targets. As a result, the Tsis were expert distance marksmen, laying waste to parties of outsider explorers and looters armed with sufficiently more advanced weaponry. Tsis inter-tribal conflicts were extensive, quiet affairs conducted by concealed marksmen over miles of terrain. Warriors relied upon their Force-sensitivity to guess at the locations of their enemies, stalking their foes for days in the hopes of lining up the perfect shot. Wars could last for years, with little contact between rival tribes apart from the occasional potshot by Tsis stalkers.

In personal one-on-one combat, a mainstay sport of their martial culture, the Tsis relied upon salvaged culled from ancient Rakatan temple ruins and tombs. Such weapons were highly prized by the Tsis, and due to their rarity, were generally owned by the tribe and lent to duelists on a temporary basis.

Language
The Tsis spoke and wrote in a bastardized dialect of called Tsiskhutrai (literally "Sith language" ). Though the language's essential was primarily Old Sith in origin, Tsiskhutrai eventually came to incorporate a significant percentage of words and idioms derived from the True Sith Empire's dialect of, in addition to cognates of  and  origin.

The grammar and syntax of the language was relatively complex in nature. Though Old Sith was notable for its multiplicity of conjugations, declensions, genders, and forms, Tsisakhutrai was considerably more difficult, with most individual words possessing conjugations/declensions unique to themselves and used nowhere else in the language. As a result of this inherent complexity, outsider scholars and academics seeking to communicate with the Tsis had difficulty learning the language. However, the few Tsis who dared to venture out the Tsis Worlds had little difficulty learning languages like and, often expressing amazement at the perceived regularity and consistency of these languages' grammars.

Behind the scenes
The Tsis were an evolution upon the author's original species, the Acroyali of Acrolis. The "nerfing" of his previous fanon necessitated the creation of a more fleshed-out species with deeper links to species previously represented in the Legends continuity. As the author was on a  binge during the initial rewriting/rethinking process, the Red Sith of Korriban were chosen as the progenitors of the species, with the Chiss being a close second.