Dreypa's rebellion

History

Background

In the aftermath of the Battle of Corbos in 6900 BBY, which concluded the Hundred-Year Darkness, the surviving Dark Jedi were banished to the Stygian Caldera. There, they subdued the Red Sith species on Korriban and established a new Sith civilization. While most Dark Jedi were content with remaining on Korriban, a faction of dissenters, headed by Sith Lord Remulus Dreypa, ventured beyond the Stygian Caldera aboard a starship. Upon their departure, they were ambushed by a contingent of Jedi veterans from Corbos, who pursued them across the galaxy. Ultimately, their chase culminated on Kesh, a primitive planet inhabited by the purple-skinned Keshiri species. The ensuing conflict between the Dark Jedi and Jedi triggered the Great Calamity, resulting in widespread devastation across much of Keshtah Minor.

Eventually, the combatants grew weary of the conflict and opted for peace. As a gesture of reconciliation, the Dark Jedi stripped Dreypa of his weapons and confined him within a stasis casket. Subsequently, the Force-users migrated to the South Pole region of Kesh, where they founded a new Force-sensitive community known as the Doomed. From their settlement, they maintained a protective watch over the Keshiri and sought to achieve balance in the Force. In 5000 BBY, a group of Human offworlders from the Sith Empire, known as the Lost Tribe, established themselves as the dominant political and religious power on Keshtah Minor.

By the year 2974 BBY, the Lost Tribe, under the leadership of the reformist Grand Lord Varner Hilts, had annexed the neighboring continent of Alanciar. Utilizing the Alanciari Keshiri's wooden naval forces, Hilts initiated an ambitious endeavor to explore the remainder of Kesh. In that year, he dispatched the Sith outcast Parlan Spinner to serve as a sailor aboard the Southern Star, a vessel captained by the Keshiri mariner Chegg. Captain Chegg's mission was to explore the South Pole. Unbeknownst to Hilts, his daughter Takara Hilts had also secretly boarded the Southern Star. Shortly after landing on the frozen shores of Eshkrene, the Sith and Keshiri expedition was ambushed by the Doomed, who killed Captain Chegg and several members of his crew. They then took the two Sith and the remaining Keshiri crew as prisoners.

First Contact

Kaliska, the S'kytri leader of the Doomed, shared the history of her people with the Sith captives, Spinner and Takara. She also mentioned how the Force-sensitive ancestors of the Doomed had sealed away their "greatest weapon" within a stasis casket. When Spinner expressed his interest in this "great weapon", Kaliska had him imprisoned alongside the rest of the Keshiri crew. Meanwhile, Kaliska guided Takara on a tour of the Eshkrene stables and instructed her in the Force power of animal friendship. However, Spinner and the Keshiri crew managed to escape and seize the "Great Weapon." They then sailed back to Keshtah Minor aboard the Southern Star.

Afraid of the danger of the "Great Weapon", Kaliska and Takara pursued Spinner and his followers and landed on the ship's deck. However, Spinner broke open the casket with a hammer and freed the ancient Sith Lord Remulus Dreypa. The opportunistic Spinner and his crew swiftly aligned themselves with Dreypa, while Takara and Kaliska were imprisoned below deck. The Southern Star then sailed back to Keshtah Minor, landing at the port of Eorm, Spinner's hometown. During a brief skirmish, Lord Dreypa employed his dark side abilities to assassinate the tyrannical Lord Galathos and the local Sith garrison. Dreypa's demonstration of Dark Side powers impressed the local inhabitants, who rallied behind the Sith Lord. Despite his aspirations of returning to the stars, Dreypa reluctantly agreed to lead a rebellion against the Lost Tribe, with Spinner serving as his lieutenant. However, Takara and Kaliska managed to break free from their captors and return to Eshkrene, bringing the entire town's herd of uvaks, winged reptilian beasts, with them.

Sith versus Sith

Under the joint command of Remulus Dreypa and his lieutenant Parlan Spinner, the hastily assembled rebel army marched into the Marisota Floodplain and engaged the Lost Tribe's forces. The Lost Tribe's military was under the command of Grand Consort Iliana Hilts, the wife of Grand Lord Hilts and a seasoned military leader. Despite inflicting substantial losses on the Tribe's infantry, the rebels were dispersed by the Tribe's aerial squadron, the Skyborn Rangers, warriors who rode the winged reptilian uvaks. Faced with mounting casualties, Dreypa and Spinner ordered a retreat, and their forces fled to Sessal Spire, a volcanic caldera situated on a narrow, rocky peninsula overlooking the Southern Ocean. The Grand Consort initially dismissed Dreypa's retreat as a strategic blunder, given the peninsula's lack of escape routes.

Iliana's Sith forces caught up with Dreypa and Spinner, and attempted to execute them. However, Dreypa used his talisman to summon Leviathans from beneath the crater. Leviathans were massive Sithspawn created during the Hundred-Year Darkness that were capable of draining the life energies of sentient beings. Within minutes, Dreypa's Leviathans devoured friend and foe alike. At that point, Kaliska and the Doomed attacked Dreypa and his Leviathans. During the fighting, Takara attacked Spinner, whom she intended to settle scores with. However, their duel was interrupted when Takara's mother Iliana was attacked by one of the Leviathans. In a rare selfless moment, Spinner killed the beast and saved Iliana's life, thus gaining his former enemy's trust.

Spinner and Takara escaped the fighting with the debilitated Iliana, riding on an uvak. They were rejoined by Kaliska who revealed that the Jedi ancestors of the Doomed had hidden a starship beneath the Sith capital Tahv. Aware of Dreypa's ambitions of reaching the stars, Kaliska convinced Spinner and Takara to destroy the ship. However, Dreypa and his Leviathans quickly caught up with them, having devoured all of their opponents including the Doomed forces. Spinner and Iliana managed to escape but Kaliska was captured and killed by one of Dreypa's Leviathans. In an attempt to delay Dreypa, Takara took the Dark Jedi on a duel. However, she was unable to match the Sith Lord's mastery of the Dark Side and was taken captive.

Last Stand at Tahv

In the meantime, Spinner and Iliana made their way back to Tahv. The weakened Iliana was reunited with her elderly husband, Varner. However, Spinner went back on his promise to obliterate the Last Hope and instead took it for a joyride above Kesh's atmosphere, in an attempt to realize his ancestor Ermon Parrah's dream of spinning a cord that would reach the stars. Before Spinner could explore the wider galaxy, Dreypa contacted him and issued an ultimatum. Aware of Spinner's newfound affection for Takara, he threatened to kill her unless Spinner surrendered the Last Hope to him. Dreypa and his Leviathans then devastated Tahv, while Iliana's forces prepared for a final stand. Spinner deployed the Last Hope's turbolaser cannons to eliminate the majority of the Leviathans, shifting the battle's momentum in favor of the Lost Tribe.

Concurrently, Takara managed to free herself from the last remaining Leviathan and slay the creature using Force lightning. Amidst the ensuing chaos, she and Dreypa ended up on the hull of the Last Hope. Spinner piloted the starship to the shores of the Southern Ocean, where he "handed" the vessel over to Dreypa, before leaping into the sea with Takara. Dreypa claimed ownership of the vessel, only to discover that Spinner had programmed its engines for a one-way collision course with Sessal Spire. Dreypa perished in the resulting explosion, effectively ending the Sith Lord's threat to the Lost Tribe. Following Dreypa's defeat, the Sith commenced the reconstruction of Tahv, and the former outcast Spinner was hailed as a hero of the Tribe. Grand Lord Varner Hilts appointed the young man as one of his Hands, and Spinner also entered into a romantic relationship with his former adversary, Takara.

Legacy

Dreypa's insurrection marked the end of the last remaining menace to the Lost Tribe's rule over Kesh. The destruction of the hyperspace-capable Jedi vessel Last Hope postponed the Tribe's return to the wider galaxy for an additional three millennia. For Grand Lord Hilts, Spinner and Hilt's contact with the Doomed validated his theory that the Lost Tribe were not the first offworlders to discover Kesh. He concluded that the ancient Keshiri legends about the Great Cataclysm, the Protectors, and the Destructors were based on their recollections of the fighting between the Jedi and Dark Jedi. He speculated that if more Protectors and Destructors still existed in the galaxy, the Tribe would be no match for them.

Behind the scenes

Dreypa's rebellion was first depicted in the Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith comic series by John Jackson Miller, which debuted on August 8, 2012. This five-issue comic series ran until December 12, 2012. The scenes pertaining to that conflict were illustrated by Andrea Mutti, inked by Pierluigi Baldassini, and colored by Michael Atiyeh. According to Miller's production notes on his website Faraway Press, Dreypa's rebellion served as a showdown between the "Old School" Sith and the Lost Tribe and as a means of linking the Lost Tribe of the Sith comics with the_Star Wars: Vector_ comics. Furthermore, Miller also intended to utilize the conflict to highlight the contrast between the "lawfully-evil" Lost Tribe and the "chaotic-evil" Remulus Dreypa. He also viewed the Leviathans as a Force-multiplier for Dreypa's powers and as a story device for telling Dreypa where the Doomed's starship was hidden.