For nearly 20 thousand years, the Jedi Order protected the government of the Old Republic,
allowing them to expand beyond the core and grow into the greatest superpower in the galaxy.
Trained as selfless warrior monks, the Jedi adhered to a strict light side philosophy,
embracing serenity and emotionless detachment to understand and wield the force, a primordial
cosmic energy flowing through all living things.
Yet not all were content to abide be these self-imposed limitations, causing some Jedi
to experiment with the forbidden dark side, which in turn opened their minds to countless
new possibilities.
Following in the tradition of heroes like Xendor who led a rebellion in the First Great
Schism thousands of years earlier, The Second Great Schism of 7003 BBY and Hundred Year
Darkness which followed, were led by a number of powerful Jedi that saw the tremendous potential
in the Dark Side of the force.
Leading this new rebel movement was Ajunta Pall, a powerful and well respected Jedi Master
whose ambition and curiosity led him to experiment with the dark side, studying force alchemy
to unlock the secrets of manipulating life and death.
In time, he and his followers were able to transform living creatures into monstrous
lifeforms of their own design.
Horrified by this revelation, the Jedi High Council denounced Ajunta Pall and forbid his
research causing the rebels to abandon the Order and wage the hundred year darkness in
7000 BBY.
Serving under the High General Ajunta Pall, some of the most prominent Dark Jedi leaders
included XoXaan, Marchioness of the mighty Black Legion, fleet admiral Baron Remulus
Dreypa, the great tactician Karness Muur, and master alchemist Sorzus Syn who transformed
animals into mounts, mutant warriors and Spirit Devouring Leviathans, allowing the rebels
to create an army so powerful they drew out the conflict for a century against a better
supplied enemy with greater numbers.
Though the fighting went back and forth, like at the Battle of Fluwhaka where the Dark Jedi
were saved by Karness Murr’s battle tactics, or the Battle of Balmorra, which saw Leviathans
splinter Jedi Barricades, the rebels were simply unable to withstand the overwhelming
might of the Order and their republic supporters.
Making their last stand at the Battle of Corbos, Ajunta Pall slew over a dozen Jedi before
his capture and defeat.
Confident the threat was over, the High Council did not execute the 12 surviving Dark Jedi,
instead stripping them of arms and armour before exiling them from Republic Space.
Among the 12 Exiles who survived, the most prominent were the leaders Ajunta Pall, XoXaan,
Sorzus Syn, Remulus Dreypa and Karness Murr while the rest with lesser Dark Jedi of relatively
little importance.
Having spent years researching rumours about a far away species devoted entirely to the
Dark Side, Sorzus Syn navigated their ship through the Stygian Caldera nebula to find
the planet Korriban, populated by the force sensitive Red-skinned, Pureblood Sith Species.
Shocked and impressed by their Dark Side powers, the relatively primitive, tribal Sith welcomed
the Exiles, with some believing them gods or demigods.
Seeking to make this planet their own, Ajunta Pall made a deal with the King’s shadow
hand to behead Hakagram Graush, declaring himself blood heir of Adas, the legendary
ruler who first conquered and united the Sith of Korriban.
Becoming the first Dark Lord of the Sith, his fellow Exiles were named Shadow Hands,
serving on an advisory Council, making them the first Lords of the Sith, taking positions
of great power and prominence in their society.
Though the Exiles greatly advanced Sith technology and civilization, they embraced the local
culture and interbred with the natives to create a new Sith Order and Empire, choosing
Ziost as their Throneworld and Korriban their Tombworld.
Ruling for many years, Ajunta Pall eventually died and was entombed in the Valley of the
Dark Lords on Korriban, yet his incredible mastery of the force, allowed his spirit to
endure for thousands of years, linked to his final place of rest.
Yet in death, Pall began to question his choices in life, coming to regret embracing the dark
side and betraying the Jedi.
As fate would have it, the famous hero Revan, who trained as both a Jedi and Sith Lord,
visited his tomb in 3956 BBY, and convinced him to once again embrace the light side,
bringing him peace as he became one with the force.
Working with Ajunta Pall to lay the foundations of their empire, Xoxaan dedicated much of
her life as a Sith Lord to continuing her studies of the force, learning to craft a
holocron, mastering the rare talent of Dark Side healing, and collecting rare artifacts
like the Yoke of Seeming which allowed the user to take on any appearance at a cost of
burning their skin.
Upon her death, she was entombed in a mausoleum on Korriban, along with the personal holocron
where she recorded her wisdom.
Leaving a part of her spirit encased within the holocron, she waited patiently for millennia
until 17 BBY, when she identified the former Jedi turned bounty hunter A'Sharad Hett as
a worthy apprentice.
Calling out to him, Hett found Xoxaan’s Holocron and accepted her offer to teach the
secrets of the ancient Sith.
Learning much from his first and greatest dark side master, Hett was strong willed,
and remained hesitant about becoming a full fledged Sith Lord, until his dealing with
the Yuuzon Vong invaders who waged war across the galaxy.
Surviving through such harrowing times, he completed his journey to the Dark Side by
becoming Darth Krayt, founder of a new Sith Order adhering to the Rule of One philosophy,
where a single Dark Lord ruled with absolute authority and did not teach an apprentice,
instead training a great many acolytes and minions to serve him without question.
Though this philosophy eventually saw a return to many of the same problems experienced before
Bane’s rule of Two, it did for a time allow him to conquer much of the galaxy.
Forever changed by the teachings of his first master, Darth Krayt built a great statue to
honor Xoxaan near the Sith Temple on Coruscant.
A powerful master of Sith Alchemy responsible for many of the creatures created during the
hundred year darkness, Sorzus Syn kept a journey chronicling their conquest of Korriban, where
she expressed a desire to succeed Ajunta Pall as Dark Lord of the Sith, in the event he
proved weak or his reign short.
Although that did not occur, she nonetheless became an invaluable resource for the Sith
Order, writing the Sith Code which became a core tenant of their Philosophy for thousands
of years to come.
Dedicating her life to research, she spent years on Korriban exploring locations like
the Cloister of Bilious Torment and finding artifacts like the Holocron of King Nakgru.
She also discovered how to use force alchemy to interbreed different species, allowing
the Exiles to have children with the native Sith.
Becoming an expert in the creation of powerful Dark Side artifacts, Sorzus Syn built three
great Amulets, keeping the most powerful for herself while the lesser Talisman’s were
gifted to the Sith Lords Karness Muur and Remulus Dreypa, bitter rivals she hoped would
turn their wrath against each other.
Like Xoxaan, Sorzus Syn recorded all her knowledge on a Holocron which the Jedi Order believed
they found and held on Coruscant.
But in reality the Banite Sith possessed the true artifact, while the one in the capital
was a fake with a listening device inside, allowing Dark Lords to eavesdrop on Jedi conversations.
Once a mighty fleet admiral for the rebels, Baron Remulus Dreypa was obsessed with seeking
vengeance against the Jedi and Republic, unwilling to remain hidden for the rest of his life.
He therefore dedicated his time on Korriban and Ziost to preparing for yet another war
against their light side enemies.
Yet as would become common in their Order, Lord Dreypa developed an intense rivalry with
Lord Karness Muur, further amplified when they both received Dark Sides Amulets from
Sorzus Syn.
Seeking to end their hostilities by eliminating his dangerous rival, Dreypa created a special
Oubliette, or stasis casket to imprison and preserve Karness Muur in a living death, thereby
containing his tremendous powers.
When he at last felt ready, Dreypa stole some Leviathan larvae from Sorzus Syn, gathered
his followers and left Sith Space to wage war on the Jedi and Republic.
Yet his ambitions were shattered almost immediately, when they engaged a Jedi Patrol ship and both
ended up crash landing on the planet Kesh.
Due to a powerful magnetic field, those on Kesh could not send messages into space, leaving
the Jedi and Sith survivors to continue their battle without reinforcements, devastating
the planet and native population.
Remembered as the Great Calamity in Kishiri mythology, the Jedi were named Protectors
and the Sith Destructors, because much of the damage to their world was caused by the
monstrous beasts unleashed by Dreypa and his followers.
Eventually, the damage grew so extensive the Sith Lord’s own people turned against him,
making peace with the Jedi and trapping Dreypa in an Obliette.
Kept in stasis for four thousand years, Dreypa was eventually released by a Sith Rebel fighting
against the Lost Tribe of the Sith now ruling over Kesh.
Surprised to find a Sith civilization on the planet, he raised a rebel army, promising
to destroy the Tribe’s leadership so he could leave and continue his war with the
Jedi and Republic.
Though his rebellion did much damage, even invading the Tribe’s capital city, Dreypa
was ultimately betrayed and his plans foiled.
Nevertheless, the Sith Lord attempted to escape with his life by seizing the only ship capable
of leaving the planet.
But his enemies rigged the controls, forcing it to crash and finally kill Remulus Dreypa.
A great tactician and powerful force user, Karness Muur had his own grand plan to conquer
the galaxy, believing the Talisman created by Sorzus Syn was the key to victory.
Corrupting the weak minded, Muur’s talisman turned living beings into enslaved Rakghouls
who obeyed his commands.
Yet there were some immune to the effects, and so Muur designed the infamous Rakghoul
plague to make up for this deficiency.
Using the Jedi’s protolightsabers as a starting point, Muur created the first proper sith
lightsaber of the order, though they did not immediately become widespread, with other
weapons like force infused swords remaining popular for many years.
A bitter rival to Remulus Dreypa, Muur managed to avoid imprisonment in the dreaded Obliette
and even escaped the death of his body by binding his spirit to the Talisman, so that
after his physical death he lived on in the amulet, waiting to take over the body of a
new host.
Thousands of years later, the Talisman was discovered and eventually attached itself
to Jedi Master Celeste Morne, who asked her friend Zayne Carrick to kill her, thereby
preventing the Sith Lord from taking control.
But instead Carrick placed Morne in an Obliette, thereby preserving her life while also trapping
Karness Muur, until something could be done to remove his spirit from the Talisman.
Yet this never occurred, and so Morne and Muur remained trapped in stasis for four thousand
years, until found and released in 19 BBY.
Resisting his influence as best she could over the next century, Morne prevented Muur
from taking control over powerful force sensitives like Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Leia
Organa, but Muur was patient, knowing that as long as the Talisman survived so too did
his spirit.
During the era of the One Sith, Muur still facing resistance from Morne, hatched a plan
to take over the body of Darth Krayt, leader of a new Sith Empire, and when that was no
longer possible, choose Cade Skywalker as his target.
But Cade was immensely powerful in the force, able to kill Morne and destroy the Talisman,
finally ending the life of Karness Muur in 137 ABY.