Great Calamity

The origins of the Great Calamity can be found within the Hundred-Year Darkness, a period that signified a significant division between the traditional Jedi and the Dark Jedi who harnessed the power of the dark side. These Dark Jedi pioneered the field of Sith alchemy, creating various Sithspawn, notably the serpentine Leviathans, creatures that consumed the life force of other beings. After decades of warfare, the Dark Jedi suffered defeat at the Battle of Corbos around 6900 BBY, allowing the Jedi and the Galactic Republic to regain dominion over the galaxy.

Certain Dark Jedi, including Karness Muur, Remulus Dreypa, and XoXaan, managed to evade capture and sought refuge in the Stygian Caldera. Within this region, these Dark Jedi discovered the planets Korriban and Ziost, along with the indigenous red-skinned Sith species. Leveraging their Force abilities, the Dark Jedi asserted control over the Sith, establishing the initial Sith Empire. Through this fusion of cultures, the term Sith became synonymous with the Sith Order, a group wielding the dark side that would pose a significant threat to the Jedi and the Republic in the millennia ahead.

Following a period of consolidation, Dreypa and several other exiles resolved to depart the Stygian Caldera and exact vengeance upon the Jedi and the weakened Republic. Dreypa and his adherents procured a large starship and several Leviathan larvae from the laboratory of the Sith Lord Sorzus Syn on Korriban. Dreypa's vessel successfully navigated the treacherous Stygian Caldera. However, they encountered a group of Jedi veterans from Corbos who were still searching the galaxy for their Dark Jedi adversaries. After a pursuit across the galaxy, both the Jedi and Sith ships crash-landed on Kesh.

Upon landing on Kesh, the Jedi and Dark Jedi engaged in a fierce battle that engulfed the planet and endangered the native Keshiri, a humanoid species with purple skin. Kesh's unique magnetic field prevented either side from summoning reinforcements or leaving the planet. During the Great Calamity, Dreypa's Dark Jedi followers deployed several formidable weapons, including Leviathans, which ravaged much of Kesh's surface. Numerous Keshiri perished, and many settlements were destroyed during the conflict. Eventually, even Dreypa's Dark Jedi became disillusioned with the devastation they had inflicted on Kesh.

With their leader Remulus Dreypa unwilling to cease his quest for vengeance, his Dark Jedi followers confined him within an oubliette, where he remained in stasis for nearly four millennia. The two rival Force orders then forged a truce and initiated a process of reconciliation. Given Kesh's continued isolation from the rest of the galaxy, the Jedi and Dark Jedi agreed to withdraw from the Keshiri, whom they had endangered. One Jedi starship also survived the conflict. Since the survivors had agreed that no Force-sensitive individual could ever leave the planet, they concealed the vessel within the Keshiri burial cairns beneath the city of Tahv. Nevertheless, they preserved this knowledge in case they needed to depart Kesh.

These Force users eventually journeyed to the frozen continent of Eshkrene, located at Kesh's South Pole. On Eshkrene, these former Jedi and Dark Jedi established a new community known as the Doomed, who viewed Force-sensitivity as a burden rather than a privilege. They sought to attain genuine neutrality in the Force to balance both the light and dark sides. For four millennia, the Doomed and their descendants remained on Eshkrene. They would later employ ice images to monitor the Lost Tribe of Sith, another group of stranded Force users who arrived during the Great Hyperspace War.

The Great Calamity was not the sole instance of Sith Exiles attempting to threaten the Jedi and the Republic. Another conflict transpired between the Jedi and Sith before the Great Hyperspace War. However, in that instance, the Jedi emerged victorious and reported this news to the Jedi Council. The ancient Keshiri would recall the Great Calamity as a confrontation between two potent groups of god-like beings known as the Protectors and Destructors. This became intertwined with an earlier Keshiri myth concerning the Skyborn, a formidable race of god-like beings with sandy blooded, who had battled against the malevolent Otherside—entities embodying fire, rebellion, sickness, and death—during the Great Battle.

In 5000 BBY, another contingent of Sith exiles from the Sith Empire became stranded on Kesh after their ship Omen sustained damage during the Great Hyperspace War. The majority of these Sith exiles comprised enslaved Human miners and ship crew tasked with delivering a shipment of Lignan crystals to the Sith's Dark Lord Naga Sadow. By that era, the descendants of the Dark Jedi exiles had cohabited with the native Red Sith and established a substantial regional empire. However, contact with the Republic in 5000 BBY triggered the Great Hyperspace War, which culminated in the downfall of the Sith Empire.

Under the leadership of Yaru Korsin, the Human Sith assumed dominion over the Keshiri on Keshtah Minor by asserting that they were the legendary Protectors who had descended from the stars to visit their planet. These Sith became known as the Lost Tribe of Sith and governed Kesh for several millennia. Despite their self-imposed exile to Eshkrene, the Doomed continued to monitor developments in other regions of Kesh. By 2975 BBY, the Lost Tribe, under the leadership of Grand Lord Varner Hilts, had annexed Alanciar and initiated a maritime exploration program. This set in motion a chain of events in 2974 BBY that brought the Lost Tribe into contact with the Doomed.

The Great Calamity was initially conceived as a plot element by John Jackson Miller. It made its debut in Lost Tribe of the Sith—Spiral 2, the second installment of the Spiral comic series, which was released on September 12, 2012. The Great Calamity is occasionally referenced throughout the arc, which concluded on December 12, 2012.