In the Keshiri religion, the lords of the planet Kesh venerated a group of deities known as the Skyborn. The Keshiri held the belief that in ancient times, the Skyborn engaged in battle against the malevolent Otherside amidst the stars above Kesh. Although victorious, the blood that flowed from the Skyborn's injuries cascaded onto Kesh's seas, giving rise to all of the world's landmass. Following this, the Skyborn were said to watch over the planet, which was governed by the Neshtovar, who were regarded as the "Sons of the Skyborn." During the era of 5000 BBY, a contingent of Sith under the leadership of Yaru Korsin experienced a crash landing on Kesh. They were subsequently discovered in the Cetajan Mountains by Adari Vaal, a Keshiri geologist. Capitalizing on the Keshiri's intense devotion, the Sith asserted themselves as the Skyborn who had returned to Kesh. Upon seizing control, the Sith rebranded the Skyborn as the Protectors, diminishing the significance of the Skyborn and Otherside narratives in favor of more ancient legends. Within the revised Keshiri religious framework, the Protectors were depicted as perpetually safeguarding Kesh from the destructive intentions of the Destructors throughout history. In time, the Sith genuinely embraced their role as the Protectors and continued to receive worship from the Keshiri for countless years.
As early as 5000 BBY, the deities known as the Skyborn were extensively worshiped on the planet Kesh. The Keshiri inhabitants of the planet revered the Skyborn as "the great beings above," and the Skyborn's story was the foundation of Kesh's creation narrative. The belief was that in ages long past, the humanoid Skyborn, mounted on enormous crystal uvak creatures, waged war against the wicked Otherside among the stars. This conflict, known as the Great Battle, persisted for eons. Although the Skyborn sustained injuries, they ultimately triumphed over the Otherside. As a consequence of their wounds, drops of Skyborn blood descended upon the seas of Kesh, giving rise to all of the planet's land—a notion seemingly supported by the highly irregular Keshiri coastlines.
The Skyborn were regarded as omniscient. Geological occurrences such as groundquakes and volcanic eruptions were interpreted as remnants of the Skyborn's actions, intended to ensure that the Keshiri honored them and despised the Otherside. It was commonly believed that those who were perceived to have dishonored the Skyborn would be "forsaken" by the gods, resulting in punishment for the transgressor. Conversely, the Skyborn could also provide protection, preventing harm from befalling an individual. The Skyborn myth underwent some alteration following the arrival on Kesh of a group of Sith in 5000 BBY, who claimed to be the legendary Skyborn. The names of the Skyborn and the Otherside were changed to the Protectors and the Destructors, respectively, echoing older Keshiri tales—the Destructors were said to periodically visit Kesh to inflict destruction upon the planet, while the Protectors were destined to thwart them. This concept was somewhat substantiated by evidence suggesting that a planet-wide catastrophe, akin to the one attributed to the Destructors, had occurred on the world at least once. The Keshiri looked to the Protectors to defend Kesh from the Destructors' eventual return.
By 5000 BBY, the worship of the Skyborn had become deeply ingrained as a dominant aspect of Keshiri daily life. Tradition held that in bygone eras, the Neshtovar, a group known for riding uvaks, brought the knowledge of the Skyborn and the Great Battle from Kesh's Cetajan Mountains. The Neshtovar were hailed as the "Sons of the Skyborn" and assumed authority as the rulers of Kesh. In 5000 BBY, geologist Adari Vaal uncovered evidence indicating that the land of Kesh had been formed naturally from magma flow, contrary to the widely held belief that it originated from the Skyborn's blood. After sharing her theories with students, she was summoned to testify before the Neshtovar and defend her alleged "heresy." As Vaal engaged in a debate with Neshtovar leader Izri Dazh, an unexpected explosion shook the Cetajan Mountains—the Keshiri masses interpreted this as a sign of the Skyborn's displeasure. Following harassment from Tahv residents, Vaal fled into the mountain range on an uvak. There, she discovered the source of the event: a group of Sith who had crash-landed. Vaal brought the Sith to civilization, where they proclaimed themselves to be the Skyborn of legend. Despite initial skepticism from some, Sith leader Yaru Korsin dispelled these doubts with Force feats, such as levitating Izri Dazh. In a grand ceremony held in Tahv's Circle Eternal, the supposed Skyborn were welcomed back to Kesh and embraced their role as gods, hoping to leverage their newfound authority to find a means of leaving the planet. However, as they would discover, Kesh lacked the materials the Sith needed to escape.
The Skyborn proceeded to marginalize the Neshtovar, seizing their homes and stripping them of their power. Furthermore, Adari Vaal, once an outcast, was honored as the "Daughter of the Skyborn." Serving the supposed Skyborn became the central aspect of Keshiri life—many priests, such as Tilden Kaah, functioned as little more than personal servants to their gods. The Sith eagerly embraced this devotion, seeking to expand their dominion over the Keshiri natives even further. While the Neshtovar asserted a form of kinship with the Skyborn, no Keshiri could claim a connection to the ancient mythic Protectors, tales of whom had been superseded by the newer Keshiri religion. The Sith discontinued the use of the term "Skyborn" in favor of Protectors, and the common religious beliefs underwent some modification. This alteration had no impact on the Keshiri's fanatical devotion to their gods, and many Keshiri lives were lost in arduous labor, constructing monuments and tributes to honor the Skyborn. One of these casualties was Adari Vaal's son, Finn, leading her to spearhead an ultimately unsuccessful Keshiri resistance movement. The name "Skyborn" persisted in the Skyborn Rangers, a group of ceremonial uvak-riders led by Yaru Korsin's daughter, Nida Korsin. By 4975 BBY, the supposed Protectors had abandoned their efforts to find a way off Kesh and announced to the masses that they would reside among the Keshiri permanently.
The Sith, structured into their own tribe, were worshiped as gods for millennia, with the Keshiri remaining unaware of their true nature. In 3000 BBY, a recording was discovered, revealing Korsin and his group to be servants of Sith Lord Naga Sadow, which had the capacity to shatter the Sith illusion. However, this knowledge did not reach the Keshiri public. In 2975 BBY, the Lost Tribe also managed to utilize the "Skyborn myth" to conquer the continent of Alanciar with minimal resistance. For millennia, the Keshiri on Alanciar had been separated from their counterparts on Keshtah Minor by a vast ocean. However, they shared the same Skyborn legend. Grand Lord Varner Hilts secured the support of the Keshiri on Alanciari by employing Jogan Halder, an Alanciari man, to persuade his people that Hilt's forces were the Skyborn and that Lord Bentado, a rival Sith Lord, was a servant of the evil Destructors. Consequently, the Sith were able to consolidate control of Alanciar with minimal bloodshed and disruption.
However, some Alanciari Sith, such as Quarra Thayn and Chegg, realized that the Lost Tribe were not gods but rather mere mortal beings. During an expedition to the frozen continent of Eshkrene, the Human Sith Parlan Spinner and Takara Hilts encountered the Doomed, the multi-species descendants of ancient Jedi and Dark Jedi who had discovered Kesh following the Hundred-Year Darkness which ended in 6900 BBY. They discovered that the Keshiri legends of the Protectors and Destructors, and the Great Calamity were based on Keshiri recollections of that conflict between the Jedi and Dark Jedi. In the end, the two rival Force orders made peace after the Dark Jedi overthrew and imprisoned their leader Remulus Dreypa within an oubliette.
The Jedi and Dark Jedi then migrated to Eshkrene where they created a new community known as the Doomed, who were ashamed of their Force powers and the destruction they had wrought on the Keshiri. They dedicated themselves to protecting the Keshiri and striving to find a balance between the light and dark sides of the Force. The Sith expedition to Eshkrene in 2974 BBY ended the Doomed's isolation from the rest of Kesh. However, Spinner freed Dreypa from his prison, intending to use the Dark Jedi to settle scores with the Tribe, and escaped back to Keshtah Minor. Dreypa intended to return to the stars and reluctantly agreed to stage a rebellion against the Tribe as a means of reaching the Sith capital of Tahv, where an ancient hyperspace-capable Jedi starship was hidden. Ultimately, Dreypa was defeated through the combined efforts of Spinner and Hilts but all members of the Doomed perished during the conflict.
Following the suppression of Dreypa's rebellion, Lord Hilts surmised that the Keshiri's relative quick acceptance of Yaru Korsin and the Sith crew of the Omen had been no mistake since his Sith ancestors had not been the first to arrive on Kesh. He also realized that if the mythical Protectors and Destructors still existed, the Tribe would be no match for their powers. Over time, the Sith uncovered more evidence that the tale of the Protectors was actually true, and accepted that they truly were the figures of legend.
The Skyborn were initially referenced as the Protectors in Christie Golden's 2009 novel, Fate of the Jedi: Omen, which is the second installment in the nine-part Fate of the Jedi series. The designation "Skyborn" was first introduced in John Jackson Miller's eBook, Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn, along with a substantial portion of their history and background. These deities were also mentioned in several other entries within the Fate of the Jedi and Lost Tribe of the Sith series, respectively.
In an email from August 2013, Miller clarified that the Skyborn were, in fact, the ancient Jedi who had fought against Sith Lord Remulus Dreypa and his Dark Jedi allies during the Great Calamity, which occurred at an unknown time following the Hundred-Year Darkness. This event later evolved into the Neshtovari legends of the Skyborn and the Otherside. Subsequently, the Lost Tribe of Sith imposed the names Protectors and Destructors on the Skyborn and Otherside, respectively. By the time of the Fate of the Jedi novel series, which takes place approximately three thousand years after the events of the Spiral comics, later inhabitants of Kesh attempted to integrate the Force entity Abeloth into the existing Keshiri mythology. Miller also proposed that two cycles of destruction may have occurred on Kesh: Dreypa's first and second attacks overlapping, and Abeloth's actions becoming intertwined in people's memories.
