Topic: The Keshiri

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INFO: The Keshiri were a near-Human sentient species native to the planet of Kesh. Powerfully-built, they had pale purple skin and silver hair. They were typically found to be very attractive by Human standards, although the two species were different enough biologically to be incapable of reproduction. The Keshiri were a very religious species; they worshiped gods known as the Skyborn, whom they believed had formed all of the land on Kesh, from which the Keshiri were born. The Keshiri religion and government was led by the Neshtovar, who believed in the importance of tradition and religion above science and technological progress.

In 5,000 BBY, a group of Sith crashed onto the planet in their starship, the Omen, after being knocked off course during a hyperspace jump. The Keshiri believed them to be the Skyborn and gave themselves over to lives of service to the Sith. Although the Keshiri eventually found that the Sith were not their gods, they continued serving them for thousands of years. By 41 ABY, the Keshiri had come to be seen almost as equals to the Sith, and several were accepted into the Sith Tribe, with at least one serving on the Circle of Lords, the Tribe's ruling council. Around the time of the Second Galactic Civil War, members of the Keshiri species were able to travel off-world for the first time in the newly-formed Sith armada.


RACE: Keshiri
HEIGHT: 1.8 Meters Tall
SKIN: Pale Purple to dark purple
DISTINCTION: Powerfully built, slightly large eyes
LANGUAGE: Keshiri

HOMEWORLD:
Kesh was a remote planet located in Wild Space. It was the homeworld of the Near-Human Keshiri species. The planet was mountainous and covered mostly in sand, with at least one major ocean. In 5,000 BBY a Sith starship, the Omen, crashed onto the planet, and the stranded survivors formed the Lost Tribe of Sith. The Keshiri believed that the Sith were their gods, the Skyborn, and gave themselves over to lives of service to the Tribe.

Kesh was a remote planet located in Wild Space. It was a mountainous planet, holding at least one major range, the Takara Mountains—originally called the Cetajan Mountains. This range of mountains bordered a large ocean. The ocean lay next to a beach of lavander colored sand. Kesh consisted mostly of small settlements, but contained at least one large city called Tahv. To the west of Tahv lay the Takara Mountains, where the Omen crashed.

In 5,000 BBY, during the Great Hyperspace War, Omen, a Sith starship carrying Lignan crystals crashed on this mountainous planet. Though it was not technologically advanced, the survivors of the crash established a community known as the Lost Tribe of Sith, and over millennia they grew into an order of substantial number.In 41.5 ABY, the inhabitants of Kesh regained space travel for the first time in over five thousand years. They spent the next two years capturing ships and creating a Sith armada.

The Keshiri, a purple-skinned Near-Human species, were native to the planet.

Locations
Please see post below for more info for locations.

BIOLOGY AND APPEARANCE:
The Keshiri were a race of near-Humans from the remote Wild Space world of Kesh. They were powerfully built, with rather large red eyes and hair ranging in color from silver to white. Their skin was typically a pale purple, although it could fluctuate from darker to lighter shades as their emotions shifted. Keshiri were extremely similar to Humans in their appearance and were found by members of the Human species to be particularly attractive. As such, they often intermarried with the Human population on Kesh, despite the fact that the two species were fundamentally different enough on a biological level to preclude reproduction.

CULTURE AND HISTORY:
Keshiri life was centered around their religion. They worshiped a group of gods called the Skyborn, also known as the Protectors, a sandy-blooded race who were believed to have lived in the stars. According to Keshiri legend, the Skyborn's enemies were the Otherside—beings of fire, rebellion, sickness, and death, about whom very little was known other than that they had "come from below." The Keshiri believed that the Skyborn, riding gigantic crystal uvak—membranous-winged reptilian creatures native to Kesh—fought with the Otherside among the stars in what the Keshiri religious leaders called the Great Battle. According to the legend, the battle lasted for eons, until the Otherside were finally defeated. The Skyborn, however, had been injured, and their blood fell into the oceans, forming the land that gave birth to the Keshiri. As such, it was commonly believed that the land of Kesh was a part of the Skyborn and that the Skyborn had the power to control such phenomena as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and storms.

Another important point of Keshiri religion was the Destructors, a mysterious species that was said to return to the galaxy every few eons to destroy all civilization, returning all beings to their primitive origins. The Destructors' enemies, the Skyborn, were said to be destined to defend Kesh from the Destructors. Research conducted in the time leading up to 41 ABY seemed to indicate that a catastrophe much like that which the Destructors were believed to cause had indeed occurred on Kesh at least once previously.

The leaders of Keshiri government and religion were a group of males known as the Neshtovar, the self-proclaimed "Sons of the Skyborn." They were known for breeding and riding uvak. Traditionally, when a member of the Neshtovar died, the rest of his family was killed by the Keshiri community; however, this practice was discontinued by 5,000 BBY. The Neshtovar were expected to be experts at riding uvak—to fall off one of the creatures was equivalent to being "claimed by the Otherside." The Neshtovar governed the Keshiri from the Circle Eternal, a plaza located in their capital city of Tahv.

Although they had very little tolerance for beings who went against their religion, the Keshiri were typically a peaceful species. More interested in tradition and religion than learning, they were less developed technologically than much of the outside galaxy and did not even have a number high enough to count their entire population. Rather isolated from the rest of the galaxy, the Keshiri made their first contact with other beings in 5,000 BBY, when a group of Sith crash-landed on the planet in their starship, the Omen. After witnessing the newcomers' powers, the Keshiri came to believe that the newcomers were their Protectors, the Skyborn, and committed themselves to lives of servitude to the Sith.

The Neshtovar were replaced by the Tribe's ruling council, the Circle of Lords, as the governing body of Kesh. Though the Keshiri finally came to realize that the Sith were not their gods, many aspects of the Keshiri religion were not lost, as, even thousands of years after their initial meeting, several members of the Tribe of Sith that formed from the survivors of the crash came to believe some aspects of Keshiri religion. Over time the social status differential between the Sith and the Keshiri narrowed significantly, although the Keshiri were still considered to be inferior to the Humans. By 37 ABY, however, several Force-sensitive Keshiri were training with the Sith, and a way for them to gain admission to the Tribe took place in a festival known as Presentation.

The Keshiri evolved on the planet of Kesh thousands of years before the Battle of Yavin. By 5,000 BBY, the Keshiri had built several towns and cities, although they remained technologically inferior to much of the galaxy. That year, as much of the galaxy was immersed in the Great Hyperspace War between the Galactic Republic and the ancient Sith Empire, a Keshiri geologist, Adari Vaal, found evidence that the land on Kesh had been created by volcanoes rather than the Skyborn, as was commonly believed. She was branded a heretic for her teachings and forced to flee from Tahv. Meanwhile, the Omen, a Sith warship under the command of Yaru Korsin and tasked with delivering a shipment of Lignan crystals to the Sith's Dark Lord Naga Sadow, was knocked off-course during a hyperspace jump, causing it to crash-land on Kesh.

The survivors of the accident first made contact with Vaal, who had fled to the Takara Mountains, where the Omen had crashed. At the request of the Sith, Vaal lured the Neshtovar to the crash-site of the Omen, where they were shocked by the appearance of the newcomers. After witnessing the Sith's great powers, the Neshtovar decided that the newcomers were actually their gods, the Skyborn, and that they had come down from the stars to visit their home. As such, the Keshiri willingly decided to submit themselves to lives of service to the Sith. They helped the newcomers to build a new Temple at the crash site of the Omen and assisted in the further construction and expansion of Tahv.

The Keshiri lived alongside the Sith for thousands of years, and over time they realized that the Sith were not truly their gods. Still, several Keshiri remained as servants or slaves of the Sith, and the race as a whole was generally seen as inferior to the Humans. By the time of the Second Galactic Civil War, however, the social status differential had narrowed somewhat between the two societies. Although interbreeding was impossible, many of the Human Sith took Keshiri as lovers, considering them to be very attractive. The two cultures intermingled and several Keshiri eventually rose to positions of power within the Tribe; by 37 ABY, several Keshiri had been allowed into the Sith Tribe, and by 41 ABY, at least one Keshiri was serving on the Circle of Lords, the ruling council of the Tribe and governing body of the planet. In that year, Ship, a Sith Meditation Sphere, arrived on Kesh to help train the Tribe's apprentices and form a Sith armada. Ship helped the Tribe capture starships, and after five thousand years of being stranded on the planet, the Sith and Keshiri finally had the means to travel offworld. Two years later, several Keshiri Sith were chosen to be on the select Sith strike team sent to kill Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker.

IN THE GALAXY:
The Keshiri were technologically inferior to much of the galaxy, and thus never left Kesh of their own accord. Also, as Kesh was a remote planet, the species remained undiscovered by the outside galaxy until the arrival of the Sith in 5,000 BBY. Because the Sith's starship was damaged in the crash, however, the Keshiri remained stranded on Kesh until Ship, a Sith Meditation Sphere, arrived in 41 ABY and began to help the Sith form an armada. Members of the Keshiri species were finally able to travel offworld aboard starships in the armada, and a few Keshiri Sith, such as Baad Walusari and Ahri Raas, later traveled into the Maw aboard the warship Eternal Crusader as a part of the Sith strike team sent to track Ship and kill Skywalker. However, none of the Keshiri on the strike team survived the mission.

APPEARANCES:
Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice (First appearance)
Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn
Imprint
Omen (First identified as Keshiri)
Abyss

SOURCES:
Star Wars: The Essential Atlas Online Companion

I would like to thank Wookieepedia for this info.

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TAKARA MOUNTAINS:
The Takara Mountains, known originally by the native Keshiri species as the Cetajan Mountains, were a mountain range on the remote Wild Space planet of Kesh. In 5,000 BBY, during the Great Hyperspace War, a Sith starship, the Omen, crash-landed in these mountains. The survivors of the crash were stranded on the planet and eventually formed the Lost Tribe of Sith. They built a Sith Temple in the mountains, over and around the crash site of the Omen.

The Takara Mountains were a non-volcanic mountain range located on the remote Wild Space planet of Kesh. Rocky, sharp, and ridged, they bordered one of the planet's oceans. Located within the mountains was a Sith Temple, built by a group of Sith that was stranded on the planet in 5,000 BBY. The mountains were very steep, and the Temple was accessible only by air or by a hazardous climb up the slopes.

The mountains were tall, rising high into the air, and some of them accumulated snow on their tips. The slopes were covered in loose rock, although there were also clearings of grass in the lower areas of the mountains.

In 5,000 BBY, during the Great Hyperspace War, a Sith warship, the Omen, was attempting to deliver a shipment of Lignan crystals to Sith Lord Naga Sadow when the vessel was knocked off course while executing a hyperspace jump. It was forced to crash-land in the Takara Mountain range on the remote planet of Kesh. The crash was witnessed by the Keshiri in the city of Tahv, and they believed it to be a volcanic eruption. The Keshiri took this as a sign that their gods, the Skyborn, were angry at them because of the heretic teachings of Adari Vaal. Vaal was forced to escape Tahv on the back of her uvak, Nink, and she took up refuge in the mountains, where she saw the wreckage of the Omen. The Omen's captain, Yaru Korsin, dueled his brother, Devore Korsin, on the crash-site of the ship shortly after the incident, over which of them would lead the Sith survivors. Yaru killed Devore by dropping him over the edge of a precipice into the ocean below.

The survivors of the crash, who would eventually become the Lost Tribe of Sith, befriended the planet's native sentient species, the Keshiri, who believed them to be their gods, and used them to assist in the construction of a new Sith Temple over and around the ruins of the Omen in the mountains.

In 41 ABY, a Sith Meditation Sphere known as Ship arrived on Kesh to make contact with the Tribe and help train their apprentices. It first spoke through the Force with Sith Tyro Vestara Khai in the Sith Temple's courtyard, in the midst of the mountain range.

KESH SITH TEMPLE:
This Sith Temple was the Temple of the Lost Tribe of Sith on the planet Kesh. In 5,000 BBY a Sith starship, the Omen, crash-landed on the planet. After the survivors of the crash met with the planet's native sentient species, the Keshiri, they convinced them that they were their gods, the Skyborn. The Keshiri then helped the Sith to build a Temple over the crash-site of the Omen,in the Takara Mountains. The black spires and towers were simple; only after seevral years, when the colonists had established themselves, did they begin to add a flair of artistry to the Temple. Several statues were placed on balconies and in the Temple courtyard.

In 41 ABY, Ship, a Sith Meditation Sphere, landed in the courtyard. The Tribe's Circle of Lords quickly went to their meeting place in the city of Tahv to discuss the importance of Ship.

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TAVH:
Tahv was the capital city of the Wild Space world of Kesh. It was built around 5,000 BBY by the planet's native sentient species, the Keshiri; Tahv's walls originally served the purpose of keeping the Keshiri safe from the planet's many dangerous creatures. Shortly thereafter, during the Great Hyperspace War, a group of Sith were forced to crash-land on the planet in their starship, the Omen. The Lost Tribe of Sith, as the survivors of the accident became known, befriended the Keshiri, and helped them to drive away and domesticate Kesh's native beasts. Tahv then became a decorative city, focusing mainly on workings of art, often created by Sith artists using the Force.

The Lost Tribe of Sith quickly took command of Tahv and the planet's government, and often forced the native Keshiri to work for them. By 41 ABY, however, the class difference between the two groups had narrowed. By that time, the Tribe's ruling body, the Circle of Lords, held their council in the Circle Chambers in central Tahv. In 43 ABY, after Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker was revealed to the Tribe as a threat, they held an emergency meeting in the Chambers.

The city of Tahv was located on the remote Wild Space world of Kesh. Tahv's walls were large, originally built for defense against the planet's many dangerous animals; however, they were later used more for display than protection. The city itself was decorated with various workings of art, created through the Force by Sith artists, including levitating fountains, trees sculpted and shaped by the Force, and glass sculptures.

The outer edges of the city, nearest the walls, were the home of the more impoverished inhabitants—mainly members of the indigenous Keshiri species. Toward the center of the city, the area known as the Circle, Tahv grew more appealing and luxurious. Within the Circle was the capitol building and the Circle Chambers, in which the Circle of Lords, the planet's governing body, convened.

The city was first built by the Keshiri people sometime before 5,000 BBY. The walls of the city served mainly as protection for its inhabitants from the many dangerous animals that roamed the planet. In 5,000 BBY, during the Great Hyperspace War, the Omen—a Sith starship carrying a shipment of Lignan crystals to Sith Lord Naga Sadow—was knocked off-course while attempting to execute a hyperspace jump, and it crash-landed on Kesh in the Takara Mountains. The survivors of the crash made contact with a Keshiri woman, Adari Vaal, who told them of the city of Tahv. The Keshiri believed the Sith to be their gods, the Skyborn, and befriended them. Shortly after the Sith arrival, it was decided by the councilor Izri Dazh, leader of the Neshtovar, the Keshiri uvak-riders; and the city's governing body, that all of the Keshiri in Tahv would be moved to humbler homes. That way, the "Skyborn" could live in luxury, and the Keshiri could serve them.

With the help of the Sith—who eventually reorganized themselves into the Lost Tribe of Sith—and their superior technology, the Keshiri were able to drive off and domesticate many of the planet's predatory creatures. With the threat of danger removed, the walls of Tahv became more decorative than functional, and the city itself became more focused on art and beauty, rather than protection and practicality. Sith artists began to influence the city, using the Force to shape trees and create impressive sculptures of glass formed from the planet's lavender sand. Windows, jewelry, domes, spires, and even weapons were fashioned with great care and sophistication. The Sith eventually formed three rival guilds that competed mercilessly for control of the craft of shaping sand into glass. It was not uncommon for such artisans to employ bodyguards to protect themselves from assassination attempts. The shikkar, a delicately crafted knife made from glass, was often used by the guilds to murder rival guild members. Meanwhile, the Keshiri became second-class citizens, and were even occasionally employed as servants and slaves of the Sith.

In 37 ABY, a month-long festival, Presentation, was held in Tahv. This festival had several attractions: it gave the Keshiri a chance to join the Lost Tribe of Sith, and also held a competition for the Tribe's younger members to obtain an uvak. By 41 ABY, the class differences between the Keshiri and the Sith had begun to narrow, and several Keshiri held high positions in the Lost Tribe of Sith—at least one was a member of the Circle of Lords. In that year, Ship, a Sith Meditation Sphere, arrived on Kesh to assist in the training of the Tribe's Sith apprentices. It also helped the Tribe begin to form its own armada, with the intent of waging war on the galaxy. Two years later, Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker touched an Aing-Tii relic known as the Codex, causing his presence to be magnified and his name called through the Force to members of the Tribe. In response, the Tribe recalled their armada back to Kesh, and held an emergency meeting at the Circle Chambers in Tahv. It was during this meeting that Ship abruptly left Kesh, to follow the call Skywalker created through the Force.

INHABITANTS:
The city of Tahv was originally occupied only by the indigenous Keshiri people. When the Sith arrived on the planet, they discovered the Keshiri and allied themselves with the native species, and the population of Tahv grew to include these newcomers as well. The Sith quickly became dominant over the Keshiri; and, eventually taking control of the planet's government itself, they became the first-class citizens, with the native species dropping to a lower social status. By 41 ABY, however, the status differential had begun to close.

LOCATIONS:
Circle
The Circle was an area of Tahv that lay in the center of the city. It was known for its many artistic landmarks, as well as being very luxurious. Far more appealing than the outer areas of the city, where the poorer inhabitants lived, the Circle was the home of the wealthier citizens. It was in the Circle that the capitol building stood, and the planet's seat of government, the Circle of Lords, ruled from the Circle Chambers there.

Capitol Building
The capitol building was a large, glass-domed building located in the center of a cluster of buildings in the Circle. The capitol's interior was dim and cool; and it had stone floors as well as a fountain of water. The building was several stories high, and the Circle Chambers were located in the upper levels. They were accessible via several flights of winding stone stairs.

Circle Chambers
The Circle Chambers, made of glass, was located in the highest levels of the capitol building in Tahv. The ceiling of the hall was composed of a stained-glass dome. It was in this chamber that the Circle of Lords held council. The Lords were seated upon a raised dais, with the Grand Lord, who presided over the Circle of Lords' meetings, sitting on a throne made from metal and glass. Seated beside the throne were the High Lords, and beneath them were the Lords and masters.

Circle Eternal
The Circle Eternal was a plaza in Tahv where a council of Neshtovar—Keshiri uvak-riders, and the planet's governing body before the arrival of the Sith—held council. Located in the Circle Eternal was a tall column that served as a sundial. A meeting was being held in this plaza when the Omen crashed in the nearby mountains. A later meeting was held with the newly-arrived Sith, still believed to be the Skyborn, during which it was decided for a temple to be built in the Takara Mountains.