Great Crisis

The Time of the Rot, a prolonged era of internal conflict and instability on Kesh's Keshtah Minor continent, served as the foundation for the Great Crisis. This period of turmoil, lasting 960 years, was triggered by the death of the ruling Grand Lord Lillia Venn during the Night of the Upside-Down Meteor in 3960 BBY. For centuries afterward, rival Sith factions engaged in power struggles for control of the Sith Tribe that governed Keshtah Minor, one of Kesh's two primary continents. This protracted conflict devastated much of Keshtah Minor, leading to a significant decline in its infrastructure and buildings. By the year 3000 BBY, the Tribe had splintered into over twenty competing factions, and its population had dwindled to a few thousand, posing a threat to its very survival.

The Circle Eternal in Tahv, the Sith capital, served as the only place and time where the various Sith factions could peacefully convene, specifically during the observance of Testament Day. Testament Day was a commemoration of the death of Yaru Korsin, the Tribe's founder, and the occasion when his testament was read aloud to the Sith Tribe. This event occurred every twenty-five years. In 3000 BBY, the historian and Caretaker Varner Hilts was entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding the holocron containing Korsin's Testament.

Twelve days before the Testament Day of that year, the Sisters of Seelah, a Sith faction devoted to Yaru Korsin's estranged wife Seelah Korsin, occupied the Kesh capitol building. They attempted to coerce Hilts into producing a fabricated Testament that would favor Seelah. Hilts resisted their demands and revealed that the Testament was actually a holocron recording of Yaru himself. The Sisters' presence eventually drew the attention of several rival Sith factions, including Force 57, the Korsinite League, and the Golden Destiny. Eight days before Testament Day, these factions launched an attack and engaged the Sisters within the Circle Eternal's atrium.

Hilts managed to restore peace among these factions by offering to read the Testament of Yaru Korsin. Using calculations of the city's Sandpipe provided by his Keshiri assistant Jaye Vuhld, Hilts revealed that the Keshiri calendar was actually eight days behind the Galactic Standard Calendar. Consequently, Hilts was legally obligated to convene the Pantheon's Peace and commence the reading of Korsin's testament. However, Yaru Korsin's Testament failed to offer any solutions to the ongoing conflict between the Sith. During an adjustment of the holocron, Hilts discovered that it had been recorded over an earlier transmission.

The Sith leaders soon discovered that their ancestors were not "great conquerors" but were, in fact, lowly slaves, miners, and soldiers serving the ancient Sith Lord Naga Sadow. The Tribe's arrival on Kesh was not voluntary; they had become stranded during a mission to deliver Lignan crystals to Sadow's forces during the Great Hyperspace War. This revelation of the Tribe's "inglorious past" deeply disturbed the various Sith attendees. In an attempt to conceal their "inglorious past," Iliana destroyed the holocron with her lightsaber.

Despite the efforts of the Sith leaders to conceal their true origins, news of the recent Pantheon reached their Human supporters within the Lost Tribe. Unable to reconcile with the "inglorious history" of their ancestry, the Sith turned on each other, engaging in violence against anyone in their path. The various Sith factions clashed with each other before turning on themselves. During the Great Crisis, Iliana Merko severed the left hand of Korsin Bentado, the leader of the Korsinite League, with her Sith lightsaber. She eventually fled on her uvak to the Kesh Sith Temple to seek refuge from the other Sith factions. Within eight days, numerous cities on Keshtah Minor had been reduced to ashes.

Many Keshiri perished during the fighting. Rioters also destroyed the Circle Eternal's historical archives and the Sandpipe, an ancient device used to record and measure time on Kesh. While many other Sith had lost all hope of saving the Tribe from destruction, Varner Hilts recalled that Yaru Korsin's Testament had mentioned that the late Grand Lord had kept some secrets from his people and that his descendants should seek the "true power" behind his throne should "disaster befall" the Tribe. Korsin's throne was located aboard the Omen, the ancient Sith starship that had brought the ancestors of the Lost Tribe to Kesh. The Omen was buried beneath a mountainside Sith temple.

Hilts and his trusted Keshiri assistant Jaye Vuhld then journeyed to the Sith Temple in search of this secret, hoping it would save the Tribe. No one had visited the Sith Temple for centuries, ever since the Tribe's founder Yaru Korsin's daughter Nida Korsin had ordered the Tribe to evacuate the Temple in 4975 BBY. After overcoming numerous challenges navigating the difficult terrain, Hilts and Jaye managed to enter the Temple's compound. Shortly thereafter, they encountered Iliana and persuaded her to join their quest.

The three explorers eventually reached the derelict Omen, the ancient starship that had transported the ancestors of the Lost Tribe to Kesh. The Omen was buried beneath the Keshiri Sith Temple. However, the explorers discovered that Korsin's command throne had been removed from the ship's bridge. Hilts and his companions also encountered other Sith, including Korsin Bentado, Edell Vrai, and Neera. These Sith, who had been bitter rivals during the Time of the Rot, had united after much bloodshed to destroy the Omen in order to eliminate the Tribe's "inglorious history."

Hilts and his companions eventually reached the cupola above the Sith Temple's roof, where they discovered Korsin's throne. They found that the cupola's ceiling was a planetarium and also discovered a piece of transparent film containing an old cant in the Tapani language. This document was a message from Yaru Korsin's mother Takara Korsin to her son prior to his fateful mission to Phaegon III. She predicted that Korsin's descendants would one day rule over a great people and be free of the Red Sith. However, Hilts argued that this text was not actually Korsin's secret and contended that the planetarium was intended to mislead future explorers into thinking that Korsin had intended the Tribe to return to the stars.

Using their knowledge of the Lost Tribe's history, Hilts and Jaye reasoned that the dying Korsin had recorded his final Testament in a chamber beneath the Sith Temple. Hilts and his companions eventually reached the chamber and discovered both Korsin's throne and a map room. The other Sith eventually discovered their presence and killed Jaye. Before they could kill the others, Hilts used the Force to remove the blank slates covering the walls and revealed a large map showing the existence of a second continent beyond Keshtah Minor. This unknown continent was several times the size of Keshtah and was separated by a vast ocean. Ultimately, Hilts was able to use the discovery of 'Keshtah Major' to unite the Tribe and end the centuries-long infighting that had nearly destroyed them. In recognition of his leadership, the other Sith leaders elected Hilts as Grand Lord, and Iliana became his Grand Consort.

In the years that followed, the Great Crisis faded into memory. Under the leadership of Grand Lord Hilts, the Sith Tribe dedicated itself to rebuilding Keshtah Minor and finding a way to reach Keshtah Major. As part of the Hilts Restoration, Hilts also permitted Force-sensitive members of the Keshiri, a purple-skinned humanoid species native to Kesh, to join the Lost Tribe as Sith Tyros and Sith Sabers. For the next twenty-five years, the Tribe focused on researching methods to cross the ocean and reach Keshtah Major. Hilt's wife Iliana was placed in charge of the Tribe's military forces, while the High Lord Korsin Bentado was tasked with developing technology that would enable the Sith to travel safely to that continent.

Following the failure of long-distance uvak reconnaissance flights and attempts to develop a fleet of wooden sailing ships due to the poor quality of Keshtah's timber, Vrai succeeded in developing airships in 2975 BBY. These airships were kept aloft by glass vessels containing methane and hydrogen, which were protected by fabric-covered gondolas. The Tribe's airships also relied on uvaks to guide the vessel through the jetstream. That year, Vrai led a reconnaissance mission to Keshtah Major, known to its locals as Alanciar, to gather intelligence on its society and military capabilities. However, his three airships were shot down by the Alanciari military.

Vrai and several other Sith survived and managed to capture two Alanciari locals: the soldier Jogan Halder and his lover Quarra Thayn. Vrai later coerced Thayn into serving as a guide for a reconnaissance mission into Alanciar's interior. Through Thayn, Vrai learnt that the Alanciari Keshiri were a militaristic society which had prepared for a Sith invasion for millennia. Two millennia ago, the Keshiri woman Adari Vaal had escaped from Keshtah with three-hundred Keshiri followers following a failed attempt to drive out the Tribe. Vaal became the founder of the Alanciari Keshiri civilization which was built upon defending their society from the Sith.

Despite the failure of Vrai's mission, his rival High Lord Korsin Bentado invaded Keshtah Major with the Ebon Fleet, which consisted of sixty airships. As before, the Sith forces were decimated by the Alanciari military. However, Bentado and several Sith warriors survived. These infiltrated the Alanciari capital of Sus'mintri and slew the entire War Cabinet, Alanciar's military government. Bentado then rebelled against Grand Lord Hilts and attempted to destroy Hilts' approaching airship Good Omen. He planned to create a second Tribe on Alanciar using its industrial base. However, he was thwarted by Vrai, Thayn, and his own Keshiri servant Squab, who personally killed Bentado.

Following Hilts' arrival in Sus'mintri, the Alanciari submitted to Sith rule after Halder convinced them that the Sith Tribe did not actually pose a threat to Alanciar. Instead, he claimed that they were the legendary Protectors, deities in Keshiri religion, and that the malevolent Destructors had been responsible for killing Alanciar's War Cabinet. He claimed that Vrai's forces had been pursuing the "Destructors" and their leader Bentado. Following the conquest of Alanciar, the Tribe was able to put the legacy of the Great Crisis and the Time of the Rot behind them. They then embarked on a mission to explore and conquer the rest of the planet Kesh. By 44 ABY, the Lost Tribe of Sith had realized their goal of returning to the galaxy.