Invasion of Ziost

The military campaign known as the Invasion of Ziost occurred in 3636 BBY during the Galactic War. This conflict pitted the Galactic Republic against the reconstituted Sith Empire. The Sith Emperor Vitiate seized complete control of the planet Ziost. Despite efforts by both the Republic and the Empire to dislodge him, Vitiate unleashed a devastating cataclysm. Drawing power from Ziost's inhabitants via a ritual rooted in Sith magic, Vitiate obliterated all life on the planet, mirroring his actions on his home world of Nathema over a thousand years prior.

Following his reawakening on the moon Yavin 4, Vitiate gradually dominated the population of Ziost, manipulating them into mutual slaughter to bolster his own power. Agent Theron Shan of the Republic Strategic Information Service dispatched the Sixth Line, a clandestine Jedi team, to investigate. However, they too fell under Vitiate's sway. As the situation deteriorated, Supreme Chancellor Leontyne Saresh, disregarding warnings from Shan and her agent Rane Kovach, deployed the Republic Military under the guise of "humanitarian reasons" to exploit the Empire's perceived weakness by invading the planet. Saresh's forces, like the Imperials before them, succumbed to Vitiate's control, augmenting his possessed army. Shan and Sith Intelligence Minister Lana Beniko collaborated to liberate Ziost's inhabitants using a potent electrostatic gun within the city of New Adasta. These efforts proved only temporarily effective; only a small fraction of the population was evacuated before Vitiate unleashed a wave of death energy across the planet. This wave transformed all living organisms into ash, leaving behind a desolate, gray and brown landscape haunted by monstrous Sithspawn known as Monoliths that he had brought into being.