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Star Wars: The New Sith Empire - Campaign Info/Background


Dave ST

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It is a dark time for the Galaxy. The New Sith Empire has held control of the Galaxy for nearly twelve decades and shows no signs of having its power contested. Life has continued on and for most, the rule of the Sith is all they know. The law is iron-clad and the punishments for violating them is severe, but they are The Sith, and must be obeyed.

There are some archivists who learned of a time when it was not always as it is today. A time of peace and prosperity. A time when evil and tyranny were held in check by brave men and women of all species and walks of life. A time when they stood strong, allied by hope, freedom and The Force. A new Galactic Alliance has taken root in the distant Outter Rim world of Yavin V in the charred, broken husk of the ancient Massassi Temple, the once proud home of the New Jedi Order...



The Rise of Darth Krayt

Darth Krayt, formerly Jedi Knight A'Sharad Hett, was the founder and leader of this new generation of Sith Lords. A witness to a galaxy deeply wounded by the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, and the Yuuzhan Vong War, A'Sharad came to believe that the galaxy was fractured and weak, and that a single will was needed to make it whole and strong again. Equipped with knowledge gained from Sith holocrons found on the ancient Sith burial world of Korriban and renaming himself Darth Krayt after the fierce creature of his homeworld, he reestablished the order under his leadership and pledged to reunify the galaxy according to the will of the Sith. Krayt believed that the Sith needed to grow in strength over the decades, while the Jedi Order would become increasingly weakened and compromised by their lack of ruthlessness. When the balance of power had shifted sufficiently, the Sith would strike.

Krayt's Order was founded before 30 ABY. Its agents, including Lomi Plo and Welk, were active during the Yuuzhan Vong War, and by 40 ABY, they numbered more than thirty.

The new Sith were not connected with Lumiya and her plans to remake Jacen Solo, which led to him becoming Darth Caedus in 40 ABY. Vergere encountered Hett in Yuuzhan Vong captivity prior to the Yuuzhan Vong War, and had philosophical discussions with him, ultimately leaving him behind as they did not see eye to eye on certain matters. Lumiya apparently encountered him some time during the early years of the Yuuzhan Vong War, but opted to actively reject his vision for the Sith. Lumiya and Vergere were both unwilling to discard the Rule of Two and were not compatible with Krayt's Order.

According to the Sith on Korriban in 40 ABY, it was believed that Luke Skywalker's Jedi would also grow in strength with time, frustrating the new Sith Order's long-term plan. Therefore they took advantage of Solo's fall to the dark side, in order to pre-empt the Jedi, and effectively used him to deflect attention away from themselves.

In 41 ABY, with Darth Caedus's death at the end of the Second Galactic Civil War and with his apprentice, Tahiri Veila, redeemed, Lumiya's Sith, the last surviving remnant of the Order of the Sith Lords had perished, along with Darth Bane's Legacy. This was another presumed extinction of the Sith Order, little knowing that the One Sith were hiding on Korriban 11 years earlier.

For more than a hundred years, Krayt grew and strengthened the Sith on Korriban, surreptitiously planning to bring its vision of peace and order to the galaxy. While the order grew in secret, Krayt attempted to heal the wounds inflicted upon him by the Vong, going into lengthy stasis-treatments and conferring only with his most trusted servant, the first Darth Wyyrlok.

Krayt was now living beyond his standard lifespan and his body began to fail him, his condition kept at bay by healing trances. He estimated that the seeds the Vong had implanted within him would consume him within a decade or two, which fueled his later interest in Cade Skywalker, as he was motivated by a sense that the young Jedi apprentice in exile had once used the Force to revive his comrade from the edge of death.

The Rule of One
"Power is its own purpose. To share it is to dilute it. You delude yourself, pretender. Your order will yet turn on itself and you."―Darth Bane to Darth Krayt for disobeying the Rule of Two

When Darth Krayt founded his new Sith Order, he abolished Darth Bane's Rule of Two, a diktat which commanded that there should be only two Sith at any one time; a master and an apprentice: one to embody the power of the dark side, the other to crave it. Instead, there would be the Rule of One — that One being the Sith Order itself, under which there would be many minions, acolytes/adepts and lords with only one Dark Lord of the Sith. Darth Krayt believed he gave the Sith and their power a purpose, unlike Darth Bane who believed that power was its own purpose.
Darth Krayt, creator of the Rule of One, and his One Sith.

Under the Rule of One, the followers of Krayt were taught blind obedience and absolute loyalty to the Dark Lord of the Sith, instead of the plotting and infighting of previous Sith organizations. Similarly to the Jedi Order, Sith Masters trained a single apprentice. However, after their training was completed, apprentices were required to slay their Masters as a test of their allegiance to the Dark Lord, just like in the past Sith Order acolytes were required to kill someone to whom they were attached or close to seal their transition to the dark side. Masters who deemed their apprentices ready would allow themselves to be killed, as long as it was on Krayt's orders.

The new Sith also mirrored the Jedi in that, while they did rely on passion, hatred and aggression, they did not seek power for themselves alone, but to serve the will of the Dark Lord and impose his order on the galaxy by any means necessary. Instead of reducing the number of Sith to avoid the Order from destroying itself, Krayt altered the Sith philosophy. He claimed he gave power purpose. With the numbers as great as they were before the previous Rule's establishment, it allowed the Sith to match up in numbers with the Jedi.

The Sith-Imperial War
At last, in the period of 127–130 ABY, the Sith made their presence known openly under Krayt's leadership, and the result of his machinations was the Sith-Imperial War. Krayt's own holocron contained entries relating how he caused the fall of the Galactic Alliance and the restoration of the Empire as the dominant galactic power.

Krayt harnessed that hatred to sabotage a Jedi project that was established for entirely altruistic reasons. The original intent of the Ossus Project was to use Yuuzhan Vong terraforming techniques to restore a barren section of the once-devastated Jedi fortress world of Ossus. When the test proved successful, the response was tremendous. Out of a host of applicants, one hundred worlds were selected for the Vong terraforming process. Yuuzhan Vong Shapers, overseen by Jedi escorts, produced incredible results. But Krayt's agents sabotaged the process; soon, the vegetation withered, and bony growths like those once seen on those the Vong had taken as slaves began forming on the skin of the inhabitants. The Jedi immediately suspected sabotage, but could never prove it. It did not matter; the lingering resentment the galaxy felt towards the Vong, even decades after their defeat and exile, did Krayt's work for him, and soon the Vong were accused of trying to restart their genocidal crusade against the galaxy by other means.

The results were everything the Dark Lord of the Sith could have hoped for. The Jedi, devoted to the truth above all, defended the Vong and encouraged the Galactic Alliance to support them. The Empire reacted accordingly; members of the Moff Council demanded retribution and, invoking the Treaty of Anaxes, declared war on the Alliance. But in addition to war with the Empire, the Alliance found itself facing dissension from within its own ranks. Worlds that had suffered the most under the Vong now aimed their resentment at the Alliance; many of them refused to support the Alliance and actively sided with the Empire, while others just stood by and watched under the banner of neutrality. So divided, the Alliance was easy to conquer. But Emperor Roan Fel himself was less than enthusiastic; he'd only reluctantly declared war and never threw his full support behind it. He even prevented his Imperial Knights from participating. Because Roan Fel refused to let the Imperial Knights enter the war, the Empire didn't have the strength necessary to counter the Jedi, and so, the Sith joined the conflict.

In three years, the Galactic Alliance was defeated and the Empire absorbed all its former holdings, even reclaiming Coruscant as the Imperial throne world. It was a reversal of the galactic order that no one could have foreseen, or believed was possible. But despite the grandeur of this victory, it was but a stepping stone for Krayt.
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