Second Charge Matrica

After the initial Charge Matrica, Calimondra's sole remaining heir was her son Chagras. He ascended to become the ruler of an empire within the Grumani sector, known as the Chagras Hegemony. However, Vilia maintained control over a significant portion of her holdings as she was still alive. Chagras was only assured the cooperation of his various nephews and nieces in the reconstruction of the war-ravaged region. By 1042 BBY, Chagras was prepared to confront the Galactic Republic with his forces, with Sith Lord Odion invading the Republic world of Aquilaris Minor. In 1040 BBY, Chagras succumbed to a potent nerve toxin that thwarted his body's ability to heal. His demise ignited conflict amongst Vilia's grandchildren, each vying for control of Chagras's possessions. Xelian's estranged sons, Odion and Daiman, were the initial Sith warlords to engage in warfare, establishing their own independent territories.

The Chagras Hegemony fragmented into five factions, then ten, and subsequently more, causing widespread instability throughout much of the Grumani sector. Chagras's eldest daughter, Arkadia Calimondra, established her own state on the sector's remote fringes. Simultaneously, his youngest children, Quillan and Dromika, assumed control of the Dyarchy—centered on the planet Byllura, with the Krevaaki Saaj Calician acting as their regent. Each of these Sith Lords governed their respective domains according to their individual philosophies, yet remained accountable to Vilia and convened in a bequest at least annually. While these Bequests ostensibly served as arbitration sessions, Vilia strategically utilized them to subtly encourage conflict among her grandchildren. According to Arkadia, Vilia possessed substantial wealth, military strength, and corporate assets, enabling her to maintain control over her descendants by distributing gifts to keep them engaged. The enormous stakes ensured that none of the participants desired to forfeit the Charge Matrica.

The nihilistic Odion saw himself as the Destroyer of the universe and began the founder of a death cult while his younger brother Daiman viewed himself as the Creator of the universe and all other beings as soulless automatons. Meanwhile, the scholarly Arkadia tried to create an "enlightened" totalitarian Sith regime which sought to promote flexibility and versatility amongst its citizenry by forcing them to alternate between different jobs throughout their lives. By contrast, the more moderate Quermian Sith Lord Ayanos Bactra, ruler of the Bactranate, preferred to work through several corporate partners including Industrial Heuristics. Another Sith Lord Malakite eschewed technology in favor of using Sithspawn mutants as tools of war and ruled a realm known as the Menagerie. Besides fighting each other over resources and dominance, these Sith states also fought with the Jedi, the Republic and interlopers like the Hutts.

For many ordinary people, the Second Charge Matrica marked a time of chaos and uncertainty. Since the Republic had shut down its hyperspace relays in large areas of the galaxy to avoid further incursions into the Core Worlds and Colonies, interstellar trade had collapsed in many regions including the Grumani sector. Many Sith Lords exploited their subjects as expendable slave labor and cannon fodder with little regard for their lives and welfare. Lord Odion notably imprisoned all the children in his realm within a network of planet-sized orphanages known as cloisters since he believed that children burned too brightly in the Force which irritated his senses.

Due to the volatile politics of the Second Charge Matrica, the Grumani sector experienced many leadership transitions. In one case, the planet Verdanth was ruled by 17 rival Sith Lords during the Republic Dark Age. Due to the lack of mass media and reputable historians in the Grumani sector, most of the Sith rulers and their inhabitants were ignorant of their history and had little knowledge of the larger galaxy.

Throughout the preceding years, the Second Charge Matrica witnessed numerous Sith Lords engaged in perpetual, drawn-out conflicts against one another. Odion sought to resolve this stalemate by commissioning a project to locate the Helm of Ieldis, an ancient Sith artifact capable of inducing homicidal rage in sentient beings. However, Project Pandemonium was suspended after its trail vanished at Sarrassia in 1039 BBY when the Bactranate conquered the planet. To prevent the Sith from gaining access to Republic technology and military secrets, the Galactic Republic mandated that all corporations withdraw from Sith territory, although some, such as Industrial Heuristics, disregarded these directives, preferring to conduct business with Sith warlords.

At some point, the Alderaanian Republic agent Baron Lemayne initiated a black operation aimed at undermining the Sith war effort by introducing the narcotic spice Deluge into their ranks. The humanitarian relief organization Grace Command and its paramilitary arm Devil Squadron served as a front for Lemayne's operations, which successfully weakened the Sith warlords' armies but also exacerbated drug addiction among the civilian population.

While the majority of Jedi and Republic forces had abandoned much of the Outer Rim Territories as part of a defensive strategy focused on protecting the Core Worlds and Colonies from further Sith advances, Jedi Master Vannar Treece persisted in leading independent "knight errant" operations into the Grumani sector. For these missions, Treece utilized volunteers rather than regular Jedi and Republic military personnel, as Supreme Chancellor Genarra and the Ministry of Defense were hesitant to commit substantial forces and other resources to invading Sith-controlled territories due to the Republic's weakened state.

He was also able to exploit a loophole that allowed Jedi Knights a period of sixteen days of free travel anywhere in the galaxy between their regular routine of serving three months in law enforcement patrols and nine months of active service on the Republic's contracting frontiers. The Jedi Order and the Republic also tried to exploit the infighting between the Sith warlords as a means of preventing further incursions into Republic Space.

By 1032 BBY, Daiman had carved up a large interstellar fiefdom within the Grumani Sector. He also fought the Sullustan warlord Buruun the Bloodbringer for control of the planet Cmaoli Di—a transit world leading into the Brema sector. Buruun controlled much of the Brema sector during the Republic Dark Age. In 1032 BBY, the Council of Makers and Spinners succeeded in having their neutral status recognized by both Daiman and Buruun. Daiman's forces also acquired the oceanic planet of Aquilaris Minor—which had fallen under a string of different Sith warlords since its annexation by the Chagras Hegemony in 1042 BBY.

By 1032 BBY, Treece's "knight errant" operations became the sole Jedi activity within the entire Grumani sector. In 1032 BBY, the Jedi Master Vannar Treece received intelligence from the undercover Jedi operative Gorlan Palladane that Lord Daiman had begun mining large deposits of baradium—a volatile compound used in the manufacture of munitions—on the agrarian planet Chelloa. Fearing that Daiman's baradium advantage would allow him to end the stalemated conflict and pose a greater threat to the Republic, Treece organized an independent Jedi operation known as Operation Influx. This was a lightning raid that aimed to disrupt baradium shipping operations on Chelloa before they could depart for munitions factories situated on the Daimanate's front lines. Despite initial successes on the Daimanate hub world of Oranessan where the Jedi team stole a Daimanate Heavy-Lift Starcrosser transport with minimal delay, the entire team with the exception of the novice Jedi Knight Kerra Holt was wiped at the Chelloan spaceport of Jenith when the Sith Lord Odion raided the planet.

Earlier, Palladane had used a stolen transmitter to activate a hyperspace routing station but Odion had been intercepting the correspondences between Treece and Palladane. Due to his nihilistic beliefs, Odion sought to destroy the planet with a fleet of kinetic corruptors since he regarded the planet's high concentration of baradium deposits as creating an imbalance in the Force. Faced with the Jedi and Odion, Daiman devised a counter-strategy which involved luring Odion onto the surface of Chelloa and then destroying him and his army with his own fleet of kinetic corruptors, which were disguised as mobile munitions complexes. Daiman then used Kerra to leak false information to Odion that he was planning to expand his baradium operations on Chelloa and had purchased new mobile war forges. Taking the bait, Odion invaded Chelloa only to find himself in a trap. Meanwhile, Kerra and Palladane successfully evacuated the planet's 63,000 inhabitants on a fleet of transports known as the Freedom Fleet before this apocalypse. While Odion survived, he was grievously wounded and swore vengeance against both Kerra and Daiman.

Kerra continued to harass Daiman, launching raids on his slave world of Nilash III and liberating the native slaves from his munitions factories. Further emphasizing her presence, she decapitated several of his statues as a reminder that she "existed." Subsequently, Odion discovered that Daiman's researchers were conducting clandestine research on a new prototype warship known as the Convergence and dispatched the Bothan spy Narsk Ka'hane, an independent operative, to gather intelligence on the vessel and destroy the Black Fang research installation. Unbeknownst to Odion, Narsk was in reality a deep cover agent working for the Calimondra family matriarch Vilia Calimondra but posed as a mercenary spy who sold his services to the highest bidder. However, Kerra intercepted Narsk and destroyed the datapad containing the data before destroying the building with baradium thermal charges. She then stole Narsk's Cryricept Mark IV stealth suit and left him behind to be captured by Daiman's Correctors. Despite Narsk's denials, Daiman suspected that Odion had a role in the bombing and concocted a scheme to lure Odion into another trap on Gazzari.

Daiman approached the Bactranate Ayanos Bactra with an offer to buy an arxeum—a mobile university dedicated to war research—from Industrial Heuristics. Daiman also offered to provide the students for the university. The transaction would occur on Gazzari and he promised Bactra's forces safe passage to the Gazzari system. However, he arranged for Narsk to listen to the proceedings and then to escape back to the Odionate. Daiman also contracted the services of several mercenaries including the Brigadier Jarrow Rusher and convinced to set up a trap on Gazzari. They assembled their forces including artillery cannons on the edge of a massive caldera. As planned, Odion saw the Gazzari deal as an opportunity to wreak further bloodshed and destruction and dispatched a fleet to invade the planet. Odion's forces invaded the planet only to be trapped in the caldera by enemy fire. During the fighting, Odion quickly regained his advantage by deploying the Death Spiral— a massive mobile siege platform. However, Kerra destroyed the Death Spiral and managed to save the children. She then convinced the mercenary Rusher—who lost five-sixths of his forces—to evacuate the refugees offworld aboard his troopship Diligence.

Unknown to Kerra, the Calimondra family matriarch Vilia was able to monitor her movements since the stealth suit tapped onto an information network used by the Sith despot to monitor her underlings. In the middle of the Battle of Gazzari, Vilia sent a coded transmission to Narsk ordering him to transmit a message to her grandsons Odion and Daiman. The matriarch had felt that Lord Bactra had outlived his usefulness to the family and ordered them to turn on the Bactranate. Odion's and Daiman's forces ceased fighting each other and turned on the Bactranate fleet in the system. They then launched an invasion of the Bactranate with Odion's forces capturing the capital Jutrand. Meanwhile, Lord Bactra fled into hiding at a Quermian retirement colony.

Within days, the Bactranate had collapsed and Vilia convened a Bequest. The Bactranate's territories were divided up between the Sith Lords Odion, Daiman, Malakite, and Lioko while his vast corporate assets were divided up among the family. While Odion acquired Jutrand through military conquest, Daiman acquired Industrial Heuristics. However, Odion challenged Daiman's claim to the company on the basis that it had been based on Jutrand and was thus booty. As quid pro quo, Vilia compensated Odion by send two legions of Trandoshan slave warriors from her own forces to augment the Odionate. Odion reluctantly accepted the deal but tensions continued to linger between the two brothers.

Rusher and Kerra's escape from Gazzari brought them to Byllura, which was the domain of a Sith state known as the Dyarchy. The Regent Calician had harnessed the powerful Force abilities of Lord Chagras's younger children Dromika and Quillan to create a global telepathic network that enthralled all sentient beings on Byllura. Dromika was proficient at using the Force to mentally coerce other sentients into doing her bidding while Quillan was capable of farsight and seeing distant developments. Under the Dyarchy, Byllura's inhabitants were reduced to mental thralls who functioned as mere extensions of their Sith masters. The arrival of Rusher's starship Diligence at Hestobyll led Calician to prepare his fleet for an invasion of the neighboring Daimanate, mistakenly believing their arrival meant that Daiman's control over his territory had weakened.

Calician dispatched Sith adepts known as Unifiers to "integrate" the newcomers but Rusher and Kerra fought back. This confrontation eventually culminated in a showdown at the Loft, a palace that functioned as the nerve center of the Dyarchy. After a vicious duel, Kerra overpowered Calician and kidnapped Quillan. Her actions effectively decapitated the highly-centralized Dyarchy since it was dependent on the presence of its leaders to function. The collapse of the Dyarchy's leadership led to mass uprisings across Byllura and enabled the Diligence to escape into space. At that point, Byllura was invaded by a third party: the Arkadianate, the realm of Lord Arkadia Calimondra.

After destroying the Dyarchy Fleet, Arkadia's forces occupied Byllura with minimal resistance and executed Calician. Arkadia also had Quillan and Dromika taken into her custody, albeit kept on separate planets. She also invited Rusher and Kerra to her throne world of Syned and promised to provide shelter for their student refugees. During their stay at her capital city of Calimondretta, Arkadia tried to win Rusher and Kerra over by portraying the Arkadianate as an "enlightened" Sith regime. During her rule, Arkadia had implemented several socially progressive policies including compulsory education, mass employment, and providing food and clothes for her subjects.

While there was more freedom and less exploitation compared to other Sith regimes like the Daimanate and the Odionate, Arkadia also had a controversial policy of regularly reassigning her citizens to different jobs even though they were not qualified for them. Like Calician, she also harbored expansionist ambitions of annexing other territories. Her chemical factories on Syned had developed a powerful nerve toxin known as Chagras's Blood, which had been developed from Synedian algae. These biological agents would be delivered through canisters during a planned invasion of neighboring Sith states, a prelude to her own ambition to conquer the galaxy. Finally, Arkadia had conspired to murder her own grandmother and family matriarch Vilia, whom she blamed for causing the death of her father Chagras and the stalemated Second Charge Matrica.

Thus, her public "friendship" towards Rusher and Kerra also concealed ulterior motives. While she intended to recruit the student refugees aboard the Diligence as citizens of the Arkadianate, she also conspired to eliminate Rusher and mercenaries by providing them with rogue coordinates to the Nakrikal Singularity, a black hole, due to her dislike of "specialists" like mercenaries. After introducing Kerra to the complex history of the Calimondra family and the Charge Matricas during a Bequest, Arkadia tried to recruit the Jedi woman as an assassin to kill her grandmother. Despite her eloquent arguments, Kerra refused to work for the Sith Lord and was imprisoned.

Arkadia was then forced to rely on the Bothan spy Narsk Ka'hane for the job. She had prepared a shuttle to ferry her younger brother Quillan to her grandmother's top-secret retreat world. Narsk would be hidden aboard the vessel and would then use a secret gas canister in Quillan's hoverchair to expose her grandmother to the nerve toxin. Unknown to everyone, Narsk was secretly working for Vilia and received orders from Vilia to sabotage Arkadia's plot. He successfully convinced Rusher to stage a diversionary attack on Calimondretta in return for providing hyperspace coordinates leading to the Galactic Republic and also freed Kerra from her prison. During the Siege of Calimondretta, Arkadia's enemies damaged much of the city and destroyed several warships she had assembled for blitz raids on neighboring Sith states in the event her grandmother was killed.

Meanwhile, Narsk took advantage of the chaos to escape with Quillan to Vilia's retreat. Several hundred Arkadianate citizens also took advantage of Rusher's attack to defect from the Arkadianate. These defections dealt a death blow to Arkadia's earlier rhetoric that the Arkadianate was an enlightened island of stability within Sith Space. Due to the heavy damage on Syned, Arkadia was forced to recall substantial forces from Byllura and temporarily set aside her irredentist ambitions to concentrate on rebuilding her war-damaged capital of Calimondretta. Rusher and Kerra managed to escape with the Diligence's passengers into the Republic. Despite the damage that Kerra visited on the Sith domains of the Grumani sector, the family matriarch Vilia opted to leave her alone since she reasoned that the lone Jedi would provide her grandchildren with experience on dealing with the Jedi in preparation for their future invasion of the Republic.

By the close of 1032 BBY, the spice Deluge had instigated widespread addiction throughout a large portion of the Grumani sector. The drug became a staple for many civilians and soldiers, a consequence of the harsh and impoverished conditions prevalent within the Daimanate. The Republic purposefully disseminated the spice through Operation Deluge. While the operation achieved its aim of weakening the morale and combat readiness of numerous Sith military units, it also resulted in widespread addiction among civilian populations, leading to significant social and health crises in the Grumani sector. Daiman's response within the Daimanate was notably severe, with the execution of Deluge addicts in his home defense forces, negatively impacting their combat effectiveness.

Simultaneously, the Sith warlords controlling the Grumani sector faced a new challenge with the arrival of the Hutt crimelord Zodoh, who sought to expand his criminal empire into Sith Space, specifically targeting the Daimanate. Zodoh and his Hutt allies had previously succeeded in dominating the Sith Lords in Hutt Space, and the ambitious Hutt aimed to replicate this success in the Grumani sector. During his invasion, Zodoh compelled the other Grumani Sith Lords to support his assault on the Daimanate by revealing his new superweapons: a squadron of Stormdrivers, warships armed with weaponized vaporizers capable of inundating entire planets. Aquilaris Minor, a planet largely composed of water, became Zodoh's first target. However, Grace Command subsequently "liberated" the planet, concurrently distributing Deluge narcotics.

A third adversary reappeared in the form of Jedi Knight Kerra Holt, who had returned to the Grumani sector after assisting in the evacuation of student refugees from Gazzari to the Republic, aided by the mercenary Jarrow Rusher. She initially allied with Grace Command until she uncovered the truth about "Operation Deluge." Zodoh soon captured Grace Command and deployed his Stormdrivers against Aquilaris, causing extensive flooding. Kerra survived and, with the help of her childhood friend Joad Kreel and the Seacroppers' Guild leader "Old" Padgett, evacuated thousands of locals to aquatic shelters.

Having proven the Stormdrivers' capabilities on Aquilaris, Zodoh planned to deploy them against Darkknell, the Daimanate capital. He also persuaded Daiman's relatives to divert Daiman's forces to the frontiers in exchange for slaves and munitions, contingent on his victory over the Daimanate. Zodoh invaded Darkknell, overwhelming the weakened Daimanate home fleet before initiating the flooding of the city. However, Kerra and Captain Jenn Devaad, the last surviving member of Grace Command, intervened and stopped the Hutt crimelord. Together, they destroyed Zodoh's flagship, the Voracious, leading to the dispersal of Zodoh's forces and allowing the Daimanate fleet to regroup and launch a counteroffensive. Daiman personally executed Zodoh in the presence of several of his Sith relatives, including Odion, Arkadia Calimondra, and Malakite.

Despite the victory, Darkknell, the Daimanate's throne world, suffered significant damage, with much of its surface submerged. The Daimanate also lost control of Aquilaris Minor, which became a transit point for refugees fleeing Sith Space into the Galactic Republic after the floodwaters receded. Captain Devaad of Grace Command experienced a "change of heart" and began sabotaging Operation Deluge by jettisoning shipments of the spice into hyperspace while transporting refugees to the Republic. This effectively cut off the supply of Deluge spice to the Grumani sector. With Zodoh's defeat, tensions between Odion and Daiman re-emerged, as Daiman resented Odion's collaboration with the Hutt interloper.

Following the elimination of both the Bactranate and Zodoh, Odion opted to recommence Project Pandemonium. Seeking a strategic advantage in the Second Charge Matrica, he aimed to acquire the Helm of Ieldis, an ancient Sith artifact capable of inducing destructive, homicidal rage in sentient beings. Meanwhile, Kerra resolved to collaborate with her former adversary Daiman to defeat Odion and locate her long-lost parents. Daiman agreed to assist Kerra, driven by his hatred for Odion and his visions of a future apocalypse originating from Odion's domain. Kerra infiltrated the Odionate, posing as a Force-sensitive young Human woman named "Mercy" who had embraced Odion's nihilistic doctrines. She became a Novitiate—an Odionate Sith adept—and gained knowledge of Project Pandemonium. However, Daiman also dispatched one of his own spies—the Kubaz Novitiate Glenk—to monitor Kerra's activities.

On Sarrassia, Kerra discovered that the Helm of Ieldis was situated on Skarpos, a desolate desert world contested by the forces of Odion and the Sith Lord Malakite, the ruler of the Menagerie. She located the Helm but was captured by Odion, who then secured the artifact for himself. Based on Glenk's report, Daiman ordered his forces to invade Skarpos and crush the armies of Odion and Malakite. Daiman had manipulated Kerra with the intention of acquiring the Helm for himself. However, Odion employed the Helm to annihilate three entire armies. Satisfied with this demonstration, the Destroyer journeyed to Vanahame, intending to utilize the Helm of Ieldis to eradicate all life in the galaxy by exploiting the emotions of the captive children within the local cloister.

Meanwhile, Daiman and Malakite survived the battle and managed to inform Vilia and the other Sith Lords about the danger posed by the Helm to the galaxy. The Matriarch commanded her grandchildren to temporarily cease the Second Chagre Matrica. The various Calimondra Sith Lords, including Daiman, Malakite, Arkadia Calimondra, Lioko, and Trevayne, then assembled their forces to invade the Odionate. However, Odion succeeded in activating the Helm, and its Force-induced homicidal rage devastated much of the Grumani sector, including the anti-Odionate fleet. Daiman himself was compelled to fight off several crazed crew members aboard his flagship. However, Kerra and General [Beld Yulan](/article/beld_yulan], Odion's second-in-command, thwarted Odion's nihilistic ambitions. Kerra persuaded Yulan to liberate the Cloister children, which triggered a surge of positive emotions that resulted in Odion's death.

With Odion's demise, the Odionate disintegrated, and its territories were divided among the various Calimondra Sith Lords. The Daimanate acquired the largest portion of the former Odionate's territory, including several cloisters. Despite the death of the "Destroyer," Kerra's continued presence ensured that the lone Jedi woman still presented a threat to the various Sith fiefdoms within the Grumani sector.

The New Sith Wars continued until 1000 BBY, culminating in the Jedi-led Army of Light's destruction of the Brotherhood of Darkness, the last remaining Sith faction, at the Seventh Battle of Ruusan. The Second Charge Matrica was one of the conflicts that devastated the galaxy during the Republic Dark Age. During this era, interstellar trade diminished significantly across much of the galaxy after the Republic deactivated its HoloNet communications network. Economic collapse fostered widespread social instability, facilitating the spread of diseases such as the Candorian plague, which claimed the lives of as many as two-thirds of the populations of some major population centers. The Sith capitalized on the Dark Age by seizing control of vast regions of the galaxy beyond the Core Worlds and the Colonies. However, these Sith Lords eventually engaged in internal conflicts, establishing numerous small principalities.

The Calimondra family and their counterparts in Hutt Space merely exemplified this broader pattern of decline and chaos during the Republic Dark Age. While the Galactic Republic had retreated into a defensive perimeter centered on the Core Worlds, several Jedi, such as Vannar Treece and Kerra Holt, undertook independent "knight errant" missions to harass these Sith warlords. Motivated by concern for the plight of civilians living under Sith rule and indignation at the excesses of the Sith warlords and the apathy of the Republic's leadership and citizens, they took action. Ultimately, the remaining Jedi were roused from their complacency and assisted the Galactic Republic in reasserting its authority over the galaxy. During the final decades of the New Sith Wars, the Republic presumably reclaimed the Grumani sector and defeated the local Sith warlords.