Destruction of Tahv

In 43.5 ABY, the Lost Tribe of Sith discovered the existence of the dark side entity Abeloth and fought in a series of encounters against the New Jedi Order. The Sith wanted to capture Abeloth for their own use and destroy the Jedi Order, but their first mission failed. After a second attempt left the Tribe empty-handed, Sith Saber Gavar Khai, the leader of the Sith armada during the operation, was approached by Abeloth with the proposition of an alliance to eliminate their mutual enemy, the Jedi. Khai thus brought Abeloth to the Sith homeworld Kesh, where the Sith Grand Lord Darish Vol convened with the Tribe's Circle of Lords and eventually decided to accept Abeloth's offer. Abeloth was brought planet-side, and a celebration was held for her in the capital city of Tahv.

Vol still did not trust Abeloth, however, and he secretly convened with several members of the Circle of Lords after the celebrations. Later that night, while Abeloth walked the streets of Tahv, she appeared to Vol in his sleep—not in her Human guise, but in her true alien form—and attempted to kill him, wrapping her tendrils around him and jamming them into his ears, mouth, and nose. She quickly began to consume him, but she was too reckless, and in his desperation Vol used a Force technique to delve into her mind. His probing showed him that her greatest need was to feel loved. Abeloth was furious at his violation of her mind, and her attack increased in violence.

The Grand Lord in turn tried to cause Abeloth as much pain as possible, telling her over and over again that she would never be loved. Stricken, Abeloth's assault morphed into an attempt to flee from the Grand Lord's torment. Vol tried to kill her as she fought to break free from his grasp, but she managed to repulse him, waking him up and leaving him extremely weak and in great pain. He was quickly attended to by the Sith Saber Revar, and the Grand Lord ordered Revar to take him to his ship, awaken the Sith Lords, and warn the Tribe's defenses of Abeloth's inevitable impending attack on Tahv.

In her agony and frustration at failing to kill Vol, Abeloth lashed out against the city—unable to hold on to the illusion of her appearance, she reverted back to her true form as she attacked Tahv with surges of Force energy. Despite Vol's attempt to warn the city, the Sith were unprepared for her attack. Beings in her immediate vicinity were imploded by the onslaught, and those a little farther away were completely torn apart by the energy. The city itself also suffered under the assault; glass and weapons were taken up and flung throughout Tahv, serving Abeloth's will to hurt and kill everyone in the city. Buildings melted to the ground, and the city was left rife with flames, with thousands dead.

Meanwhile, Gavar Khai and several other Sith aboard his flagship, the ChaseMaster frigate Black Wave, were awakened by Abeloth's radiating agony. Abeloth met the Sith Meditation Sphere Ship while several frigates launched from the city's relatively undamaged spaceport. Ship contacted Khai through the Force and reported that Abeloth was safe, but that they needed to leave immediately. Meanwhile, Khai's second-in-command, Sith Saber Tola Annax, relayed a request from other frigates in the Sith fleet for orders, reporting that the vessels that had launched from the spaceport were almost within firing range—they suspected that the Black Wave stood with Abeloth, and were preparing to attack. Despite sensing the death of his wife, Lahka, in Abeloth's attack, Khai finally decided to ally fully with Abeloth and desert the Tribe. He commanded his crew to assist Abeloth and ordered all frigates to retreat from the planet with Ship, who relayed coordinates to them for a rendezvous. Not all of the vessels followed Khai's orders, however, and those who remained loyal to the Tribe opened fire on them.

Two ChaseMaster frigates that had followed the Black Wave were shot down by the Tribe's forces. Khai ordered his crew to return fire, and one of the attacking frigates was destroyed in the exchange. Now considering himself a member of Abeloth's fleet, Khai ordered that all vessels alter course to the rendezvous point, and stated that all who did not would be considered traitors and attacked. One vessel, the Dark Dancer, failed to respond, and Annax reported that the ship had been hit. She informed Khai that it might still be on their side but was just too damaged to move or reply. However, Khai refused to accept the risk of allowing the Dark Dancer to live in case it was still loyal to the Tribe, and he ordered Annax to shoot the vessel down. Khai's frigate opened fire, destroying the Dark Dancer, and Annax successfully completed the Black Waves hyperspace jump out of the system.

Following Tahv's destruction, the Sith on Kesh deserted the city, and Abeloth suspected that Grand Lord Vol might decide to ally with the Jedi again in another attempt to bring her down. Upon meeting at the rendezvous spot, Abeloth spoke with Khai regarding his loyalties and his daughter, Vestara's, actions—she had been sent on a mission to spy on the Jedi by becoming close to young Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker, but the Tribe had come to suspect that she might have turned traitor to the Sith. Abeloth forced Khai to accept the possibility of his daughter's betrayal and went on to denounce the idea of paying any attention to a prophecy of a supposed Jedi queen who might prevent the Sith from rising to power in the galaxy. Finally, she ordered Khai to lead any Jedi or Sith who attempted to pursue her down the wrong path.

In that vein, Khai and nine other Sith Sabers confronted the Jedi Luke Skywalker, Ben Skywalker, Jaina Solo, and Vestara Khai herself on the planet Dromund Kaas. However, in the ensuing duel, all of the Sabers—including Khai—were killed. Khai's daughter was able to discern from her father's actions that he was no longer serving the Tribe, and she soon afterward decided to join the Jedi Order as an apprentice. Later, when the Jedi launched a mission to the planet Upekzar to eliminate Abeloth and Ship, they found only Tola Annax, who had been stripped of her powers by Abeloth and infused with a massive amount of dark side energy that would explode if she was killed. While the Jedi recognized the trap and immediately retreated, Annax was overwhelmed and killed by the energy, though the majority of the Jedi forces managed to escape from the resulting explosion. Still, the distractions gave Abeloth time to infiltrate the government on the galactic capital planet Coruscant, where she rose to the position of Chief of State.

The destruction of Tahv first appeared in Christie Golden's Fate of the Jedi: Ascension (2011), the eighth book in the nine-part Fate of the Jedi series. The event saw the decimation and abandonment of Tahv, a city that was initially introduced in the second Fate of the Jedi entry, Fate of the Jedi: Omen (2010), also by Golden.

• The Essential Reader's Companion