Where... where did it go?
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Complete Article: Korroth
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The Clone Wars and the CIS
22 BBY to 19 BBY
The Gossam Commandos remained stationed on Castell only for a short time, just enough for Korroth to complete a cursory training course on Gossam biology and medicine. For the two years following the Battle of Geonosis, the Gossam Commandos mainly followed and guarded Presidente Shu Mai in her travels, and in 21 BBY they took part in the Battle of Cerea and the Battle of Virujansi. Korroth did not find it difficult to reconcile spending his time improving other beings’ health to his Renascence Pledge, since it allowed him to learn many interesting things that were not to be found in textbooks or from controlled laboratory research. If he was careful, he was also able to try new and untested treatments and drugs on unsuspecting patients. He was even able to test the effects of Thy’s vocalizations on injured or ill Gossams.
In 20 BBY the Gossam Commandos contributed to the conquest of several worlds during Operation Durge’s Lance, such as Moorja and Duro. After the Battle of Moorja, Korroth was relocated to the Koorivar Fusiliers, led by General Oro Dassyne. These forces assisted the main droid army on many worlds during the Outer Rim Sieges, until the Battle of Bomis Koori IV towards the end of 20 BBY. Here General Dassyne’s Fusiliers were shattered by the Republic, but a small detachment, including Korroth, was able to escape the mayhem and reach the Confederate First Fleet. From here, the remaining Fusiliers were disbanded and Korroth was sent with a battalion of Quarren soldiers to fight on the planet Iskalon.
To his dismay, Korroth soon found out that Iskalon was an ocean world, and that they would be fighting Republic forces underwater. Korroth had already seen seas and oceans, both on Melida/Daan and during his travels with the League of Cavaliers Corsaire. However, possibly because he had grown up on a planet with no surface water, he had developed a deep phobia of any large body of water. During his years as a Cavalier, he had often secluded himself to his cabin when the Ghostly Galleon landed near the oceans or seas of a planet.
Panic soon gripped Korroth when he saw that he had no way of turning away from Iskalon. Once on the planet, he was forced underwater in a cramped amphibious craft while a muted battle raged all about him. Here his fear took control of his actions; he killed the small crew and fled the planet. After wandering in confusion for a few days, he travelled to the first planet that came to his mind, Utapau.
Once there, he was forced to land on Pau City and was arrested by Separatist droids, but they released him when he showed his credentials as a CIS medical officer. He was instead assigned to the medical staff that attended the Separatist Council, which was hiding in Pau City at that time. His initial intention upon deciding to come to Utapau had been to travel to Tarbaur or Sazarel, principally out of curiosity to see what had happened in the 65 years since he left Utapau. But now he was in the service of the Separatists and he could not leave Pau City. Since there wasn’t much work to do in that period, he was at least able to question the local Utapauns about news from his home lands. The Pau’ans that he talked to immediately recognized him as a Tarbauri, because of the subtle genetic differentiations between the common Pau’ans and the Tarbauri and Sazareli Pau’ans, like bristly eyebrows and drier, swarthier skin. This alone implied much change had occurred in Tarbaur and Sazarel, because in 85 BBY those regions had not yet made any contact with the rest of the planet. The Pau’ans explained sketchily to Korroth that, by around 50 BBY, Utapau was gradually becoming more involved with the galactic community, so the Utapaun Committee had decided to develop and utilize the planet’s resources to encourage interplanetary trade. During this development drive, Utapaun prospectors discovered the isolated Tarbaur sinkholes, finding them impoverished and drained by constant slaver raids and internal disputes. The Utapaun Committee agreed to protect Tarbaur from slavers and help it recover by allowing Buuper Torsckil Abbey Devices to build factories in the Tarbauri sinkholes. The residents of Pau City knew little more than this, and Korroth was not able to learn if Mavane Noren was still alive.
The Battle of Utapau in 19 BBY took Korroth by surprise, and he was forced to join the fighting when he found that the Separatist Council had already left Utapau. At first he fought against the clones, but at a certain point in the battle the Separatist droids began labeling all Pau’ans as hostiles, so he was forced to switch sides. When the battle ended, the clones rounded up all the Pau’ans in the city, including Korroth.
The New Order and Byss
19 BBY to 1 BBY
After the Declaration of the New Order, Korroth and many other Pau’ans were exported as slaves to the Deep Core planet of Byss, where they were put to work on a “recolonization effort”. After several months of work on the planet, Korroth began to notice faintly through the Force that the slaves’ essence or presence in the Force was being slowly drained away by some powerful entity. It was rumored among the slaves that Emperor Palpatine himself was sucking up all the life energy of the slaves on Byss. With the help of the ludos Thy (which he had managed to smuggle to Byss with him) Korroth slowly learned to stop his own Force essence from being drained away through meditation. Among the thousands of slaves on Byss, he was such a small entity anyway that whoever was draining away the slaves’ energies would never detect what Korroth was doing.
This proved to be wrong, when he was noticed by the Constable of Homunculi in around 16 BBY. The Constable took him away from the other slaves and put him to work with the Clone Keepers in the Clone Labs of the Emperor’s Citadel. There, Korroth assisted the Clone Keepers in their work on the Emperor’s genetic code, which would be used to produce Palpatine’s clones. He was never considered a Clone Keeper himself because of the New Order’s humanocentrist policies. Also, despite the fact that the Constable of Homunculi found him through his use of the Force, he was later told that he was not strong enough in the Force to even start training as a Dark Side Adept.
Korroth remained in the Emperor’s Citadel until 1 BBY, when the machinations of Janus Greejatus’s Imperial Department of Redesign forced him to flee Byss. He boarded a civilian transport and, before his absence was discovered by the authorities, he had gone into hiding on Sanbra.
Hunt for a Teacher
1 BBY to 11 ABY
After setting up a hideout near the University of Sanbra, Korroth rested for a while and ruminated on his future plans. He realized that this was the first time in almost thirty years that he was not under the command of a higher authority, like the Trade Federation or the Galactic Empire. Now he could dedicate himself fully to the study of the Force, which he had wanted to do since leaving Blenjeel. Korroth reasoned that he already knew all that he could learn about the Force through meditation and with only Thy’s song as a guide. Therefore his next step would be to seek out a Force-using organization that could teach him the rest. He had come to Sanbra in the hope that he could find some of the people he had met while studying at the University of Sanbra in the 70’s BBY, but all of those students or professors had moved on or passed away. However, he did find a professor who had once been a student of Profex Rynalla, before the Clone Wars. Profex Rynalla had been a scholar and expert on organizations associated with the Force, like the Jedi and Sith. This student of hers, now Profex Libauld Qooster, still possessed all of her notes, papers and findings, so Korroth approached Profex Qooster and was able to negotiate a deal with him. Korroth found that it had been Profex Qooster’s dream to learn to use the Force, but as a young boy he had been too afraid to go to the Jedi Order, and now he was too old to go hunting for other masters of the Force. Therefore, Korroth agreed to teach the professor what little he knew about the Force in exchange for guidance on the Force-using organizations of the galaxy.
Korroth spent the rest of 1 BBY perusing Profex Rynalla’s studies on Force-using organizations and planning his future travels to examine these organizations, or what was left of them, in person. During this time, he also taught what little he knew about the Force to Profex Qooster, who was Force-sensitive and a quick learner. In 0 BBY, Korroth started his journey by visiting Korriban and Ziost. The Valley of the Dark Lords and the Sith Citadel impressed upon him what heights of power and magnificence a civilization ruled by Force-users could reach. Korroth also sensed the Dark Side power emanating from the crumbling tombs of Korriban. He spent much time basking in this dark glow, as he could feel that this was the true power by which the will of one could be perpetrated upon the peoples of worlds and empires. He also felt this power on the world of Lehon, where he travelled towards the end of 1 ABY.
For several years Korroth journeyed from planet to planet, following Profex Rynalla’s and Profex Qooster’s notes. On many worlds, as he expected, he found only the ruins of the Force-using society he was looking for, and these ruins had often already been picked clean by archaeologists and raiders. Some of the organizations that had existed during Profex Rynalla’s time had now been destroyed by the New Order’s Great Jedi Purge, and if they still existed they had been driven underground, where neither the Empire nor Korroth could find them. On rare occasions he encountered enclaves of Force-users that had somehow resisted the Empire or escaped its notice, like the Baran Do on Dorin or the Nuns of G’aav’aar’oon in the Vodilux Star Cluster. Most of the Force powers and techniques used by these Force-users far surpassed Korroth’s current abilities, but he was still able to learn from the way they interacted with the Force, thus forming new hypotheses, scrapping old ones and slowly composing his own vague theory on the nature of the Force. This, however, was not the main objective of his travels. His aim was to find an experienced individual or organization that could teach him the deeper secrets of the Force. None of the Force-users that Korroth encountered seemed to be suitable for this purpose, since many of them were restricted by burdensome moral and ethical laws, much like the Jedi, and those not bound by such laws, most often followers of the Dark Side, were too disorganized and frequently too violent to be able to teach Korroth anything.
The death of Emperor Palpatine in 4 ABY and the subsequent gradual fragmentation of the Galactic Empire allowed Korroth to continue his travels in the open, without the fear of being caught by Imperial authorities. In 10 ABY, however, Korroth learned that Emperor Palpatine had survived in one of his clone bodies and was directing his Empire from Byss. In 11 ABY, hoping to acquire information on the various groups of Dark Side Adepts of the Empire, he travelled to Byss. Most of the Imperial forces were busy in a battle over Onderon, so Korroth was able to infiltrate the Emperor’s Citadel and steal several documents from the library. Before he could obtain more records, he was found by Stormtroopers and was forced to flee the planet in a hurry. This saved his life, since he left the [starwars:Beshqek system|Beshqec system]] shortly before the Galaxy Gun’s projectile collided with Byss and destroyed its surface.
Hunt for Okemi’s Descendants
11 ABY to 25 ABY
The documents that Korroth had stolen on Byss consisted of an investigation on a group of Dark Side Adepts that once served the Galactic Empire but were now allied with one of the fallen Empire’s splinter factions. The documents did not state the name or location of the organization and its ally, but it did speculate that the Dark Side Adepts had some sort of connection to an ancient pure-blood Massassi Sith Lord called Okemi. Korroth travelled to Sanbra to consult Profex Rynalla’s notes on the Old Sith Empire. Once there, he found that Profex Qooster had died of old age, but he had passed on everything, including his teachings in the Force, to one of his trusted students. This student helped Korroth find a reference to a revolt of Sith slaves led by a Massassi warlord against the Dark Lord Marka Ragnos. With this, he went to Korriban and examined the inscriptions and murals in the tombs of Marka Ragnos and several of the Dark Lord’s allies. He spent several years deciphering these and trying to find a mention of Okemi. In 14 ABY he was forced out of Marka Ragnos’s tomb by the Disciples of Ragnos. Korroth still had access to the tombs of the Sith Lords that served Marka Ragnos, so that, in 15 ABY he was able to conclude that the Massassi Sith Lord Okemi had fought and lost in a war against the Dark Jedi Sith Lords, after which he was exiled to a planet called Antei.
Korroth set out to find Antei in the hope that the documents he had found on Byss told the truth, and that by following the trail of Okemi he would reach the organization of Dark Side Adepts. He spent six years scouring the galaxy without success for this mysterious planet, but his resolve to find the Dark Side organization made him push on with all his will. During these years he financed his journeys by working for the Republic Bioengineering Corps, a descendant of the Imperial Corps of Bioengineers, traveling aboard a modified SkyBlind recon ship.
In 22 ABY, Korroth was traveling along the Daragon Trail when he began hearing rumors of an undead Sith Lord. The stories seemed to intensify as Korroth travelled nearer to Korriban, but once in Dreshdae the rumors pointed to another planet. His enquiries led him to Thule. By the time he reached the planet in 23 ABY the stories had died away, but Korroth remained in the hope of finding more clues. Two years passed, and Korroth was despairing that he had followed the wrong trail and that he would have to start all over again, but he was not yet ready to give up. Late in 25 ABY, a mysterious hooded local directed Korroth to the Shroud, an impenetrable nebulous cloud that covered a large area of space between Thule and Coratua. Korroth was preparing to leave the spaceport of Kessia when an unseen attacker bludgeoned him from behind and he lost consciousness.
Dark Jedi Brotherhood
Shadow Academy
26 ABY
He awoke on a dark desert plain with mountains in the far distance, and he found a disparate group of humanoids in his same condition. From them he came to know that they had been captured by the Dark Jedi Brotherhood, and they were to reach the Shadow Academy on the distant mountain range to pass a test of resilience. Korroth set off immediately and separated himself from the group, since he suspected they would only hinder him. He reached the mountain range five days later, but he spent three further days trying to scale its slopes to reach the Shadow Academy. On the last day he came across the survivors of the group he had met previously, whose sorry sight confirmed his earlier misgivings. The group had been decimated not only by dehydration and exhaustion but by infighting over water, rations and direction of travel.
He walked past the doors of the Shadow Academy on the 2nd day of the 1st month of 26 ABY. Before he could even get his bearings, he was initiated into the Dark Jedi Brotherhood and the Sith Order. His possessions were also returned to him at this point, Thy among them. He completed the Test of Lore in three days, eager to take the first true steps into the Brotherhood. He was assigned to House Gladius of Tarentum as an Apprentice, but he barely noticed it, as he spent most of his time in the Shadow Academy poring over the Brotherhood's vast written knowledge. He took and passed nine courses in the space of a few months, mainly ones based on the workings and history of the Brotherhood. This earned him promotions to first Novice and then Proselyte, under the rigorous guidance of Envoy SBM Sato Bruth'Kothae.
Now that he knew more about the Brotherhood, he wanted to get more involved in it and the Clans, instead of just reading about it in the Shadow Academy. He took more permanent residence in the Sword's Sheath of House Gladius and attempted to slot into the daily workings of the House. However, life within the Clan was not as he had expected. He realized then that the only reason he had been assigned to Clan Tarentum was to balance the numbers on the Clan rosters. Disappointed, Korroth returned to the Shadow Academy and begun studying the other Clans of the Brotherhood.
This research led him to request a transfer to Clan Plagueis. He was attracted by the Clan's young yet rich history and by its tradition of mind control powers. Clan Plagueis gave the impression to Korroth of a rising power in the Brotherhood, and the Acolyte wanted to be a part of its ascension.
Clan Plagueis
26 ABY to 27 ABY
While settling into House Exar Kun, Korroth continued to study for a large number of SA courses, which he submitted from the Diadem Fortress on Aerun. Between the hours of study, he attempted to become more involved in the House and Clan. He also held a training battle in the [Antei Combat Center] with [Archpriest] al'Lan Mandragoran, after which he was advised to attempt a battle in the Proving Grounds. This activity soon earned him a promotion to Protector, and he was assigned his first Master, SBM Armand "Sunflash" al'Tor. Unfortunately, SBM Armand left the Brotherhood shortly thereafter, so that Korroth didn't have enough time to get acquainted with him. Towards the end of 26 ABY he was assigned a second Master, KAP Scorpius, who begun organizing his Trials for Guardian. However, due to his duties as Quaestor of House Exar Kun and later as Proconsul of Clan Plagueis, he was not able to prepare these Trials for Protector Korroth.
Between 26 ABY and 27 ABY, Korroth continued to digest the Shadow Academy's vast store of knowledge. In addition, he fought a battle in the ACC's Proving Grounds against [Combat Master] [Dalthid], but he failed the test due to wrong usage of his weapons. He also became involved in documenting the Crimson Tide, a faction of powerful pirates who were the sworn enemies of Clan Plagueis. In 27 ABY Consul Aabsdu Dupar al'Tor promoted Korroth to the rank of Guardian for the service to his Clan and for the many courses he passed in the Shadow Academy.
In 27 ABY, Korroth took part in training exercises for the Rite of Supremacy codenamed "Second Darkness". However, he later did not participate in the Rite of Supremacy itself, because his attention was diverted by news from his homeworld of Utapau.
Not Sith material
27 ABY
In a minor HNN report, almost a footnote among the other headlines, Korroth read that a Buuper Torsckil Abbey Devices factory in the Tarbaur region of Utapau had been sabotaged by a terrorist group named the 'Hrothi Independence Union'. The report did not have any further details. Korroth had no idea where this 'HIU' came from, or what connection it had with his father's family name. The Pau'an had not set foot on his homeland for over a century, and he thought the time had come to see how things had changed. Furthermore, the mention of his old family name intrigued him.
Knowing that he would be gone for quite some time, he requested a transfer to the Rogues, and then he took a shuttle to Utapau. When he landed on Ika, the capital sinkhole of the Tarbaur region, he immediately saw how different the city was from his memories of it. Giant machinery spouting grey smoke occupied the whole upper levels of the sinkhole, and pools of filthy sludge filled its bottom. Most of the Pau'an and Utai population appeared to be working inside the Abbey Devices factories, while those outside either catered directly to the factory workers or begged in the streets.
Disguised as a news reporter, he investigated further and found that Abbey Devices had built factories in all thirteen of the Tarbaur sinkholes, displacing the Pau'an and Utai inhabitants to the lower levels and replacing the local governments with their own Board of Executives. By suppressing the local currency and tightly controlling the flow of the Galactic Credit Standard in Tarbaur, this Board had ensured that only those who worked for Abbey Devices accrued enough money to survive. This made the people of Tarbaur completely dependent on Abbey Devices, and enslaved them to the will of its Board of Executives. This scheme extended even into the Sazarel, where the nomad tribes were forced to produce food and sustenance for the factory workers in the Tarbauri sinkholes.
Some Tarbauri had taken up arms against Abbey Devices, under the name of the Hrothi Independence Union, with the aim of driving the company out of the sinkholes. Their last bombing, after a period of relative calm, had been the one that Korroth had heard on the holonews. The Board of Executives had retaliated to this attack by capturing and imprisoning a certain Ivron Hroth, supposedly the leader of the HIU. Korroth had never heard of that name, but he wanted to find out how this Ivron was associated with the Hroth family, his own family.
By using old connections and acquaintances from his youth, Korroth was able to locate the HIU. He found them leaderless and in disarray, so he took command of the band and organized a second, conclusive coup against the Board of Executives. He planned to first free Ivron Hroth and then storm and destroy each of the Abbey Devices factories in the thirteen sinkholes. This, he reckoned, would be enough to make it unprofitable for Abbey Devices to continue their investments in Tarbaur.
Korroth led the HIU's assault just two months after the first bombing, and in a matter of minutes they had taken control of the detention center. There they found and freed Ivron Hroth. Before being shuttled to a safe-house, Ivron told them that Mavane Noren, Korroth's own mother, was held prisoner in another sinkhole. While she had not participated directly in the bombing of two months ago, the elderly Pau'an had been found guilty of abetting the HIU. Korroth resolved to continue the assault as planned, and to free his mother before destroying the third factory, the nearest one to the prison.
The attack on the first factory went according to plan, because the Abbey Devices security force had not been expecting such an aggressive and well-organized offensive. However, after the factory had been demolished, Korroth lost control of the HIU troops, who rampaged unchecked through the sinkhole. The Guardian attempted to rally the rioting soldiers, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Abbey Devices had assembled the security contingents of all the other sinkholes and now descended upon the HIU forces. The greatest part of the HIU became trapped in the sinkhole and was totally massacred. Korroth, Ivron and a small band of survivors managed to escape the carnage and flee north, over the Med Zathruma mountain range and into the Sazareli steppes. They hid among the nomad tribes, and the Abbey Devices forces soon stopped chasing them.
Korroth was deeply affected by the dreadful defeat. He knew that the failure had been caused by his inability to control the soldiers. A better Sith would have been able to restrain his or her troops and lead them to victory, but Korroth had simply not had the strength of character to give orders which the frenzied soldiers would obey. Because of this, the Guardian let Ivron Hroth regain command of the HIU, or what was left of it. He advised Ivron to gather the Sazareli tribes and convince them to join the HIU to strike out at the Board of Executives.
While Ivron did that, Korroth worked to secure off-world supplies of modern weaponry and provisions for an army. He was also able to set up a makeshift laboratory, where, over the course of five months, he developed a poison gas that incapacitated only Humans, which he planned on supplying to the entirely Pau'an and Utai HIU forces.
The HIU struck again in the ninth month of 27 ABY and, with Ivron's leadership of the Sazareli tribes and Korroth's supplies of weapons and poison gas, they were able to fully occupy the sinkhole of Ika. While the HIU consolidated its defenses in the sinkhole, Korroth recovered his hired shuttle, which had been impounded by Abbey Devices after the Guardian had joined the HIU. Inside the shuttle, he found an urgent but outdated message from the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. The message was garbled and filled with static, but Korroth could make out something about an Alien attack on the Brotherhood.
Without even taking his leave from Ivron Hroth, he departed immediately and set a course for Aerun. He suspected and feared that the message had been a last cry for help from the Brotherhood or Clan Plagueis to any remaining Dark Jedi; that the Alien invasion had finally and ruinously reached the Brotherhood. However, he couldn't do anything about it while traveling in hyperspace, so he tried to draw his mind away from those terrible thoughts by examining the events of the past few months.
He determined that two separate purposes had driven his actions during that time: his curiosity over Ivron Hroth's identity and connection to his family, and the testing of his skills as a Sith in an environment separate from the Brotherhood. The first purpose he had not been able to satisfy, because there simply had been no time during the preparation for the assault on Abbey Devices. He hoped to one day return to have this question answered and to check on the progress of the HIU. The second purpose, however, had been throughly fulfilled. His failure to command the HIU forces during his first assault, and the success of the second assault due to his counseling to Ivron and the preparations and the poison gas confirmed to him that he was not Sith material. He resolved to convert to the Krath Order when he returned to the Brotherhood; perhaps even a change of House or Clan was due, to start things anew. Thinking back to the message about the Force-devoid Alien invaders, he could only hope that there would be a House or Clan to go back to.
Krath of Scholae Palatinae
27 ABY to 28 ABY
When Korroth dropped out of hyperspace, he found the Jusadih System surrounded by Plagueian, Arconan, Palatinean and Alien fleets. The Brotherhood fleets seemed to be generally fighting against the Force-devoid Alien forces, but Korroth also sensed a conflict between Arcona and the other two Clans. He did not know how Clan politics had developed in his absence, so he did not want to get involved just yet. He determined to seek shelter among Clan Scholae Palatinae, the traditional allies of Clan Plagueis, until he figured out what was going on.
He followed a medical shuttle from the Jusadih System to the Cocytus System, and made a landing on Judecca. In the capital city of Ohmen, Korroth learned that, while he was on Utapau, the Aliens had assailed the gathered Dark Brotherhood fleets and had conquered Antei. The Palatineans themselves were recovering from their recent reclamation of the Cocytus System. On a different note, Korroth also found out that House Acclivis Draco, while a multi-order house, had a very strong Krath tradition. Moreover, its home planet, Antenora, was a desert world. Korroth did not hesitate long before requesting a transfer from the Rogues to House Acclivis Draco of Clan Scholae Palatinae, and from the Sith Order to the Krath Order.
At that time, the Consul of Scholae Palatinae was Phoenix Olkyssagh d'Tana Palpatine, and the Quaestor of Acclivis Draco was RevengeX Palpatine. Korroth was welcomed into the Clan by Knight Class Envoy Braecen Kaeth Kunar who, a week later, apprenticed him to SBM Rasilvenaira StormRaven. However, without his knowledge, he was also transferred to House Caliburnus, since Rasilvenaira was at that time Quaestor of that House. Korroth moved his lodgings to the Serpent's Vanguard on Ptolomea, but despite this he still spent most of his time on Antenora, familiarizing himself with its deserts and its fascinating native people. In an attempt to bring him back to House Caliburnus, his Master assigned him as a Trooper to the newly opened Nightmare Brigade, but Korroth became even more uninvolved in his House.
The Guardian eventually had himself transferred to the Rogues, but he stayed on Antenora. For around two months he camped in a canyon of the Hollow Lands and explored the complex cave networks that burrowed deep into the cliffs. However, in his infrequent but necessary communications with the nearest center of civilization, the Acclivis Draco HQ, he gained the impression that the members of the House were apprehensive about having a Rogue Dark Jedi on their planet. Korroth decided it was time to return to his homeworld, to see what had happened in the Tarbauri sinkholes since he had left them almost a year ago.
Evil for good, good for evil
28 ABY
On the shuttle to Utapau, the Guardian searched the HNN, but found no news of Tarbaur. The HoloNet was too busy reporting on the ongoing war with the Alien invaders, the creation of the High Council and the Ssi-ruuvi invasion of Bakura to worry about such a backwater planet.
He disembarked the shuttle at Pau City, since he didn't know whether there was still an arrest warrant out for him in the Tarbaur sinkholes. What he didn't account for was Abbey Device's reach, as the border guard at Pau City had been told to hold for questioning any Sazareli or Tarbauri Pau'ans. The guards recognized Korroth's ethnicity and tried to arrest him, but he was able to escape by dazing them momentarily with the Force. He escaped into the city's streets and laid low, until he found a supply convoy departing for the Tarbauri factories and stowed aboard one of the hovertrucks.
Korroth knew that the authorities in Pau City would have plenty of time to warn Abbey Devices before he got to Tarbaur. Hence, as soon as the convoy reached the north-eastern barrens of the Sazareli steppes, Korroth jumped off and fled before anyone could give chase. After only a few days' march, he encountered a minor local Sazareli tribe. The first thing he noticed was that there were only women, children and the elderly in the camp, which conveyed to him that the HIU resistance against Abbey Devices must still have been persevering. The tribal elders told him that the tribe's warriors had gone to fight against foreign invaders a year ago and had not returned since then. They directed him to Tribe Merkesher, where they said he would find a Pau'an who came from the frontline and had more information.
When he reached the tribe, he was greeted by none other than Ivron Hroth. After finding an empty tent to talk privately, Korroth asked Ivron to explain all that had happened in Tarbaur since he had first left Utapau in 85 BBY, since the information he had gathered until then was too sketchy to understand the current situation. Ivron begun with how the off-world slavers, who had since then been raiding the Sazareli tribes, had moved on to richer pickings in the Tarbauri sinkholes in around 60 BBY. At first the Tarbauri Utapauns tried to fight them off, but soon the came to see that resistance only caused more death and destruction; during the next decade they basically allowed the slavers to take whomever they wanted. In 53 BBY, Ivron escaped in secret from the Tarbauri sinkholes with the intention of seeking help for Tarbaur. After a three year journey he found Pau City, and there he implored the Utapaun Committee to send military help to the Tarbaur sinkholes. The Committee decided that it would employ a division of the Buuper Torsckil Abbey Devices security force to drive the slavers away and to protect the sinkholes indefinitely. In exchange, Abbey Devices would be allowed to build starship factories in the sinkholes and employ the local population to operate them.
This arrangement bore its fruit for both Abbey Devices and the Tarbauri Utapauns for 31 years, as the factories could employ a plentiful and cheap workforce, and the natives were allowed to advance to modern standards of technology and wealth. However, with the creation of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, the safeguards and supervisors that protected the Tarbauri workers from exploitation were removed, and Abbey Devices did not waste time to capitalize the situation. They dissolved the Tarbauri Council, whose authority had already been weakened since Abbey Devices' arrival, and placed their Board of Executives in its place. They began restructuring the Tarbauri economy to make the factories the only source of wealth in the sinkholes, thus forcing all the Tarbauri Utapauns into jobs within or closely related to the factories. This way the Board of Executives was able to lower the standards of living of their Utapaun employees, to make savings, without fear of repercussions.
Ivron, who had remained in hiding until then for reasons he would not yet explain to Korroth, assembled a group of ex-Tarbauri politicians who wanted to actively oppose the Board of Executives. For the first two years this assembly attempted to persuade the Board of Executives to relent its grip by diplomatic means, but to no avail. As a last resort they contacted the Imperial authorities in Pau City, but they soon understood that the Imperials were well aware of the situation and had no intention of interfering. At this point many of the assembly members, including Ivron, decided that the diplomatic efforts had failed and forceful action had become necessary. They formed the covert Hrothi Independence Union and began recruiting partisans from among the discontented workforce of the factories. Mavane Noren, who had until then apparently retired from political life, became the HIU's underground recruiter and supplier, using the many contacts and alliances she had built over her four hundred years on the Council. For the first two decades of the resistance movement, the HIU limited itself to sabotage and bombings of Abbey Devices factories, always very careful to preserve the lives of both Utapauns and Abbey security guards. Their main goal was to make it economically impracticable for Abbey Devices to continue its investments in the Tarbauri sinkholes, since they presumed that profits were what drove the unsympathetic actions of the Board of Executives. The HIU's operations during this period were relatively successful, but not to the desired extent, because Abbey Devices received substantial subsidies from the Empire to continue its production of cheap starships.
The situation changed to the HIU's advantage when the New Republic was formed in 4 ABY. External financial support for Abbey Devices ceased, and the Board of Executives begun to live in the fear of coming under the scrutiny of the Republic. Using the threat of Republic intervention, the HIU was able to force many concessions out of the Board of Executives. Among many other things, they improved working conditions in the factories, re-introduced the traditional Tarbauri currency, and began the development of services and businesses for the Tarbauri Utapauns. Mavane re-established the Tarbauri Council and removed much of the administrative and legislative powers that the Board of Executives had over the sinkholes. Over the next two decades, with the Board constantly under the scrutiny of the Council and HIU, conditions in the Tarbauri sinkholes were finally reformed to the satisfaction of its native inhabitants.
Unfortunately, this idyllic state of balance did not last for long. In 27 ABY the Board of Executives realized that the New Republic was so preoccupied by the War that the HIU's threats of republic intervention had become hollow. This recognition was followed by the arrest of the entire Council and HIU leadership, including Mavane and Ivron. They were incarcerated in secretly-built prisons, and their reforms of the past twenty years were reverted in the space of a few months. Conditions in the sinkholes returned to how they were during the Empire, while the HIU fell to pieces without its leaders. What remained of the HIU executed one last bombing of a factory, simultaneously contacting the HNN to claim responsibility for the attack, as a last desperate cry for help.
As Abbey Devices expected, the Republic did not respond. Nonetheless, Korroth's intervention was enough to resuscitate the HIU, and with Ivron back at the helm, they conquered Ika and, after Korroth left, the neighboring sinkhole of Toque, also freeing Mavane Noren in the process. Yet, Ivron and the other HIU leaders (now mostly Sazareli tribal chieftains) were taken by surprise when Mavane disclosed to them documents giving proof that it had been Ivron who had, in 50 BBY, brought Abbey Devices to Tarbaur in the first place. With this, Mavane put to the HIU chieftains that Ivron had ulterior motives which contrasted with the aims of the HIU. Ivron, before any of the chieftains could pass judgment, left the Tarbauri sinkholes and went into self exile among the Sazareli tribes. He spent the time since then meditating on what he had done wrong, and he had concluded that his mistake had been to trust Mavane.
At first, Mavane's duplicitous actions did not match Korroth's memory of his mother. In the past it had always seemed that she strove uniquely to serve the people of Ika and the other sinkholes, as demonstrated most of all by her pivotal role in the overthrowing of the Tuvon regime. Yet, the more he thought about Mavane's past, the more he was persuaded that she had always had more selfish end goals. To corroborate his theory, Korroth decided to meet Mavane in person. Ivron accompanied him to the southern edge of the Sazareli steppes, and then Korroth flew by dactillion to Ika.
As he flew over the sinkholes, he could see a clear divide, a no man's land, between the HIU and Abbey Devices sinkholes. When he landed in Ika, he was met by the HIU chieftains and was told that he could not meet with his mother, and in fact he had to leave the sinkholes forthwith, as per the sentence of exile made upon him in 107 BBY. Korroth was taken by surprise, but he immediately recalled how he had murdered his twin brother and had consequently been exiled from Tarbaur. Instead of leaving, he went to talk privately to several of the chieftains whom he knew from his time as an Ezzekieli tribesman.
These chieftains told him that Mavane had known that he had met with Ivron in the Sazarel, and that she had therefore ordered the renovation of his exile because she suspected that he might take Ivron's side. The chieftains further explained that there was much discontent in the HIU leadership. While Mavane was leading a successful campaign against Abbey Devices, she was doing so with no concern for the lives of Utapauns in sinkholes of either side. She sent her soldiers to certain death and bombed Abbey sinkholes full of Utapauns. The chieftains became more and more enraged as they spoke, without Korroth's intervention. The Guardian knew that they only needed to vent their anger, which had been suppressed by their fear of Mavane for so long.
Meanwhile Korroth reflected on his mother's true ambitions in her long life. It seemed to him that, while she may have outwardly acted for the good of her people, her plans had always placed her in the supreme position of power in Tarbaur. Six centuries ago she had married Tuvon and had thus become the consort of the sinkholes' autocratic dictator. Centuries later she led a revolt against Tuvon which made her the most important member of the Tarbauri Council. Soon after the Council elected her own two sons as future leaders of a reformed Tarbaur. After the ruination of the Abbey Devices yoke in 4 ABY, she formed a new Council with her at its head. And now she had banished Ivron; she taken leadership of the HIU and she was attempting to take all of Tarbaur back by military force.
He had established long ago that his father Tuvon had ruled over the Tarbauri sinkholes with a harsh and pitiless hand because he thought he was doing the good of his people. Now Korroth had discovered the complete opposite in his mother; she had gained power and prestige for her own gain through doing what superficially appeared to be the good of the people. What Korroth could not understand now was why, after having built such a selfless reputation over the centuries, Mavane would destroy it by wasting the lives of Pau'ans and Utai unnecessarily. Her long-term goals would be much better served by appearing to preserve and protect her people. But that was just it, Korroth realized: Mavane was 656 standard years old, she no longer had the luxury of a "long term goal." She was throwing everything she had at her enemies, with no concern for legacy or consequences, so that she could end her life on the throne of power.
The chieftains had stirred themselves to a state of outrage, they resembled more a lynch mob than a governing council. Korroth did not lose the opportunity, and convinced them to bring justice upon Mavane. The chieftains stormed the elderly Pau'an's quarters and in the ensuing scuffle they killed Mavane. Their blood cooled, and they remained in shock to realize that they had murdered their own supreme leader. Korroth told them not to waste time and proposed that Ivron Hroth return to lead the HIU. Ivron's perceived misdeeds were put aside and he was recalled from the Sazarel.
With Mavane gone, Korroth was sure that the HIU would prevail over Abbey Devices. His mother's aggressive tactics had blown a hole in the resources of both factions, but now the territorial advantage stood with the HIU. Ivron and the chieftains would now be able to replenish their forces and plan for one last surge against Abbey Devices. Satisfied with the turn of events, Korroth travelled to Pau City and stole away on a shuttle back to the Cocytus System.
Claw of Suffering
28 ABY to 29 ABY
Once back on Antenora, Korroth joined House Acclivis Draco, and soon after enlisted in the Ebon Cloak Battleteam. One of the first things that he did was to run a hunting competition, an idea that had come to him in the Sazareli steppes. He encouraged the Dark Jedi of HAD to hunt any species of animal on any planet, and bring them back as a gift or a trophy; however the event wasn't taken up with much enthusiasm in the House and only two Dark Jedi took part. During this time he also fought and won an ACC Quick Skirmish battle against Jedi Hunter Nokkon Wud in the swamps of Dagobah.
He was later appointed as apprentice to then Prelate Lucien Kaeth, Proconsul of Scholae Palatinae. Under his guidance he enrolled on a project to study and document the Clan Artifacts. The first one that he was assigned was the "Void Probe", a Massassi frieze from Yavin IV. On one side the frieze depicted a battle scene from the Great Hyperspace War, and on the other side was a winged eye. It was while experimenting on the winged eye that Korroth and his team of scientists discovered that the artifact reacted to the Force. It allowed a Force-sensitive person to enter deep trances, and even have out-of-body experiences. Further experiments uncovered that, during these out-of-body experiences, the subject's conscience could travel to any place in the galaxy (by recalling the appearance of that place), while their body remained in front of the frieze. Korroth hypothesized that a very powerful Dark Jedi would be able to not only travel in space, but also forwards and backwards in time. In the meantime Prelate Lucien also began preparing his trials for Jedi Hunter, which would have involved the hunting and capture or assassination of an actual Jedi Knight. However, due to his duties in the Clan Summit Korroth's master was never able to find the time to organize the hunt. Towards the end of 28 ABY Guardian Korroth Karn was named Claw of Suffering of the Order of the Dragon, a prestigious cadre of the most active members of House Acclivis Draco.
At the start of 29 ABY, Korroth took part in the Independence Games. Drawing from his experience of the Clan Artifacts project, he won a medal for his documentation of an alchemical artifact in the Emperor's Storeroom. After the Independence Games he took part as a Temporary Auditor in the classification of a large number of files in the Holocron Center of the Brotherhood. He was later assigned three more Clan Artifacts to study and document, the Ray of Throes, Tukan's Armor and the Soul Blight. The Ray of Throes was a hssiss bone kris used by the Inquisitorius as a torture device in the time of the Galactic Empire. When the blunt blade of the kris touches skin, a Dark Side force inside the artifact inflicts excruciating pain upon the victim, without causing any physical harm. Tukan's Armor is a full suit of plate armor, originally worn two million years ago by Prince Tukan Akar of Voon. Prince Tukon, a Force-sensitive, perpetrated such bloody atrocities during the wars on his planet that the armor became imbued, through the Force, with the suffering of the Prince's victims. Even to this day, if a Force-sensitive approaches the armor they will experience the waves of agony and torment that the armor has witnessed, and those weak of mind will inevitably go mad if exposed to it for too long. The Soul Blight, the last artifact, is a great two-handed sword used by the same Prince Tukan, later crafted into a Sith sword by the Emperor's Guard, and then cursed by a duinuogwuin's dying breath. This curse meant that the smallest cut with the Soul Blight would cause the victim to go mad with the drive to inflict pain to those around him and even to himself. The curse basically robbed the victim of their soul and made them a bloodthirsty beast.
Later on Korroth also designed the interiors of the Baudo-class Star Yacht Enchantress, a luxury shuttle assigned to the Consuls of Scholae Palatinae. However, because of changes made by the Dark Council to the Clan regulations for the possession of artifacts and assets, Korroth's work on the Yacht and, crucially, the Clan Artifacts became obsolete and superseded. While the Guardian was still awarded for his work, he was greatly disappointed that his studies and research had essentially been in vain. He decided to retire for a while from Dark Brotherhood life to travel across the planet of Antenora.
(Note: the remainder of the history is in summary form. It will be expanded in the future.)
Antenora
29 ABY to 30 ABY
The Krath Guardian met nomad and settled tribes, and visited cities and landmarks principally to learn about the origins of Antenoran religions, and to document the ancient history of the planet. He also researched the existence of two lost civilisations, extinct by tens of thousands of years, which inhabited the planet before its last major climate change. He found evidence of one of these civilisations, the Homoglyphs, in a sacred cave in the city of Aknah, and he suspected that more remains would be found in the cave networks of the Hollow Lands. However, he did not have the resources to excavate the site, so he returned to Acclivis Draco and the Ebon Cloak Battleteam.
The Scholar
30 ABY to 33 ABY
Korroth proposed the construction of a new base of operations for the Ebon Cloak. His offer was accepted and the Guardian oversaw the design and construction of the base, the Sedes Doctrinae, in the Hollow Lands. Coincidentally, during the construction works extensive Homoglyph runic writings were found in one of the caverns. However, Korroth did not have time to study these runes in 30 ABY as he took part in the Unification War on Antei, where he earned a battlefield promotion to Jedi Hunter.
After the Great Jedi War Korroth was assigned a new and more stimulating task: to document the planet of Antenora, its inhabitants, tribes, cities, cultures, religions, climate, tides and ecosystem. In 31 ABY Korroth was promoted to Dark Jedi Knight for his work on this project and the Sedes Doctrinae. The Guardian remained fully dedicated to the Antenora project for the next three years. This time spent among the people of Antenora began to erode at Korroth's resolve to hold to his creed, to serve only the self. He began to question the purpose of gaining power for oneself, and he drew near to the conclusion that power was only a tool, that the true purpose could only be to serve others, to help those in need. However, he knew that these heretical thoughts could be fatal in the Brotherhood, so he decided to hide his sentiments for the present.
In 33 ABY the Krath participated in the ACC Journeyman Ladder, the Scholae Palatinae Spring Games and the Rite of Supremacy: Disorder. In that same year, Scholae Palatinae was demoted to House status, and later Acclivis Draco was disbanded. Korroth was shifted to Battleteam Caliburnus, but in secret he planned a defection to the newly-forming Light-Side House of Odan-Urr.
To Serve the Light
34 ABY to 35 ABY
In 34 ABY, Korroth officially renounced the Dark Side and joined House Odan-Urr on Harakoa. While working to consolidate his conversion to the "Light Side", the Jedi Knight documented the biology and culture of the native Harakoans for the records of the House. For this work and for his past projects on Antenora Korroth was promoted to the first Equite rank by the Summits of both Odan Urr and Scholae Palaitinae.