Keshiri The Keshiri were a near - Human sentient species native to the planet Kesh . Powerfully built , they had purple skin and black , red , or violet eyes . They were typically found to be very attractive by Human standard , although the two species were different enough to be biologically incapable of reproduction . The Keshiri had long traditions of crafting and the arts , with glassblowing being a particular specialty and pantomime a favorite art form . They were a very religious species , worshiping gods known as the Skyborn , whom they believed had formed all of the land on Kesh , from which the Keshiri were born . They acknowledged the Skyborn as the Protectors who kept another group , the Destructors , at bay . After a group of Jedi crash - landed on Kesh and fought a ruinous Great Battle against a band of Dark Jedi and Sith , the events took on the status of legend , remembered as the Great Cataclysm . In 5000 BBY , a group of Sith crashed onto the continent of Keshtah in their starship , the " Omen " , after being knocked off - course during a hyperspace jump . The Keshiri there believed the newcomers to be the Skyborn and gave themselves over to lives of service to the Sith . The Keshiri religion and government of Keshtah were led by the Neshtovar , who believed in the importance of tradition and religion above science and technological progress . Nevertheless , one Keshiri , a female named Adari Vaal , realized the dangers the Sith presented and led a resistance movement . She was eventually forced to flee Keshtah for Alanciar , a larger continent with its own Keshiri population . There , she became revered as the Herald for warning the Alanciari to prepare for an inevitable invasion by the Sith . The people heeded her warnings and rebuilt their civilization along martial lines . When the invasion finally occurred millennia later , the Sith High Lord Varner Hilts duped the Alanciari into joining their Keshtah kin in service to the Sith . Nevertheless , he had a newfound respect for the Keshiri species and thought them potentially worthy to join the Sith Tribe . The Keshiri eventually found that the Sith were not their gods , but 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 . Several Keshiri served as leaders in the fleet , such as High Lord Sarasu Taalon . However , the Tribe ' s attempted invasion of the galaxy resulted in the elimination of numerous Sith , including many Keshiri , on the planet Coruscant by the Jedi . Biology and appearance . The Keshiri were a species of sentient near - Human s from the remote Wild Space world of Kesh . Although some specimens were rather portly , Keshiri typically were powerfully built , with a humanoid body of two arms , two legs , a torso , and a head . Each hand sported five fingers capped by nails . Their skin was typically a shade of purple — whether pale , burgundy , or mauve — although it could fluctuate from darker to lighter hues and even into tones of blue as their emotions shifted . The Keshiri face was characterized by two eyes , a central nose , and a mouth . The eyes were proportionally large and came in the colors red , violet , and black . Eyebrows grew above each eye , and the eyelids featured lashes . Their hair , waxy in some , ranged in color from brown through violet to silver and white . Regardless of its original color , the hair whitened with age and thinned or receded in some male members of the species . The mouth , lined by lips of a shade darker than the rest of the skin , contained a dark - purple tongue and rows of white dentition ; some Keshiri exhibited noticeable gaps between teeth . Their throat was sometimes subject to buildups of fluid that required clearing . Separate populations of Keshiri exhibited slight phenotypic differences . For instance , the Keshiri of the continent Keshtah had lower foreheads , narrower faces , and smaller and more narrowly set eyes in comparison to the Keshiri of the Alanciar landmass . The Keshiri had two sexes , male and female . Physical characteristics distinguished the two sexes , such as facial hair on men . Because they were extremely similar to Humans in their appearance , they 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 . Keshiri were still considered young at age fifteen , and their lifespan exceeded sixty years . Keshiri required sleep each night , a period during which they sometimes experienced vivid dreams . They had the capacity to use the Force ; indeed , many Force - sensitive Keshiri hailed from the continent Alanciar . Society and culture . Before contact with outsiders from beyond Kesh , the Keshiri had a simple society , which included small settlements of circular homes with tall , conical , thatched roofs . These early Keshiri dressed in simple tunics , trousers , and fur - lined boots . They carried personal effects in pouches attached to belts . 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 groundquakes , volcanic eruptions , and storms . Another important point of Keshiri religion was the Destructors , a mysterious group who were 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 . According to Keshiri legend , the Skyborn had already defended Kesh from the Destructors in the distant past , a conflict that resulted in a Great Calamity that altered the very geography of the world . 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 . Another Keshiri divinity was the Bright Tuash , a creature with avian characteristics . In addition to their religious nature , the Keshiri were a scientific people ; they had determined that their world was round well before the first outsiders arrived from beyond its atmosphere . They ventilated their structures with passages through the roof , creating de facto crawlspaces through which a Keshiri could move about . Keshiri kissed when sexually attracted to one another . They mated for life , and practiced marriage , although extramarital affairs were not unknown . They raised their children until adulthood . They found Humans strange for their wide variety of skin tones , but they did not find the species unattractive . Keshtah . Keshiri civilization developed independently on at least two of Kesh ' s landmasses , Keshtah and Alanciar . On the former , 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 , which they kept in liveries . 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 5000 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 , where its position above the Keshiri Burial Cairns made it their holiest shrine . Although they had very little tolerance for beings who went against their religion , the Keshiri of Keshtah were typically a peaceful civilization . 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 . However , they created a complex aqueduct system for Tahv . Rather isolated from the rest of the galaxy , the Keshiri made their first contact with other beings in 5000 BBY , when a group of Sith crash - landed on the planet in their starship , the " Omen " . After witnessing the newcomers ' powers , Keshtah ' s Keshiri came to believe that the newcomers were their Protectors , the Skyborn , and committed themselves to lives of servitude to the Sith . In this capacity , some Keshiri took to performing menial tasks for their Sith masters , such as carrying them about on palanquins . Other Keshiri became constables , patrolling the streets of cities such as Tahv wearing red body armor and armed with glass - bladed swords and halberd s . After the Sith arrival , the Neshtovar of Keshtah were replaced by the Tribe ' s ruling council , the Circle of Lords , as the governing body of Kesh . The Sith instituted several other changes to the Keshiri way of life on the continent , and even more than a thousand years after their arrival , the Keshiri lived as servants to the Sith . They were forbidden to ride the uvaks that were native to the world , and the Sith Saber Orielle Kitai did not approve of a Keshiri calling her by her first name . They instituted a new annual holiday that commemorated the arrival and founding of their new civilization with the Sith with a parade , which featured costumed jesters . During the tenure of the Sith , the Keshiri became respected for their exceptional glassmaking and sculpting skills . They and the Sith decorated Tahv with myriad ornate sculptures and buildings . The Keshiri embraced all forms of art and were familiar with the palimpsest concept — in which one artwork was created on top of another . They had a lively tradition of pantomime , with troupes performing for Sith patrons . Keshiri clothing on the continent included simple , sleeveless tunics , wrist bands , and trousers for men ; long dresses were for women . Males kept their hair relatively short , often binding a tuft into a short ponytail . Meanwhile , females kept their hair longer . Some men grew and sculpted their facial hair into mustaches , goatees , and other formations . They carried belongings in simple satchels and pouches that hung from their bodies . Alanciar . In contrast , life for the Keshiri of Alanciar — also known as the Alanciari — was vastly different . They traced their civilization back to the arrival of the Rock of Kesh , Adari Vaal , on uvak circa 4975 BBY . Upon her insistence , they militarized society , with every aspect of life geared toward detecting and repelling an invasion by the Sith — whom they considered the Destructors of legend . The " Keshtah Chronicles " , a book recorded by Vaal , detailed the culture , war strategies , and dark - side Force use of the enemy ; the book was required reading for children on Alanciar . Years after her death , a tapestry of Vaal adorned a wall of Vaal Hall , the capital building . The Alanciari practiced conscription , whereby Keshiri were called into military service as need demanded . Members of Alanciar ' s military had the opportunity to progress through ranks , such as supply clerk , materials supervisor , wardmaster , chief military administrator , and mayor . The Training Directorate taught crafts , such as glassblowing , to veterans , a practice that allowed even these older Keshiri to contribute to the defense of Alanciar . Meanwhile , an air force of uvak riders defended the skies . Although Alanciari knowledge of the Force was imperfect , their Force - sensitive citizens served as thoughtcrier s , tasked with sending important messages and warnings through the Force . The Induction Board was a body that endeavored to identify such Force - sensitives to train them . Alanciari wore clothing conducive to their militarized lifestyle . For instance , front - line soldiers wore hard , leather armor . Meanwhile , a female officer might wear a waistcoat and keep her hair in a tight bun . Raised insignia signified the wearer ' s rank , and soldiers stayed in barracks when serving on active duty . Nevertheless , when under attack , the entire population participated in the war effort ; for instance , civilians boiled water to run steam - driven sirens that warned of war . The Alanciari sculpted their landmass to maximize their ability to defend it , cutting terraces into hillsides and planting forests alongside raised - stone roadways to allow hidden watchers to see anyone traveling by , and separating highways from woodlands with deep trenches . Way stations dotted the road network , where guards could see far down the roads in all directions . Only a few mountain passes escaped such surveillance . Inland canals permitted riverine traffic of small boats and barges pulled by teams of muntok s , six - limbed creatures used for transport and carrying loads . The Alanciari considered their home continent to resemble the leg of the muntok . The bulk of the population inhabited the uplands of the muntok ' s " hip " to the east , where most of their industrial centers were located , such as factories that produced glass projectiles . Keshiri workers fabricated battle armor in factories along the continent ' s northern slopes . Next came the Shank , which rose to mountainous isthmuses known as the Six Claws in the west . Due to that region ' s proximity to Keshtah , it had a reputation as highly regimented , as the Alanciari military kept the area heavily fortified and sequestered . Each of the Six Claws sported a signal station , where Keshiri members of the Signal Corps kept watch for invaders and sent messages in semaphore via bright , colorful lights generated by grids of fireglobe s . Teams of uvak - riders who were equipped with diamond - flak ballista were used to patrol the skies above Alanciar . Meanwhile , a coast guard known as the Shore Guard , whom were equipped with armed sailing ships , added an extra layer of security by patrolling far out to sea . Alanciari guards used whistle s to stop strangers . Their land was divided into districts , with the capital at Sus ' mintri , a city that also served as a headquarters for their War Cabinet and housed Vaal ' s personal library , repurposed as a top - secret archives . The Alanciari had a tradition of seafaring using large , wooden sailing vessels with tall , triangular sails . The harvester fleet of fishers was permitted to roam the Western Sea in ships and rowboats gathering crustaceans ; there , they relied on detailed maps and immense kedges made of stone to keep from being swept away in the fast currents . In the chilly waters south of the continent , sailor s wore heavy vests , fur - lined gloves , and boots . Alanciari sailors often sported earrings . Alanciari construction was done in materials such as wood , alabaster , brick , and concrete , sometimes coated with paint . Their architecture featured courtyards , balconies , and stairs . They installed warning sirens in virtually every settlement ; the sirens worked by funneling steam through enormous pipes made of glass . They used wood , leather , duffel , and glass to construct tools and goods . Some implements included hay cart s , coatracks , desks , folders , personal bags , books , earshell s for the deaf , pots , and spoons . Stew was an Alanciari dish . They also drank alcoholic beverages . The Alanciari developed weapons not found on Keshtah . One of these was the hand - ballista , a handheld device that allowed a ballisteer to fire projectiles such as glass rods — which shattered into splinters upon impact — and fragmenting bolts made of silver . When well trained , ballisteers fired in tandem following signals given via signal towers . A repeating version of the hand - ballista was issued to all front - line Alanciari soldiers . Other weapons , used by uvak - borne riders , fired diamonds . For much of their history , the Alanciar Keshiri were a patriotic civilization , singing songs that honored their nation . Especially important was Observance Day , a masquerade during which certain Keshiri painted their faces pale in a manner found frightening and dressed as Sith . As these costumers roamed the streets , other Keshiri danced around them and mocked them . The holiday festivities culminated in a theatrical recreation of Adari Vaal ' s first visit to Alanciar on uvak - back and her warnings about the Sith to the west . Observance Day was celebrated once per decade , a timeframe that honored the length of Vaal ' s resistance movement against the Sith . Keshiri united . After the Keshtah and Alanciar Keshiri came into regular contact in 2975 BBY , the Alanciari nominally accepted the Sith as the Protectors and , thus , their gods . Nevertheless , their enmity toward the Sith did not disappear immediately ; rather , some Alanciari refused to see the Sith as anything but equals . The Sith began a program of importing the most useful aspects of Alanciari technology to Keshtah , such as the construction of sailing ships ; the Keshiri spinners and weavers of the town of Eorm were forced to construct vast quantities of sailcloth as the Sith embarked on further maritime explorations of their planet . Over time , the Keshiri more broadly came to realize that the Sith were not their gods . Nevertheless , many aspects of the Keshiri religion were not lost , as , even thousands of years after their initial meeting , the Tribe of Sith that formed from the survivors of the crash believed in the race of Destructors , and also believed that they were the Protectors destined to save the galaxy . 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 spoke the same language as the Sith who landed on their world . For the Alanciari , this was because Adari Vaal thought it imperative that the Alanciari be able to understand the speech of their enemies , the better to identify them . Over time , distinctive Keshtah and Alanciar accents developed , although the two versions of the language remained mutually intelligible . Keshiri were able to learn to read and write , using implements such as chalk to do so . The semaphore used by the Alanciari was a sophisticated communication system that required four people : the spotters , the signalers , and the transcriptionist . Non - verbal communication included winking at someone to indicate a joke or a lie , chuckling to indicate amusement , a sign for exasperation , and smiling to indicate contentment . Shaking hands was a Keshiri greeting . History . Origins and Skyborn . The Keshiri evolved on the planet Kesh thousands of years before the Battle of Yavin . By 6900 BBY , the Keshiri had developed sentience and lived in settlements of thatched dwellings . In the galaxy beyond Kesh that year , the Jedi routed a contingent of Dark Jedi in the Battle of Corbos . One group of Dark Jedi fled to Korriban , where they helped found the Sith Order . Meanwhile , a group of Jedi tracked the dark siders to the Stygian Caldera , where a chase ensued . Both the Jedi and dark sider vessels crash landed on Kesh , where they found the planet ' s magnetic field prevented them from communicating with the outside galaxy . The two sides warred with one another , wreaking untold havoc to the Keshiri and their world . However , both the faction of Jedi and the faction of Dark Jedi and Sith realized they would destroy the planet and themselves , so they agreed to a détente . The two sides hid away their weapons : the light - siders buried their last operational starship , the " Last Hope " , under the Keshiri ' s Circle Eternal , and the dark siders imprisoned the unrepentant Sith Lord Remulus Dreypa in an oubliette . The former enemies retreated to the arctic lands of Kesh ' s south pole , Eshkrene , where they formed a single society neutral to the light and dark sides of the Force , and where they atoned for their actions as guardians against the extinction of the Keshiri species . Coming to see their Force - sensitivity as a curse , they called themselves the Doomed . The world - shattering events did not escape the Keshiri ' s notice ; for millennia to come , their legends spoke of a Great Calamity brought about by a conflict between god - like entities known as the Protectors and the Destructors . By 5 , 000 BBY , the Keshiri had built several towns and cities on the Keshtah continent , 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 . Vaal , the wife of the deceased Neshtovar member Zhari Vaal , was branded a heretic for her teachings , especially by High Councilor of the Neshtovar , Izri Dazh , and forced to flee from Tahv . Meanwhile , the " Omen " , a Sith warship under the command of Captain Yaru Korsin and tasked with delivering a shipment of Lignan crystal s to the Sith ' s Dark Lord Naga Sadow , was ambushed and knocked off - course while attempting to flee into hyperspace , 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 , Dazh and 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 of Keshtah 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 . Despite the fact that the Keshiri held no simple mathematical concepts at the time of the " Omen " crash , they soon learned the skill from the Sith and excelled in it . Service and resistance . Fifteen years after the arrival of the Sith on the planet , the Sith Tribe began to accept that they might remain permanently stranded on Kesh . Around this time , however , Ravilan , one of the few members of the Sith species among the " Omen " survivors , discovered the deadly effects of cyanogen silicate . He used the silicate to poison and kill the Keshiri who lived in the city of Tetsubal , hoping to convince the Sith that it was a sign from the dark side of the Force that they should leave the world . Korsin ' s wife , Seelah , discovered his ploy and turned it against him , using the silicate to poison many of the other Keshiri villages — leaving hundreds of thousands of Keshiri dead — and blaming it on Ravilan and the other " Fifty - seven " surviving members of the Sith species . This initiated a purge of the " Red Sith , " as the race was known , causing the deaths of all of the members of the Sith species on Kesh . This move was met with secret joy by Vaal and several other members of the Keshiri , who wished to remove the Sith from their world . Ten years later , Vaal ' s resistance movement prepared to strike at the Sith in an attempt to weaken their hold of power over Kesh , but their plans were discovered by Yaru Korsin ' s daughter , Nida , and foiled . Vaal and her surviving followers were forced to flee out over the oceans and into exile . Their flight lived on in tales told by the Keshiri — although the servants told it with the moral that it was not their own decision to choose their destiny . Under Nida Korsin ' s reign , the position of Caretaker of Sith lore was created , and several Keshiri clerks served the Caretaker . The Herald arrives . Vaal did not perish in exile as the Tribe assumed . In 4975 BBY , she arrived on a new continent , called Alanciar , which had its own Keshiri population . There she warned the people of the Sith lying across the sea . She noted the superior natural resources of Alanciar and urged the Keshiri there to prepare for an invasion from the west . She taught them the Sith ' s language to allow them to know their enemy . Although not Force - sensitive herself , Vaal told the Alanciari of the Force and explained what she had seen the Sith do with it . As a result , the Alanciari thoughtcrier tradition emerged , its members largely self - taught by what Vaal had revealed . Vaal recorded her memories of the Sith in book form . One volume came to be called the " Keshtah Chronicles " , a tome full of warnings about the Sith . Another was a memoir about her relationship to Yaru Korsin ; in it , she described her strange attraction to the Human but ultimately dismissed him as an animal . The Alanciari kept the volumes hidden in a library hidden within Vaal Hall . Also stashed within the library was a lightsaber that Vaal had stolen from a Sith on Keshtah . Vaal entered the annals of Alanciari lore as the Rock of Kesh , the Herald , Savior and Lost Daughter . She became associated with the avian deity Bright Tuash . The decennial anniversary of Vaal ' s arrival became the holiday , Observance Day . The Keshiri of Alanciar heeded Vaal ' s warnings and began a program to militarize their society . They established a standing army and initiated a military draft . Their existing network of signal stations were retooled as an early - warning system in case of invasion . They formed a War Cabinet to govern the Alanciari , at first meeting in the interior plateau then moving to Vaal Hall in the capital , Sus ' mintri , after its construction . Even their homeland itself became a weapon of war as the Alanciari cut terraces into the landscape , built a highly defensible road network , and placed fortresses in the west and industry in the east , farther from the enemy . Invasion . More than a millennium after the Sith ' s arrival on Kesh , the Keshiri of Keshtah remained indentured , and they were forbidden even to fly uvaks . By this time , several Keshiri served as bartenders in local taverns , and they often developed more open relationships with the Human slaves of the Sith than with the Sith themselves . Some Sith lived on large estates where they were assisted by several Keshiri slaves — the Sith Saber Orielle Kitai and her mother , High Lord Candra Kitai , lived on one such estate just outside Tahv . After the Kitais were framed for an assassination attempt against the Tribe ' s Grand Lord , Orielle came to believe that the Keshiri who had fled into exile were among the greatest Keshiri who ever lived for defying those who had attempted to decide their destiny . Later , during the Testament Day holiday in 3000 BBY , it was rediscovered by the Tribe that the Human Sith had once answered to Naga Sadow , who was not Human . Although the revelation was kept hidden from the Keshiri , it led to riots amongst the Human Sith , as they realized that they were not necessarily the dominant species in the galaxy . Caretaker Varner Hilts , with the help of his Keshiri aide , Jaye Vuhld , discovered ancient messages from Yaru Korsin and his mother , Takara , in the ruins of the Sith Temple that revealed that the Human Sith were not destined to be slaves . Hilts also found a map of Kesh formed from data gathered during the " Omen " crash that revealed that their continent , Keshtah , was actually Keshtah Minor , as a much larger continent existed halfway around the world . Although many Keshiri had grown distrustful of the Sith because of their unexplained rioting , Hilts , as Grand Lord , ushered in a new age , the Hilts Restoration , in which the Sith and Keshiri worked to travel to the newly - discovered continent . One role played by the Keshiri was to send their pantomime troupes about the continent to restore civil order — along with news that the Tribe ' s destiny lay across the sea in new lands . Hilts and his underlings investigated the possibilities of invading the new continent and conquering any people who lived there . Faced with a lack of resources to build adequate oceangoing vessels and with the limits of an uvak ' s endurance to fly long distances , the Human High Lord Edell Vrai developed airships held aloft by gas bags full of hydrogen and pulled by a team of uvaks . Keshiri artisans constructed an invasion force — the Ebon Fleet . In 2975 BBY , the fleet had reached more than sixty vessels . Vrai commanded three exploration airships with the goal to confirm the existence of the new continent , reconnoiter the area , and potentially make contact with the natives through Keshiri missionaries . The Keshiri native to the target continent , who called themselves the Alanciari and their homeland Alanciar , detected Vrai ' s force from a base at Garrow ' s Neck and a tower at Point Defiance . They attacked with hand - ballistae and warned the rest of the continent via the Force and semaphore . The defenders punctured the airships ' gas bags and ignited the hydrogen within ; thus downed , most of the crews were killed . Vrai survived with a few crewmembers ; they captured a Keshiri woman and man — the Alanciari wardnaster Quarra Thayn and Signal Corps member Jogan Halder . The Sith overwhelmed the crew of the " Mischance " , a Keshiri sailing vessel , and captured it before sailing it to a small cove . There , Vrai used Thayn ' s obvious attachment to the injured Halder to convince her to guide him inland on foot to continue his mission . Nevertheless , he lied to her : rather than keeping the man safe , Vrai had his crew sail with Halder back to Keshtah . Over the next day and a half , Thayn sneaked Vrai past the alerted patrols by claiming that Vrai was a Keshiri disguised as a Sith for the Observance Day masquerade . Thayn brought Vrai to Kerebba , where he witnessed Observance Day firsthand ; her plan to show the Sith how united her people were against his bore fruit in that the Sith began to question his people ' s prospects for a successful conquest . Nonetheless , before he could call off the invasion , his rival , the Sith Korsin Bentado , arrived with the Ebon Fleet , having decided to seize the glory of conquest for himself rather than await Vrai ' s return to Keshtah . With no knowledge of the Alanciari ' s defenses or the hydrogen - based crafts ' weaknesses , Bentado ' s fleet fell quickly to the alerted Alanciari . The surviving Sith forces gathered on the ground and fought their way to Sus ' mintri over the next three and a half days . There they sneaked into Vaal Hall and overwhelmed its defenses , killing the Alanciari leadership . With control of the semaphore system ' s central hub , they ordered Alanciari forces to bring Sith prisoners to Vaal Hall — a ruse to gather reinforcements . Meanwhile , Bentado plotted to set himself up as an independent warlord on Alanciar , a base from which he could send a counter - invasion to conquer the One Tribe . Quarra Thayn responded to the sham message with the intent of turning Edell Vrai over to the authorities . However , in the capital , the two uncovered Bentado ' s ruse . Vrai attempted to convince his rival to remain loyal to Hilts , but Bentado ' s forces attacked and the pair escaped to Adari Vaal ' s secret library . Bentado sent out an all - clear signal from the semaphore station to call off the Alanciari defenses and thus allow his own forces to wipe out any arriving Sith airships , which would be under command of Varner Hilts . Bentado ' s servant , a Keshiri named Squab , reacted to the betrayal of Hilts , to whom he remained loyal , and killed his master . Reunited . Hilts landed peacefully on Alanciar in the ship " Good Omen " , greeted by the Alanciari army . Along with the newly arrived Sith — who styled himself the ally of a deity called the Bright Tuash — was Jogan Halder . The Alanciari man had been sent to the continent to witness a carefully orchestrated demonstration of Sith benevolence while the Sith studied his copy of the " Keshtah Chronicles " for clues to the mentality of the Alanciari . Repatriated , Halder extolled the wonders of Keshtah and the happiness of its people , who were free from the constant vigilance and fear required in the martial society of Alanciar . He claimed that the evil Sith against whom Adari Vaal had warned had been destroyed long ago — save Bentado and his crew . Indeed , Vrai had been an agent of the good SIth , sent to warn the Alanciari of Bentado ' s invasion . As word spread of the friendly arrivals , the Alanciari accepted Halder ' s tale and welcomed him as their new Herald — and Hilts as the man who would unite them with their kin on Keshtah . Vrai became the de facto governor of the continent . He embarked on a program of bringing Keshtah up to the same technological standards as Alanciar and set his sights on further exploration of the planet . He also disarmed the Alanciari Keshiri as a sign of friendship to their new Sith " allies . " Thayn , after abandoning her fruitless attempts to convince the Alanciari that the Sith were duping them , remained close to Vrai , serving as a confidant so as to ensure that the integration of Alanciari and Sith cultures was done equitably — and to learn the Sith ' s secrets . Meanwhile , Hilts considered bringing the Keshiri into the Lost Tribe as equals rather than slaves now that the Sith knew that the Keshiri species had Force - users among it . Over the next year , Hilts embarked on a project to make use of the raw materials and technologies developed by the Alanciari for the Sith of Keshtah . Key among his desires was the use of Alanciari sailing vessels and crews to explore the rest of the planet . Over the next year , the Sith built a fleet of sailing ships and staffed them largely with Alanciari sailors . Hilts suspected another force of offworlders might have encountered the Keshiri before his Tribe arrived . Accordingly , circa 2974 BBY , he sent a ship , commanded by the Keshiri Captain Chegg , on a mission to survey the planet ' s south pole . Among the crew were the Humans Parlan Spinner and Takara Hilts , a criminal and Varner Hilts ' s daughter , respectively . After making landfall , the Humans attempted to mutiny and sail the ship to Alanciar , which had become fabled as a land of opportunity in the minds of Keshtah ' s Human population . In the chaos , a disparate group of the polar region ' s inhabitants killed Chegg and his men and captured the Humans . At their settlement , the group ' s spokesperson , a S ' kytri named Kaliska , revealed that her group were the Doomed , the descendants of Jedi , Dark Jedi , and Sith who had crash landed on Kesh millennia ago , and that they still considered themselves the guardians of the Keshiri and the keepers of a dark side weapon hidden at the time of the Great Calamity . Spinner escaped Doomed custody and located the weapon : an oubliette containing the Human Sith Lord Remulus Dreypa , whose imprisonment thousands of years before had allowed the catastrophic war to end . With Spinner ' s aid , the Sith Lord escaped his imprisonment and fled to Keshtah by sailboat . Using dark side power , he enthralled the Sith ' s slaves at the clothworker town of Eorm to revolt as he attempted a full conquest of the continent . As the Sith leadership at Tahv rallied their Human and Keshiri subjects to prepare to defend the capital , Takara Hilts and the Doomed followed Dreypa on uvaks — Doomed knowledge of wind currents allowed them to travel much farther on the beasts than the Sith could — and confronted Dreypa at a volcano called the Sessal Spire . There they faced not just Dreypa but the resuscitated Leviathan larva e he had long ago hidden there . During the battle , Hilts convinced Spinner to break his alliance to the rampaging Sith Lord . When Kaliska revealed that the Doomed ' s ancient starship , the " Last Hope " , lay under the Keshiri ' s burial cairn s , Spinner took an uvak to Tahv , stole into the holy site , and activated the vessel . To the Keshiri who witnessed it , the starship was a metallic monster with a person in its eye , headed for the stars . Meanwhile , Keshiri and Humans alike defended Tahv against Dreypa ' s Leviathans until Spinner returned to defeat the creatures — and their master — using the ship ' s advanced technologies . Into the galaxy . 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 . The Sith began to plan out an invasion of the galaxy . Two years later , several Keshiri Sith were chosen to be on the select Sith strike team sent to kill Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker . Shortly thereafter , Sarasu Taalon , a Keshiri High Lord on the Circle of Lords , led a fleet of eleven ChaseMaster frigates to the planet Dathomir , where the Keshiri Sith Lord Viun Gaalan led a group of shuttles to the surface to retrieve Vestara Khai — the sole survivor of the Sith strike team — along with a group of Nightsisters whom Khai helped to capture . In orbit over Dathomir , Taalon confronted Skywalker with his fleet of ChaseMasters , proposing and forming a false alliance with the Jedi Master to eliminate Abeloth , a powerful dark side being residing in the Maw . Several Keshiri in the fleet then took part in the ensuing mission . The Sith intended to betray the Jedi and force Abeloth to serve them , but they failed , and Skywalker defeated Abeloth . However , they soon discovered that the entity had not died . When Taalon later immersed himself in a dark side nexus known as the Pool of Knowledge , he began to slowly turn into the same kind of being as Abeloth . Taalon was later killed by Khai , in order to prevent him from becoming another Abeloth . Meanwhile , the rest of the Sith fleet prepared to strike at the galaxy . In 44 ABY , several Keshiri participated in Operation Shieldfall , a mission to the planet Nam Chorios , to where Vestara Khai and the Skywalkers had tracked Abeloth . The Keshiri Sith Saber Tola Annax led the assault planetside against the Jedi and Abeloth while other Keshiri took part in the battle in orbit against the Jedi . However , the Sith were forced to retreat . Later , several Keshiri defected from the Tribe to join Abeloth after she destroyed the city of Tahv . Other Keshiri loyal to the Sith assisted the Tribe in infiltrating the galactic capital planet Coruscant , but the Sith there were soon thereafter eliminated by the Jedi , ending the Tribe ' s war efforts . Abeloth was finally destroyed when her last three bodily manifestations were each simultaneously killed . The Jedi came to believe that Abeloth had been the Destructor of Keshiri religion , and they learned that she had been the last surviving member of the Ones , a family of extremely powerful Force - users . In the past , she had been kept in check by the family ' s Daughter and Son , but they had been killed during the Clone Wars . Keshiri 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 5000 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 . Soon thereafter , the Keshiri High Lord Sarasu Taalon led a fleet of ships to Dathomir , where Sith Lord Gaalan took a convoy to the planet surface to retrieve the sole survivor of the strike team from Dathomir . During the mission , Gaalan led the capture of several Nightsisters and also survived a duel with Luke Skywalker himself . Shortly after , Taalon convinced Skywalker to join the Sith in an attempt to defeat the mysterious dark side being Abeloth , although the Sith actually intended to force Abeloth to serve them . During the ensuing mission , a Keshiri member of the fleet , Captain Leeha Faal , was killed while beyond shadows , and the Sith failed in their endeavor , as Skywalker killed one of Abeloth ' s bodies . Taalon then elected to stay on Abeloth ' s homeworld with the Skywalkers , Khai , and Khai ' s father , Gavar , to discover more about Abeloth . After discovering that Abeloth had not died , Taalon swam in the Pool of Knowledge , resulting into his slow transformation into a member of the Ones . The Sith then followed the Skywalkers , who tracked Abeloth to Pydyr . There , Vestara Khai called in reinforcements under the command of Keshiri Sith Master Jestat Vhool . However , Taalon was killed by Vestara Khai to prevent him from becoming another being like Abeloth . Sith Saber Tola Annax led Operation Shieldfall ' s planetside division against the Jedi and served as second - in - command to Gavar Khai , first in the Sith armada , and then in Abeloth ' s fleet . Meanwhile , several Keshiri who remained loyal to the Tribe penetrated Coruscant ; however , due to their distinctively colored features , they had to remain hidden . They thus were given the task of exploring the Jedi Temple , which had recently been deserted at the orders of Luke Skywalker . When Abeloth took control of the Sith forces on Coruscant , she employed the female Keshiri High Lord Korelei as a torturer on former Triumvir Wynn Dorvan . Abeloth later consumed Korelei ; Abeloth in Korelei ' s form was killed by Vestara Khai and Ben Skywalker on Abeloth ' s planet . Meanwhile , the Sith forces that had infiltrated Coruscant , including such Keshiri as Jestat Vhool , were eliminated by the Jedi and Galactic Alliance forces . Behind the scenes . The Keshiri first appeared briefly in John Jackson Miller ' s " " , the first eBook in the " Lost Tribe of the Sith " series , which was published in May 2009 as a tie - in to the " " novel series from Del Rey . The species has since been featured in each of Miller ' s successive " Lost Tribe of the Sith " eBooks , including " " , " " , " " , " " , and " " , as well as the final installment , " " , published in July 2012 to cap off the series ' . The species was first identified as the Keshiri in the second novel of the " Fate of the Jedi " series , " " , written by Christie Golden and published in May 2010 . Members of the Keshiri have since appeared in each successive " Fate of the Jedi " novel , including " " , " " , " " , " " , " " , " " , and " " . Miller included the Keshiri in each issue of the comic book series " " from Dark Horse Comics . Artist Andrea Mutti offered the first visual depiction of the species in the comic ' s inaugural issue , published in August 2012 . Miller has been the author to most fully explore the Keshiri , their culture , and their society ; he has noted that he enjoys writing stories from the alien point of view since such stories present the temptation to overemphasize the aliens ' differences from Humans rather than to make them sympathetic to readers . Miller decided to make the Keshiri a stone - age society for the first short story to detail their culture , " Skyborn , " wherein he was able to weave bits of the species ' mythology . The story tells of the Keshiri meeting the crash - landed offworlders who would later become the Lost Tribe of the Sith , a dramatic hook that Jackson modeled after various first - encounter narratives in literature and history . For instance , he wanted to make the situation analogous to the arrival of the in North America , neither friendly nor hostile to the area ' s inhabitants , yet desperate for help from them . Thus , the Keshiri woman Adari Vaal serves as his central character to bring the two sides together . Later stories in the " Lost Tribe of the Sith " series allowed Miller to flesh out Keshiri culture , especially after they entered servitude to the Sith . For instance , the stories show that the Keshiri bear their Sith masters about on palanquins due to a lack of terrestrial beasts of burden , and their access to high - quality lenses is due to their skilled glassblowers . While writing the earlier stories in the " Lost Tribe " series , Miller maintained the idea that other Keshiri existed beyond the continent of Keshtah , isolated from their kin due to quirks of their homeworld ' s geography and weather . With the novella " Pandemonium " , Miller used this idea to present a more speculative first - contact narrative : one in which the indigenous people — in this case , the Alanciari — were aware of , hostile toward , and prepared for outsiders . The idea that the Keshiri of Alanciar had lived for two millennia under the belief that they could be invaded at any time prompted Miller to make the Alanciari a martial people , while also setting a stark backdrop within which to stage a love affair between " Pandemonium " two primary Keshiri characters , Quarra Thayn and Jogan Halder . The contact narrative structure also allowed the author to set up Thayn as a mirror to Adari Vaal , a more wary collaborator to the invading Sith . Miller took the idea of the Alanciari ' s semaphore system from a society he envisioned for an ultimately canceled " Star Trek " e - book project , tentatively titled " Starfleet Corps of Engineers " . He chose to have the Alanciari speak Basic to avoid a retread of the linguistic problems described in " Skyborn " . Miller ' s " Spiral " comic book series allowed the author to delve deeper into Keshiri mythology , to an encounter with outsiders that predated even the Lost Tribe ' s arrival on Kesh . By introducing the light siders and dark siders who would become the Doomed , Miller elaborated on the origins of the Keshiri ' s myths about the Protectors and the Destructors , thus explaining their credulity in their later dealings with the Lost Tribe . In an August 2013 interview , Miller explained that the Keshiri were unable to mate with their Human Sith overlords since the latter lacked access to Sith alchemy . While the Dark Jedi who were exiled to the planet Korriban were able to use Sith alchemy to reduce the genetic differences between Humans and the original Sith species , the first Keshiri Sith were low - level miners who were not powerful enough within the Sith Empire to have access to that technology .