Force users are not 'seduced by the dark side.' The Force is not some malevolent cosmic entity, cackling maniacally with every Force-sensitive it corrupts. It is a prism that cuts through the complexity of personhood and casts its wielder's true colors upon the wall for all to see. It is a consuming fire that melts away the dross and exposes the quality of the metal beneath. The Force is neither light nor dark in itself—it is the means by which the fundamental nature of the wielder is illuminated and laid bare. It is the wielder who is light or dark, just as it is the wielder who is responsible for the choices made and the consequences suffered. To blame the Force for one's actions is to evade responsibility.
—Galactic Basic Standard translation of an extract from the Qâzoikut Qyâsikanjat
Karos OR (/'kɑː.roʊs/ KAH-rohs)—sometimes referenced using a toponymic surname as Karos Kânisûtanjat (meaning "Karos from Kaniset" in the Sith language[4]) and variously known by such honorifics, epithets, mononyms and sobriquets as Tsistaral (meaning "Sith Protector"[5][6]), Dwomûshhoyakut (meaning "summoner of the dead"[7]), and Woqoritwai (meaning "Deathless One"[4])—was a Korribanian Kissai-Human hybrid of the Old Sith Empire active during the Golden Age of the Sith. A noted philosopher of the Force and Sith necromancer who held the post of Counselor to the Empire, Karos was best remembered for claiming the mantle of Sith Overlord and assembling the Tsistaralkut paramilitary during the Sith genocide, sacrificially giving his life during the Evacuation of Korriban to buy time for a convoy of Sith refugees to escape the Republic's extermination efforts.[3][8]
Karos was widely regarded as one of the foremost scholars of the Force and most prolific academics of the post-Hundred Year Darkness period. He was best known for his articulation and codification of the Dzwolutwokun philosophy, a Unifying Force offshoot that stated that light and dark-sided alignment were characteristics of Force users rather than the Force itself. He was also notable for the Qotaral, a divisive work of political philosophy that was critical of the kratocratic individualism that characterized prevailing Tsisajak ("Sith doctrine"[4][6]) and instead sought to propose a collectivist alternative form of government for the Sith Empire. Though his writings won him few friends in the reigning establishment during his lifetime, the Qâzoikut Qyâsikanjat enjoyed a cult following among the membership of the Order of Karos, a society of Light Sith formed in the centuries after his death.
Though his early Force-based academic work focused exclusively on the traditional Kissai study of Sith magic,[7] his subsequent work was significantly wider-ranging in scope, encompassing the study of arcane rituals of both the light and dark sides of the Force and fields as diverse as Sith alchemy and Sith necromancy. In addition to his own body of work, which constituted a library's worth of tomes and treatises, he coauthored a significant number of seminal academic texts in collaboration with theorists from other Forceful traditions. For his talents as a Sith sorcerer and philosopher, he eventually merited a posting as an overseeing librarian and research fellow of the Veeshas Tuwan, a city-sized library-temple on Arkania[9] widely acknowledged as the largest repository of Sith lore and artifacts in the Empire.[10][11]
Apart from his prodigious academic career, Karos was perhaps best remembered for his participation in the Great Hyperspace War and the subsequent Sith genocide, a counter-invasion of the Sith Worlds aimed at the systematic extermination of the Sith species.[8][3] In an effort to assist in the evacuation of Sith refugees from the Stygian Caldera, Karos organized a paramilitary resistance group called the Tsistaralkut. At the behest of his followers, he laid symbolic claim to the pre-Empire titles of Sith Overlord and Sith king of Korriban in an effort to draw comparisons to Adas,[7][12] an ancient king deified among the Sith for sacrificially giving his life to repel the Rakata Infinite Empire in the 27,700 BBY Invasion of Korriban.[12] The self-sacrificial actions of King Karos and the Tsistaralkut managed to buy time for many Sith to flee to worlds like Thule,[13] Tund,[1] Vjun,[1] Ambria,[14] and Dromund Kaas,[1] in effect giving rise to notable Sith states like the Sorcerers of Tund[8] and reconstituted Sith Empire.[3][8]
Karos met his end in 4999 BBY during the Evacuation of Korriban following the departure of the Exile fleet,[3][8] remaining behind with the Tsistaralkut remnant on the planet surface to buy time for the fleet to escape the Republic. Though he was finally cut down by the Jedi after a protracted conflict in the Lower Wilds, he continued to manifest as a powerful Force ghost for millennia, protecting the Sith-blooded remnant on Korriban[15][16] by means of the Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut incantation[7] and legions of reanimated corpses. Though his spirit primarily resided within the confines of his holocron,[10][17] he occasionally applied his mastery of essence transfer to the possession of host bodies, shuttling his consciousness through a series of unwitting temporary vessels whenever the mood to wander the galaxy and study with other Forceful traditions took hold.
Biography
Early life
Heritage
A contemporary of Ludo Kressh and Naga Sadow,[2] the Sith-Human hybrid known as Karos was born in the city of Kaniset on Korriban[18] sometime after the death of Tulak Hord and prior to the duel between Simus and Marka Ragnos in 5100 BBY.[2] Despite being a member of the Kissai Sith subspecies with traces of Zuguruk ancestry, Karos was primarily of Human blood. He was mainly descended from the Tapani refugees of House Nidantha who had wandered into the Sith Empire in the aftermath of the Unification War[19][15] and subsequently interbred with their Sith masters over centuries.[20] Additionally, like many of his Sith-blooded contemporaries,[21][2] Karos was a descendant of those Human Dark Jedi Exiles who had chosen to mate with the Sith[7] in the years following the formation of the Sith Empire in 6900 BBY.[22] Karos himself could claim particular descent from the Jen'jidai Baron Remulus Dreypa and his alleged Kissai lover.[7]
As a result of this high percentage Human ancestry, Karos manifested predominantly Human physical features. Though he exhibited the Sith species' trademark florid complexion,[11][21][12] crimson eyes,[7][15][23] high cheekbones,[21][24] and superficial eye stalks,[15][25] Karos possessed certain features like five-fingered hands and a distinctly Human nose that betrayed his Human ancestry. Like most members of the Sith species, he also possessed a strong Force-sensitivity and a natural affinity for the dark side,[12][1][14] though his high Human blood ensured that he was at minimal risk of manifesting many of the dark-sided ailments that traditionally affected the Sith, such as bloodlust.[26]
Early studies
As a member of the Kissai priest caste[7] born on the homeworld of the Sith species,[11][27] Karos was immersed in that caste's traditional study of dark side Sith magic and Sith alchemy[7] from an early age. Possessed of an above-average connection to the Force coupled with an inexorable thirst for knowledge, Karos spent much of his youth in concerted study of arcane Force rituals at various Sith Temples and library-temples scattered around the Kaniset metropolitan area, entering into the Kissai priesthood upon coming of age. He readily distinguished himself from his peers through his aptitude for such advanced rituals as Force walk and Invoke spirits that allowed him to summon the Force ghosts of undead Sith Lords and bind them to his will.
Not content to remain in isolation for long among the priesthood of Kaniset, Karos eventually traversed the red wastes of Korriban to take up residence in a multiplicity of other library-temples scattered across the planet.[28][14] His travels took him from his hometown of Kaniset to the distant Korribanian cities of Vardin and Dreshdae[18] and saw him wander locations as remote as the Lower Wilds[29] and the Valley of Golg[30][31] in his search for obscure knowledge and philosophical enlightenment. Never content to remain in one place for too long, he eschewed participation in the power games of his peers in favor of apprenticeship to masters of many Sith traditions and the acquisition of Sith artifacts of great power.
In time, his eyes turned upwards from the dusty trails of Korriban to the stars. Despite its hallowed status as the birthplace of the Sith and the mausoleum of the Jen'ari,[11] Korriban had long since been replaced by Ziost as the capital world of the Old Sith Empire and haunt of the most powerful Sith Lords. While Ziost boasted a sizable population of Force scholars of many different traditions and schools of thought, Korriban was home to a significantly smaller population,[30][1] and it was not long before Karos began pondering the possibility of studying abroad in the greater Sith Empire.
Grand Tour
Study in the Stygian Caldera
Eventually, Karos's desire to learn more about the mysteries of the Force compelled him to depart his homeworld to tour the greater Sith Empire and study at the feet of noted scholars and academics of the Force.[7] His wanderings took him across the breadth of the Empire and saw him apprentice himself to Sith Lords of a hundred different factions and levels of influence. Karos's prodigious talent as a Sith sorcerer, lack of personal ambition, and indifference to the power games of the Sith readily ingratiated him into the ranks and good graces of many high-ranking Sith Lords of the Empire, granting him easy access to many highly-placed and influential individuals in the Imperial hierarchy. Though never a power player in his own right, Karos saw frequent employment as a consigliere and right-hand man to members of the Sith nobility, leveraging his unbiased counsel and potent Force abilities in exchange for the knowledge and instruction in arcane Force techniques.
Though primarily a Sith sorcerer by specialty, Karos made an effort to expand upon his rudimentary knowledge of Sith alchemy during his time abroad. Though his study of this facet of Sith magic included the sub-disciplines of Sith poisoncraft and Force imbuement, Karos showed particular promise in the development and selective breeding of Sithspawn. His subsequent studies in the development of Sithspawn took him across the Stygian Caldera and saw him undertake experiments in the selective breeding of creatures as diverse as the Rhak-skuri of Upekzar[32] and the Silooths of Kalsunor.[10] His work in the field of Sith alchemy eventually brought him to the attention of the Ninûshwodzakut, an exclusive group of Kissai Sith alchemists specializing in the creation of Sithspawn.[7] He remained apprenticed to this group for some time, continuing to contribute to their academic work even after moving on to other worlds in later years.
Apprenticeship to Vitiate
Though his travels took him across Sith space, Karos remained the longest in the court of Vitiate, the recently appointed Sith Lord of Nathema and an academic widely respected for his prodigious Force ability.[33] Early in his reign as Nathema's presiding Sith Lord, the young Vitiate welcomed the multitude of Sith learners who flocked to study at his feet,[34] teaching them to harness the power of the dark side in the pursuit of difficult rituals of Sith magic.[34] Karos sought particular instruction in the Essence transfer power, a difficult ritual in which Vitiate specialized[35] that permitted the possession of multiple proxy vessels as a means of achieving functional immortality.[34] This knowledge came in handy for Karos in the years that followed, ultimately permitting him to take full advantage of such rituals as Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut in the creation and control of vast armies of reanimated Korriban zombies.[7]
Study of the Sith lightsaber
In addition to his pursuit of Force-based academic scholarship, Karos also pursued a number of more tangible Force-mediated fields of study during his time abroad, including swordsmanship, conventional military strategy, and espionage. To this end, he frequently apprenticed himself to noted warriors and weapon specialists of the main Sith traditions. Foremost among these was the Sith academic Komok-Da,[10][17] a warrior-scholar[17] who awoke in Karos an interest in the Sith lightsaber. Though the Tapani slaves of the Sith Lords had long since improved upon and perfected the protosaber design[20] initially brought to the Sith Worlds by the Dark Jedi Exiles,[7] use of the modern Sith lightsaber was still uncommon due to prevailing preference for the Force-imbued Sith sword.[17][36] Those few Sith who carried lightsabers were generally treated warily and assumed to be masters of arcane swordsmanship techniques unknown to most conventional duelists.
The only known Dark Lord to forgo use of the Sith sword in favor of the lightsaber was the ancient Jen'ari Tulak Hord,[23] a duelist of unparalleled ability unmatched by the greatest Sith Warriors and Jedi Weapon Masters of later millennia.[37] Inspired by tales of Hord's expert swordsmanship, Karos took to studying the Dark Lord's preserved teachings on the subject of lightsaber combat in detail, eventually crafting a personal Sith lightsaber of his own design and construction under Komok-Da's expert eye. Karos named this weapon Nwulkaar—a Basicization of the Sith compound word nwûlkaar meaning "peacekeeper"[4][12]—after discovering that displaying the weapon publicly warded off potential enemies due to widespread wariness for lightsaber wielders.
During the Golden Age of the Sith, Karos pursued additional instruction in lightsaber combat from fallen Jedi and fellow Sadow supporter Saes Rrogon.[25] Though development of the Seven Forms of conventional lightsaber combat was still in its infancy,[17][38] many protosaber-wielding Jedi were trained in the basics of Shii-Cho,[17] a widespread dueling paradigm that came to be known as Form I in later centuries.[17] At Karos's request, Rrogon instructed the Sith in the specifics of the form. Though simple and inelegant in comparison to the more evolved forms that followed it, Shii-Cho was nonetheless a brutally efficient approach to lightsaber combat.[17] Karos found that its distinct fluidity and unpredictability[17] complemented the raw power embraced by the Tulak Hord form. The simultaneous embrace of both techniques allowed the user to gracefully execute powerful, unpredictable attacks while remaining fully in control of the duel's momentum.
Tenure on Thule
Over time, Karos's desire for greater knowledge led him to venture outside the traditional boundaries of the Empire to more distant, far-flung Sith colonies lying outside the shroud of the Stygian Caldera.[1] Karos spent a significant amount of time on the outlying Sith world of Thule, a dark-sided Force nexus[13] lying immediately outside the vicinity of the Stygian Caldera to the galactic west.[1] This perpetually overcast planet was the haunt of the several Sith military units and organizations drawn to the planet for its natural concerted power in the dark side and its remote location.[13] Of these, the most notable were a Sith stealth regiment belonging to Sith Empire Army special forces and the Châtsûshnwûlkut Tsisottoi Shikkarûjontû, a Sith assassin's guild answering directly to the Jen'ari.
Over a period of several years' time, Karos trained with Sith special forces and studied among the ChTsSh on Thule, maintaining a residence in the capital city of Hurom[13] within walking distance of the Sith Arts Academy and the local Sith Temple.[13] It was during this time that he met and befriended a Shikkari assassin by the name of Mishridz, a fellow Kissai who became both his greatest friend and closest confidante throughout his life. Despite assistance from Mishridz and his own mastery of Force stealth, Force mask, and Force conceal, Karos ultimately found himself ill-suited to the clandestine subtleties of special reconnaissance and special operations as practiced by the ChTsSh. He cultivated a greater interest in the study of military strategy as applied to irregular warfare, showing particular promise in the planning and undertaking of unconventional warfare operations from Sith special forces personnel.
Time on Tund
Karos eventually departed Thule for worlds farther afield, most notably Tund. One of the furthest worlds from the beating heart of the Empire,[1][7] Tund was a verdant Force nexus lost on the north-eastern borders of the Open Sea in the Centrality sector.[1] Though initially settled by outcast Kissai who had interpreted the death of Sith King Adas in the Invasion of Korriban as a sign to reject the dark side,[39] Tund had eventually come to serve as the penal colony of the Empire[1] in the millennia since the latter's founding in 6900 BBY. Its residents were heretical thinkers and theorists of many traditions, from proponents of Rakata monism as applied to the Unifying Force[39] to Light Sith who refused to embrace the dark-sided mores of prevailing Sith culture.[1] Karos mingled among members of these varied factions for several decades, studying unconventional theories of the Force and penning dissertations on arcane Force rituals practiced by the Tundans that eventually came to constitute a sizable portion of his Qâzoikut Qyâsikanjat anthology.
Veeshas Tuwan residency
Research fellowship
Sometime after leaving Tund, Karos journeyed to the distant worlds of Ambria and Arkania, Sith colonies located in close proximity to the Core Worlds.[1] Though Ambria was sparsely populated, Arkania was famously home to the Veeshas Tuwan,[9] a city-sized library-temple containing a vast repository of Sith teachings, writings, and artifacts gathered over a span of millennia.[9][14] Accepting a research fellowship at the institution, Karos remained in residence among countless other Sith sorcerers for many decades, often ending up lost in ceaseless study within the labyrinthine structure for months at a time before finally emerging from its depths. It was within the Veeshas Tuwan's walls that Karos came to master a great many difficult rituals of Sith magic, including Dwomutsiqsa, Sutta Chwituskak, and Qâzoi Kyantuska.[7]
Arkania proved to be an ideal adopted homeworld for Karos—far removed from the tedious power games of the prevailing Sith establishment, the world was mostly populated by similarly minded academics and scholars with whom Karos frequently entered into deep philosophical discourse and concerted study of Force rituals. He remained in residence at the Veeshas Tuwan for the remainder of the Golden Age of the Sith, only departing Arkania to convene with heretical thinkers and academic colleagues on Tund, revisit his homeworld of Korriban, or represent the interests of the Veeshas Tuwan abroad on trips to the Stygian Caldera.
Drafting the Dzwolutwokun
In the quiet solitude of the Veeshas Tuwan's qabbratkut[40] and focusing chambers, Karos had much time to reflect back upon all he had seen in his extensive perambulations across the Empire. Particularly inspired by his tenure among the free-thinking population of Tund, his musings on Force-based philosophy took increasingly more concrete form as he began analyzing perceived flaws with prevailing conceptions of the Force as codified in conventional Tsisajak ("Sith doctrine"[4][6]). Unlike most Sith, Karos forsook the traditional dualist conception of Qyâsik ("the Force"[6]) as a binary entity of cleanly demarcated light and dark sides, a view commonly taught by the Jedi[17] and inadvertently disseminated to the Sith people by the Exiles at the founding of the Sith Empire.[7] Instead, inspired the monist Unifying Force teachings of the Rakata that he had encountered among the Sith outcasts of Tund,[39][1] Karos outlined a monist theory of the Force that came to be known by the Sith language compound word Dzwolutwokun, meaning "the act of existing as one."[6][4]
Unlike some proponents of the Unifying Force paradigm,[39] however, Karos did not go so far as to outright deny the existence of the light and dark sides. Instead, he claimed that the Force alignment spectrum was a characteristic of Force users rather than the Force itself. Applying the analogy of the Sith lightsaber to this theory, Karos likened the Force to a lightsaber's focusing lens used to amplify the output and unique properties of the weapon's crystals in the production of a blade.[37][17] In a similar fashion, the Force was a means by which the fundamental character and moral fabric of its wielders was augmented, amplified, and revealed. Those of a traditional "light-sided" bent were empowered by the Force to aid and heal others at the expense of the self, while "dark-siders" were granted easy access to powers permitting self-aggrandizement at the expense of others.
Nascent necromancer
Karos's personal study of Sith necromancy, a niche field of Sith magic combining Sith alchemy and sorcery[7] in which he came to specialize, began in the sanctum of the Veeshas Tuwan with a casual perusal of Jen'jidai Sorzus Syn's titular chroncicle, an account of the Dark Jedi Exiles' earliest days on Korriban.[7] Nestled among discussions of ancient Sith artifacts and observations regarding the unique cultural mores of the Sith people, Syn included copies of Sith language incantations related to such obscure spells as Dwomutsiqsa, Sutta Chwituskak, and Qâzoi Kyantuska.[7] Among these, Karos found a copy of the Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut incantation. This obscure and complex spell combining Sith magic and Sith alchemy[7] was capable of reanimating corpses into hoyakut,[7] a Sith word meaning "the dead" made in reference to the hordes of mindless Korriban zombie Sithspawn that protected Sith sacred sites like the Valley of Golg[30] and the Valley of the Dark Lords.[41]
Courtesy of his natural skill in Sith sorcery and his previous training in Sithspawn-related alchemy under the Ninûshwodzakut, Karos discovered a previous undiscovered skill in Sith necromany. In the process of exploring the applications, uses, and limits of the Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut incantation, Karos inadvertently discovered a means of controlling significantly larger armies of Korriban zombies than traditionally possible. Through the application of the Transfer Essence power taught to him years prior by Lord Vitiate,[35] Karos found that he could split his consciousness and imbue his Force essence into the reanimated corpses raised by his initial invocation, recasting Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut from within these hosts in a compounding fashion. Using this method, Karos was able to oversee and control vast legions of self-reanimating Korriban zombies, a feat which earned him both the epithet dwomûshhoyakut meaning "summoner of the dead"[7] and the respect of the Veeshas Tuwan faculty and student body.
Lord of lore
Despite his divisive and often controversial philosophical writings, Karos was nonetheless respected for his prodigious skill in Sith necromancy and the length and sheer productivity of his residency at the Veeshas Tuwan. As one of the longest serving and most productive members of the library-temple's research base, he was eventually asked to serve as one of the library-temple's principle librarians, charged with maintaining and expanding upon the repository's vast collection of artifacts and tomes.[9][14] Under his supervision, the library-temple's collection of Sith artifacts and writings reached its greatest extent, serviced by an expanded staff of perambulating Sith archaeologists who scoured the Empire in search of ancient artifacts for preservation and display in the archives.
The fractured empire
Climb to counselor
During the twilight period of the Golden Age of the Sith, Karos's prodigious talent in the Force and mastery of the disparate facets of Sith magic brought him to the attention of the Sith Empire's principle leadership. Recognized as an academic authority on the subject of Sith necromancy, Karos was appointed to the post of Counselor to the Empire, serving the presiding Jen'ari Marka Ragnos and the members of the Sith Council in an unofficial advisory capacity as required. He maintained a residence in the Sith Citadel[7] during this time, splitting his time between Ziost and Arkania accordingly.
During his extended tenure as Counselor, Karos reconnected with his old friend and close confidante Mishridz, who served as the Dark Lord's spymaster and oversaw Ragnos's ChTsSh assassins charged with eliminating his potential rivals in the Sith hierarchy.[17] The two Kissai continued their mutually beneficial association during their respective tenures in residence at the Sith Citadel, forming a powerbase that maintained a considerable degree of political leverage and sway at court.
Rise of Sadow
Born and raised in the eveningtime of the Sith Empire, Karos lived in an era characterized by decadence,[42] stagnation,[42] and the looming fear of discovery by the Jedi and the Galactic Republic.[43][42] During his extended tenure as a Counselor to the Empire in residence at the Sith Citadel on Ziost, Karos had become intimately familiar with the rising tide of imperialism and expansionism that had taken hold in the more liberal corners of the Sith establishment during the latter part of the Golden Age.[44][43][42] Personified in the figure of Naga Sadow, Sith Lord of the sacred world of Khar Delba[45] and a rising star among the more liberal Human-blooded Sith,[44][42] this political movement had become increasingly dissatisfied with the isolationist rule of the Jen'ari Marka Ragnos, whose century of leadership over the Sith they disparaged as an era of complacency, stagnation, and excess.[2][44][46]
During the last years of Ragnos's reign as Dark Lord,[47] Naga Sadow, buoyed up by his burgeoning powerbase,[42] became increasingly vocal in his criticisms of the Sith status quo and his interest in expanding the Empire's borders through conquest and war.[47][2][44] The conservative establishment, led by their own star in the person of Ludo Kressh,[44] were fearful of losing the throne to the liberal expansionists, a group whose imperialist ambitions they viewed as dangerously overreaching[2] and whose mixed-species and mixed-culture memberbase they viewed as an abomination.[10] The last years of Ragnos's reign as Dark Lord were marked by public contention between the followers of Sadow and Kressh, with conflict raging from the inner chambers of the Sith Council down to the streets of Ziost.
Quoth the Qotaral
It was during this period of contention and upheaval that Karos's own thoughts on political philosophy began to take on more concrete form. Like Sadow, Karos believed that the Sith Empire in its present form was ill-prepared to combat the looming specter of discovery and invasion by the Jedi and the Republic.[43][42][46] In particular, he considered the shroud of isolation in which the Empire had wrapped itself since its founding[43][7] to be the root cause of its own internal decay. Faced with no immediate threats to its regional hegemony and entrenched in solitude far from the greater galactic community,[1] the Sith Empire had turned inward over the span of centuries and begun devouring itself.[46] In the absence of external threats against which to rally together in opposition, the Empire's governing Sith Lords had instead turned on each other,[46] engaging in petty squabbles for meager scraps of power that fractured the Empire into a multitude of disparate factions and parties.[44][46]
Though he agreed to some extent with Sadow's plan to reunite the Empire under the banner of renewed conquest,[47][2][44] Karos believed this would amount to little more than a temporary solution to a longstanding problem. In his estimation, the Sith Empire's entire system of government was fundamentally flawed. Karos outlined a renewed political ideology based on social contract theory and collectivism in his seminal work of political philosophy, the Qotaral or "Way of the Protector."[5][6] In Karos's ideal Empire, both the weak and the strong played different but equally important roles in the drama of state—the duty of the weak was to serve the strong, while the duty of the strong was to protect the weak.
Contrary to the kratocratic individualism[10] codified in the Code of the Sith[48] that characterized prevailing Sith culture,[10] the Qotaral instead taught that the collective good of the state was of greater importance than the good of the individual. Adas, the ancient Sith King[12] who sacrificed his life during the 27,700 BBY Invasion of Korriban[1] to ensure that his people could live free of Rakata oppression,[1][7] was cited as being the ideal Sith'ari or "perfect ruler"[7] of the Qotaral's Sith state, a member of the strong who gave his life to protect the weak in the interest of preserving the state.
Choosing sides
In the months following its initial publication, the Qotaral achieved bestseller status with alacrity for its divisive content and controversial politics. Reactions to its contents varied across the board. While many Sith Lords of the prevailing conservative establishment considered its tenets tantamount to heresy and recommended that Karos be stripped of his Counselor status and exiled to Tund,[7] certain more liberally minded political factions readily employed its criticisms as useful political capital, further proof that the Empire had reached the point of stagnation under traditionalists like Ragnos[2][44] and required a renewal of sorts.
Though many took the Qotaral's harsh criticisms of Sith cultural convention for tacit support of the liberal cause, Karos was initially hesitant to express public support for Sadow. Though he sympathized with Sadow's belief that renewed external conquest would help to rally the disparate Sith factions under one banner[47][2] and bring an end to the Empire's period of internal decay,[43] Karos did not approve of Sadow's self-serving, selfish interest in making war for the purposes of claiming rulership of the Empire for himself.[45][44] Furthermore, Karos privately expressed disapproval for Sadow's mixed-culture powerbase,[10] believing that only those individuals raised according to Sith ideals and the greater Sith way could truly be considered Sith. Though this brought him into line with Kressh's traditionalist beliefs regarding a fear of cultural polution by outsiders,[10] Karos did not share Kressh's disdain for individuals of non-Sith blood,[10] being in large part of Human ancestry himself.
Joining Sadow
Though Karos admired Kressh for publicly expressing his interest in putting the good of the Sith Empire above his own personal ambitions and desires,[44] Karos believed Kressh would merely continue to perpetuate the isolationist policies that had given rise to the Empire's stagnation in the first place. Though he was fully aware that Sadow's ultimate aim was to claim the throne of the Empire for his own selfish ends, Karos ultimately came to the conclusion that a Sadow administration represented the best possible means of bringing about the renewal of the Empire as outlined in the Qotaral. Karos believed Sadow's imperialist designs[45] would serve as a suitable catalyst for redirecting the focus of the Sith people away from themselves and back onto the state. As the Empire expanded outwards and encountered enemies, Karos surmised that the Sith would cast aside their petty conflicts and rally beneath Sadow's banner to protect themselves and their way of life. The resultant unification would help to mend the seams in the Sith cultural fabric and help to usher in an end to the rampant individualism that had characterized previous millennia.
As a result, Karos grudgingly joined himself to Sadow's burgeoning faction, ingratiating himself into its ruling hierarchy in the same manner as he had the courts of the Sith Lords during the days of his perambulations. His skills as an experienced Sith necromancer belonging to the most prestigious library-temple in the Empire[9][10] and his influence as the Counselor to the Empire were invaluable to the movement. It was not long before he found himself serving as one of Sadow's principle advisers, second only to Shar Dakhan, presiding Sith Lord of Ch'hodos[2][49][50] and Sadow's chief lieutenant.[49][50] In keeping with his passion for ancient titles[51] like "Darth,"[43] Sadow bestowed the ancient courtesy title of "Sedriss"[52][53] upon Karos in recognition of his prodigious Force ability and timely counsel.
End of the Golden Age
Funeral of Marka Ragnos
The death of Jen'ari Marka Ragnos in 5000 BBY[22] after a century of imperial peace throughout the Empire brought the clash between the followers of Sadow and Kressh to the forefront of Sith politics.[2][44] As expected, Ludo Kressh laid claim to the Dark Lord's throne as Ragnos's natural successor, promising a continuation of the policies that had defined the preceding Golden Age. As acting Dark Lord, Kressh led the funeral procession[44] down from Dreshdae to Ragnos's tomb in the Lower Wilds,[29] followed by the members of the Sith Council, dignitaries from distant worlds, and a trailing group of Kissai priests, Massassi, commoners, and Grotthu slaves.[44] As presiding Counselor to the Empire and official representative of the Veeshas Tuwan on Arkania, Karos was among the twenty-three Sith who headed the procession to the tomb,[44] but was not included among the twenty anointed Sith Lords who oversaw the religious internment ceremony[37] due to being an unanointed Kissai priest.
Karos witnessed the fashionably late arrival of Naga Sadow and the Sith Lord's public claim to the Sith throne.[44] Several years of growing tension between Sadow's and Kressh's respective factions finally came to a head with the subsequent duel between Sadow and Kressh upon the steps of Ragnos's mausoleum, pitting the heads of each faction against each other in a test of strength and Force ability.[44][1] With both Lords unable to best each other, the duel was only ended by the sudden appearance of the Force ghost of Ragnos himself, who spoke to the Sith of the glory of the Empire and urged both claimants to not succumb to division and civil war before fading away.[44] Inspired by Ragnos's warning, Kressh extended the hand of peace to Sadow in an effort to put the good of the Empire above his own ambition, but was rebuffed in his attempt at finding a compromise.[44] Further conflict, however, was averted by the sudden arrival of the Starbreaker 12, a Korosian starship crewed by the siblings Dav and Jori Daragon that landed adjacent to the funeral progression in the Valley of the Dark Lords.[29]
Sadow's shenanigans
Though the Daragons claimed they had stumbled in the Stygian Caldera by accident in search of new societies with which to trade,[2] the majority of the Sith Council remained unconvinced of the innocence of their intentions.[2] Many were fearful of the possibility that the siblings were Republic spies, portents of an incoming invasion. Though the Council voted that the Daragons be killed immediately, Sadow opposed this motion, considering them the key to an era of conquest.[22] In a cunningly conceived "Republic rescue mission," Sadow and his followers posed as allies of the Daragons and sprung them from their prison cell on the eve of their execution,[2] killing the Councilor Simus with Republic blasters found aboard the Starbreaker 12 before spiriting the Humans away to safety.[2] With the alleged invasion all but confirmed by this turn of events, Sadow easily convinced the panicked Sith Council to elect him Jen'ari on the basis of the need for a preemptive strike against the Republic.[2] Only Kressh refused to acknowledge Sadow's status, departing with his faction from the Council chambers in anger.[2]
Battle of Khar Delba
Sadow sensed a powerful Force sensitivity in Gav Daragon,[45] who in the days of his youth had been a Jedi initiate.[45] Though he took Gav as a Sith apprentice and trained him in isolation at the Khar Shian citadel,[45] Sadow kept Jori Daragon in seclusion at the less populated Khar Delba citadel under guard.[45] At his new Jen'ari's request, Karos questioned Jori extensively on the subject of the Republic. Following Sadow's instructions, Karos maintained the illusion that Sadow and his faction were friendly to the Republic and interested in establishing diplomatic relations and a trade agreement. Though the depths of Sadow's deceptions and his own part in propagating them troubled Karos, he had little difficulty playing the part of interested listener. Always the academic, his interest in Jori Daragon's accounts of her life and her tales of encountering other cultures was genuine. Though their time together was brief, the Korosian and the Korribanian bonded over their mutual interests and shared stories. It was Karos's advocacy on his new friend's behalf that ultimately convinced Sadow to grant Jori a Sith amulet through which she could speak to her brother.[45]
As Kressh openly refused to acknowledge Sadow's successful candidacy, Sadow hatched a plan to bait his rival into attacking him unprovoked. Coordinating a clearly staged "Republic attack" on guards loyal to Kressh,[45] Sadow oversaw the theft of the Starbreaker 12 from the Sith Citadel's hangar, leaving behind clues that pointed to his involvement.[45] Kressh took the bait, raiding Sadow's fortress on Khar Delba.[45] Still posing as an ally of the Republic, Sadow urged Jori Daragon to escape aboard the Starbreaker 12,[49] hoping that the homing beacon secretly planted aboard the ship would lead him to the Republic. With her jump to hyperspace, Sadow revealed the greater part of his fleet in orbit behind the moon of Khar Shian and massacred Kressh's supporters.[49] Unopposed at last, Sadow ordered the mobilization of the Sith Empire for war,[2] gathering an extensive invasion fleet drawn from shipyards across the Stygian Caldera.[49]
Counselor's criticisms
In the days that followed Sadow's military buildup over Khar Shian, Karos grew more troubled by his Jen'ari's outright refusal to acknowledge the risks of blind invasion. Karos's discussions with Jori Daragon had tacitly revealed the size and scale of the Republic, its shadowy form made tangible through the sheer number of disparate cultures and societies that formed its collective whole. The territory outside the Empire's sphere of influence was largely unknown to the isolationist Sith, and no one since the time of the Exiles knew the extent of the Republic's influence, military capabilities, or location.[1] As such, Karos was predisposed towards treading softly with great caution, bringing him into conflict with many of Sadow's other advisors.
In stark contrast to Shar Dakhan,[50] Karos advocated against invasion and suggested instead that Empire wait for Jori to lead the Republic back to the Stygian Caldera in search of her brother. In such a scenario, rather than sallying forth into the unknown, the Sith would have the advantage of picking the battlefield and defending against outsiders on home territory. Furthermore, by allowing a Republic incursion to actually transpire, Sadow's public claims of incoming invasion previously made in his bid to secure the throne[2] would be retroactively proven to be true, solidifying the legitimacy of his rule and painting him as a valiant defender rather than an aggressor. With the Sith people rallying beneath his banner as one to repulse the foreign invaders, Sadow could break the better part of the Republic military machine on home ground with the full might of a united Empire at his back. Emboldened by victory and faced with weakened resistance, the Empire would be in a much better position to forge ahead into the Republic's own territory in a counter-invasion.
Ride for ruin
However, much to Karos's chagrin, his admonitions fell upon deaf ears. Sadow and the greater part of his followers were eager for new conquests and unwilling to delay.[2][54] Karos ultimately submitted to Sadow's will, albeit grudgingly. Much to his relief, the staff of the Veeshas Tuwan were not called upon to contribute heavily to Sadow's coalition fleet due to their civilian status, small numbers, and distance from the staging point of Khar Shian.[1] Only a few hundred Sith sorcerers of the library-temple's research base were drafted into the coalition fleet, though lieutenant colonel Kazarkasimus and a third of the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan insisted on accompanying the draftees as a de facto bodyguard unit. During the buildup on Khar Shian, Shar Dakhan assigned Karos and his forces to the Forth From Perdition, a Sith personnel carrier in Dakhan's personal armada[55] under the command of Captain Thira Mahasi. The Perdition remained in Karos's service even after the events of the Great Hyperspace War, serving as his flagship until his death.
Not long after assembling his invasion fleet, Sadow was greeted by the unexpected arrival of Ludo Kressh's flagship.[54] Though he attempted to reveal Sadow's scheming and betrayal by hologram transmission to the assembled members of the Sith Council, Kressh's admonitions fell upon deaf ears.[54] His flagship was destroyed soon thereafter and Sadow departed the Empire in high spirits with his fleet in tow and his rival assumed dead.[54] However, unbeknownst to Sadow, Kressh had secretly survived the encounter. With Sadow out of the way on an extended campaign of conquest, Kressh publicly revealed the Dark Lord's scheming to the greater Sith Empire[54] and successfully laid claim to the title of Jen'ari as the true heir of Marka Ragnos.[17][54]
Great Hyperspace War
Strategy in motion
Following the route the Starbreaker 12 took during Jori Daragon's escape from Khar Delba, the Sith invasion fleet massed in orbit around Primus Goluud, a red giant in the Core Worlds[1] around which Sadow parked his meditation sphere.[56][46] From these designated mobile field headquarters, Sadow oversaw the invasion of the Core from afar, bolstering the morale of his forces through the use of battle meditation amplified and augmented by his meditation sphere.[56] Under his direction, a Sith invasion force led by Gav Daragon[56] moved to establish a foothold in the Koros system in the Battle of Koros Major,[56] permitting the majority of the invasion fleet under Shar Dakhan to move up the Koros Trunk Line unmolested.[46] Along the way, the Sith under Dakhan overwhelmed Republic defenses at Kaikielius[46] and Foerost[46] before attacking Coruscant itself,[56] with smaller fleets under lesser Sith Lords breaking off to pursue concurrent secondary campaigns on Metellos,[1] Basilisk,[1] and Shawken.[1]
Battle of Coruscant
On Sadow's orders,[56] Dakhan struck hard at the capital of the Republic, personally overseeing the deployment of thousands of Massassi warriors and Sith war beasts to the Coruscant Legislative District.[56] Dropping to the war-torn planet surface aboard the Perdition's drop ships, Karos and his forces were assigned to the defense of the Sith landing zone while the bulk of the Sith army advanced towards the Senate Hall under Dakhan's command.[56] Though Karos suspected his rival on Sadow's council had stationed him far from the action as a slight, Karos nonetheless played the part Dakhan had set before him. He organized the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan under Kazarkasimus into a defensive cordon, deploying the Sith sorcerers under his lieutenant Nakantos as mobile Forceful artillery charged with calling down such incantations of Sith magic as Sutta Chwituskak and Dwomutsiqsa[7] upon the beleaguered Republic Army and Jedi defenders.[56]
However, unbeknownst many on both sides of the conflict, the Sith invasion army's composition and numbers were not what they seemed. From his meditation sphere many lightyears away, Sadow had secretly augmented the size and scale of Dakhan's invasion force a thousandfold with Force illusions in an effort to demoralize the Republic defenders and inspire the Sith.[56][55] The unexpected betrayal of Gav Daragon, recently repented of his tenure as Sadow's apprentice and determined to redeem himself for his people,[55] broke Sadow's concentration and shattered the illusion of invincibility with which Dakhan had clutched at victory.[55] Witnessing the mass disappearance of the greater part of their army, the Sith, seemingly balanced upon the cusp of victory, were readily routed, driven in full retreat back to the landing zone by the renewed assault of the Jedi and the Republic Army.[55]
Despite the fury of the Republic counterattack, Karos and the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan held their ground, buying time for the surviving remnants of the Sith army to reembark aboard drop ships at the landing zone.[57] As Dakhan had been in the vanguard of the initial assault,[56][55] he and his beleaguered bodyguard unit were among the last to arrive near Karos's defensive cordon and soon found themselves cut off from the main force. Assisted by Kazarkasimus and a dozen Massassi, Karos fought through to Dakhan's position and managed to drag the Sith Lord to the safety of the cordon, briefly engaging a Glymphid Jedi Master in single combat. With most of the Sith evacuated, Karos applied his mastery of necromancy to the invocation of Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut, allowing the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan time to withdraw to the Perdition. Confronted by the undead, the Republic advance was slowed long enough for Karos and his subordinates to escape.
Battles of Korriban
Their morale in tatters, the surviving remnants of the Sith invasion fleet withdrew in disgrace to Primus Goluud,[57] harried and pursued by a Republic Navy task force dispatched from Anaxes[1] and a large Korosian fleet led by Empress Teta.[57] Imploding the Primus Goluud red giant as a distraction,[57] Sadow retreated in haste back down the Daragon Trail, arriving at Korriban only to find himself face-to-face with the personal armada of the newly crowned Jen'ari Ludo Kressh.[57] In the battle that followed, Sadow finally brought an end to his rival, though at a great cost to the collective Sith forces of both sides.[57]
The full extent of Daragon's betrayal of his master became evident with the sudden arrival of a joint Republic-Korosian task force armed with the astrogation data Daragon had provided Teta prior to his death in the Primus Goluud supernova.[55][57] In the resultant second battle of Korriban, the remaining Sith suffered heavy casualties and Sadow fled in disgrace into exile on Yavin IV, leaving the Empire to its inevitable demise.[57] The Republic coalition fleet was only successfully driven off by desperate suicide runs ordered by acting Jen'ari Shar Dakhan,[1] bringing an end to the Great Hyperspace War and the Golden Age of the Sith alike.
Sith genocide
Fall of the Sith Empire
The loss of two Dark Lords in quick succession and the shame of defeat in the Great Hyperspace War plunged the Sith Empire into chaos in the days immediately following the second battle of Korriban. Mass ritual suicides and intermittent civil conflict characterized the brief reign of acting Dark Lord Shar Dakhan.[1] As the Republic rebounded from losses suffered during the Sith blitzkrieg, many residents of worlds devastated by the Sith began calling for blood and vengeance. In an effort to diminish any vestigial threat posed by the Sith Empire to the safety of the Republic, the presiding Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, Pultimo, authorized a joint Jedi-Republic counter-invasion of the Stygian Caldera with the backing of the Senate.[3]
Armed with Gav Daragon's astrogation data,[55][57] a vast coalition task force of Jedi and Republic military descended upon Korriban, the gateway to the Stygian Caldera and the Sith Worlds.[1] This counter-invasion, subsequently known as the Sith genocide,[3] was aimed at achieving the assured destruction of the Empire through the systematic extermination of the Sith species.[3] Though some members of the Jedi Order opposed the speciecide of the Sith and the wanton destruction of their cultural heritage,[58] the Order oversaw the campaign[3] and supervised the iconoclastic destruction of most[16] Sith artifacts, writings, and monuments by Jedi Shadows[16][14] in an effort to eradicate any vestigial remnant of the Sith from the greater galaxy.
Radio silence
In the immediate aftermath of the second battle of Korriban, Karos and the Sith of the Veeshas Tuwan previously pledged to the service of the Sith invasion fleet hobbled back to Arkania aboard the damaged Forth From Perdition. Due to Arkania's vast distance from the main population centers of the greater Sith Empire,[1] the staff of the library-temple received no report on the Sith genocide and remained ignorant of events transpiring off Arkania. Karos for his part expected some degree of retribution from the Republic to be forthcoming, but largely assumed it would come in the form of disarmament and military occupation rather than outright speciecide. In the quiet solitude of the Veeshas Tuwan's focusing chambers, the residents of the library-temple discussed the future of the Empire while anxiously awaiting word from the Sith Worlds of acting Jen'ari Shar Dakhan's[1] unconditional surrender to the Republic.
Elsewhere in the Republic, analysts sifting through the Sith astrogation data previously transmitted by Gav Daragon in his final moments[55][57] recognized the planet name "Arkania" appearing on Sith charts. Arkania had in ages past been an early member world of the Republic,[1][59][9] its location known to the explorers of the Expansionist Era[1] and recorded for subsequent generations in ancient documents from the era. Worried by the presence of a Sith colony so close in proximity to the Republic Core Worlds,[1] Pultimo dispatched a sizable Jedi-Republic coalition force to Arkania to locate and eradicate the colony.[10][11] Their numbers were bolstered by thousands of Arkanian freedom fighters who provided the invaders with information concerning the Veeshas Tuwan's location and importance to the Sith.
Battle of Arkania
As the overseeing Jedi General desired to loot the library-temple of its priceless Sith lore and sacred texts,[10] the Sienar Battleships of the Republic Navy were kept off-station and forbidden from subjecting the Veeshas Tuwan to the Republic standard-practice low-orbit bombardment.[34] The Republic Army instead laid siege to the complex, though their progress was slowed by the extreme cold of the Arkanian wastes in which the Veeshas Tuwan was located.[10][11][9] The Sith residents were initially surprised by the unexpected appearance of a Republic task force, but quickly rallied under Karos in an improvised defense. Though the veteran warriors of Kohortwotok Wishastuwan held the main gates with alacrity, the Republic's sheer numbers eventually overran the Sith defenders, enabling the invaders to push into the complex proper. The library's Zuguruk engineers and architects[7] turned to the strategic collapse of critical passages and hallways to impede the Republic's forward progress, forcing the invaders to navigate through smaller passages over a span of many hours.
The Sith regrouped and reformed deeper in the complex while the Republic forces navigated the labyrinthine layout of the city-sized library-temple.[10] As most of the Veeshas Tuwan's population was made up of Sith civilians and unarmed staff rather than sorcerers or warriors, Karos understood that the Sith could not hope to hold the temple for long against the forces of the Republic. As such, on the recommendation of his lieutenants, he ordered the evacuation of the complex. The surviving population embarked aboard the Perdition, which had previously been moored at the docks furthest from the main gates and escaped detection by the Republic Navy courtesy of the ongoing Arkanian blizzard.[9] Despite the protestations of Kazarkasimus and the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan remnant, Karos ordered the surviving Massassi to embark as well, refusing their request to die in defense of their sacred trust. The Perdition subsequently withdrew to Thule, leaving Arkania to the Arkanians and the Republic. Facing no further resistance from within the complex, the Jedi and Republic looted and pillaged the Veeshas Tuwan before burning the complex to the ground,[10][11][9] bringing an end to the Empire's control of the planet.
Rise of the Sith Protectors
Karos and the survivors of the Veeshas Tuwan were received at the Tower of Hurom on Thule by Mishridz and the assassins of the Châtsûshnwûlkut Tsisottoi Shikkarûjontû. Though Karos had previously believed the attack on Arkania to be a portent of incoming invasion and had sought to warn the Empire accordingly, he learned of the true extent of the Sith genocide from Mishridz, who had withdrawn the Shikkari from Ziost to Thule in previous weeks at the start of the counter-invasion. Though she advised him to remain with her in safety on Thule, he saw an opportunity to put into practice the Qotaral's collectivist tenets of sacrifice for the weak in the interests of preserving the greater whole. In an address to the surviving sorcerers and warriors of the Veeshas Tuwan, Karos called upon his fellow Sith to join him in riding to the Empire's aid, outlining a plan of action that called for the evacuation of refugees from the main population centers of the Stygian Caldera to distant colonies unknown to the Republic like Thule,[13] Tund,[1] Vjun,[1] and Ambria.[14]
Kazarkasimus and the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan, ashamed of surviving the destruction of their sacred trust and hungry for a chance to avenge the loss of their cultural heritage, were the first to rally to Karos's cause. They were joined by a sizable percentage of the library-temple's surviving sorcerers and alchemists, most of whom originally hailed from worlds presently suffering under Republic occupation. Taking the name "Tsistaralkut" meaning "Sith Protectors"[4][5][6] in the Sith language, this paramilitary, numbering roughly a thousand strong, departed Thule for the Sith Worlds aboard the Forth From Perdition. Over the next few months, the Tsistaralkut traveled across the Stygian Caldera, ferrying refugees aboard the Perdition to safe havens and fighting losing battles against overwhelming Republic forces to buy time for other Sith to escape. Despite heavy losses, their numbers grew as Mishridz's Shikkari and assorted Sith resistance groups joined the cause, and though their victories were scant and Pyrrhic in nature, the Tsistaralkut successfully saved tens of thousands of Sith from speciecide from Upekzar to Korriban.
King of Korriban
As it sat at the mouth of the Stygian Caldera and served as the gateway to the Sith Worlds,[1] Korriban served as a necessary waystation for the Perdition on its voyages between the Sith Worlds and the outlying colonies. As such, the Tsistaralkut were particularly active on the homeworld of the Sith species[11][27] out of a need to keep the ship-breaking yards and repair facilities of Kaniset, Vardin, and Dreshdae from falling into Republic hands.[18] In an effort to draw more Sith to the cause and further legitimize their standing among the Korribanian remnant, Karos's lieutenants Nakantos and Kasidzostina encouraged Karos to lay symbolic claim to the ancient pre-Empire titles of Sith Overlord and king of Korriban,[7][12] titles held by the legendary Adas during his self-sacrificial defense of the Sith people in the 27,700 BBY Invasion of Korriban by the Rakata Infinite Empire.[12] Though initially wary of inadvertantly setting himself up as a competitor to the other extant Sith Lords still abiding on Korriban,[33] Karos eventually accepted the proffered crowns at the behest of the Tsistaralkut, though he downplayed the pomp and pageantry traditionally associated with the titles.
Sith exodus
Nightmare on Nathema
Despite their string of successful evacuations, the membership of the Tsistaralkut began to dwindle in 4999 BBY due to heavy losses sustained, attrition, and a lack of readily available foodstuffs and supplies. It was during this time[34] that Karos unexpectedly encountered one of his first Sith Masters and oldest mentors. During the last days of the genocide, Vitiate, the mysterious Sith Lord of Nathema, emerged from the solitude in which he had spent the Great Hyperspace War and Sith genocide and called a conclave of all surviving Sith Lords on Nathema.[33] Transmissions began blanketing the Sith Worlds with messages of hope,[33] warning listeners that the Jedi intended to exterminate the entire Sith race and urging any remaining Sith Lords to join Vitiate on Nathema in an involved ritual of Sith magic guaranteed to defeat the invaders.[60] Eight thousand Sith Lords answered the call,[33] flocking to Nathema in response to Vitiate's summons. Karos had not encountered Vitiate since his tutelage under the Sith Lord at the start of the Golden Age of the Sith, though he remained among the Tsistaralkut due to not being an anointed Sith Lord.
Unbeknownst to Karos, Vitiate had assembled the remaining Sith Lord for a more nefarious purpose—the assurance of immortality and the simultaneous elimination of any remaining potential rivals among the Sith.[33][60] Binding the assembled Sith Lords and their respective power in the Force to his will by means of a potent Qâzoi Kyantuska invocation, Vitiate undertook an extended immortality ritual that lasted ten days[33] and destroyed all life on Nathema.[33][60] The so-called "Ritual of Nathema" rendered Vitiate functionally immortal and granted him immense power in the Force at the expense of the planet and those in residence on its surface.[60] Publicly taking up the mantle of Sith Emperor, Vitiate attributed the destruction of Nathema to the Jedi[33] and cobbled together a small fleet of Sith personnel carriers drawn from across the Empire in preparation for a Sith exodus to the forgotten world of Dromund Kaas.[33]
Exeunt Sith, Stage Left
As one of the few remaining Sith dreadnaughts still in operation, the Perdition and her dwindling Tsistaralkut crew readily answered Vitiate's call. As he had no reason to doubt his former master's account of the events that transpired on Nathema, Karos was happy to pledge his vessel and remaining strength to Vitiate's nascent Sith exodus fleet.[8][3] Hidden in the Lower Wilds of Valley of the Dark Lords,[29] the eight personnel carriers of the burgeoning exodus fleet[3] were hastily repaired and refitted as Vitiate's followers and the Tsistaralkut gathered together the surviving members of the youngest generation of Sith. As one of the most sacred sites of the Sith on Korriban, the Valley was protected by a number of sizable artillery emplacements that were subsequently manned by Tsistaralkut volunteers and defended on the ground by Karos and the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan. Karos subsequently left Mishridz in charge of security at the Perdition and charged her with protecting the ship's refugees at any cost.
Despite their attempts at maintaining a low profile, the Sith were inadvertently discovered by Republic Sienar Battleships independently tasked with destroying the monuments and structures in the Valley by means of low orbit bombardment.[34] Though the Sith anti-air guns were initially successful in holding off the Republic capital ships and their starfighter escorts, a Jedi-Republic strike force landed some distance away in the upper canyons of the Valley near the pass to Dreshdae and moved to intercept the Sith survivors. All Republic forces in the immediate area were likewise mobilized and converged on the Valley en masse from occupied Dreshdae. Having no choice but to flee, Vitiate ordered the immediate departure of the assembled fleet from Korriban.
Karos knew that the exodus fleet would have no chance of escaping to atmosphere without the deterrent of artillery fire holding back the Republic Navy. Though Captain Mahasi offered to delay the Perdition's departure and wait for the Tsistaralkut to embark, Karos refused. With the Tsistaralkut scattered around the upper canyons in defense of the artillery emplacements, Karos realized that he and his followers would not have time to abandon their guns and reassemble aboard the Perdition before the vessel came under attack by the Republic Navy's capital ships and bombers. Not wanting to jeopardize the safety of the young refugees aboard the dreadnaught, Karos chose to remain behind with the remnants of his paramilitary and provide cover fire to the exodus fleet until its successful jump to hyperspace.[8][3]
We will fight in the shade
I'll be seeing you, Sâdris.
—Last words of Kasidz, spoken to Karos after suffering a fatal injury in defense of an artillery emplacement
The relentless shelling of the upper Valley by the battleships of the Republic Navy[34] slowly engulfed the Lower Wilds in a dust storm that began interfering with the targeting systems of the Sith artillery batteries. Despite the best attempts of the gunners to manually compensate for their loss of vision, increasingly greater numbers of Republic starfighters began slipping through Sith defenses, cloaked in the approaching storm's impenetrable red haze. As the Perdition prepared to cast off, those artillery batteries closest to the upper canyons came under attack on the ground by the joint Jedi-Republic Army force previously landed in the upper Valley, small groups of which split off to deal with the remaining cannons. Further reinforcements were subsequently landed in the Lower Wilds by Republic Navy troop transport shuttles hidden from the artillery by the dust storm.
One by one, the flashes of light that lit up the storm clouds at intermittent intervals ceased as the small groups of Tsistaralkut manning the cannons were systematically eradicated by the Jedi. As the Perdition lifted into the sky as the last dreadnaught to join the exodus fleet, Karos ordered the surviving Tsistaralkut to disperse and use the cover of the encroaching dust storm to mask their escape into the Shyrack caves of the Lower Wilds.[29] To buy his followers time to make their exit, Karos gathered his remaining Force strength and invoked Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut, summoning to him an army of Korriban zombies drawn from the ranks of the Sith and Jedi dead alike. Joined by Kazarkasimus and a handful of surviving Kohortwotok Wishastuwan volunteers who formed his de facto bodyguard unit, Karos descended into the valley to face the Jedi and Republic Army in a final confrontation.
Current Objective: Survive
No longer repelled by Sith artillery fire, the Sienar Battleships of the Republic Navy began their advance towards the Lower Wilds unmolested, shelling the monuments and structures that lined the valley's cliff sides.[34] Visibility in the Lower Wilds declined to nothing as a result of the growing dust storm, the valley lit only by the gleaming red eyes of the Korriban zombies[7] and glow of the Jedi protosabers. Though the Korriban zombies successfully kept the Republic Army occupied, the Jedi were not so readily repulsed by the hordes of undead. Driving through their midst in a wedge formation, a group of Jedi Knights under an unidentified Glymphid Jedi Master forced their way through to Karos's position, cutting down Kazarkasimus and the remaining Massassi of the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan. His focus disrupted, Karos lost control of the hoyakut and was forced to defend himself from the Jedi and the reformed ranks of the Republic Army.
Faced with his imminent demise, Karos took up a Massassi lanvarok and his lightsaber Nwulkaar in preparation for a last stand. He moved deeper into the valley in the direction of the naval bombardment, daring the Jedi to follow him into the heart of the dust storm. Making a stand atop an outcropping of rock, he littered the ground with the bodies of Jedi and Republic soldiers who rushed his position. His lanvarok soon ran out of ammunition, forcing him to draw his lightsaber and engage the enemy in close quarters. Though he fought with reckless abandon, safe in the knowledge that the survival of the Sith species was assured,[8][3] he was surrounded and simultaneously cut down from all directions by the Glymphid Jedi Master and his Knights. To the surprise of those present, Karos's body disappeared into the Force immediately after his death, leaving behind an empty shell of armor and a collection of his personal effects. His killer hastily took possession of his lightsaber, helmet, and signet ring before retreating from the encroaching naval bombardment, bringing an end to the Tsistaralkut and heralding the formal conclusion of the Sith genocide.[8]
Life after death
Netherworld of the Force
Like many of the ancient Sith,[34] Karos was familiar with the process of sustaining one's consciousness and personality after physical death,[34] the means by which a Force user could manifest as a Force ghost and exist apart from the Living Force as a separate entity.[62] The shades of Sith who applied such techniques were often bound to a physical object or simply sustained by hatred or sheer force of will, unable to find any semblance of peace or rest in death.[62][17] However, as he had given his life in the ultimate act of sacrifice to buy time for his followers to escape, Karos's post-death experience and subsequent Force ghost manifestation both differed significantly from those of most other Sith. Instead of facing the gaping maw of Chaos,[7] Karos's spirit ended up in the Netherworld of the Force after his death.[62] Much to his surprise, he found rest and contentment in communion with other Force scholars and academics of countless traditions. Despite the peace he experienced in the netherworld among others of a similar mindset, he often worried about the fate of his people, leading him to apply his knowledge of Essence Transfer[34] to intermittent returns to the physical realm.
Deathless One
In the years after his death, Karos manifested among his surviving followers at intermittent intervals, first as a disembodied voice and subsequently as a visible shade. His first such appearance occurred roughly a year after his death to survivors of the Tsistaralkut stranded on Korriban. Though they had successfully survived the Republic's shelling of the Valley of the Dark Lords[34] thanks to Karos's final act of self-sacrifice, morale was low among the Tsistaralkut survivors due to Karos's death, the loss of the greater part of their force, and the departure of the Forth From Perdition, their only means of transport off-world, as part of the exodus fleet.[8] Banding together under the banner of Karos's lieutenant Nakantos, these Sith remained in seclusion, scratching out a desperate living in the ruins of Korriban's major metropolitan areas while hiding from the roving bands of Jedi Shadows[14] and patrolling Republic Navy warships that searched for Sith survivors.[14][16]
As his burgeoning knowledge of Force ghost materialization was as of yet incomplete, Karos initially manifested to his former followers as a disembodied voice, admonishing them to remain true to the purpose they had served in the Tsistaralkut and encouraging them to assist other Sith survivors persisting in isolation on Korriban.[15][16] Compelled by the words of the one they dubbed Woqoritwai or "Deathless One,"[4] the Tsistaralkut remnant renewed their sacred trust and began furtively aiding other Sith communities, abandoning the longstanding Tsistaralkut policy of outright military opposition in favor of irregular warfare tactics. Their actions ultimately resulted in the renewal and preservation of a small Sith population on Korriban that persisted for centuries into the Inter-Sith Wars period and the return of the reconstituted Sith Empire.[15][16] Among these communities of survivors, Karos was held in high esteem as a legendary hero and a manifestation of the self-sacrificial Sith'ari ideal,[7] and he occasionally appeared in their midst as a visible Force ghost as his abilities improved.
Elsewhere in the Stygian Caldera, Karos made intermittent appearances among the nascent Order of Karos, a semi-secret society of Light Sith formed by the Perdition's Tsistaralkut passengers following the establishment of the reconstituted Sith Empire. In addition to personally instructing them in the subtleties of his philosophical beliefs, Karos also provided his followers with revised editions of his collated writings as his views of the Force expanded and evolved.
Qoritottoi
As was common for some Sith Force ghosts without tombs to haunt,[10][17] Karos eventually took up residence in his holocron. Buried in rubble beneath Kaniset, the holocron survived the initial culling of Sith artifacts undertaken by Jedi Shadows[16][14] during the Sith genocide and remained lost for over a century. During this time, Karos expanded upon the holocron's contents, editing and revising various sections of the Qâzoikut Qyâsikanjat in light of his experiences in the Netherworld of the Force. However, his primary focus was significantly more literary in nature.
In the hopes that the actions of the Tsistaralkut would not be forgotten, Karos penned a work of epic poetry that recounted and commemorated the deeds and sacrifices of the Tsistaralkut during the speciecide. The Qoritottoi, variously translated into Galactic Basic Standard as "Unto Death" and "To the End,"[4] was intended to serve as a comprehensive history of the Sith Empire's final days, covering the progression of events that led up to the Great Hyperspace War and Sith genocide. In an effort to preemptively address allegations of self-promotion, Karos appeared in the epic poem solely as its narrator, downplaying his role as the Tsistaralkut's leader and focusing instead on the actions of his followers and their respective sacrifices during the genocide.
As one of the few firsthand accounts of the Sith genocide written from the perspective of the Sith, the Qoritottoi eventually enjoyed publication and widespread circulation in certain corners of academia in the millennia that followed its initial authorship. The epic poem experienced intermittent surges in popularity in eras characterized by increased Jedi military intervention in the affairs of the greater galaxy. Its account of the Sith genocide in particular was often cited by anti-Jedi activist groups as a prime example of Jedi crimes and abuses perpetrated against sentient species throughout history.
Legacy
Though condemned to live in an era dominated by such historical heavyweights as Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, and Vitiate, Karos nonetheless maintained a cult following among the Sith-blooded diasporas of Thule, Tund, Vjun, Ambria, and Dromund Kaas in the millennia after his physical demise. His writings on Dzwolutwokun as codified in the Qâzoikut Qyâsikanjat heavily influenced the monist philosophies of the Sorcerers of Tund during their late post-Manderon period development,[39] solidifying the Sith sect's Unifying Force belief system[39] that persisted well into the Imperial Period.[1] His writings on political philosophy in the pages of the Qotaral were embraced by the Order of Karos, a Light Sith sect on Dromund Kaas that advocated for the institution of his brand of kratocratic collectivism in the reconstituted Sith Empire. The Qoritottoi enjoyed widespread circulation in certain corners of academia as one of the few firsthand accounts of the Sith genocide in existence, serving as a sacred text of anti-Jedi groups in periods of increased Jedi interventionalism.
Personality and traits
Personality
Alas, the Jedi are so many and our numbers so few; how will we bury them all?
—Karos to the Tsistaralkut, 4999 BBY
In terms of Force alignment, Karos was often described as a "Light Sith." Though his personal philosophy of Unifying Force monism brought him more into line with "Gray Sith" sects like the Sorcerers of Tund[1][39] rather than mainline Sith denominations,[10] he exhibited certain patently dark-sided traits on account of his upbringing in the Sith Empire. Though he took issue with the selfish individualism endemic to Sith teachings of the late Empire era,[10][48] Karos was a strong proponent of the Sith brand of kratocracy.[48] He believed that the varying degrees of Force sensitivity and raw power manifested in individuals were the outward expressions of the will of the Force, the hallmarks of a hierarchy that separated the weak from the strong. As the strong wielded their power only by the will of the Force, Karos believed the strong were tacitly empowered by the Force to oversee and govern the weak. These thus had a right to rule and act as seen fit as their authority was ultimately derived from the Force. As a self-proclaimed member of the strong by virtue of his raw talent in the Force, Karos was often careless in the use and abuse of his prodigious power, justifying the means taken in pursuit of a desirable end to be of little ultimate consequence.
Like most his caste, Karos manifested the distinctly Kissai characteristics of loyalty and dependability,[15] traits intentionally cultivated in the selective breeding of the Kissai caste over millennia by the Exiles[7] and Sith Lords.[15] Karos's particularly strong sense of loyalty to the Sith species ultimately compelled him to willingly sacrifice his life during the Sith genocide to secure a future for his people. However, following his post-mortem manifestation as a powerful Force ghost, his desire to protect the vestigial remnants of the Sith, coupled with his lack of inhibitions about the abuse of his power, often led him to ceaselessly pursue vengeance against those he deemed responsible for bringing harm to the Sith species.
Physical appearance
In life, Karos looked for all intents and purposes like any other reasonably attractive Sith Pureblood of highly concentrated Human blood. Though he possessed a legitimate claim of relation to the Jen'jidai Baron Remulus Dreypa[7] and made frequent boasts as the purity of his Human Dark Jedi blood, Karos was in reality of primarily Tapani Human descent, descended from refugees of House Nidantha who had fled into the Stygian Caldera in the aftermath of the Unification War[19][15] and interbred with their Sith masters.[20] Due to his high percentage Human blood, he manifested primarily Human physical properties and traits, ranging from five-fingered hands to a thin, non-simian nose that betrayed his mixed ancestry. However, courtesy of his Kissai and slight Zuguruk blood,[7] he similarly evidenced a number of common Sith physical features as well, including the species's trademark florid complexion,[11][21][12] crimson eyes,[7][15][23] high cheekbones,[21][24] and superficial eye stalks[15][25] endemic to the Kissai caste.
In his sporadic post-mortem appearances as a perceivable Force ghost, Karos generally chose to appear as he last had on the day of his death,[62] clad in bronzium armor and crown and draped in a tattered, gold-embroidered purple cloak. His visible shade, which generally hovered half a meter off the ground, shimmered with the characteristic blue Force glow commonly evidenced among other perceivable Force ghosts.[62][23] This same blue glow similarly manifested itself as a visible light emitted from the eyes of physical host vessels he possessed by means of essence transfer,[23] both Korriban zombies and living sentients alike. While Korriban zombies reanimated by means of the Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut incantation of Sith necromancy generally exhibited glowing red eyes by default,[7] the eyes of those reanimated and personally possessed by Karos's spirit shone with a bright blue. Similarly, living sentient vessels Karos possessed—willingly or otherwise—likewise evidenced a slight blue glow from their pupils whenever Karos attempted to wield the Force through them.
Powers and abilities
Linguistic skills
Dzwol wohadzuskaqyâsikûjontûkut yun, jenwai jen—dzwol Qyâsik wokun. Chwitatul hyalûshsaaraikut tashdzwolutyun.
—Sith language extract from the writings of Karos summarizing the central tenet of Dzwolutwokun[64]
Though a proper polyglot by the end of his life, Karos was primarily a speaker of the so-called "Sithic" family of languages widely spoken during the Golden Age of the Sith.[4][7] As a member of the Kissai priest caste[7] born on the homeworld of the Sith species,[11][27] Karos possessed a native fluency in the Sith language due to its extensive use in rituals of Sith magic and Sith alchemy.[4][7][12] As he often interacted with Massassi guards and warriors pledged in service to the Kissai caste,[7] he also possessed a professional fluency in the Massassi dialect.[2] Karos encountered Tundan during his time spent in study on Tund, cultivating a conversational ability in the offshoot of the Sith language spoken exclusively by the Kissai heretics in residence on the planet.[10][15]
Though he favored the use of the Sithic languages in his personal and professional lives, he was eventually forced to cultivate some conversational ability in Galactic Basic upon leaving Korriban to study aboard in the greater Sith Empire. The version of Galactic Basic commonly spoken in the Empire was a somewhat antiquated version of the language originally brought to the Sith Worlds by the Dark Jedi Exiles in the aftermath of the Hundred-Year Darkness.[7][17] As he was not a native speaker of the language, Karos often faced difficulty in pronouncing some Basic words without a distinctive Sith accent, a fact largely attributed to the presence of certain phonemes in Basic lacking equivalents in the phonetic palette of the Sith language.[4][7][12]
Relationships
Shar Dakhan
Karos and Shar Dakhan, governing Sith Lord of Ch'hodos,[2][49][50] shared an often vitriolic relationship during their respective tenures as advisors to Naga Sadow. Though Dakhan was technically of a higher rank due to being an anointed Sith Lord,[2] Karos made no effort to disguise his disdain for his superior. While Karos openly criticized Dakhan for being a warmonger and thoughtless brute, Dakhan for his part considered Karos an overcautious and cowardly academic with no talent in warfare or skill in strategy.
However, following the Battle of Coruscant in which Karos rescued Dakhan from certain death at the hands of the Jedi, the two Sith agreed to bury the hatchet. They turned their focus on preserving the Sith Empire as best as they could, given their mutual acknowledgement of Sadow's ham-handed handling of the war effort. Though their relationship was still strained due to their different personalities, they managed to achieve some degree of amiability during the last days of the Empire, with Karos publicly supporting Dakhan in the latter's brief tenure as acting Jen'ari[1] and Dakhan gifting his signet ring to Karos as a sign of gratitude for Karos's rescue attempt.
Unidentified Glymphid Jedi Master
Karos encountered an unidentified Glymphid Jedi Master at various points during the Great Hyperspace War and Sith genocide, engaging this Jedi in single combat on three such occasions during the battles of Coruscant, Arkania, and Korriban. A superior swordsman, the Glymphid handily won two of their three duels, only conceding defeat on Arkania when confronted with the retreat of his Republic Army forces. This Jedi ultimately avenged his loss during their last encounter, cutting Karos down in the Lower Wilds after a protracted showdown.
According to Karos's account of the Sith genocide as documented in the Qoritottoi, this Jedi eventually expressed some degree of regret and shame for his part in perpetrating the speciecide of the Sith, though he never formally apologized for his actions and instead claimed that the deed was a necessary evil meant to ensure the safety of the greater galaxy. In his post-mortem writings on the Jedi Order, Karos's Force ghost often used the Glymphid Jedi as an example of the Order's habit of rationalizing morally questionable actions in light of the greater good and selectively abandoning their principles in favor of simple expedience.
Titles and epithets
Titles
- Karos served as an overseeing chief curator and librarian of the Veeshas Tuwan library-temple[10][11] on Arkania[9] during the last decades of the Golden Age of the Sith. In this capacity, Karos oversaw the preservation and protection of the library's collection of Sith artifacts and personally commanded the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan.
- Karos held the title and associated post of Counselor to the Empire during the respective reigns of Marka Ragnos and Naga Sadow during the late Golden Age of the Sith. In this capacity, Karos was empowered to offer his unexpurgated counsel to the Dark Lord without fear of reprisal, though both Ragnos and Sadow made a habit of ignoring his advice.
- Karos was afforded the use of the ancient Sith language honorific[52] Sâdris by Naga Sadow upon entering into the Jen'ari's service as a member of his advisory council. This title denoted a Sith of prodigious power ranked higher than Kissai priest but lower than anointed Sith Lord.
- At the behest of several of his chief lieutenants, Karos eventually adopted the ancient pre-Empire title of Sith Overlord in an effort to draw a symbolic parallel to the legendary Sith Overlord Adas and his self-sacrificial defense of the Sith people during the 27,700 BBY Invasion of Korriban by the Rakata Infinite Empire.[12]
- Karos similarly adopted the pre-Empire title of "King of Korriban" concurrently with the "Sith Overlord" title at the suggestion of the Tsistaralkut. This was done for the same purposes as the latter title, as Adas had ruled Korriban as its king for centuries prior to the arrival of the Rakata[12] in an period of Sith history known as the "Reign of the Ax."[7]
Epithets
- Dwomûshhoyakut ("Summoner of the dead")
- Karos earned the epithet Dwomûshhoyakut meaning "summoner of the dead"[7] for his prodigious skill in necromancy and the casting of the Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut invocation.[7] He specifically earned this epithet during his tenure in study at the Veeshas Tuwan as a research fellow and staff member.
- Tsistaral ("Sith Protector")
- Karos merited the epithet Tsistaral meaning "Sith Protector"[5][6] for his actions in defense of the the Sith-blooded population of the Stygian Caldera during the Sith genocide.[3] He shared this title with the Tsistaralkut, the paramilitary he formed to resist the joint Jedi-Republic invasion of the Sith Worlds.[3]
- Woqoritwai ("Deathless One")
- Karos earned the epithet Woqoritwai meaning "Deathless One"[4] in the centuries after his physical death at the conclusion of the Sith genocide. Persisting as a Force ghost for millennia, Karos continued to manifest among the vestigial Sith-blooded populations of the Sith Worlds both in spirit form and physically in host bodies.
Equipment
Behind the scenes
The character of Karos was in large part inspired by Firedance's Sith philosopher Karros and the varied members of Sakaros' namesake family of Sith Purebloods. The author exploited the convenient orthographic similarities between "Karros" and "Sakaros" in the development of the character's name, considering it a fitting tribute to both fanon continuities and their respective authors.
The character, originally provided the Sith name "Dzunyâsh" in reference to the Wookieepedia username of linguist Ben Grossblatt,[65] was initially developed as an experiment in the writing of a believable, EU lore-consistent immortal Force user similar to the members of the Emperor's Hand. However, the concept gradually developed outward into more abstract philosophical waters after the author concurrently encountered unconventional Force-using factions like the Followers of Palawa and the Jal Shey in EU lore and fanon characters like those included above.
Additional sources of inspiration for Karos's personality came from the characters of the Twelfth Doctor from the Doctor Who franchise, Odysseus from the Iliad (as well as Sean Bean's portrayal of the character in the film Troy), and the film portrayal of the King of the Dead from Tolkien's legendarium. The character's self-sacrificial death to buy time for the Exile fleet to escape the Jedi during the Sith genocide was inspired by the events of the Battle of Thermopylae and the post-credits mission of Halo: Reach.
Appearances
- Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith 2: Funeral for a Dark Lord (First appearance)
- Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire 3: First Encounter