Yaru Korsin

A male Human, Yaru Korsin was born the son of a respected veteran admiral in the navy of the Sith Empire and a woman named Takara in the years before the Great Hyperspace War. He was descended from a noble house of the Tapani sector that was skilled in commerce and industry. Eventually, they were discovered by the Sith and put to work in those fields, running ships and factories. The Korsin line eventually intermingled with the Dark Jedi, bringing the Force into the family. As a result, Yaru Korsin was Force-sensitive, and became skilled in the dark side. Korsin learned at his father's side, staking out his own future in the Sith navy. While still a cadet, Korsin met his younger half-brother, Devore, for the first time—born to a woman from a planet that Korsin's father had visited during his travels. Less enamored with the prospect of following in his father's footsteps, in 5025 BBY Korsin appealed to the Sith Lords for another assignment. The move proved quite fruitful, as Korsin made captain in five years. Another five years later in 5015 BBY, he won command of a newly-christened Sith dreadnaught named the Omen over none other than his own father. Korsin soon became close friends with his bridge officer, a Houk named Gloyd, whom Korsin valued highly for his preference for focusing on his work rather than moving up the chain of command.

In 5000 BBY, as the Great Hyperspace War raged across the galaxy, Korsin commanded the Omen on a mission to mine Lignan crystals from the planet Phaegon III's largest moon, which would create war materiel for the Sith efforts on Kirrek. By then, Korsin had been a captain in the Sith navy for twenty years and had earned a reputation as trustworthy. Korsin was given the task by the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, Naga Sadow. Much to Korsin's chagrin, Devore, who was valued due to his position in the Sith mineralogical corps, was placed on the mission alongside his half-brother. Right before Korsin left, his mother sent him a message that told of a premonition that someday he and his descendants would rule over a great people—Korsin would hold on to the recording as he traveled to the Phaegon system. Commanding the mission along with the Kaleesh Saes Rrogon in the Omens sister ship, the Harbinger, Korsin ordered the bombing of the moon's surface to clear the way for a team of harvester droids to mine the Lignan. Afterward, Korsin saw a droid's-eye-view of the shattered moon, leaving him awestruck. With the massive amount of Lignan being mined and the immense power of the dark side that consequently surrounded him, Korsin felt that the Sith were omnipotent. However, Korsin's reverie was soon interrupted—the Omen and the Harbinger were suddenly ambushed by Rrogon's former Jedi Master Relin Druur and his Padawan Drev Hassin. As the two ships prepared to jump to hyperspace, Korsin noticed odd readings in the Harbingers jump field, although Rrogon did not respond to Korsin's warnings.

Meanwhile, Hassin suicidally crashed his Infiltrator starfighter into the Harbinger, causing a series of explosions and pushing the Harbinger toward the direction of the Omen. Korsin's ship began to move out of the way too late, and the two dreadnaughts collided as the Omen jumped to hyperspace. The Omen was pushed just off course, and while in hyperspace encountered a massive gravity well that tore the ship apart. Korsin did his best to keep calm among the chaos as the Omens crew worked frantically to get the ship back under control, even laughing when a Ho'Din engineer named Lohjoy caught on fire in front of him. The Omen reverted to realspace, and headed toward a planet seen in the distance. As the Omen hurtled through the world's atmosphere, Korsin briefly feared that the ship was flying into a gas giant, but his prayers were answered when he realized that the planet had breathable air. There was no reprieve from the machinations of his brother, however, and Devore briefly tried to seize control of the ship's dead controls, only to be interrupted by the wails of his son Jariad. Korsin soon sighted land on the rapid descent, and thinking quickly, triggered the firing pin of the ship's torpedo tubes with the Force, which tipped the Omen downward and allowed Korsin and the ship's crew to better see what awaited them below.

Forced to pick between having the ship crash into an ocean or a mountain range, Korsin chose the latter, valuing the survival of the Omens cargo over its crew. With time running out, Korsin ordered those on the bridge to prepare for impact with the mountains. At the last moment before contact, Korsin moved from his cover to grab Devore's wife Seelah and infant Jariad, who had nowhere to secure themselves. The move cost him, as the impact threw him against a bulkhead and nearly impaled him on the shards of a shattered viewport. Korsin blacked out as the Omen slid down the side of a mountain. He awoke to find that the ship had come to a rest.

Korsin was one of 355 survivors of the Omens crash, along with Devore, Seelah, and Jariad. Although Korsin feared that Naga Sadow might kill him for his failure, he felt secure in the fact that the Lignan crystals still remained intact. In a single night, Korsin organized a massive exodus from the lofty plateau upon which the Omens wreckage rested, along a narrow ledge to more secure ground below. Twenty-one survivors died along the way, and Korsin, the last to leave the burning ship, briefly thought he saw his own doom at hand when a proton torpedo disengaged from its tube near where he tread—however, it fell harmlessly over the ledge. After trekking all night, the survivors found a clearing, where they camped. However, it soon became evident that the Sith were in an awful situation. Surveys of the surrounding area revealed no ways out, and the Omens Massassi contingent were all dying due to a mysterious ailment. As Korsin regarded that woeful scene, he noticed a commotion, and found the hotheaded Devore harassing the Omens elderly Human navigator, Boyle Marcom, whom he blamed for the crash. Despite Korsin's attempts to intervene, Devore killed Marcom with his lightsaber, with Seelah casually explaining that Marcom had attacked first. Furious, Korsin berated his half–brother, attempting to re-establish his leadership position amongst the survivors.

The rest of the Massassi soon died, along with some of the more heavily injured survivors in an unexpectedly cold night. Although it was only twenty hours since the crash, things had already started to get more basic and primitive in the Sith camp, and seeking anything that could help their wretched situation, Korsin traveled up the mountain to the remains of the Omen. He found instead Devore, high on Red Rage spice, who had come to the Omen for similar reasons. Korsin first checked the transmitter array, which he found to be completely burned out—Devore then informed him that the ship's workshop, armory, and landing bay were all inaccessible. Distraught, Devore proclaimed their situation to be totally hopeless, infuriating Korsin. Korsin confronted Devore on his belief that his half-brother had tried to wrest control of the Omen at the start of the mission, angering Devore in turn. Devore ignited his lightsaber and attacked Korsin with a Force whirlwind. Devore soon lost his balance, however, and Korsin threw him outside the ship, believing that fighting a lightsaber duel in the teetering Omen was a certain deathtrap.

As Korsin exited the ship to battle his half-brother, he saw a flying uvak, a native beast, watching him from over a nearby ridge. As Korsin focused his attention on the beast, Devore slammed him into the side of the Omen. They subsequently dueled, and Korsin was quickly put on the defensive by Devore's furious attacks. Thinking quickly, Korsin used the Force to activate one of the exterior torpedo doors, slamming it into Devore's shoulder, and causing a landslide down the side of the mountain. Korsin held onto the Omen for dear life, and the ship came to a rest just meters from the edge of the precipice. Devore was less fortunate, as he was partially buried and rubble and severely wounded. Korsin heard his half-brother's cries for help and lifted him to his feet, supposing that Devore could perhaps survive his wounds—however, not knowing what would come after the conflict, he changed his mind, dropping Devore over the side of the mountain to his death.

Korsin had his share of injuries as well, and had to rely on the Force to support himself as he climbed down the mountain back to the camp. Not wanting to expose the true direness of their situation to the other survivors, Korsin claimed that he had activated an emergency beacon and that help would likely soon come. When approached by Seelah, Korsin told her that he had no knowledge of her husband's whereabouts. Soon afterward, Korsin gave a speech to the rest of the survivors, assuring them that it was destiny that had brought them to the planet, and that they had to make the best of the situation. Still, the Sith were in dire straits, and the rest of the supplies would soon run out. However, Korsin had a source of hope—he realized that the creature he had seen while battling his brother had a rider, and there were others on the planet.

Soon afterward, a native Keshiri woman named Adari Vaal, the very same individual whom Korsin had spied during his duel with Devore, stumbled across the Sith camp and was captured. Although incapacitated for a time, she finally awoke, and Korsin enlisted a Pureblood Sith translator named Hestus to aid in communication. Korsin and Vaal exchanged information about their respective situations—Korsin learned that there were many villages full of Keshiri on the mainland of the planet, Kesh, and about Keshiri society in general, including the Keshiri's belief in the Skyborn gods. Seeing an opportunity to finally get to civilization, Korsin allowed Vaal to return home, over the objections of Seelah, trusting that she would honor her agreement to help them escape their predicament. A day later, Vaal returned with members of the Keshiri ruling council known as the Neshtovar, who brought Korsin and the 240 survivors to the Keshiri capital of Tahv. There, Korsin and the other Sith convinced the Neshtovar, through feats of the Force, that they were the Skyborn gods returned to Kesh. Korsin proclaimed himself to be Grand Lord of the Skyborn, dazzling crowds of Keshiri with stunts like Force Jumping to the top of a tall column. The Keshiri completely fell for the ruse, and the Sith took their place as rulers of Kesh.

After this auspicious occasion, the Sith were fully settled into Keshiri society, moving into the fine homes of the Neshtovar—Korsin, Seelah, and Jariad were quartered in the domicile of the Neshtovar's leader, Izri Dazh. Korsin, having proclaimed his intention to build a temple at the site of the Omens remains, personally oversaw a dig at the edge of the mountains as the Sith cleared a path that would allow them to build structures to stabilize and protect the Omen. During the excavation, Vaal revealed that she had witnessed Korsin throw Devore over the side of the cliff, not too far away from where the Sith were currently digging, and that she had seen his half-brother's shattered body on the rocks below. Unsettled, Korsin asked her whether his body was still there, but she answered that the tide had swept him away. While Vaal was suspicious of Korsin's motives for killing Devore, Korsin assured her that Devore was a grave threat to their society and requested that Vaal forget what she saw that day. Although his next task was to dig for metals necessary to repair the Omen, unfortunately for his group, Korsin soon found that such metals did not exist on Kesh. For better or for worse, the Sith were not going anywhere.

Over the next fifteen years, now-Grand Lord Korsin settled into leadership of the so-called Lost Tribe of Sith. Holding court on his old bridge chair in the now fully-constructed Sith temple, Korsin regularly held meetings with a group of trusted advisors, including Gloyd; the Human Ermon Parrah, his science adviser; and Ravilan Wroth, who represented the remaining Pureblood Sith, known as the "Fifty-seven" after the fifty-seven non-Humans who survived the crash. However, a more important development occurred in Korsin's personal life, as he married Devore's widow, Seelah, together having a daughter whom they named Nida. They both saw the marriage as an acceptable arrangement, as Korsin solidified the bonds with the Omens miners, while Seelah gained power and influence in the Lost Tribe, along with a job administrating the Sith sick-wards. In his free time, Korsin began the habit of routine mountain walks with Adari Vaal, who served as an intermediary with the Keshiri. Their conversations were generally rather mindless, although they took up a great deal of Korsin's time. However, he lost Vaal's support, beginning with an incident in 4987 BBY before when Korsin failed to heal her mortally-wounded son after an accident. Vaal went on to head a secret resistance movement dedicated to bringing down the Sith regime. Korsin was not yet aware of his friend's treachery, however.

In 4985 BBY, while looking at an ill-made statue of himself in Tahv with Seelah, Korsin received news that the entire population of the city of Tetsubal had mysteriously died. Tetsubal was, at the time, being visited by Ravilan Wroth, whom Korsin had sent on a mission to survey the southern towns of the Ragnos Lakes. As it happened, Wroth was the only one reported alive in the city, and Korsin rushed to Tetsubal with Seelah and Gloyd. Korsin arrived to find the city of Tetsubal completely empty, with all 18,000 residents lying dead within the village's walls. Wroth stood alone, the last remaining witness to the disaster. Suspecting a biological agent was responsible for the deaths, Korsin immediately sent Gloyd back to Tahv, to make sure that Nida was brought to the safety of the Sith temple. Shaken, Korsin was pushed by Wroth to completely isolate the Lost Tribe from Keshiri affairs, proclaiming the deaths in Tetsubal to be a warning from the dark side. However, Korsin was not convinced, and though he ordered the city's burning and called for the careful withdrawal of Lost Tribe members from outlying Keshiri settlements, he did not authorize a full separation from Keshiri affairs. Despite his best efforts to contain whatever threat there may have been, Korsin was soon informed that a similar calamity had occurred again, wiping out the rest of the towns in the Ragnos Lakes region. Searching for answers, Korsin saw the mystery unraveled by his own wife, who had discerned that the deaths in Tetsubal were caused by the poisoning of the local water source with cyanogen silicate, connecting it to the recent death of a Keshiri laborer working for Wroth. With all the cities visited by Wroth and his retinue meeting the same fate, it was easy to make the connection. Seeing no other choice, Korsin ordered the eradication of the Pureblood Sith from the face of Kesh.

The Purebloods did not go quietly, and Korsin was personally involved in crushing the resistance. He and his chief lieutenants fought on the front lines throughout the night, eventually pushing the Pureblood remnants into a last stand high in the mountains. Korsin gave no quarter, throwing any who surrendered over the side of the precipice, giving to them the same end he had given to his half-brother. Those killed were put on public display in Tahv; Wroth was captured and later executed by Korsin's now-stepson Jariad. Little did Korsin know, it had all been engineered behind the scenes by his wife Seelah, who had determined Wroth's complicity in the deaths at Tetsubal and had framed him for the rest—she also had designs to eliminate Korsin himself, as revenge for the death of Devore.

Over the next few years, Korsin focused on reshaping Kesh into a true Sith world, doing what he could to keep the Keshiri's allegiance, including acting on an idea from Gloyd to publicly kill a dissenter through the Force. As far as his family was concerned, he and Seelah's relationship had grown distant, while Jariad seemed his heir apparent. Instead, suspecting that Seelah and Jariad were planning something against him, Korsin secretly groomed his daughter Nida to succeed him, sending her to learn the ways of the dark side from various Sith whose deaths had been faked, while she was supposedly off on ambassadorial missions. At some point, Korsin reviewed the last visual data from the Omens cameras from before the crash, and discovered a large continent which he dubbed Keshtah Major, across the sea from the landmass on which the Sith had settled. Sure that Keshtah Major was settled, Korsin made a hand-drawn map of the mysterious land, keeping the knowledge secret until it could be useful in the future. By 4975 BBY, Korsin had realized that there truly was no way for the Sith to escape Kesh—nothing more could be done to repair the Omen, and Kesh was so remote that it was doubtful that they would ever be found. Seeing no reason to hole themselves up in their mountain temple anymore, Korsin, in a lavish ceremony at the Circle Eternal plaza in Tahv, declared the Lost Tribe's intent to live among the Keshiri for good.

Soon after the ceremony, while Korsin was in preparations to move away from the temple permanently, he, Gloyd, and his bodyguards found themselves ambushed by Jariad Korsin and a group of powerful Sith Saber warriors—Korsin's suspicions were correct. By reading Adari Vaal's thoughts, Seelah had discovered the true circumstances of Devore's death, and decided to time was ripe for vengeance. Korsin was taken completely by surprise, thinking that Jariad and the Sabers were on a training mission to the Northern Reaches, and though outnumbered four-to-one, resolved to fight to the end. As he and Jariad exchanged insults in a standoff, they saw dozens of uvak suddenly take to the skies. It was the work of the Keshiri resistance, who were looking to undermine the Lost Tribe by stealing their uvak and flying the valuable beasts to their doom. Korsin turned it into an opportunity, attacking the distracted Sabers. Korsin and Gloyd, along with the bodyguards, cut a deadly path through the Sabers, although the pair eventually became separated in the chaos of the battle. Although the Sabers had inferior training, there were simply too many of them, and Korsin also had to deal with the savage fury of Jariad. Korsin was badly wounded, and was progressively pushed back toward the precipice where Devore Korsin had died so many years before.

However, Korsin had one more trick up his sleeve. As the battle turned against him, the tide was suddenly turned when Nida arrived, along with reinforcements from her Skyborn Rangers uvak-riding club and some Keshiri partisans. With momentum on his side, Korsin attempted to throw Jariad over the side of the cliff with the Force but failed—instead, Nida did it for him. Meanwhile, Gloyd used a thermal detonator to bring a room down upon his assailants, sacrificing himself, but killing many of his opponents and paralyzing Seelah. Although Seelah and Jariad's rebellion was put down, Yaru Korsin succumbed to his injuries. In his final moments, the mortally wounded Grand Lord sat down in his command chair from the Omen, and recorded his final will and testament, which would shape the future of the Lost Tribe for years to come. He also left another keepsake for Nida, to be hidden from the public. Korsin passed his map of Keshtah Major on to his daughter, trusting her to keep the knowledge a secret until the continent's existence could someday be useful.

In the immediate aftermath of Yaru Korsin's death, his final will and testament, which had been left in the care of Nida, was read. In the document, Korsin commended his legacy to Nida, and with a ratification from the three surviving Sith High Lords, Nida Korsin was the new Grand Lord of the Lost Tribe. Another of Korsin's wishes was also enacted—henceforth, on the death of the Grand Lord, the person's spouse and servants would be sacrificed in his memory. However, this did not end up applying to Seelah, despite Korsin's wishes otherwise. Taking pity on her mother, Nida instead proclaimed that the Sith would leave the mountains of Kesh forever in Korsin's honor, leaving the temple for Seelah to live out the rest of her days in solitude. While Nida would carve out her own legacy as a great leader of the Lost Tribe, Yaru Korsin himself was remembered on Kesh for centuries as an icon and a hero. Still, the Korsin line was extinguished not long after Korsin's death. His grandson, Donellan, never seized power, ensuring that Nida, who reigned as Grand Lord for seventy-nine years, died heirless.

Kesh was covered in monuments to Korsin, and instead of having died, Korsin was popularly remembered as having "transcended this existence." To some, Yaru Korsin was a magical being, able to influence mortal events from beyond the grave. In fact, by 3000 BBY Yaru and Nida Korsin had become the centerpiece of a quasi-religious political faction known as the Korsinite League, whose members took the first name "Korsin" and strove to pattern their lives after their namesakes. The date of Korsin's death was turned into a planetary holiday, Testament Day, during which people all over Kesh honored Korsin's memory with a public display of Korsin's will, in holocron form. The Testament was preserved by an official known as the caretaker. In 3000 BBY, then-Caretaker Varner Hilts found himself in the midst of a heated dispute between several political factions over the true meaning of the Testament—after displaying the Testament to the quarreling groups, he stumbled across Naga Sadow's original briefing to Korsin, hidden within the recording. Those who witnessed the briefing were stunned by Korsin, their great hero, being a "delivery boy." News of the revelation somehow leaked out to the masses, leading to a massive riots that spread across Kesh. In search of something that could save the Omen, Hilts unsealed the ancient mountain temple, and found several artifacts from Korsin's life within, including the prophetic message from his mother, and the map of Keshtah Major he left for Nida.

A veteran captain in the Sith navy, Yaru Korsin was calm even in the most stressful situations, and was not affected by events that may have frightened a different man. Korsin had a sharp wit, and he often found humor in places others didn't—in fact, during the crash of the Omen, Korsin had to suppress a laugh when the head of the engineer Lohjoy burst into flames in front of him. Unlike many of his compatriots, Korsin prided himself on being trustworthy, and did not pay much attention to the power games so common within the Sith. Although Korsin made an effort to be friendly to those he encountered, he had no such patience for his half-brother Devore, upon whom he looked down for Devore's tendency to pass blame, his out-of-control anger and ambition, and his drug habit. However, Korsin still was somewhat protective of his younger half-brother, although he certainly let such feelings go when he dropped Devore to his death on Kesh. Korsin held more respect for his father, admiring his proficiency as a space captain, although he became less enamored with the prospects of following his father's footsteps after meeting Devore. Korsin very much valued the safety of his crew as a starship captain, but he always gave higher priority to the mission. During the Omens fiery descent to Kesh, for example, Korsin chose to bring the ship down above land, picking the survival of the Omens precious cargo over a water landing that likely would have saved more crewmembers but might have rendered the Lignan crystals irretrievable. Korsin was also willing to lie to his crew to protect their peace of mind and to prevent internal turmoil.

Korsin was close friends with his Houk bridge officer, Gloyd, whom he valued for being more focused on his job than moving up the ladder. Although he was outwardly friendly with the Pureblood Sith leader Ravilan Wroth, he did not trust him or his kind, and he had a plan in place to rid them from Kesh which was eventually enacted. Over the years, Korsin forged a friendly relationship with the Keshiri Adari Vaal, who secretly was working against him, often taking long walks with her in the mountains while they discussed seemingly trivial and mindless matters. Seelah, on the other hand, hated Vaal and directed mental vitriol at her every chance she got—Korsin enjoyed seeing the two women in his life pitted against one another. His marriage with Seelah was rather chilly. Seelah privately plotted against him for years, and while Korsin showed her affection, by 4975 BBY he had not touched her in years. While he did not share the single-minded ambition common among the Sith, Korsin was adept at getting his subordinates to follow him, often putting the situation in terms of self-preservation. However, he found no such success with governing Massassi, who answered more to force than words. Korsin had a cunning side, exemplified by his quick thinking during his duel with Devore, and his devious use of his daughter Nida to surprise and defeat Jariad and Seelah during their revolt. Adept at putting on a comforting exterior, Korsin was easily able to inspire the complete devotion of the Keshiri populace with his charismatic public persona, along with his Force abilities.

In regards to his children, Korsin was greatly unnerved by how much his stepson Jariad took after his father Devore—Korsin recognized many of Devore's self-absorbed traits in Jariad, and although he tried to provide guidance to the youth, he did not trust Jariad. Instead, Korsin saw his daughter Nida as the future of the Lost Tribe, and he trained her accordingly. Korsin possessed a ruddy, squat frame, much like his father, with pale skin, reddish-brown eyes, and dark hair which later turned gray.

Yaru Korsin was an extremely capable starship captain, building over a twenty-year career a reputation as one of the most reliable officers in the Sith navy. A capable leader, he was adept at keeping control in chaotic situations and ensuring the success of his mission. Owing to his Tapani ancestors' intermingling with Dark Jedi, Korsin was a Force-sensitive, skilled in the dark side of the Force. A formidable lightsaber wielder, in battle Korsin blended his dueling skills with use of Force techniques such as telekinesis. Korsin's skill with telekinesis was such that he was able to levitate a full-grown Keshiri, and Force Jump to great heights. Korsin could sense the emotions of those around him, and he often used telepathy to communicate when words would not suffice or were not appropriate. Although skilled in Sith magic, he was not as well-versed in Force healing, as shown by his failed attempt to save the life of Adari Vaal's mortally wounded son Finn. Even as he grew into old age, Korsin remained formidable in a fight, and he could hold his own against groups of warriors much younger than himself.

Yaru Korsin first appeared in John Jackson Miller's 2009 eBook Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice, the first in the nine-part Lost Tribe of the Sith series. Korsin went on to be a main character in the next three installments of the series, Skyborn, Paragon, and Savior, wherein he was killed. In between, Korsin made a brief appearance in Paul S. Kemp's 2010 novel Crosscurrent, which sets up the events of the Lost Tribe of the Sith series. After his death in Savior, Korsin was mentioned in three subsequent installments, making a holographic appearance in Pantheon. Korsin was also mentioned in Christie Golden's 2009 novel Fate of the Jedi: Omen, which heavily features the Lost Tribe started by Korsin. The first picture of Korsin was included in the 2012 reference book, The Essential Reader's Companion.

• The Essential Reader's Companion