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Character History

Utapau

City of Birth

2 BBY - 9 ABY

"Let the politicians battle for ideals, honour, pride, justice. A soldier fights for home and hearth."

―Tuvon Karn

Korroth Karn was born in 2 BBY in Ika, a remote sinkhole city on the Outer Rim planet of Utapau. Ika was geographically isolated and both culturally and politically distinct from the planetary Utapaun society. This contrast was best exemplified, culturally, by the city's practice of an ancient animistic cult and, politically, by the Ikan City Council's autonomous rule and historical independence from the planetary government.

With the effective collapse of the Galactic Empire in 4 ABY, the re-instituted Utapaun Committee began applying pressure on Ika to integrate into planetary and galactic society. Korroth's mother Mavane was a prominent member of the governing traditionalist party on the Ikan City Council. This party took an aggressive stance towards the planetary government's perceived encroachment, and the dispute eventually escalated into a protracted war of attrition. The Utapaun Committee imposed economic sanctions and established a blockade around the entire sinkhole, while the Ikan Civil Guard retaliated with raids and skirmishes against the Utapaun security forces.

Korroth's father Tuvon was a captain in the Ikan Civil Guard. Though the child’s parents loved each other very much, they often quarreled over the war. Mavane strongly believed the Ikan people would lay down their lives for the sake of freedom, while Tuvon thought the cost of this war was too high. In 9 ABY Tuvon died while leading a raid against the Utapaun blockade.

Spirit Cult

9 ABY - 14 ABY

"Take this altar, it is the farthest reaches of the world. Take this sacrifice, it is the navel of the world. Take this fire, it is the life of the world. Take this priest, she is the speech of the world."

―Recitations of the spirit cult

In 10 ABY Mavane enrolled the young Pau'an in the city's Cadet Corps Academy, with the intent that he would eventually become a Civil Guard officer. Korroth took to the military education with diligence, but more out of commitment to his father's memory than any aspiration for a military career. Instead, his real devotion was to the sinkhole's spirit cult. Whenever he could, he would assist the revered spirit guides in healing rituals, the recitation of holy hymns and the maintenance of shrines. It was while taking part in the sacred rites that Korroth was able to immerse into the spirit world, where the energies of living beings were laid bare.

The spirit cult also had a strong influence on the young Pau'an's developing political position, as his social circle consisted mainly of cult initiates. The spirit guides, attuned as they were to the temper of the spirit world, saw that the war against the Utapaun Committee was bringing only grief and privation. In 14 ABY Korroth and a close group of friends believed the situation had become so dire that they formed a dissident cabal with the aim of removing the warmongering traditionalist party from the City Council. After months of planning and covert communications, the cabal led the security forces of the Utapaun Committee through an abandoned cave tunnel and into the sinkhole of Ika. The Utapaun soldiers took control of the city barracks and apprehended the members of the City Council with no fighting.

The Utapaun Committee soon installed a provisional city administrator and lifted the economic sanctions. The blockade dispersed and the raids stopped; in their hearts the people of Ika were thankful that they were no longer committed to a bloody war. However, they could not forgive the dissidents' traitorous actions, which had slighted their civic pride. After several days of riots and unrest, the uncontrolled lynch mobs discharged their fatal justice on the young conspirators one by one, until Korroth was forced to flee Ika and even Utapau itself. He took the first starliner he could find, which headed coreward on the Rimma Trade Route.

Slave Empire

Zygerria

14 ABY - 16 ABY

"There is no purpose. There is solely will. There is nothing... Only me."

―Darth Ruin

The starliner was still in the Outer Rim Territories when it was attacked by Zygerrian slavers of the Pr'ollerg Clan. The slavers seized every passenger, including Korroth, and imprisoned them in the cargo holds of their Aurore-class freighters. Korroth barely took notice of the miserable month-long journey; his mental state was such that the wretchedness of the cargo hold's slave pens was to him a mere sensory extrusion of the internal misery he was experiencing. The exile from his native city of Ika, the brutal killing of his comrades and his own mother’s repudiation had sheared all that had tethered him to the mundane galaxy. For a while the distraught Pau'an withdrew into his own self.

The slave freighter crossed almost the entire Galaxy and arrived on Zygerria in 15 ABY. Korroth was put in a work crew for the construction of a slave master's grand palace. The taxing rigors of the physical labor and the strong-arm rule of the burliest slaves over the weaker ones almost killed Korroth. In this environment, traumatic and hostile from every angle, Korroth came to perceive that any empathetic connection to beings other than the self had been sloughed away. The world was now a simple concatenation of action-reaction driven entirely by self-preservation.

It is somewhat ironic, then, that what saved him were his rudimentary skills of healing, taught to him in the form of rites and incantations by the spirit guides of Ika. In exchange for treatment of injuries and illness, the bossiest slaves wouldn't steal his rations or beat him, and other slaves would take over some of his heavy manual tasks. This arrangement might well have saved his life, but it was the Zygerrian slave master Yaj Pr'odek, owner of the grand palace being constructed, who indirectly saved his sanity. Upon inspecting the slave work crews in 16 ABY, she saw him performing a healing ritual on another slave and she bought him for her own retinue.

Queen Scintel III

16 ABY - 20 ABY

"You long for the freedom of servitude, Pau’an. You know that you are free only when you surrender to total submission."

―Lady Pr’odek

Yaj Pr'odek was the captain of the Corona-class slaving frigate Queen Scintel III. She and her crew of mercenaries, slavers and slaves raked the planets of the Trans-Hydian Borderlands for rare and exotic slaves, occasionally taking refuge in the Stygian Caldera when New Republic or First Order patrols gave chase. Korroth's role on this ship was to keep the captured slaves alive and in good health, initially a task made difficult by their cramped, unsanitary conditions and their state of malnutrition.

Over the years the Pau'an obtained significant improvements in the quality of the slave pens and the amenities and food expended on the slaves. In Korroth's mind this was simply an expedient quid pro quo: he improved the conditions of the captive slaves—fewer slaves died—Lady Pr'odek made a greater profit on the slave markets—Korroth was spared punishment and, sometimes, even rewarded. His healing practices also allowed him to focus on the Force, its flow through himself and his single patient rather than the outward, all-encompassing panorama he had been shown by the Ikan spirit guides. It was in the Force that Korroth found solace from what was, whichever way one put it, the grim life of a slave.

When it needed to hide, the Queen Scintel III stole onto a forgotten planet inside Sith Space, using an ancient Sith citadel as the hideout. Korroth became fascinated with the crumbling murals and inscriptions on its walls. As a gift for his diligent service, Lady Pr'odek sometimes granted Korroth the resources and leave to study the citadel. Over the years the Pau'an came to believe that a particular set of friezes depicted the insurrection of a mighty Sith Lord, his defeat by the power of Marka Ragnos and his exile into the Caldera.

Felucia

19 ABY - 20 ABY

"One breath. Tree, flower, rancor, acklay, kinsfolk. One breath. One life."

―Felucian Shaman

In 20 ABY the Queen Scintel III raided the planet Felucia and captured several of the jungle-dwelling tribes. In his capacity as healer, Korroth was able to establish a limited rapport during the year they were on the planetary surface. He participated in their shamans' rituals and by it perceived how individual consciousness could blur and dissolve into a greater unity. He understood that the Felucians were, to some extent, mere instances of a single will that encompassed their whole tribe, the jungle, maybe even the whole planet. The young Pau’an felt this was the key to unlocking a higher truth about the Force, but in the end this opportunity escaped his grasp.

As the slave ship departed that untamed world, the Felucians grew hostile and erratic. Korroth entreated Lady Pr'odek to remain on the planet, believing that a jump to hyperspace would be fatal to the Felucians, but the Zygerrian was not swayed. The ship sped towards the Esstran sector, and the Felucians became wild and violent. They broke free of the slave pens and ran amok on the decks. The ship reached the hideout world, but the crew lost control and crashed onto the surface.

Korroth survived, barely, and made his way to the Sith citadel. The loss of the Felucians tore him into a state of distraction the like of which he had not experienced since his enslavement six years ago. The Felucians had been a gateway to an understanding of the Force far deeper than that granted by the Ikan spirit guides, or his own practice of Force healing. Now, with all their shamans dead in the wreckage of the Queen Scintel III, that path was lost to Korroth. Staring at the friezes of the Sith citadel, the Pau'an resolved that he would find his way into the custody of beings who could show him the way to mastery of the Force, or die trying. The friezes pinpointed the last trajectory of the fleet of the exiled Sith Lord Okemi. Korroth focused his intent on that caliginous swirl of the Stygian Caldera and sat immobile, waiting. He intuited that, if the exiled Sith Lord had survived, if his progeny had prospered, if they had grown powerful in the Force, they would have sensed the death of the Force-crazed Felucians and the passion of the Pau'an's intent. If not, the path he had chosen would come to an end. Korroth did not waver in mind or body for days, weeks, until he passed out from exhaustion.

Dark Jedi Brotherhood

Lyspair

20 ABY

"This journey will test your strength, will, and knowledge of the Dark Side, pitting you against other Dark Jedi seeking the same power. Should you be able to grasp the sheer intensity of the Dark Side, you will become more powerful than you could ever imagine."

― Jac Cotelin

When he awoke, Korroth found himself on the surface of a stark and arid moon. With him were a handful of other aspirants, but they had no water or supplies between them. They all could see the pale contour of a pyramid atop a cliff in the far distance, and though they spoke no words they all knew the nature of the test. They set off across the torrid plain, until they reached some rocky hills. Here many in the group stopped in the shade, thinking they would recoup. Korroth ignored them. His body cried for respite, but his resolve drove him to triumph or death. There was nothing left to him but that triangle of dark stone high in the distance. He trekked through the hills and, with the last light of day, climbed the steep cliff that was the final barrier. Thus, in 20 ABY, in the reign of Grand Master Jac Cotelin, in the courtyard of the Shadow Academy, Headmaster Anshar Khan Tarentae initiated Korroth into the Dark Jedi Brotherhood.

His days on Lyspair were spent perusing the vast knowledge base of this composite and intricate organization. The histories of the great and powerful of the Brotherhood, their command and arcane comprehension of the Force, galvanized the callow Journeyman and gave him intemperate aspirations. Though he had been rostered with the Praxeum of House Galeres of Tarentum, Korroth remained on Lyspair; in fact he barely left the bookshelves and databanks of the Academy's libraries. Once Battlemaster Windos Helkin Bruth'Kothae, then Tetrarch of the Praxeum, elevated Korroth to Acolyte for his high performance in the Shadow Academy, the Pau'an transferred to Kapsina and Clan Plagueis.

Kapsina

20 ABY

"I foresee great and wicked things in the future; we will continue our path of destruction throughout the Galaxy."

―Jac Cotelin

Under the Consulship of Battlelord Aabsdu di Plagia Dupar al'Tor, Clan Plagueis was an excellent introduction into the wrangling politics of the Brotherhood. Though three years had passed since the so-called "Dictum of Two Skies" which had merged the declining Clan Satak Keto and Clan Exar Kun into the current Plagueis, the turbulent ripples of the event still colored the interactions of the Clan's Dark Jedi. In observing the internal acrimony of the Clan, Korroth could reflect on how the whole Brotherhood maintained its effective unity. How could a gathering of self-serving dark side zealots, divided into rival power-vying Clans, hold together and not be destroyed from the inside? Korroth's pondering was partly answered when Grand Master Jac Ae-Sequiera Cotelin Taldrya-Cantor abdicated the Iron Throne and nominated Deputy Grand Master Aristan Dantes as his successor. The latter's ceremony of ascension to the Iron Throne as Darth Sarin demonstrated to the awestruck Journeyman the heights of power that an individual could attain through the Force, and how this individual could drag the whole Brotherhood structure up into its current shape.

In the Antei Combat Center Korroth learned the fundamentals of lightsaber combat. Using a training saber, he practiced under Archpriest al'Lan Mandragoran and then with Combat Master Dalthid, who finally accepted him as a Neophyte of the Combat Center. In practicing the simple movements of Banlanth, Korroth learned the value of focus and awareness of one's own body. He began using the basic katas as a way to center on the self and refine his connection to the Force.

During 20 ABY the Plagueis Clan Summit pushed efforts to document and gather intelligence on the Crimson Tide, an organization of pirates that had tormented Clan Plagueis since its inception. Korroth took a minor assistant role in the research team led by Proconsul Valerian di Plagia Orzon. The Journeyman's role in this information-gathering enterprise was relatively insignificant, but it helped him to grasp that knowledge gave as much of an upper hand as superior weaponry against the enemy.

Antenora

20 ABY - 21 ABY

"When the enemy comes for you, it will not be simulation. It will not be when you are ready. When he comes for you he is sure of your death. Will you be sure of his?"

―Darth Sarin

Towards the end of 20 ABY Darth Sarin inaugurated a set of Brotherhood-wide military exercises, dubbed "Second Darkness," in which the Clans would test the mettle of their Dark Jedi against one another. Korroth, a Guardian rank at this point, still did not know how to interpret these displays of unity-through-rivalry. He remained on Kapsina and continued his studies. At the turn of 21 ABY the Dark Tower received word that Clan Plagueis had placed third in the Rite of Supremacy. The fleets of the Clans had gathered near the Shroud for the champions' award ceremony, and Consul Aabsdu took the opportunity to seal an alliance with Consul Braecen Kaeth of Clan Scholae Palatinae. Korroth and the Journeymen still on Kapsina were ordered to travel as emissaries to the Houses of Scholae Palatinae to strengthen these bonds of allegiance, though Korroth thought "hostage exchange" might have been a better descriptive.

Korroth arrived on Antenora expecting that he would have to wait for the Acclivis Draco House Summit to return from the Rite of Supremacy celebrations. He set out on the streets of the magnificent city of Suzel, but he did not have long to explore before he received a communication stating that Clan Scholae Palatinae had broken off relations with Clan Plagueis. Korroth took the precaution of leaving the city before trying to reopen contact with his Clan. However, all communication with the fleets gathered at the Shroud had ceased. When he saw figures in the distance fleeing in every direction from the Dragon's Citadel, he concluded that something was badly wrong. He stole a transport and fled South from Suzel until he reached the bleached deserts of Batnare. As he crossed into the Sea of the Rising, huge ships of unfamiliar make hove into the atmosphere, their prows directed northwards to Suzel. Korroth determined to continue deeper into the desert, away from urban centers.

His stolen repulsorcraft did not last long in the desert sands. The only thing that saved him, after days of wandering without direction, was the sighting of a slow-moving object on the horizon. It was in fact one of the enormous desert-crossing byeruas, bedecked in the tents and banners of the Ser Gaa. The Antenoran tribe picked him up and nursed him back to health. In his time with these nomads Korroth got his first glimpse of the rich culture and traditions of the native Antenorans.

Scholae Palatinae

Dragon's Citadel

21 ABY - 22 ABY

"Where perfection becomes habit."

―Acclivis Draco motto

In his sojourn with Tribe Ser Gaa, Korroth observed the passage of more alien ships and the echoes of bombardments from the Northern Oasis. A period of calm was then followed by the arrival of the Fleet of Scholae Palatinae, led by the recently dethroned ex-Consul Braecen Kaeth and the new Consul Phoenix Olkyssagh d'Tana Palpatine, Emperor of the Cocytus system. The ensuing space battle and ground assaults resulted in heavy losses for the Clan, but the planets of the Cocytus system were reclaimed from the alien invaders.

By the time Korroth had made his way back to Suzel, House Acclivis Draco had returned to the Dragon's Citadel and had started to rebuild. The Journeyman hesitated when the time came to take transport back to Kapsina. Perhaps it was the venerable dignity and camaraderie of House Acclivis Draco, or the pull of Antenora's desert mysteries, but he decided to remain on the planet and join the House of the Rising Dragon. He was welcomed into the Dragon's Citadel by Quaestor RevengeX Palpatine and Aedile Cuchulain Palpatine.

At times, namely during the frequent middle-of-the-night parades called by the drunk Aedile, Korroth almost reckoned that he was regretting his move to Antenora, that he could have stayed secure and unperturbed on Kapsina, concentrated on his studies and cultivated his power through knowledge of the Force. As he got acquainted with his new House, however, he saw that he would have missed the opportunity to explore and unpick the rich tapestry that interwove the Dark Jedi of the Clan, of the the House, the Antenorans and the rest of the planet. Unwittingly, the years he would spend on Antenora were to be as much an exploration of his own self as of the planet’s many secrets.

Sheh Hok

22 ABY

"Give me cash, and I shall turn it into weapons. Give me blasters, and I shall turn it into a shootout. Give me an army, and I shall turn it into a war. Give me a cause, and I shall turn it into a bloodbath. Don’t give me a pointed stick, or you’ll regret it."

―Rore Dumon

Early in 22 ABY the House Summit commenced a recruitment drive for the commissioned officer positions in the Kraken Regiment (formerly the Acclivis Draco Defense Regiment), in an effort to reinforce the units depleted in the alien incursion and Operation Dragon Claw of the previous year. Korroth was sent locate the shadowport of Sheh Hok and to hunt for potential candidates among the outlaws in that smuggling haven. He did not find much information on the shadowport, only that it was hidden somewhere below the sands of the Blood Plains of Etnare, but he did not expect that he would need its exact location.

File:Rore Dumon.JPG

Rore Dumon

First, he arrived at the trading port of Uvem, in the middle of Etnare, where he began making great fanfare of his mission to rid Antenora of its outlaws and made the round of the residential module's cantinas asking indiscreet questions about Sheh Hok. Then he proceeded to make frequent outings into the surrounding desert until, during a particularly turbid sandstorm, he was kidnapped and rendered unconscious. Once inside the shadowport, the Pau'an's kidnappers entered into civil conversation. They did not appear hostile, in fact they seemed quite used to this kind of behaviour, and they knew where he came from. They took Korroth's offered mission without qualms, especially after he suggested it might be the basis for a more long-term relationship with the planet’s powers-that-be.

Korroth accompanied one of the mercenary captains, an old Duros named Rore Dumon, as the pirate and mercenary ships travelled to Kwenn Space Station. Their intended target was a team of New Republic hypernautics engineers, which they were to capture for Acclivis Draco. Dumon surprised Korroth by hanging back with his mercenary squad, while the other criminal teams directly assaulted the station. The Duros then attacked the selfsame outlaws, hailing himself to the station as New Republic reinforcements. In the confusion of the battle, he convinced the New Republic engineers to escape to safety on his ship. While the station forces and the outlaws tore each other apart, Dumon smuggled out with his squad and the engineers.

Dumon's ship was thus the only one to return to the Cocytus system. By this point the engineers had figured out their situation and were making loud protestation. The Duros threw them in an airlock and spaced them. Though somewhat shocked by his actions, Korroth understood Dumon's meaning. The old captain was a veteran of wars, rebellions and raids. He no longer fought for allegiances, ideals or credits. He fought for the fight, the pure object of victory for him and his unit. Korroth saw this as an ideal trait for an officer of the Imperial Legion. Quaestor RevengeX concurred with Korroth’s appraisal of the Duros candidate and appointed him Colonel in the Acclivis Draco Defense Regiment.

Claw of Suffering

22 ABY

"We stand as one House united."

―RevengeX Palpatine

Since the alien invasion and the loss of Antei and so many of the Clans' assets in 21 ABY, the Dark Council had been working to reinforce and replenish the beleaguered Brotherhood. In 22 ABY Grand Master Sarin announced major reforms concerning the dissolution of the Society of Envoys and the empowering of Journeymen, in the form of mass-produced armory lightsabers. Evidently the echelons of power wanted to prepare the Brotherhood for further engagements with the alien invaders.

In Clan Scholae Palatinae the responsibility of training and developing the Journeymen shifted towards the Rollmasters and to individual mentoring by the Equite and Elder classes. It is thus that Korroth became Prelate Lucien's apprentice for a time. The Prelate coached Korroth in the use of his new armory lightsaber in the training halls on Judecca. For the first time the Journeyman came face to face with the terrifying expediency and compressed ferocity of Vaapad, which his master used with great proficiency. In this time Korroth came to see lightsaber combat as more than a means to kill; its purpose was rather to shape the internal self, to cut it and beat it into the image of power. Though, of course, Vaapad was still far beyond his capacity as a practicable Form.

In this year Korroth had the honor to serve as the Claw of Suffering, Order of the Dragon: Third Class. The prestigious Order of the Dragon functioned as the Quaestor's personal guard on Antenora, protecting the Dragon's Citadel from threats external and internal. Quaestor RevengeX had instituted the Order in 20 ABY in response to the insidious menace of Acclivis Draco's rival sister House Caliburnus. When RevengeX appointed Korroth in 22 ABY, the priority had shifted to domestic planetary threats.

In his duties as the Claw, Korroth familiarized himself with the intricate politics of the Antenoran locals. The ruling tribes of Li Gandor jostling for power, the vanquished remnants of the Ognerate dreaming of the glory days, the mysterious practices of the Nogarsh Hatzate, the desert nomads struggling with the pace of industrial development. Each of these could spawn a suicidal native with a vibroshiv or a well-placed bomb, and the only way to prevent this was to become intimately familiar with the tempers and expectations of the Antenorans.

It was in the course of these investigations that Korroth first encountered a drug called Hatwa. This illegal hallucinogenic substance was apparently being sourced from the planet itself; over the years he spent on Antenora Korroth would apprehend the huge cultural and social significance that this drug had for the natives. The Pau’an also became acquainted with the Haka Lakuis of Patz-Ah. This martial tribe held the greatest military responsibilities of the three Northern Tribes. With their connections to the security forces of many Antenoran cities, Korroth became a close associate of several soldiers from this tribe.

In addition to his duties as the Claw, Korroth also participated in a secret project on Judecca involving research into Force artifacts. The team, led by Jedi Hunter Tra'an Reith, studied at least five artifacts with powerful connections to the Force. They documented the history of these relics, their physical nature, their effects when used by Force-sensitives and the origin of their power. In the prisons of the old Consul's palace in Ohmen the team experimented on convicts and failed Brotherhood Initiates to determine the extent of the artifacts' powers and their possible applications. The extent to which some of these objects warped the Force frightened Korroth sometimes, but it was nonetheless an invaluable opportunity to test the depths of his own connection to the Force. Also, some of the work involved reminded him of his slave days on the Queen Scintel III; he spent almost as much effort probing the artifacts as he did trying to keep the prisoners alive for the mentally and physically demanding experiments. It wasn't so different from the work he used to do for the slaving ship's live cargo.

Judecca

23 ABY

On Exodus Day in 23 ABY Emperor Phoenix the Ruthless and Consul Braecen Kaeth of Plagueis hosted the third Independence Games of the Brotherhood. For his previous work on the secret Clan artifacts project, Korroth was one of three commissioned to produce a detailed documentation of the Force-imbued trophies that were unveiled at the celebrations. Clan Scholae Palatinae, led by Dark Paladin Angelo Dante as First Champion, turned out in force for the event and triumphed over all the other Clans. This victory heralded a period of jubilation for the Royal Clan; for a short time they could forget their moniker of "Second Clan."

Early in this year Korroth secured greater oversight of the Clan artifacts project in Ohmen. The Guardian's period of active service as Claw of the Order of the Dragon had come to an end and he transferred more permanently to Judecca. The work on the artifacts drew him away from Master Lucien's tutoring, whose duties as Proconsul and Grand Marshal left him little time to spare for his student anyway; the Prelate was at that time implementing a reorganization of the Imperial Military. Korroth let his research subsume him, he became obsessed with wringing the last secrets from the ancient relics, imagining he would unlock some path to mastery of the Force. When the Pau'an received word that the Clan was rescinding its patronage of the entire project and that the Dark Council intended to confiscate the relics, he lost control of himself and slaughtered all the live experimental subjects in the prison.

Immediately after this event, Korroth took a ship to Antenora. He avoided the Dragon's Citadel entirely, instead he landed in the port of Lamen and took off into the Sea of the Rising. In the white sands of Batnare the Guardian hoped to dispel the devastating psychological aftermath of his actions. He was not, by this point, distressed for the loss of the artifacts. Nor was he preoccupied by the potential consequences his actions could have on his prospects; the Clan certainly didn't care about the murdered convicts, and ultimately he would be rewarded whether his work produced tangible results or not. His apprehension was directed at his own loss of self control. He had allowed himself to become so attached to the project, even to the artifacts as mere objects, that he had been unable to deal with their loss when, by the necessity of an impermanent Universe, they were taken from him. Trekking through that empty sea of sand, he saw clearly that mastery of the Force could not come from the outside world. He would need to eschew the transient reflections of eternity and look inward to find his own power.

Ser Gaa

23 ABY - 24 ABY

Korroth encountered a number of tribes on the edges of the Sea of the Rising. He would travel with them for a span, observing their customs and practices, then he would take advantage of the hospitality of the next tribe they met. In this manner, he once again ran across the Ser Gaa, the Antenorans who had received him on his first stay on the planet. For several months the Pau’an lived the lifestyle, culture and traditions of this tribe. He learned of their complex social structure and hierarchies, their devotion to their patron deity, their vital relationship with Byeru-Tara, the titan tortoise on which they followed the seasonal underground tides of the Sea of the Rising.

The Pau’an found a modicum of solace in the teachings of the Ser Gaa’s priests. They told him that it is natural and inevitable to suffer in this world, but every trouble and tribulation here will be appeased a thousand times over in the afterworld, where the soul will swim in eternal bliss. Korroth found it extraordinary how these people could be so bound to the complex interrelations of life and nature on Antenora, and yet be so spiritually liberated.

In exchange for their hospitality, both now and three years ago, Korroth offered his healing service to the tribespeople, and by it refined his understanding of their culture. The Antenoran nomads did not value well-being, but rather the personal act of attaining it. This is not to say that they refused the Pau’an’s medical assistance, or that they did not have their own practical ways of treating debilitating illness and injury. But they never asked their deities for help. Indeed, it was the gods who placed adversity in their way, as an opportunity for the individual to overcome it and make the self stronger.

Of course, the Ser Gaa were not without their complaints. According to their mabrigashi the glory days of the tribe were long over. No longer the huge hosts of tribespeople, the vast byut herds and the many byeruas. The Dragon Treaty of 13 ABY, by outlawing Hatwa and impeding its distribution, severely disrupted the social structure of the nomad tribes. For these Antenorans the drug Hatwa played a crucial role in their rituals and social cohesion. When its supplies ran dry, the people of the Ser Gaa became divided and unable to cope with the hostility of the desert. Many left the Sea of the Rising and migrated beyond the Dragon’s Teeth, following rumors of stockpiles of Hatwa in Ognen. Those who remained and survived the throes of Hatwa withdrawal rallied the tribe and struggled on. Over the years their numbers continued to diminish as the youngsters left to seek a supposedly more stable life in Zef Demoht.

Vum Kep

24 ABY

The peregrinations of the Ser Gaa and the Pau’an eventually brought them to the walls of Vum Kep, to trade goods in the stronghold city’s markets. Korroth decided to part with the Ser Gaa here, despite their warnings about the local Over-Tribe Naa Ugo. He soon appreciated the Ser Gaa’s apprehension on his behalf. The Naa Ugo recognized Korroth as an offworlder and an agent of the Cocytus Empire, and they had nothing but hostility for him. The Krath realised that he had only scratched the surface of the Antenorans’ animosity towards the Clan in his time as the Claw of Suffering. It was more than the perceived oppression inflicted by the Empire—by giving power to the Haka Lakuis of Li Gandor, Acclivis Draco had stepped into a thousand years-old conflict between the Tribes. Ostensibly they had brought peace to these bellicose peoples, but now Korroth felt they had only strengthened the divide of the Tribes, and compressed their anger to dangerous levels.

It was not long before the Naa Ugo got tired of the Draconian’s inquisitiveness and threw him out of the city. Though disappointed, Korroth was pleased to have learned so much in Vum Kep. The Over-Tribe had so far been largely ignored by the House, because of its primitive weapons and technology, but he now knew their religious devotion to the arts of war and their animosity made them a credible threat. The Guardian also noted the stark difference between the cities of Suzel and Vum Kep. Where one was graceful, opulent, modern, the other was ancient, efficient and blunt. It reinforced his idea that it was a mistake to treat the natives of Antenora as a single people.

Pensive and distracted, Korroth’s wandering took him South into the Hollow Lands, where he got completely lost in a maze of cliffs and canyons. In between trying to find his way back and hiding from a stalking fyr, the Pau’an found himself in a gigantic cavern of stalactites and stalagmites. Momentarily out of danger, he explored the network of connecting caves and noted that there were traces of artificial stonework in some of the tunnels. Eventually he found a shaft that led to the top of the canyon cliffs, where his comlink signal was no longer blocked. Resolving to return to this place in the future, he signalled the Dragon’s Citadel for retrieval.

Ebon Cloak

24 ABY

On his return to Acclivis Draco, Korroth found that the Clan’s political landscape had changed considerably. In welcoming him back into the fold, Aedile Kalak Ragnose explained that Korroth’s former master Lucien had mysteriously disappeared from Brotherhood space, and Battlelord Thran Occasus had taken the Consulship as Emperor Occasus the Usurper. RevengeX Palpatine had also relinquished his long-standing Quaestorship of Acclivis Draco, with Templar Tra’an Reith eventually becoming Quaestor. Furthermore, Knight Draco Maligo was reopening a training phyle called the Ebon Cloak, and Korroth took the opportunity to join his team.

The House—and, indeed, the whole Cocytus system—had recently been plagued by unrest and seditious activity from local populations, even to the point of attempts on the Quaestor’s life and acts of sabotage at the Silvia Industries headquarters. However, the Clan’s attention had already turned towards Antei, distracted by signs that the time to reclaim the Brotherhood’s homeworld was drawing near.

Towards the end of 24 ABY, the Grand Master finally summoned the fleets of the Clans for the retaking of Antei. In a move probably calculated to reduce the possibility of inter-Clan conflict, Darth Sarin ordained that only the Dark Jedi of the Clans could set foot on the surface of Antei, supported solely by the Armed Forces of the Iron Throne, rather than the individual Clan militaries. Korroth was onboard the ISDII Warspite when the gathered fleets navigated through the Shroud and broke into the Antei system. They found only the empty husks of the alien invaders’ organic warships, and down on the planet they were not confronted by Force-devoid fiends but hostile Jedi and battle droids.

Unification War

24 ABY

Korroth was sent as a “Foxtrot Uniform” to assist a squadron of the 2^nd Battalion 41^st Infantry of the 13^th Starborne Division in their push towards the Tomb of Okemi. Deploying from an Armored Personnel Carrier, the squad engaged a force of battle droids and took over the northern entrance of the Tomb. Korroth then received orders from his Clan Summit to hold his position and deny access to anybody. The Krath Guardian perceived this as an opportunity for Scholae Palatinae to probe the arcane secrets of the Tomb, without interference from the other Clans. He also received updates on the status of the enemy: they were a sect of fanatical Jedi who had wiped out the alien invaders in the system with a deadly plague. They now intended to hold Antei against the Dark Jedi Brotherhood with their army of battle droids.

While guarding the Tomb’s entrance, Korroth and the squad were approached by a Sith Guardian of Clan Naga Sadow. Apparently he had been sent by Legion Headquarters to take over command of the squad. The Palatinean was ill-disposed to give up his position—he did not want to give up the chance to scour the Tomb by himself when the battle was over. An exchange of insults between the two Foxtrots turned into a violent scuffle, with the infantry squad cheering, jeering and placing bets. They eventually tumbled down the Tomb’s entrance shaft and inflicted mutual injuries, prompting the Iron Throne soldiers to separate them and call for extraction.

Korroth was sent back to a forward headquarters held by the Ebon Cloak near the Temple Boyna, where they patched up his wound. During a lull in the fighting, Tetrarch Draco Maligo issued Korroth with a battlefield promotion to Jedi Hunter. The Pau’an was greatly uplifted by this commendation. However, it left him thinking about the Clans’ internecine clashes, even here in this battle to retake Antei. He knew them to be a present problem, he had caused one himself. He knew the reasons—to advance one Clan above the other—but he still did not understand how the Brotherhood as a whole could (and did) succeed in its endeavours with this level of internal division.

The Jedi Hunter rejoined the battle as soon as his injury had healed. Scholae Palatinae’s assault on the Temple Boyna was fierce and arduous, and Korroth saw many of his Ebon Cloak comrades die in the fighting. The droids and enemy Jedi were driven out, but the Unification War was not truly over until the BAC Exodus crashed on the surface of Antei. The bodies of Darth Sarin and the Jedi leader, Omancor Crask, were found in the wreckage, signaling the end of the conflict.

Muz Keibatsu Sadow became the new Grand Master of the Brotherhood, taking the name Darth Ashen. The Clans returned to their respective systems with trophies of victory in their hands. Nonetheless, there was a foreboding that the recapture of Antei did not signify a return to past glory, but rather a leap into a tempestuous future.

Sedes Doctrinae

24 ABY - 25 ABY

Though reduced in numbers, the Ebon Cloak had proved its worth during the War of Unification. Hoping to increase the influx of fresh recruits, the House Summit granted Draco Maligo the leave and resources to initiate a grand building project for the training phyle. Korroth took up the location and design of the Battleteam’s new headquarters, under the supervision of the Tetrarch.

The Jedi Hunter re-visited the caverns he had serendipitously discovered in the Hollow Lands and saw that it was a hidden, protected location with a network of tunnels to expand into. He commissioned a team of engineers and architects from the academies of Vuhm Kehs to excavate an underground complex complete with a hangar, dormitories, laboratories, combat simulation chambers, training halls, classrooms and a library, all centered around the huge cavern of stalactites called the “Dripping Hall.” This was to become the Sedes Doctrinae. During the course of the project, an artificial chamber was uncovered. The room had evidently been dug many thousands of years previously, and it displayed indecipherable runes on its walls. Korroth knew this to be an important finding, but at the moment he could draw little information from it.

Early in 25 ABY, during an inspection of the Sedes Doctrinae by Rollmaster Koryn Thraagus and Tetrarch Draco Maligo, a bomb detonated in the north-western alchemy labs. There were no casualties, but the incident brought home the extent of the discontent on Antenora. The House Summit immediately pinned the attack on “the Cause,” a socialist rebellion that had been inciting unrest through the Cocytus system.

The Cause

25 ABY

After the Unification War Emperor Occasus had completed a series of large-scale public infrastructure projects, aimed at appeasing the populace and thus destabilising the Cause. Despite this, the rebellion had continued to gain ground, staging acts of sabotage, riots and bombings. The rebel group had hooks in the Dragon’s Citadel itself, allegedly. A Sith Warrior’s attempt to usurp Quaestor Tra’an Reith’s position was, again, linked to the Cause. The culprit, a supposed Sorcerer of Rhand named Ves Kornek, failed in his thrust for power, but he fled with two Journeyman followers.

At this time Korroth was in the South of Antenora handling the Sedes Doctrinae project. News of the attempted coup came to him over the House holofeed, but he could see with his own eyes the general state of restiveness in the Antenoran population. He travelled often between the construction site and Nas Modeh, where he obtained much of the construction material. Though it was difficult for a stranger to interact with the Soba Karemu themselves, the city was a nucleus for the trade of all the southern tribes. All these people had lost something in the Dragon Treaty, and the rumored emergence of a force willing to oppose the Cocytus Empire appeared as a light of hope to them. Though it was doubtful that Antenora as a whole would be better off without the Empire, it was easy for market-square demagogues to hook onto the grievances of the southern Antenorans.

Beyond the matter of the Cause, Nas Modeh was a focusing lens for another aspect of Antenoran culture. The markets of this city were a forum of interaction between the nomad and settled tribes. In this interplay, Korroth saw a disparity of purpose between the two groups. The Soba Karemu, the city’s tribe, played the merchant’s game—buy low, sell high. The fall of the Ognerate had ended Nas Modeh’s economic growth, and the Soba Karemu’s way of dealing with this was to cling to the monopolies left to them, increasing prices in an attempt to offset Imperial excise. Conversely, the nomad tribes that traded in the city confronted their economic hardship with retrenchment. To them the act of enduring was more valuable than that of restoring their wealth. Korroth hypothesized this to be a disparity of behaviours observable in many of Antenora’s cities and nomad peoples, and resolved to ascertain this when circumstances permitted.

Knight

25 ABY

The Sedes Doctrinae was completed a year after construction began. The complex was never occupied, however, because the Ebon Cloak phyle dissolved in that time. The Battleteam had languished since the decimation of the War of Unification, and it had never received the influx of young Journeymen hoped for by the House Summit, so it was shut down.

Leaving the Sedes Doctrinae to disuse did not greatly unsettle Korroth. The Jedi Hunter had already set his sights on a more stimulating project. With Kalak Ragnose newly risen to the Quaestorship, the House Summit granted Korroth the backing for a study of the Antenoran cities. A detailed report on the planet’s major settlements would allow the Empire to refine its control of the natives, and hopefully bring an end to the recent discord.The project would also deepen the Pau’an’s own understanding of the Antenorans. He believed the deportment of their many disparate tribes could shed a light on the structure of the Dark Brotherhood, with its six rival Clans.

Before leaving to start his research, Korroth underwent his knighting ceremony at the Dragon’s Citadel. In the Hall of the Rising Dragon, Rollmaster Draco Maligo presented Korroth to the House and Clan Summit. The Pau’an was invested as a Knight of the Krath Order, and Proconsul Angelo Dante gifted him with the first pieces for the construction of his own lightsaber.

Li Gandor

25 ABY - 26 ABY

The research project began in the three cities of Li Gandor. Suzel and Wekraneh taught Korroth how the Dragon Treaty of 13 ABY had carried the Northern Tribes to their current seats of power. These two beautiful, wealthy and opulent cities were the physical representation of the Tribes’ ascendancy on Antenora. They were the apogee of what the Northern Antenorans had achieved with the backing of Acclivis Draco. However, that was the crux of the matter in the Pau’an’s eyes. Without Acclivis Draco, Hoka Dachu and Malar Denovi would be nothing. Their rulership of Antenoran lands South of Li Gandor came entirely from the Cocytus Empire’s conquests in 13 ABY. Their control over the Southern Antenorans was merely by virtue of the blaster, supplied by Acclivis Draco for use against a largely pre-slugthrower population.

In addition to this, the Krath Knight perceived a deep cultural, economic and spiritual divide between these tribes and the Southern Antenorans. The wealth disparity in itself was obvious, but it was also a compounding factor in the growing secularity of the Northern Tribes. Their striving for cosmopolitanism with Imperial and Galactic society drove them further away from their more conservative Antenoran cousins. This made it more difficult for them to relate to the issues and anxieties experienced by the Southern Antenorans, Korroth judged, and therefore less able to govern them successfully.

The situation was different in Patz-Ah. Korroth was well acquainted with Tribe Haka Lakuis, and he knew them to be of a very practical and efficient strain. Ever since his term as Claw of Suffering three years ago, the Pau’an had been practicing martial arts in the dojos of the city’s Academies of War. The Tribe hosted doyens from all over the Galaxy. Combining their expertise with their own traditions they developed a style resembling Shadow Step. The style was well-suited to their work in security, policing and peacekeeping, with its rapid and non-lethal techniques for subduing opponents.

Haka Lakuis had never lost its martial disposition, but it was this ability to adapt, remodel and innovate that made their rulership of Eastern Antenora so effective. However, they still suffered from the same cultural estrangement of the other Northern Tribes. Over the years, this had forced them to rely increasingly on oppression and violent suppression of rebellions, methods which, in Korroth’s mind, could not be considered long-term solutions. With this disturbing observation, the Pau’an abandoned Li Gandor for the planet’s desert lands, where he hoped to plumb the depths of the gulf between the ruling and the ruled of Antenora.

Zef Demoht

26 ABY

Clambering up the slopes of the Peaks of Fire, Zef Demoht stood as proof and commentary to the wealth of Tribe Malar Denovi. The Pau’an went into the city unannounced, thus avoiding the prearranged tour of the industrial parks and the Glamiavad estates. Instead, passing off as an occupational health inspector, he snuck into the miners’ ghetto. It was while traversing its black, dust-laden alleys that he recognized the distinctive woven textiles of the Ser Gaa. He had encountered a Quodi of the tribe, one of the groups that had left the desert in search of a less uncertain life in the city.

What they were stuck with was backbreaking, unending labor. Their every waking hour was spent toiling in the mines and smelting plants. Their most unbearable thought was that they saw no prospect of their situation ever changing. When Korroth chanced upon them, he found a broken people. Many times they had considered escaping the city, but their shame at having abandoned the Tribe sapped their resolve.

House Scholae Palatinae

Spring Games, Antenora Cities Project, RoS:Disorder.

House Odan-Urr

Harakoans, GJWX.

Clan Odan-Urr

Between Light and Dark, Homecoming, Battle Formations