Korroth is a Consular Warrior of House Odan-Urr. He is a [[starwars:Pau'an|Pau'an] from [[starwars:Utapau|Utapau], who has traveled the galaxy as a [[starwars:Xenobiologist|xenobiologist] and geneticist before coming to the Dark Jedi Brotherhood in 24 ABY. In 33 ABY he renounced the Dark Side and adopted the personal motto "I serve the Light", which signifies his dedication to aid and protect those in need. Despite being a Jedi and a Disciple of Odan-Urr, he is skeptical of both the [[starwars:Unifying_Force|Unifying] and Living Force]]]] theories, and he is reluctant to simply follow his instincts. Instead he prefers to rely on his own sense of what is right and wrong.
Character History
(N.B. all dates converted to Galactic Standard Calendar)
Early life
Birth and Background
Before 135 BBY
File:Utapau and moons.jpegUtapauKorroth Karn and his twin brother (born Korren and Turren respectively) came into the world on the 11th day of the 5th month in the year 135 BBY in the [[starwars:Sinkhole|sinkhole] of Ika in the equatorial Tarbauri region of the planet [[starwars:Utapau|Utapau], to parents Mavane Noren (628 BBY-? ABY) and Tuvon Hroth (653 BBY-[[starwars:102_BBY|102 BBY]). Tarbaur, in which Ika and a dozen other inhabited sinkholes reside, is a remote region of equatorial Utapau which had had very little outside contact since Utapau’s drastic climate change many millennia BBY. The hyperwind storms]]] caused by this climate change meant that little to no inhabited centers could exist outside of Ika and the twelve other city-sinkholes, and the locals seldom ventured to the surface. However, despite the segregation enforced by the hyperwind storms, the thirteen sinkholes had almost always been in conflict with each other. Throughout Tarbaur’s history the city-states had invaded each other, conquered and rebelled against conquerors and burned each other to cinders, with empires rising to command all the sinkholes only to crumble in a matter of years.
This state of constant war continued until about six centuries BBY (N.B. average Pau'an] lifespan is thought to be 600-700 standard years [http://www.wizards.com/starwars/downloads/Saga_Ed_Web_Enhancement_Pauans.pdf [1), when the warlord of Ika, one of the major powers during that period, was murdered by his trusted Pau’an servant, Tuvroth Hroth. In the chaos that ensued, this servant united the lowly soldiers and peasantry (mostly Utai]) of all the sinkholes and convinced them to revolt against the warlords and the nobility (composed almost solely of Pau’ans). This was unprecedented in the history of Tarbaur, because the lower class and the soldiers had always remained meek and subservient to the patricians. Tuvroth was quick to capitalize on this, and after executing almost all those belonging to the higher class he nominated himself Tuvon, autocrat of the six sinkholes, to the acclamation of his people.
What followed was almost four centuries of undisturbed peace, achieved by Tuvon Hroth with the deadly application of law and order. The populace was forced back into their obediently state by the threat, constantly reminded to them, of life imprisonment and exile to the planet surface, and by rumors of torture and secret executions. To deal with any persistent “agitators”, Tuvon formed the Arbiters, a covert cabal of what could only have been [[starwars:Force-sensitive|Force-using] [[starwars:Utapaun|Utapauns], who used their “incantations]]” to distort and alter any captured dissenters’ minds until they became docile law-abiding citizens of Tuvon’s regime.
Despite Tuvon’s efforts and as the years and decades and centuries passed, a small number of dissenters slipped through the regime’s security net, the most prominent of those being the dictator’s own wife, Mavane Noren. Tuvon never suspected his seemingly loyal wife, and the Arbiters wouldn’t have dared to investigate their master’s own consort, so Mavane was both in the safest position in the thirteen sinkholes and in the best spot to strike a blow at Tuvon. She also had enough influence to protect the other dissenters without arousing suspicion, so over the course of almost three hundred years the underground dissident “Council” was able to prepare the overthrow of Tuvon’s regime.
However, the Council was forced to drastically accelerate their plans when Mavane was found to be pregnant with Tuvon’s child in the latter half of the year 136 BBY. On the 34th day of the 9th month of the year 136 BBY the Council executed a carefully staged coup d'état that overthrew Tuvon’s regime quickly and efficiently, with no bloodshed. Tuvon and his government officials were first imprisoned, then exiled to the planet surface. This was a virtual death sentence, since life outside the sinkholes was nigh to impossible; but at least there would be no blood on the Council’s hands. None of the Arbiters were ever found, as not even Mavane knew their true identities. The Council’s main concern as it began dismantling the structure of the regime were the growing numbers of different parties and factions, which arose from the sudden freedom of expression allowed and each of which demanded the authority to carry out their different policies and ideas. In an attempt to delay the possible outbreak of violent cashes, the Council promulgated a law that allowed a permanent government to be erected only after Tuvon’s regime had been completely dismantled, in approximately fifty standard years. Meanwhile, the Council would function as a provisional government. During this time, the Council hoped to personally attend to the upbringing of Mavane’s yet unborn twins (it was discovered that Mavane was carrying twins sometime in the 2nd month of the year 135 BBY), indoctrinating them to what the Council thought would be the best ideals and aspirations of the future government. Then, in about fifty years’ time, the Council would try to place Mavane’s offspring at the presidency of the permanent government.
Formation and Education
135 BBY to 107 BBY
The sinkhole of IkaBy the time that the twins were born in 135 BBY, the political tension had subsided. Since a permanent government, where the parties would be able to gain position and influence, would only be created after the thorough demolition of Tuvon’s regime system, the parties were actually trying their best to collaborate in the reorganization of the political and social structure of the Tarbauri sinkholes. Whilst the parties labored, the Council, of which Mavane herself was part, was able to dedicate much of its time to the twins’ instruction. Since early childhood Korren and Turren’s mother and various governesses encouraged them to play didactic games, and their mother often read them fables with moral lessons. The Council tried to develop in them the ideas of truth, honesty and honor, friendship, love, loyalty, compassion, poverty and wealth, generosity, and as they grew older the value of peace, nonviolence, freedom, law and order, democracy, equality (especially between Utai and Pau’ans), individual rights, ethical codes and even etiquette. Furthermore, even before their birth, the Council had decided that the twins were not to be told of their father’s real identity, lest they feel compassion or empathy for the ex-dictator and his ways. The twins would be taught the history of the past five hundred years, but they would not know that the dictator was their father. This allowed the twins’ tutors to use Tuvon’s reign as an example of what despotism, cruelty, heartlessness and a thirst for power would bring.
Their formal education began at the age of eight, and by 110 BBY they were being taught the details of the new and developing legal system of Tarbaur, the intricacies of politics and the government, the ancient history of the sinkholes and prominent works of literature and philosophy, the dialects of the different sinkholes, the skills of rhetorics and the workings of Tarbaur’s economic system. The Council was quite pleased with the progress that the twins were making on these subjects, however they were unsure of what to make of the twins’ growing interest in the more scientific disciplines, like arithmetics, the study of matter and its interaction with space, time and energy, the study of animal, plant and humanoid lifeforms and the study of chemistry and geology. What the Utapauns of Tarbaur knew on these fields was mainly due to the work of Tuvon’s ex-scientists, and only these scientists would be able to impart the knowledge that the twins desired. Most of the Council was reluctant to let Utapauns who had been so close to the deposed dictator hold sway over the twins, but they gave in to the insistence of both the twins and Mavane, under the condition that the scientists would be closely watched for attempts to influence the twins politically (and possibly to make sure that they did not reveal Tuvon to be the twins’ father).
As the twins grew into their twenties, their personalities and identities developed and matured. However, one thing that remained unchanged since infancy was the twins’ devotion to each other. They were inseparable, and they shared every emotion, experience and secrets that not even their mother suspected. They were so attached to each other that they often seemed to have the same thoughts and feelings without needing to communicate, and some Utapauns found it difficult to distinguish between the two of them because they were so alike both in mind and appearance. The twins’ character also developed in other directions. They were both avid learners of knowledge, especially science, as proved by their diligence and enthusiasm towards their studies. Even in their spare time they would engage in experiments that ranged from the effects of antibacterial fungi to astronomical observations. The Council also urged them to take part in Council meetings and political assignments, and at the age of 25 they were appointed Vice-Councillors to Councillor Mavane. With their influence in the temporary government they were able to play a role in various important political issues, like the devolution of power to the single sinkhole city-states, the development of the new judicial system and the allocation of the various responsibilities and duties of government to the different ministries and departments.
The only difference noticeable between the twins was their interest in their father. Their mother, who with the rest of the Council had decided not to tell the twins that Tuvon was their father, had instead told them that he had been a resistance fighter who had been captured and killed just before the overthrow of Tuvon’s regime. Turren had always accepted this explanation, but Korren was much more inquisitive. He often asked questions on his father’s past, and he was never satisfied by Mavane’s vague answers. He also queried Utapauns whom he thought might have been close to his father, but even these people (under the instructions of the Council) never gave him straight answers.
Revelation
107 BBY
The scientists who taught the twins were likely to have noticed this peculiar trait of Korren. One day early in 107 BBY, when most of the Council had gone to an assembly in a neighboring sinkhole, the scientists managed to catch Korren on his own. With Turren busy on some other level of the sinkhole, the scientists told Korren that, if he promised to keep the meeting a secret, they would divulge a significant amount of information about his father. Korren agreed with almost no hesitation, despite the fact that he knew the promise would prevent him from telling even his brother of whatever he learned.
The scientists begun by recounting how, since the beginning of Tarbaur’s recorded history, the thirteen city-sinkholes had been locked in a state of constant war against each other. By the seventh century BBY, most sinkholes were ruled by a Pau’an aristocracy, which exploited the Utai lower class and heedlessly expended Utai lives in futile inter-sinkhole wars. This was most evident in Ika, where Utai lived in appalling poverty. The scientists went on to relate, in this and subsequent secret meetings, that a young Tuvroth Hroth united the lower castes of all the sinkholes in revolt against their overlords, thus ending the cycle of wars and commencing an age of peace and prosperity. For hundreds of years the “Golden Age” of Tarbaur endured, until the revolutionary Council overthrew and exiled Tuvon in 136 BBY.
Thus far, the scientists’ narration matched the historical events that Korren had been taught, but they were told in such a way that Tuvon was seen to act for the good of his people, rather than for his thirst for power. This was contrary to Korren’s education, but the scientists put his beliefs in serious doubt when they spun a carefully prepared account of how the Council had forced themselves into power with the intention of gradually reverting Tarbaur back to the chaotic times before Tuvon’s reign. To prove them right, the scientists told Korren to ask discrete but specific questions to several people in and near to the Council. The scientists needed only to wait for Korren to work it out for himself, since they already knew the answers he would receive.
Korren spent almost half a year placing these seemingly innocuous questions; he was always careful not to arouse suspicion, especially from his brother. This was difficult and unpleasant for him, because he had never kept secrets from his brother. However, when he had finished, he had confirmed in his mind not only that the scientists’ words were true, but also that Turren and he were the sons of Tuvon Hroth.
On the 30th day of the 8th month of 107 BBY he met again with the scientists (whom he had by then identified as the remnants of the Arbiters) and told them of his findings. In a short ceremony in one of the caverns at the base of the sinkhole of Ika, the Arbiters re-baptized him Korroth Von Hroth, son of Tuvroth’von Hroth. For the time being, he would be called Korroth only during their secret meetings, but the Arbiters told him of a plan to thwart the Council’s schemes and return Tarbaur to the Golden Age. This idea greatly excited Korroth. The discovery that the Council and his own mother had been lying to him and his brother about their father, and Tuvon’s true accomplishments, and the Council’s true aim had left Korroth feeling both angry and sad. The destruction of the Council now seemed to him the only option if descent into war and chaos was to be stopped.
Unbeknownst to Korroth, Turren had followed him to this meeting with the Arbiters and he had heard every word spoken. Turren had for some time noticed changes in Korroth’s behavior. He saw that his brother spent a lot more time on his own, and he seemed to have gradually become more hostile to the Council. He knew Korroth was keeping secrets from him, but what he heard in the caves shocked him to the core. He came out of his hiding place and confronted Korroth, calling on him to see the lies of the Arbiters. Instead, Korroth tried to convince his brother that it was the Council who had lied to them, that if they joined forces they could restore Ika to how it was before. It is likely that, during the exchange, the Arbiters used their “incantations” to alter Korroth’s state of mind, as he felt angrier and angrier at his brother’s defiance. His fury eventually burst out; he felt a powerful force, never experienced before, course through his arm, and he snapped his brother’s neck. As his brother’s last breath left his body, so did Korroth’s rage dissipate. He simply fell into a listless shock when what he had done dawned upon him.
Post-Fratricide
107 BBY
An Ikan Civil GuardKorroth awoke two days later in an Ikan prison cell. He was still dazed; he only half heard from the Arbiters in the adjacent cells that the Civil Guard had discovered and arrested them soon after Turren’s death, and now the Council was deliberating on their fate. Sometime later Korroth asked to see his mother, but a message from Mavane herself denied the request. Four further days passed before Korroth was told that he was to be exiled to the planet surface, never to return to any of the Tarbauri sinkholes upon pain of death. He did not hear the sentences passed on the other Arbiters.
Exile to the surface meant a slow and dehydrated death under the beating sun. To the North and West of the Tarbauri sinkholes rose an insurmountable mountain range over which hyperwind storms from the South broke. To the South and East was an endless expanse of shifting sand dunes, of which the boundaries had never been reached by even the most intrepid Tarbauri explorers. However, Korroth hardly cared, and he was barely aware as the whole Council, including his mother, escorted him by dactillion to the surface and read to him his sentence. He was set on his way, with little water and food, on the evening of the 1st day of the 9th month of 107 BBY.
At first he wandered eastwards, his thoughts still clouded by the pain from his murder of Turren, and the rejection of his mother. As night descended and the temperature dropped, the cold began to clear his mind. Still marching aimlessly onwards, he put his grief to one side for the moment and attempted to reason with what had happened since he had first met with the Arbiters. Examining both the Arbiters’ and the Council’s views, he was able to discern that the Arbiters had indeed lied about many things. Tuvon’s reign had been a cruel dictatorship, and the Council had liberated Tarbaur from his oppression. On the other hand, it seemed as though the Council may have exaggerated Tuvon’s vileness. Maybe Tuvon did indeed intend to do the good of Tarbaur, only he did it with the wrong methods. Korroth fervently wanted to believe this, because he knew for certain that Tuvon was his father.
When the sun came up the next day, Korroth realized that his deliberations were futile, because his father and his brother were dead, his mother and Ika had rejected him and he would soon die and be buried under the sand. With his mind sinking back into a well of pain and despair, he continued to plod eastwards along the feet of the mountain range. His food was finished by the third day out in the desert, and he drank the last drop of water on the fifth day. He expected to be drowned in the sands of a hyperwind storm at any moment, but two further days passed with nothing on the horizon. Finally, on the eighth day, his legs gave way beneath him and he slumped to the sand. Just before passing out, he glimpsed a green flicker on the mountainside above him.
Rescue and Tribe Zathruma
107 BBY
The first thing he noticed when he came around was that he was in the shade. Then came his thirst, and then he realized that he was still alive.
Later, when he had fully recovered, a swarthy Pau’an in the tent assured him that he was safe; he had found Korroth while on a scouting expedition to the Tarbauri desert, and now he would bring Korroth back with him to the Tribe of Zathruma. He explained that this was a Pau’an tribe that lived on the lower slopes on the other side of Tarbaur’s northern mountain ranges, which the tribesman called the Med Zathruma (literally the “Peaks that Stab the Sun”). Korroth learned that there were numerous other nomadic Pau’an tribes that travelled the steppes (called the Sazarel, literally the “Sun Lands”) North of the Med Zathruma. They lived on hunting and herding various livestock, and they found water in the deep narrow canyons that crisscrossed the steppes. They survived the frequent hyperwind storms by taking refuge in the mountains or the canyons.
The tribesman, called Udhren Uter, continued to explain that these nomad tribes had historically kept their distance from the sinkholes of Tarbaur. This was primarily because of the resources required to scale the Med Zathruma. Also, up until about five centuries ago, every scout or emissary that had been sent to Tarbaur had come back reporting brutal battles and endless wars, so the tribes had tried to keep away from that sanguinary region. However, for the past four centuries Tribe Zathruma had made sporadic contact with the sinkholes, which now seemed to have turned their backs on war.
At this Korroth realized that Udhren’s tribe must have communicated with his own father, because he had been in power during that time. If this was so, there was a remote chance that the Zathrumi had found and rescued Tuvon after his exile in 136 BBY. Udhren confirmed that the Pau’an Tuvon Hroth had indeed been rescued from the Tarbauri desert, much like Korroth. Furthermore, Tuvon was now the Chieftain of Tribe Zathruma. Udhren refused to say more, stating that Korroth should form his own opinion on Tuvon. Because of this, Korroth chose to withhold the fact that he was Tuvon’s son; he did not know if the tribesmen of Zathruma were the willing followers of Tuvon or his subjugated thralls.
While they made their way down the Med Zathruma, Udhren attempted to ask many questions about Tuvon’s reign in Tarbaur, but Korroth himself was not sure if he knew the answers. He was quite certain of the validity of most of the historical events that he had been taught in Ika, but he did not know why Tuvon had done those things. Was it out of pure craving for dominion over Utapauns and their souls, or was it out of a twisted attempt to ensure the prosperity and peace of the society he had become responsible for? For this reason, he made it clear to Udhren that he would not say anything about this subject for now.
The two Pau’ans spent a week trekking down the mountains. During this time they became friends, despite the imposed silence on the subject of Tuvon. When they finally reached the main camp of the tribe, the Zathrumi tribesmen greeted Korroth with great curiosity and what seemed to be a shadow of fear, especially when Udhren told them where the outlander came from. But Korroth was not left to think much on this strange reaction, as he soon recognized Tuvon. He was an old and frail-looking Pau’an, but his resemblances to Korroth’s brother made his identity unmistakable. Korroth had to suppress once more the memory of his brother and extricate himself from the crowd before he could talk to Tuvon privately. He tried to be reserved until he could see who his father really was as a person, but eventually he ended up revealing everything to Tuvon, perhaps simply because he was so relieved to be with his true father. He told Tuvon that Turren and he were his sons, then he outlined what had happened in Tarbaur in the last thirty years, and he told him about the Arbiters and even of his doubts about why Tuvon had done what he had done during his reign, and finally he told of how he had killed his brother.
Instead of loathing him like the people of Ika or repudiating him like his mother, Tuvon comforted Korroth and told him that what he had done could not have been avoided. Not even those closest to one’s heart can be spared if they stand in the way of peace, he said. In the succeeding days, Tuvon talked to Korroth about how both the Council and the Arbiters had been wrong and misguided. Neither of them had recognized that enduring peace was what a leader was to strive for, with the exception of all else. Whatever threatened to promote war or disrupt peace must be destroyed.
This seemed to confirm Korroth’s fears. His father was trying to bring peace to his people, but he was doing it in the wrong manner. The most obvious display of this was how Tuvon had progressively accumulated weapons and trained his tribesmen in their use since he had taken the Chieftain’s seat in the tribe. More recently, he had damaged relations with other tribes by mining ores and stealing resources from their territories. Korroth asked Udhren how Tuvon reconciled to the tribe such bellicose behavior with his ambitions of peace. Udhren answered that Tuvon had explained many times to the tribe that, in order to achieve lasting peace, it was often necessary to take initial military action. Udhren suspected that Tuvon intended to arm the whole of Zathruma Tribe and then march over the mountains to occupy once again the Tarbauri sinkholes. This armed force would be so large that the sinkholes would probably surrender without blood being shed.
The final straw came when an emissary from Tribe Ezzekiel, a quite faraway group of nomads, arrived at the camp. She had come to ask Tuvon to retreat several of his tribesmen from Ezzekieli land. In response to this Tuvon imprisoned the emissary and started to question her, believing that the smaller western tribes were plotting to unite against him. Korroth was forced to watch as Tuvon’s henchmen tortured the emissary, while Tuvon spoke of sacrificing the few to serve the many.
Escape and Tribe Ezzekiel
107 BBY
As soon as night fell, Korroth secured Udhren’s help and they fled the camp with the Ezzekieli envoy, who was by now unconscious. Udhren was an expert scout, so he knew that Tribe Ezzekiel was far to the West. Riding a varactyl, they were able to put a fair distance between themselves and the Zathrumi camp; however, in the morning they saw that they were being chased by a troop of varactyl riders. They were able to outride them until they entered another tribe’s territory, at which point their pursuers turned back.
File:Sazareli steppes.jpegThe Sazareli steppesWhen they reached the camp of that tribe, they explained their plight and pleaded for hospitality while the Ezzekieli emissary healed from her wounds. Tribe Zagrel, as they were called, had also been offended by Zathruma’s incursions into their lands, so they sympathized with Udhren and Korroth, but they could not risk openly antagonizing Tribe Zathruma. They offered to provide an escort until they reached Tribe Agrazarp further to the West. The three Pau’ans travelled to Tribe Agrazarp, which was similarly unfriendly towards Tuvon and his tribe, and they stayed there for two weeks. During this time the Ezzekieli envoy, Isaha Ezzeki, recovered from her ordeal in the hands of Tuvon. Also, they received word from Tribe Zagrel that Zathrumi tribesmen had come looking for them at the Zagreli camp, but the Chieftain had managed to lead them onto a false trail.
Thus heartened, they set off on their journey to Tribe Ezzekiel, accompanied by tribesmen from Tribe Zagrel and Tribe Agrazarp. As they rode West through the Sazareli steppes they encountered many other tribes, all of which had, at one point or another, been offended by Tuvon’s actions. Many sent representatives to join, by varactyl or dactillion, the growing party of travelers. As they drew close to Ezzekieli land, there were so many tribes represented in their group that it was decided to call a gathering of the tribes at the Ezzekieli camp, where all the different tribes’ delegates would discuss what action was to be taken against Tribe Zathruma.
In the course of their journey, Korroth spent much time with Isaha and they grew close. It is possible that Korroth was at first attracted to Isaha’s passion for her own tribe. She was the Chieftain’s daughter, and she had told Korroth of the plans and prospects she had for the future of her tribe. Up until discovering that Tuvon was his true father, Korroth and his brother had looked up to their apparent deceased father as an example of what they themselves should be. Since discovering that Tuvon was their father, this idol was shattered in Korroth’s mind (and even more irrevocably so when he met Tuvon in person), and he lost a point of reference for his own actions, a figure which set what he should strive for. As he got to know Isaha, he unconsciously reshaped that idol into her. However, by the time that they had reached the Ezzekieli camp, Korroth’s relationship with Isaha had grown from what could have been simple admiration to ardent love.
Upon arriving at the Ezzekieli camp, Udhren and Korroth were showered with praise for having saved Isaha from the clutches of Tuvon, both with open celebration and private thanks from Chieftain Ismer Ezzeki. Soon after, all of the delegates from each tribe gathered in the chieftain’s tent and began discussing Tribe Zathruma’s fate. Korroth did not did not speak at the meeting, but during the journey to the camp he had spoken to most of the delegates, and he had persuaded many of them that Tuvon must be stopped. Before the meeting, he had told Chieftain Ismer of what Tuvon had done even before coming to Tribe Zathruma, thus convincing him also that Tuvon was a danger against which the tribes must join forces. In the meeting, the delegates were reluctant to actually start a war with Tribe Zathruma, because in the past the tribes had always contrived to resolve their differences diplomatically. Yet, in the end, they agreed that if they did not take up arms and make a stand now, Tuvon would gradually overcome them one by one. They decided on the time and place where they would muster their warriors, and they elected Ismer Ezzeki as the Grand Chieftain, to lead the combined forces of the tribes against Tribe Zathruma.
After the meeting Chieftain Ismer asked Korroth to both join Tribe Ezzekiel and become his aide-de-camp, because Tuvon was likely to employ military tactics that he had originally learned in Tarbaur. Korroth agreed, but to become an Ezzekieli Tribesman he would first have to, as part of a rite of passage, trek on a flightless dactillion across the desert West of Ezzekieli land for four days without food or water. Then he would come back to the tribe and stay for two more days closed in a tent, surrounded by urns full of water, without drinking a single drop of it if he was to pass the test. Korroth was afraid that he would not be physically able to succeed in this test, but he did not give up, because he knew that as a Tribesman of Tribe Ezzekiel he would be able to finally be together with Isaha. Before setting off, Korroth asked Isaha for her hand in marriage, to be wed if he returned successful from his rite of passage. Isaha said yes, and Korroth embarked on his trial with a jubilant heart.
Trial and Marriage
107 BBY to 106 BBY
File:Karnashu.jpegThe KarnashuThe lands that lay beyond the mountains directly North of the Tarbauri region were mainly semi-arid steppes crisscrossed by canyons, but towards the West they became more and more barren. The Ezzekieli territories were therefore mainly parched desert, and to the West of Tribe Ezzekiel was just sterile golden-yellow sand where no tribes dwelled, a lifeless desert called the Karnashu. Korroth traversed this expanse of sand dunes, riding a dactillion with its wings tied down by ropes as per the rules of the rite of passage, until he reached the Med Ushibri, a tall and narrow peak jutting out of the golden sand. There, he carved his initials, KH, onto the rock (using the alphabet of the Sazareli tribes), next to those of the many other Pau’ans who had come here to complete their rites. Exhausted and with a hyperwind storm coming, he was forced to take refuge for a full day and night in a crevice of the craggy peak. Then he once again set out across the desert, both the dactillion and him fatigued and gasping for water.
When he returned to the camp and was ushered into the tent full of water, he thought the ordeal had finished, and he could simply rest away from the scorching sun. Instead, he soon found out that those would be the two hardest days of the trial. The sight and even the smell of the cool water which he could not touch in those open urns was the only thing on his mind; he could not sleep or take his mind off them, even the stabbing pain in his desiccated throat was overshadowed by his thirst. After an eternity of parched anguish, Isaha herself came to retrieve him and proclaim that he was now Korroth Von Hroth Ezzekieli. Upon the sight of her, his love for her overcame him and he swore that he would not touch water until he drank from the wedding cup that would seal their marriage.
Thus the whole tribe gathered for a feast to celebrate both the completion of a rite of passage and a marriage. After a rich banquet, the newlyweds departed for a short honeymoon on the shores of the Der Crabsi, a great salt flat North of the Sazarel that stretched northwards as far as the eye could see. They did not have much time to spend together, though, because the armies of the allied tribes had already been mustered, and they were marching towards the Zathrumi camp. Isaha and Korroth reached them by dactillion only when the fighting had already begun.
The Redsand War
106 BBY to 104 BBY
The size of the allied armies had taken Tribe Zathruma by surprise, and by the time Isaha and Korroth had arrived the Zathrumi forces had started to retreat. However, they did not seem to be fleeing in a full rout yet, and the allied armies soon discovered why. From the East came vast numbers of varactyl-mounted warriors from the eastern tribes that paid tributes to Tuvon. The allied armies were outnumbered and pushed back against the Med Zathruma. Being mainly composed of dactillion-mounted troops, they were able to retreat and avoid being surrounded. Despite the relatively few losses, this defeat disheartened the allied tribes. They had expected the combined forces of the allied armies to be able to overpower and subdue Tribe Zathruma in a single battle, but instead they found that this would be just the beginning of a long and drawn-out war that would involve all of the Sazareli tribes.
The forces that had defeated the allied armies in that first battle had been levied from the protectorate tribes to the East that Tuvon had forced into submission in his thirty years as the Zathrumi Chieftain. After the first battle, Tuvon easily gained total control of those armies and marched West, trying to catch up to the retreating allied armies. All of the camps of the allied tribes had already been dismantled and the tribes were hastily migrating away from the advancing armies. However, tribes like the Zagreli and Agrazarpi, which had been nearest to Tribe Zathruma, were overtaken by Tuvon’s armies and slaughtered to the last Pau’an. Small detachments from the allied armies were sent to skirmish with Tuvon’s armies in an attempt to slow them down, but eventually the allied armies and the tribes that had survived the retreat reached Ezzekieli territory. Here they were forced to stop and make a stand, because beyond was the Karnashu, where the tribes would die from dehydration as surely as from a spear.
Yet, to the surprise of the allied Chieftains, every time Tuvon’s forces attempted to cross the sand dunes to assault the allied armies they were easily broken and forced back by the dactillion-mounted troops. This was, the allied Chieftains realized, because the varactyl-mounted soldiers of Tuvon got bogged down in the sand of the desert, while the flying allied troops showered them with arrows from above. Thus the allied armies were able to push Tuvon’s forces out of Ezzekieli land. They did not dare to advance further into the steppes, as there the varactyls would have the advantage.
During this time, Korroth was able to advise Chieftain Ismer and the other Chieftains on many of the weaponry and strategies used by Tuvon’s forces. The tribes of the Sazarel still fought with spears and bows and arrows, but Tuvon had brought many new technologies from Tarbaur, like crossbows and large ballistas mounted on the backs of varactyls. Several scouts even described what Korroth recognized as rudimentary gunpowder cannons. Korroth knew that Tuvon would not be able to carry these across sand dunes, but they still posed a threat if the allied armies ever tried to fight Tuvon’s forces on the steppes.
Almost three years passed without either army making any headway, despite facing each other in battle many times. These battles were often interrupted by hyperwind storms, when the soldiers wold retreat in a sort of uneasy mutual truce. It was during one of these storms, towards the end of 105 BBY, that Korroth realized how to attack Tuvon’s army from behind. They would have to wait for a hyperwind storm blowing from West to East, so that when both armies had retreated and taken refuge in canyons and caves, several units of dactillion-mounted soldiers could fly into the storm and be carried by it well beyond the enemy lines, without even being detected.
He proposed this strategy to the Chieftains, who had to reluctantly accept. They knew this would be a very risky strategy, and many Pau’ans would be lost in the storm alone; however, Tuvon had cut off all routes to the East and North, so that the resources of the allied tribes had almost been depleted, and many Pau’ans were already starving. Two months passed before a suitably mild hyperwind storm approached from the West. The dactillion squadrons were ready and Korroth flew into the storm with them in order to ensure the success of the operation, despite Isaha’s pleading to stay. After almost a full day being tossed about in the air, the squadrons were able to land very far to the East, where the storm had dissipated. Korroth found that less than half of the riders had made it, the rest had been blown away by the force of the storm and were likely dead. They flew close to the ground back towards the West, until they caught sight of the rear of Tuvon’s forces and the allied armies beyond them. There they signaled the Chieftains of the allied armies to begin their attack. This full frontal assault captured the full attention of Tuvon’s troops, thus allowing Korroth’s squadrons to reach the enemy’s rear lines without being seen.
The combined front and rear attacks were completely unexpected and enormously devastating. The rear flanks of Tuvon’s army broke under the assault by Korroth’s dactillions and fled to the front. There, they found the front lines already engaging the full allied armies. Tuvon and his generals, who were in tents at the rear of the army, were captured as soon as the fighting had started, so that Tuvon’s troops ran in every direction without orders or officers to direct them. Eventually, when Tuvon’s forces had been fully surrounded on the 12th day of the first month of 104 BBY, Chieftain Ismer called for the fighting to stop and for Tuvon’s soldiers to drop their weapons. He offered them safe return to their lands to the East, under the condition that they would never again march under the banner of a single leader. Many of Tuvon’s soldiers were glad to be free of his tyrannical rule and were relieved to be able to return home alive.
Tuvon, however, was hauled back to the Ezzekieli camp. There he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life on the Med Ushibri, where food and water would be brought to him by young Pau’ans on their rite of passage. After that, all the tribes gathered one last time to celebrate the end of the two-year “Redsand War”. Korroth went to the Chieftains’ banquet, but strangely he did not see Isaha there. He went look for her in their tent, meaning to urge her to join the festivities. Once there he found her in bed with another Pau’an. At first there was just a stunned silence from both Isaha and Korroth, but then Korroth felt rage surge through him, the same that he had felt before killing his brother. He strangled her with his own hands, until he had squeezed the very last breath out of her. His fury, however, did not evaporate as her lifeless body hit the ground, like it had for Turren. Korroth felt as if he would not be sated until he had butchered the whole tribe. So he ran as fast as he could out of the camp, stealing a dactillion and flying North for the whole night.
Post-Uxoricide
104 BBY
File:Der Crabsi salt flat.jpegThe Der CrabsiAt sunrise, Korroth let the gasping dactillion land. He saw that he was far out in the Der Crabsi, the salt flats that extended across the whole of northern Sazarel. To the South the sand dunes of Ezzekieli land had disappeared from sight; to the West and North the dazzling white of the salt plains stretched out as far as the eye could see, apart from a sharp rock formation somewhere in the distance. Extending along the whole eastern horizon was the dark front of a hyperwind storm. Korroth knew he could not make it back to Ezzekieli land in time to take refuge from the storm, so he started northwards, where he hoped to find a cave or crevice in the rock formation in the distance. By flight and foot, he reached the low hills by nightfall and took refuge in a cave; soon after the hyperwind storm hit them full force, its power unabated by klicks and klicks of flat land.
Hyperwind storms were relatively frequent in the Der Crabsi, because there were no mountains or elevations to stop even the most humble of storms from growing into hyperwinds. Therefore Korroth had no choice but to continue northward, where he could see a succession of peaks below which he could take shelter. He traveled only in the blinding light of day, to reduce the risk of failing to see a storm coming from far off. His only hope was to reach the northern shores of the Der Crabsi before he or his dactillion died of dehydration. By now, the vigorous emotions of a few days past had been eroded away by the beating sun and blasting wind; little else was on his mind other than reaching the next peak before a hyperwind storm caught him in the open. He trudged on for he knew not how many days, until a subdued hyperwind caught him flying in the open; he was hurled to the ground and lost consciousness.
Korroth was awakened by the smell of water. He was faintly aware of lying close to a pool, so he dragged himself to it and took small sips, resisting the compulsion to down large gulps. Over the course of several hours he managed to revive himself enough to examine his surroundings. What he saw at first made him conclude that he was in fact dead and in heaven. All around him were leafy trees and verdant shrubs, and the ground was covered with lustrous grass of a vivid green that he had never seen before. The pond beside him reflected the green of the foliage around it, and he saw shimmering creatures darting about in its depths. From behind the trees came the calls of strange animals and above him glided gaudily colored birds.
The Renascence Pledge
104 BBY
As soon as he was well enough to travel he began to explore this extraordinary place. He found that it consisted mainly of a network of narrow steep-sided valleys, sided by high mountains and cut through by several streams. For the next few days he was completely engrossed by the astonishing variety of new lifeforms that he was able to observe and examine. This was until he found his injured dactillion in one of the valleys. The whimpering animal brought back to Korroth’s mind his grueling march through the Der Crabsi. Then, for the first time since his self-imposed exile, he remembered his murder of Isaha.
At that moment, Korroth realized that he might as well have let himself die in the middle of the Der Crabsi, because he had nothing left to live for. As young Pau’ans, he and his brother had lived to serve their people, the Utapauns of Ika, but when Korroth had killed his brother those same people exiled him. He had survived the Tarbauri desert in the hope that he would find his father, and thus find in him a hand to guide him to his purpose in life; but when had he met Tuvon he confirmed that his father was indeed as unhinged as he had suspected. Then he fell in love with Isaha, and there he thought that he could place his heart for the rest of his life. Korroth now saw that he had incited the tribes into entering war with Tuvon, and he had fought and spilled Pau’an blood, not for the good of the tribes or the Ezzekieli people, but solely for Isaha. But then he had killed her. He had ripped from this world the only purpose he had remaining in this life.
Hence, he climbed up the highest peak he could see and poised himself on the edge. He was completely devoid of emotion at that moment; he did not feel sad for what he had lost or angry at the mistakes he had done, because his life had ended even before he poised himself to jump. A gust of wind swept past him and almost shoved him over the edge, and suddenly a spasm of terror gripped him and he threw himself back from the precipice. At first he could not understand what he had done. Then it dawned upon him that his pang of fear, the fear for his own life, had revealed to him the purpose of his life. His raison d'être was his own self, Korroth Von Hroth.
Standing on the windswept Renascence Peak (as he later called it) on the 33rd day of the first month of 104 BBY, Korroth pledged that from thence his every thought and action would be to serve himself. No person or object would ever again take precedence over his own profit. He knew that to achieve this fully he would have to excise from himself all those emotions that would instead lead him to work for the benefit of others, like compassion, mercy and charity. However, in his current situation he would not have to worry about this overmuch, since he was far from any Utapaun communities and he would not be able to make contact with other persons even if he wanted to.
Post-Renascence
To Serve the Self through Knowledge
104 BBY to 103 BBY
As he looked down upon the lush valleys below, Korroth decided that the first means of serving the self was to pursue the understanding of the universe around him. Alone in the Medri Gamri (Green Crags), as he called them, he would not be able to make use of the scientific instruments and techniques that would have been available to him in Ika, for example. However, the wealth of different life forms inhabiting the Medri Gamri was an opportunity found nowhere else on the planet (as far as Korroth knew). Hence, his aim was to study the organisms of the Medri Gamri as fully as he was able with his current limited resources, and then he would return to a centre of civilization to examine his findings with more sophisticated instruments.
Korroth spent the next two years cataloguing and examining the plants and animals of the Medri Gamri. He observed plants that were completely different from any he had ever seen in Tarbaur or the Sazarel. There were also some that were similar to their xerophytic cousins but had mutations that allowed them to survive and prosper in the much damper and shaded Gamri environment. He noted this in animals as well; for example, Gamri dactillions did not have the ability to close their nostrils (used by Sazareli and Tarbauri dactillions to protect against sand), and they appeared to be much more dependent on river water rather than just the water content of their prey.
By the end of 103 BBY, Korroth concluded that he had extracted all the information that he could from the Medri Gamri. So he packed his animal, plant and fungal samples and plenty of supplies on a Gamri dactillion he had tamed, and he set off on the Der Crabsi mounted on his own dactillion. The cross was arduous, especially because two years of living with an endless supply of water had softened him a bit. However, he had come prepared and he managed to make the water last for the whole voyage. After he had travelled about three thirds of the way South, he was forced to abandon the Gamri dactillion and load all the samples on his own dactillion. The Gamri dactillion had not been able to survive the dry air, harsh sun and scarcity of water. This did not cause Korroth too great a problem, since he reached the Sazareli steppes two days later and was welcomed into the camp of Tribe Crabwa soon after.
To Serve the Self Through Power
103 BBY to 102 BBY
In the Crabwi camp, Korroth learned that, about a year ago, Tuvon Hroth had managed to lead a faction of young Ezzekieli warriors into a revolt against Chieftain Ismer. Now Tuvon ruled Tribe Ezzekiel, using his “Peace Guard” as an iron fist to force the Ezzekieli into obedience. However, this time he kept better relations with the other tribes, and no Chieftain was ready to start another bloody war against him.
This hindered Korroth’s plans, but he was not ready to give up. He travelled to the Ezzekieli camp disguised as a nondescript merchant; as long as he did not meet Tuvon face to face he would probably not be recognized. This presumption proved to be false soon after he entered the camp, but only for the better. He was in fact recognized by Udhren Uter, the Pau’an who had rescued him after his exile from Ika. He immediately took Korroth to a safe place, and after rejoicing at his return, he called to the tent several other Pau’ans whose names Korroth barely remembered. He explained to Korroth that, since Tuvon had taken the Chieftain’s chair, Udhren had gradually gathered a group of dissidents who intended to dethrone Tuvon for the last time. Udhren appeared to be of the mind that Korroth had returned to the tribe specifically to lead them in this revolt.
Korroth saw that this would be his first test to see if he was able to serve solely the self, without heed for the plight of others. At first he thought that helping Udhren was an obvious contradiction to his pledge on Renascence Peak. However, after more careful reasoning he recognized that, if he helped ensure the success of the revolt, he would then be standing in a position of considerable power. From there he would be able to obtain resources and assistance for his experiments, and his quest to understand the universe through science would be much facilitated. Because of this, he eventually agreed to assist the revolt.
That very same day, the revolutionaries led by Udhren attacked the Peace Guard, while Korroth stole into Tuvon’s tent. As the final part of his self-imposed test, he cleared his mind from all emotions and feelings he had for his elderly father and slit his throat. This brought Tuvon’s six centuries of dictatorship to an end and placed Korroth well on the path to eliminating all externally-focussed emotions.
Almost all of Tribe Ezzekiel celebrated Tuvon’s death, and many tribesmen, chief among them the revolutionaries, called for Korroth to be made Chieftain. Korroth attempted to refuse however, because he considered the Chieftainship to be a burden that would take him away from his scientific pursuits. In the end, he convinced the Ezzekieli to elect Udhren to the Chieftain’s chair. This worked well for Korroth, because Udhren was now partly indebted to him, and he was later able to demand much from the Chieftain.
Korroth of the Karn
102 BBY to 85 BBY
Korroth set up residence in a cavern in the Med Zathruma South of Ezzekieli land, where he would be able to carry out his experiments for the most part undisturbed. Tribe Ezzekiel sent him supplies regularly, and he had managed to organize a group of tribesmen to dedicate their time to constructing the instruments he needed to carry out his experiments. However, he was not completely satisfied, as the tribe simply did not have the technical knowledge to craft the more complex apparatuses he required. Eventually he was able to have Chieftain Udhren send a delegation over the Med Zathruma to travel to the Tarbaur sinkholes (Korroth could not go himself as he was still in exile from that place). There, with the permission of the Tarbauri, they copied the scientific texts written by Tuvon’s scientists and drew schematics of scientific tools and devices, which they brought back to Korroth. They also brought back news on what had occurred since Korroth’s exile. It seemed that each sinkhole now had its own separate government, and some sinkholes were even split between two authorities. Tensions between the sinkholes had grown drastically, and war threatened to break out soon.
This account did not trouble Korroth very much, since events in Tarbaur would not affect him now that he had what he wanted. Using the texts and schematics from Tarbaur he was able to set up experiments that took up his time for several years, but which in the end advanced his knowledge enormously. Tuvon’s scientists in Tarbaur had mainly been concerned with research that had practical uses, but Korroth delved much deeper than them, especially in the fields of chemistry and biology. The tribesmen that were in contact with him believed him to be practicing arcane arts and mystical rituals, but Korroth was using and developing the rational reasoning, the objective interpretation of results and the firm respect of facts that would be essential to him in his future scientific pursuits. During this time he also gained a reputation as a healer; he himself encouraged tribesmen to bring their ill or injured relatives to him, as this provided the opportunity to study a myriad of interesting diseases and conditions. He was even able to carry out quite risky experiments on them; the other tribesmen hardly noticed because normally someone who fell ill was fated to die anyway.
To clear his mind, Korroth often went on long excursions through the Karnashu, the lifeless desert West of Ezzekieli land. Apart from honing his survival skills and tempering his resilience, he found that if he had been pondering on a difficult question for a long time, sometimes the answer became clear while he travelled the desert. In 93 BBY, when he had been particularly troubled by a set of results from one of his experiments, he found a small oasis far into the Karnashu and stayed there for almost an entire year, until the explanation suddenly came to him one morning. Because of these jaunts, and because of his seemingly unemotional demeanor, the Ezzekieli tribesmen came to call him “Korroth of the Karn”, which literally means “of the Dry Sand”. Karn was the name of the sterile sands of the Karnashu, and in the language of the tribes, “dry” was used to mean “cold”, “emotionless” and possibly “heartless”. Korroth thought that this nickname suited him well, so on one of his trips he travelled to the Med Ushibri, where so many years ago he had incised his initials on his rite of passage. After he found the place where he had carved them, he added two lines to the Sazareli glyph for “H”, so that it now read “KK”.
85 BBY
During the year 85 BBY, Korroth’s studies were persistently interrupted by sightings of giant wedge-shaped metallic objects flying in the sky higher than any dactillion. Many tribes reported missing tribesmen, and in the fifth month of that year the whole of Tribe Crabwa disappeared, leaving behind only crushed tents and a few dead bodies. After that event, Korroth remained in the Ezzekieli camp in the hope of spotting himself one of these strange phenomena. His wish was fulfilled when one of the giant metal objects landed just outside the camp on the 12th day of the 7th month of 85 BBY, in a great gust of hot air and sand. Out of the flying object came strange creatures, with the heads of lizards and hands with scales and talons. Some tribesmen, terrified by their appearance, threw spears at them, but the lizard creatures shot beams of colored light out of gnarled metal tubes that incinerated the tribesmen. Threatened and pushed by these metal tubes, Korroth and the Ezzekieli tribesmen were herded into the flying object.
They were shut in dark, cramped and cold metal cubicles for an uncertain period of time. Korroth could not tell if days or months were passing, as they weren’t even fed at regular intervals. His excitement at having met extraplanetary beings and technologies soon evaporated; it was obvious that the lizard-men regarded them as mere chattel rather than fellow sapients with which to share their knowledge. The tedious and hungry passage of time in the cubicles was occasionally interrupted by short hours of exercise, where they would be made to jog along bland metal corridors. During one of these exercise hours, Korroth passed by a round window and saw outside what seemed to be stars racing past at great speed. However, back in his cubicle, his hunger and desolation prevented him from working out the significance of this sighting.
Melida/Daan
85 BBY
Melida/DaanAfter an indiscernible period of time, they were finally led out into the open air. Korroth could see that they were on terra firma again, but most probably that of a different planet. The wind was cold, the sky grey and the vegetation unfamiliar, although it bore some resemblance to the plants of Medri Gamri. A group of aliens came to speak to the lizard-men and examine the Pau’an prisoners. They were more similar in appearance to the Pau’ans than to the lizard-men, but they had damp-looking pink skin, tiny pupils and fur on top of their skulls. Korroth could not understand their language, but it appeared as though the lizard-men sold their Pau’an captives to the furred humanoids. They were then given grey uniforms to wear and were escorted to a camp; there Korroth saw more alien species than he could describe, but they all seemed to be captives of the furred humanoids. They spent the next few days in the dirty and crowded camp, during which time the group of Pau’ans attempted unsuccessfully to find someone speaking their language. Also, each day the furred humanoids gathered the prisoners and trained them in the use of those metal tubes that shot beams of light. From this, and from the distant rumblings of explosions, Korroth conjectured that they had been sold to an army (vastly more technologically advanced than those of Tarbaur) which intended to use these slaves as cannon-fodder.
His speculations were proven right when, one day, they were suddenly rounded up and sent running at what appeared to be the enemy line. Korroth survived this and three subsequent battles only by what he believed to be sheer luck. Most of the Pau’an tribesmen with him died, and the prisoner camp became visibly emptier after each battle. Korroth knew that, if he did not do something soon, his body would be added to the pile in no man’s land. On the third battle, he was sent to the infirmary for a minor wound. There he managed to impress upon the field-surgeon that he had skills in healing and could help him in the infirmary. The surgeon, who was one of the only three doctors working in that camp, accepted and arranged for Korroth to remain in the infirmary to work as his assistant. For a moment, Korroth almost felt gratitude towards the surgeon, who had virtually saved his life; but then he remembered the Renascence Pledge he had made in Medri Gamri and doubled his efforts to repress his emotions. He could not allow himself to slip in such a precarious situation.
Field Surgeon
85 BBY to 78 BBY
As soon as his wound had healed, Korroth began help the three surgeons. At first he was only given menial tasks, but over time he was able to use the skills he had already learned in the Sazarel and acquire the more advanced techniques of the surgeons. There was a constant stream of wounded soldiers coming in, so there was no shortage of subjects to practice on, and epidemics of quickly spreading diseases were frequent in the camps. Both the war injuries and the alien diseases were new and fascinating to Korroth, and so were the treatments that the surgeons passed on to him. He only regretted not having the time to study them in more detail.
Apart from imparting surgery procedures and techniques, the doctors also taught Korroth to speak [[starwars:Galactic_Basic_Standard|Basic]. The first thing he learned was that they were on the planet [[starwars:Melida/Daan|Melida], and that both [[starwars:Melida|Melida] and [[starwars:Daan|Daan] lived on the planet. These two peoples had been [[starwars:Melida/Daan_Civil_War|at war] for centuries, with victories and defeats on both sides and occasional brief periods of peace. Currently the Melida, in whose army Korroth was a conscript, had been driving North to siege the city of [[starwars:Garth_(city)|Garth]. All three surgeons were strongly nationalistic Melidans, and they claimed that the Melidan army was taking back what was theirs by right. The surgeons were also able to shed light on Korroth’s own home planet and travel to Melida. They speculated that he came from Utapau in the [[starwars:Tarabba_sector|Tarabba sector]. Korroth eagerly listened to all the surgeons knew about Utapau; he had often wanted to explore more of the planet before he was captured by the slavers, but he had not been able to do so because of geographical impediments. In addition, the surgeons were able to tell him that the [[starwars:Slavery|slavers] who captured him were of the [[starwars:Trandoshan|Trandoshan] [[starwars:Species|species], and that they probably worked for the [[starwars:Karazak_Slavers_Cooperative|Karazak Slavers’ Cooperative]. The Melida and the Daan were Human]]]]]]]]]]], and the surgeons described the biology of these species and of the many other species that passed through the infirmary.
The war between the Melida and the Daan continued all around the planet until [[starwars:78_BBY|78 BBY]. Despite being confined mostly to the infirmary, the surgeons and Korroth were forced to fight several times; by the time they had taken Garth in [[starwars:80_BBY|80 BBY] two of the field surgeons had been killed in ambushes. Once the siege of Garth had ended the army remained garrisoned in that city, and Korroth was able to dedicate more of his time studying the wondrous wealth of information on this planet and [[starwars:The_galaxy|the galaxy] at large. However, when the war ended in 78 BBY with the capture of [[starwars:Zehava|Zehava] by Melidan forces, the generals of Melida decided that all the conscripts they had bought from slavers would just be a burden in time of peace, so they were to be sold to off-world buyers. Korroth attempted to hide in the outskirts of Garth as soon as he received these news, but his alien appearance made him easy to find and he was soon arrested. He was sold to a band of space pirates]]]] to work as an on-board medic for the pirates’ slaves.
The League of Cavaliers Corsaire
78 BBY
The pirates called themselves the League of Cavaliers Corsaire. Since first stepping onto their [[starwars:Starship|starship] it was obvious that they were quite different from the barbarous and bedraggled space raiders that Korroth had read about in the libraries of Garth. In 78 BBY there were 245 “Cavaliers”; many of them were [[starwars:Mon_Calamari|Mon Calamari], but there were also Humans, [[starwars:Bith|Bith], [[starwars:Givin|Givin], a [[starwars:Gossam|Gossam], [[starwars:Muun|Muuns], [[starwars:Koorivar|Koorivar], a [[starwars:Falleen|Falleen] and even a [[starwars:Celegian|Celegian]. They came from very different backgrounds, but most of them had received a [[starwars:University|university] education, or they were at least bright enough to be able to learn from the other Cavaliers. Korroth soon found out that the Cavaliers’ main line of pursuit was not piracy, but academic learning. Piracy was just their method of financing their travels and studies. The League of Cavaliers Corsaire was basically a collection of scholars that found it more fruitful to carry out their studies outside the law. All of the Cavaliers strove to become erudite in all branches of study, but most were specialized in various fields of [[starwars:Category:Science|science]. This was because many Cavaliers were originally led to join the League by burdensome regulations and laws that limited their research, imposed by the Republic]]]]]]]]]]] or their home planet for ethical, bureaucratic or political reasons. The substantial income provided by piracy was also an incentive, when compared to the meagre and restrictive budgets that researchers were often granted.
One of the CorsairesThe League travelled aboard a custom [[starwars:Frigate|frigate], called the Ghostly Galleon, that the Mon Calamari Cavaliers had designed and then stolen when they were still working for [[starwars:Mon_Calamari_Shipyards|Mon Calamari Shipyards], and they also had three [[starwars:Republic_light_assault_cruiser|Republic light assault cruisers] modified to serve as escort and assault ships (the Furor Corsaire, the Vexer Corsaire and the Veto Corsaire). All the books, datacards]]], papers and information that the Cavaliers had collected over their travels was stored in the MC Frigate, where they also carried out their studies. There were many lecture halls, a library at either end of the ship and several laboratories with “borrowed” equipment. However, the Cavaliers also spent as much time as they could on planets of interest, at least until their location or identity was discovered by the local security force. A committee of representatives for each specialist group convened each time they were forced to move on to decide on their next destination. Since the Cavaliers were divided into several specialized groups, like biology, physics, engineering, chemistry, et cetera, these committees sometimes had disagreements, but in the end they always found a planet that accommodated each specialization's interests. All the Cavaliers were partial to worlds with important universities or large libraries, as this was their main means of keeping up-to-date with the progress made in their fields across the galaxy. However, many of these universities did not want anything to do with research that was financed illegally and that used methods and procedures that broke laws and regulations. Therefore the Cavaliers often had to infiltrate these universities and steal the information and instruments they required. Occasionally they came across institutes that recognized the value of their unrestricted research and were ready to exchange information in secret.
The League’s piratic activities were confined to the [[starwars:Outer_Rim_Territories|Outer Rim Territories], because they wanted to remain out of sight of any law-enforcement authorities. They preyed mainly on independent [[starwars:Smuggler|smugglers] and smaller pirate groups, so as not to attract the attention of larger criminal organizations. The most abundant booty was [[starwars:Spice|spice], but they also looted weapons, expensive artifacts and foodstuff and stolen merchandise in general, and they sometimes commandeered the ships of their victims. These things they would sell for a large profit or in exchange for favors, advanced laboratory instruments and rare datacards. They also raided slaver ships and cargo freighters]]] of certain manufacturing industries. The League used the slaves as subjects for their experiments and studies, sometimes setting up ambushes on specific slaver bands to acquire subjects of a certain species or origin. They also raided specific cargo freighters that carried supplies of chemicals and instruments for their laboratories. Because of this, the labs of the Ghostly Galleon were often filled with mismatched pieces of equipment. When they ventured towards the more civilized territories of the galaxy, most often to visit universities and libraries, they refrained from conducting illegal activities so as to maintain a low profile towards the local and Republic authorities.
The main method used by the League to seize target ships was to lay an ambush at specific [[starwars:Hyperlane|hyper-points], where ships came out of [[starwars:Hyperspace|hyperspace]. A lot of preliminary investigations were carried out on the target to make sure that they did not travel with an escort too powerful for the League’s fleet. When it came out of hyperspace, the target ship would find itself surrounded by the three Corsaires and targeted by long-range [[starwars:Missile|missiles] from the Ghostly Galleon. The Corsaires had modest [[starwars:Ion_cannon|ion cannons] which were usually enough to disable a target ship before it could react. If the victim still refused to surrender, they would be boarded using six pods]]]] launched from the Ghostly Galleon. The Cavaliers took it in turns to take part in the boarding operation. Cavaliers who refused to join the boarding party when it was their turn were often ostracized and eventually expelled from the League. Consequently, every Cavalier spent a certain amount of time exercising and training in close-quarter combat on the Furor Corsaire.
Over the years, the Cavaliers had developed a peculiar kind of chivalric code that allowed them to keep their self-esteem while they pirated, exploited salves and carried out ethically ambiguous studies. This unwritten code of morals placed study and knowledge as the virtues to be sought by Cavaliers, thus making bloodshed, slavery, theft and even torture honorable if done in the name of science. The Cavaliers were also encouraged to expand their general cultural education outside of their specialization. For the Cavaliers, perusing literature, poetry or galactic history was an enjoyable recreational activity. Some became connoisseurs of [[starwars:Category:Art|fine art], [[starwars:Music|music], interplanetary [[starwars:Category:Food|cuisine], [[starwars:Category:Alcoholic_beverages|liquors] and even fashion]]]]. As a consequence the Ghostly Galleon was full with both legally obtained and stolen works of art, and the Cavaliers sometimes employed or kidnapped bands and small orchestras to play on board. The Cavaliers often wore elegant and expensive clothes, even during a boarding, and elaborate dinners with lavish food and drink were served almost every evening.
On the Ghostly Galleon
78 BBY to 75 BBY
In 78 BBY the League had been forced to land on Melida/Daan after the Ghostly Galleon had been tracked down and badly damaged by a wing of Jedi pilots. The Cavaliers had managed to escape and throw off the Jedi when they landed on Melida/Daan. While the engineer Cavaliers repaired the MC frigate, the others took the opportunity to purchase several slaves from the Melidan military. Korroth was bought to serve as a medic for the slaves that the Cavaliers used in their research. There were already many experienced medical doctors in the League, but they did not have time to look after all the slaves. Korroth was an investment that would pay off by keeping slaves alive if dangerous experiments went wrong, and by generally keeping slaves healthy enough to be used in the Cavaliers’ various studies.
Korroth’s status within the League improved when a Cavalier requested him to join a study on medicinal herbs used by primitive cultures across the galaxy. Korroth provided information on herbs that he himself had examined and used in the Tarbaur and the Sazarel, and he was also able to use his knowledge to expand upon the work done on xerophytic plants of other [[starwars:Category:Desert_planets|desert planets]. His work on this and subsequent studies brought him to the notice of a wider circle of Cavaliers, who, in 75 BBY], eventually invited him to become a Cavalier himself. Korroth hesitated at first, principally because of the League’s peculiar code of honor. This code appeared to be modeled to allow those who wanted to remain morally upright to carry out studies and use methods which society at large would consider immoral. However, it simply shifted the focus of its component ethical rules, it did not actually eliminate any of them. Korroth did not want to be limited by any moral laws, but in the end he recognized that he would not be able to live with any type of society unless he at least gave the appearance of following their laws. Therefore Korroth Karn accepted and was inducted into the League of Cavaliers Corsaire on the 11th day of the 5th month of 75 BBY.
To solemnize his induction into the League, Korroth was granted a coat of arms. He used a simple shield with a brown field; for the charge he used the Sazareli glyphs for “KK” (the same that he had carved on the Med Ushibri on Utapau) in gold.
Cavalier Corsaire
75 BBY to 55 BBY
In the ensuing decades, Korroth travelled the galaxy with the League. In the years following 75 BBY, he was exposed to countless new cultures, species and planets. This boundless profusion of unfamiliar natural phenomena, landscapes, organisms, ecosystems and civilizations was open and waiting for Korroth to study and understand; this left upon him an impression so strong that it reaffirmed his dedication to the understanding of the universe for the rest of his life.
The seal of the University of SanbraBetween 75 BBY and [[starwars:68_BBY|68 BBY], as recommended by his fellow Cavaliers, Korroth spent seven months of each year studying in the [[starwars:University_of_Sanbra|University of Sanbra], and then later in [[starwars:Corellia_University|Corellia University], while the rest of the League travelled the Outer Rim. Korroth was able to study openly at these universities because he had not yet participated in any of the League’s illegal activities. During the five years in the University of Sanbra, he was educated in the advanced concepts of science that he had previously just brushed upon on Utapau. In [[starwars:70_BBY|70 BBY] he graduated in xenobiology]]]]. Although he was not particularly keen, he also went to the Corellia University for two years to study starship engineering; the other Cavaliers had insisted on this because they wanted every new Cavalier to be able to repair and rework the Ghostly Galleon and the three Corsaires.
After he finished his university education in 68 BBY, he settled permanently on the Ghostly Galleon and became fully involved in both the piratic and research activities of the League. Since all the ambushes and boarding raids were entirely carried out by Cavaliers, Korroth was obliged to take part in these fights. The various roles in a battle were rotated among all the Cavaliers, so that Korroth learned how to man the various stations of the Ghostly Galleon, how to handle a single Corsaire and its gun emplacements, how to fly the four ships in hyperspace and [[starwars:Realspace|realspace], and he also became quite adept at close quarters combat with [[starwars:Vibroblade|vibroblades] and blaster pistols]].
The project that interested and took up most of Korroth’s time after 68 BBY was a study on the genetic engineering and cloning of [[starwars:Ludos|ludos] and several other animals from [[starwars:Ganlihk|Ganlihk]. The aim of the study was to find and remove, modify or neutralize the genes that caused senescence in these animals. The first problem they solved was the shortening of telomeres, and at the same time they found a way for cells to repair DNA replication errors and damage to DNA from external sources much more efficiently. They then spent a number of years cataloguing genes that they thought were related to senescence, and after this they examined every single one to see if it could be completely removed or if it was essential for some other purposes. In 56 BBY], they completed the modification or elimination of all the target genes and they cloned a batch of ludos with this new [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome genome]]. They were relieved to find that their tampering of the ludos’ DNA had produced no apparent detrimental side effects, and the ludos in fact appeared to be more resistant to radiation and certain toxins and pathogens, and generally healthier. Regarding the effects of aging on the ludos, their only option was to wait and see. They were not able to eliminate damage caused by many environmental factors (although they succeeded in improving the ludos’ resistance to things like dehydration, infections, toxic chemicals and mechanical damage), but they estimated that the mutated ludos would be able to survive hundreds of years in an ideal environment.
With this project complete, Korroth decided to research a completely different topic, the vocalizations that the ludos appeared to use as a basic form of communication. He obtained several interesting results from his studies. The vocalizations of the artificially mutated ludos were much more complex than those of the ludos they had captured on Ganlihk. The mutated ludos were able to produce what could almost be described as songs. They were able to repeat these songs accurately, but they seemed to intentionally modify certain sections every time they repeated it. He placed the mutated ludos in differing environments to see what caused these vocalizations and the modifications in the song. When placed for a long time in an empty room in which nothing changed, their song did not change and they eventually ceased vocalizing. If they were placed in a room with other mutated ludos, but with nothing else changing, the songs of the individual ludos eventually became the same, and they changed together if certain sapients entered the room. If they were placed in a space where many sapients came and went and interacted with each other, the ludos’ song changed almost constantly, although certain segments were repeated at apparently random times. This did not happen when they were placed together with other non-sapient animals and Ganlihk ludos.
Korroth and the other Cavaliers working with him concluded that the ludos’ song described something related to other mutated ludos and to certain Cavaliers, although they had no hint as to what this was. Eventually they found that the mutated ludos had a much higher count of [[starwars:Midi-chlorian|midichlorians] per cell than the Ganlihk ludos, and that the Cavaliers that caused them to change their song also had a higher midichlorian count than the other crew members. Korroth had been taught about the function of midichlorians very superficially at the University of Sanbra, and he knew very little about [[starwars:The_Force|the Force]. The same applied to most of the other Cavaliers, because there was an especially strong taboo against the Force and any study of it. This was due to the fact that, in 78 BBY, the Cavaliers had started a study on Force-sensitive slaves, which had been widely publicized and criticized in many universities. This had attracted the Jedi Order’s]] attention, and the Jedi had tracked down and had almost destroyed the Ghostly Galleon. Since then studies concerning the Force had been virtually banned by the League.
However, Korroth and certain other Cavaliers that worked with him had joined the League only after this event, so they did not have this prejudice. In 55 BBY the League had been studying the local fauna and limited flora of the desert planet Blenjeel, when an intense dispute broke out between the Cavaliers that were carrying out the research on the ludos and the other Cavaliers who saw this study as meddling dangerously with matters of the Force. It erupted when the ludos researchers requested blood samples of every Cavalier and later revealed that they had used the samples to make a midichlorian count. Many Cavaliers immediately accused the researchers of trying to attract the Jedi’s attention, and the ludos researchers accused the other Cavaliers of being paranoid. At one point, violence broke out, but the Cavaliers that stood against research on the Force greatly outnumbered the ludos researchers. Eventually the ludos researchers, all their test subjects and equipment, and even some of the other Cavaliers that had been found to have high midichlorian counts were thrown out of the Ghostly Galleon. The MC frigate and the three Corsaires left them stranded on the planet and never came back.
Blenjeel
55 BBY to 52 BBY
Blenjeel
Form the 67 Cavaliers left stranded on Blenjeel on the 14th day of the 3rd month of 55 BBY, 45 survived the first two days, and 12 more died in the following two weeks. It had been a long time for Korroth since he had walked a desert, but he soon became accustomed to it again and recalled all the skills he had acquired in the Sazarel on Utapau. Most of the other Cavaliers, however, had been raised on civilized planets and had seldom been in a situation more dangerous than a boarding sortie. On the first day, many were eaten by the native [[starwars:Sand_burrower|sand burrowers]. After they found and established themselves on several rocky cliffs out of reach of the sand burrowers, some of the survivors simply died of dehydration and the relentless heat. Those who survived the initial decimation came to naturally follow a [[starwars:Filvian_(species)|Filvian] named H’chad Globergan, because they knew that he had grown up on Filve]], a desert planet. Globergan’s gregarious nature and innate leadership skills suited this role, but not long passed before Globergan had a private meeting with Korroth. The Filvian told Korroth that he had actually spent all his pre-Cavalier life in the cities of Filve, so he did not posses the knowledge and expertise of the desert that the other survivors expected of him. Korroth agreed to progressively teach Globergan all he knew about desert survival, but only if he sent an expedition to retrieve the research equipment and the ludos that they had left where the Ghostly Galleon had abandoned them.
A sand worm about to eat a CavalierKorroth went with the expedition, and he found that none of the ludos had been eaten by sand burrowers, because they were in large metal cages. However, most of the ludos had died from the heat and lack of water. To his surprise, six of the mutated ludos were still alive. This would allow him to partly continue his research, although it would be very limited by the lack of equipment. Most of it had been damaged by sand and heat, and some of it had even disappeared beneath the sand dunes. Eventually the 33 survivors settled in a narrow rocky gorge that was repaired from wind, sun and sand burrowers. At the end of the defile they found a meagre spring surrounded by purple and blue-colored vegetation. They managed to survive on this and other small small scurrying animals until they could set up hunting parties to catch sand burrowers. It was not easy at first to kill these fell fiends, but the Cavaliers found that the juice of a certain succulent plant was poisonous to the sand burrowers. To kill the beasts, they would spray the juice over a wide area of sand, and then attract a sand burrower by pounding rhythmically on the ground. When the sand burrower emerged out of the sand, it would inevitably get some of the juice on its body, which would cause it to thrash and spasm, while a viscous fluid leaked out of the gaps in its exoskeleton. The Cavaliers were quick to gather this liquid, which was both water-rich and nutritious, before it evaporated on the sand. Once the sand burrower was dead it was dragged to the camp, where its meat was used for food and its exoskeleton and teeth for tools and weapons.
During the first months on Blenjeel most of the Cavaliers were solely concerned with increasing their chances of survival. However, Korroth was worried less about this and more about continuing his research, especially after he observed that the ludos’ songs were able to calm a person who was in a high emotional state. By putting pressure on Globergan, he was able to secure three personal assistants and a general cooperative attitude from the whole group of survivors. His assistants were fully dedicated to the research and were spared most of the other menial tasks of the group of survivors (although Korroth himself chose to go on periodical sand burrower hunts), and the rest of the Cavaliers helped sporadically when they were not busy with other tasks.
As he continued his study of the ludos’ vocalizations, Korroth took to carrying one of the mutated ludos, Test Subject THY-16.3, around with him wherever he went. Thanks to this habit, he was able to observe that the ludos’ song changed when one of the Cavaliers rich in midichlorians (Korroth being one of them) experienced intense emotions or carried out tasks which required concentration, agility or fast reactions. From what the other Cavaliers knew of the Force, mainly popular culture, the ludos’ changing song could have been reacting to or even describing an unconscious use of the Force by the midichlorian rich Cavaliers. The ludos themselves appeared to use the Force to alter, through their song, the state of mind of both Force-sensitive and non-Force-sensitive Cavaliers. If one calmed themselves and listened intently to the ludos’ vocalizations, they would become immersed in a deep state of concentration where all their thoughts and feelings would become very clear and distinct. It was during one of these meditations, in 52 BBY, that Korroth made the most important discovery of his study. He found that, alongside the ludos’ song, he could recognize a feeling or sensation external to himself, which he did not sense through hearing, sight, taste, smell or touch. At first it was only in the song, but then Korroth was able to expand his perception of this feeling and he sensed it in the ludos itself, and in the other Cavaliers and in al the other lifeforms around him. This, he realized, was the Force.
Force Exploration
52 BBY to 25 BBY
With little hope of ever leaving Blenjeel, Korroth concentrated fully on this new and wondrous aspect of the universe that he had just experienced. At first it seemed that he would have to revolutionize his whole view of the universe, but gradually he came to see that the Force fit perfectly into what he already knew, and it even filled some of the many gaps in his understanding. However, in his current state Korroth did not have the resources to test scientifically and in detail the interactions between the Force and the material world. Instead, he focussed on delving deeper and deeper into the Force during his meditation sessions. He examined, simply from his sense of the Force , how it interacted with other living beings and how it changed in these beings, from microbes to Cavaliers to sand burrowers. It appeared to him that the Force became more intense around a being the more that being’s emotions escalated; but also its “swirls” and fluctuations became more complex the more sapient and intelligent the organism was. From this, Korroth speculated that the Force was very closely correlated with certain aspects of higher organisms’ thoughts, feelings and emotions.
Korroth taught what he learned through these explorations to the other Force-sensitive Cavaliers. Some seemed quite unable to even sense the Force, while others far surpassed Korroth’s abilities. These Cavaliers gradually learned to actually interact with the Force rather than just sense it. After many years of trial and error, they were able to make small objects move in a certain direction by a few centimeters, and they could subtly alter a person’s or beast’s emotions if they concentrated enough. Korroth never got this far in his experimentations on Blenjeel. For many years the Cavaliers’ connection to the Force was only possible through the meditative state induced by the mutated ludos’ song. Korroth relied on THY-16.3 (which he had come to call Thy) for his explorations of the Force until around 40 BBY, when he first touched the Force without the aid of Thy’s song. Despite this, Korroth and most of the other Force-sensitives preferred to use the help of the ludos’ songs, because they made it relatively easier to touch the Force.
One of the deserts of BlenjeelOne thing that distracted Korroth slightly from his studies on the Force was the non-Force-sensitive Cavaliers’ progressive change of behavior over the years. The Force-sensitives and Korroth observed with interest as these Cavaliers gradually descended into an uncivilized society of almost primitive practices, driven by basic urges like the hunt for food, water, survival and reproduction. While many more Cavaliers were killed over the years by Blenjeel’s environment, numerous families formed in the group of non-Force-sensitives, so that by around 30 BBY the total number of Cavaliers had actually increased to above 50. The Force-sensitive Cavaliers, like Korroth, developed the habit of keeping the other Cavaliers at arm’s length, so that the Force-sensitives were able mostly to retain their culture and civility. This was probably the origin of Korroth’s subtle and involuntary prejudice against non-Force-sensitives. Nevertheless, they still lived with the non-Force-sensitives because they relied on them to supply certain resources while they carried out their studies. This was another lesson that Korroth took to heart. He also conjectured that the descent of the non-Force-sensitives into barbarity was due to the fact that all they had left was their primordial instinct for survival, while the Force-sensitive Cavaliers still had a higher purpose to drive for, their study of the Force. Additionally, Korroth was always careful not to let his fellow Force-sensitive Cavaliers become too lazy, spurring them (through Globergan) into taking part in hunts and expeditions under the threat that they would not survive the planet if they became too lethargic.
Rescue and the Trade Federation
25 BBY
In [[starwars:25_BBY|25 BBY] a merchant ship was spotted landing in the middle of a far-off desert of the planet. All of the Cavaliers attempted to reach it, but it left before they could contact it. Fortunately, several other ships arrived a few days later, and the Cavaliers were able to meet with them. The merchants, which claimed to be in the service of the [[starwars:Trade_Federation|Trade Federation], were surprised to find inhabitants on Blenjeel. However, the Cavaliers told their story and the merchants agreed to carry them off-world if they helped the merchants find phrikite]] on the planet. The Cavaliers were not sure what metal that was, but they directed the merchants towards a cave where they had previously found veins of a very hard ore. This, and a general warning about storms and sand burrowers, was enough to earn the Cavaliers and all their offsprings a ride on the merchant ships.
While they were making their way towards [[starwars:Gromas_16|Gromas 16] in the Perkell sector], the Cavaliers and their sons and daughters (some of whom were already over 20 standard years old) discussed what they should do. Many of them, both Force-sensitive and not, had developed a rotting hatred of the Cavaliers that had left them stranded on Blenjeel, which they had passed on to their offsprings. These Cavaliers thus decided to hunt down the League of Cavaliers Corsaire and take revenge. Korroth had no doubt that the League would be slaughtered if they were found by these Cavaliers, since Blenjeel had tempered and strengthened them into hard and unforgiving savages. However, Korroth saw no value in revenge, it would not actually profit him in any way and would therefore be a waste of his time. Therefore, he and five other Force-sentient Cavaliers decided to set off on a different path. They questioned the Trade Federationists on Gromas 16 on what employment a group of scientists like the Cavaliers could find in the Federation. They assumed that, having been isolated on Blenjeel for thirty years, their criminal records had been archived long ago.
Their enquiries led them to [[starwars:Cato_Neimoidia|Cato Neimoidia], where, through an exasperating chain of secretaries and bureaucratic procedures, they were referred to a [[starwars:Neimoidian|Neimoidian] noble. He offered them a funded research project on the [[starwars:Q'Maere_Research_Facility|Q’Maere Research Facility] to study several arachnids and insects. He produced paperwork that stated they were to determine the best species to be used for “pest control” in agriculture, but he made it clear, off the record, that their real job would be to find a species to be used as assassin bugs. The Cavaliers were hesitant to accept. In the three months since their rescue from Blenjeel, they had become aware of the rising tensions between the Republic and the Trade Federation and its allies. They did not want to commit to one side or the other yet, since their thirty-years long absence had left them ignorant of the actual state of galactic affairs. Also, now that they were off Blenjeel they thought they would have been able to seek more information on the Force, but on the isolated Q’Maere this would not be possible. In the end, however, they accepted the Neimoidian’s offer because they knew that they would have a better chance to survive on Blenjeel than in the civilized galaxy if they had no credits]]] in their pockets.
Q’Maere Research Facility
25 BBY to 22 BBY
On the University of Sanbra-owned Q’Maere Research Facility, the Cavaliers found all the arthropods they needed to conduct their study. Despite this, the Cavaliers did not find this project very interesting, and the rarity with which the Trade Federation came to check on their progress encouraged them to deviate slightly from their original aim. Instead of examining an assortment of arthropod species, they selected the drewood mite and set out to genetically engineer it to produce a suitable “assassin bug”. The secrecy of their research did not bother the other scientists of the facility, since many of them were also working on confidential projects.
The Cavaliers spent several years on this project, remaining on Q’Maere until shortly after the start of the [[starwars:Clone_Wars|Clone Wars]. Early in [[starwars:22_BBY|22 BBY], the Trade Federation contacted the Cavaliers to inform them that they would be sending a Commerce Guild]] functionary to collect the results of their studies. The Cavaliers had already completed the project, and they only needed to add the finishing touches. They had engineered a mite that could be made to recognize a specific individual by allowing them to feed for a period of time on a culture of the individual target’s cells. If the mites were then released close to that individual, they would be able to attach themselves to the target and secrete a toxin into their muscles, which proved deadly if injected by more than five of these mites. The secretion of this toxin also triggered the release of large amounts of lysozyme, which would break down the mite completely in a very short time, thus serving to remove any evidence of the assassination.
While waiting for the Commerce Guild functionary to arrive, Korroth was able to meditate on his current situation. The most troublesome thing that he identified was his attachment to the other five Cavaliers that were presently working with him. He had known those Cavaliers since 78 BBY, and he had studied with them, worked on the same projects, travelled on the same ship and spent thirty years stranded on the same uninhabited planet with them. Korroth now recognized that the bond of friendship he had formed with these Cavaliers had violated his Renascence Pledge. He could even remember one time on Blenjeel when he had risked his own life to save one of them from a sand burrower. Obviously this friendship had grown too strong and had led him to act for the benefit of others rather than solely to serve the self. Therefore, he resolved to sever his bond to the Cavaliers. Just before the Commerce Guild functionary came, Korroth prepared several of the assassin mites and released them onto the five Cavaliers.
The Commerce Guild functionary landed on the facility just as Korroth’s five colleagues expired their last breath. Korroth made it look like an accident, but there was no need, as the pragmatic [[starwars:Gossam|Gossam] functionary simply took those bodies as confirmation of the success of the research project. With the project finished, Korroth hoped to go to the University of Sanbra, where there was supposed to be a professor expert in the study of organizations of Force-users. This was not in the Commerce Guild’s plans, however. The Gossam functionary informed him that since the beginning of the Clone Wars, the [[starwars:Confederacy_of_Independent_Systems|Confederacy of Independent Systems] had been short of [[starwars:Medic|medical staff] to attend to the small portion of organic soldiers in their army. Therefore, Korroth had been conscripted to serve as a medical officer in the [[starwars:Gossam_Commandos|Gossam Commandos] on [[starwars:Castell|Castell]. Korroth was obviously very displeased that decisions like this were made without his knowledge and then forced upon him, but the Gossam’s escort of battle droids]]]]] put Korroth in no position to argue or refuse.
The Clone Wars and the CIS
22 BBY to 19 BBY
A Gossam Commando
The Gossam Commandos remained stationed on Castell only for a short time, just enough for Korroth to complete a cursory training course on Gossam biology and medicine. For the two years following the [[starwars:Battle_of_Geonosis|Battle of Geonosis], the Gossam Commandos mainly followed and guarded [[starwars:President|Presidente] [[starwars:Shu_Mai|Shu Mai] in her travels, and in [[starwars:21_BBY|21 BBY] they took part in the [[starwars:Battle_of_Cerea|Battle of Cerea] and the Battle of Virujansi]]]]]. Korroth did not find it difficult to reconcile spending his time improving other beings’ health to his Renascence Pledge, since it allowed him to learn many interesting things that were not to be found in textbooks or from controlled laboratory research. If he was careful, he was also able to try new and untested treatments and drugs on unsuspecting patients. He was even able to test the effects of Thy’s vocalizations on injured or ill Gossams.
A Koorivar FusilierIn [[starwars:20_BBY|20 BBY] the Gossam Commandos contributed to the conquest of several worlds during [[starwars:Operation_Durge's_Lance|Operation Durge’s Lance], such as [[starwars:Moorja|Moorja] and [[starwars:Duro|Duro]. After the [[starwars:Battle_of_Moorja|Battle of Moorja], Korroth was relocated to the [[starwars:Koorivar_Fusiliers|Koorivar Fusiliers], led by General [[starwars:Oro_Dassyne|Oro Dassyne]. These forces assisted the main droid army on many worlds during the [[starwars:Outer_Rim_Sieges|Outer Rim Sieges], until the [[starwars:Battle_of_Bomis_Koori_IV|Battle of Bomis Koori IV] towards the end of [[starwars:20_BBY|20 BBY]. Here General Dassyne’s Fusiliers were shattered by the Republic, but a small detachment, including Korroth, was able to escape the mayhem and reach the [[starwars:Confederate_First_Fleet|Confederate First Fleet]. From here, the remaining Fusiliers were disbanded and Korroth was sent with a battalion of [[starwars:Quarren|Quarren] soldiers to fight on the planet Iskalon]]]]]]]]]]]].
To his dismay, Korroth soon found out that Iskalon was an ocean world, and that they would be fighting Republic forces underwater. Korroth had already seen seas and oceans, both on Melida/Daan and during his travels with the League of Cavaliers Corsaire. However, possibly because he had grown up on a planet with no surface water, he had developed a deep phobia of any large body of water. During his years as a Cavalier, he had often secluded himself to his cabin when the Ghostly Galleon landed near the oceans or seas of a planet.
Panic soon gripped Korroth when he saw that he had no way of turning away from Iskalon. Once on the planet, he was forced underwater in a cramped amphibious craft while a muted battle raged all about him. Here his fear took control of his actions; he killed the small crew and fled the planet. After wandering in confusion for a few days, he travelled to the first planet that came to his mind, Utapau.
Once there, he was forced to land on [[starwars:Pau_City|Pau City] and was arrested by Separatist droids, but they released him when he showed his credentials as a CIS medical officer. He was instead assigned to the medical staff that attended the [[starwars:Separatist_Council|Separatist Council], which was hiding in Pau City at that time. His initial intention upon deciding to come to Utapau had been to travel to Tarbaur or Sazarel, principally out of curiosity to see what had happened in the 65 years since he left Utapau. But now he was in the service of the Separatists and he could not leave Pau City. Since there wasn’t much work to do in that period, he was at least able to question the local Utapauns about news from his home lands. The Pau’ans that he talked to immediately recognized him as a Tarbauri, because of the subtle genetic differentiations between the common Pau’ans and the Tarbauri and Sazareli Pau’ans, like bristly eyebrows and drier, swarthier skin. This alone implied much change had occurred in Tarbaur and Sazarel, because in 85 BBY those regions had not yet made any contact with the rest of the planet. The Pau’ans explained sketchily to Korroth that, by around [[starwars:50_BBY|50 BBY], Utapau was gradually becoming more involved with the galactic community, so the [[starwars:Utapaun_Committee|Utapaun Committee] had decided to develop and utilize the planet’s resources to encourage interplanetary trade. During this development drive, Utapaun prospectors discovered the isolated Tarbaur sinkholes, finding them impoverished and drained by constant slaver raids and internal disputes. The Utapaun Committee agreed to protect Tarbaur from slavers and help it recover by allowing [[starwars:Buuper_Torsckil_Abbey_Devices|Buuper Torsckil Abbey Devices] to build factories in the Tarbauri sinkholes. The residents of Pau City knew little more than this, and Korroth was not able to learn if Mavane Noren was still alive.
The Battle of Utapau]]]]]
The [[starwars:Battle_of_Utapau|Battle of Utapau] in [[starwars:19_BBY|19 BBY] took Korroth by surprise, and he was forced to join the fighting when he found that the Separatist Council had already left Utapau. At first he fought against the clones]], but at a certain point in the battle the Separatist droids began labeling all Pau’ans as hostiles, so he was forced to switch sides. When the battle ended, the clones rounded up all the Pau’ans in the city, including Korroth.
The New Order and Byss
19 BBY to 1 BBY
After the [[starwars:Declaration_of_a_New_Order|Declaration of the New Order], Korroth and many other Pau’ans were exported as slaves to the [[starwars:Deep_Core|Deep Core] planet of [[starwars:Byss|Byss], where they were put to work on a “recolonization effort”. After several months of work on the planet, Korroth began to notice faintly through the Force that the slaves’ essence or presence in the Force was being slowly drained away by some powerful entity. It was rumored among the slaves that [[starwars:Palpatine|Emperor Palpatine] himself was sucking up all the life energy of the slaves on Byss. With the help of the ludos Thy (which he had managed to smuggle to Byss with him) Korroth slowly learned to stop his own Force essence from being drained away through meditation. Among the thousands of slaves on Byss, he was such a small entity anyway that whoever was draining away the slaves’ energies would never detect what Korroth was doing.
Byss]]]]
This proved to be wrong, when he was noticed by the [[starwars:Constable_of_Homunculi|Constable of Homunculi] in around [[starwars:16_BBY|16 BBY]. The Constable took him away from the other slaves and put him to work with the [[starwars:Clone_Keeper|Clone Keepers] in the [[starwars:Clone_Labs|Clone Labs] of the [[starwars:Emperor's_Citadel|Emperor’s Citadel]. There, Korroth assisted the Clone Keepers in their work on the Emperor’s genetic code, which would be used to produce Palpatine’s clones. He was never considered a Clone Keeper himself because of the [[starwars:New_Order|New Order’s] [[starwars:Humanocentrism|humanocentrist] policies. Also, despite the fact that the Constable of Homunculi found him through his use of the Force, he was later told that he was not strong enough in the Force to even start training as a Dark Side Adept]]]]]]].
Korroth remained in the Emperor’s Citadel until [[starwars:1_BBY|1 BBY], when the machinations of [[starwars:Janus_Greejatus|Janus Greejatus’s] [[starwars:Imperial_Department_of_Redesign|Imperial Department of Redesign] forced him to flee Byss. He boarded a civilian transport and, before his absence was discovered by the authorities, he had gone into hiding on Sanbra]]].
Hunt for a Teacher
1 BBY to 11 ABY
After setting up a hideout near the University of Sanbra, Korroth rested for a while and ruminated on his future plans. He realized that this was the first time in almost thirty years that he was not under the command of a higher authority, like the Trade Federation or the [[starwars:Galactic_Empire|Galactic Empire]. Now he could dedicate himself fully to the study of the Force, which he had wanted to do since leaving Blenjeel. Korroth reasoned that he already knew all that he could learn about the Force through meditation and with only Thy’s song as a guide. Therefore his next step would be to seek out a Force-using organization that could teach him the rest. He had come to Sanbra in the hope that he could find some of the people he had met while studying at the University of Sanbra in the 70’s BBY, but all of those students or professors had moved on or passed away. However, he did find a professor who had once been a student of Profex [[starwars:Rynalla|Rynalla], before the Clone Wars. Profex Rynalla had been a scholar and expert on organizations associated with the Force, like the [[starwars:Jedi|Jedi] and Sith]]]. This student of hers, now Profex Libauld Qooster, still possessed all of her notes, papers and findings, so Korroth approached Profex Qooster and was able to negotiate a deal with him. Korroth found that it had been Profex Qooster’s dream to learn to use the Force, but as a young boy he had been too afraid to go to the Jedi Order, and now he was too old to go hunting for other masters of the Force. Therefore, Korroth agreed to teach the professor what little he knew about the Force in exchange for guidance on the Force-using organizations of the galaxy.
The Valley of the Dark Lords on KorribanKorroth spent the rest of 1 BBY perusing Profex Rynalla’s studies on Force-using organizations and planning his future travels to examine these organizations, or what was left of them, in person. During this time, he also taught what little he knew about the Force to Profex Qooster, who was Force-sensitive and a quick learner. In [[starwars:0_BBY|0 BBY], Korroth started his journey by visiting [[starwars:Korriban|Korriban] and [[starwars:Ziost|Ziost]. The [[starwars:Valley_of_the_Dark_Lords|Valley of the Dark Lords] and the [[starwars:Sith_Citadel|Sith Citadel] impressed upon him what heights of power and magnificence a civilization ruled by Force-users could reach. Korroth also sensed the [[starwars:Dark_Side_of_the_Force|Dark Side] power emanating from the crumbling tombs of Korriban. He spent much time basking in this dark glow, as he could feel that this was the true power by which the will of one could be perpetrated upon the peoples of worlds and empires. He also felt this power on the world of [[starwars:Lehon|Lehon], where he travelled towards the end of 1 ABY]]]]]]].
For several years Korroth journeyed from planet to planet, following Profex Rynalla’s and Profex Qooster’s notes. On many worlds, as he expected, he found only the ruins of the Force-using society he was looking for, and these ruins had often already been picked clean by [[starwars:Archaeology|archaeologists] and raiders. Some of the organizations that had existed during Profex Rynalla’s time had now been destroyed by the New Order’s [[starwars:Great_Jedi_Purge|Great Jedi Purge], and if they still existed they had been driven underground, where neither the Empire nor Korroth could find them. On rare occasions he encountered enclaves of Force-users that had somehow resisted the Empire or escaped its notice, like the [[starwars:Baran_Do|Baran Do] on [[starwars:Dorin|Dorin] or the [[starwars:Nuns_of_G'aav'aar'oon|Nuns of G’aav’aar’oon] in the Vodilux Star Cluster]]]]]. Most of the Force powers and techniques used by these Force-users far surpassed Korroth’s current abilities, but he was still able to learn from the way they interacted with the Force, thus forming new hypotheses, scrapping old ones and slowly composing his own vague theory on the nature of the Force. This, however, was not the main objective of his travels. His aim was to find an experienced individual or organization that could teach him the deeper secrets of the Force. None of the Force-users that Korroth encountered seemed to be suitable for this purpose, since many of them were restricted by burdensome moral and ethical laws, much like the Jedi, and those not bound by such laws, most often followers of the Dark Side, were too disorganized and frequently too violent to be able to teach Korroth anything.
The Emperor's Citadel on ByssThe [[starwars:Battle_of_Endor|death of Emperor Palpatine] in [[starwars:4_ABY|4 ABY] and the subsequent gradual fragmentation of the Galactic Empire allowed Korroth to continue his travels in the open, without the fear of being caught by Imperial authorities. In [[starwars:10_ABY|10 ABY], however, Korroth learned that Emperor Palpatine had survived in one of his clone bodies and was directing his Empire from Byss. In [[starwars:11_ABY|11 ABY], hoping to acquire information on the various groups of Dark Side Adepts of the Empire, he travelled to Byss. Most of the Imperial forces were busy in a [[starwars:Battle_of_Onderon_(Galactic_Civil_War)|battle over Onderon], so Korroth was able to infiltrate the Emperor’s Citadel and steal several documents from the library. Before he could obtain more records, he was found by Stormtroopers] and was forced to flee the planet in a hurry. This saved his life, since he left the [starwars:Beshqek system|Beshqec system shortly before the Galaxy Gun’s]]]]]] projectile collided with Byss and destroyed its surface.
Hunt for Okemi’s Descendants
11 ABY to 24 ABY
The Sith Lord OkemiThe documents that Korroth had stolen on Byss consisted of an investigation on a group of Dark Side Adepts that once served the Galactic Empire but were now allied with one of the fallen Empire’s splinter factions. The documents did not state the name or location of the organization and its ally, but it did speculate that the Dark Side Adepts had some sort of connection to an ancient pure-blood [[starwars:Massassi|Massassi] [[starwars:Sith_Lord|Sith Lord] called Okemi. Korroth travelled to Sanbra to consult Profex Rynalla’s notes on the [[starwars:Sith_Empire|Old Sith Empire]. Once there, he found that Profex Qooster had died of old age, but he had passed on everything, including his teachings in the Force, to one of his trusted students. This student helped Korroth find a reference to a revolt of Sith slaves led by a Massassi warlord against the [[starwars:Dark_Lord_of_the_Sith|Dark Lord] [[starwars:Mark_Ragnos|Marka Ragnos]. With this, he went to Korriban and examined the inscriptions and murals in the tombs [[starwars:Marka_Ragnos's_tomb|of Marka Ragnos] and several of the Dark Lord’s allies. He spent several years deciphering these and trying to find a mention of Okemi. In [[starwars:14_ABY|14 ABY] he was forced out of Marka Ragnos’s tomb by the [[starwars:Disciples_of_Ragnos|Disciples of Ragnos]. Korroth still had access to the tombs of the Sith Lords that served Marka Ragnos, so that, in [[starwars:15_ABY|15 ABY] he was able to conclude that the Massassi Sith Lord Okemi had fought and lost in a war against the Dark Jedi Sith Lords, after which he was exiled to a planet called Antei]]]]]]]]].
Korroth set out to find Antei in the hope that the documents he had found on Byss told the truth, and that by following the trail of Okemi he would reach the organization of Dark Side Adepts. He spent six years scouring the galaxy without success for this mysterious planet, but he never gave up, because he could feel through the Force, faintly but surely, that his current path would lead him to fulfill his purpose. During these years he financed his journeys by working for the Republic Bioengineering Corps, a descendant of the [[starwars:Imperial_Corps_of_Bioengineers|Imperial Corps of Bioengineers], traveling aboard a modified SkyBlind recon ship].
In 21 ABY, Korroth was traveling along the [[starwars:Daragon_Trail|Daragon Trail] when he began hearing rumors of an undead Sith Lord. The stories seemed to intensify as Korroth travelled nearer to Korriban, but once in [[starwars:Dreshdae|Dreshdae] the rumors seemed to point to another planet. His enquiries led him to [[starwars:Thule|Thule]. By this time the rumors about the Sith Lord had died away, but Korroth remained to investigate on the system from which the rumors had originated. Sometime between 22 ABY and 24 ABY, a mysterious hooded local directed Korroth to the Shroud, an impenetrable nebulous cloud that covered a large area of space between Thule and Coratua. Korroth was preparing to leave the spaceport of Kessia]]] when an unseen attacker bludgeoned him from behind and he lost consciousness.
Dark Jedi Brotherhood
Shadow Academy
24 ABY
He awoke on a dark desert plain with mountains in the far distance, and he found a disparate group of humanoids in his same condition. From them he came to know that they had been captured by the Dark Jedi Brotherhood, and they were to reach the Shadow Academy on the distant mountain range to pass a test of resilience. Korroth set off immediately and separated himself from the group, since he suspected they would only hinder him. He reached the mountain range five days later, but he spent three further days trying to scale its slopes to reach the Shadow Academy. On the last day he came across the survivors of the group he had met previously, whose sorry sight confirmed his earlier misgivings. The group had been decimated not only by dehydration and exhaustion but by infighting over water, rations and direction of travel.
Emblem of House GladiusHe walked past the doors of the Shadow Academy on the 2nd day of the 1st month of 24 ABY. Before he could even get his bearings, he was initiated into the Dark Jedi Brotherhood and the Sith Order. His possessions were also returned to him at this point, Thy among them. He completed the Test of Lore in three days, eager to take the first true steps into the Brotherhood. He was assigned to House Gladius of Tarentum as an Apprentice, but he barely noticed it, as he spent most of his time in the Shadow Academy poring over the Brotherhood's vast written knowledge. He took and passed nine courses in the space of a few months, mainly ones based on the workings and history of the Brotherhood. This earned him promotions to first Novice and then Acolyte, under the rigorous guidance of Envoy SBM Sato Bruth'Kothae.
Now that he knew more about the Brotherhood, he wanted to get more involved in it and the Clans, instead of just reading about it in the Shadow Academy. He took more permanent residence in the Sword's Sheath of House Gladius and attempted to slot into the daily workings of the House. However, life within the Clan was not as he had expected. He realized then that the only reason he had been assigned to Clan Tarentum was to balance the numbers on the Clan rosters. Disappointed, Korroth returned to the Shadow Academy and begun studying the other Clans of the Brotherhood.
This research led him to request a transfer to Clan Plagueis. He was attracted by the Clan's young yet rich history and by its tradition of mind control powers. Clan Plagueis gave the impression to Korroth of a rising power in the Brotherhood, and the Acolyte wanted to be a part of its ascension.
Clan Plagueis
24 ABY to 27 ABY
Emblem of Clan Plagueis While settling into House Exar Kun, Korroth continued to study for a large number of SA courses, which he submitted from the Diadem Fortress on Aerun. Between the hours of study, he attempted to become more involved in the House and Clan. He also held a training battle in the [Antei Combat Center] with [Archpriest] al'Lan Mandragoran, after which he was advised to attempt a battle in the Proving Grounds. This activity soon earned him a promotion to Protector, and he was assigned his first Master, SBM Armand "Sunflash" al'Tor. Unfortunately, SBM Armand left the Brotherhood shortly thereafter, so that Korroth didn't have enough time to get acquainted with him. In 25 ABY he was assigned a second Master, KAP Scorpius, who begun organizing his Trials for Guardian. However, due to his duties as Quaestor of House Exar Kun and later as Proconsul of Clan Plagueis, he was not able to prepare these Trials for Protector Korroth.
Between 25 ABY and 26 ABY, Korroth continued to digest the Shadow Academy's vast store of knowledge. In addition, he fought a battle in the ACC's Proving Grounds against [Combat Master] [Dalthid], but he failed the test due to wrong usage of his weapons. He also became involved in documenting the Crimson Tide, a faction of powerful pirates who were the sworn enemies of Clan Plagueis. In 26 ABY Consul Aabsdu Dupar al'Tor promoted Korroth to the rank of Guardian for the service to his Clan and for the many courses he passed in the Shadow Academy.
Late in 26 ABY, Korroth took part in training exercises for the Rite of Supremacy codenamed "Second Darkness". However, he later did not participate in the Rite of Supremacy itself, because his attention was diverted by news from his homeworld of Utapau.
Not Sith material
27 ABY
In a minor [[starwars:HoloNet_News|HNN] report, almost a footnote among the other headlines, Korroth read that a Buuper Torsckil Abbey Devices] factory in the Tarbaur region of Utapau had been sabotaged by a terrorist group named the 'Hrothi Independence Union'. The report did not have any further details. Korroth had no idea where this 'HIU' came from, or what connection it had with his father's family name. The Pau'an had not set foot on his homeland for over a century, and he thought the time had come to see how things had changed. Furthermore, the mention of his old family name intrigued him.
Knowing that he would be gone for quite some time, he requested a transfer to the Rogues, and then he took a shuttle to Utapau. When he landed on Ika, the capital sinkhole of the Tarbaur region, he immediately saw how different the city was from his memories of it. Giant machinery spouting grey smoke occupied the whole upper levels of the sinkhole, and pools of filthy sludge filled its bottom. Most of the Pau'an and Utai population appeared to be working inside the Abbey Devices factories, while those outside either catered directly to the factory workers or begged in the streets.
Disguised as a news reporter, he investigated further and found that Abbey Devices had built factories in all thirteen of the Tarbaur sinkholes, displacing the Pau'an and Utai inhabitants to the lower levels and replacing the local governments with their own Board of Executives. By suppressing the local currency and tightly controlling the flow of the Galactic Credit Standard in Tarbaur, this Board had ensured that only those who worked for Abbey Devices accrued enough money to survive. This made the people of Tarbaur completely dependent on Abbey Devices, and enslaved them to the will of its Board of Executives. This scheme extended even into the Sazarel, where the nomad tribes were forced to produce food and sustenance for the factory workers in the Tarbauri sinkholes.
Some Tarbauri had taken up arms against Abbey Devices, under the name of the Hrothi Independence Union, with the aim of driving the company out of the sinkholes. With the Pau'ans' customary patience, the HIU had laid low for fifty years, and its first strike had been the bombing that Korroth had read about on the holonews. The Board of Executives had retaliated by capturing and imprisoning a certain Ivron Hroth, supposedly the leader of the HIU. Korroth had never heard of that name, but he wanted to find out how this Ivron was associated with the Hroth family, his own family.
By using old connections and acquaintances from his youth, Korroth was able to locate the HIU. He found them leaderless and in disarray, so he took command of the band and organized a second, conclusive coup against the Board of Executives. He planned to first free Ivron Hroth and then storm and destroy each of the Abbey Devices factories in the thirteen sinkholes. This, he reckoned, would be enough to make it unprofitable for Abbey Devices to continue their investments in Tarbaur.
Korroth led the HIU's assault just two months after the first bombing, and in a matter of minutes they had taken control of the detention center. There they found and freed Ivron Hroth. Before being shuttled to a safe house, Ivron told them that Mavane Noren, Korroth's own mother, was held prisoner in another sinkhole. While she had not participated directly in the bombing of two months ago, the elderly Pau'an had been found guilty of abetting the HIU. Korroth resolved to continue the assault as planned, and to free his mother before destroying the third factory, the nearest one to the prison.
The attack on the first factory went according to plan, because the Abbey Devices security force had not been expecting such an aggressive and well-organized offensive. However, after the factory had been demolished, Korroth lost control of the HIU troops, who rampaged unchecked through the sinkhole. The Guardian attempted to rally the rioting soldiers, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Abbey Devices had assembled the security contingents of all the other sinkholes and now descended upon the HIU forces. The greatest part of the HIU became trapped in the sinkhole and was totally massacred. Korroth, Ivron and a small band of survivors managed to escape the carnage and flee north, over the Med Zathruma mountain range and into the Sazareli steppes. They hid among the nomad tribes, and the Abbey Devices forces soon stopped chasing them.
Korroth was deeply affected by the dreadful defeat. He knew that the failure had been caused by his inability to control the soldiers. A better Sith would have been able to restrain his or her troops and lead them to victory, but Korroth had simply not had the strength of character to give orders which the frenzied soldiers would obey. Because of this, the Guardian let Ivron Hroth regain command of the HIU, or what was left of it. He advised Ivron to gather the Sazareli tribes and convince them to join the HIU to strike out at the Board of Executives.
While Ivron did that, Korroth worked to secure off-world supplies of modern weaponry and provisions for an army. He was also able to set up a makeshift laboratory, where, over the course of five months, he developed a poison gas that incapacitated only Humans, which he planned on supplying to the entirely Pau'an and Utai HIU forces.
The HIU struck again in the ninth month of 27 ABY and, with Ivron's leadership of the Sazareli tribes and Korroth's supplies of weapons and poison gas, they were able to fully occupy the sinkhole of Ika. While the HIU consolidated its defenses in the sinkhole, Korroth recovered his hired shuttle, which had been impounded by Abbey Devices after the Guardian had joined the HIU. Inside the shuttle, he found an urgent but outdated message from the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. The message was garbled and filled with static, but Korroth could make out something about a Yuuzhan Vong attack on the Brotherhood.
Without even taking his leave from Ivron Hroth, he departed immediately and set a course for Aerun. He suspected and feared that the message had been a last cry for help from the Brotherhood or Clan Plagueis to any remaining Dark Jedi; that the Yuuzhan Vong invasion had finally and ruinously reached the Brotherhood. However, he couldn't do anything about it while traveling in hyperspace, so he tried to draw his mind away from those terrible thoughts by examining the events of the past few months.
He determined that two separate purposes had driven his actions during that time: his curiosity over Ivron Hroth's identity and connection to his family, and the testing of his skills as a Sith in an environment separate from the Brotherhood. The first purpose he had not been able to satisfy, because there simply had been no time during the preparation for the assault on Abbey Devices. He hoped to one day return to have this question answered and to check on the progress of the HIU. The second purpose, however, had been throughly fulfilled. His failure to command the HIU forces during his first assault, and the success of the second assault due to his counseling to Ivron and the preparations and the poison gas confirmed to him that he was not Sith material. He resolved to convert to the Krath Order when he returned to the Brotherhood; perhaps even a change of House or Clan was due, to start things anew. Thinking back to the message about the Yuuzhan Vong, he could only hope that there would be a House or Clan to go back to.
Krath of Scholae Palatinae
27 ABY to 28 ABY
When Korroth dropped out of hyperspace, he found the Jusadih System surrounded by Plagueian, Arconan, Palatinean and Yuuzhan Vong fleets. The Brotherhood fleets seemed to be generally fighting against the Yuuzhan Vong forces, but Korroth also sensed a conflict between Arcona and the other two Clans. He did not know how Clan politics had developed in his absence, so he did not want to get involved just yet. He determined to seek shelter among Clan Scholae Palatinae, the traditional allies of Clan Plagueis, until he figured out what was going on.
He followed a medical shuttle from the Jusadih System to the Cocytus System, and made a landing on Judecca. In the capital city of Ohmen, Korroth learned that, while he was on Utapau, the Yuuzhan Vong had assailed the gathered Dark Brotherhood fleets and had conquered Antei. The Palatineans themselves were recovering from their recent reclamation of the Cocytus System. On a different note, Korroth also found out that House Acclivis Draco, while a multi-order house, had a very strong Krath tradition. Moreover, its home planet, Antenora, was a desert world. Korroth did not hesitate long before requesting a transfer from the Rogues to House Acclivis Draco of Clan Scholae Palatinae, and from the Sith Order to the Krath Order.
At that time, the Consul of Scholae Palatinae was Phoenix Olkyssagh d'Tana Palpatine, and the Quaestor of Acclivis Draco was RevengeX Palpatine. Korroth was welcomed into the Clan by Knight Class Envoy Braecen Kaeth Kunar who, a week later, apprenticed him to SBM Rasilvenaira StormRaven. However, without his knowledge, he was also transferred to House Caliburnus, since Rasilvenaira was at that time Quaestor of that House. Korroth moved his lodgings to the Serpent's Vanguard on Ptolomea, but despite this he still spent most of his time on Antenora, familiarizing himself with its deserts and its fascinating native people. In an attempt to bring him back to House Caliburnus, his Master assigned him as a Trooper to the newly opened Nightmare Brigade in 28 ABY, but Korroth became even more uninvolved in his House.
The Guardian eventually had himself transferred to the Rogues, but he stayed on Antenora. For around two months he camped in a canyon of the Hollow Lands and explored the complex cave networks that burrowed deep into the cliffs. However, in his infrequent but necessary communications with the nearest center of civilization, the Acclivis Draco HQ, he gained the impression that the members of the House were apprehensive about having a Rogue Dark Jedi on their planet. Korroth decided it was time to return to his homeworld, to see what had happened in the Tarbauri sinkholes since he had left them almost a year ago.
TBC
Profile
Appearance
Korroth belongs to a subspecies of Pau’ans that show slight differences from the more common strain of the species. He is gaunt and spindly, with scrawny arms and long bony fingers (unlike most Pau’ans, he keeps his fingernails trimmed so that they are not clawed). He has five-fingered hands and five-toed feet. His skin is vertically pinstriped and taupe grey in color, and it’s is very dry and raspy; he sweats very little. He is completely hairless, apart from bristly dark eyebrows. Below a high forehead and bushy eyebrows, his sunken eye sockets are stained with a pale red pigment, and he has very wide inky black pupils. Covering his ears (which have no pinnae) are silvery oval vestigial ear-disks. He has a thin nose, sunken cheeks and high cheekbones. Behind thin pale lips, his upper teeth are jagged and pointed, while his lower set of teeth is like that of any Human.
The physical differences between the Tarbauri-Sazareli Pau'ans (Korroth being one of them) and common Pau'ans may have been caused by the fact that Tarbauri-Sazareli Pau'ans have been living in arid, desert lands with the direct equatorial sun since before the climate change of 10,000 years ago.
Attire
Korroth's normal attire is a black high-collared shin-length cassock, with a wide dark green waist sash and a black elbow-length shoulder cape. He latches dark leather bracers to his wrists and dons supple Sullustan leather black boots. Over the waist sash he wears a leather utility belt which usually holds his lightsaber, a sonic blaster and medical supplies.
When he prepares for combat, Korroth usually dresses in a loose black thigh-length tunic and black breeches, held by the same dark green waist sash, and the same leather boots and bracers.
When going to cold places, he always puts on a voluminous robe or cloak lined with synthfur, thick gloves and boots and a warm hat.
Education
Korroth spent five years in the University of Sanbra (in the 70's BBY) learning first general science and then specializing in xenobiology. He has also carried out many studies involving genetic engineering of animals, so that he has become quite proficient in the field of genetics. After Sanbra, he spent two years in Corellia University's School of Starship Engineering. He did not gain a full degree, and he was not taught how new starships are designed. However, he acquired the basics required to repair and modify numerous types of starships. In his subsequent travels he was able to put into practice and improve this knowledge on many occasions. Since joining the Brotherhood, Korroth has undertaken to expand his knowledge in all fields, as attested by the variety of Shadow Academy courses he has passed.
Korroth's first language is a dialect of Utapese spoken in Tarbaur, which in turn is slightly different in Ika compared to the other Tarbauri sinkholes. He can, however, understand the other Utapese dialects, and also the Utai language. He speaks Basic with almost no accent, and he in fact puts great import in correct grammar and spelling. He can also communicate at a basic level in a few other alien languages, which he learned mostly in his travels with the League of Cavaliers Corsaire.
Name
Korroth is only the last of a number of names that the Pau'an has adopted. His birth name was Korren, from his mother's surname, Noren. When he discovered his father's name, he changed his own name to Korroth Von Hroth, his father being called Tuvroth'von Hroth ('von is a title adopted by self-made autocrats in Tarbaur; the title is passed on to the autocrat's heirs, but in the form of Von, unless the heir becomes an autocrat himself or herself). When he married into Tribe Ezzekiel, the appellation "Ezzekieli" was added to his name. His Dark Side surname "Karn" meant "cold" and "heartless" in the Sazareli language, although he has dropped this from his name since his conversion to the Light Side.
Possessions
Test Subject THY-16.3
Normally called "Thy", this genetically modified ludos has been traveling with Korroth since it was born in vitro in 56 BBY. Thy is the result of a study carried out by Korroth on the elimination of senescence through genetic engineering. The ludos, now almost 90 standard years old, is a testament to the success of that experiment.
Thy is much smaller than normal Ganlihk ludos, being about 10 cm (~4 inches) in length; Korroth sometimes carries it in his pocket or on his shoulder. Its body is shaped like a flattened, knobby ball, with a set of small round photoreceptors at the front. From underneath its body protrude ten prehensile tentacles, lined with suckers. The two front tentacles are agile and muscular, and they end in two fingers, thus allowing the ludos to climb vertical surfaces. Unlike the ludos of Ganlihk, Thy has a dry, pale-cream skin, and it uses its bioluminescent abilities infrequently.
Thy's most useful trait is its twittering vocalizations. Korroth has found that the ludos' "song" can help a meditating Force-user to enter an even deeper state of concentration, where they will be able to interact more profoundly with the Force. Korroth is reluctant to divulge this finding with others, so he has trained Thy to remain silent in public.
DJB Facts
Achievements
- Initiated into HAD’s Order of the Dragon as the Claw of Suffering towards the end of 28 ABY (March 2008).
- Designed the Sedes Doctrinae, the headquarters of the now defunct Ebon Cloak Battleteam.
- Completed an extensive report on many aspects of the planet Antenora, home to the now defunct Acclivis Draco Battleteam.