User:Sebolto/drafts

References to Original Acrolis in Azarac Acrolis & Mure Acrolis:
 * Mure Acrolis' Kwa-era 14 island continent config -> Original Acrolis' 14 islands
 * Force-sensitive xenophobic jet black skinned, red-eyed Black Sith -> reference to Acroyali
 * Mure Acrolis' Sith city-states -> Direct reference to Original Acrolis' Greek city-state influences
 * 7,517 km diameter -> Original Acrolis' "moon-sized planet" description
 * Simultaneous accretion of Mure Acrolis & Magma Lunar -> Original Acrolis mutual origin theory
 * Asteroid-heavy Five Deaths & hidden asteroid bases -> Unnamed Original Acrolis system
 * Original Acrolis' "Acrolian cat" -> Metye
 * Original Acrolis' Mandalorian population -> Mure Acrolis' Clan Ziratae (add more, see below)
 * Acroyali's love for architecture/art -> EU explanation provided by ancestry of Black Sith (add more about Naboo style)
 * language -> Original Acrolis' lanacro
 * Original Acrolis use of Rakata tech -> Use of Rakata tech in Mure Acrolis
 * Rakata orbital bombardment references -> Original Acrolis Scourge of Acrolis (reuse name in new context?)
 * Mure Acrolis outsider sponsorship system -> Original Acrolis sponsorship system

To do:
 * Expand Mandalorian influence to better mirror Original Acrolis (incorporate s?)
 * Discuss shift from Neo-Rakata to Naboo architectural paradigms per Original Acrolis
 * Discuss formation of Acrolian Star Empire (modify Ziaurus material accordingly)
 * Add &  references per Original Acrolis account (Clone underground railroad, AcroHunter bombers, etc.)
 * Acrolians believe -like jet black skin is significant vs. True Sith mongrels (Berniukadasiv -> "Children of Adas")
 * Discuss sacred city-state wars (incorporate Greek influenced formations and use of Rakata  pikes in combat)
 * Revise documentation pertaining to revision iterations
 * Add "Languages" & "Law enforcement" subsections to "Inhabitants" section
 * Per above, page for Acrolian National Guard?
 * Restore, , &  deleted pages

"specifications match those of three other space stations known by history. Each of these legendary stations could manufacture technology on a massive scale. xenoformed planets; built fleets of ships..."

- to

Acrolis, derived from the akrosptolis meaning "summit citadel," was a  and the sole  of the Five Deaths system, a barren and lifeless system that sat suspended in the  above the  at a distance of 15,000 s. A terrestrial world steeped in the , Acrolis was settled by a number of  species over the course of its history, including the s, ,  and.

Acrolis orbited the North Star, an  that had at one point been a member of a  in the. A close encounter with the Galactic Center devoured its larger sibling and sent the star careening off into the Intergalactic Void at an angle perpendicular to the galactic plane. The s were the first to visit Acrolis in their attempts to slightly adjust the North Star's positioning to lie directly over Galactic Center. Though the planet's core was believed to have naturally in its system's, the Celestials were responsible for shaping the planet's outer surface in a manner similar to that used on the.

However, Acrolis was first properly settled by the Kwa, a Celestial client species who established a colony on the world due to its status as a potent. Dangers posed by the system's high levels of and multiplicity of free-floating asteroids necessitated the construction of the Celestial Gates by the Celestials. This world-encompassing took the form of a hollow  frame equipped with powerful  and  capable of resisting radiation and disintegrating asteroids.

The Celestials returned to Acrolis during the. The world's proximity to the Mortis Line, a wall of hyperspace turbulence barriers erected west of the to keep out the , made the planet a strategic defensive stronghold and forward observational position. Acrolis was one of the last Celestial s along the Mortis Line to successfully keep the Rakata contained in the western. Its fall to the Rakata after several successive failed assaults marked the war's turning point in favor of the Infinite Empire, allowing the Rakata to circumvent the Mortis Line and spread unmolested into the eastern galaxy.

The Rakata took possession of the Gates and razed the surface of Acrolis via an extended, purging it of the Kwa and their burgeoning civilization. The Empire subsequently terraformed Acrolis from a barren rock to a verdant paradise via the joint application of the and, a pair of orbital platforms considered to be among the wonders of the Rakatan civilization. As a monument to their victory, the former Celestial fortress world's landmasses and continents were deliberately constructed to closely resemble those of the Rakata homeworld of.

The Five Deaths became an important crossroads in the Empire, serving as a waystation for s carrying soldiers east to contested Celestial worlds and tribute west to Lehon. By travelling over the Mortis Line to Acrolis and slingshotting back down to the galactic plane, the Rakata were able to descend upon their enemies from above rather than seek passage at the north and south extremities of the galaxy. However, the, a last ditch Celestial tactic introduced during the war's final days, cut Acrolis off from the galaxy and rendered it nearly unreachable. Its importance to the Empire waned considerably, though it took on a renewed role in the Empire as a and  of Imperial secrets due to its remote and heavily protected location.

Several centuries after the failed Rakatan and death of the   , the planet came to host a large number of Red Sith slaves of the  caste taken from conquered Sith colony worlds. These slaves, whose caste was known for its artistry and engineering prowess, were commissioned to oversee the construction of subterranean vaults and facilities capable of preserving Rakata knowledge. With the fall of the Infinite Empire, these Sith turned on their masters and drove them from the planet, but not before suffering an orbital bombardment from the retreating Rakatan fleet that devastated their numbers.

Evolving into a distinct subspecies called the Black Sith over a period of twelve thousand years in isolation, the Zuguruk residents of Acrolis eventually established a spacefaring society and colonized the system. Armed with ancient Rakatan technology and empowered by, the Black Sith resisted the outside influences of a number of successive governments, including the and. Their policy of, remote and heavily protected location, and history of successfully resisting foreign invasion eventually empowered them to establish a banking empire catering to the galaxy's criminal elite, persisting long into the.

Core
Acrolis was a small  with a chemical composition unique to terrestrial worlds. Despite its small size, the planet possessed the of a standard sized terrestrial planet due to the density and chemical makeup of its. Unlike most terrestrial worlds, which usually possessed metallic cores primarily composed of  with trace amounts of  and, Acrolis possessed an  that included above-average percentages of denser metals like , , , and  that contributed to a higher density and associated higher surface gravity. Acrolis' was composed primarily of,  iron with small percentages of the aforementioned dense metals. The electric convection currents produced by this layer were responsible for generating the planet's and.

Mantle and crust
Sitting atop the core, Acrolis' mantle was primarily composed of high content  rocks rich in, and its  consisted of dense - rocks like  with a mean thickness of 1,500. Roughly 11% of the crust rock content was composed of, a rare black substance that was likely imported or created by the Celestial architects who constructed the planet. In the lowest levels of the crust, the planet possessed an extensive subterranean ocean of water kept in a liquid state by both heat emanating from the mantle and planetary produced by s in the mantle. In this ocean,, including a population, were observed. These two factors were responsible for the planet's high Force-sensitivity and made transit to the system via Rakatan Force-powered hyperdrive technology possible. . The relocated much of this water content above ground during their own  of the planet, filling the former ocean's cave system with both extensive subterranean facilities.



The Rakatans saw the world as a suitable test subject for the recently completed and, a pair of platforms of the same caliber as the  and. Transformed from a barren, dusty rock to a verdant paradise, Acrolis hosted a vibrant, lush ecosystem and -rich atmosphere suitable for habitation. Its landmasses and continents were intentionally constructed to resemble those of the Rakata homeworld of and provided later researchers with a reasonably accurate depiction of how Imperial-era Lehon looked prior to the.

Native fauna and flora
With the end of the, the Rakata established several military science colonies on the planet surface. These colonies focused on the development and testing of advanced s for use in pacifying the populations of conquered worlds in the eastern galaxy. The Rakata released several of these species into the Acrolian wild during the War for Liberation in the hopes that these would aid in quelling the Red Sith slave rebels.

Metye
The Metye was a    species developed by the Rakata as a biological weapon capable of hunting through the Force. Though capable of running at high speeds, these nocturnal creatures were natural. Hidden in the treetops of Acrolis' dark forests and jungles, these hunters were observed by their Rakata handlers to follow prey for hundreds of miles without interruption, waiting for their quarry to tire before pouncing from the tree for the kill.

The Metye were partially responsible for the Black Sith species's evolution into a Force-sensitive species. Non-Force using Sith did not last long in the wild against these hunters, and were thus unable to propagate their own genetic distinctiveness to the greater tribe. Only those Sith capable of using the Force against the Metye were able to survive and reproduce, leading to a predisposition towards Force-sensitivity among the population. As the Black Sith developed a unified industrial society, well-equipped bands of Sith warriors began hunting the Metye to extinction. By, no members of the species remained on Acrolis.

Flower of Lehon
Another Force-using Rakata biological weapon, the Flower of Lehon, was a large that possessed a unique set of abilities that rendered it an ideal hunter in its own right. The Flower could camouflage itself by imitating the appearance of nearby plants, manipulating its cellular substructure to resemble the coloration of its neighbors. It drew unsuspecting prey, non-sentient and sentient alike, into its maw and pincer arms via a mild version of the, a Force-aided siren call that only the strong-minded could successfully resist. Like the Metye, the Flower of Lehon was partially responsible for the development of the Black Sith into a Force-using species. Non-Force using Black Sith were unable to resist its siren calls and were regular prey for these plants.

The Flower became one of Acrolis' chief exports upon its entrance into the. During their isolation, the Black Sith discovered that the plant's poison glands used to incapacitate unwary prey could be applied to the development of everything from neuropoisons to hallucinogenic recreational drugs. The development of such compounds gave birth to a lucrative industry, as such composites were frequently in high demand in the galactic black market. Further, the plant itself was often used as an interrogation tool. Crime lords found that the Force whisperings of multiple plants placed around a restrained prisoner were enough to break even the most strong-minded of individuals.

Formation
Acrolis first from the  of its home system roughly four billion years prior to the. Unlike most terrestrial worlds, its contained high percentages of dense metals like, , , and  in addition to. The scientists who studied the origins of the Five Deaths system posited that the metal-rich nature of Acrolis' composition was due to the chemical consistency of its system's primordial protoplanetary disk.



As the Five Deaths system was originally located at the heart of the prior to its star's expulsion from the galaxy, its disk was rife with metals denser than iron. These were the drifting remnants of a series of e that occurred during a particularly volatile period of in the Core, an event that occurred every half billion years on average. It was believed that Acrolis first accreted in a particularly metal-rich portion of the disk. Because of this, it was not readily able to cultivate higher percentages of lighter elements like, , , and necessary for a conventional terrestrial atmosphere. Such elements had likely been blown far from the nebular cloud from which the protoplanetary disk drew its raw materials by the supernovae winds, thus making them unavailable for use in the accretion process.

Birth of Magna Luna
As was not uncommon for moons, Magna Luna, the sole moon of Acrolis, accreted alongside its larger sibling from the same dense metal-rich. Its inner core was observed to have similar ratios of gold, platinum, and tungsten as Acrolis, evidenced in its above-average gravity that matched that of larger terrestrial worlds.

Originally, the Rakata initially believed that Magna Luna was formed from a between Acrolis and an unknown impactor that resulted in a significant percentage of both worlds' outer crusts being ejected into space. This material coalesced into a planetary ring around the merged planet from which the moon ultimately accreted. However, the close similarities between their mantles' chemical compositions seemed to disprove this theory.

If two terrestrial worlds had impacted and merged to form modern Acrolis while ejecting significant portions of their outer crusts into a debris disc, Magna Luna's composition would have been significant fractions of both. However, the near-perfect similarities between of the Lunar and Acrolian mantles' modal to  ratios (defined as MgO / (MgO + FeO) ) and  ratios (defined as 50Ti/47Ti ) indicated that Magna Luna shared a close chemical profile with Acrolis, suggesting a mutual origin from the same parts of the protoplanetary disk.

Exodus from the Deep Core
Though the modern Five Deaths system possessed only a single star, a bright later known as the North Star, the Rakata believed that the system had previously been a  located close at hand to the, a  that was believed to lurk at the center of the Deep Core. The North Star was believed to have been the smaller sibling of a more massive. At some point during the system's orbit about the Galactic Center, it drifted too far into the gravitational pull of the black hole. Caught in its gravity well, the system began to experience an increased orbital velocity about the black hole, approaching a significant fraction of the. The larger of the two stars was the first to be devoured by the black hole, its stellar mass slowly stripped away by the intense gravitational forces. As the North Star remained gravitationally tethered to its larger sibling, it was unable to escape, and its own stellar mass began to enter the early stages of stellar decay.

As the larger star's last vestiges of matter passed beyond the and were consumed by the black hole, the North Star suddenly found itself untethered from its gravitational anchor. Like a pebble released from a sling, it was flung out of the Deep Core at an angle perpendicular to the galactic plane, becoming a and escaping the gravity well of the supermassive black hole. However, it was unable to achieve necessary to completely shake off the gravitational pull of the greater galaxy. It finally came to a stop some 15,000 s directly above Galactic Center in, making the star one of millions of s that lay outside the plane of the galaxy. The North Star's near perfect positioning directly above the galaxy's center made it a useful navigational tool for the nascent civilizations that arose in the galaxy and earned it its name.

Intergalactic world
The North Star had not made its miraculous escape unaccompanied. The planets of its star system had continued to orbit it during its hasty exit from the Core, though the encounter with the black hole had torn apart the outer worlds and left only their ruined s and s in the form of an extensive asteroid field, thereafter called the Mure. Only Acrolis and Magna Luna emerged largely unscathed. Though they had lost their crusts and mantles to Galactic Center's gravitational pull, their cores remained intact and continued to orbit the North Star at a distance of 3 s. However, Magna Luna's minimal collapsed during this time, possibly due to extended asteroid bombardments.

The system's newfound position above the galactic plane, however, meant the nascent world was subjected to the dangers of at a level greater than that experienced by systems protected by the magnetic fields of the galactic plane. Furthermore, two gigantic spherical bubbles of high energy gamma emission existed to the north and south of the core, with diameters of nearly 25,000 s. Believed to be the magnetized outflow of star formation in the central regions of the Deep Core, these gamma emissions bathed Acrolis and its moon in radiation every second, a fact which made initial colonization efforts difficult.

Discovery
The North Star was long known to the ancient astronomers as a useful navigational index that assisted in completing the specific calculations needed to link their. Extended observations of the star's occasional lapses in luminosity seemed to indicate the present of a planet passing between and the star, though no efforts to visit the system were made by the Kwa to confirm this theory for some time.

Instead, the first galactic civilization to visit the Five Deaths system was that of the s, a race of Force users who ruled the galaxy in its earliest days. A mystic and enigmatic race, the Celestials were known by future generations for their artifacts and their seemingly impossible feats of astroengineering that involved the construction of planets and the moving of star systems. They first came to the Five Deaths system around, intent on enhancing the North Star's usefulness as a navigational aid by shifting its positioning to lie directly over Galactic Center's maw.

Celestial astroengineering project
Encountering Acrolis in its unfinished state, they artificially completed the planet in the ensuing millennia. Acrolis was one of seventeen cataloged planets artificially constructed in part by the Celestials, including the Five Brothers and. Though worlds like were believed to have undergone more intensive construction efforts, Acrolis owed the presence of its outer mantle and crust to Celestial construction efforts.



To complete the accretion process, the Celestials fed Acrolis' gravity well a large supply of -rich rocks to form its molten outer mantle. This layer was covered with a - rock outer crust. The crust's high percentage of and its vast subterranean ocean teeming with  s were believed to have been artificially injected by the Celestials to make the world a potent. The specifics of the planet's landmasses and continent configuration on the surface were lost to history by the time of the Rakata occupation of the planet, though contemporary Kwa records claimed the world was primarily oceanic with fourteen large islands scattered across the surface.

Magna Luna was provided a completed mantle and crust of its own sometime after the successful reconstruction of Acrolis. However, the Celestials had never intended for the moon to host settlements or serve any purpose other than that of a graviational anchor capable of preserving Acrolis' axial tilt. As a result, its magnetosphere was left unrestored, leaving its nascent surface subject to intense radiation-mediated that rendered it uninhabitable.

Kwa settlement
It was unknown to the Rakata and Black Sith researchers whether the Celestials possessed any long term plans to seed Acrolis with a sentient native species of its own. However, the world was initially leased to the, a client species of the Celestials native to  that were known for their use of  technology to traverse and settle the galaxy. Though their numbers on Acrolis were never great due to the world's distance from, the Kwa of Acrolis established a few cities on the world's islands. The only artifact of theirs that persisted into the era of the Rakata was the world's, originally used to store the planet's Infinity Gate but later converted by the Rakata into a palace for the system's s.

Celestial Gates
Within a few generations of settling the planet, the Kwa began to experience extreme rates of caused by, , and  from the North Star. Acrolis' natural magnetic field, though strong in comparison to other terrestrial worlds, was unable to fully block the extreme radiation levels present in the Intergalactic Void. The Kwa petitioned the Celestials for assistance in this matter, claiming that continued exposure would necessitate their colony's removal from the system.

To address these concerns, the Celestials began construction of a large inhabitable space station around Acrolis capable of both protecting the world from radiation and serving as a waystation for ships travelling across the galaxy. Taking the form of a hollow frame, the station, called the Celestial Gates, possessed hundreds of levels arranged in a radial layout to take advantage of Acrolis' natural gravitational pull and Force aura. With a diameter of 9,000, the station was home to vast city complexes capable of housing millions of residents of all known Celestial client species. Its thousands of docking bays allowed for easy unloading and storage of goods from across the galaxy.



To guard against radiation, the Gates employed s capable of resisting cosmic rays that filled the hexagonal and pentagonal gaps in its superstructural frame when activated. Its half-kilometer thick outer, built from metals harvested from the system's asteroid field, was further coated with a   capable of resisting both galactic cosmic radiation and the resultant secondary radiation. The presence of the Kwa on the planet below necessitated the addition of a series of s to disintegrate incoming asteroids capable of destroying Acrolis' ecology.

Rise of the Infinite Empire
In, the of , a Force-using Celestial slave species, threw off Celestial rule and established an empire of their own in the western. Fueled by the and empowered with reverse-engineered Celestial and Kwa technology, the Rakata expanded outward from their homeplanet, seeking to conquer the galaxy and usurp the hegemony of the Celestials. This led to the several thousand year conflict known as the, which ended in the unexplained disappearance of the Celestials and the birth of the galaxy-spanning Rakata.

Early in the war, in an effort to keep the Rakata contained in the Unknown Regions, the Celestials erected a hyperspace barrier immediately west of the Deep Core, extending from the  in the north to the  of  in the south. Comprised of artificial hyperspace anomalies moving at speeds greater than that of light, this barrier, called the Mortis Line, was intended to force the Rakata to funnel their invasion forces through the north and south extremities of the galaxy at specific bottlenecks. This would enable the Celestial forces to confront the Rakata at fortified locations of their own choosing and turn the balance of the war in their favor.

Invasion of Acrolis
As Acrolis and the Five Deaths system sat atop the hyperspace wall and close at hand to the Infinite Empire's eastern borders, the world saw military service as a forward observation post for the Celestials. The Gates, already a convenient defensive structure in its own right, was converted to military use via the implementation of external batteries and improved deflector shields. Its internal facilities were gutted and renovated to house a large contingent of military units composed of Celestial client species from across the galaxy. As the Celestials were well aware of the Force-powered hyperdrives of the Rakata that enabled them to travel between Force-sensitive worlds, the Gates also hosted a large Celestial navy in its docking bays.

The Rakata did not find the Five Deaths system at the war's start. Their initial efforts focused on punching though the Mortis Line itself in search of a route that would allow them to bypass the Celestial-held passages at the galactic north and south. In, a Rakata scout ship probing the Mortis Line stumbled upon the Five Deaths, led to the system by a. Its above-average connection to the Force made it the perfect target for the Force-powered hyperdrive technology of the Rakata. Its position above the galactic plane allowed the Rakata to bypass the Celestials' turbulence barricades entirely by traveling above the galaxy to Acrolis before descending back down into the east. As it appeared to the Rakata to be an ideal  for incursions into the eastern galaxy, the Rakata made a concerted effort to take the system.



The Rakata attempted a series of consecutive sieges of Acrolis and the Five Deaths. The system's increased importance to the Celestials' policy of containment necessitated the stationing of a large Celestial army of Kwa,, and forces on Acrolis and the Gates. After many unsuccessful attempts, the Rakata were eventually able to take the Gates in despite heavy losses. Faced with the prospect of a costly armed invasion of Acrolis, the Rakata instead reverted to the use of a sustained, a common Imperial tactic, to defeat their enemies. The Rakata razed the planet, wiping away all trace of the Kwa and Celestials' influence and reducing the surface to ash. The only structure spared in this assault was the Acrolian Star Temple, whose pyramidal walls were believed to shield a Kwa Infinity Gate. Though the Kwa destroyed the Gate when a Rakata victory seemed certain, the Temple was preserved and converted into a palace for use by the Rakata Predors.

The conquest of the Five Deaths proved to be a for the Rakata. Though control of the system enabled them to circumvent the Celestial barriers and move unmolested into the rich eastern galaxy, they had lost many ships and soldiers in the preceding sieges. They were forced to consolidate their forces and slow their momentum for several decades, which bought the Celestials and their allies time to regroup and reinforce other fortress worlds in the eastern galaxy. Historians posited that the origins of the, a fleet-producing space station commissioned sometime prior to , lay in the need for a rapidly mass-produced fleet that could replace the losses sustained in the invasion of Acrolis.

North Pass
Acrolis' position made it a strategic crossroads in the nascent Infinite Empire. For long transgalactic journeys, the Rakata discovered that traveling through the empty Intergalactic Void to the Five Deaths system before slingshotting back down to the galactic plane was a safer approach than conventional passages through the galactic plane, where collisions with stars and cosmic debris were common in an era before advanced s. Thus, despite the increased travel times, many Rakata ships bringing troops to the eastern front or carrying slaves and tribute west from conquered worlds passed through the system. This approach came to be called the North Pass and was an important trade route in the days prior to advanced hyperspace navigation technology. It remained the primary transgalactic route of choice for the Rakata until the last days of the Celestial-Rakata War.

Terraformation of Acrolis
The increased importance of the system to the Empire paved the way for its permanent settlement by the Rakata. As a result, the Rakata began experiments in terraformation on the planet around. In an attempt to make the world once again suitable for habitation, the Infinite Empire tested two of its newly constructed on the planet, namely the  and, a pair of orbital platforms considered two of the ancient wonders of the Infinite Empire. Their joint application transformed Acrolis from a barren world to a verdant paradise awash in flora from across the galaxy.

They began with the reconstruction of an atmosphere and outer, with the importation of es and like , , , and  to assist in raising the temperature of the planet. Once global temperatures had reached acceptable levels, the Rakata began the importation of oxygen-producing flora from terrestrial worlds in the Empire, artificially altering the genetic substructure of these plants to make them more conducive to growth in the artificial soil the Empire had designed to cover the surface of the planet.



As a final poke in the Celestials' eye, the landmasses, continents, and oceans of Acrolis were deliberately designed and precisely placed to resemble those of Lehon. The image seen from space of the Celestial Gates superstructure protecting a perfect replica of the Rakata homeworld was intended to serve as a permanent illustration of Rakatan triumph over their former masters. Even into the era of the, that image persisted as a lasting monument to the Infinite Empire, providing xenoecologists and historians with a representation of what Lehon may have looked like prior to its devastation during the.

Planetary growth
The terraformation of Acrolis was completed towards the end of the Celestial-Rakata War. By this time, the Empire had grown in size, encompassing a sizable percentage of the known galaxy and occupying worlds as distant from Lehon as and. As the crossroads of the burgeoning Empire, Acrolis was a nexus of trade, boasting a constant influx of merchant galleys carrying tribute and slaves bound for the capitals of the Empire. The of the system was considered a prestigious appointment for high-ranking Rakata, who grew wealthy and politically influential as a result of their system's strategic positioning. Much of this was translated into the construction of vast palaces, temples, and monuments on Acrolis glorifying their creators' careers.

End of the Celestial-Rakata War
The specific end date of the Celestial-Rakata War was a commonly debated point of contention among historians, though all agreed that the Celestials unexpectedly disappeared at some point without a trace. While some stated The Celestials were last reportedly seen in the galaxy around, most posited that the Celestials remained in the galaxy until at the latest.

In a final act of desperation, the Celestials erected a vast galaxy-encompassing powered by the magnetized outflow of star formation in the Deep Core, nicknamed "the bubble" by. This cage effectively cut off the Five Deaths from the greater galaxy and trapped the Rakata within the confines of the galactic plane by preventing hyperspace travel through the Intergalactic Void. Suddenly unable to make use of their main transgalactic route, the Rakata were forced to trailblaze new hyperspace routes across the galaxy.

Galactic isolation
The speed with which the Celestials had constructed the cage had resulted in gaps in the barrier walls at locations bordering the edge of the galaxy. Near the, , and several other locations in the Unknown Regions, the cage remained incomplete, allowing determined fleets to bypass its hyperspace eddies and enter the Intergalactic Void.

The Rakata discovered several such weak points by 29,500 BBY, allowing them to reconnect with their marooned countrymen in the Five Deaths system. However, the planet's usefulness as a crossroads system and trade nexus faded as a result of its severance from the galaxy. While the system physically sat within a paltry 25,000 light years of Lehon, the Celestial hyperspace cage required that Rakata ships travel to one of several weak points before exiting the galaxy and proceeding to Acrolis. This trip could easily span distances of 120,000 light years, equal in length to the diameter of the galaxy itself, and thus was only rarely made by Rakata ships after the end of the war.

Rakatan redoubt


Though the planet and its system declined in importance as a trade nexus in the ensuing millennia, Acrolis found a renewed purpose as a military installation during the golden age of the Infinite Empire. Its remote and heavily protected location made it an ideal for the storage of sensitive Imperial secrets, technology, and weapons. Deep beneath the verdant surface, a vast network of subterranean bunkers riddled the crust of the planet, containing vaults ceaselessly guarded by s and automated defense systems.

Similarly, Acrolis was one of several Imperial fortress worlds included in Rakatan contingency plans as a defensible  from which the  and his council could govern during a galactic crisis. The world's seat of power, the Acrolian Star Temple, was thus outfitted with the most advanced and s available in the pre-Republic era, allowing the Imperial high command to direct the course of a war from far above the galaxy if necessary. The Gates was further converted and reinforced with additional turbolaser batteries and a large contingent of the Imperial fleet in preparation for a royal occupancy of its planet by the Over-Predor.

The successful terraformation of Acrolis, its varied verdant, and its strong Force connection also made the world a perfect Rakata military science colony. The planet hosted a variety of experiments in created to ensure uncontested Rakata rule on subjugated worlds. These experiments resulted in the creation of predatory flora and fauna like the Flower of Lehon, a Force-using, and the Metye, a Force-enhanced with similar properties as the. The forests and jungles of the planet were rife with the results of such projects, imported to test their effectiveness in an actual habitat before being mass-produced and shipped offworld.

Importation of Red Sith slaves
The Rakata imported a great many slaves to the Seven Deaths to complete the projects necessary for the conversion of Acrolis to a military redoubt. Though the system came to house a varied slave population including representatives of the, , and species, these were mostly confined to the mines of Magna Luna to assist in the extraction of raw materials. The vast majority of the slaves on Acrolis were of origin, specifically the  and  castes.

Though the Red Sith successfully repulsed the  of, they had lost their king  to the Rakata. Without his guiding hand, the Sith descended into chaos and war, with many Sith fleeing Korriban to start anew on other planets in the and the.

Many of these small colonies were handily picked off by the Rakata, their residents killed or enslaved by the Empire. The Sith were viewed as dangerous Force users possessed of arcane powers even the Rakata did not fully understand. They were generally enslaved and used as fuel to power Rakatan Force-powered technology. The were perceived as being little more than useful manual labor. However, the Sith, on the other hand, were viewed more positively by the Rakata, who were impressed with their talent in structural engineering, art, and architecture evidenced in the design complexity of their colonies' temples and tombs.

As a result of their natural abilities, a great many of these Zuguruk Red Sith ended up on Acrolis, overseeing the design, development, and construction of Rakata military projects. Despite their status as slaves, the Zuguruk Sith were treated better than most other slaves in the Empire and enjoyed many freedoms unavailable to other slave species. Instead of engaging in manual labor like their Massassi cousins, these Zuguruk usually served in the capacity of architects, overseers, and foremen, supervising the nonstop development of new Rakata structures and facilities on Acrolis. Zuguruk art produced on Acrolis became a luxury export that lined the pockets of the Predors. Some Zuguruk Sith even rose to high positions in the Empire as the and personal assistants of their Rakata masters.

Rakata Civil War
Over the next two millennia, the Infinite Empire entered a period of decline. Far removed from its glorious period of unchecked conquest and expansion, the Empire had become complacent and bureaucratically bloated. Many upstart Predors from across the realm strove with each other for possession of the 's Imperial throne, a conflict that came to be called the. As their steel grip on their empire began to slip, the Rakata experienced constant regional slave revolts within their holdings to which they were increasingly unable to answer. As such, they resorted to more desperate attempts of maintaining their hegemony, frequently relying on extended orbital bombardments to quell local insurrections.



On Acrolis, more and more Rakata began to abandon the system for Lehon and worlds closer to the safe heart of the Empire. As fewer building projects were commissioned, many slaves were offloaded to other worlds, shipped to the mines of Magna Luna, or simply executed as unneeded surplus. By the time of the Empire's fall in, the planet was occupied by fewer than three billion residents, most of them Red Sith.

A Force-based, Rakata-targeting plague allegedly created by an unknown slave race swept across the Empire in. Suddenly bereft of their Force-sensitivity and unable to use their own Force-powered technology, the Rakata found themselves facing countless concerted slave revolts across the galaxy to which they could not answer. Forced to rely on substandard alternative technology, the Rakata abandoned most of their empire and embraced a policy of, bombarding worlds to dust from orbit and committing the mass genocide of slave species. Most retreated to Lehon, which was soon consumed by civil war as the Rakata strove among themselves for supremacy in the ruins of their empire.

Red Sith revolts
The news of the Empire's inability to counter rebellions did not go unheeded among the Zuguruk, nor did their masters' sudden lack of Force-sensitivity go unnoticed. As the numbers of Rakata settlers on the surface had dwindled over the years, the Predor of the Five Deaths, Bala'zar, soon found himself with a Red Sith insurrection on his hands. Bereft of support from the fracturing Empire, the Rakatans were unable to answer to Sith slave uprisings. United under the banner of a slave-turned-warrior named Asmenys, the Sith revolts became more organized than previous rebellions, coordinating multi-prong attacks on isolated Rakatan outposts and taking no prisoners.

Though he had hoped to ride out the Empire's fall behind Acrolis' impregnable defenses, Bala'zar decided to cut his losses and risk a return to, making preparations for a withdrawal from the planet. As the Rakatans required many Force-sensitive Sith slaves and prisoners to fuel their starships for the duration of the voyage, Bala'zar recalled the planet's remaining garrisons to the Acrolian Temple of the Ancients and consolidated his hold on the Sferastotaziskutiv, the plain upon which the Rakatan capital was built. Systematically putting down the local rebellions, the Rakatans extracted what able-bodied slaves they could, executing those Sith who were too sickly or aged to serve as suitable fuel sources. These slaves were shipped up to the Gates, where the remaining Rakata fleet was docked and undergoing repairs for the journey.

Expulsion from Acrolis
Within weeks, Asmenys and his followers converged on the Sferastotaziskutiv, intent on enacting revenge. Coordinating an extensive nighttime invasion of the Rakatan capital, the Sith carved their way through the city's automated defenses and encircled the Temple itself. Personally fighting his way through the startled defenders, Asmenys engaged the Predor Bala'zar in single combat and slew him and his chief officers upon the steps of the Temple, though not before suffering a mortal wound from the Predor's own. Their morale shattered, the remaining Rakatans scattered in fear from the city and were systematically hunted down by the Sith over the next few weeks. Rather than renew their efforts on the ground, the remaining Rakatans in orbit elected to withdraw from the system and attempt the perilous journey to Lehon with the slaves they had. To prevent the Sith from claiming a victory and in keeping with conventional Rakata military doctrine, several ships of the fleet undocked from the Gates and coordinated an extensive orbital bombardment intended to reduce the planet to the barren rock it once had been.



However, the Sith insurrection had not been solely restricted to the planet. Sith uprisings spread to the Gates and the Rakata ships docked therein. Before long, the slaves held for use as fuel freed themselves and the surplus slaves of other species and ran loose across the station. Though the Rakata were successfully able to destroy a large part of the Sith army encamped on the Sferastotaziskutiv, as well as a handful of other slave population centers around the planet, their skeleton crews were unable to maintain control over their ships and were soon overwhelmed by their Sith fuel sources.

Aftermath
Though the sacrifice of the Sith in orbit had successfully prevented the complete destruction of the planet's ecology, Acrolis had sustained heavy damage during the initial phases of the bombardment. A large portion of the Rakata capital city occupied by the slave rebels had been razed to the ground, along with much of the surrounding plain. Elsewhere on the planet, known rebel outposts and large population centers alike had been specifically targeted, leaving few survivors on the planet. Though some Zuguruk Red Sith tribes had survived to repopulate the planet, the vast majority of the non-Force-using slave population, along with the Massassi clans, went extinct within a few generations of the Empire's expulsion.

Isolation and regression
With the fall of the Empire in 25,200 BBY, Acrolis and the Five Deaths system were forgotten by the greater galaxy. Though the North Star remained a useful navigational aid into the modern era, the recorded weak points in the Celestial hyperspace cage used by the Rakata to travel outside the galaxy were lost, rendering the system unreachable by the rising galactic civilizations of the. For the next twelve millennia, the Red Sith Zuguruk remnant on Acrolis scratched out a living in the forests and jungles of the planet, utterly isolated from outside contact.

Due to the planet's long year, which lasted close to five s on account of the planet's 3 distance from the North Star, the Black Sith were forced to engage in tribe-based ranging practices, just as their ancient Korribani ancestors had in ages past. As winters lasted years, the migratory patterns of the Sith took them around the planet as they moved across continents in search of sustainable regions unaffected by the cold. The Sith frequently interacted with faraway tribes from other continents and developed a shared social structure, language, and culture that extended across the planet. As they had not been a spacefaring species for millennia and had no access to the genome-locked Rakatan technology on the surface, the Sith of Acrolis were left undiscovered for ages.

Evolution of the Black Sith
During this time, their species experienced a significant evolutionary paradigm shift as survivor colonies were forced to adapt to the conditions of their world. Though the species' characteristic bright red skin tone served to camouflage the Sith from predators in the red wastes of Korriban, it stuck out in the black forests, dark jungles, and gray mountains of Acrolis. Mutant survivors with darker, more subdued skin tones survived longer than their bright red skinned cousins and were more likely to disseminate their genetic distinctiveness to the greater population. As a result, the Sith lost their traditional red complexion in favor of a jet-black coloration, which gave rise to their name, the Black Sith. As traversal through treacherous forested terrain became the norm, those few Zuguruk Sith who did not already possess that caste's distinctive five-digited hands found themselves at a disadvantage, leading to a disposition towards five dexterous digits capable of climbing and gripping such terrain with ease.



Acrolis itself evolved significantly over the millennia. Though originally an alignment-neutral Force nexus prior to the Empire's arrival, the countless millennia under the yoke of the Rakata had profoundly affected the world's Force balance. Like Lehon, Acrolis was awash in dark side influence, which affected both its population and its ecology. Millennia of experiments in the creation of Force-using biological weapons had resulted in a native flora and fauna evolved to hunt with the Force. The dark forest treetops were the haunts of the Metye, who preyed upon weak and Force-blind Sith. The forest floors were no safer, as the Force-enhanced Flower of Lehon possessed the ability to alter its cellular substructure to match that of surrounding plantlife. It could exert a subtle over its prey through the Force that only the strong minded could resist. Those Black Sith survivors bereft of Force-sensitivity did not last long against these predators, leading to an evolutionary predisposition towards Force-sensitivity among the surviving clans.

A unified planet
By, the Black Sith's evolutionary development had cemented their hegemony as the apex predator of their world, empowering them to build an industrial civilization of their own. Prevailing Sith culture was a mix of and  which reflected their society's social structure. Though some clans continued to engage in their traditional wandering tribal ways, many groups of Black Sith had consolidated their numbers around certain particularly potent Force nexes at the moderately warm planetary equator, building towns and cities in a Neo-Rakata architectural style that grew into powerful s as more Black Sith settled on the outskirts.

Black Sith culture embraced a modified  system of government that placed heavy influence upon the importance of merit. Each city was generally ruled by a powerful Force user titled grafas (from the grafas literally meaning "count" or duke" ), who possessed a seat on the Qabbrat (derived from the Old Sith qabbrat meaning "meditation chamber" ) and who governed his city-state with absolute authority. However, as merit was important to the Black Sith, the title of grafas frequently changed hands as more qualified and powerful individuals arose to replace the presiding ruler. The collective realm was itself ruled by a Daritha (from daritha meaning "emperor" borrowed directly from ancient  ), who too was subject to the same expectations regarding merit as his vassals. Ruling from the Star Temple, the Daritha exercised absolute control over the Black Sith people, but could be replaced by any powerful grafas on the Qabbrat at any time, provided the contender possessed a significant powerbase.

Unlocking ancient secrets
By, the Black Sith had largely come together as a single panplanetary cultural entity, united by the same societal norms, language, and government. Their civilization had become advanced enough for them to engage in advanced. Extracting samples from preserved Rakata corpses found on the blackened plains of the Sferastotaziskutiv, the Black Sith sought to unlock the genome-coded Rakata technology found on the planet and gain access the Imperial subterranean facilities.



Though their initial efforts were complicated by their inability to understand the Rakata language, their concerted attempts were eventually successful at forcing entry to the vaults. While some facilities remained unreachable due to cave-ins, the Sith were able to recover much information pertaining to the history of the Rakata occupation of Acrolis as well as the blueprints for experimental Rakata weaponry and hyperdrive technology.

Early space travel
Armed with recovered Rakata knowledge and technology, the Black Sith turned their eyes to the stars, looking first to the superstructure that stood watch over their world. Their first extraplanetary voyages were made to the Celestial Gates. Maintained by Force-enhanced automatic repair systems of an ancient Celestial design, the Gates had continued to automatically defend the planet from the dangerous radiation of extragalactic space and the asteroid field of the Five Deaths for the planet's twelve millennia of isolation. In its hasty abandonment by the Rakata, the Gates had retained a sizable garrison of starfighters, battleships, and slave transports in its hangar bays. Though some had decayed in the intervening millennia, these vessels formed the basis of the nascent Black Sith fleet, enabling them to explore and colonize their system.

The moon of Magna Luna was the first planetary body visited by the Sith. An inhospitable world devoid of an atmosphere, Magna Luna's Rakata settlements, little more than glorified mining colonies, were located deep underground in the moon's subterranean caverns and rifts. Its only surface colony was its deflector shielded, which was connected to the subterranean facilities via a network of industrial elevators originally designed to transport slaves to the mines. Unlike the Gates, this spaceport was of Rakatan design and had not been built to automatically repair itself over the centuries. By the time of the Black Sith colonization effort, its shields had long since collapsed, leaving its structures exposed to. These were restored by the Sith as a precursor to their occupation of the moon's underground colonies, and in subsequent centuries, Magna Luna became an important jumping-off point for Sith vessels bound for the system's outer asteroid colonies and the galactic plane beyond.

Charting the hyperspace cage
By, the Black Sith had mostly restored their system to its previous state under the Empire and had begun making trips to the galactic plane in an attempt to break through the Celestial hyperspace cage that encompassed the galaxy. However, as the specific exit points used by the Rakata to travel to the Five Deaths were unknown to the Black Sith, these voyages ended unsuccessfully. Many ships were lost to the eddies and whirlpools of the hyperspace disturbance, though Sith efforts continued unabated for many centuries despite the dangers.

Over time, the Sith began charting the hyperspace barrier in detail, traversing the length of the galactic plane from to  and probing the cage for weak points and gaps. Over the course of tens of thousands of such expeditions, the Black Sith discovered a handful of exit points, including those, like the, eventually discovered by intragalactic civilizations like the s. A large of the galaxy showing such routes from Acrolis to the galactic plane was stored in the main room of the Star Temple, with a series of backups housed in the underground Rakatan vaults. Such knowledge proved invaluable to subsequent Black Sith scouting expeditions to the Unknown Regions and the eastern galaxy, which began circa.

Journeys to the galactic plane
By 8,000 BBY, the Black Sith had begun making clandestine voyages to the galaxy. As they had been isolated for so long, they had no knowledge of the events that had unfolded since the downfall of the Infinite Empire some seventeen millennia before and had made their initial furtive voyages to the galactic plane under the assumption that the Rakata still ruled the galaxy in part or in full. They were intrigued by the sheer variety of spacefaring species and civilizations they discovered in the galactic plane, from the to the s to their Korribani cousins in the.

Records from the time period indicated that the Black Sith visited Lehon during their journeys and noted with amusement the reduced primitive state of the Rakata. Many unsuspecting Rakata tribesmen were abducted by the Black Sith and returned to Acrolis during this time. These were sold to wealthy Black Sith nobles as exotic slaves or displayed in "species zoos" that housed representatives of species taken from their homeworlds by Sith expeditions to the galaxy.



Despite their interest in galactic culture, the Acrolian Sith had little desire to join the greater galactic community as it existed in 8,000 BBY and made little effort to make themselves known to the Galactic Republic or their genetic cousins in the Sith Empire. Fearful of discovery and outsider intervention, they augmented their system's defenses, expanding ancient Rakata asteroid bases, restoring s located in the outer fringes of the system, and building a large navy of ships of a modified Rakatan design. The Black Sith made frequent voyages to the galaxy in an effort to keep abreast of current events but went to great lengths to avoid detection.

Search for the Rakata wonders
In the aftermath of the 's defeat in the Great Hyperspace War, a by the name of  withdrew with his followers from Sith space to, there establishing the  in exile. Over a millennium, the Sith Empire gathered its strength and engaged the from afar, employing  to test the Republic's strength and probe for weaknesses.

In an attempt to strengthen his empire for the inevitable war with the Republic, Vitiate sought to acquire all four of the ancient wonders of the Infinite Empire. The he found over  in the, courtesy of. , located in an asteroid in the remote, was also discovered by Revan during the but not revealed to the Emperor until several centuries later. The and, however, came to Vitiate's ears as naught but nameless rumors and whispers, and his agents searched desperately for any trace of their existence.

Search for the Five Deaths
In the search for these missing stations, Vitiate's scouts discovered ancient Rakatan records mentioning the successful terraformation of Acrolis. Though the North Star was known to the Sith, the Five Deaths system had long been forgotten by the galaxy since the knowledge of extragalactic passages had passed from memory. It took many years before Vitiate's scouts were able to successfully discover the location of Acrolis from astrogation data recovered on Lehon. This data also made mention of Acrolis' status as a highly defended repository of Imperial secrets and redoubt for the Over-Predor in case of crisis. Certain that the planet's subterranean facilities housed a wealth of information that he could use to gain an edge over the Republic, Vitiate doubled his efforts to gain access to the world.

However, due to the Celestials' hyperspace cage, all of the Sith Emperor's extragalactic expeditions ended with the loss of his fleets. Many centuries passed before his scouts learned of a way to bypass the barriers successfully. The True Sith Empire's Mandalorian allies had long known about the Crispin system, an system that contained a safe extragalactic passage devoid of any hyperspace eddies or whirlpools. This route had first been discovered by members of during a training exercise in the last days of the  but had not been explored further than the galactic edge. Vitiate's scouts took the route during their first visit to the Five Deaths, unaware that the passage was well-known to the Black Sith and frequently patrolled.

Rediscovery of Acrolis
This scouting mission into the heart of the Five Deaths revealed the Red Sith ancestry of its denizens and the presence of the Gates, which the scouts originally mistook for the Rakatan terraforming station itself. They were discovered by the Black Sith before they could acquire confirmation, however. The Black Sith accounted the presence of the scouts' in the system a precursor to an armed invasion. In response, the Black Sith Daritha Noretivas panicked and mobilized the entirety of the Acrolian navy in a matter of hours. Faced with an incoming fleet of hundreds of Rakatan ships, the dreadnought fled the system and returned to Dromund Kaas.



Vitiate was intrigued by the presence of pureblooded Sith in the system but chose not to act outright. Since the system was too heavily guarded to take without a protracted siege and the potential danger of revealing the True Sith Empire prematurely was too great, Vitiate chose not to initiate further contact with the Black Sith until the start of the war with the Republic.

Proxy expeditions
Instead, he turned to the use of proxies to achieve his ends. Masquerading as underworld artifact smugglers, Vitiate's agents organized a series of small expeditions to Acrolis aimed at clandestinely recovering all data regarding its terraformation from the Rakatan facilities. However, they were unable to gain access to the planet's surface or escape detection by the Black Sith.

Attempts to bypass the Gates resulted in their ships' disintegration by its particle shields, and attempts to land on the station resulted in their capture by the Black Sith garrisons contained within. Even armed with the latest weapons and technology of the modern age, Vitiate's agents had underestimated the ferocity of the Black Sith and extent of the power they wielded. Though technologically primitive by comparison and armed with obsolete Rakatan and Red Sith weaponry like s and s, the Black Sith were heavily Force-sensitive and highly motivated to defend their world. Believing the surface of Acrolis was sacred, the Acrolians accounted the attempts of santuriskut (pejorative term for "non-Black Sith outsiders" ) to land on their world as blasphemy. Each of Vitiate's expeditions were unsuccessful in forcing entry to the planet's surface and and all participants were either killed or enslaved and forced to work in Magna Luna's mineral mines.

Diplomatic encounters
The reveal of the True Sith Empire to the galaxy led to the start of the decades-long with the. Though Vitiate considered an armed invasion of the Five Deaths in pursuit of the information he sought, the ferocity and level of preparedness the Black Sith had displayed in defense of their homeworld, in conjunction with its remote and heavily protected location, convinced him to focus his efforts through less costly diplomatic channels while remaining primarily engaged with the Republic.

In an effort to win over the Black Sith to the Empire and gather information pertaining to the lost Rakatan space stations, Sith Pureblood members of the were dispatched to the Five Deaths in  bearing gifts of technology superseding anything previously encountered. Daritha Noretivas and many high ranking grafaskut of the Qabbrat were invited to tour the True Sith Empire as guests of honor and see all the Emperor had wrought.

Reactions to Sith culture
Though impressed with the Empire's level of technological sophistication and the refined Force abilities displayed by the, the Black Sith took issue with much of the Empire's pageantry and nomenclature. The use of the word "Sith," meaning "perfect" in Old Sith and used to denote the  or "perfect being," bordered on sacrilege in the eyes of the Black Sith. The sith'ari concept was a divine archetype of perfection unattainable by most Sith, and the application of the word to the mostly Force-users in the Empire was akin to blasphemy.

As such, the Black Sith referred to the True Sith as krevasbrolisikut, a Acrolian Sith compound word loosely translated as "impostors" or "pretenders." Though 97.8% of the Sith Empire's population had some degree of Red Sith blood, with many still possessing the red skin and bone spurs of their ancestors, the Black Sith considered them to be mongrels polluted with human blood from experiments in. The Black Sith believed they alone were the rightful descendants of the Red Sith of Adas's empire, pure and untainted by outsider corruption, and referred to the True Sith Empire as stotazt valdias ant tashaskut, loosely "the kingdom built on lies."

Growth of Magna Luna


However, despite their distaste for Imperial culture and desire to retain a policy of, the Acrolian Sith were not unwilling to sign a non-aggression agreement and trade alliance with the Empire, believing they could gain much from a profitable relationship with the superpower. As the Black Sith restricted non-slave santuriskut from setting foot on sacred Acrolis, the vast cavern cities and mining colonies of Magna Luna instead came to be occupied by a wide variety of traders, diplomats, and merchants from across the galaxy. As its population swelled and its network of underground cities expanded to accommodate these residents, the moon became a minor center of commerce.

Reputable businessmen and diplomats were not the only personalities to establish a presence on Magna Luna. The moon's isolated location and the sovereignty of its parent system made it an ideal for both political refugees seeking asylum from the war and criminals on the run from the galactic underworld. The moon was also the haunt of spies from both the Sith Empire's and Galactic Republic's. The former continued to search for ways to gain access to the planet surface, while the former, who came to learn of the Seven Deaths from embedded operatives in the Empire, sought to play upon the isolationist fears of the Black Sith regarding their Pureblood cousins in an effort to drive a wedge between the powers.

Mandalorian influence
The moon came to be dominated by the Mandalorian Clan Ziratae, a Sith Empire affiliate and who had come to the system in search of a ideal headquarters from which to base their operations. Over the centuries, the Clan and the Black Sith came to an unspoken understanding. In return for keeping the peace in the Magna Lunar underworld, the Zirataes were left alone by the Black Sith garrison and allowed to engage in their own unsavory practices without interference.

Over the centuries, the Mandalorians and Black Sith came to appreciate and respect each other's warrior cultures. Aspects taken from Mandalorian warrior culture found their way into Black Sith society due to their compatibility with prevailing societal norms. Though most Black Sith were content to spend their lives on Acrolis, occasional Black Sith outcasts were adopted by the Zirataes in accordance with Mandalorian cultural views on family and fought alongside the Clan in conflicts across the galaxy.

Cold War
After decades of warfare, the Great Galactic War ground to a halt with the and the subsequent. Granted a brief respite from conflict, the great powers of the galaxy settled into a state of and turned inward to nurse their wounds. Though the Sith Emperor's central focus at the time was prying the location of the Foundry from the captive Revan's mind, he maintained a passive interest in uncovering the secrets of the terraforming and xenoforming stations, as well as an interest in the Rakata secrets possessed by the Black Sith.

Noretivas, the longtime daritha of the Five Deaths, was wary of the Emperor's requests for information on the lost Rakatan space stations, believing that the information represented the only leverage her people had over the Empire in preventing a hostile invasion of the Five Deaths. As such, she hesitated in providing the Imperial diplomats with anything more than cursory information relating to Acrolis' terraformation and the Gates' associated history. Making the educated guess that the previous outsider expeditions seeking access to Acrolis' Rakatan structures were in some way related to Vitiate's interest in the space stations, Noretivas tasked her most loyal subjects with removing the relevant sources of information from the Imperial residence at the Star Temple, hiding incomplete extracts underground and in remote asteroid vaults across the Acrolis.

Proxy war
Though not supportive of the Republic, Noretivas believed she could mitigate the danger posed to Acrolis by the True Sith by involving the Republic in the affair. She sought to play upon Republic fears by spreading the rumor to SIS operatives on Magna Luna that the True Sith desired Acrolis' strategic positioning over the Republic Core Worlds. Possession of its astrogation data related to hyperspace barrier exit points would enable the True Sith to launch attacks from above on important Republic worlds, bypassing the demilitarized zone that lay in the.



Eager to prevent the Sith from acquiring a forward base above the Core Worlds, the SIS dispatched increased numbers of agents to Magna Luna. Fighting a proxy war, the SIS and Vitiate's Imperial Intelligence operatives clashed throughout the underground cities of Magna Luna in a bitter competition to place their chosen proxies in seats of power. Despite support from the Black Sith citizenry, who continued to look upon the True Sith as upstarts and heretics, Noretivas and her party were wary of angering the Empire and made no public attempts to associate themselves with the Republic. They continued to espouse a policy of armed neutrality, warning both superpowers not to attempt hostile invasions of sovereign Acrolian territory.

Re-ignition of hostilities
The violation of the Treaty of Coruscant led to the re-ignition of hostilities between the Empire and Republic. Relieved that the Emperor's attentions were once again diverted elsewhere, Noretivas and the Black Sith continued their under-the-table attempts to involve the Republic. However, the unexpected death of the Emperor at the hands of the known as the  emboldened the Black Sith to take outward action in support of their sovereignty. With the True Sith temporarily blindsided by the loss of their leader, Noretivas took the opportunity to sign a non-aggression agreement and trade alliance with the Republic, pledging not to intervene in Republic operations and ensuring a continued policy of armed neutrality.

The Five Deaths were judged too remote and inconsequential to merit an invasion by the during the latter stages of the war. With the eventual fall of the True Sith Empire, the Five Deaths saw an influx of Sith Pureblood Force users and former Imperial military personnel fleeing from the conflict in the and seeking asylum. Though these were initially restricted to the Magna Luna, the Black Sith eventually permitted Force-sensitive Purebloods and Humans to settle on Acrolis, leading to occasional non-Black Sith grafaskut and darithas.

Military reforms
Over the course of the war, the Black Sith retreated within their own little empire, hesitant to engage in the affairs of the greater galaxy. Though they continued to support trade with the outside galaxy, they contented themselves with solidifying their rule over their system. Replacing their reliance on local city-state feudal levies raised from the planetary citizenry in times of war, the Black Sith established an elite standing army of professional soldiers, applying the military organization and structure they had glimpsed within the True Sith Empire to the particulars of their own unique culture. Equipped with ancient Sith warmasks and armed with Rakatan s and s, the Acrolian military became a force with which to contend, despite its small size. These so-called "Kovoti reforms," named after the Daritha who instituted them, solidified Black Sith supremacy over their system.

Isolation
For the next few millennia, the Black Sith made little effort to be a part of galactic politics, maintaining their status as a. Though individual Black Sith and occasional mercenary parties traveled the galaxy during the, the vast majority were content to remain safely in their corner of the galaxy, undisturbed by the troubles of the time. Very few Black Sith ended up leaving Acrolis during their lives, and most of those who did generally traveled no further than Magna Luna, in whose bars and casinos they could content themselves with a glimpse of galactic culture.

Banking empire


However, in the years following the defeat of the True Sith Empire and Eternal Empire, the system inadvertently became a force in the for a number of reasons. Its policy of armed neutrality, its isolated and highly protected location, and its proven ability to resist the outside influences of galactic superpowers made it an ideal, a place wherein valuables of great importance could be safely stored, and an ideal for the galaxy's elite. By virtue of being a sovereign state with an isolationist bent, the Five Deaths were able to operate outside the restrictions and regulations of the major galactic governments. It perfectly encapsulated the requirements many of the galactic upper classes had regarding, allowing them to obfuscate their transaction history and legally refuse account details to Republic, Sith, and Huttese auditors.

During the Golden Age of the Republic, Acrolian banks served as tax havens for a wide variety of clientele, from legitimate Republic politicians and businessmen to Sith warlords and Huttese despots. Though the Republic often protested the Acrolian government's refusal to crack down on stolen art trafficking, money laundering, and other criminal enterprises that went on in Black Sith banks, it could do little to solve the problem. As a self-contained, fully self-sufficient star system, the Five Deaths were unaffected by external sanctions, and their extensive military and fortified planet made invasions infeasible. Even into the days of the, the Five Deaths remained neutral and enjoyed a privileged position in galactic banking.

Citizenry
During the, the planet's population was composed of several major spacefaring species. The of  were the first to properly settle the planet following its lease to their civilization by the. The fall of the planet to the during the  saw an influx of  and their slave races to Acrolis, following its successful terraformation by the Empire. By, the planet's population was primarily comprised of and  imported from across the Empire to oversee Rakata building projects.

From the Empire's fall in onward, the planet's population was almost entirely Black Sith, the direct descendants of the Zuguruk Sith who had successfully driven the Rakata from the planet. Those not of Black Sith ancestry were slaves taken from their homeworlds by Sith slave raids. Due to Black Sith xenophobia, non-slave outsiders were forbidden from living on the planet's surface, and were only permitted to visit in certain circumstances requiring sponsorship by a member of the Black Sith species and an extensive background check.

Rarely, non-Black Sith, generally s, who had proven their worth to the species in some tangible way, were permitted temporary residence on Acrolis. This included the occasional historian, xenobiologist, or researcher from the and s seeking to document the planet's unique flora and fauna or its ancient Rakatan ruins. However, these residencies were almost always met with controversy. Such individuals were provided with large security details to protect against assassination attempts by Black Sith vigilantes seeking to "cleanse" their world of outsider taint.

Government and politics
Little was known about the specific government of the Kwa, the first residents of the planet, except that they owed their ultimate allegiance to their Celestial masters. When the Rakata took possession of the planet during the Celestial-Rakata War, the planet was the seat of power of the Five Deaths system's. A direct vassal of the Rakata, the Acrolian Predor exercised complete control over the system, delegating the responsibility of governing continents and cities to lesser officials. This feudal-esque system of governance came to influence the system which replaced it.

The Black Sith too 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 Black Sith believed only the strongest had the right to rule and thus encouraged ambition and rivalry, but differed from the Red Sith and Sith Order in terms of the nature of the resultant responsibility. Unlike the Sith, the Black Sith 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.



In terms of foreign affairs, the Black Sith were notoriously isolationist and for much of their history. The Black Sith considered Acrolis a sacred site due to its high connection to the Force and its place as the species' homeworld. They believed that the presence of unworthy outsiders ("santuriskut" or "balazaarikut" ) constituted sacrilege of the highest order. As such, most non-Black Sith visiting the Seven Deaths system were restricted to the moon of Magna Luna. However, the Black Sith occasionally made exceptions for certain non-Black Sith outsiders they deemed worthy. Generally important figures with a strong Force affinity who had proven themselves in some way to the Black Sith, these outsiders were permitted to seek sponsorship from a resident of Acrolis to journey to the planet's surface. Illicit landings on the planet constituted a crime punishable by death.

Entertainment and sports
Blood sports and were the primary means of entertainment on Acrolis during the rule of the Infinite Empire. In specially constructed coliseums capable of seating thousands of spectators, slaves of many different Rakata client species, from to, were pit against each other in extended fights to the death. Wealthy Rakata frequently bet on the outcome of such games, and the publicity preceding such fights gave rise to a large fight promoting industry. The games remained a part of Acrolian culture even into the days of the Black Sith.

Like their former masters, the Black Sith were equally interested in gladiatorial fights. Though slave-based combat remained a significant part of these games, duels between Force-sensitive Black Sith were even more highly anticipated. In accordance with meritocratic Black Sith culture, warriors only ascended to positions of power by successfully defeating their current occupants in single combat. Public duels conducted in front of multiple witnesses were essential in proving the legitimacy of such transfers of power and were eventually held in gladiatorial arenas as interest in such displays grew. Fights deciding the occupant of the imperial throne were considered the events of the season and attracted thousands of Black Sith from across the planet.

Acrolian Star Temple
Arguably the oldest structure on Acrolis, the Acrolian Star Temple was the sole surviving structure constructed by the planet's pre-Rakata civilization. This pyramidal temple, like all Kwa s, was originally designed to house the planet's, an ancient teleportation device designed to facilitate travel between worlds in the. Though the Kwa destroyed the Temple's Gate when a Rakata victory over the Celestial defenders looked certain, the structure was spared the subsequent orbital bombardment. It was converted to a palace, occupied first by the Rakata Predors of the Five Deaths and later by the Darithas of the Black Sith.

Acrolian Temple of the Ancients
The other pseudo-religious structure of note on Acrolis was the Rakata temple, itself based on the original on Lehon. This structure was among the first Rakata buildings constructed after the successful terraformation of the planet. As it sat on the Sferastotaziskutiv, the temple was eventually surrounded by the Rakata capital city as subsequent structures were constructed around it. Along with the planet's Star Temple, this temple was the primary residence of the system's Rakata Predor.

The building was famous for serving as the site of a duel between the last Predor of Acrolis, Bala'zar, and the Red Sith slave-turned-emancipator Asmenys. During the last days of the Infinite Empire, the Red Sith slave uprising besieged the Rakata capital, forcing the Predor and his officers to withdraw to the temple. In a duel to the death immortalized in the Black Sith epic Karzanuowonosa, Asmenys overcame his enemy and slew him with his own Forcesaber upon the steps of the temple before dying himself. The subsequent Rakata orbital bombardment leveled the Rakata capital and reduced the Sferastotaziskutiv to a blackened plain. The ruined temple remained untouched even into the days of the Acrolian Star Empire, visited only by Black Sith researchers, archaeologists, and historians.

Sferastotaziskutiv
One of the most distinctive regions on Acrolis was the Sferastotaziskutiv, a vast plain stretching over the better part of a continent in the planet's northern hemisphere. This location was the site of the planet's Rakata capital city. In ancient, this city extended across the plain and, at its height, was home to half a billion denizens. The city was the final holdout of the Rakata during the War for Liberation, the Red Sith rebellion that occurred during the Infinite Empire's fall in. Congregating around the Temple of the Ancients and the city center, the remaining Rakata were besieged by the Red Sith under the slave-turned-warrior Asmenys and were eventually routed with the death of their Predor, Bala'zar, at Asmenys' hands.

Believing the planet lost, the remaining Rakata in orbit on performed an extended, a common Rakata military tactic,  on the Red Sith forces still in the city. This attack destroyed a large percentage of the Red Sith population and reduced the Rakata city to dust. The Sferastotaziskutiv remained an uninhabitable blackened plain for the rest of the planet's history, visited only by later Black Sith researchers and archaeologists investigating the ruins of the city.

Behind the scenes
"So they're Romans...in space...but with James Bond?"

- A college friend of the author's on Acrolis, 2011

The planet and its inhabitants, culture, location, and history have evolved since its inception in late 2010 as the author has become better versed in Star Wars Expanded Universe lore. Though the names, locations, and details have been changed to more closely align with the author's artistic vision, the basics of the story have remained the same. In all versions, the planet, a small world with a single moon of its own, was always the sole planet of its system, with the other previous worlds reduced to a system-wide asteroid belt. Its isolationist inhabitants, generally jet black-skinned near-Humans with a predisposition towards both art and warfare, forbade most outsiders from living on their planet for religious or superstitious reasons, restricting them to the moon. The culture was influenced by the presence of in one location or another, whose philosophical approach to war and combat complemented that of the native inhabitants. The associated society was devised to share many similarities with the culture of the ancient Greek s, such as or, augmented with elements from  and  culture.

Original version
In the first version, the planet was called "Acrolis," occupied by the near-Human "Acroyali" (derived from the song of the same name). Though in-universe the name meant "rock world," the name "Acrolis" was formed from the Greek meaning "summit" and  meaning "fortress." It was originally located in the and served as the capital of a sovereign state, the Acrolian Star Empire, that spanned the sector and a good portion of the Mid Rim and Outer Rim. This empire was formed when its parent system seceded from the Galactic Republic during or prior to the and took part in the conflicts and events of the Prequels era, persisting through the era of the  and into the "Legends" Legacy era.

However, with his return to Star Wars Fanon after a period of several years, the author became disenchanged with certain parts of the narrative. The idea that the Galactic Republic would simply roll over and accept the secession of a member world and turn a blind eye to its subsequent conquests of Republic systems strained belief. Furthermore, the claim that such an empire smaller than the could fight and win a war with the Galactic Empire in the heart of Imperial space and persist through that regime's reign beggared belief.

Subsequent rewrites
Thus, the author scrapped the original version in favor of an updated, revised version in late 2017. Heavily influenced by the author's concurrent play-throughs of , this version moved Acrolis, now renamed to "Azarac," from the Mid Rim to the 's region, placing it high above the galactic plane. Its Acroyali residents were retconned and made into a dark-skinned subspecies of the called teh Tsis, descendents of those who had sought to colonize the world during its tenure as a   member world. The "overpowered" Acrolian Star Empire of the previous version was reduced to a smaller loose confederation of independent and insignificant worlds, the Tsis Worlds. However, despite his renewed interest in the planet's history on account of these changes, the author was dissatisfied with this revamp of the story, coming to believe that it had evolved the storyline too far from the original.

As such, the author began a rewrite of the story in May 2018, removing elements that had fundamentally changed the course of the original story. In order to make the planet more Legends-friendly, the idea of the world's inhabitants forming a region or sector-spanning empire of galactic significance was scrapped in favor of a single system empire. The author liked and retained the idea of a system located above the galactic plane. This provided a worldbuilding challenge as to the manner in which a society might successfully colonize an intergalactic world bathed in three different types of cosmic radiation. The system was moved to a position directly above to better explain the origins of the star's position in extragalactic space. Due to the system's location above the galaxy and the planet's status as a Rakata, the author saw fit to rename the world to Acrolis, due to that word's appropriate meaning of "summit fortress."

Awards
The first story iteration was nominated and voted runner-up for "Best Celestial Object" in the Seventh Wiki Awards. The second iteration was nominated and voted "Best Planet" in the Thirteenth Wiki Awards.

Appearances

 * —Codex Entry: "The Foundry"
 * —Flashpoint: "Maelstrom Prison"