Sith Pureblood

Admission to the Sith Academy

It has always been a privilege to face the trials at the Sith Academy. Even though most acolytes fail–and the cost of failure is typically death–the chance to train in the dark arts and become one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy is incentive enough for most. Others, attuned to the Force but reluctant to participate, are dragged and forced to face the trials.

Until recently, only purebloods and humans from the Empire were allowed entrance. To produce a Sith child is one of the Empire’s highest honors, and families identify and groom potential candidates from an early age. Since the loss of so many Sith in the war, however, a swell of less traditional thinking has opened the Academy to anyone displaying Force sensitivity.

Some conservative Sith call this a foolish and desperate move that will dilute the order instead of returning it to strength; others accept it as a temporary measure. At first, the conflict was merely intellectual as the first waves of new recruits into the Academy died ingloriously–but things are changing, and the new breed of Sith may yet prove itself worthy.

– Star Wars: The Old Republic Lore Codex

Sith Pureblood Slave

The Sith Inquisitor storyline starts off with the player’s character as a slave – with Sith Purebloods and their pure heritage being considered the pillar of Sith society, it would be very unlikely for a Sith Pureblood to be denigrated as a slave. Players asked the Creative Director of the game, Charles Boyd, about the idea of a Sith Pureblood as a character in the Sith Inquisitor story, and this was his response. In short, you can make a case for any species as any class.

“As brutal as the Sith are to one another, there must be cases where a powerful Pureblood Sith is overthrown and their surviving family members enslaved. It would certainly be quite the trophy for the Sith who overthrew them; if Purebloods are held to be the most powerful, then defeating and enslaving them must be seen as an impressive display of power indeed.

Perhaps the victorious Sith had intended to keep his Pureblood victim’s family in slavery permanently, but was overruled and forced to send the Force-sensitive ones to the academy as is tradition? Now he/she is constantly trying to find ways to undermine or kill the Pureblood covertly, before they can become powerful enough to exact revenge. Could be some fun RP opportunities beyond what the storyline brings.”

– Star Wars: The Old Republic Forums

Homeworld: Korriban

A cruel planet of rocky red deserts and crumbling ruins, Korriban was the homeworld of the ancient Sith. Reclaimed by the Empire in recent decades, it is now the site of the Sith Academy, where the Dark Council oversees the training of new acolytes. Only Sith may come and go freely from the academy, and for a non-Sith to visit Korriban is a great privilege.

Surrounding the academy are the tombs of the first Dark Lords. Used as testing grounds by the academy overseers, the tombs remain filled with traps, monstrosities and relics, even millennia after their construction–along with the bodies of a generation of failed acolytes.

– Star Wars: The Old Republic Lore Codex

Purity

Korriban was wrought by the true-blooded Sith millennia ago – our ancestors, a crimson race of conquerors, raised the statues around us. Over the eons, however, our people mingled with slaves. Now, the red markings of true Sith are rare – and the purity of this planet is in question.

Red skin is only a mark. It is the strongest indicator of a mighty heritage, but not the only one. True purity and strength are carried in the blood. I worry that our blood is being diluted over generations. In the Emperor’s name, I’ve come to learn whether the Academy’s overseers are Sith – or not. The training of aliens as Sith is an aberration.

So little Sith blood in all of the Academy… and only one of the overseers wears the red marks. This is shameful. I will bring this to the attention of the the Dark Council; measures must be taken if the true Sith are to survive. I’ll advise purges and enslavement of those with the thinnest blood, and uplift the pure. It will be the Dark Council’s decision, however. I fear for the Sith as a whole, and I would honor the ancestors who gave me strength.

– Excerpts from the Purity quest on Korriban spoken by Lord Aberon

The Sith Order Begins

Exiled for horrific dark side experiments, a group of Dark Jedi made a last stand against the Jedi Order on Corbos, where they were ultimately defeated. The survivors fled beyond the borders of Republic space and, seeking a refuge, they discovered the planet Korriban–home to the red-skinned Sith species. The Sith looked on the Dark Jedi’s Force abilities with awe, and worshipped them as gods.

Led by the fabled warrior and tactician Ajunta Pall, the Dark Jedi began forging the Sith into a glorious civilization, built on the principles they had established after breaking with the Jedi Order. They ordered the construction of great monuments on Korriban–vast cities that did not survive the ages, glorious temples and elaborate tombs.

As time passed, the Dark Jedi and the Sith species intermarried, until there were few true purebloods remaining. Eventually, there were only small physical differences between them. There were only the Sith, strong in the dark side of the Force, and their new Sith Empire.

– Star Wars: The Old Republic Lore Codex

The Sith Dynasties

The term Sith was once used to describe a variety of beings, and was not always synonymous with the dark side. Originally not only a cult but a cultured species before they were subjugated by dark Jedi exiles, the blood-colored humanoid Sith people lived a superficially barbaric though surprisingly harmonious existence on their homeworld Korriban. Sentient sacrifices to their gods, dining on bloodsoup, a rigid and prejudice caste system, and war between nations were all common in Sith culture. These barbarous practices were accepted not as contrary or antagonistic to life, but integral to it. War was quite literally a concept on par with peace or serenity; conceptually, the Sith people did not or could not differentiate one state from the other. There was, ultimately, only existence.

Some historians have speculated that the attitudes of the early Sith people were owed to a prehistoric encounter between their species and the vampiric beings known as the Anzati. Volfe Karkko, a rare Anzat Jedi known for his prolonged study of one of the Jedi Temple’s rare Sith holocrons, was fond of reminding his fellow Knights that the Anzati “remember the very first Sith.” Beyond the anecdotal, though, there is no solid evidence to support this theory.

A peculiarity of the Sith people was their innate tendency toward left-handedness. This led to their creation of the lanvarok, a forearm-mounted weapon adapted strictly for left-handed use (human Sith Lords later crafted a right-handed version). Pure-blooded Sith were also steadily bred out as their genes were eventually alchemically mixed with those of humanoid dark Jedi. Even after the genetic fusion, the Sith’s rigid caste system remained in place. Priests and warriors, called Kissai and Massassi respectively, were two of the prominent classes. Later in their history, those that bore the elevated title of Sith Lord were became relatively common, but in 100,000 years of their existence, the Sith only ever had one monarch overlord.
Ruling nearly 3,000 years before the rise of the Galactic Republic, King Adas was a massive, regal being encased in majestic ebon warrior armor. Raised from his youth as a chosen being due to the charcoal pigment of his skin, Adas demonstrated great intelligence, fighting prowess, and a tremendous aptitude for Sith magic. With his alchemically forged battle-ax, Adas led the bloody unification of Korriban’s disparate nations and became its undisputed world ruler. The Sith people came to believe that King Adas was immortal and that his reign would be eternal.

In fact, Adas was almost three hundred years old and had earned the title Sith’ari (meaning “the Lord” or “overlord”) when alien invaders came to Korriban. Misshapen Force-sensitive beings, these Rakatan soldiers of the so-called Infinite Empire first attempted to lull King Adas into their confidence by teaching him how to record his essence into a pyramidal, magical device called a holocron. But the Rakata soon showed their true colors and tried to conquer the Sith people. But even at that ripe age, the Sith King refused to go quietly and introduced the invaders to his oversized axe and the unconquerable will of his people. The dark siders were defeated, but the king gave his life to secure the Sith’s freedom. After his death, King Adas’ holocron passed to his “Shadow Hand,” his trusted advisor and second in command. Without Adas’ unifying influence, wars once again raged for rule of the Sith people, with the reigning combatants arrogantly claiming the title of Sith’ari, and eventually forcing a relocation of the Sith capitol to the planet Ziost. Eventually, almost two-dozen millennia after Adas’ death, a proper successor to Adas seemed to come at last. Known in Republic space as the Exiles, traitorous Jedi defeated in a galactic war called the Hundred-Year Darkness arrived on Korriban and cowed the Sith people with their astounding Force abilities, lightsabers, and superior technology. With the help of the ruling king’s Shadow Hand, these Jen’jidai, as the Sith called them, lured the Sith monarch into their confidence and destroyed him. Never anticipating this stunning sequence of events, the Sith people concluded that the dark Jedi were themselves more powerful gods than even the Sith’ari. Bestowing the Exiles with Adas’ holocron, the reign of the first Jen’ari, or “Dark Lord” of the Sith began.The last lord of the Sith Empire to possess Adas’ holocron was Lord Garu, who died around the time of the Great Hyperspace War. The holocron was abandoned on the planet Ashas Ree until its rediscovery centuries later by the fallen Jedi Freedon Nadd. Nadd used it to rule the planet Onderon, where the teachings of King Adas helped usher in a new age of darkness. When the Jedi eventually freed Onderon of the dark side, they gained possession of the Sith holocron and banished it to a place where it could, presumably, never be recovered — under millions of tons of water on a scarcely known world called Kodai.

– StarWars.com – Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties

The Exiles

As our defenseless ship traveled into the uncharted space, guided only by the dark side, our thoughts were heavy with the losses we had suffered. But after our ship emerged from hyperspace, we soon arrived upon the world you know as Korriban, We were astonished to find that the native Sith were Force-sensitive. Certainly our so-called banishment was not the consequence of Jedi whim but the will of the Force,

The Sith attempted to terrify us with crude but imaginative illusions, some of which were reasonably impressive. Although we lacked weapons, we were obviously stronger and more intelligent than they, and yet they were still eager to prove themselves and prevent us from appropriating their alchemical secrets, it was almost immediately clear that even their most talented sorcerers were no match for us, but they demonstrated honor when they yielded.

Eventually, all of the Sith – especially their Massassi warriors – lived only to serve their new masters. They really are amazingly malleable, the Massassi. New starships were constructed, weapons were fashioned, and more remarkable beasts were conceivec. Although I personally prefer to rely upon the Force to create organic wonders, numerous offspring are living proof that the Massassi are biologically compatible with various members of my brethren,

And so we…we who were the fallen Jedi, the fallen become dark, the dark become exiles…we became Dark Lords of the Sith.

– Emperor Palpatine in Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force

Massassi

It doesn’t require much of an imagination to see that the hulking Massassi are genetic cousins to the Sith Pureblood. Both share the same distinctive skin tones, skeletal ridges and body tendrils. Both are also Force-sensitive, though the similarities typically end there. Nourished by the dark side of the Force, the yellow-eyed Massassi have developed a culture based around hunting, combat and violent ritual sacrifice. On Yavin 4 in particular, the Massassi are markedly different from Purebloods. These impossibly strong warriors have developed dense and sharp claws on their hands and feet, and their intellect has diminished to the point that they rely almost entirely on animal instinct and use grunts to communicate. Their society, such as it is, has devolved into true barbarism.

The first Massassi warriors to arrive on the fourth moon of Yavin were intelligent beings. However, their utter devotion to Dark Lord of the Sith Naga Sadow rendered moot their capacity for independent thought. To Sadow, the Massassi were born and bred to build temples in his honor and to defend him until death; nothing more. Perhaps it was for this reason that Sadow’s experiments in Sith alchemy mutated his followers into rudimentary brutes.

Not all Massassi on Yavin 4 were subjected to Sadow’s alchemical manipulations, however. A tribe of clerics who preferred independence over mindless labor turned their backs on their master, quietly venturing out to make a home of their own. These Massassi were pioneers, masters of their own destinies. But if Sadow were to discover their betrayal, there would come a reckoning….

As a small tribe of cultured warriors, the intelligent Massassi thrived in the harsh jungles of Yavin 4. For a time they were content with their lives, but contentment led to restlessness. They longed for more. The uncontested rule and grand temples of Naga Sadow called to their warrior’s vanity. A plan emerged and the tribe marched on Sadow’s territory.

But Sadow, having learned of their independent existence, had anticipated their aggression. His mutated brutes ambushed the would-be usurpers. The sheer magnitude of their blunt-force attack was enough to take down an army. Relying on their wit to improvise and strategize, the smarter Massassi not only protected themselves from the onslaught, but advanced on their goal.

For days, the tribe stormed the temples their devolved cousins built. But where was the Dark Lord they had built them for? They had expected Naga Sadow would face them; they’d even accepted the likelihood most or all would fall to their former master. Instead, wave after wave of mutated brutes attacked and succumbed until there were none left to fight and the tribe stood triumphant inside the greatest of Sadow’s temples. It was then, at long last, that Naga Sadow appeared….

“You have succeeded,” Sadow declared. “You have defied the odds, killed many times more your own, taken all you so desperately coveted. You have fought and bled and sacrificed to arrive at this moment. All that remains is for you to strike me down. But once you have, what would you do then, without your brothers to murder? With nothing left to conquer on this orb?”

The Massassi slackened, unable to offer a response. There was none to give. “I commend you on the mass slaughter of your own kind,” Sadow intoned as hundreds of Massassi brutes flooded into the temple chamber. “You have seen the pinnacle of your days, the extent of your unchecked avarice. Think of it as the first of two gifts. The other I bestow on you now, though you were meant to have received it along with your fellow Massassi.”

Over time, the Massassi on Yavin 4 grew in number as they rebuilt that which they destroyed. They would never war amongst themselves again.

– Star Wars: The Old Republic Lore Codex

Book of Sith

We touched down on Korriban – the world that screams the loudest for those who can hear the dark side’s voice. It is on Korriban that the Sith Purebloods began; it is here that they often return in the death.

The Sith greeted us. Despite our obvious superior powers, we were not hailed as gods when we arrived. It took weeks for us to understand the power structure of their culture, to undermine it, and to annihilate the current king. Ajunta Pall beheaded their ruler, Hakagram Graush, and claimed the throne as the blood heir to the ancestral King Adas – and we became his Shadow Hands.

Ziost has been the throneworld of the Sith Purebloods since prehistory. It is where we erected our own palaces to rule as Sit Lords. The Sith respecrt power, and they are content to serve us.

In fact, the Sith Purebloods are marvels. They are a people driven by hunger, rage and the dark side.

After much experimentation, I have concluded that their blood is sufficiently similar to our own to permit alchemical crossbreeding. I know Dreypa, for one, has had his eye on a Sith priestess. He will be pleased to learn his bloodline will not only persist but thrive!

NOTE FROM MACE WINDU: Interesting. We don’t know if it was cataclysm of the crossbreeding mentioned here, but no trace of the Sith species remains. – Mace

We are served by their priests, the Kissai, who have come to worship us as demigods. They regard Ajunta Pall as the manifestation of Typhojem, the Left-Handed God, and are thus easily persuaded to do our bidding.

(The Book of Sith is an incredible resource on Sith and Sith Pureblood lore, almost a quarter of the book and its entire first section is dedicated to the formation of the Sith and the Sith Pureblood people before the Dark Jedi arrived, written by Sorzus Syn. Highly recommend getting a copy of this if you are interested in Sith Purebloods or Sith lore as I did not include the entire transcript. It’s also a lot easier to get ahold of compared to many of the other Old Republic source materials! – Swtorista)

– Star Wars: Book of Sith

Darth Ikoral

Darth Ikoral, a Sith Lord with an unusually strong pureblooded lineage, was known for his hatred of aliens and even refused to tolerate the presence of alien slaves. With the Dark Council’s permission, he eventually left Dromund Kaas to seek out other pureblooded Sith who might have escaped the Republic after the Great Hyperspace War. Darth Ikoral’s fleet was gone so long that he was eventually believed dead. To those left behind, his tireless devotion to purity came to symbolize the strength that comes with the blood of the ancient Sith—a sign that purebloods are truly superior.

– Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia