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Character History

(N.B. all dates converted to Galactic Standard Calendar)

Early Life

Birth and Background

Before 135 BBY

File:Utapau and moons.jpeg

Utapau

Korroth 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 sinkhole of Ika in the equatorial Tarbauri region of the planet Utapau, to parents Mavane Noren (628 BBY-28 ABY) and Tuvon Hroth (653 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 [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 Force-using 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 to place Mavane’s offspring at the presidency of the permanent government.

Formation and Education

135 BBY to 107 BBY

The sinkhole of Ika

By 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 Guard

Korroth 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.jpeg

The Sazareli steppes

When 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.jpeg

The Karnashu

The 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.jpeg

The Der Crabsi

At 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.