ʜᴄ sᴠɴᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏɴᴇs
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To submit a flavorful entry to the Dead Planet Contest that will allow for the exploration of certain RP concepts, and the potential emergence of a new faction.
- Image Credit: Planetary Wallpapers
- Canon: N/A
- Links: N/A
- Planet Name: Khomos Major; Malkath
- Demonym: Khomosi; Am-Malkath
- Region: Unknown Regions
- System Name: Khomos System
- System Features: The planet of Khomos Major traces a highly eccentric elliptical orbit around its warm, blue sun; leading to seasonal variation as it passes significantly closer during the warm season and further during the cold. The planet has a single, small moon in its orbit, which was known as Isod to the native species, yet christened Khomos Minor during the colonial era.
- Coordinates: (6,11); slightly lowered from the rightmost vertex of the hex.
- Major Imports: As the planet is currently sterile, there are no imports or exports. However, if occupied, the planet will require consistent importation of food and drinkable water to sustain any sort of colony, barring significant terraforming.
- Major Exports: Economically speaking, none. The planet's oceans have the potential to be exported as a strong anesthetic due to their chemical component, the ground has yet to be entirely mined for metals and stone that could be used for construction, and the ruins are a source of valuable and exploitable historic and genetic information.
- Gravity: Slightly above standard.
- Climate: Temperate; the planet experiences a degree of seasonal variation that means it has dry, hot summers and cold, moist winters. The atmosphere is thinner than the average life-bearing world.
- Primary Terrain: Mountains used to produce dense, rain-shadow jungles teeming with life at the foot of ranges crested with black, poisonous snow; they were never far from long stretches of arid desert, rife with storms and filled with bone-white sand so soft and smooth it was like a silky powder. After the planet was 'sterilized,' its terrain remained similar, with the exception that the wildlife, flora and fauna, crumbled to ash over the centuries. The water of Khomos Major is oily-black, undrinkable unless boiled thoroughly due to mineral elements within it that bring on hallucinations, euphoria, and a sleep from which there is no waking.
- Khomos City; Habadath; The Black Jewel of Khomos: This former city is one of the few urban structures almost entirely untouched by the horrifying powers unleashed upon the planet the moment it died, and a primary example of what came from the meeting of Sith sensibilities and the natives' gloomy fatalism in the colonial era. Its second name means 'Devourer' in the language of the Alechai species, a reference to how many slaves were brought into the city, and how none returned. The streets slant so that those who dropped dead would roll sideways into the sewage system, a gutter of acid that would dissolve flesh, bone, waste, and garbage into a slurry constantly vomited forth into the surrounding landscape. This made murder and abuse remarkably easy to get away with for either class, and 'accidents' were the order of the day. Even after its death, the many mechanical systems of the city continue functioning, creating a cacophony of grinding, crashing, and slurping punctuated by ringing bells.
- The White Sea: This desert is notable for being ringed on all sides by mountains, and for stretching to engulf the majority of the southernmost continent. There is little of value to be found here, unless one wishes to render the sand into the black glass that some Sith Sorcerers postulated could give visions of the Netherworld of the Force, only due to all the life that met its end. Formerly home to a few species, the desert now is the site of frequent ion storms that crisscross its charged atmosphere, throwing up whirls of biting, blinding sand and bringing down ships or confounding sensors. This, of all places, is where life goes to die.
- Khomos Minor Sith Temple; Gamaleel: Given a name by the slaves that built it meaning 'Blight,' it was from the planet's moon that primitive Sith aristocrats ruled over a population mostly incapable of spaceflight, naming it a holy land to the Dark Side that would not be violated on pain of death. The moon was once a temperate, woodland ball rumored to be the residence of willowy angels in service to El, though such a species would now be extinct — this was a house that fed on death for power. Though the Sith too had descended into ignorance, unable to escape the system without knowledge of hyperspace, they here perfected the art of focusing the Force across vast distances upon large populations, and crushed the First Great Rebellion with lightning and death rained down from above. Prisoners were frequently impaled upon elaborate arrays of spikes as a form of art, and in the time of the Second Rebellion these crucifixions became so common that it was like a forest had sprung up around the temple, the devices designed to keep life in these beings for months, if not years, as those within drew upon their prisoners' Dark energies. The writings and repositories of lore, as the planet is yet undiscovered, are mostly intact yet represent ancient knowledge, with few deviations from what is currently already known to the Sith. The structure itself is dilapidated, in a vaguely humanoid shape that was intended to be an abstract representation of their Dark Lord, Vitiate as a sphinxlike god-monster swollen with the life of others.
Prometheus
- The Last Hope: The Second Great Rebellion was misnamed. It was not a rebellion, not an uprising, but rather the last gasp of a species hungry for revenge, for peace, and a representation of the true reason any despot, however effective, must never deprive their population of all hope — there is something terrible that resides in the actions of a being with nothing left to lose. Built sturdily, and protected by both brilliance of architecture and a small, solar-powered shield array that guards it from the sandstorms, this seedpod-shaped vault lies in the middle of the White Sea. A silent, echoing building in the one place where it would not be looked for, save perhaps long after the threat to it had passed. Inside it is detailed accounts of the Alechai's religion, art, history, and science, complete with a strange diorama - what appears to be a Sathra (an Alechai king) hosting a banquet for all castes, a lifelike moment frozen in time. These are actual bodies, those who built the structure, preserved in death as feigning a happy moment, who chose the dignified end of a stasis array stilling their hearts and chilling their brains rather than to share the destiny of the numerous people who died of thirst and starvation at the end of the grim pilgrimage to build this.
FORCE NEXUS
Size: Planetary
Intent: To showcase the dreadful nature of the planet, and offer a grim reminder that not all ripples in the Force represent the opportunity to derive power, but rather that some are simply the danger that results from the Force being abused.
Effects: The nexus itself, in a cruel twist of strangeness, is not Dark, hanging in the balance between the blackness of its deep despair and sense of vengeance, and the Light principles of self-sublimation into the Force and the surrender of individual identity. All those who died on Khomos Major, and all those who die, do not pass on into the Force's netherworld. Instead, they are drawn into the planet's all-encompassing aura of misery, their identities and selves waning as they are subject to the noise, the screams, the thoughts and memories of all those likewise entrapped until the walls of their spirits crumble and they enter into a hell with no end or exit. This coagula of sentience, the sum of all the life that was and that does die, creates a malevolent sea of consciousness that presses on the walls of others' minds. Though those deaf to the Force may merely feel a sense of lingering hopelessness and unease, and strange dreams, the effects become more acute the more attuned one is — one hears a resonance of thoughts and memories that are not theirs. Though a Master might be able to sift through this pool of knowledge to find specific thoughts and memories, or draw out spirits of those that die, most must simply close their minds for sanity's sake, and not reach too far, or else be ripped to pieces in a whirlpool of madness.
POPULATION
- Native Species: Alechai
- Immigrated Species: Human, Sith Pureblood
- Population: Formerly was Moderately Populated; Currently Uninhabited
- Demographics: Formerly a ruling class of Sith and Human experts and nobility, aided by a strong military and spearheaded by a very narrow sliver of Force-Sensitive, theocratic Sith Lords oppressing a large majority of technologically unadvanced Alechai. Now, the planet is lifeless.
- Primary Languages: Old Basic, Sith, Alechai
- Culture: Built into a Sith Empire in miniature during its colonial period, the previous culture was one of multiple, slowly-unifying city-states united by the belief in a foretold savior, named Idanoa, Who Shall Judge. There was a firm belief that physical reality was an illusion to be lifted among more spiritual and bohemian castes, coming into conflict with a caste believing in more materialistic ends, seeking improvement through a society of wealth and trade.
- Government: Formerly a Magocratic Oligarchy.
- Affiliation: None.
- Wealth: Low — the planet itself has few precious metals, and its wildlife and populace were primitive such that they were unprepared to enter
- Stability: High — the Sith held a total advantage in every way against the natives, and oppressed them thoroughly, in the end only being obliterated by sheer chance that some might construe as the will of the Force itself.
- Freedom & Oppression: Even with the government entirely wiped out, the planet still reeks of its former oppression. Although it formerly was a place of terrifying cruelty and absent liberty, now all that remains is an aura of deadly hopelessness.
MILITARY & TECHNOLOGY
- Military: The obscure nature of the planet meant that it would not receive any visitors for as long as it sustained life, and long after as well. Over the course of time, its anti-air and other such external defenses fell into disuse. However, the planet was highly militarized, with a constant standing army whose purpose was, turned inwards, continuing the repression of the native Alechai.
- Technology: Before it was extinguished, the planet was at the technological level of roughly the Golden Age of the Sith, colonized by refugees of the Republic's genocide against the earliest Empire. Before the colonial era, it was a pre-spaceflight society best understood at being at roughly the level of the Gormak of Voss, if much more peaceful.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
- Pre-Colonial Era: Before it was discovered by the Sith, the Alechai, a race of pallid, black-eyed humanoids, knew that they were chosen for a special purpose. Every generation, a single Seer was born, the one Force-Sensitive who was, as they said, chosen by the god El. Among the city-states, yielding up the Seer was cause for many celebrations, sacred feasts, and the noble merchants and men of influence would open the doors to their houses for all to enter in feasting and celebration. The first Seer had divined their place, a single speck in a sea of life, and determined that it was El-sha, the spirit of the divine that dwelled in all the known universe, who had appointed them stewards of this one world, to remain and await the coming of a foretold prophet, a Seer who would bring about "knowledge and reckoning and revelation of the truth, and open to the people the vault of the sky to share all great wisdom." Under the Seer's guidance as a sort of planetary advisor to the leaders of the city-states, this fatalistic religion grew into one of optimism that the better the world was made, the more bright Idanoa would shine when they set foot on the planet.
- Discovery: When the Republic waged war against the Sith Empire, it was more than a simple conquest. If it had been just that, perhaps the planet that once was called Malkath would still be a world bearing life, perhaps Idanoa would have arrived to a peaceful world and the prophecy would have moved in the manner the temporal scholar believed it would - introducing spaceflight, and bringing the Alechai to the galaxy. Instead, the Sith fled in mad panic from ferocious, existential war against their personage. As Darth Ikoral later posited, there were Sith among these who broke away from Vitiate, who survived, who descended into primitivism. A few of these Sith found their way through hyperspace by chance, in crippled vessels, deprived of their Zuguruk engineers. At first, Darth Grammoth was greeted as being in accordance with the prophecy, this glorious being from the sky was surely Idanoa, the deliverer of salvation. Had he accepted the gracious greetings of the Alechai, perhaps he would have filled that role. He instead chose a path that lead to death.
- Colonial Oppression: Fear. That was what the Alechai felt as lasers melted what armies they fielded, what they felt when massive holoprojectors showed montages of their kings' tortures and executions in lieu of battle standards above the soldiers that marched against blade and kinetic-projectile armed warriors with blasters and shields. Soon, there was no fear, because each one knew exactly what awaited them. Bereft of an Empire, Darth Grammoth created one anew, in the tradition of the Sith, on the backs of the enslaved. The Seer, whose appearance could be predicted by the usurped 'True Dreams' of the people, was slaughtered in its crib, and that tradition was broken. This proceeded for several generations, and Lord Grammoth perished, yet persisted in spirit, advising his cruel apprentice as they oversaw the governance of what the Sith had named Khomos Major. There was profound damage to the culture of the Alechai, however, and soon the Lady Visimine was warned of a reckoning that awaited her iron-fisted grip, as she wrung civilizations and opulence for the descendants of the Imperials from the groaning chattel.
- The First Great Rebellion: Planetary insurrection was inevitable for as long as Idanoa's legend persisted, as long as the flame of hope burned in the Alechai. The 'Day of Nemeth' was the catalyst, where a forced-farming community that fed the capital itself was destroyed by improvised explosives, its resident Sith Lord slain in a rain of stolen blasters' fire, its people an upraised fist that fled into the night, a free people. This new, Nemethic form of religion cast Idanoa as a warrior-god, marching with His people in spirit and confounding the enemy. As the hostile jungles, mountain passes, and stretches of desert proved to give a decisive advantage to the guerrillas, the Sith proved to be confounded by their enemies. Pushed to desperation, afraid of losing the only Empire that she had, Lady Visimine sacrificed her master's unwilling spirit in a potent ritual performed in conjunction with an assemblage of Sith Lords on Khomos Minor's Sith Temple - having divined her enemies' location, a great storm issued from the sky. Fire, death, and lightning rained down on her enemies and obliterated them utterly, body and soul. However, as she wiped the sweat from her brow, her apprentice slew her with a single strike from the back. "Never again," he declared over her twitching corpse, "Will weakness allow Sith to die at the hands of slaves!"
- The Dark Times: Oppression worsened — once, the Alechai had been mere servants, a lesser species, like housepets. Now, they were the enemy. The slaves were moved around frequently, families separated intentionally, Reclamation Service officers created a division devoted to annihilating the cultural relics and history of the species. The penalty for praying to El was public beating and execution. Soon, what remained of the Alechai was an oral tradition, yet the species as a whole was descending the ladder of evolution, only the spark of their sentient dignity and hope in their coming savior to keep them from falling into the status of animal. In this time, the luxuries of the metropolises grew — Khomos City produced so much acid-burnt sludge that it created a lake of death, and such was the stench and noise that new spires were added, constantly churning out perfume and music so that the nobility could exist in pleasant, willful ignorance of what took place below. The new Dark Lord, for they had so abandoned the idea that another would come to them, was growing anxious. Their internal security was absolute, their dominion complete, and with such a situation soon his Sith allies would begin to seek dominance. He needed fiefs to give to vassals, and the thrill of new conquest, and enemies - and he was given a vision of just the being to do so.
- The Coming of the Savior: It was utter scandal when the Seer was spared death. A splinter of an insular society, there had been no alien Sith Lords among the people of the Khomos System, yet the Dark Lord took the Seer as his apprentice. Later, he would relate to this one a vision - a joining of Sith and Alechai, creating an continuance of the tradition of the Seer married to the tradition of master and apprentice succeeding the Dark Lord, and a rediscovery of modern technology. Access to the ancestral memories of his predecessors would make this new adept powerful, and he was raised to live without compassion. Yet, focusing his anger, the new Sith Alechai inevitably was drawn to his people's suffering. Disease, hunger, thirst: the planet was so wracked that even secluded on the moon, he could sense the tragedy and agony. He took a new name for himself, one to articulate his purpose, and one to show his power as he developed in the Force with new fervor and speed: Darth Idanoa. The people trembled with rage at this blasphemy. Who was he to mock their one hope?
- The Second Great Rebellion: Yet, a new Seer was a point of pride. This cruel scheme of the Dark Lord was viewed as a progressive act, and it gave new dignity to the slave populace. Idanoa was encouraged by his master to build a cult around himself, to test his power, because he viewed him as the future of the Sith Empire. However, the cult was far from a productive one - it was a death cult. For a people without dignity, there was hope in freedom in death, and the Seer shared visions of the Netherworld, of peace, of spiritual power, and of Sith Lords languishing in Chaos. Unrest grew, and hatred of Idanoa as well. Soon, the apprentice was viewed as a political pariah, and his master declared Kaggath - his hopes were not realized, and he would need to use force to extract the knowledge to open the sky and fulfill the role of Idanoa himself. Darth Idanoa, the Lord of Silence, let himself be struck down - yet at that moment, every slave in Khomos City dove into the nearest gutter, or hanged themselves, or slit their throats, and many more outside that, by the hundreds of thousands, in unison. There was a great roil of noise, of destruction, and each spirit seized hold of one another. There was no time to flee, or say goodbye, and death was soon upon the world.
- The End: The skies did open - the clouds parted, as the water settled, and there was an aurora, and a barren moon. The Netherworld was closed, it was brought to Khomos, it was transformed into a netherworld. The screaming spirits of the Sith had eaten each other in madness, had screamed and wept and curled into fetal balls as their faces melted away. Each plant and animal yielded its energy, and each life taken took in turn more life. There was a storm. That storm has since died. One spirit, one being of godly will and power, walked amongst them. In the desert, He visited His most faithful followers - the honorably dead, who had given the world a Last Hope. He reached into the future, using His power, the power of all the spirits that teemed to give energy, for they shared their worshipful memories of their savior. The culture would not be restored. The Alechai would not be revived, as was hoped. The Last Hope was in vain. As the spirit faded into the currents of screams, as it dissolved into a whole without self, it sobbed bitter tears. They were delivered, but they would never be saved.
