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I see the contestants are making their way out onto the starting grid. This article was originally created as an entry for a Dark Crusade competition and is not official DJB canon content. It is preserved here for historical purposes only.
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Geography
Common misconception is that the surface of Krayiss II is a desert wasteland, when in actuality it is both arid and mountainous. The mountains form an effect called a rain shadow, where incoming air is pulled upwards by strong winds toward the top of mountains, where it condenses and precipitates, meaning that cold and moisture stay on one side of the mountain and only very warm and dry air passes over the mountain. This creates a shadow or stretch of only warm and dry land over the other side of the mountain with far too little rain to support the growth of most plants or animals.
In the case of Krayiss II, this rain shadow effect is lessened further by the lack of moisture present. What little exists is constantly pulled up into the atmosphere, sustaining it but leaving the ground incredibly dry. The hard packed dirt grows only tough shrubs and thick grass and even that is scarce. As such, agriculture is non-existent, and supplies need to be brought in from off-world, or the nearby sister planet Krayiss III.
Underneath the planet’s crust lies a mine of resources, consisting of large water aquifers and substantial mineral deposits. The Ancient Sith Empire had found the mineral reserves, but concentrated more on the building of the Temple-Library and maintaining other, more plentiful mineral reserves on other planets within their occupation. Only two mining attempts were made by the Empire, both of which perished due to sandstorms on the planet’s surface which damaged their equipment beyond repair. Future attempts at mining the deposits by other sources also succumbed to the wild storms.
- "I like this place. With it's rocky terrain and lack of greenery, my allergies are non-existent! I haven't had to take any medication in days."
- ―Dorne Weinman, Arconan Scientist and Researcher
Moons
An artist sketch of Nakgru (left) & Hakagram (right)
Krayiss II holds a barycentric orbit with two natural satellites: Hakagram and Nakgru. Both moons are unpopulated with few to no structures cresting their surfaces.
Hakagram
The first satellite, Hakagram orbits fairly closely with Krayiss II. Its proximity to to Krayiss II, compounded by planetshine, makes the satellite shine brightly at night and keeps it visible during all hours of the day.
Only one eighth the size of Krayiss II, lacking water and with a tenuous atmosphere, Hakagram was never properly settled, though it was explored near 4000 BBY. A few of what might have been exploration outposts remain in ruins, scattered sparsely between impact craters.
Nakgru
Nakgru, the second satellite orbiting Krayiss II, maintains barycentric orbit and has a stable atmosphere which sustains suitable climate for settlements to be formed in a feeble mining attempt that dispersed in late 3000 BBY. Of these settlements, several structures and mining rigs were left behind, ruins now, corroded and near buried or destroyed after thousands of years of meteor strikes and deterioration. However, the ruins of a few of these installations can still be found, having withstood the sands of time.
History
Ancient Sith Empire
Following the war between the Sith of Korriban and Rakata Infinite Empire in approximately 28,000 BBY the Sith learned several key pieces of information which would enable them to spread to reign to Krayiss II, as well as setting in motion the creation of the Dark Temple. The newly discovered hyperdrive technology from the Rakata allowed the Sith Empire to expand, as their empire developed they recognized that a consolidated center to their civilization was a poor choice. A lesson learned after seeing the destruction that the Rakata had wrought on Korriban during the war. In keeping with this newfound theology the Sith Empire deemed that Krayiss II would become the repository of knowledge on Sith Sorcery.
Construction of the Dark Temple on Krayiss II, which would serve as a gathering point of the Kissai, were drafted in 25,500 BBY. The Zuguruk engineers worked consistently over the next two millennia as the temple was painstakingly constructed by slaves of the Sith Empire. While the Temple was not completed until 23,000 BBY it was initially inhabited by the Kissai in 24,950 BBY, while it was still under construction. The first section of the temple that was finished had been designed by the Zuguruk as the largest room of the Temple to be a grand hall meeting hall. However the Kissai saw things differently, instead transforming the massive room with buttress supported ceilings into a library for their growing collection of holocrons, another piece of technology that the Sith had learned from their contact with the Rakata.
As construction of the temple continued the Kissai began adapting it for use. It quickly became recognized as the definitive location to study the dark mysteries of Sith Sorcery. Records show that at its peak some Sith scholars spent their entire lives rarely leaving the walls of the temple. Their drive for knowledge becoming to consuming that it had moved beyond an obsession to a way of life. For seven millennia the Dark Temple on Krayiss II flourished as a center for knowledge of the Sith Empire. It was the pinnacle of doctrine of Sith Sorcery during this time, nearly every Sith Lord of significant power had walked through the halls of this Dark Temple, seeking knowledge on how to continue their rise to power from the many past Sith who had chronicled their teachings in the numerous Holocrons.
Sith Lord Rangor Tiher
In 16,000 BBY a series of events began to unfold which would prove to be the undoing of the Dark Temple. These events began with one Lord Rangor Tiher. He was a dedicated scholar within the Temple for his entire life, some of the remaining records within the Dark Temple say that he never left the walls, instead spending his time sifting through countless Holocrons and ancient texts. By the time Rangor had reached one century of age he was known as the foremost scholar within the Temple. The Kissai determined that he would take the mantle of High Priest of Krayiss and be charged with maintaining the Temple’s records and their integrity.
In the first thirty years under Rangor’s administration the Temple’s repositories grew greatly. He reorganized the layout of the Temple and began holding numerous forums of discussion on the nature of the Dark Side of the Force within its Halls. Despite these efforts it is rumored that Rangor had secrete away the Holocrons which contained the most powerful knowledge to a private vault he maintained within the Dark Temple, in addition to Holocrons depicting each of the deliberations the ancient Sith had met on during the gatherings he had so graciously hosted so often.
Slowly jealousy and greed crept into the Dark Temple, initially limited to only the scholars within its walls, the rumors of the power that Rangor had amassed spread to many of the Sith Lords even off of Krayiss II. As the months passed Rangor had an increasingly common Force vision. It started as Sith Lords marching through his temples halls, ending with him alone in the Temple. All of its artifacts, Holocrons, and scrolls missing. His personal vault of knowledge ravaged by the greed of other Sith Lords.
Rangor’s mind slowly buckled under the weight of potentially seeing all of his work destroyed. Knowing the Temple didn’t have the forces to withstand a full scale assault he began gathering other Kissai, who like himself, were obsessed with the study of the knowledge within the Temple. For weeks the group poured over ancient texts searching for a way to protect their beloved temple from utter destruction. Finally a solution presented itself.
An amalgamation of rituals designed to allow an individual to maintain a Force presence after death, binding themselves to the location, and granting them increased powers to affect beings who enter the location they’re bound to. The scholars threw caution to the wind and immediately began their ritual. A thunderclap resounded throughout the halls of the Dark Temple as they finished. The physical bodies of all Sith present being rendered to dust. Spirits raged throughout the Temple as hundreds of Sith realized their freedom had been stolen from them.
Shortly after the ritual several Sith Lords arrived at the Temple seeking knowledge. As they entered through the Temple’s grand doors they were assaulted by the spirits which remained bound to the Dark Temple. Many who crossed that threshold never survived to exit. The few who did were often found kilometers away from the entrance, babbling incoherently of the horrors in what was formerly the center of knowledge for the Sith Empire.
As time passed word of the haunted Temple spread throughout the Sith Empire. Some aspiring Sith Lords would attempt to access its secrets, but most chose to simply ignore the failed attempt to consolidate the power of an empire. By 14,000 BBY the Temple had been completely abandoned and was showing the first signs of being swallowed by the sands of Krayiss II. Inside the Temple the spirits jealously protect their secrets to this day. Rangor Tiher’s spirit remains hidden away in his vault, hoarding over his most closely guarded secrets and artifacts.
A Temple Abandoned
In the time since the Dark Temple was abandoned there have been several notable visitors to the site all seeking the knowledge of the Ancient Sith Empire.
In 4,009 BBY Jev Sunrider, a Jedi Watchman of the Darada system, and three other Jedi Masters travelled to Krayiss II and eventually located the temple. The swelling Dark Side energies of the Temple had attracted their attention, and they sought to defeat it. In their foolishness all four Jedi were consumed by the Ancient Sith Spirits of the abandoned Temple.
Nine years later a Jedi Knight named Vara Nreem travelled to Krayiss II in in an attempt to gain this knowledge. Upon finding herself at the entrance to the Temple after reciting an incantation she encountered one of the trapped Sith Spirits. In short order the Spirit deemed her unworthy, ruthlessly killed her, and bound her soul within the temple to suffer in torment for eternity.
Perhaps the most notable, and definitively the most successful, visitor to the Temple was none other than Darth Revan. In 3,960 BBY before returning to invade the Republic, the Sith Lord briefly stopped on Krayiss II after hearing of the repository of ancient Sith knowledge. Gaining admittance to the ancient structure he was able to gain much knowledge from the trapped Sith of ages past, even contacting Rangor Tiher. As Revan researched the old sorceries of the temple one in particular caught his eye. The ritual which left the temple in its current state, however the greed of the Spirits remained, and while they conferred on him much of their knowledge they withheld some parts of the ritual, leaving Revan to ponder a powerful yet fatal weapon..
Revan archived his extensive research on this ritual within his holocron which he later hid within the Temple of the Ancients on Rakata Prime. Three thousand years later this holocron would be found, and Revan’s avatar would pass the ritual that created the Krayiss II Temple on to Darth Bane, whom would in turn use the ritual, the Thought Bomb, to undo the Brotherhood of Darkness and set into motion a chain of events to return the Sith Empire to glory.
Landmarks
Temple Library & Obelisk
Temple Library & Obelisk
Krayiss II’s Sith Temple is designed in much the same style as those upon the other Sith homeworlds. The temple is a large structure, designed with steep, angled walls and numerous pyramidal towers as well as a single large ornate doorway. It is made of mostly obsidian, giving it a dark lustre as well as a powerful Dark Side presence.
Most of the temple is dominated by the massive library, rivalling even that of Korriban. Rows upon rows of tomes were stored and hoarded upon the shelves by the Ancient Sith, records of the Empire and of lost arts of the Dark Side. At its completion, the Library of Krayiss II was one of the marvels of the Ancient Sith Empire, and drew almost every Lord of the era to its halls at one point or another.
At the top of the temple is an ornate obelisk which served in the past as an apex. The obelisk also houses a secret entrance, designed as a fallback lest the main doorway become compromised and the safety of the secrets within be nullified. Many years after the Ancient Sith Empire fell, the Temple was covered by the sands of the planet, leaving the Obelisk as the only entrance. It is still fiercely and loyally guarded by the spirits of the dead, the most well known of which being a deceased Jedi Master named Jev Sunrider.
Cave of Jev Sunrider
Krayiss II’s mountains are riddled with deep caves, most of which contain only lichen and blackness. However, the cave of Jedi Master Jev Sunrider is an exception: it contains the ghost of its namesake.
The entrance to the cave is a narrow tunnel that leads to a large, spacious cavern about half a mile underground. The inside of the cave is lined with stalactites and stalagmites with a small pool of water that remains untouched and seems to be drawn naturally from a reserve deep, deep below. Jedi Master Jev Sunrider made this cavern his home when he first traveled to Krayiss II. Protection from the harsh elements, water, and solitude made this an excellent camp. Even now, thousands of years after his death, the Jedi Master's spirit still makes this cave his home. The water is said to also be haunted by the ghost of Jev Sunrider, showing any who look into terrible visions of destruction and disaster.
High Value Targets
Tor Siva
Tor Siva is a Nagai Dark Jedi Adept that is the apprentice to the One Sith leader. Forty-two years old, she was active in the Nagai’s invasion of the known galaxy, back under the command of Dark Lady Lumiya. She is known to have conducted reconnaissance missions on the planet Zeltros and Kinooine. During these missions, she was found to be a Force sensitive,and received her training in the Force under Lumiya until Nagai operations were finished on Saijo. After the Nagai’s treaty with the Alliance of Free Planets, she scoured the galaxy taking bounties until being recruited into the One Sith.
Her death was ordered as a top priority contract by the Dark Council for the forces landing on Krayiss II. Arcona, the Shadow Clan, stands poised to deliver on their wish.
One Sith Occupation and Structures
One Sith Base Camp
One Sith Base: MilBar F-221
The origins of the One Sith base camp can be traced to a hasty defense established out of necessity during the initial occupation. Blistering sand storms and harsh temperatures forced the One Sith Expedition to seek refuge to facilitate survival. Initial construction utilized the rocky mountainous terrain for both concealment and cover. In addition, they were able to capitalize on the inherent advantage elevation afforded them to bolster security. The Sith explorers were careful to avoid natural lines of drift that would potentially lead planetary transients to their location.
At the outset, living conditions were austere at best and comprised of rudimentary living conditions and security. Dimensions of this base were not recorded as it was dictated by terrain and subsequently nearly impossible to measure. A basic security perimeter was strategically established within the adjacent rocky outcrops. Four perimeter outposts were created, spread out as equidistant as the terrain would allow, to optimized line of sight in all cardinal directions. Living conditions consisted of co-inhabited tents located under naturally occurring rock formations within the perimeter.
Fortifications and quality of life have increased exponentially as a result of the establishment of a small star port located in close proximity. This port offers inhabitants of the planet routine resupply. The four security outpost have been equipped with automated blast-turrets, giving those on watch a significant upgrade to their lethality and respective fields of fire. Additionally, stone walls were erected around the position to augment survivability. Similarly, fifteen foot rock walls were built around the perimeter of the base camp.
Perhaps the most notable change to overall quality of life came in the form of a MilBar F-221 . The comfort, privacy, and protection provided the necessary solace to the One Sith Explorers after an exhausting day of exploration. In addition, one room within is reserved as a tactical operation center which increases the Sith Lord’s ability to execute mission command authority over his expeditionary team. Unique to this establishment is a Listening Post located in the center of the camp and equipped with highly specialized listening and communication devices. This structure serves as both an early warning device and a hub to intercept strategic communications. A series of fortified bunkers and tunnels connect the One Sith Base to the Star Port. This serves as not only a conduit between the two locations but more importantly a covert passageway in the event one should be overrun.
Necessary improvements are ongoing as exploration efforts throughout the planet increase. A related surge in personnel and equipment will undoubtedly force the One Sith Base Camp’s footprint to expand in the coming days.
One Sith Star Port
One Sith Star Port
At first glance the Star Port looks rather unassuming; a large circular landing pad that was constructed over a crater that had been left in the planet's surface. The once abandoned Port maintains a theme of smooth and rounded edges in its architecture. It was designed to blend with the surrounding terrain, but to stand out enough so that ships could find it without much trouble-- if they knew where they were looking.
The hangar entrance sits at ground level, and is housed under a disk-like roof very similar to the landing platform around it. The hangar was designed to handle nothing larger than Freighter class, as there was little Capital-class ships that bothered with the ancient world. While this is the only visible entrance for ships, there is a secured heavy-duty blastdoor next to it that allows entrance in the event of the hangar being locked down. The true depth of the Space Port, though, lies in what was buried beneath the surface. The platform inside is actually a giant elevator powered by repulsor lifts. Underneath the surface hangar is a much larger facility that can store additional ships.
The Space Port itself consists of an entrance lobby that gives way to a lounge. Outdated holo-transmitters line the walls, with newer consoles erected next to them. Circular booths with tables in the center showed use by the recent occupiers, but a large portion of them remain untouched. A series of shops that used to make up the market place has multiple store fronts closed boarded up. Branching out from the lounge,there was also a suite of formal conference rooms, an abandoned armory stripped of anything of value, and a small barracks complete with mess hall that has been restored for use. There is also an engineering room for the security droids that had patrolled the once bustling port. The docks for the security droids lays untouched in the time since this place has been abandoned. Though some of the hulking droids can be found stationed here once more, it is still uncertain if they are operational as they have lain dormant for so long.
While the space port itself is impressive enough, the final part that is unseen, even unknown to most, is the elaborate network of tunnels that shoot off from the building itself. These tunnels were used more as an escape route away from the Space Port as well as a quick entrance inside. These were used mainly for maintenance most of the time, hence why not many people have the knowledge of these tunnels.