The Outlander defeated Vitiate once and for all eleven years ago and took The Eternal Throne, from their she began her own quest to take the galaxy. The Eternal Fleet simultaneously attacked both The Galactic Republic and The Sith Empire, these factions, ravaged by seven years of constant war by the time The Eternal Alliance attacked them, had no other choice but to ally together. A year of heavy fighting finally destroyed The Eternal Fleet and Zakuul was bombarded by Harrower-Class Dreadnoughts until the spires were ash: the war was over, The Eternal Empire reduced to fledgling remnants, but at what cost? Ever since the Cold War ended The Empire and The Republic had been in constant warfare, both sides were devastated and next to no morale existed to continue fighting, hence, the truce forged to crush the legacy of Valkorion once and for all has lasted a decade longer as both sides retreat to their respective capitals to rebuild. The Sith Empire has taken the brunt of the war, having lost three Emperors - Vitiate, Acina, and Vowrawn - numerous Dark Councilors, and millions of men, a chance to breathe and rebuild was needed, dozens of systems at the edges of both factions are disillusioned, secondary factions - The Hutt Cartel and Eternal Remnants - seek to take advantage of the present state of the superpowers, and the halls of The Sith Academy on Korriban are filled to the brim with new acolytes, seeking to become Sith or die. Yet another class of acolytes is arriving, including a powerful Chiss from the edge of the galaxy.
Author's Note: This is a Star Wars: The Old Republic fanfiction - yes it's obviously my IP and I completely take credit for all SWTOR material and I seek to extract every last cent I can! (This is sarcasm for those of us who may lack a brain and/or be a lawyer) - anyway, it's hopefully the beginning of a sort of series of SWTOR sequels giving an individual story to each advanced class - this one is The Sith Sorcerer, read, review, and enjoy!
The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.
Prologue.
The Valley of The Dark Lords.
Chapter I.
The Tomb of Marka Ragnos.
Korriban. The red sands covered the hard, barren rock, and beneath that, the ancient tombs of hundreds of Sith - even the ancient warrior Kings of the Sith people themselves, from before the Dark Jedi Ajunta Pall's arrival. Jagged mountains and crumbling ruins rose up from the sand, including six giant ruined statues of Sith, simple and titanic, finally, beyond those behemoths of stone The Valley of The Dark Lords came into view, the ancient ruins in the shadow of the massive pyramidal structure of The Sith Academy. The power of the Dark Side radiated from the ruins, the Tombs of four of the most powerful Sith in history, built upon the ruins of Tombs of ancient Sith Kings. The shuttle inched ever closer to these ruins, yet all of a sudden the shuttle stopped and slowly began to touch down, through the portholes canyon walls surrounded us, as I looked back into the shuttle, the other acolytes looked similarly confused.
There were six of us, one was a Cathar woman, petite yet fierce with twin vibroswords holstered on her back, she hadn't said anything to me and by appearances, was easily the least nervous of us, next to her was a blue-skinned Togruta with white facial tattoos and vibrant red patterns on her white montralls, she was more talkative and gave her name as Pheraza, near the entrance was a pale brown skinned Iridonian Zabrak, dull horns protruding from her bald head, I'm not sure how she ended up here, The Sith enslaved numerous Dathomirian Zabrak, but Iridonian Zabrak were - predominantly - citizens of The Republic. There were two male acolytes as well, a burly and quiet Rattataki, likely a former slave, I could see and feel the fear in his eyes but he wouldn't let it show in his expression or his posture, likely a side-effect of his slavery, the other acolyte was sit on the bench on the same side as me, small and soft-spoken, he was a violet skinned Twi'Lek named Vavense. Finally, there was me, Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe, nothing but a poor Chiss girl from the edge of the galaxy, nothing but a peasant that spent nineteen years with a fledgling family attempting to extract wealth from a barren tundra, yet now I was supposed to use the Force? become a Sith? I couldn't do this.
I had noticed two things about our group however, one: we were all aliens; no Humans and no Sith Purebloods. The second, with the exception of The Cathar, none of us had anything other than plain black hooded Academy robes and Training Lightsabers. Interesting; finally, we touched down and with a heavy hiss, the shuttle door opened, exposing us to the dry heat of Korriban. I spent nineteen years living on a cold tundra, three days in a climate controlled Gage-Class Transport followed by a similarly controlled shuttle ride down to the surface, and now I was in a Force-infused desert.
Nevertheless, I walked out into the heat with the other acolytes, before us stood two women, a Sith Pureblood and a Human Cyborg. The Pureblooded Sith woman wore black and gray hooded robes with red geometric outline patterns, underneath her hood, blood red pupils glowed from yellowed eyes surrounded by her harsh bony red face, three protrusions on each of her cheeks surrounded her mouth, filled with her sharp teeth. The Cyborg next to her was a tan-skinned woman with a deeply burned face, particularly on the left side but extending over both of her eyes, her eyes themselves were covered with black lenses attached to the cybernetics on the side of her face, I'm assuming her natural sight was heavily damaged by whatever injuries her face received; she wore black robes as well, covered with silver armor in several areas, her robes lacked a hood, instead her black hair was tightly and professionally tied back. These two must have been our Overseers.
"Acolytes," began the Pureblood Overseer "I am Overseer Vernache, this is Assistant Overseer Calenph; welcome to hell, every single one of you will die. The beasts will tear you apart and feast on your entrails, if you survive that, then possessed acolytes and troopers will kill you in cold blood - assuming the spirits of the Dark Lords don't possess you first. The last few survivors will face millennia old droids will gun you down just as they have to your pathetic predecessors for centuries. Only the strong survive Korriban and none of you wretch are strong."
"It is not enough to be the last survivor, you must pass all your trials regardless, this is not a selection by default." The Assistant Overseer added.
"Indeed, your trials have been meticulously decided upon by myself and by your commissioner, the commissioner requested an alien apprentice, unfortunate, no alien will ever be as strong as a Pureblooded Sith in the Force, your commissioner has doomed you to fail, these are not trials for you wretch, they are trials to forge the future elites of The Sith Empire." Vernache clearly wanted to demoralize us from the very beginning "Now, each of you will get an individual trial, we cannot have a parasitic leach surviving off of the work of greater acolytes, I will call your name, you will receive your trial, and you will complete your trials, if any of you manage to survive The Lower Wilds and The Tomb of Marka Ragnos, you will earn access to The Valley of The Dark Lords itself - the evaluation process for acolytes has changed so that our holiest site isn't molested by the weak."
"Seidoa Avarn." The Cathar went up first, Vernache towered more than a foot over her, but the girl didn't flinch, she was determined to become Sith - I was determined too, but I was determined to survive, not necessarily to become Sith, though it seems at this point survival meant becoming Sith - I don't know if I could beat her to the one surviving position. Soon enough, she left and walked out into the canyon for her Trial.
"Vavense Chaphyd." The Twi'Lek was called up next, he was taller and burlier than Seidoa, but he was still not as tall as Vernache, he was nervous too and it showed, I could almost feel Calenph laughing at him - he wouldn't survive.
"Jzaan Ephar." The Rattataki was next, he was taller than Vernache and kept his stone-faced expression, but if I could feel his fear, Vernache and Calenph definitely could, nevertheless, he didn't flinch during the brief conversation, nor did he say a word in response, giving nothing more than the smallest of nods in response - I couldn't tell how far he'd get, though I'd imagine he would at least survive this trial.
"Dayo-Kaza Herrenph." The Iridonian-Zabrak came up next alphabetically, once again shorter than Vernache, she kept a calm expression, not particularly determined nor exposing that she's nervous, she was more talkative than Jzaan and quickly walked off - again, hard to tell her fate.
"Pheraza Sa'avaa." The last acolyte before me was the Togruta, her horns came up to the top of Vernache's head, but on eye-level, she was much shorter, closer to Seidoa's size than Dayo-Kaza, who was the second tallest. She talked quickly and nervously, none of us were particularly confident, again with the possible exception of Seidoa. She got her trial and left, I didn't have time to decide if she would survive or not because it was my time now.
"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe," I walked up to Vernache, I was shorter than her but roughly the same height as Calenph "You will enter the deepest sanctums of The Tomb of Marka Ragnos, newly excavated and you will copy down the six tenants of The Sith Code, left so that the spirits of Marko Ragnos and his disciples will never forget their doctrine, you will never forget it either, copy it down exactly - do not fail me. If you survive, I will be waiting in my office within The Sith Academy."
"Understood," I bowed my head and Vernache walked past me into the shuttle, Calenph bumped into me before walking off.
"Careful acolyte, only the strongest survive Korriban, only the most willing...you are neither." She whispered into my ear before shoving past me into the shuttle, pushing a Datapad into my arms, presumably this was where I was supposed to copy down the Code. I slid the Datapad into my upper robe, given I wasn't talking to the Overseers anymore, I pulled my hood up over my head, we were all given a plain set of black robes, no armor, no elegant designs, just simple black hooded robes with a waistcord. I walked deeper into the canyon as the shuttle took off behind me, I was now left alone in this canyon tasked with completing this Trial - the only alternative was death. The only alternative on Korriban was death, the only way to survive is to become Sith, escape is hopeless - I could see the massive turbolaser cannons at the top of the far wall of the canyon, more than capable of destroying any escape ship.
A distinctive roar brought my attention back down to canyon floor, ahead of me were several Tukata, spiky quadrupedal Dark Side beasts that could easily tear acolytes apart. I wasn't trained to fight with sword, this Training Lightsaber wouldn't be enough with my lack of skill, but I knew two things that could help me here, one: I was here on Korriban as an acolyte, therefore I had the Force, I never used it, I never knew I could, but if I'm here, I must be able to use the Force, two: The Sith are known for blasting lightning from their fingertips, given I had the Force, I should be able to do this. I lifted my dominant left hand at the largest Tukata, I thought about blasting lightning, I thought about hitting that beast, I thought about the lightning flowing through me and out of my fingertips to electrocute the monster, and all of a sudden, I felt power surging through me, I watched the purple lightning leave my hand and electrocute the Tukata, I watched it squirm and scream in pain, until finally, the beast died. The three smaller Tukata were now fully aware of me, one fled, the other two ran at me, I gave one a quick shock and it fell to the sandy ground with a thud, for the other, I blew it away with my right hand with the power of my lightning - I had no idea I could do this, but I did, this was why I was on Korriban. I had the power, but did I have the strength to truly use it? Was Calenph right about me?
In any case, I continued through the canyon, curving through the corpses of Tukata left by the other acolytes, walking until eventually, mounted on the canyon wall, an outpost came into view, filled with beast cages and elevated platforms, including a shuttle pad - this would likely be my way to The Valley of The Dark Lords itself. Turning to the right of the outpost, the canyon opened up to a wide valley, filled with ancient ruins of the truly massive Tomb of Marka Ragnos, staircases, pillars, smaller Tombs built into the sides of the Tomb, and the crumbled remains of terraces, The Sith clung to these ancient ruins, not to rebuild them but to plunder as much knowledge and power as they possibly could, this was quite telling of the religion as a whole, prioritizing individual power and short term gain over the long term viability of our civilization - these Sith were the remains of Naga Sadow's Empire, Naga Sadow, who rose to fill the void left by Marka Ragnos, yet here before me stood the plundered and crumbled ruins of Marka Ragnos' Tomb, battered by sandstorms, looters, and careless Sith for centuries. Yet here I was, a mere acolyte sent to a place The Sith should treat as a holy ground - but I wouldn't dare to speak this grievance out aloud to the Overseers or to any Sith, they wouldn't listen, they would tear me apart.
I saw troopers in the distance, black and red armored Sith soldiers, patrolling the grounds, but something felt very wrong, I focused on one of them and wondered what he could've been thinking, what his purpose was - shockingly, I heard something, I could reach in and hear his thoughts. I reached deeper, I didn't realize at the time but I was pushing into his mind, hearing what he heard, and what I heard was crazed whispers in Sith tongues, harsh and shrill voices constantly reverberating through his brain - his mind was possessed, destroyed by Sith spirits. The ancient Sith want to guard their own Tombs, protect their dead after all this desecration, unfortunately, I had no choice, I had to enter that Tomb and complete my trial to survive, which meant that I would need to fight these possessed soldiers. I grabbed my Training Lightsaber in my left hand and reached out for The Force, I had to kill soldiers who had done nothing against me, but there was one consolation: I heard what went through that soldier's head constantly, at least I could free them of the insanity and the constant hissing.
I walked towards the Tomb, down a half-buried staircase into a small depression on the ground, some of the troopers noticed me and began shooting, I rose my right hand and again lightning flew from my fingertips, incapacitating one and finally electrocuting him dead, I gave another a quick, hard shock and Force Pushed the third away and down to the ground. I grabbed my Training Lightsaber with both hands and cut down the soldier I shocked earlier, with a quick burst of Force Lightning I finished off the soldier I blew away. I had just killed three men, electrocuted them, murdered them, one I even physically finished off with my sword - I didn't like that, I didn't like that I had to kill them at all, but they were crazed, possessed, and irrational, there was nothing I could do to avoid this confrontation, but if I had to confront sentient beings, if I had to kill people, I wanted it as impersonal as possible; I would use The Force whenever possible, assuming I lived long enough to ever be in this situation again.
The Overseers said that our Trials weren't going to be eased by others, yet nevertheless, at least here outside of The Tomb, most of the possessed guards were already dead, many cut down brutally, murdered viciously - more so that even the three I dealt with - but I would imagine things would be more difficult within The Tomb itself, especially given that Vernache mentioned I would be going very deep into this Tomb - this massive Tomb, stretching from canyon wall to canyon wall and who knows how deep the full extent is, clearly The Sith were still busy excavating it, - I was unsure if any other acolyte was going anywhere near as deep as I was. I entered The Tomb of Marka Ragnos I felt cold, not literally - even though it was much cooler within the dark corridors than it was outside in the oppressive Korriban sun - rather I felt an evil presence, dark and cold, this was The Dark Side, immortalized here, the power of ancient Sith, including Marka Ragnos himself, so powerful he sustained himself for centuries. If I survived, if I became a Sith, if I fell to The Dark Side like these Trials were clearly meant to, if I learned how to cultivate my raw power into something refined, something powerful, something drawing on my own passions, I might give off this coldness too one day.
I did not want to. I didn't want to be cruel, I didn't want to sacrifice compassion and friendship for power, I wanted to be good, even if I survived this and had to become a Sith.
I walked through The Tomb, deeper, past the corpses of soldiers, past acolytes, and excavators - slaves really, the Empire still relied predominantly on the labor of enslaved aliens, even though there has evidently been strides towards tolerance since the early losses against The Republic - however, in actuality, not much has changed, as evident in how Overseer Vernache addressed us. I took a right down the stairs, old and cracked, poorly lit, decayed, exactly the problem I mentioned before about The Sith - no preservation, no reconstruction, nothing, only extraction of wealth and power. I walked into a large central antechamber and directly ahead of me was a newly excavated section surrounded by scaffolding and ceiling mounted lights - this was my path, the trails of corpses to the left and right meant my fellow acolytes, my rivals I suppose, went off in other directions, I was on my own now - I walked past the destroyed doorway down another staircase, this one much less worn out, though still cracked and ancient. At the bottom of the stairs was another antechamber, this one filled with excavation equipment, troops acting as security, and the slaves themselves, though I could feel the rasps and the hisses again.
Between the soldiers and slaves, there were twelve possessed hostiles in the antechamber, separated roughly in half by a large drilling machine, too many to fight the way I had before, I wasn't any good with a sword and the soldiers had rifles and vibroswords, and somehow the slaves got the hold of blaster pistols - perhaps the soldiers' sidearms, given to their possessed fellows. I rose both my hands, aimed towards the middle of each group, I imagined every single one of them being electrocuted, my lightning hitting all twelve of them, quick and violent shocks to each of them - and then I felt the power flowing through my again, from my core through both my arms and finally to my fingertips, I took a deep breathe and unleashed, twin masses of purple lightning erupted from my hands and hit the soldiers and slaves, shrill screams and death cries just barely audible under the electric crackling. I could only imagine what horror these poor souls would see if they weren't possessed - a dark robes figure electrocuting them, a figure with featureless red eyes, a trademark Chiss characteristic, we completely lacked pupils - finally, I heard the last of them fall to the ground with heavy thuds. I fell backwards onto the stairs, panting, I was powerful, that much was clear, but doing things like that were draining, I exhausted myself.
A moment later, I stood up and made my way down the rest of the stairs, each of the three rooms contained a massive stone tablet with ancient Sith hieroglyphs carved into them, each of them must have had two tenants, I went to the one to the left first, past the corpses I left, I couldn't bear to look at them, I just kept walking on my shaky legs - I was frightened, not of more of these possessed soldiers and slaves, but of myself, I just killed twelve people through no fault of their own, they were possessed, without the spirits these would be my new countrymen, I was now an Imperial, as were these soldiers, and I sympathized with the slaves, they were taken from their homeworlds to further the Imperial war machine, the same thing happened to me, except rather than being taken for slave labor, I was taken being of my Force prowess, illegally too, I was a Chiss citizen! The chamber to the left was empty, it was safe, so I kneeled down and copied the first tenant down.
Peace is a lie, there is only Passion,
Typical of The Sith, their whole philosophy is war, following only their base instincts, their passions, The Empire wasn't logical, it wasn't balanced - they were violent, greedy, and hateful. Granted, I would appreciate a more sensible and toned-down variant of the Code, I liked the idea of the line in comparison to Jedi philosophy, the Jedi were forced to abandon their emotions, not just the negative ones such as anger and lust, but positive ones like compassion and love, ideally, I would like to draw on my love, on my compassion to do good, to help people, to be a good person; instead, here I was, on Korriban, learning The Sith Code, learning to be cruel and to wage war, merciless and brutal war, often against the innocent, simply to benefit yourself. The Jedi were wrong because they abandoned love and compassion out of fear of the Dark Side, The Sith were wrong because they abandoned love and compassion to embrace the Dark Side, there has to be some kind of middle ground, that is what I wanted to achieve.
Through Passion, I gain Strength,
The next tenant, written directly below, was a more basic element of Sith philosophy, they drew on their raw emotions to be stronger in The Force, similar to how an enraged peasant may defeat a better armed guard by using erratic, angry blows, however this too wasn't true, as a trained guard could easily see the careless weaknesses left by an opponent using the angry, erratic blows. These tactics weren't sustainable, The Sith could not truly beat stronger opponents just by tapping into their anger, they needed something more tangible, whether it be raw power or better training, yes, I could see how raw emotional power can give an edge in combat, but it is only that, and edge, it shouldn't be a cornerstone of Sith philosophy. I stood up, but my Datapad away again and walked to the next chamber, the center one opposite of the stairs I walked down, once again I kneeled in front of the stone tablet.
Through Strength, I gain Power,
Power for The Sith usually came in one of two ways, both of which tied directly to strength - or more precisely, strength and cunning - the first method, less sustainable yet at the same time, more traditional was to betray your Master, overthrow them and take their power base. The second way, harder, but more accepted, especially by the current Empire, which, despite all it's shortcomings, was trying to avoid the usurpation that severely disadvantaged The Sith against The Jedi - the Jedi were unified, The Sith feared each other just as much as they feared The Jedi - but the second method, the more modern method of gaining rank, gaining power among The Sith was to earn a promotion in battle, prove yourself against The Sith's enemies - usually the Jedi and The Republic - until it becomes clear to your superiors that you deserve more power. I agreed with the second method of gaining power, a Sith doesn't have to be strong to overthrow their master, Darth Malak overthrew Darth Revan not with lightsabers and the Force, but with timing and turbolasers, strength and cunning must be proven, The Sith trust too much in opportunistic apprentices filling the void of more capable Masters.
Through Power, I gain Victory,
This tenant didn't necessarily mean victory in battle, rather I think this referred to winning an intrapersonal battle, especially when concerning the second method of gaining rank among The Sith. When you prove yourself in the field or against your own Master, you don't just prove yourself to your rivals, to your critics, but also to yourself, Sith philosophy is centered around furthering yourself - often at the expense of others - regardless of the cost, so doing so must be a massive accomplishment to The Sith in question proving him or herself. Though, my musings could be wrong, I was by no means an expert on Sith philosophy, perhaps the tenant is merely referring to literal power and literal victory, but I didn't want to think that, I wanted to believe there was a way to be a Sith that wasn't cruel and belligerent, rather I wanted to reach into my emotions, reach into The Dark Side to do good. I hoped that this was possible. Once more, I rose from the floor, brushed the old sandy dust from my lower robe, and walked out of the room back into the main antechamber into the third and final room to copy down the final two tenants of The Sith Code from the final tablet. I kneeled out and took out my Datapad - I had most of the Code written down already, but I didn't write down my notes; I had a feeling that the Overseers wouldn't be overtly sympathetic towards my views on their philosophy.
Through Victory, my chains are broken!
This line was rather interesting, I think it supported my theory on the victory being mental, in which case the broken chains would be limitations, self-doubt and past failures, as The Sith will have finally succeeded, the past didn't matter anymore, only the future. I wonder what my chains were, I definitely had self-doubt, especially given my inexperience with The Force, I suppose that, from a Sith perspective, my aversion to murder would be seen as one of my chains, and, adding onto the Sith perspective, they'd probably see this as one of my chains - my own independent philosophy, which I'm sure they'd say is stained by The Light Side, a reflection of my other chains. Personally however, I felt that if I could survive, learn more in the Force, and harness my natural ability - however much I have, that was very uncertain - I could make something of myself without reaching into The Dark Side - that would be my goal, all my musings pointed here, but could I do it? Could I even survive Korriban? I can, I know I can, I electrocuted those twelve possessed troops, six of them per hand as an untrained acolyte, acting only off of instinct and what I've seen in holovids about Force users, I could only imagine what I'll be able to do in the future - and that brought me to the final tenant.
The Force shall set me free.
The Force, not exclusively The Dark Side, nor exclusively The Light Side, rather The Force, the confirmation for my point of view was right there, right in front of me, nowhere in The Sith Code did it say I have to use The Dark Side, the implication that I'm supposed to is heavy, but is that from The Code itself or am I mentally placing that implication on The Code due to my knowledge of The Sith's reputation? I wasn't sure, but this was exciting, I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel - this tunnel of being forced to be an acolyte, this tunnel of potentially becoming Sith - I had a purpose now, a reason to survive and to complete my trials, maybe, just maybe, the light within me would be an example for others. As for the rest of the tenant, The Force shall set me free, this tied into the line about victory breaking my shackles...or did it? Perhaps this referred to Death, the legends say that powerful Force users can manifest themselves as apparitions, as Ghosts after death, these Force Ghosts had all the power of their former self and then some, I wasn't sure which of these was exactly true, same with the earlier lines, but I knew what my beliefs on all this were, and I knew what I was going to do. I rose up from the cold stone and put my Datapad away, I accomplished something today, evidently small, but this could shape the rest of my life, possibly The Sith as a whole, potentially even the galaxy.
Well, that's it, there's chapter one! I hope you enjoyed!