Escape from Eshkrene

Following the capture of Alanciar in 2975 BBY, the Sith Tribe gained control of a continent abundant in timber resources. The Alanciari possessed a seafaring tradition and were skilled in constructing sizable wooden sailing vessels capable of extended voyages. Grand Lord Varner Hilts proposed the theory that the Sith Tribe were not the initial off-worlders to arrive on Kesh, given the ease with which the native Keshiri accepted them. Hilts sought to uncover the origins of the legends surrounding the Protectors and the Destructors, powerful deities in Keshiri mythology. He dispatched the Southern Star, an Alanciari ship, under the command of captain Chegg, an Alanciari, to explore Eshkrene, the planet's southernmost polar continent. The crew included Parlan Spinner, a Sith outcast who had been granted a "second chance" after a failed assassination attempt on Varner Hilts, and Takara Hilts, Hilts' daughter, who had secretly boarded the ship.

Spinner and Hilts grew weary of the difficult working conditions on the Southern Star, where the Alanciari crew treated them as "slaves." After the Alanciari ship made landfall on the frozen coast of Eshkrene, the two Sith attempted to sneak back onto the ship, seize it, and sail to Alanciar. However, Chegg detected them and ordered his crew to execute the slaves for mutiny. The Alanciari pursued the two Sith, who eventually stumbled at the base of a hill. Chegg and his crew apprehended them and attempted to execute the two Humans. However, arrows fired by members of the Doomed killed their Alanciari pursuers. The Doomed were the descendants of Force-sensitive Jedi and Dark Jedi who had been marooned on Kesh following the Hundred-Year Darkness. Subsequently, the Doomed took the two Sith, the remaining Sith crew, and their ship into custody.

The Keshiri crew were incarcerated in an undisclosed building within the City of the Doomed. Meanwhile, Spinner and Takara were taken by their Doomed captors to the Hall of Regret, the Doomed's primary place of worship. During the journey, Spinner and Takara attempted to escape but were restrained by the Doomed. Their leader, a S'kytri woman named Kaliska, explained that she could not permit the Keshiri explorers to discover Eshkrene but could not stand idly by and allow harm to come to Takara and her "Protector" Spinner. During their time in the Hall of Regret, Kaliska shared the history and origins of the Doomed with the two Sith visitors.

The Doomed were the descendants of Dark Jedi and Jedi who had become stranded on Kesh following the Hundred-Year Darkness. After the Battle of Corbos, several Dark Jedi had been exiled to the Stygian Caldera, where they established the first Sith Empire. However, a group of Dark Jedi sought to return to the wider galaxy and exact revenge on the Jedi and the Galactic Republic that had banished them. These Dark Jedi encountered a Jedi patrol guarding the Stygian Caldera. Many of these Jedi were Corbos veterans and were also eager for revenge. The Jedi pursued the Dark Jedi's starship to Kesh. The Jedi were unable to request assistance because the planet's unusual magnetic field interfered with their signals.

The Dark Jedi and their Jedi pursuers engaged in a significant battle on Kesh, which later Keshiri generations would remember as the Great Calamity. The Dark Jedi unleashed their Leviathans, monstrous "great weapons" that scarred the planet's surface. This became the basis for the Keshiri legends about the Protectors and Destructors. This event occurred approximately two thousand years before the Lost Tribe of Sith arrived on Kesh in 5000 BBY. Kesh was nearly destroyed during this conflict, but both sides, including the Dark Jedi, began to tire of the destruction they had caused. Ultimately, the two sides agreed to make peace, and the Dark Jedi agreed to seal away their "greatest weapon." Consequently, the "great atonement" commenced, and the two former enemies migrated to Eshkrene.

There, at Kesh's South Pole, the two groups worked towards achieving "true neutrality" in the Force. Over time, this off-world community became known as the Doomed. They comprised individuals from various species, including S'kytri, Wookiees, Chagrians, Ithorians, Rodians, Twi'leks, and Weequays. For the subsequent four millennia, they maintained a vigilant watch over the Keshiri and the Lost Tribe. They also guarded their "great weapon" from anyone who might use it to threaten the Keshiri. The Doomed considered the Force a curse, and no member of the community was permitted to leave Kesh as long as anyone among them possessed the ability to use it.

While Takara was able to understand and empathize with the Doomed, Spinner was impudent and disrespectful towards his hosts. He sat on their sacred reliquary and expressed his desire to see the "great weapon" for himself. In response, Kaliska ordered the Doomed to imprison him with the sailing ship's crew while they determined their course of action. While the explorers could never return home, they could not join them since they could not use the Force. She feared that she may have to treat them like any other natural predators. Meanwhile, Takara expressed her desire to stay and learn more about the Doomed. Kaliska agreed and took her on a tour of Eshkrene's "greatest treasure," which turned out to be their stables and farm animals.

Later, Parlan Spinner managed to escape from his prison and kill the three Doomed sentries with his shikkar glass blade. He had fashioned the blade from fragments of a broken lantern. He then stole the fallen sentries' metal blades and proceeded towards the city's tower, which he deduced was where the "great weapon" was stored. The other Doomed did not notice Spinner's escape because the city was engrossed in morning meditation. Spinner used his Force abilities to leap over the buildings and then used his metal knives to ascend the tower. He managed to enter the top chamber through a triangular window and wounded the guards with his metal knives. The guards had been looking away from the window and were caught by surprise.

Upon entering the chamber, Spinner observed that the "great weapon" was sealed within a black oubliette, a stasis casket where beings were kept in suspended animation. Because the oubliette was too heavy for him to carry alone, he decided to free the rest of the Keshiri crew from the Southern Star. The Weequay guard overheard Spinner talking and begged him not to open the oubliette. Spinner responded that he was not going to waste it on the "Doomed" but was going to use it to settle scores with people back home in Keshtah Minor. Spinner returned with the Keshiri crew, and they lowered the weapon from the tower onto a sledge. They then regained control of the Southern Star and overpowered the token Doomed force guarding the ship.

By the time that the Doomed discovered that their prisoners had escaped with the "great weapon," the Southern Star was already sailing into the open seas. The Doomed sounded an alarm, and Kaliska and Takara were forced to cut short their tour of the Doomed's stables. Based on the footsteps outside the tower, the sentries deduced that the crew had lowered the "weapon" from the tower on a sledge and escaped while the city was still in morning meditation. Kaliska regretted not burning the Keshiri ship immediately and ordered all warriors to assemble at the harbor. Takara managed to convince Kaliska to allow her to reason with Spinner. The winged Kaliska then flew with Takara in pursuit of the Southern Star.

They eventually caught up with the ship and landed on its deck. Takara attempted to reason with Spinner, saying that the "great weapon" was sealed for a reason. However, Spinner ignored her and stated that he was no longer a slave of the Tribe. He also boasted that there was no weapon he could not use and expressed his interest in seeing what the "great Jedi" were so afraid of. Spinner smashed the oubliette's surface with a hammer, which triggered a small explosion that disabled the oubliette. This explosion released clouds of vapor. The "great weapon" turned out to be the ancient Sith Lord Remulus Dreypa, a Corbos veteran who had helped form the Sith Order. Spinner and the Keshiri crew immediately allied themselves with Dreypa, while Takara and Kaliska were imprisoned below deck.

After several days at sea, the Southern Star made its way to the port of Eorm, situated on the southern part of Keshtah Minor. Lord Dreypa appointed Spinner as his de facto lieutenant, who updated him on the events that had unfolded on Kesh over the past four millennia. While Dreypa was determined to return to the stars and exact revenge against the Jedi and the Republic, he agreed to assist Spinner in leading a slave rebellion against the Lost Tribe of Sith, whom he criticized for deviating from the true Sith path. Dreypa and Spinner invaded Eorm and killed the local Sith Lord Galathos. Following this, they rallied the local slaves to their cause and began preparations to march on Tahv.

While Dreypa and Spinner had intended to use the Sith princess Takara Hilts as leverage with the Tribe, she managed to escape with Kaliska. The two women then returned to Eshkrene with Eorm's entire herd of uvaks, winged reptilian beasts of burden. They then transported the Doomed across the Southern Ocean to Keshtah Minor to prevent Dreypa from returning to the stars. Ultimately, Dreypa was defeated and killed following a brief but bloody rebellion that devastated parts of Keshtah Minor, including the Tribe's capital of Tahv in the interior.

While not explicitly named, the Escape from Eshkrene was a key element in John Jackson Miller's Lost Tribe of the Sith—Spiral 2. This was the second issue of the Spiral comic series, and was released on September 12, 2012.