Yaru Korsin

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Yaru Korsin was the male Human Force-sensitive captain of the starship Omen during the Great Hyperspace War and the first leader of the Lost Tribe of Sith. Born into a Tapani noble house that had long ago allied itself with the Sith Empire, Yaru Korsin joined the Sith military and served by his father's side as a cadet. When Korsin learned that his father had sired a son with another woman and realized that his new half-brother, Devore Korsin, was to study at his father's side as well, the disgusted cadet decided to forge his own career. Rising swiftly through the ranks, Yaru Korsin eventually attained captaincy of Omen, the Sith starship that had previously been under his father's command.

In 5,000 BBY, the leader of the Sith Empire, Naga Sadow, launched an invasion of the Galactic Republic, initiating the Great Hyperspace War. Assigned by Sadow to collect a vital cargo of Lignan crystals from Phaegon III and deliver them, along with other munitions, to the Sith forces battling on Kirrek, Korsin was irritated to learn that his half-brother would be accompanying him with a mining crew. At Phaegon III, a lone Jedi starfighter attacked Omen and its fellow starship, Harbinger, resulting in Omen executing a blind hyperspace jump when the two vessels collided. Heavily damaged, Omen emerged over an unknown world and crash landed on a rocky precipice.

Korsin continued to command as the crash survivors built a makeshift camp, despite the hostility between his crew and the men commanded by his half-brother Devore. The two brothers clashed two days later in the wreck of Omen, following Yaru Korsin's ascent to the precipice in order to trigger the starship's transmitter. There, the captain discovered his brother. A brief duel over control of the survivors ended with Yaru Korsin pushing his half-brother over the cliff-edge. The transmitter was discovered to have been damaged beyond repair and, in the knowledge that the survivors were stranded on Kesh until help arrived, Korsin began the process of leading them as they created a community.

Korsin later met with Keshiri geologist Adari Vaal, who had been branded a heretic for her scientific research. Korsin persuaded Vaal to bring the Neshtovar, the uvak-riding governemnt of the Keshiri, to the Sith. Vaal complied, and the Keshiri came to believe that the Sith were in fact the Skyborn, the gods who were believed to have created Kesh. Korsin was proclaimed the first Grand Lord and the Lost Tribe of Sith began to slowly take over Keshiri society.^[2]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Military career 1.2 Sadow's assignment 1.3 Struggle on Kesh 1.4 Meeting the Keshiri 1.4.1 Adari Vaal 1.4.2 Proclaimed as Skyborn 1.5 Legacy 2 Appearances 3 Notes and references

[edit] Biography

[edit] Military career

A male Force-sensitive Human, Yaru Korsin was a descendant of a noble house of the Tapani sector that had long ago allied itself with the Sith, a red-skinned species that wielded the dark side of the Force, and the Dark Jedi who led them. Korsin's ancestors had interbred with the Dark Jedi, whom the Sith worshipped as gods, with the result that Force-sensitivity had been passed down through the generations. Along with the ability to wield the Force, Korsin also inherited the lifestyle led by his predecessors as naval officers and administrators for the Sith.^[1]

During his teenage years, Korsin learned the ways of his forefathers from his father, who was an admiral in service to the Sith. He joined the Sith navy at the rank of cadet and studied at his father's side. Korsin's great respect for his father, however, was shattered when he discovered that he had a half-brother, Devore Korsin. Korsin's father had sired Devore with a woman in a port on another planet and was happy to allow his bastard son, who was half Yaru's age, to join his crew. Disgusted, the aspiring naval officer applied for a transfer off his father's vessel. The Sith Lords complied and Korsin was free to carve out a name for himself out of his father's shadow.^[1]

Korsin embarked upon a successful military career. At one point he piloted a bomber and made a suicidal dive that he nevertheless survived. Within five years, Korsin was a captain in the Sith military. After another five years, the captain was given his first command. The starship was Omen and was captained by none other than Korsin's father, who had been demoted from his position as admiral in the intervening years. Commander Korsin ousted his father and assumed control of Omen. Over the years, he built up a capable crew whom he trusted. As his navigator, he retained the services of Boyle Marcom, an elderly crewmember who had served under his father. The Ho'Din Lohjoy acted as the head of engineering onboard Omen, while the Houk Gloyd held the position of gunnery chief and was Korsin's trusted advisor and confidante.^[1]

By 5,000 BBY, Yaru Korsin had been serving in the military for twenty years. In that year, the Sith Empire had been chanced upon by two hyperspace explorers, Gav and Jori Daragon, whose arrival over Korriban had alerted the Sith Lords to the existence of the Galactic Republic. The question of how the Sith should react to the threat had led to a power struggle between Sith Lords Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh. Eventually, Naga Sadow emerged victorious, with the humiliated Kressh retreating following a defeat at Sadow's fortress world of Khar Delba. Korsin and the crew of Omen pledged their services to Sadow as he prepared for the attack on the Galactic Republic.^[1]

[edit] Sadow's assignment

The Great Hyperspace War begun with Sadow's attack upon the Republic; war broke out on several fronts and the Sith forces were in need of a steady supply of munitions. Summoned by Naga Sadow himself to a space station in the Goluud system, where a Sadow's flagship was located, Commander Korsin was assigned a mission to secure a cargo of Lignan crystals and take them to Kirrek, a planet in the Koros system where Sadow's forces were engaged in a pitched battle with the forces of Empress Teta. Many mining vessels gathered at Primus Goluud and crews were rotated around the vessels. To his surprise and irritation, Korsin discovered that his half-brother Devore, who had joined the Sith mineralogical corps, would be accompanying him on the mission, along with a crew of miners. Among the miners, Korsin learned, was his half-brother's lover, Seelah, who was caring for Devore's child Jariad.^[1]

Korsin immediately became suspicious of his half-brother's motives, suspecting that Devore would attempt to usurp his command. The commander warned Devore Korsin that there were to be no power struggles on his starship during the mission. Along with Devore Korsin and his mining crew, Omen was also tasked with carrying a number of Massassi shock troops, who were commanded by the Sith Ravilan, and war supplies, all bound for Kirrek. Korsin was quietly given another task by Sadow. Accompanying Omen and the rest of the mining flotilla on the mission to collect Lignan crystals would be Harbinger, commanded by a Dark Jedi known as Saes. Sadow shared Korsin's distrust of the fallen Jedi and asked the commander to keep an eye on Saes. Korsin brought Omen to Phaegon III, where a Sith mining fleet had assembled. There, Omen was loaded with the valuable Lignan crystals and was soon ready to make the jump to Kirrek.^[1]

As Korsin prepared to move out from Phaegon III alongside Harbinger, however, a lone Jedi starfighter made a run at the mining fleet. Aware that the safety of the Lignan crystals was paramount, and that the Sith would reward the crew who delivered the cargo to Primus Goluud the quicket, Korsin decided to leave Harbinger and the Blades to deal with the threat. As his crew made preparations for the jump to hyperspace, however, Harbinger took hits and collided with Omen; just as it did so, Boyle Marcom triggered the hyperspace jump. The impact of Harbinger with the Tapani-designed vessel knocked Omen off course as it leapt into hyperspace.^[1]

Blind jumps into hyperspace were fraught with danger, and Korsin experienced the risks firsthand as a gravity well ensnared Omen and decelerated it from lightspeed in mere moments. As the vessel left hyperspace violently and unexpectedly, the physical strain exerted upon Omen resulted in the armory being torn away, detonating and damaging Omen severely. Korsin's command was unable to prevent Omen from beginning a rapid dive toward a nearby planet. The crew tried the lifepods but the mechanisms had been too badly damaged, resulting in the first pod exploding in its bay. Korsin desperately tried to remedy the situation as Omen entered the upper reaches of the world's atmosphere, contacting Lohjoy in engineering via hologram. As he asked the Ho'Din for an update, the entire engineering section caught fire as the hull ruptured, killing Lohjoy.^[1]

With little hope of pulling the plummeting ship out of its dive, Korsin sat back in the captain's chair while his crew remained silent, despite the grave danger they had been placed in. The captain grew irate as he watched the sullen and resentful crew do nothing—Marcom, who was held to blame for the hyperspace jump, had already been ostracized. As Devore Korsin appeared on the command deck and began railing at Marcom, Yaru could only wonder in amazement at his half-brother's sense of timing. The starship reached the stratosphere of the unknown planet and Korsin soon realized that there was water present on the world as moisture began to fleck on the bridge viewport. The possibility that the planet was a gas giant, with no surface to crashland on at all, alarmed Korsin.^[1]

As the crew braced, Korsin watched as an unknown winged creature, bearing a rider, splattered into the viewport, shattering the transparisteel, allowing air to rush into the bridge. Korsin was knocked off his feet but regained his station, fending off his half-brother as Devore attempted to take the controls. As the two men argued, Seelah arrived on the command deck, triggering an outburst from Devore, who had ordered his wife to stay below in the cargo hold. Ignoring her lover, Seelah announced that she had seen land through the crago hold viewports. She urged Korsin to attempt to fire the damaged vessel's port thruster and effect a crash landing; the commander realized, however, that such a maneuver was impossible and instead alighted upon the idea of opening the covers on the external torpedo tubes mounted either side of Omen in order to slow the starship's descent.^[1]

In unison with the other Force-senstive crewmembers, Korsin used telekinesis to trigger the mechanisms of the torpedo hatches in order to open them and allow the resulting friction to slow Omen's descent. The gamble paid off; the Tapani-designed starship inclined further in its dive, punching through the cloud cover and enabling Korsin and the rest of the bridge crew to see where their plummeting vessel was headed. Making a snap decision, and comprehending that landing Omen in one of the planet's large bodies of water would spell death for the crew if Sadow's forces discovered that the Lignan crystals were at the bottom of an ocean, Korsin ordered more torpedo tubes to be opened, turning Omen toward a mountain precipice.^[1]

As the starship streaked toward the clifftop, Korsin watched as other members of the crew attempted to flee in lifepods, both of which were destroyed on impact with a cliff and the ocean, respectively. The commander ordered more course corrections during the rapid descent, but Omen was seemingly lining up for an imminent impact with one of the ridges. Just as Korsin grabbed Seelah pushed her behind the command chair for protection, Omen's underbelly clipped a ridge, sending the starship into a spinning dive and Korsin into a bulkhead. Korsin watched in horror as the starship sped down an incline toward a cliffedge; Omen eventually came to a stop teetering on the brink of the precipice.^[1]

[edit] Struggle on Kesh

The crew struggled for survival; Korsin agreed to travel to the crash site in order to turn on the transmitter and broadcast for rescue. When he arrived at the summit, he discovered Devore was already sitting in the wreckage of the crashed starship. The two soon argued and began a swift duel, which only ended when Korsin used the Force to fire one of the remaining torpedo tubes, sending a shower of rubble into his half-brother and knocking him down on the edge of the cliff.^[1]

Dazed, Korsin approached his half-brother, who was half-buried in rubble and wounded on the edge of the cliff. As the commander neared, Devore Korsin struggled to rise, eventually collapsing and dropping his lightsaber, which rolled over the precipice. The Sith adherent helped his injured brother to his feet, who was blinded and, as Korsin realized, on drugs. Coming to the conclusion that he was to be the leader of the isolated survivors and that they would be remaining on the planet indefinitely, Korsin informed his half-brother that he would protect the crew and complete his mission, before releasing his hold and allowing Devore to plummet over the edge of the cliff to the ocean far below.^[1]

Alone, Korsin gathered supplies from Omen and loaded them onto a makeshift sledge, which he dragged down the mountain to the campfires far below, utilizing the Force to lessen the difficulty of the task. It was nightfall by the time the commander returned. He was greeted by Ravilan, who eagerly asked him whether he had been able to turn on the transmitter and broadcast for rescue. Korsin lied, claiming that the transmitter had been intact and that they would have to wait until Sadow's forces found them. Deflecting Ravilan's queries, Korsin asserted that Omen was too precariously balanced for future missions up to the crash site and made excuses in order for the tribe to accept their lot, at least temporarily. In the meantime, all of the surviving Massassi had died, succumbing to whatever it was in the planet's atmosphere that proved poisonous to them.^[1]

As Seelah approached and asked where her lover was, Korsin deflected the inquiry once again, making it out as though he had been unaware that his half-brother had ever left the camp. He convened the survivors around the central campfire and delivered a short speech, asserting that Sadow and his forces cared enough about the Lignan crystals to come looking for Omen and that they would one day be rescued. For the time being, however, Korsin urged the survivors to accept their destiny and work together to turn the planet to suit their needs. Recalling the rider of the winged beast that had impacted with Omen during its descent, Korsin retained hope that his crew could adapt to their new surroundings.^[1]

[edit] Meeting the Keshiri

[edit] Adari Vaal

Several days after the Omen crashed on Kesh, Korsin was in the wreckage when he saw a strange creature riding one of the animals that had crashed into the Omen during its descent to the planet. The pair, who proved to be Keshiri geologist Adari Vaal riding her late husband’s uvak Nink, quickly fled after seeing Korsin with his ignited lightsaber.^[2]

That night, Korsin sent out a single word through the Force: Deliverance. This, along with a non-verbal invitation for Vaal to join the survivors of the crash, coaxed the Keshiri out of the jungle.^[2]

When first Vaal arrived at the Sith camp, she was treated with great hostility. Many Sith, including Seelah, Force-pushed the geologist into a tree and began a harsh mental assault on her mind. Korsin stopped the attack, introducing himself to Vaal, who blacked out.^[2]

When Vaal regained consciousness, Korsin attempted to communicate with her, using Hestus as translator. Vaal shared a large amount of information about Kesh with Korsin, without receiving much knowledge in return. On the third day of the Keshiri’s stay with the Sith, Korsin asked her to return to Tahv and bring the Neshtovar—uvak-riders who governed the Keshiri and had a strong believe in the Keshiri gods, the Skyborn—back to the Sith. Vaal agreed to do so, but before she left, Korsin asked to learn all he could about the Skyborn. Korsin was also shocked to discover that the Keshiri had a "numberless" amount of members.^[2]

[edit] Proclaimed as Skyborn

Staying true to her word, Vaal led the Neshtovar to the Sith. Amazed, the uvak-riders led the newcomers to the Circle Eternal in Tahv, where they met with all the Neshtovar of the region. The leader of the Neshtovar, Izri Dazh, proclaimed that the Sith were indeed the Skyborn and appointed Korsin as the Grand Lord. To strengthen the belief that the Sith were gods, Korsin force-leaped to the top of the column that stood in the center of the Circle, to the delight of those present. Korsin then issued a short speech of his own, reaffirming Dazh’s statement and announcing that a temple would be build on the wreckage of the Omen.’’^[2]

The Neshtovar gave up their homes so that the “Skyborn” could live in Tahv, and Korsin received the house of Dazh himself. Construction began on a passageway to the peninsula in order to mine materials to build the temple. Vaal became Korsin’s ambassador and personal aide, helping him communicate with the miners. She also confronted Korsin about the death of his brother Devore, informing him that she had seen Korsin push Devore into the ocean. Korsin then used his powers of mind reading to discover that Vaal had been branded a heretic for her work with geology, and that her husband Zhari had met his death over the ocean. The Sith used this information to justify his actions, stating that Devore had been a danger. He then revealed to Vaal that he knew the circumstances of Zhari’s death, as well as the fact that Vaal had not missed her husband. Korsin presented the Keshiri with a proposition--she would learn more in the next few months then the geologist had learned in her entire life, as long as Vaal “forgot” the incident with Devore. Vaal agreed, and both she and Korsin kept their promises.^[2]

[edit] Legacy

Korsin's tribe managed to adapt to their new surroundings on Kesh, as the planet was known. The Lost Tribe of Sith developed into a hierarchical order of Force-sensitives. Sith Lords acted as the individuals of greatest rank, with High Lords dominant over them. The Tribe was led by the Circle of Lords, to whom the lower-ranking members deferred. Sith Masters, or the lower-ranking Sith Sabers, took on apprentices known as Tyros. Males and females alike were able to ascend to positions of rank in the order, although the tribe developed a culture in which great stigma was attached to physical imperfection. The winged creature Korsin had witnessed impacting with Omen during its final plunge had been an uvak; the tribe discovered the transport capabilities of the creatures and tamed them for use as mounts.^[3]

Eventually, the members of the tribe used their lightsabers to create their first permanent home, carving into the cliffs around Omen's final resting place and gradually constructing a giant black temple to act as the headquarters of the tribe. The mountain was moulded to suit their needs and over the centuries the Temple expanded until it dominated the precipice. The tribe members approached the mountaintop by uvak, rather than attempt the perilous climb originally undertaken by Korsin. Even then, access to the Temple was only granted to Tyros who had a master. The wreckage of Omen became known as the Ship of Destiny; entombed within the Temple, access to the ruined Tapani-designed vessel was also restricted to Sith Lords and Masters.^[3]

The tribe discovered that the planet was also home to the Keshiri, a race of powerfully-built purple-skinned humanoids. The Keshiri had constructed their own city of Tahv; their architectural prowess and physical strength was put to use in expanding the Temple. Korsin was later honored in the Temple with a statue of himself, carved and placed in the Temple courtyard. The tribe lived alongside the Keshiri; interbreeding was impossible, although many took Keshiri as lovers. The two cultures intermingled and Keshiri later arose to positions of power in the Tribe, although, as with physical imperfection, there was a stigma attached to the Keshiri as well.^[3]

The Battle of Kirrek was lost by Sadow's forces. In the Republic counterattack, Sadow suffered serious defeats and was forced to flee to the fourth moon of Yavin with his Sith Empire vanquished.^[4] For 5,041 years Yaru Korsin's tribe of Sith would remain isolated on Kesh. In 41.5 ABY, having been cut off from millennia of galactic wars, Sith victories and defeats and a punishing invasion by an extra-galactic race of warfarers, Kesh was visited by an ancient and sentient vessel—a Sith Meditation Sphere, which had been awoken from its long hibernation on the Sith homeworld of Ziost by the Jedi Ben Skywalker.^[5]

[edit] Appearances

• Crosscurrent
• Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice (First appearance)
• Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn
• Omen (Mentioned only)

[edit] Notes and references