Candra Kitai

Candra Kitai was a female Human Force-sensitive born into the Lost Tribe of Sith on Kesh. She was the mother of Orielle, who had became a prominent Sith Saber by 3960 BBY. Candra and her family owned an estate at Starfall, which was situated to the south of the Sith capital of Tahv. Following the ascension of Grand Lord Lillia Venn, Candra became a High Lord, earning her a seat on the Tribe's ruling Circle of Lords. However, Candra remained a political independent and did not align herself with the other two major factions: the Red Faction and the Gold Faction led by fellow High Lords Dernas and Pallima respectively. As a result of her position, Candra became the second-most important person in the Sith Tribe since she was able as the "tiebreaker" to select Lillia's successor in the event that the elderly Grand Lord died.
Unwilling to cede power to her rivals, Lillia came to regard "tiebreaker" Candra along with Dernas and Pallima as a threat to her rule. In 3960 BBY, Lillia conspired against Candra by using the Kitai family's sponsored uvak wrangler Campion Dey to stage an assassination attempt on the Grand Lord herself during the rake-riding games on Donellan's Day. As planned, Campion Dey made an assassination attempt on Lillia and was killed after he had outlived his usefulness. Due to her sponsorship of Campion, Candra was tarred by association and was accused of conspiring to assassinate Lillia. Under much duress, she confessed to plotting with Dernas and Pallima, who also were executed, to assassinate the Grand Lord. As punishment, Candra and her entire family were enslaved and all of their personal belonging were destroyed in a public bonfire.
To add insult to injury, Candra was forced to shovel uvak manure at the zoo, a public enclosure in Tahv, in full public view. Lillia also took advantage of the crisis to appoint three of her own supporters, including the two Luzo brothers Flen and Sawj Luzo, to the Circle of Lords as High Lords. Meanwhile, Candra's daughter Orielle Kitai sought refuge with her friend Jelph Marrian, a slave and horticulturalist who owned a farm in the Marisota River. Orielle soon discovered that Jelph was actually a Jedi from the Galactic Republic who owned a hyperspace-capable starship, a "Kesh-shaking" discovery that Orielle hoped would restore her family fortunes. Orielle returned to Tahv and revealed her discovery to her mother Candra, who was despondent and at resigned herself to fate.
Still, she reluctantly told her daughter to contact the architect Gadin Badolfa, who was a close associate of the four other High Lords from the Red and Gold factions. Orielle did as her mother instructed and later reunited and reconciled with Jelph, and the two returned to the farm to hide his secret. However, Candra did not believe her own daughter's story and instead alerted Grand Lord Lillia to her daughter's meeting in exchange for "improved working conditions." Ultimately, none of the four High Lords arrived and Lillia was able to discover Jelph's ship. However, the Grand Lord and her entourage were destroyed in an explosive conflagration known as the "Night of the Upside-Down Meteor," which also destroyed all evidence of the starship and the farm. Following the "disappearance" of Lillia Venn, Kitai was appointed as the new Grand Lord. During her brief reign, her only notable achievement was the closure of the zoo, where she had been forced to work as a slave. Meanwhile, her daughter Orielle and her Jedi friend Jelph survived and started a new life in Keshtah Minor's jungle highlands.
==Biography==
===High Lord===
Candra Kitai was a Human woman who was a member of the Lost Tribe of Sith, a group of Human Sith who ruled Keshtah Minor, a continent on the Wild Space planet of Kesh.Lost Tribe of the Sith: Secrets She was born around 4010 BBY and was fifty years old by 3960 BBY. She lived over a millennium after the Tribe's ancestors led by Captain Yaru Korsin arrived and conquered the native Keshiri, a purple-skinned Near-Human species by claiming to be the Protectors, ancient gods in Keshiri religion. At some point, Candra married an unidentified Sith man and she produced a daughter named Orielle Kitai, who became a prominent member of the Sith Sabers, the Tribe's equivalent of the Jedi Knights. Due to their status as Humans and Sith, Candra and her daughter lived comfortable and privileged lives. Candra lived with her daughter, Orielle, and their Keshiri slaves, at a mansion in Starfall, a country estate south of the Sith capital of Tahv, the largest settlement on Keshtah.
In 3961 BBY, the elderly High Lord Lillia Venn ascended to the Grand Lordship following a dispute between the Red and Gold factions of the Tribe. Lillia was considered by many of her contemporaries including Candra and Orielle to be a weak candidate due to her old age. Candra was subsequently appointed to the Circle of Lords to take Lillia's former position as High Lord. As a political neutral and a tie-breaker between the two factions, Candra became the second most powerful individual in the Tribe. She was widely considered within Sith ruling circles as a tiebreaker who would select Lillia's successor in the event that the reigning Grand Lord died. Meanwhile, her daughter Orielle rose to the position of Sith Saber and was also slated to lead the Sith Sabers in the future. For the moment, it seemed that the odds favored the fortunes of Candra and her daughter.
===The Assassination attempt===
In 3960 BBY, Candra Kitai's life took an unexpected turn for the worse. That year, Candra and Orielle attended a rake-riding game which was held at the Korsinata stadium, a large public venue in Tahv. Rake-riding was a violent blood-sports which pitted grounded uvak, winged reptilian beasts of burden native to Kesh, and their riders, who were known as uvak wranglers, against each other. This sports event was held to mark Donellan's Day, a public holiday which commemorated the life and times of Donellan, the son of the Tribe's second Grand Lord Nida Korsin, who had ruled for seventy-nine years. Donellan died before he could succeed his mother as Grand Lord, wiping out the Korsin family line. In response, Nida instituted a succession system that was based on meritocracy and this tradition was continued for successive generations. The Kitai family sponsored a certain uvak wrangler named Campion Dey, who had come from the southlands which they represented.
On that fateful day, Candra and her daughter Orielle were given a luxury compartment in the Korsinata stadium that was situated close to the one owned by their liege Grand Lord Lillia Venn. The Kitais had spent eight months planning and designing their own compartment to compete with the other High Lords. For this purpose, Orielle had purchased flowers from Jelph Marrian, a Human slave and horticulturalist who lived on a farm on the banks of the Marisota River who specialized in selling fertilizers to Keshiri farmers. Other prominent guests who were present included Dernas and Pallima, the leaders of the Red and Gold Factions, and Flen and Sawj Luzo, the two Luzo brothers who were close allies of Lillia Venn and served as her personal bodyguards. While the Luzo brothers were rivals to her daughter's leadership ambitions in the Saber corps, Candra insisted to her daughter that they would be friends for today.
Shortly after the games started, Campion Dey unexpected disengaged from the fray and attacked Grand Lord Lillia Venn. Dey rode his uvak up the grandstand towards the Grand Lord's box. However, Lillia attacked his uvak with Force lightning, causing him to fall onto the seats below where he was killed by the two Luzo brothers. While Candra and her daughter knew that they had not engineered the assassination attempt, they immediately fell under suspicion due to their sponsorship of Dey.
Candra was quickly arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate her liege. Under much duress, she confessed to conspiring with the leaders of the Red and Gold factions, to murder and overthrow Grand Lord Venn. Dernas and Pallima were quickly executed by the Luzo brothers but Candra was spared because the Grand Lord intended to make a public example of her to deter any potential foes.
===Enslavement===
As punishment for their alleged "treason," Candra and her daughter Orielle were condemned to slavery by Grand Lord Lillia Venn. Under the orders of the Grand Lord, all of their possessions were carried out of their house by their own Keshiri laborers and burned in a public bonfire, which was witnessed by large numbers of both Sith and Keshiri. To ensure her own survival, Candra pledged her "eternal loyalty" to the Grand Lord and was forced to shovel uvak manure at an uvak exhibit facility known as the zoo. However, Orielle managed to escape Jelph Marrian's farm where she sought refuge. Unknown to either Orielle and Candra, Jelph was actually a Jedi Shadow who had become stranded on Kesh following a crackdown on the Jedi Covenant, a secret Jedi faction which sought to prevent a recurrence of the Great Sith War. Jelph theorized that the Grand Lord had actually staged her own assassination attempt in order to improve her own political advantage and to make an example of Candra and her family. He argued that had Lillia not actually staged her assassination attempt, Candra and Orielle would have been executed and not enslaved.
Despite the downfall of the Kitai family, Grand Lord Lillia was still not finished with Orielle. She sent Flen and Sawj Luzo, who had been designated as replacement High Lords, to deal with the former Sith Saber. After learning about Orielle's whereabouts from several Keshiri traders, they descended on Jelph's farm while he was away. The Luzo brothers first killed Orielle's pet uvak Shyn on the pretext that slaves were not allowed to own uvak, a status symbol in Keshiri Sith society. They also presented two scrolls which purported that Candra had conspired with the Red and Gold factions to murder Venn. Finally, they forced Orielle to hand over her lightsaber by using the "suffering" of her mother Candra as a leverage. In addition, they threatened to raze Jelph and his farm if she did not submit. Orielle reluctantly surrendered her prized lightsaber and was given a shovel to mark her new status as a slave.
In a fit of rage, Orielle destroyed Jelph's garden and belongings. While rummaging through the manure pile in his barn, she discovered a hidden starship beneath. This starship turned out to be an Aurek-class tactical strikefighter, which was used by the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order. Orielle realized that the starship could restore her family's fortune because it was potentially a "Kesh-shaking" discovery that could change the fortunes of the Tribe. For more than a millennium, the Tribe had been stranded on Kesh since the arrival of the Omen and the forebears of the Tribe. Successive generations of Sith on Kesh had always desired to return to the stars and to conquer the galaxy. Without waiting for Jelph to return to the farm, Orielle returned to Tahv. When Jelph returned, he quickly realized that Orielle had discovered his "secret" and decided to stop her from revealing it to the rest of the Tribe.
===Collaboration and betrayal===
Meanwhile, Candra Kitai endured two weeks of force labor, shoveling uvak manure in an uvak exhibit facility in Tahv that her daughter called "the zoo." This facility had been founded as a special wildlife park to honor the memory and legacy of the second Grand Lord Nida Korsin and her Skyborn Rangers, the Tribe's air force. It had previously been home to several predator species that were native to Kesh. However, the Sith had long since driven them to extinction by using them for blood sports. To add insult to humiliation, the zoo's authorities deliberately contaminated the food that was fed to the uvak, making them ill and causing them to defecate frequently. As a result, Candra was forced to work long hours cleaning the animals' enclosures and was only allowed to sometimes sleep in an empty stall. Due to her harsh working conditions, Candra's styled hair became shaggy and unkempt. Since she was not given any change of clothing, her ceremonial gown from Donellan's Day was now frayed and soiled.
One night, she received a visit from Ori who knocked out the sentry who was guarding Candra. During their brief reunion, Ori told her mother about the starship she had found a farm near the Marisota River, and asked how she could use it to their advantage. While Candra was skeptical of her daughter's discovery and had resigned herself to fate, she reluctantly told Orielle to contact the architect Gadin Badolfa, a friend of the Kitai family. Through Badolfa, she could contact four High Lords from the former Red and Gold factions, which had been weakened as a result of the assassination attempt, and invite them to the farm to see the ship for themselves. Badolfa assured Orielle that the High Lords could help her free Candra from Venn's clutches, which Orielle realized was more important than restoring their former positions in the Tribe. However, Candra did not believe her daughter and secretly informed Lillia Venn about the meeting in exchange for what she termed "improved working conditions".
Orielle arrived at the farm, accompanied by her friend, Jelph, who hid out of sight while Ori called out to the High Lords. She was instead confronted by Grand Lord Lillia Venn and the Lords Sawj and Flen Luzo. Venn immobilized Ori with the Force and informed her of her mother's betrayal. Venn also explained that she had allowed Gadin Badolfa to deliver Kitai's messages since she had planned to use their presence at the farm as an excuse to execute them for treason. However, none of them turned up since they were either skeptical of Orielle's discovery or believed that it was a trap set by the Grand Lord to eliminate their factions. While Venn entered Marrian's starfighter, Orielle was rescued by Jelph and led toward the river. Meanwhile, Venn powered up the starfighter, unaware that Marrian had created an anti-theft system for the vessel, consisting of proton torpedoes and thousands of kilograms of ammonium nitrate-based explosives. As Venn ascended, the torpedoes detonated, killing Venn, the Luzos, and the guards. Orielle and Marrian fled the farm, which, along with the entire bank, sank into the river as a result of the explosion.
===Grand Lord of the Tribe===
After Lillia Venn's death, Venn's rivals attacked her supporters first, and then one another.Lost Tribe of the Sith: Pantheon While Orielle left everything behind and lived the rest of her life in secrecy, in a hut in the mountains with Jelph Marrian and their three children, Candra succeeded Lilia Venn as Grand Lord of the Lost Tribe of Sith. Her only notable achievement during her brief tenure was the closure of the zoo of Tahv, where she had been forced to work as a slave during the last days of Lillia Venn's reign. Candra ultimately failed to prevent the Tribe from descending into a millennium of anarchy and strife known as the Time of the Rot.
Despite her limited legacy, in 2975 BBY, an airship used by the Sith during the conquest of another continent on Kesh, Alanciar, was named in her honor in an effort to rehabilitate the past of the tribe. The Candra had a soapstone facsimile of Candra Kitai fastened outside the gondola's hull. This airship served as the flagship of High Lord Edell Vrai, a talented mathematician and engineer who had led the Tribe's efforts to develop a technology that could reach Alanciar. During the Candra's first flight to Alanciar, it was pursued and destroyed by the Alanciari air force.
==Personality and traits==
As with many of her fellow Sith Tribe members on Kesh, Candra Kitai was ambitious and aspired to rise to a position of power within the Tribe's hierarchy. She also adhered to the Sith Code which emphasized self glorification and an embrace of the dark side of the Force. However, she was unwilling to use assassinations to achieve her own goals and was horrified when her family's sponsored uvak wrangler Campion Dey made an unsuccessful assassination attempt against the ruling Grand Lord Lillia Venn, not knowing that the latter had staged her own assassination attempt to eliminate her political opponents. Candra also did not share the beliefs and policies of the two main factions, the Red and Gold Factions, which led her to stand as a political independent in the Circle of Lords.
While Candra loved her daughter Orielle, as a Sith she still cared more about her own self than other people. When Orielle shared with her information about the starship which she had discovered in Jelph Marrian's farm in an attempt to save her mother and to restore their family's position, Candra did not believe her daughter and thought she was making the story up. Instead, she traded this information to her family's enemy Lillia in exchange for "improved working conditions" at "the zoo", a public exhibit facility where she had been forced to shovel uvak manure for two weeks. Candra was so troubled and disturbed by her memories of the "zoo" that she closed it down after she ascended to the Grand Lordship following Lillia's death during the Night of the Upside-Down Meteor.
==Powers and abilities==
As a member of the Lost Tribe of Sith, Candra Kitai was Force-sensitive like her daughter Orielle Kitai. Due to her high status and political connections, Candra ascended to the office of High Lord by 3961 BBY. By the age of fifty standard years, Candra had grey hair which had been carefully hidden by Keshiri beauticians. Due to her harsh working conditions as a slave, Candra was physically exhausted and her hair and clothes were unkempt.
==Behind the scenes==
Candra Kitai first appeared as a supporting character in John Jackson Miller's eBook Lost Tribe of the Sith: Purgatory, which was first released on October 25, 2010. She later made a brief appearance in its sequel Lost Tribe of the Sith: Sentinel, which was released on February 21, 2011. Candra was briefly mentioned in the final novella of the Lost Tribe of the Sith series—Lost Tribe of the Sith: Pandemonium, which was first released on July 24, 2012. These works mark her only known appearances in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
==Appearances==
*Lost Tribe of the Sith: Purgatory 
*Lost Tribe of the Sith: Sentinel
*Lost Tribe of the Sith: Pandemonium 
==Notes and references==
Category:Females
Category:Humans
Category:Individuals with she/her pronouns
Category:Lords of the Lost Tribe of Sith