Ravilan Wroth

During the Great Hyperspace War around 5000 BBY, Ravilan Wroth was a male member of the red-skinned Sith species from the Sith Empire. At this time, the Dark Lord of the Sith position was open after the late Marka Ragnos's death, which also brought the Sith Empire's Golden Age to an end. Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh, two rival Sith Lords, stepped up to take his place as Dark Lord. Wroth was a supporter of Sadow, whose expansionist goals were in opposition to Kressh's more conservative views. Kressh was happy with the Sith Empire's long-standing stability in its secluded area of space and wanted to keep it rich. Sadow managed to put himself in a position to win the title even though it was unclear who would become the Dark Lord of the Sith. As a result, the Empire split into factions under Kressh and Sadow, and the latter gathered his supporters and made plans to conquer the galaxy. Sadow invaded the Republic with a newly assembled invasion fleet.

During the Great Hyperspace War, the Sith dreadnaught Omen became Wroth's assigned vessel. His time serving on the Omen was significant; he participated in several missions alongside the captain, Yaru Korsin, and they even engaged in fencing matches on various occasions. The Omen's regular crew consisted of Human descendants tracing back to Tapani nobles who had been exiled. Over many years, Force-sensitivity had been introduced into their bloodlines through interbreeding with the Dark Jedi outcasts from the Hundred-Year Darkness, who themselves had intermixed with the Sith following 6900 BBY.

When Sadow dispatched the Omen, along with another ship, the Harbinger, commanded by Captain Saes Rrogon, to locate Lignan ore for the impending battle against the Jedi and the Republic at Kirrek, Wroth was still a member of the Omen's crew. The mining flotilla, including both the Omen and the Harbinger, gathered at Primus Goluud, where miners were enlisted to fulfill Sadow's objective. Massassi warriors were stationed as commandos on both vessels, and Wroth assumed the role of quartermaster for the Massassi aboard the Omen. The flotilla eventually discovered Lignan deposits on Phaegon III's largest moon and proceeded to mine the valuable ore. As the Harbinger and the Omen were preparing to depart, a Jedi starfighter attacked them. Prioritizing the protection of the Lignan crystals cargo, Wroth and the rest of the Omen's crew prepared to enter hyperspace. Before they could make the jump, the Harbinger began emitting erratic sensor readings and veered towards the Omen, setting a collision course. However, the Omen's navigator managed to activate the hyperdrive, sending the ship into hyperspace. Despite his efforts, the Omen sustained a glancing blow from the Harbinger, which slightly altered its trajectory. The combination of the warped physics of hyperspace and the collision upon entry inflicted critical damage to the vessel. Contact with a gravity well within hyperspace caused the shielding to fail and the bulkheads to collapse. A seismic event completely detached the armory, taking a significant portion of the quarterdeck with it.

The Omen emerged from hyperspace uncontrollably, hurtling towards an unknown planet. Yaru fought valiantly to regain control, but the ship ultimately crash-landed in a sharp mountain range near the sea. He managed to bring the Omen to a halt just before it plunged over the edge of a cliff into an abyss. Three hundred and fifty-five individuals, including Wroth, survived the crash. However, twenty-one perished due to injuries and the treacherous terrain encountered while descending the mountain. By sunrise, Wroth had joined Yaru and Seelah Korsin, a former battlefield medic and the wife of Yaru's brother, Devore, to discuss the alarming situation with the Massassi. Eighty of Wroth's warriors had survived the impact, but they were inexplicably dying rapidly from exposure to the planet's atmosphere. A third of the initial Massassi survivors were already being cremated in a pyre by Wroth's assistants.

Two days later, Wroth divided the remaining Massassi between himself and Yaru. Yaru, accompanied by his contingent of Sith, went to the crash site to test the transmitter, hoping that the Sith Empire could locate and rescue them, along with the crystal cargo of Lignan. Wroth was taken aback by Yaru's return. After learning that the transmitter beacon was inoperable, Wroth was disheartened to hear that the last of the Massassi from the Omen had perished. That evening, Devore Korsin was absent from the campsite. This raised concerns among some of the Sith, who believed he was missing from the crash site and ultimately presumed him dead.

On the second night following the crash landing of Wroth and the crew of the Omen on the planet, a native inhabitant of the planet accidentally stumbled upon the Sith encampment, alerting those within. The Keshiri woman, Adari Vaal, spent three days acclimating to communication with the Sith, while Yaru and Wroth's cyborg cousin Hestus worked to decipher her language. Hestus possessed a "special ear" that facilitated the exchange of information between the Sith and Vaal. However, the exchange was disproportionately skewed, with the Sith acquiring more knowledge about the Keshiri and their life on the planet, Kesh, than Vaal gained about the Sith.

Eventually, Yaru managed to convey their concerns and their need to reach the mainland to Vaal. However, according to Vaal, the only way she could travel to the mainland was alone on her uvak, Nink. This caused worry amongst Wroth and the other Sith present, who feared abandonment in the unforgiving environment they had settled in. The fact that Vaal's own people were unlikely to heed her, as she had been branded a heretic, only exacerbated Wroth's and the others' concerns.

One week after Wroth and the rest of the crew of the Omen had become stranded on Kesh, Vaal departed for a day and returned on Nink with uvak-riding Neshtovar nobles of the Keshiri accompanying her. The Sith met with the Keshiri, who, after observing their appearance and abilities, believed the offworlders to be the Skyborn—the heroic deities of Keshiri legends. With their newfound authority and status among the Keshiri, Wroth and the rest of the "Skyborn"—under the newly proclaimed "Grand Lord" Yaru—usurped the quarters of the previously ruling Neshtovar caste and quickly came to govern the Keshiri as a whole. During this period, Wroth remained aloof due to the loss of the Massassi he had cared for. Vaal referred to him as a minority within a minority, a member of the small group of Sith species members within the small group of Sith; this was a stark contrast to the norm within the Sith Empire, where the Sith species constituted the majority.

During a time when Yaru was imparting knowledge to Vaal in the Keshiri capital city of Tahv, Vaal conducted an experiment on Wroth to determine whether the Sith could truly read minds. She instructed him to navigate the busiest quarter of Tahv to locate a specific destination. She observed that he became disoriented in the same neighborhood as she had, and while his perceptive abilities were remarkable, he still required accurate information from others to find his way. From this, she concluded that the Sith possessed the ability to read minds, but only to a limited extent. In the years following the conquest of the Keshiri, Wroth endured a series of losses, including a severe leg injury in his second year on Kesh when he lost in a disagreement with an uvak.

Fifteen years after the Sith crew of the Omen had crash-landed on Kesh, Wroth continued to suffer from the leg injury he had sustained in his second year there. Over that time, the planet's environment had caused Wroth's coloring to fade from crimson to a more subdued maroon hue. Without the Massassi to oversee or a mission to fulfill, he had engaged in a variety of tasks to occupy his time. His most significant role was as the spokesperson for the Fifty-seven, a group that included the surviving Red Sith on Kesh—those whose bloodlines were most closely aligned with the Sith species—and those individuals who were more interested in departing Kesh and delivering the Lignan ore to Sadow than in remaining there. However, since its inception, "the Fifty-seven" had become an inaccurate name, as a dozen had perished over the time since they had landed due to accidents or lack of ability. The fact that none of the Red Sith offspring were surviving past a single day added to Wroth's and the Fifty-seven's desire to abandon Kesh. As the spokesperson, Wroth had earned the moniker "the crimson man" among the Keshiri.

Wroth and a team of his investigated Omen to see if there was anything left that the Sith could use. He employed a strong Keshiri named Gorem to assist him and his team in pulling apart one of the decks of Omen to reach what remained in the crushed sections. There, Wroth found some cyanogen silicate—a cauterizing agent used for the Massassi by their healers. When Gorem died after touching a stained deck plate from the Massassi apothecary, Wroth realized that the silicate could be used against the Keshiri without any adverse effects on the Red Sith.

One week later, Wroth requested an audience with the Sith. During the meeting, the Houk Gloyd presented his latest scheme for leaving Kesh and attracting the attention of the Sith Empire, unaware that the Sith Empire had already fallen. After he concluded his presentation, Wroth stepped forward. Yaru—still the Grand Lord of the Keshiri and the Sith—approached him, expecting Wroth to also propose a solution for their departure from Kesh. Instead, Wroth raised the issue of ancestry and the ongoing documentation of the Omen's crew's lineage under Seelah's supervision. Although the research was limited to Humans, Wroth still objected, as many in both groups shared some degree of interbreeding. For Wroth and the Red Sith on Kesh, the subject of interbreeding with the Dark Jedi was a source of great pride, and dissecting it through documentation was a sensitive subject for his people. However, the causes for the Massassi's deaths, and why the Red Sith offspring were dying now, were still unknown to them, and so Yaru disagreed with him and thought that the research should continue. Wroth suggested that in order to better understand the issue, one of the his people should be accepted into the crèche as a midwife. Seelah—who was in charge of the crèche—immediately interrupted and refused his suggestion. She thought the Red Sith were not qualified medical personnel; the fact that she had developed an extreme hatred toward the Red Sith under Dark Lord Kressh's care did not help Wroth's cause. However, Wroth was insistent; he was complimenting her work—to him, it was only fair that the Red Sith, like her Sith, were allowed to thrive. Halting the conversation between the two, Yaru told them that their discussion would be continued later.

Wroth then informed Yaru that he would be in the south visiting the towns of the Ragnos Lakes. Yaru had previously assigned him to examine the eight villages there, specifically the bodies of water they were on and the specimens of fluorescent algae they contained. Because they had found out that Kesh was devoid of any useful metals, the algae had potential use in lighting the Sith structures. Wroth was to start in the vast amount of territory in Tetsubal, the village farthest away from the Sith sanctum in the Takara Mountains, where Omen had crashed fifteen years earlier. Before Wroth left, Yaru told him that he should take with him the rest of the Red Sith, so that the work would get completed faster. He also told Wroth to address him as "Grand Lord" in the future. It was an order that had come from Seelah, who had married Yaru after the death of Devore. Wroth had no choice but to obey his commands even though "Grand Lord" had been used only by the Keshiri to address Yaru.

Wroth and the Fifty-seven devised a plan based on what had happened to Gorem after coming into contact with the cyanogen silicate. Wroth realized that since the silicate could be used against the Keshiri, it could serve as a tool to compel Yaru and the other Sith to prioritize their departure from the planet instead of continuing to establish themselves on Kesh. Upon arriving in Tetsubal, Wroth introduced the cyanogen silicate into the aqueducts of the villages, where it intensified upon contact with the water, causing a plague-like death to all those in the village, including his Human aide. Wroth realized that this meant that Humans, too, were affected by cyanogen silicate; only the Red Sith were unharmed by its affects. Following his discovery, Wroth sent a message through the Force to the Sith sanctum in the Takara Mountains. In it he alerted them that everyone in Tetsubal had died except for him, and he refrained from revealing his involvement in the incident.

When Yaru and Seelah arrived in Tetsubal, Wroth lied and said that he had gone to meet his contacts in the town circle with a plaza and a large sundial. He explained how he had been unable to locate his Human aide and so had taken up position on top of the sundial to call for her. From there, he had also surveyed the plague that was consuming Tetsubal's Keshiri population. The Korsins wondered if what had happened was the result of a biological agent or an airborne disease. Their worries intensified when they eventually found Wroth's dead aide, and realized that this illness not only affected the Keshiri but could also affect the Human Sith. Wroth suggested that because of this it would be necessary to not only burn the village to keep the illness from spreading, but to also cease all contact between the Sith and the Keshiri—a suggestion that surprised Yaru. Seelah disagreed, saying that the Sith depended on the Keshiri too much and shared her belief that without the Keshiri they would not survive. Wroth, however, reminded them that they were Sith, and that they should not be dependent on non-Sith such as the Keshiri. He even went so far as to suggest that, since they had been standing there for some time and the plague had not affected them, this plague was really a warning from the dark side. Bringing his attention back to the conversation, Yaru took Wroth off on a walk through the village to discuss this subject. Seelah held back and examined the body of Wroth's aide before following them and announcing that she would be retreating back to the Sith sanctum, and Wroth cautioned her about bringing the plague into the Sith stronghold before she left.

Wroth and Yaru arrived back at the Takara Mountains during the night to find that word of the crisis had spread amongst the Sith. Communications were the main problem, as the Sith had been so stirred and confused by the information of the recent event that even the most experienced heralds were having trouble fielding messages. Yaru called for all the Sith to return to the Takara Mountains, but he was careful that the word of the crisis did not reach the ears of Keshiri. He also sent out reconnaissance fliers to check the surrounding areas around Tetsubal to see if the plague had spread.

Wroth reported to Yaru that all the Red Sith had returned safely to the Takara Mountains. Though Wroth was pleased, a messenger then arrived with news that the plague had struck again, this time at Rabolow, another village on the Ragnos Lakes. Wroth was very surprised and disturbed by this news; he and his people had only planted the cyanogen silicate in the aqueducts of Tetsubal. When Seelah remarked that his people were assigned there, Wroth ignored her and went off to talk with his associate, who had just returned from Rabolow to figure out what had happened there.

Reports of Ragnos Lake villages struck by the plague continued to pour in, and Seelah told Yaru that she thought Wroth and his people were adding cyanogen silicate to the water around all the villages. The Grand Lord believed her; convinced that the Red Sith were plotting to destroy them, he called in all of the other Sith and ordered them to destroy and wipe out the Red Sith for this apparent treachery. Outnumbered and caught by surprise, the Red Sith were driven back and slaughtered. Their Human counterparts placed the heads of murdered Red Sith at even intervals along the main plaza at the Sith temple. With only a small number of the Red Sith remnant left, Yaru and his chief lieutenants cornered them in a last stand beside the precipice where Omen had crashed and had nearly fallen over the edge fifteen years ago. Those who surrendered were flung over the side of the mountain to their deaths.

Wroth, the only remaining Red Sith on Kesh, was captured quickly due to his damaged leg. As the leader of his kinsmen, he was held captive centimeters off the ground by strong cords that were usually used to hold down uvaks while they were being washed. Out of the stable master's stone silo where Wroth was held, water poured out of slots high up the tower for one minute at a time and drenched Wroth, choking him to the point of complete exhaustion. After recovering, Wroth finally registered Seelah's presence. She confirmed to him that all the Red Sith had been wiped out, aside from him. Confused, Wroth admitted that he and his people were responsible for the "plague," but that they had only caused it at Tetsubal, and stated that he knew nothing about the other villages. Seelah revealed that she was in fact responsible for the introduction of the silicate into the other villages and the subsequent extermination of the Red Sith. After she had returned from Tetsubal, she had sent her most trusted aides out to the various Ragnos Lake villages, where they had planted the cyanogen silicate in the aqueducts and wells of each, made possible by the fact that her ward had the last remaining supply of the chemical. While she could not determine what had happened to the Keshiri of the village due to her unfamiliarity with their biology, she deduced that the cyanogen silicate had to be the cause, due to the swollen, blue features on the tongue of Wroth's dead Human aide.

Wroth was horrified by Seelah's revelation, disgusted with the knowledge that she had orchestrated the genocide against his people. His captor saw the eradication of the Red Sith in the Empire as an inevitability based on the way things were going in Sadow's hands, with his expansion and allowance of other species into higher ranked positions. Through this, Seelah believed the Red Sith would eventually become obsolete and replaced. Wroth disagreed, stating that Sadow valued both the new potential Sith as well as the old Sith. Seelah then gestured to the guard beside Wroth, releasing more water down upon him. This time it took Wroth much longer to recover. He explained how he thought the Sith society could have worked on Kesh, similar to how the Dark Jedi and the Sith species had millennia earlier, if only his children had survived on Kesh. He then realized that Seelah had also been responsible for the deaths of all the Red Sith children who had been born on Kesh, as it was she who was in charge of the Sith crèche. At this, Seelah told him that his people would have eventually done the same thing to the Human Sith. With Wroth still moaning in horror at what she had done, Seelah told the guard—her son, Jariad Korsin—to finish him off. Jariad wielded a jagged vibroblade as he leaped forward and attacked, before he finally drew his lightsaber and cut Wroth down. With Wroth's death, Gloyd was left as the only non-Human Sith alive on the planet. Although it seemed that the plan to exterminate the Red Sith had solely been Seelah's idea, she had actually been manipulated by the Keshiri Adari Vaal and Tilden Kaah in their larger plan to rid Kesh of all of the Sith.

Ravilan Wroth's physical appearance was characterized by crimson skin, yellow eyes, prominent eyebrow-stalks, and elongated cheek tendrils, all of which are typical traits of the Sith species. His skin tone gradually shifted from a vibrant red to a more somber maroon during his time on Kesh. Despite this change, Wroth continued to adorn himself with earrings and other Sith ornamentation, which, in contrast to his muted maroon complexion, only served to make him appear more subdued. Yaru considered Wroth to be a prime example of a pure-blooded Red Sith.

Like all the Red Sith on Kesh, Wroth held a deep sense of pride in his Sith heritage, particularly the historical intermingling between his species and the Dark Jedi exiles following the Hundred-Year Darkness. While this was a source of pride, he and his kinsmen were also highly sensitive about the topic, disliking any attempts to dissect and analyze it. Consequently, Wroth and his people opposed the project aimed at documenting the ancestry of Human Sith on Kesh, fearing the exposure of their own intertwined lineage.

Wroth was a staunch supporter of Dark Lord Naga Sadow during the Great Hyperspace War. He believed that Sadow's progressive policies recognized and valued power in both the newly integrated species and the Red Sith alike. This contrasted sharply with other, less progressive Sith Lords within the Sith Empire, who exclusively recognized power in the Red Sith.

As the quartermaster of the Massassi aboard the Omen, Wroth was responsible for the care and management of the Massassi warriors. The loyalty of the Massassi was something to be earned, not bought or forced. During his second year on Kesh, Wroth sustained a permanent leg injury in a confrontation with an uvak. This injury crippled him, hindering his abilities and contributing to his capture during the Red Sith purge thirteen years later.

He displayed proficiency in telepathy on several occasions while on Kesh. He correctly discerned that Yaru had discovered something significant about their location and had encountered someone upon returning to camp after assessing the functionality of the Omen's transmitter. Yaru had, in fact, discovered at the crash site that the Sith were confined to the planet and that a sentient species inhabited another part of the planet. As Wroth had surmised, Yaru had met with and was also responsible for the death of his brother at the crash-site. Furthermore, after Wroth became one of the Skyborn on Kesh, Vaal conducted an experiment to test his telepathic abilities. She tasked him with navigating the busiest quarter of Tahv to find a specific location. Despite never having been in the city before, Wroth was able to find his way through the city, but in one particularly busy neighborhood he could not find the location without the aid of accurate information of others through asking them directly. He was also able to answer Seelah's thoughts when she had unconsciously left them unguarded, picking up the exact lines of her thoughts.

Ravilan Wroth's introduction to the Star Wars expanded universe occurred in the eBook Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice, which was released on May 28, 2009 and authored by John Jackson Miller. He subsequently appeared in the eBook's sequel, Skyborn, and again in the third eBook of the Lost Tribe of the Sith series, Paragon, where his character played a more prominent role than in the preceding two stories. He was later mentioned in Savior and depicted in hologram form in Pantheon, at which point he was also given a surname.