Ch.2: The Sith Gods
To understand the Age of the Gods, it is necessary to understand what the Gods of the Sith are as well as the mythology behind their pantheon. Now Sith mythology is very gruesome and revolting. As a result, I'll try to explain things in their most clean version possible and I will not go into too much detail.
Sith mythology begins with shadow. Shadow, to the Sith, represented many things. On one level, shadows were seen as a halfway point between reality and unreality. Shadows take the shape of whatever blocks the light and, as anyone who's seen a shadow-puppet show can assert, they can be used to simulate reality while not actually being real. This was seen as crucial; it was a way for something to emerge out of nothing. On a deeper metaphysical level, shadow represents the Force in its totality. The Force as a whole is neither light nor dark, but has light and dark aspects, thus making shadow. Sith mythology saw the Force as the One, the All, and the Absolute. It was the metaphysical essence of all of existence.
The first deity to emerge from this state was known as the Father of Shadows. He is almost never depicted, but based off scattered references he is a type of old man with grey hair and wings. He is the embodiment of the Force or the Absolute. He drew upon the Force and separated light from dark. The light formed the first goddess known as the Lady With the Locust Heart, while the dark coalesced into a mysterious figure known as The Shunned Deity. The Lady With the Locust heart is usually depicted as young and beautiful, a temptress who feeds the foolish and unwary with poisons, making them lethargic and weak. The locust represents the unrestrained flourishing of life and the seductive power of peace, which the Sith believe to be a lie. The Shunned Deity is usually depicted as an enormous flying creature who represents hatred and betrayal as well as the strong culling the weak. These attributes are seen by the Sith as the only true method of strength and progress. These Primordial Gods are never spoken of by name. The Sith had a strange mixture of awe and hatred of these figures, so out of reverence they never spoke their names, and out of hatred their names were forbidden words.
The embodiments of the light and dark clashed and from their conflict emerged the Soulworm, who was known as the Bringer of Chaos. The Soulworm has both male and female attributes, depending on the ancient source. When it is male it is often referred to as the 'Charnel God' and when female as the 'Beloved Queen of the Stars.' It is depicted as a massive serpent creature, sometimes with one, and sometimes with multiple heads. From its back and face come massive tentacles which it uses to rip the souls out of living beings. The Soulworm inhabits the deepest levels of the Sith underworld known as Chaos where it burrows into mountains of corpses, creating zombified automaton with their parts and torturing fallen souls, but it often rises to bring widespread calamities and incite the gods to war.
The last of the Primordial Gods has perhaps the most mysterious origin. He is called the Inscrutable One, and is the master if numbers, geometry, time, order, and technology. This god is less explicitly worshiped and functions more as an intermediary force between the other gods. His origin is complicated. By most accounts he is the opposite of the Soulworm and came into being when it was formed, him being an orderly force to balance it, but some hold him to be the most ancient of all the Primordial Gods, being eternal and existing even before the Father of Shadows. This belief reflects the philosophy of numbers, namely that numbers and their relations are the most real things as they are absolutely certain and not dependant on anything else. The idea is that while the Force or the Absolute emerged from shadows which are halfway between reality and unreality, it is still possible to measure shadows as it is to measure empty space and matter. The Inscrutable One is depicted as constantly planning and scheming, but nobody can understand his plans, a belief referencing the idea that numbers are in essence tautologies, that is, you can not explain them except in relation to other numbers. He is almost never depicted, but when he is, he appears as a being with long arms and massive horns; his body is constantly shifting with eyes and mouths coming into existence and shifting all over his skin.
Together, these five make up the Primordial Deities, collectively known as the Ruinous Powers. This name is unusual as they created the universe, but the logic is that their existence led to irregularities and imperfections in the nothing that existed previously. Oblivion does not exist, and as such it had no inconsistencies or imperfections. The Ruinous Powers emerged from nothing and their existence caused irregularities that led to the creation of our present imperfect universe.
The physical universe was created from the Force by the conflict between light and dark. Unlike in some mythologies which have two competing but equal forces, in Sith mythology, the dark encroached on the light and the light gave way to the dark. The dark is aggressive, the light is submissive. It is this dialectic, driven by the chaotic Soulworm, which created the raw material from which the universe formed. The Inscrutable One gave this raw material form and set the physical laws that govern the universe into place. The Lady With the Locust Heart and the Shunned Deity were seen as the first married couple- from which the Sith deduced that abusive marriages were normal and acceptable. The Lady gave birth to the Old Gods, which were seen as the first true generation of the Sith pantheon, as the Ruinous Powers were less 'gods' in the traditional sense and more as the primeval forces.
The firstborn of the Old Gods was Kopa Khan who was vaguely humanoid and worshiped as the god of death. He is often associated with dying stars and black holes. To clarify the differing roles of him and the Soulworm, the he is the god of the process of dying while the Soulworm represents the underworld and undead. Following him are Tilotny, Horliss, Danda, and Ap. Tilotny is the goddess of form, Horliss is the god of mass, Danda is the goddess of energy, and Ap is the god of spatial extension. These four make up the building blocks of the physical universe, and since it's impossible to have one without the other, they have no definite shape and can take whatever form they wish. These four were educated by the Inscrutable One who set each in balance to order the physical universe while stepping in to represent time itself. However, time is more prior to any of them as time structures all thoughts, including those of the gods themselves. The Ruinous Powers are incorporeal and as such do not need space and have no definite matter or form, and, since they have none of these properties, they cannot have any inherent energy either. However, they are sentient and as such their thoughts are structured by time. It should be noted as these five names were very common in Sith culture, so living individuals who share these names should not be confused with the gods themselves.
Kopa Khan married Tilotny and from them came the primary generation of Sith gods, known as the 'Mortal Gods of the Sith' as opposed to their immortal parents but more of them later. Horliss and Danda also married and produced a race of 'demons,' the logic being that demons have no definite form or spatial size, but they have energy and can affect the physical world as if they had mass; they will be important later as well.
Now the Soulworm saw the orderly universe that was being created and did not like it. The Soulworm went to Kopa Khan and told him that if he ever wanted to rule the universe, he would have to overthrow his father. Kopa Khan, being a typical Sith, thought this was a great idea. So he went to the Inscrutable One who taught him how to make the first Sith swords which he planned to use against his father. However, since the Ruinous Powers are immortal, he could not just kill him. Instead he chose to cut off his wings, limbs, and, well, genitals. This is curious as the Ruinous Powers are supposed to have no definite form, but the Sith probably didn't care about minor details like that and wanted to make it as gruesome as possible.
Kopa Khan ascended to form a trinity of higher deities along with the Soulworm and the Inscrutable One. The Lady With the Locust Heart had been pushed to the edges of the Sith cosmos by the Shunned Deity while he was, well, shunned (hence how he got his name) by Kopa Khan who took his place. Nobody really knew what happened to the Father of Shadows, but many assumed that the Shunned Deity exiled or bound him since the Sith like this type of family dynamic.
There were many 'Mortal Gods' who were the offspring of Kopa Khan and Tilotny, but the main ones were Typhojem, Tharagorrogaraht, and Ooru who were born in that order. Ooru is usually depicted as an amorphous blob. From his body came algae which eventually was formed into plants and similar organisms. Tharagorrogaraht is depicted as a giant scarab. She gave birth to various animal species, then ate Ooru. The consumption of a sentient god caused her to give birth to various sentient non-Sith species, primarily the Killiks, which the Sith hated with a passion. Because of this, she was seen as the goddess of slaves.
Typhojem is seen as the main Sith god and the progenitor of their species. Due to his parentage, he is depicted as various forms in one. He has long, octopus like tentacles on his face, bat like wings, and green skin. For his fearsome image, Tilotny hated him which caused a bitter rivalry between mother and son. He took Tharagorrogaraht as his wife and from them came fourth the Sith species. For this, the Sith see themselves blessed as they are descended from two gods compared to all other sentient species who were descended from Tharagorrogaraht alone. This represents the Sith chain of being. On the lowest level, descended from Ooru are plants. Plants are then eaten by animals descended from Tharagorrogaraht. Other sentient beings were seen as simply really smart animals. Then there were the Sith who were descended from two gods. This is the Sith explanation for why their species was all Force-sensitive, the are more connected to creation than anything else.
Typhojem then killed Tharagorrogaraht with his left hand- another fascinating example of the Sith sanctity of marriage. The left hand is significant as the Sith species was left handed, representing their superior physical attributes, or so they believed. This represents the Sith belief that they would conquer and rule over all animal species. Following this, Typhojem exiled the rest of the gods except for Kopa Khan, the Soulworm, and the Inscrutable One. He feared the wrath of these three more than any others and so he became their high priest and offered sacrifice to them. However, the Inscrutable One at some point vanished mysteriously, and so he was no longer worshiped.
The final stage in the Sith cosmology came when the demons became jealous. Now, the demons were not exiled as the gods were because they could not be caught. The demon's leader was named Wutzek and he wanted attention and sacrifice. He killed Typhojem and let the rest of the demons to banish Kopa Khan and the Soulworm to Chaos, their underworld.
The Sith believed that the undead Kopa Khan continued to act as the gatekeeper of the underworld, weighing the souls of the dead to determine how powerful they were in life. Those who are the most powerful are sent to live with the spirit of Typhojem, who became Pomojema- a minor god of healing. The rest, all those who were too weak in life, are sent to various levels of Chaos to feed the Soulworm.
As for the Wutzek and the demons, the details as to their fates are uncertain. Many Sith, after contact with the Rakata, believed that they somehow possessed the Rakata to act as physical bodies, which explains the Rakata's inherent Force-sensitivity while preserving the Sith pride of being the only ones descended from Typhojem. The Sith believed that their divine line can be traced back to Typhojem and that when the Sith needed him the most, an avatar known as the Sith'ari, or ultimate Sith, would come.