During the Great Galactic War, Exal Kressh, who was a Sith apprentice, perpetrated a massacre on the planet of Lenico IV. As the apprentice to the Sith Emperor, Kressh faithfully served her Sith Master for numerous years. However, she was largely ignorant of the true intentions behind the missions assigned to her by the Emperor. This changed early in the Great War, around 3678 BBY, when her Master instructed her to find and investigate a tribe of shamanistic Ortolans located on the nearly barren Outer Rim Territories planet of Lenico IV.
Upon locating the primitive tribe, Kressh discovered their history and the Force rituals they employed to sustain the lives of their tribal elders and shamans. Through their teachings, the young Sith came to understand that the Emperor intended to replicate these rituals to preserve his own life by transplanting his consciousness into multiple new bodies. Until that point, Kressh was unaware that she was already partially controlled by the Emperor in this way. When the Dark Lord had extracted all the necessary information from the Ortolans to finalize his plans, he directed his apprentice to slaughter the tribe. Kressh obeyed the Emperor's command, but after her experience on Lenico IV, she resolved to rebel against her Master to break his control over her and prevent him from creating a new generation of host bodies.
The ambitions of the Dark Lord of the Sith, widely known as the Sith Emperor, were the reason for the massacre that took place on the Outer Rim Territories world of Lenico IV. The Emperor, formerly known as the Sith Lord Vitiate, had guided his people in a significant exodus at the conclusion of the Great Hyperspace War in 5000 BBY. This was done to protect what remained of the ancient Sith Empire and to rebuild the Sith Order as the core of a new Imperial society. Skilled in the arts of Sith magic, the Emperor successfully oversaw the reconstruction of the Sith Empire. However, he soon relinquished direct control over the civilization and instead focused his efforts on the pursuit of immortality and power. He had already extended his life artificially by sapping the Force from the planet Nathema. Despite this, the Emperor aimed to achieve indefinite life and operate with omnipotence, leading him to seek out knowledge and magic across the galaxy to achieve his objective.
After ruling his Empire for over a thousand years, the Sith Emperor was attacked in his Citadel on Dromund Kaas by the Jedi Masters Revan and Meetra Surik. Although he survived the assassination attempt, the near-success of the Jedi's attack unsettled the Emperor. He then initiated several secret operations to project his influence throughout the galaxy and safeguard against future attacks. He began utilizing individuals known as his Wrath, Voice, and Hands to amplify his power. He also sought to create a new group of servants who would completely embody his will when needed. To that end, he started gathering children from within the Empire's territory and imbuing them with his power. The first of these subjects was Exal Kressh, his own young Sith apprentice, whom he worked to empty and fill with his own strength. Unbeknownst to Kressh, the Emperor was using her as an extension of his will, enabling him to enter her mind, perceive her thoughts, and influence them. His control over his young apprentice grew as she completed missions on his behalf, seeking out ritualistic knowledge and ancient holocrons that would aid him in completing his plans.
In 3681 BBY, the Sith Empire, under the Emperor's direction, emerged from its hidden domain in the Unknown Regions and initiated the Great Galactic War to avenge themselves against the Galactic Republic and Jedi Order that had defeated them in the Great Hyperspace War many years prior. Kressh, still serving as the Emperor's apprentice, now traveled across even greater distances of space to fulfill her Master's commands. Approximately three years into the galactic conflict, around 3678 BBY, the Emperor ordered Kressh to travel to Lenico IV in the Cademimu sector to locate a tribe of Ortolan shamans on the planet's desolate Ash Plains. Despite not knowing the reason for her mission, the young Sith obeyed and journeyed to the world.
On Lenico IV, Kressh located the primitive Ortolan tribe residing in a humble village and listened to their stories and histories. She learned about their tribal legends, which recounted tales of patriarchs and shamans who could use arcane rituals to continue living through their descendants. These lessons helped Kressh realize the Emperor's plans for her and others: to exploit them as mere vessels to achieve immortality and unlimited power. The Emperor, still capable of invading his apprentice's mind, observed the events on Lenico IV through her eyes and learned the Ortolans' secrets. Subsequently, he instructed Kressh to kill the diminutive aliens. The Sith apprentice complied, easily slaughtering the Ortolans with her lightsaber and her command of Force lightning. The small village was reduced to ruins during the massacre and was later engulfed by the shifting sands of the Ash Plains.
Now aware of the Ortolan legends, the Emperor proceeded with his efforts to create legions of his "Children" on the Sith holy planet of Korriban. Deep within the Sith academy there, the Dark Lord gathered infants and prepared to transform them into extensions of himself through Sith Magic and the Ortolans' rituals. Meanwhile, Kressh resumed her duties as the Emperor's apprentice but was deeply affected by her experiences on Lenico IV. She developed a hatred for her Master for using her as a puppet and resolved to abandon him and oppose his schemes. Consequently, approximately fifty-two days before the Empire's victory in the Invasion of Begeren, the young Sith disappeared in the Kathol Rift and began a journey toward Galactic Republic territory. Upon arrival, she secretly began leaking confidential Imperial strategy and information to Republic agents in the Strategic Information Service, hoping to undermine the Sith war effort and thwart the Emperor's plans to complete the creation of his Children.
Although the Republic and Jedi Order benefited from Kressh's betrayal, the Jedi High Council ordered that the mysterious Sith woman be found and taken into custody to verify the validity of her claims. Simultaneously, the Sith Emperor and his Dark Council decreed that Kressh be located and executed for her crimes against the Empire. During the search for the young Sith, she attempted to evade the Emperor's search teams by returning to Lenico IV. She was found there but managed to escape, and her pursuer, the Sith apprentice Teneb Kel, was temporarily stranded on the planet. There, he discovered rudimentary cave paintings depicting the massacre and even experienced a vision through the Force, in which Kressh herself confessed to the slaughter. Although Kressh continued to elude her pursuers across the Outer Rim Territories, she was ultimately defeated, and her hopes of destroying the Emperor's Children were shattered.
The massacre on Lenico IV was initially mentioned in The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire Act 2: The Broken World, the second installment of the Blood of the Empire comic story arc. The event was depicted in a single-panel image of a cave painting on Lenico IV and was later explained by an apparition of Exal Kressh. While The Broken World was originally released in 2010 as a web-exclusive comic, it was later re-released in the same year as The Old Republic 5: Blood of the Empire, Part 2.