Great Crisis The Great Crisis was a two - week period of riots and killings which broke out on the planet Kesh immediately after Testament Day in 3000 BBY . During that Testament Day , the Lost Tribe of Sith rediscovered the fact that Humans had once been servants to another species . This discredited the popular myth that the ancestors of that Human Sith tribe had been from a race of great conquerors . The ensuing riots led to many deaths . The Great Crisis was ended by Varner Hilts , a historian and Caretaker of the Tribe ' s historical lore . During a trip to the Kesh Sith Temple , Hilts discovered a large map which proved the existence of another continent beyond Keshtah Minor which was known as Keshtah Major or Alanciar . Using this information , Hilts was able to convince the other Sith factions to put aside their differences and to work together to reach and conquer Keshtah Major . As a result , the other Sith elected Hilts as their new Grand Lord . Hilts then went on to rebuild Keshtah Minor and succeeded in annexing Alanciar in 2975 BBY . History . Background . The Great Crisis was rooted in the Time of the Rot , a period of civil war and unrest on Kesh ' s continent of Keshtah Minor which had lasted 960 years . The Time of the Rot had been sparked by the death of the ruling Grand Lord Lillia Venn during the Night of the Upside - Down Meteor in 3960 BBY . For centuries , rival Sith factions had fought over the leadership of the Sith Tribe which ruled Keshtah Minor , one of the two main continents on Kesh . This conflict devastated much of Keshtah Minor and led to the decline of much of its infrastructure and buildings . By 3000 BBY , there were over twenty rival factions and the Tribe had dwindled to a few thousand individuals . This threatened the survival of the Tribe . The only time and place that the various Sith factions met peacefully was at the Sith capital building in the Sith capital Tahv ' s Circle Eternal during Testament Day . Testament Day commemorated the passing of the Tribe ' s founder Yaru Korsin and was when his testament was read to the Sith Tribe . This festival was held every twenty - five years . In 3000 BBY , the Sith historian and Caretaker Varner Hilts was in charge of safeguarding the holocron which contained Korsin ' s Testament . An Inglorious Past . Twelve days prior to that year ' s Testament Day , the Sisters of Seelah , a Sith faction which revered Yaru Korsin ' s estranged wife Seelah Korsin , occupied the Kesh capitol building and attempted to force Hilts to produce a fake Testament that would be sympathetic to Seelah . Hilts refused to cooperate and revealed that the Testament was actually read from a holocron recording of Yaru himself . The Sisters ' presence eventually attracted the attention of several rival Sith factions including Force 57 , Korsinite League , and the Golden Destiny . Eight days prior to Testament Day , these two factions attacked and fought the Sisters within the Circle Eternal ' s atrium . Hilts was able to bring peace to these factions by offering to read the Testament of Yaru Korsin . Using his Keshiri assistant Jaye Vuhld ' s calculations of the city ' s Sandpipe , Hilts revealed that the Keshiri calendar was actually eight days behind the Galactic Standard Calendar . Thus , Hilts was legally obliged to convene the Pantheon ' s Peace and begin a reading of Korsin ' s testament . Yaru Korsin ' s Testament failed to present any solutions to ending the internecine conflict between the Sith . While adjusting the holocron , Hilts discovered that it had been recorded over an earlier transmission . The Sith leaders quickly learnt that their ancestors were not " great conquerors " but were merely lowly slaves , miners , and soldiers of the ancient Sith Lord Naga Sadow . The Tribe did not come willingly to Kesh but had instead become stranded during a mission to deliver Lignan crystals to Sadow ' s forces during the Great Hyperspace War . This revelation of the Tribe ' s " inglorious past " horrified the various Sith attendees . In an attempt to hide their " inglorious past " , Iliana destroyed the holocron with her lightsaber . The Crisis . Despite efforts by the Sith leaders to hide their true origins , word of the recent Pantheon reached their Human supporters within the Lost Tribe . Unable to cope with the " inglorious history " of their ancestry , the Sith began killing each other and anyone who got in their way . The various Sith factions fought each other before fighting among themselves . During the Great Crisis , Iliana Merko severed the left hand of Korsin Bentado , the leader of the Korsinite League , with her Sith lightsaber . She eventually fled on her uvak to the Kesh Sith Temple to hide from the other Sith factions . Within eight days , several of Keshtah Minor ' s cities had been burnt to the ground . Many Keshiri were killed during the fighting . Rioters also destroyed the Circle Eternal ' s historical archives and the Sandpipe , an ancient machine which had been used to record and measure time on Kesh . While many other Sith had given up any hope of saving the Tribe from destruction , Varner Hilts recalled that Yaru Korsin ' s Testament had mentioned that the late Grand Lord had kept some secrets from his people and that his descendants should turn to the " true power " behind his throne should " disaster befall " the Tribe . Korsin ' s throne was located aboard the " Omen " , the ancient Sith starship which brought the ancestors of the Lost Tribe to Kesh . The " Omen " was buried beneath a mountainside Sith temple . Hilts and his trusted Keshiri assistant Jaye Vuhld then travelled to the Sith Temple in order to find this secret which Hilts hoped would be able to save the Tribe . Nobody had visited the Sith Temple for several centuries since the Tribe ' s founder Yaru Korsin ' s daughter Nida Korsin had ordered the Tribe to evacuate the Temple in 4975 BBY . After much difficulty navigating the difficult terrain , Hilts and Jaye managed to enter the Temple ' s compound . Shortly later , they encountered Iliana and convinced her to join their quest . The Secret Continent . The three explorers eventually made their way to the derelict " Omen " , the ancient starship which had brought the ancestors of the Lost Tribe to Kesh . The " Omen " was buried beneath the Keshiri Sith Temple . However , the explorers found that Korsin ' s command throne had been removed from the ship ' s bridge . Hilts and his companions also discovered the presence of other Sith including Korsin Bentado , Edell Vrai , and Neera . These Sith had been vicious rivals during the Time of the Rot but had come together after much blood - letting to destroy the " Omen " in order to purge the " inglorious history " of the Tribe . Hilts and his companions eventually reached the the cupola above the Sith Temple ' s roof where they discovered Korsin ' s throne . They discover that the cupola ' s ceiling was a planetarium and also found a piece of transparent film which contained an old cant in the Tapani language . This document was a message from Yaru Korsin ' s mother Takara Korsin to her son prior to his fateful mission to Phaegon III . She predicted that Korsin ' s descendants would rule over a great people one day and be free of the Red Sith . However , Hilts argued that this text was not actually Korsin ' s secret and contended that the planetarium was intended to mislead future explorers into thinking that Korsin had intended the Tribe to return to the stars . Using their knowledge of the Lost Tribe ' s history , Hilts and Jaye reasoned that the dying Korsin had recorded his final Testament in a chamber beneath the Sith Temple . Hilts and his companions eventually reached the chamber and discovered both Korsin ' s throne and a map room . The other Sith eventually discovered their presence and killed Jaye . Before they could kill the others , Hilts used the Force to remove the blank slates cover the walls and revealed a large map which showed the existence of a second continent beyond Keshtah Minor . This unknown continent was several times the size of Keshtah and was separated by a vast ocean . In the end , Hilts was able to use the discovery of ' Keshtah Major ' to unite the Tribe and end the centuries - long infighting that has nearly destroyed them . Out of deference , the other Sith leaders elected Hilts as Grand Lord and Iliana became his Grand Consort . Aftermath . In the successive years , the Great Crisis became merely a memory . Under the leadership of Grand Lord Hilts , the Sith Tribe committed itself to rebuilding Keshtah Minor and discovering a way to reach Keshtah Major . As part of the Hilts Restoration , Hilts also allowed Force - sensitive members of the Keshiri , a purple - skinned humanoid species indigenous to Kesh , to join the Lost Tribe as Sith Tyro s and Sith Saber s . For the next twenty - five years , the Tribe began researching ways to cross the ocean and reach Keshtah Major . Hilt ' s wife Iliana was placed in charge of the Tribe ' s military forces while the High Lord Korsin Bentado was tasked with developing technology that would enable the Sith to travel safely to that continent . Following the failure of long - distance uvak reconnaissance flights and attempts to develop a fleet of wooden sailing ships due to the poor quality of Keshtah ' s timber , Vrai succeeded in developing airships in 2975 BBY . These airships were held afloat by glass vessels containing methane and hydrogen , which were protected by fabric - covered gondolas . The Tribe ' s airships also relied on uvaks to guide the vessel through the jetstream . That year , Vrai led a reconnaissance mission to Keshtah Major , known to its locals as Alanciar , to collect intelligence on its society and military capabilities . However , his three airships were shot down by the Alanciari military . Vrai and several other Sith survived and managed to capture two Alanciari locals : the soldier Jogan Halder and his lover Quarra Thayn . Vrai later coerced Thayn into serving as a guide for a reconnaissance mission into Alanciar ' s interior . Through Thayn , Vrai learnt that the Alanciari Keshiri were a militaristic society which had prepared for a Sith invasion for millennia . Two millennia ago , the Keshiri woman Adari Vaal had escaped from Keshtah with three - hundred Keshiri followers following a failed attempt to drive out the Tribe . Vaal became the founder of the Alanciari Keshiri civilization which was built upon defending their society from the Sith . Despite the failure of Vrai ' s mission , his rival High Lord Korsin Bentado invaded Keshtah Major with the Ebon Fleet , which consisted of sixty airships . As before , the Sith forces were decimated by the Alanciari military . However , Bentado and several Sith warriors survived . These infiltrated the Alanciari capital of Sus ' mintri and slew the entire War Cabinet , Alanciar ' s military government . Bentado then rebelled against Grand Lord Hilts and attempted to destroy Hilts ' approaching airship " Good Omen " . He planned to create a second Tribe on Alanciar using its industrial base . However , he was thwarted by Vrai , Thayn , and his own Keshiri servant Squab , who personally killed Bentado . Following Hilts ' arrival in Sus ' mintri , the Alanciari submitted to Sith rule after Halder convinced them that the Sith Tribe did not actually pose a threat to Alanciar . Instead , he claimed that they were the legendary Protectors , deities in Keshiri religion , and that the malevolent Destructors had been responsible for killing Alanciar ' s War Cabinet . He claimed that Vrai ' s forces had been pursuing the " Destructors " and their leader Bentado . Following the conquest of Alanciar , the Tribe was able to put the legacy of the Great Crisis and the Time of the Rot behind them . They then embarked on a mission to explore and conquer the rest of the planet Kesh . By 44 ABY , the Lost Tribe of Sith had realized their goal of returning to the galaxy .