Clan Naga Sadow/Origins/Page One

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The Golden Age of the Sith (5,100 BBY—5,000 BBY)

"Once we were mighty Jedi of the Republic, brothers in the Force, but the Great Schism between the dark side and the light turned Jedi against Jedi. Our ancestors were defeated, driven off, cast out! But we turned our exile into victory, here on the far side of the galaxy. In these unblemished worlds we found the Sith people treated us as Gods! After many centuries some of us have interbred with the Sith while others still bear true Jedi blood. Our Sith Empire is great, rich, and powerful. This is our Golden Age."

―Marka Ragnos, Dark Lord of the Sith

The history of the present day disciples of the current Lord Sadow, Astronicus Aurelius Sadow, Prince Regent of the Sith Empire, begins more than five thousand years ago. In 5,100 BBY, after the death of the previous ruler, Marka Ragnos, a halfbreed Sith Lord of mixed Jedi and Sith descent, defeated his chief rival, Simus, earning the right to be crowned the next Dark Lord of the Sith. Following his defeat, Simus became a mentor to Naga Sadow, nurturing the young Sith Lord’s desire for conquest.

Lord Orian the Immortal

As Ragnos grew in power, pitting his adversaries against each other and ensuring that there were no threats to his throne, another Sith Lord, Urias Orian, one of few remaining pureblood descendants of the original Dark Jedi Exiles, isolated himself in the Sepros system in pursuit of immortality. There Orian mutated the native Ombi into his Sithspawn slaves, who renamed their race the Ekind—meaning the cursed in Ombian. With his new slave workforce, Orian constructed a network of temples to restore an ancient Rakatan Star Map he had discovered on Sepros; leading him to Lehon, where he found the knowledge of thought bombs. He sacrificed the Ombi on Aeotheran, the ritual incinerating a large area of the forest, forming the Karash Crater. With the Ombi’s essence trapped in the Star of Ombus, he constructed the Amulet of Orian—but before he could use it, the Ombi-turned-Ekind Princess Hafalia Chunasca betrayed him, sabotaging the ritual and destroying Orian’s spirit in the process. After the ritual, she took Orian’s scepter—which doubled as the keystone for the Star Map—to Kangaras, hoping to prevent others from ever repeating his crimes, and to offer the souls he had trapped in it a measure of peace.

With Orian dead, Lady Hafalia sought revenge on the Sith Lords who had enslaved her people and transformed them into twisted monsters. She rallied those she could find to her banner and left the—now renamed—Orian system to lead her forces to the heart of the Sith Empire. The Dark Lady of the Ekind joined forces with the uprising currently being led by Okemi, a Massassi warlord, one of the few pure Red Sith who had risen to the ranks of the Sith Council, but now, like her, grown tired with the rule of the Dark Jedi. The rebels rallied many of the Empire’s slave races—Massassi, Kissai, Ekind, and other alien species—to challenge Marka Ragnos and the rule of the halfbreed dominated Council. However, their rebellion was ultimate quashed, and Okemi exiled to Antei outside the borders of the Empire. Hafalia fell in the fighting, her followers entombing her on Kangaras where she had hidden Orian’s scepter.

Fall of the Sith Empire (5,000 BBY—4,990 BBY)

The spirit of Marka Ragnos.

"The chains of the grave cannot hold a Dark Lord of the Sith…"

―Marka Ragnos

For one hundred years, Marka Ragnos presided over an unrivalled period of stability for the Sith Empire. However, the Jedi bloodlines were fast disappearing, and many—like Naga Sadow—feared it wouldn’t be long before the pureblood Red Sith dominated the Council of Sith Lords. The uprising by Okemi had not helped matters, but while Ragnos was still alive none dared question the iron fisted rule upheld by his disciples—a cult of warriors, mages and priests fanatically devoted to him. It was they who enabled him to maintain his grip over the Sith Empire, unchallenged by further rebellions.

Following his death, while the surviving members of the Sith Council deliberated on his successor, several of his disciples left Korriban, unwilling to accept their lord’s demise. They wandered across the Galaxy for a number of years, their movements masked by the war that Naga Sadow would soon unleash upon the Republic. However, when the Great Hyperspace War drew to a close, they at last settled on Karana III, all but forgetting the worlds of the first Sith Empire. There they would remain for the next five thousand years, patiently awaiting a Chosen One who they believed would arise to bring about the revival of the Sith Empire and the return of their true lord, Marka Ragnos.

"You have held us back long enough, keeping the Sith Empire from its great destiny."
"I fight for the Sith Empire, Naga Sadow... you fight for yourself!"

―Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh challenge each other over the future direction of the Sith Empire

The duel of the two future Dark Lords.

When Marka Ragnos finally expired in 5,000 BBY, the Sith Empire was left in a power vacuum—and the tensions between rival bloodlines finally boiled to the surface. The Dark Lord had hardly been laid to rest when two Sith Lords emerged to vie for the right to be crowned the next Emperor of the Sith Empire: Naga Sadow, a halfbreed of almost pure Jedi descent, and Ludo Kressh, another hybrid, but who identified no less with his Sith blood than his far weaker Jedi ancestry compared to Sadow. Sadow, eager to replenish the fading Jedi bloodlines, was ready to take on the Republic and expand the Empire’s borders; Kressh, freely embracing his mixed blood, wanted to preserve the stability of the Empire—even if it meant the pure bloodlines dying out—and opposed Sadow’s hunger for war. The arrival of two Republic explorers played right into Sadow’s hand, and he used them to urge the Sith Council into action to prevent a Republic invasion—a position supported by his old mentor, Simus. Shockingly, Sadow murdered Simus, framing the explorers to stir the Council into action.

Kressh rallied his allies on the Council to prevent Sadow taking the Empire to war. With Horak-Mul and Dol Gal-ram, he launched an assault on Sadow’s citadel on Khar Delba. However, Sadow had double-crossed Kressh, his true base being in an identical fortress on the planet’s moon, Khar Shian. Horak-Mul and Dol Gal-ram were assassinated by their own Massassi warriors, loyal to Naga Sadow, and Kressh’s flagship destroyed—the Sith Lord being presumed dead. With the competition dealt with, the Sith Council at last crowned Sadow the new Dark Lord and Emperor.

"The Sith Empire will burn brightly, like a supernova, dwarfing the complacent Republic. We shall hold the entire galaxy in our grasp."

―Naga Sadow

Naga Sadow, Dark Lord of the Sith.

The invasion of the Republic by the new Dark Lord saw the Sith Empire take it by surprise. From his hidden base at Primus Goluud, Naga Sadow directed his Dark Jedi, fleets, sorcerers and legions of Massassi shocktroopers against the Jedi and their Republic—bolstered by armies of Force phantoms and illusions. Battles unfolded throughout the known Galaxy at Koros Major, Kirrek, and elsewhere, finally culminating in the Battle of Coruscant itself. However, just as Sadow had victory in his grasp, he was betrayed by Gav Daragon—one of the two Republic explorers who he had seduced to the dark side and made one of his commanders—who led the Republic Navy to Goluud, giving them the coordinates of the Sith Empire. His battle meditation broken, Sadow had to abandon Goluud, rushing back to Korriban to stop the Republic counter invasion.

Unknown to Sadow, Kressh had been one step ahead and had faked his own death. While Sadow was off fighting the Great Hyperspace War, Kressh had been rebuilding his powerbase, convincing the Sith Council they needed to stop Sadow before the Empire was destroyed. In Sadow’s absence, the dissenting voices threw their support behind Kressh, declaring him Dark Lord instead. However, by the time Sadow returned to Korriban, it was too late. Caught in a three way battle, the tensions between Sadow’s warmongers and Kressh’s supporters reached boiling point and the two factions tore themselves apart even as the Republic fleets arrived to deliver the final blow. Kressh was slain in the Battle of Korriban, Sadow ordering his ships on kamikaze runs while he himself fled, and the Sith Empire itself finally collapsing altogether in 4,990 BBY.

Ludo Kressh, Dark Lord of the Sith.

Though Ludo Kressh had no direct heir to continue his line, his strong Sith blood meant many who survived the Republic invasion stayed loyal to the fallen Dark Lord. The Disciples of Kressh recovered their liege’s body and entombed him in the Valley of the Dark Lords on Korriban, returning to his homeworld of Rhelg before they could be captured or slain by the Republic forces. However, straying too near a gravity mine probably left by Sadow or his Massassi spies, their ship, the Derriphan-class battleship Saarai, was yanked out of hyperspace and crash landed on a planet in a system several light years out from Rhelg itself.

Unlike the Jedi blooded Naga Sadow, Kressh was more Sith than not, and his followers reflected this. Though a number of hybrid Dark Jedi Proselytes survived the crash, their numbers were too few to support a sustainable population, and so the Disciples of Kressh survived—but as a true Sith colony, ruled not solely by the Dark Jedi hybrids, but by the Red Sith as well—Massassi and Kissai—who had inherited the Jen’jidai’s knowledge. The Disciples of Kressh took the name Jentarali, the hidden guardians of the legacy of the true Sith. Their leaders, those ones who had wrestled control back from the misguided Jen’ari who had cost them their homeworlds, now made up a Circle of Elders, and came to be hailed as Taral’ari, the Overlords of the Guardians of the Sith.

Following the disastrous Second Battle of Korriban, Sadow fled to Yavin where he encased himself in a suspended animation chamber to await the day the Empire could be rebuilt. In hibernation, the Dark Lord left his son, Sadow the Younger, to rule in his absence. However, cut off from civilization, the Massassi on Yavin 4 began to devolve into primitives. In 4,400 BBY, Sadow was reawakened by the prodigal Jedi Freedon Nadd, only to be slain when his new apprentice betrayed him. However, at some point during the four centuries in between, a single member of the Sadow line had escaped aboard one of the last hyperspace capable ships, and thus the bloodline continued—fulfilling Naga Sadow’s original goal of breeding back into his original Human roots, such that by the rise of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, Sadow’s last surviving descendant, Anubis Sadow, was all but Human.

Restoration (14 ABY—16 ABY)

Astronicus Aurelius Sadow, the lost heir of the Sadow dynasty.

Born 21 BBY, Astronicus Dlarit grew up in a foster family oblivious to his true heritage. He enlisted in the Imperial Navy and eventually became governor of a remote farming colony on Sif in the Phare system. His Force-sensitivity was first discovered by a Dark Jedi Master by the name of Yoni and he was recruited into the Brotherhood. As Dlarit slowly unlocked his potential, he began having visions of a Dark Man and found himself driven to create a House dedicated to Naga Sadow, and secretly began training apprentices at his governor’s mansion, which became known as Sadow Palace—thus, after more than five millennia, the Disciples of Sadow returned.

What started out as a dream grew as Dlarit recruited various Force-sensitive outcasts to his banner, and his visions began to grow more intense until, finally, the Dark Man revealed himself to be the spirit of Naga Sadow. Dlarit learnt he was the last of the Sadows, and that his true father had been a Sith cultist named Anubis Sadow, but that the rest of the line had either died long ago or else finally been hunted down during the Great Jedi Purge. He was now the last, and it was to him the burden of restoring true Sith Empire now fell.

"Could this be the Chosen One we have awaited? The one who shall revive the Sith Empire?"

―Ximeno, Overlord of Ragnos

Though the young Lord Sadow had assembled a few acolytes, he still was nowhere near restarting the Sith Empire. The spirit led him across the Galaxy on a journey to assemble the tools and followers he would need. His first destination was the not-too-distant Karana system, where the Disciples of Ragnos had remained in hiding ever since the death of Marka Ragnos—after all those years still awaiting his return. Though their loyalty to their fallen lord remained, Ximeno, the Overlord and leader of the cultists, believed the young Sith Prince to be the Chosen One they had long awaited—the one who would revive the true Sith Empire. The priests and sorcerers pledged their allegiance, though maintained that Ragnos himself would one day return. Until then, however, they deemed Astronicus a worthy leader—ruling his fate would be for Ragnos, and Ragnos alone, to decide as and when he finally returned.

Having secured the service of the Disciples of Ragnos, Naga Sadow next led his young descendant to the other side of the Galaxy, to the outskirts of the original Sith Empire, to Yavin 4—the final resting place of the once emperor himself. Being careful to avoid discovery by the new Jedi Order growing up on the planet, the spirit shrouded Astronicus and led him into the ancient temples, where the young heir recovered a raft of tomes, artifacts and holocrons—among them Sadow’s sword—which the spirit proclaimed would provide the necessary components to train a new order of Dark Jedi.

"Keep your friends close—keep your enemies closer."

―Eagleye, Overlord of Kressh, trying to convince the Circle of Elders to join Astronicus Sadow.

The wreck of the Saarai which became the temple of the Jentarali.

The lost Jentarali, the hidden guardians of the Sith legacy, had been stranded on the unknown planet near Rhelg for five thousand years. Due to their numbers, the Dark Jedi and Red Sith had been forced to continue interbreeding; however, most had been willing to embrace their mixed heritage as Ludo Kressh himself had done. In 15 ABY, they and their Hidden Temple were stumbled across by Astronicus Aurelius Sadow while he was on his journey to assemble the tools to restore the Sith Empire. At the time, the Disciples of Kressh were led by Overlord Lee Tingnot, otherwise know by his Sith name of Eagleye, the current Taral'ari of the Jentarali.

The ancient conflict between Kressh and Sadow remained a bitter memory in the minds of the Disciples of Kressh, though it was unclear how much the dark specter of Naga Sadow had informed his young descendant. However, whatever Astronicus’s reasons, upon coming across the lost tribe he extended the same invitation he had offered to the Disciples of Ragnos, eager to recruit all the followers he could find. Eagleye agreed to lend his support to the new Disciples of Sadow—though it would be a years before the distrust between the two lines would be forgotten entirely.

The Disciples of Kressh joined the Disciples of Ragnos in lending their support to the young Sith Prince, and his vision of a Sith Empire reborn from the ashes. On Sadow’s return to Sif, and aided by his closest disciple Robert Daragon, he established Clan Naga Sadow; formed from his apprentices on Sif, who resettled at Dargbar’rh Stronghold on Frigg and became House Primus Goluud, named after the location of the secret base from which Naga Sadow had waged war on, and nearly destroyed, the Republic during the Great Hyperspace War; the Disciples of Ragnos from Karana III, who resettled on Loki and became House Marka Ragnos; and the Disciples of Kressh from Rhelg, who relocated to Ullyr and became House Ludo Kressh.

Hidden in the shadow of one of the many rogue Imperial Warlords, the three Sith lines worked together out of mutual interest—all three equally eager to see the Republic fall and the Sith Empire restored. Lord Khyron, the reigning Grand Master of the Brotherhood, recognized the young heir’s potential and his value to the Dark Council as the lord of a new Clan. It was not long after the Clan's formation that the opportunity arose for the new Lord Sadow and his followers to prove their value to the Star Chamber when a convoy headed to the Dark Hall bearing numerous Sith artifacts was hijacked by a group known as the Cordona Pirates. Together with the other Clans, a team was assembled that headed out the pirate base to recover the artifacts and destroy the pirates.

"It was known by the ancients that a Dark Lord with three eyes has a secret strength possessed by none other."

―From the legend of Darth Millennial

Trevarus Caerick, Krath sorcerer and then Consul of the Clan.

As the Empire crumbled around them, the Clan grew in the shadow of the Dlarit Corporation under the guidance of Lord Sadow and his consuls. In 15 ABY, the future of the Clan would forever be changed when a wandering sorcerer first passed through the hallways of Sadow Palace. Believed by the Disciples of Ragnos to be one spoken of in prophecy, Trevarus Caerick quickly rose to power during the Second Brotherhood Civil War the following year when he returned bearing the Mark and the Amulet of Orian after rediscovering the Orian and Antei systems. The sorcerer recorded his discoveries in the Chronicle of Dark Souls, sparking the Star Chamber to begin planning the relocation of the Brotherhood to Antei.

Caerick presided over what became known as a Golden Age for the Clan and was revered by the Karanan disciples as if he were the very voice of the dark side itself. Yet, much like Ragnos himself, Caerick was also an iron fisted leader, personally overseeing the execution of more than one hundred apprentices whom he deemed unfit to be of further use.

The final days of Caerick’s reign took place during the uprising of Archibald Zoraan. Lord Zoraan too sought to break free of the Imperial yoke, but he attempted to do so without planning and against the will of the Star Chamber. Unwilling to allow his own plans to be brought down with Zoraan, Caerick joined forces with Telaris Cantor of Clan Taldryan to lead a rebellion against the Grand Master. Battle was joined on the steps of the Dark Hall itself on Eos, but Zoraan was ultimately defeated, consumed by his own Force storms. The damage had already been done, however. The Imperial commanders no longer trusted the Brotherhood and sought to disband the Star Chamber to seize control. Realizing the threat posed, Caerick stepped aside to focus on accelerating the Brotherhood’s plans by infiltrating the Imperial High Court to assist in laundering funds.

In the Shadow of the Remnant (17 ABY–19 ABY)

"The Empire will always strike back."

―Gilad Pellaeon

The next year proved tough for the Brotherhood as the Empire tightened its grip. The Iron Throne stood empty and the Clan found itself in a struggle for survival while Imperial spies infiltrated its ranks in search of those behind the growing seeds of dissent. Lord Sadow was forced to bide his time in the shadows as the Phare system fell deeper under the Imperial yoke.

Into this disorder stepped Lord Chi Long who leaked information pertaining to the Skin of Fire and instructed the Clans to search out the artifact. The Grand Master’s plan was to use the artifact to restore the Star Chamber, putting him in opposition to Caerick’s fellow shadow councillors’ plans to relocate to Antei. Yet, with some irony, when Caerick’s mind slipped nearer madness, Chi Long was the one to pull him back from the brink, separating his prophetic madness into Shan Long. The hunt for the Skin of Fire proved successful, but not before the Empire discovered what Chi Long was planning. However, Xanos Zorrixor, Caerick’s own apprentice, learnt of the Empire’s own impending betrayal and Chi Long escaped into exile before he could be dealt with.

The Empire appointed Lord Firefox Grand Master in place of Chi Long and believed its control to be complete. With Master Yoni, Lord Sadow mourned the loss of the Star Chamber, and the Clan was forced to look to the future through a clouded lens of uncertainty.

"He would have his vengeance. An insanity known only to him, the destruction and disease of the Force would soon be at hand. It would require patience—ages, aeons—no, a near eternity of patience to achieve what he wanted. But he did not mind."

―From the personal account of of Kurien

Xanos Zorrixor, Sith prophet and then Consul of the Clan.

As the future of the Clan looked grim, Count Zorrixor emerged to restore confidence in Caerick’s vision. None realized how far removed their fears about the new Grand Master were from the truth, for Lord Firefox was no Imperial puppet, but one of the very shadow councillors with whom Caerick had been plotting. The Empire had unknowingly appointed its own judge, jury and executioner.

Through 18 ABY Zorrixor co-ordinated plans with the group who would become known as the Seven; and, in spite of living in the shadow of the Imperial Remnant, the Clan experienced a revival to the days when Caerick had been in charge. Zorrixor worked closely with Lord Sadow to weed out any Imperial spies hidden in their midst and restore faith in his dream of building a new Sith Empire. To this end, the Black Guard, led by Tharivol Endymiron, was formed to enforce Lord Sadow’s will throughout Phare. Their actions were repeated across the Brotherhood, and for the first time in years the clans were united in a common cause: to rise up against the shackles of the Empire.

However, the Empire was not oblivious to this threat, and a shadow war erupted early in 19 ABY with a number of high profile assassination attempts on both sides. When the Empire court-martialed the former Sadow disciple Mairin Astoris and tried to have her executed, it sent ripples through the Clan, and Caerick and the Seven knew it would soon be time to act.

Zorrixor began having nightmares of a series of unknown voices, centered on the recently discovered world Klind’arith. Some years earlier, Klind’arith’s population had been found to have an unusually high rate of Force-sensitives and envoys had routinely been dispatched to find fresh candidates. After contact with several envoys was lost and Alex Church returned from the planet with an unexplained illness, the Empire requested the Clan investigate. Caerick sensed something amiss and returned to help lead the expedition to the planet to unearth the truth, ruling it a matter of urgency. However, when they arrived the Imperial Navy laid siege, trying to trap the expedition party on the surface, causing Caerick to abandon the mission and hurry back to Eos.

Kurien, the former Klind'arithi high shaman who became the self-styled "Lord of Vampires".

On Klind’arith, the expedition discovered Kurien, a native Klind’arithi shaman who appeared to be immortal and had an impossibly high midichlorian count. In 12 ABY the Brotherhood had taken Kurien captive and experimented on him to discover the source of his condition. However, Kurien mutated and became addicted to midichlorians, requiring more to stay alive and turning those he fed off into mindless slaves. The Empire had deliberately returned him to Klind’arith to use as bait to lure the Clan there and destroy them. Kurien appeared unstoppable until Zorrixor obtained the ancient Sith artifact that was the source of the Klind’arithi population’s gifts and finally slew him.

Troubled by the Empire’s betrayal at Klind’arith, the Clan returned to Phare to discover the system had been placed under Imperial lockdown. The system had been left lightly guarded, the Empire having thought the Clan destroyed on Klind’arith. Lord Sadow and Count Zorrixor led an assault on Sadow Palace to regain control while the rest of the Clan performed a series of clandestine raids on Ullyr, Frigg and Loki to quietly infiltrate the system.

Days passed and there was no word from Caerick or further action by the Empire. Fearing the worst, Zorrixor instructed the Clan to prepare for the exodus and loaded the ships in readiness to depart. Finally, Caerick contacted them with news: the Brotherhood had been betrayed and the Exodus had been authorised. The Empire had signed a peace treaty with the Republic forcing the Seven’s hand. There had already been a battle over Eos, but the Empire had called in reinforcements from their new allies in the Republic and the Brotherhood had been forced to retreat when its flagship, the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Avenger, was destroyed.

The Clan began a mass evacuation of Phare. But the clock was ticking: the Battle of Eos was over and Imperial forces were now on their way. With the arrival of an Inquisition battle fleet, Count Zorrixor ordered self-destruct sequences be initiated throughout the system, choosing to take the Empire with them before surrendering their secrets. On Frigg one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the Clan took place at Dargbar'rh Stronghold in what would become known as the Battle of Darkened Hearts, where the warrior named Ace died fighting to defend those he had served with.

In space, Zorrixor took command of the assembled forces. However, the Battle of Phare was not so much a battle but a massacre. The Clan was ill prepared to hold off a fleet of Star Destroyers and their fighter wings fought to hold the Empire off to provide their evacuation convoy enough time to escape. Hope appearance lost at the arrival an Imperial interdictor. But Lord Sadow had one last card to play and revealed the hidden secret of Sadow Palace: that it was built on top of a prototype Star Destroyer. Sadow sent the palace on a suicide run against the interdictor, securing the Clan the opening it needed to escape to hyperspace.

The Clan rendezvoused with Caerick and the other survivors of the Battle of Eos in nearby Wild Space. With the battle over, the clans went their separate ways to begin rebuilding; the disciples of Sadow journeying across the Galaxy with the main fleet to Antei and Orian.