Tellpah

Tellpah was a male Keshiri scholar and Lost Tribe of Sith slave who accompanied High Lord Edell Vrai during a reconnaissance mission to the continent of Alanciar in 2975 BBY. During that mission, he served aboard Vrai's airship Candra, which was held aloft by a helium gasbag and powered by two uvak, winged reptilian beasts of burden. Tellpah survived a skirmish with the Alanciari air force which resulted in the destruction of the Tribe's three scouting airships and the death of four-fifths of the expedition. After making landfall about a kilometer to the northeast of Point Defiance, Tellpah and the five other survivors led by Vrai climbed a cliff which led to a fortified tower known as Point Defiance.
While climbing up, the Human Sith Saber Ulbrick was badly wounded in the thigh by the Alanciari Wardmaster Quarra Thayn, who was defending her lover Jogan Halder with a hand-ballista. After the Sith disarmed the two Alanciari captives, Tellpah informed Vrai that Ulbrick was gravely wounded. Since the young Sith warrior was unable to walk without much pain, Vrai decapitated him so they would not be held back and to avoid the Alanciari taking a live prisoner. Tellpah was then assigned the task of hiding Ulbrick's dead body, which was dumped into a deep cistern. He then accompanied Vrai and Thayn into the signal tower, where they searched through Point Defiance's library and spotted the Alanciari boat, Mischance. The Sith then hijacked this vessel and used it to return to Keshtah Minor with their captive Halder.
Tellpah was aboard the Mischance when the harvester made its first journey to Keshtah by sailing through the Southern Passage which led to the Sea of Flames, a small sea to the west of Keshtah. Meanwhile, Vrai and Thayn embarked on a ground-based reconnaissance mission of Alanciar. Thus, Tellpah helped contribute to the Sith conquest of Alanciar. In the end, the Sith managed to conquer Alanciar after they used Halder to convince the Alanciari that the Sith did not pose a threat to them.
==Biography==
===A Disastrous Expedition===
Tellpah was a Keshiri man who served the Lost Tribe of Sith during the Hilts Restoration. As with all Keshiri who lived on the continent of Keshtah Minor, Tellpah was raised to revere and worship the Sith Tribe as the descendants of the Protectors, ancient gods in Keshiri religion. In 2975 BBY, Tellpah served as a scholar and translator during the High Lord Edell Vrai's reconnaissance mission to Alanciar. He served aboard Edell's flagship Candra, which was an airship that was held aloft by a hydrogen gasbag and powered by two uvaks, winged reptilian beasts that were native to the planet Kesh. The other eight crew aboard the Candra included Edell's lieutenant and pilot Peppin, the thoughtcrier Taymor, five Sith Sabers including Ulbrick and Janns, and another Keshiri scholar.
Taymor and the Sith scouting fleet traveled across the Western Sea to Alanciar's southeastern peninsula region known as the Six Claws. Shortly after arriving in Alanciar, the Sith airships were attacked by black javelins fired from Alanciari ballista emplacements in the Six Claws and were pursued by the Alanciari air force, which consisted of armed uvak riders. Thus, the Sith had made contact with the Keshiri living on Alanciar but quickly learnt that they had a strong military that was capable of resisting invasion. In fact, the Keshiri geologist Adari Vaal, who had initially worked with the Tribe but later attempted to overthrow them, had fled to Alanciar over two thousand years ago. She succeeded in warning the Alanciari about the threat posed by the Lost Tribe. As a result, the Alanciari developed a highly militarized society based around resisting invasion by the Sith.
Tellpah was one of the five Sith crew who survived the Candra's crash-landing near Point Defiance, a signal station that was situated on the peninsular of Garrow's Neck. Unseen, the Sith party had dropped north of Point Defiance while the balloon carried the wrecked gondola farther eastward. After traveling for a kilometer, the Sith party led by its commander Edell Vrai climbed a stony tumbledown which led to Point Defiance. While climbing up the cliff, Ulbrick, one of the Sith expedition members, was wounded in the thigh by glass projectiles from a hand-ballista which had been fired by the Alanciari Wardmaster Quarra Thayn, who was protecting her wounded lover Jogan Halder. During the fighting, Halder had been crushed by the fallen uvak Starboard, who had been tethered to the Candra.
===Meeting the Natives===
After a brief but fierce struggle, Peppin and Janns managed to overpower Quarra and take her and her companion prisoner. Quarra revealed that she could speak the same language as the Sith and that the Alanciari had been well prepared for the Sith invasion. Meanwhile, Tellpah attended to Ulbrick's wounds and tried to bandage them with a rag. However, Ulbrick's right thigh had been badly splintered by multiple glass projectiles and his makeshift bandage was completely saturated in blood. Edell approached Tellpah and asked him about Ulbrick's condition before asking the Keshiri what his name was. Tellpah identified himself and informed his captain about Ulbrick's deteriorating condition. Due to the bleeding, Ulbrick was unable to continue walking. After Ulbrick admitted that he would be unable to walk, Edell made the brief decision to euthanize Ulbrick by swiftly decapitating him. This was done to send a warning to the captive Quarra that her life would be in danger if she did not cooperate with her captors and to prevent the Alanciari from capturing a Sith prisoner. Tellpah avoided Edell's lightsaber stroke but his clothes were stained by the resulting gush of blood from Ulbrick's body.
Edell then ordered Tellpah to hide the fallen Sith warrior's body. After that, Tellpah and his captain Edell rummaged through the belfries of Point Defiance, searching for manuals that could help them operate the fort's semaphore machine. Shortly later, the Sith were joined by two more Human warriors who had survived the Candra's crash-landing. The captive Quarra was shocked to see a Keshiri serving the Sith and quickly realized that he had come from Keshtah, the domain of the Sith. Quarra attempted to encourage Tellpah to mutiny against his master by telling him that the Keshiri in Alanciar were free. However, Tellpah merely looked at her and was unable to comprehend the notion of the Keshiri being the masters of themselves. In response, Edell ordered Tellpah to ignore the Alanciari woman and to resume his job of finding the proper signal to send. With Tellpah being unable to find a way to operate the semaphore machine, Quarra offered to show them how to send the "all-clear" code. However, Edell did not trust her since he feared that she would alert the other Alanciari to their presence.
Unable to operate the semaphore machine, Edell smashed the stand containing the signal cylinders against the stone wall, destroying them. Edell and Tellpah then walked out onto the balcony where they spotted a ship in the horizon. This ship turned out to be the Alanciari fishing trawler Mischance. While most of the Alanciari harvester fleet usually worked in the coral banks of the Southern Passage, captains that were behind in harvesting their quotas of seafood were known to cut corners by fishing in the Western Sea, which was a restricted military zone that was patrolled by the Shore Guard, the Alanciari coast guard. Edell decided that the six surviving Sith would hijack the harvester and then use it to return to Keshtah. The Sith also brought their two prisoners Quarra and Jogan with them. Prior to their evacuation from Point Defiance, Ulbrick's body was dumped into a cistern in an effort to hide it from Alanciari reinforcements who had been dispatched from Garrow's Neck.
===Returning to Keshtah===
The Sith party managed to hijack and seize control of the Mischance. During that brief but violent skirmish, all of the Keshiri sailors fought to the death. Edell Vrai's lieutenant also attempted to interrogate one of the Alanciari sailors but he refused to disclose any information to the Sith prior to his death. The Sith also found that the vessel contained several good maps of the currents in the Southern Passage. Edell and his lieutenant Peppin ten decided to use the Mischance to return home to Keshtah and warn the Tribe of the military capabilities of the Alanciari. While the Mischance was merely a lowly harvesting vessel, it was larger and more advanced than any of the seagoing vessels which Keshtah had produced. Having accomplished their mission, Edell and Peppin decided to return home with their new acquisitions. However, Edell was unwilling to return home and made up orders claiming that he had to remain behind on Alanciar for a ground-based reconnaissance mission.Lost Tribe of the Sith/Email from John Jackson Miller
Later, Tellpah was present when his captain Edell Vrai presented the other captive Quarra Thayn with the offer of serving as his guide on a ground reconnaissance mission into Alanciar's interior. Edell wanted to find out more about Alanciar's military government, the War Cabinet, in order to provide the Sith Tribe with more intelligence on Alanciar. He told Quarra that the pair would infiltrate Alanciar through Meori Cove in Garrow's Neck, which was not under military surveillance. They would then travel to Alanciar's capital of Sus'mintri, which he estimated would take them several days to reach. Edell intended for this reconnaissance mission to last for a maximum of two weeks. Edell also lied to Quarra and claimed that the Mischance would remain off the coast of Garrow's Neck until they received a signal that he had returned. Quarra was initially unwilling to cooperate until Edell threatened to kill her lover Jogan by throwing him into the ocean.
Quarra then suggested that Edell use his own Keshiri slave, Tellpah, for this mission. However, Edell reiterated that he wanted a local guide who knew Alanciar. He also explained that the reason why he had brought Tellpah and the other Keshiri from Keshtah was to spread their religion, which was centered around the Sith "Protectors". Edell also wanted to learn more about the military capabilities of the Alanciari. Finally, Quarra agreed to assist Edell in return for them untying Jogan from the ship's and attending to his wounds. Edell agreed to Quarra's demands and ordered Peppin and Tellpah to untie Jogan. After depositing Edell and Quarra at Meori Cove, the Mischance returned to Keshtah. Tellpah was presumably aboard the ship during its first transoceanic voyage to Keshtah.
Under the leadership of Edell's lieutenant Peppin, the Mischance navigated through the Southern Passage and sailed into the Sea of Flames. After two weeks of traveling, the Mischance arrived on the western coast of Keshtah. After landing, Peppin flew ahead to the Sith capital of Tahv with a copy of the Keshtah Chronicles, which the Sith had obtained from Jogan's private library. This book was a popular history book which had been written by Adari Vaal following her exile and provided the Sith with invaluable intelligence on what the Alanciari knew about the Sith Tribe. After staging a grand deception operation in Tahv, Hilts and the other Sith High Lords managed to convince Jogan Halder that the Sith were not a threat to Alanciar but were rather the benign Protectors. As a result, the Alanciari submitted to Sith rule.
==Personality and traits==
As with many of the Keshiri who lived on the continent Keshtah, Tellpah had a servile attitude and relationship with the Lost Tribe of Sith, the Human Sith who ruled Kesh. He revered and worshiped the Tribe as the Protectors, benign gods in Keshiri religion who had fought a "Great Battle" against a race of malevolent beings known as the Destructors. As with many of the other Keshtah Keshiri, Tellpah had a lower forehead and a slightly narrower face than the Keshiri living on the continent of Alanciar, who called themselves the Alanciari. His commander High Lord Edell Vrai merely regarded him as a slave whose name did not matter.
During the Tribe's reconnaissance mission to Alanciar, Tellpah served his Sith masters faithfully and unquestioningly. He was selected for this mission due to his knowledge and expertise in the ancient Keshiri language, which the Tribe speculated was the main language of the Keshiri in Alanciar. However, Tellpah did not need to use his linguistic skills since the Alanciari already spoke the same language as the Sith and Keshiri from Keshtah. When Tellpah first encountered the Alanciari woman Quarra Thayn, he was shocked and unable to comprehend the fact that there were other Keshiri on Alanciar who were not subordinate to the Sith but who ran their own lives. However, Edell silenced Quarra and ordered Tellpah to continue with his work of finding out how to operate Point Defiance's semaphore machine. Ultimately, Tellpah's loyalty to the Tribe won out over Quarra's pleas.
==Behind the scenes==
Tellpah first appeared as a minor non-point-of-view character in John Jackson Miller's novella Lost Tribe of the Sith: Pandemonium, which was first released on July 24 2012 as part of the mass paperback Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories. This marks his only known appearance in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
==Appearances==
*Lost Tribe of the Sith: Pandemonium 
==Notes and references==
Category:Enslaved individuals
Category:Keshiri
Category:Males
Category:Scholars