The burial site of the well-known Dark Lord of the Sith Tulak Hord was erected by the Sith of Korriban inside the Valley of the Dark Lords while he reigned as the leader of the Sith Empire.
Hewn into the stone facade of the upper valley, the final resting place of Sith Lord Tulak Hord was made ready in anticipation of the Sith Lord's passing around 5300 BBY. Upon Hord's death, his remains were placed inside, and the tomb was sealed shut. After the Empire's unsuccessful attempt to conquer the Galactic Republic around 5000 BBY, the Valley and Hord's tomb suffered extensive damage during the costly war against the Republic. As Sith Lord Naga Sadow beat a retreat and a segment of the Empire escaped to Dromund Kaas, the Republic's leader Supreme Chancellor Pultimo gave the order to devastate Korriban and oversaw the bombing of the Valley of the Dark Lords. The tomb remained hidden under layers of sand and debris for countless years, while the spirits of the Sith festered beneath the surface of the ruined planet, eagerly awaiting the Empire's return.
Several millennia following the collapse of the Empire, Darth Revan resurfaced in the known galaxy, leading an Empire and establishing his base on Korriban during the Jedi Civil War. After Revan was captured by the Jedi Order and embraced the light side of the Force, he went back to Korriban disguised as an acolyte and managed to get inside the rebuilt Sith Academy located there. During his time there, he explored Hord's tomb, battling his way through numerous tuk'ata guarding the entrance, along with some protective droids. The academy's previous Headmaster Jorak Uln had made the tomb his home after being overthrown by his apprentice Uthar Wynn. He abducted Sith students, including Mekel, and brought them to the tomb to be tortured until they died. When the redeemed Revan explored the tomb, Jorak Uln ambushed him, taking him to the burial chamber where Revan allowed himself to be tortured in Mekel's place by deliberately answering Uln's questions incorrectly. Filled with gratitude, Mekel assisted Revan in killing Jorak Uln, and Revan successfully persuaded Mekel to return to the light and forsake the Sith.
During the Dark Wars, only a few years after Revan's disappearance, his former ally, Meetra Surik, journeyed back to Korriban in search of the Lost Jedi. During her search, she observed that the tomb of Tulak Hord had sustained substantial damage from severe sandstorms, and its entrance was obstructed. As the Sith were expelled from the galaxy and the Jedi Order enforced a strict quarantine on the planet, millennia passed, and the tomb remained concealed beneath sand and debris.
When the True Sith Empire made their way back to Korriban at the start of the Great Galactic War, teams were dispatched into the Valley to unearth the tombs and ruins and restore the Valley to its former glory. Teams entered the tomb of Tulak Hord and cleared away the rubble as they searched for ancient artifacts and powerful tools. By the time of the Cold War, the Sith had largely cleared the tomb's corridors and discovered the ruined atrium located behind the Valley's main wall.
Much to the Empire's dismay, the tomb became infested with a nest of rapidly reproducing k'lor'slugs, a troublesome and aggressive creature that plagued the tomb and the surrounding valley. Tomb raiders exploited the k'lor'slug infestation, rushing into the tomb to pilfer as many artifacts as possible while the Sith were preoccupied with the infestation. Rebellious slaves launched attacks on Sith teams working in the tomb, prompting the Academy to deploy Sith troopers to patrol the tomb and safeguard the workers. The archaeologist Ephran Zell took it upon himself to investigate the atrium's various facilities during the Cold War era. Stationed at the tomb's entrance, he tasked a passing acolyte with entering the chambers housing the Red Engine and the Archives of Hord to uncover all of the Sith's secrets. Simultaneously, Lord Zash commissioned the acolyte to retrieve a special text hidden within the tomb, divided into three tablets located in three different chambers. Later, a promising warrior was tasked with retrieving the fragments of an ancient Sith tablet scattered throughout the tomb for his new master, Darth Baras.
A vast complex nestled deep within the northern cliffs of the upper Valley of the Dark Lords, the entrance to Tulak Hord's tomb was situated in the main valley, opposite the tomb of Naga Sadow. The tomb's entrance was unassuming and small, leading into a network of hallways branching out from a central antechamber. These hallways eventually converged into a large, open-air atrium featuring several statues and monuments dedicated to Hord, as well as the entrances to his Archives and the Machine Vault. Within the Archives, Sith Lord Sundar had established his residence with several acolytes during the Cold War until he was killed by an acolyte from the academy. The nearby Machine Vault housed the massive [Red Engine](/article/red_engine], created by Hord himself to safeguard his darkest secrets. The Machine hung suspended from the ceiling above an altar that required the blood of the chamber's beasts to be activated.
In Knights of the Old Republic, there is also the non-canon dark side option to answer Jorak Uln's questions correctly, resulting in Mekel being tortured and killed. The player character then has the option to loot the remains.