The capital city of Tahv, situated on the planet Kesh, met its end in 44 ABY. Abeloth, an entity steeped in the dark side, was lured to the city with the promise of an alliance with the resident Sith Tribe. This pact was forged with the understanding that she would aid them in their ambition to eradicate the Jedi. However, Abeloth harbored her own aspirations of galactic dominance. She betrayed the Sith, launching a psychic assault against the Sith Grand Lord Darish Vol, leaving both weakened. Despite Vol's attempts to alert the city to Abeloth's perfidy, his warning came too late. Frustrated by her failure to kill Vol, Abeloth unleashed devastating waves of Force energy upon Tahv, reducing it to ruins and claiming countless lives. She then fled aboard the Sith Meditation Sphere Ship, as the remnants of the Tribe's armada departed from Tahv's spaceport. Sith Saber Gavar Khai gave the order for the Sith to defect and join Abeloth's fleet, but some remained loyal to the Tribe and opened fire on the deserters. Khai's frigate managed to fend off the Sith attack long enough to escape the planet. Abeloth then deployed her newly acquired forces to divert the Jedi, a strategy that proved successful, allowing her to rise to power on the galactic capital, Coruscant.
Around 43.5 ABY, the Lost Tribe of Sith became aware of the existence of the dark side entity known as Abeloth and engaged in a series of encounters with the New Jedi Order. The Sith sought to seize Abeloth for their own purposes and to annihilate the Jedi Order, but their initial endeavor was unsuccessful. Following a subsequent attempt that also yielded no results, Sith Saber Gavar Khai, who commanded the Sith armada during the operation, was approached by Abeloth with an offer of alliance, aimed at eliminating their shared adversary, the Jedi. Subsequently, Khai brought Abeloth to Kesh, the Sith homeworld, where the Sith Grand Lord Darish Vol convened with the Tribe's Circle of Lords and ultimately decided to accept Abeloth's proposition. Abeloth was then brought to the [planet](/article/planet-legends], and a celebration was held in her honor in the capital city of Tahv.
Vol, however, remained wary of Abeloth and secretly consulted with several members of the Circle of Lords after the festivities. Later that night, as Abeloth traversed the streets of Tahv, she manifested before Vol in his sleep—not in her Human guise, but in her authentic alien form—and attempted to kill him. She did this by ensnaring him with her tendrils and forcing them into his ears, mouth, and nose. She swiftly commenced consuming him, but her recklessness allowed Vol, in his desperation, to employ a Force technique to probe her mind. His exploration revealed that her paramount desire was to experience love. Abeloth, enraged by this intrusion, intensified her assault.
The Grand Lord, in turn, sought to inflict as much pain as possible upon Abeloth, repeatedly asserting that she would never be loved. Struck by these words, Abeloth's attack transformed into an attempt to escape the Grand Lord's torment. Vol attempted to kill her as she struggled to break free from his grasp, but she managed to repel him, awakening him and leaving him severely weakened and in immense pain. He received immediate attention from the Sith Saber Revar, and the Grand Lord instructed Revar to escort him to his ship, rouse the Sith Lords, and alert the Tribe's defenses to Abeloth's inevitable impending attack on Tahv.
In her agony and frustration at failing to eliminate Vol, Abeloth unleashed her wrath upon the city. Unable to maintain the illusion of her appearance, she reverted to her true form as she assaulted Tahv with surges of Force energy. Despite Vol's efforts to warn the city, the Sith were unprepared for her onslaught. Beings in her immediate vicinity were imploded by the assault, 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 Wave's hyperspace jump out of the system.
In the wake of Tahv's devastation, the Sith on Kesh abandoned the city, and Abeloth surmised that Grand Lord Vol might opt to ally with the Jedi once more in a renewed effort to defeat her. Upon convening at the rendezvous point, Abeloth engaged in a discussion with Khai regarding his loyalties and his daughter, Vestara's, actions. Vestara had been dispatched on a mission to spy on the Jedi by ingratiating herself with young Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker, but the Tribe had come to suspect that she might have betrayed the Sith. Abeloth compelled Khai to acknowledge the possibility of his daughter's treachery and proceeded to dismiss the notion of heeding a prophecy concerning a purported Jedi queen who might thwart the Sith from attaining power in the galaxy. Ultimately, she instructed Khai to lead any Jedi or Sith who attempted to pursue her astray.
Following this directive, 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 was first depicted in Christie Golden's Fate of the Jedi: Ascension (2011), the eighth installment in the nine-part Fate of the Jedi series. This event marked the devastation 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 penned by Golden.