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- "Ziost has been the throneworld of the Sith Purebloods since prehistory."
- ―An extract from the Chronicle of Sorzus Syn, 6900 BBY
Ziost (pronounced /ziɒst/),[18] once referred to as the "Gateway to the Empire" in the days of the Old Republic, was a rocky world—and potent focal point of the dark side of the Force—located in the Ziost system, a star system in the Sith Worlds region of the Outer Rim Territories' Esstran sector. It was connected to other nearby worlds by the Nache Bhelfia hyperlane. Ziost was also the one of the primary adopted homeworlds of the Sith species, considered one of the five sacred Sith planets, and served as the capital of Adas's Sith Empire and the Old Sith Empire. The Sith species ended up leaving their desolate homeworld Korriban as a vast tombworld after the death of their leader, Adas.
Historically a lush, densely-forested world with a warm climate, Ziost had endured an ice age around 27,700 BBY, after many of the Sith had arrived, including (but not limited to) Kissai priest and Massassi warrior castes. As a result, the planet was transformed into a vast, bitterly-cold tundra with a dry atmosphere—essentially a frozen desert—and hardly any precipitation.
Eventually, Ziost became a major Sith buffer-world during the days of Vitiate's Sith Empire, before being forgotten entirely.
Description[]
Astrography[]
Ziost was the primary planet of the system of the same name, a star system located up north within the Stygian Caldera nebula[2] in the Sith Worlds region of the Esstran sector[1] in the Trans-Hydian portion[2] of the Outer Rim Territories.[1] It distantly orbited a sun[3] and was in turn orbited by two moons.[4] It was considered one of the five sacred Sith planets, along with Khar Delba, Rhelg, Krayiss II, and Korriban.[10] Those five planets were linked by the looping hyperlane called the Nache Bhelfia—Ziost fell between the lesser worlds Nicht Ka and Ch'hodos on the route.[2]
Geography[]
Ziost was a frigid world.
A terrestrial world,[5] Ziost was originally covered with vast thick forests and possessed a warm climate. Around 27,700 BBY, however, an ice age leveled most of the vast woodlands as well as most evidence of civilization on the planet.[4] As a result, Ziost was transformed into bitterly cold tundra with an arid climate,[6] and its surface covered with rocky terrain, ice-encrusted mountains, glaciers.[5] It had at least one ocean,[7] with brackish water.[5]
After the ritual of Sith magic performed by Vitiate[19] in 3636 BBY,[20] the planet became completely devoid of life, and the planet's surface was left a barren wasteland.[19] The very fabric of the environment seemed to be leeched of color—leaving everything sickly shades of brown or gray.[21] The atmosphere was warped as well, as Ziost's sun appeared a pale brown[19] instead of its actual bright blue color,[22] and sound waves were twisted to become flat and dull. The absence of the Force could cause anything alive on its surface—especially Force-sensitives—to die if they stayed there long enough.[21] The ritual done on Ziost represented a clear display of the corrosive power of the dark side of the Force taken to its extreme.[23] Only a handful of creatures were capable of surviving the ritual besides Vitiate—Sithspawn known as Monoliths,[19] which had been created from dark side energy rather than by mutating a living creature like typical Sithspawn.[15]
Over three thousand years later, the damage done to the planet seemed to have been reversed.[7] By the year 40 ABY,[24] Ziost was once again a blue-green world. The landmasses at the equator were almost entirely green, graduating to green-white up through the temperate zones and turning to pure white soon after, giving the world large polar ice caps. And it's surface was covered with forests and tundras again.[7]
Flora and fauna[]
Ziost was a home to many creatures, such as Sith pincerbugs,[13] scorpions,[8] vine cats[14] and reptavians, that resembled miniature dragons.[5]
History[]
A new homeworld[]
- "Following the invasion of Korriban by the Rakata, the Sith gained access to their rudimentary hyperspace technology, and carried these scripts to worlds such as Ziost, Jaguada, and Tund."
- ―A mention of Ziost extracted from an article "The Written Word" by Dr. Milanda Vorgan, 38 ABY
Sith King Adas, the Sith'ari of ancient Sith
During the invasion of Korriban, Sith King Adas captured the Rakatan starships and turned them against the invaders. Adas's forces were able to push on from Korriban, and reach Ziost, Malachor V, and Tund.[2] However, in securing what he hoped would be a future of freedom for his people, Adas perished.[26]
Without his unifying force holding them together,[26] the Sith were plunged into[27] a bloody[28] civil war[27] as Sith Overlords battled each other in their attempts to capitalize upon the power vacuum left.[26] After this period of strife and turmoil, the remaining Sith were intrigued by and had repurposed captured Rakatan starships equipped with Force-based hyperdrives to reach other worlds,[28] leaving behind their desolated homeworld Korriban[4] as a tombworld populated by religious fanatics.[2] While some scattered to the worlds as diverse as[16] Malachor V,[10] Tund,[25][10] Jaguada,[25] Thule,[10] and Arorua,[10] most Sith[4] fled to the neighboring Ziost.[16] Those who relocated to the worlds such as Ziost, Jaguada, and Tund, brought the High Sith and Common Sith writing scripts with them.[25]
These Sith,[4] most of whom were of the Kissai priest and Massassi warrior castes,[16] discovered Ziost as a thickly forested world with a warm climate[4] and established it as the capital of the ancient Sith Empire.[26] As the Kissai priests oversaw the rebuilding efforts,[16] they established the Sith Citadel[4] atop a precarious cliff.[5] The planet eventually suffered from an ice age that leveled the vast woodlands as well as most evidence of civilization, leaving the Citadel among the few remaining structures.[4] As a result, the planet was transformed into bitterly cold tundra with an arid climate.[6]
Exiles[]
- "My inspirations came to me in rumors and dreams, and only now, in the minaret of Ziost, do I realize it was the call of the Sith all along. Sith alchemists have had ages to perfect their art, and their knowledge is now mine."
- ―An extract from the Chronicle of Sorzus Syn, 6899 BBY
Exiled Dark Jedi, Ajunta Pall, on Ziost
Following the Discovery of Korriban in 6900 BBY,[2] the Exiles Sorzus Syn and Remulus Dreypa mapped the Nache Bhelfia hyperlane,[10] that connected five sacred Sith planets, which included Ziost, along with Khar Delba, Rhelg, Krayiss II, and Korriban.[10][29]
As they established[10] their capital[2][29] on Ziost, the Dark Jedi built their own palaces, such as palace of Sorzus Syn, and rebuilt the Sith Citadel as citadel of Ajunta Pall. They also formed a Sith Council under the leadership of Ajunta Pall,[10] forming a new Sith Empire and adopted the ancient Sith Citadel as the central meeting place;[4] however, the Jen'jidai Sorzus Syn expressed hope that his reign would not last long. In her chronicle, she noted that the Sith Purebloods used Ziost as a throneworld since prehistory.[10]
Following the acquirement of the Holocron of King Nakgru in 6899 BBY,[30] Sorzus Syn sought out some of the conquered Sith worlds to obtain more information. The evidence of Sith raiding other worlds outside the Sith Space engulfed her as she saw a strong-backed Herglic slave cranking the bellows of the forge boiler on Ziost. Later, Syn visited breeding pens of Ninûshwodzakut on Ziost and studied creation of warbeasts, including silooth, warbirds, war behemoths, hssiss, terentatek, battle hydras, chrysalides, war wyrms and guardian beasts called tuk'ata. She also studied Sith alchemy in the minaret of Ziost and realized her role as a master summoner during the Hundred-Year Darkness was the call of the Sith all along. The Sith Code was authored on the planet by Sorzus Syn so as to point to the "failings" of the Jedi Code, and it was meant to become a unifying mantra for the followers of the newly created Sith Empire.[10]
Ziost would later be considered a neutral planet, where various Sith warlords could convene to discuss the future of the Empire,[5][8] with hundreds of lesser worlds falling under its sway, including industrial Korriz, eerie Dromund Kaas, ambitious Ch'hodos, battle-scarred Ashas Ree, and the distant world of Malachor V.[2]
Golden Age of the Sith[]
Duel of the Sith[]
- "I fight for the Sith Empire, Naga Sadow…you fight for yourself!"
"I fight for the future…and the future is now!" - ―Ludo Kressh and Naga Sadow
Naga Sadow battles Ludo Kressh at Dark Lord Marka Ragnos' funeral.
In 5000 BBY, Dark Lord of the Sith Marka Ragnos died after more than a century of iron-handed rule. Ragnos' funeral was held shortly after, with Kressh leading the funeral procession as they laid Ragnos to rest in a tomb in the Valley of the Dark Lords. After the tomb was sealed, Naga Sadow challenged Ludo Kressh to a duel for the title of Dark Lord before the tomb.[31][32] Neither would get the chance to claim a victory, however, as Marka Ragnos' spirit appeared with a warning: the Golden Age was nearing its end, and the Sith would need to fight the correct battles or else be destroyed. As the Sadow and Kressh pondered the dead Dark Lord's words,[31] they were interrupted by an unexpected sight: a starship of unknown origin descending into the Valley of the Dark Lords. When the ship landed, two Humans disembarked, proclaiming themselves to be emissaries from the Galactic Republic interested in setting up a trade relationship with the Sith civilization. The pair—Gav and Jori Daragon, in truth fugitives who had chanced upon Korriban after making a blind hyperspace jump to escape trouble on their native Koros Major—were swiftly seized as spies.[31][32] Although Kressh wanted to kill them immediately, Sadow thought the Daragons could be the key to new Sith conquests,[31] and had them imprisoned for questioning on Ziost.[8][32]
Council's decision[]
For Sadow, the Republic was a vast new field to conquer, but it could also be a unifying force for an increasingly split Sith Empire, and a distraction from political weaknesses on the homefront.[33] With the Daragons in chains, Sadow met with the rest of the Sith Council at Ziost's Sith Citadel to discuss their fates. While several of the Council agreed with Kressh that the visitors should be put to death, Sadow made an impassioned plea to keep them alive, as their knowledge of the rest of the galaxy could lead to greater Sith domination and control.[8] Sadow knew well the value that Humans could bring, as he had made good use of the scientific skills of the descendants of Human Tapani refugees that had been enslaved by the Sith generations before, and often included Humans among his entourage.[34]
Despite Sadow's plea, the Council still voted to kill the Daragons. Meanwhile in the prisoner level in a fortress, Gav Daragon struggled to keep his optimism, noting that all great explorers occasionally fell upon hard times, while Jori thought it could have been worse. Finally, the two were approached in their cell by a Sith Lord named Simus, who informed them that their fate had been decided: they were to be executed as soon as possible. Gav was irate at this news and protested that they had not been given a fair trial and that they had given the Sith no information whatsoever, but these complaints fell on deaf ears. Unbeknownst to the Daragons, however, Naga Sadow had formulated a plan to free Gav and Jori, so as to bring about renewed contact with the Republic.[8]
Prison break[]
- "Summon all my loyal Massassi, gather weapons, prepare the ships. We must strike Ziost fast and hard."
- ―Naga Sadow
Sadow and his followers raided Ziost, leaving no evidence but a Republic blaster.
However, the ever-ambitious Sadow still had the galaxy on his mind, and he put a plan in motion to rescue the explorers and bring the rest of the Sith Council around to his side. As Sadow watched from his secret fortress on Khar Shian, a Sith soldier loyal to Sadow snuck into the Daragons' ship and stole a pair of Republic blasters. Once the weapons were in hand, Sadow quickly raided Ziost with a small strike team. At the time, the Daragons were at their most distraught, huddled together and lamenting their fate. Gav surmised that he should have continued his Jedi training and bemoaned the fact that the random spin of the navicomputer coordinates had brought them here. When he heard the Massassi coming, he straightened up and vowed not to go down without a fight. However, they were greeted not by executioners, but by Naga Sadow, who had freed the Daragons and killed all witnesses using one of the Republic blasters, including his old teacher, Simus.[8]
Sadow left the weapon behind at the scene, and departed to allow the rest of the Sith Lords to draw their own conclusions. Sadow deposited the Daragons at his secret citadel on Khar Shian, before promptly returning to Ziost to see if his strike had had the effect he desired. Sadow arrived to find that everything had gone according to plan: the Sith Council was in a panic, and the Republic was to blame. Feigning shock at Simus' death, Sadow loudly proclaimed that it was time for the Sith to strike back, and officially announced his intentions to seize the title of Dark Lord. To Ludo Kressh's horror, several of the Sith Council backed Sadow's claim, and Kressh left in a huff with his supporters, proclaiming that he would become the true Dark Lord. Not willing to let this stand, Sadow ordered his supporters, each of whom controlled a dozen worlds, to call their ships and warriors to battle. Things had come to a head, and Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh were finally going to war.[8]
Consolidating power[]
- "All of the Sith Lords, from Ziost and from their own systems, all swear allegiance to me."
- ―Naga Sadow
Naga Sadow receives his mark of Lordship on Ziost.
In the meantime, Sadow split the Daragons up, keeping Gav Daragon with him on Khar Shian and sending his sister Jori to his decoy fortress on Khar Delba. In Gav Daragon, who had once been a low-level initiate of the Jedi Order in his younger days, he found someone with a strong, if untrained, talent in the Force. Sensing promise in Daragon, Sadow took him under his wing as an apprentice and began to teach the young man Sith magic. With all-out war with Ludo Kressh looming, Sadow had a traditional mark of Dark Lord of the Sith applied to his forehead by Sith pincerbugs, an act which most believed made his claim to the seat of Dark Lord official. Soon afterward, he received information that Ludo Kressh had his men guarding the Daragons' captured ship, the Starbreaker 12.[13]
Realizing an opportunity, Sadow sent several of his Massassi warriors to kill Kressh's guards and seize the ship, leaving no witnesses and leaving Sadow's emblem behind at the scene. Sadow's Massassi flew the Starbreaker 12 back to Khar Delba, getting there just before Kressh attacked the world, just as Sadow had foreseen. Having planned for this eventuality, Sadow allowed Kressh, backed by the forces of his allies Horak-mul and Dor Gal-ram, to batter his fortresses on Khar Delba with a rain of laser fire from their battleships.[13] Naga Sadow emerged victorious after calling in his secret fleet from the far side of Khar Shian to counterattack Kressh.[36] In the following months, Khar Delba was rebuilt and was established as the center of Naga Sadow's power as he gathered a force to invade the Galactic Republic, in a conflict that became known as the Great Hyperspace War.[35]
Great Hyperspace War[]
In the war, Ziost remained a key planet within the Empire,[2] but following the Republic's victory, it was largely stripped of its Sith treasures,[4] artifacts, and documents[5] by Republic scouts[4] and the Jedi.[5] The remaining Sith followed the new emperor into hyperspace and a new Sith capital was established on Dromund Kaas.[21]
Post-Great Hyperspace War[]
- "I take it you've heard about Ziost. It was a blur. We tried to evacuate as many as we could. Considering so much was out of control, I'd say we did alright..."
- ―Lana Beniko
Ziost prior to the devastation
Following the defeat of the Sith Empire, the Sith all but disappeared from Sith Space and the galaxy as a whole. Ziost was conquered by the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders in the Mandalorian Wars, and later by Dark Lord of the Sith and former Jedi Knight Revan in the Jedi Civil War.[2]
Eventually, the planet was resettled by the reconstituted Sith Empire, once again becoming a major Sith holding. It served as capital of Imperial buffer space and, eventually, housed the Orbital Defense Command Center, headquarters of the Ministry of Logistics. The city of New Adasta was established on the surface of the planet by Imperial forces to serve as the world's capital, quickly overshadowing the Sith Citadel, political center of the Old Empire. The city quickly became a major trade hub, leading to the planet's being nicknamed the "Gateway to the Empire."
Sometime during the Great Galactic War or the Cold War, the Sith Lord Fatalissar declared a Kaggath against Darth Tormen. Tormen was within arms' reach of Fatalissar at the time, and when Fatalissar declared the arena to be Ziost, Tormen immediately decapitated his still-speaking opponent.[37]
During the Great Galactic War after the Republic victories over the Mandalorian blockade and at Ord Radama, Republic forces pressed the advantage back into Imperial-held space. Republic strike groups made attacks on Korriban, which Darth Malgus believed to be only feints, while a larger Republic fleet amassed over the Imperial world Ziost. Republic forces laid siege to the planet, hoping to establish an important foothold inside Imperial space. After several months of fighting, Imperial forces regained the upper hand and forced the Republic off the planet.[10]
By the time of Galactic War, scholars debated whether the planet's environmental situation was due to an ice age or eons of dark side influence.[6]
During Operation End Game, Theron Shan visited the planet, where he infiltrated the Orbital Defense Command Center in New Adasta to steal a Black cipher from Minister Davidge's executive office. By the time local officials found out, the agent was already long gone.[3] In spite of the harsh defeat as a result of Shan's cunning and local security's inability to protect the cipher, the planet remained a key world throughout the duration of the Galactic War.
The Emperor consumed Ziost to fully revitalize himself
Following the defeat of Revan by combined Republic and Imperial forces on Yavin 4, the resurrected Sith Emperor Vitiate attacked Ziost in an attempt to regain control of the empire that he once ruled. He took the minds of legions of Imperial forces on the planet and used them to take the lives of many of the planet's citizens to fuel his own power. When the Republic took notice and sent the Sixth Line to Ziost to investigate, Vitiate forced their ship to crash-land on the surface and took the minds of most of the Jedi inside. At the same time, an Imperial task force led by the Minister of Sith Intelligence Lana Beniko arrived and attempted to stop Vitiate.[22] As the situation worsened, Supreme Chancellor Leontyne Saresh decided to ignore the warnings of Shan and her agent Rane Kovach, and she sent the Republic Military to exploit the Empire's weakness by invading the planet for "humanitarian reasons." Saresh's forces fell under Vitiate's control just as the Imperials had, adding to his army of possessed.[38] Undeterred, he was able to consume Ziost via Force Drain, resulting in a barren, frozen wasteland which only left a few Monoliths alive.[19] The atmosphere, however, remained breathable. Members of the Republic and the Sith Empire traveled to Ziost once more to gather information on what exactly had taken place.
A world lost[]
- "You hunger for power of the sort you imagine is to be found on Korriban, Dromund Kaas, Zigoola. Then let me tell you what you'll encounter in those reliquaries: Jedi, treasure hunters, and legends. Of course there are tombs in the Valley of the Dark Lords, but they have been plundered and now draw only tourists. On Dxun, Yavin Four, Ziost, the same is true."
- ―Darth Plagueis, to Palpatine
The dead surface of Ziost after Vitiate consumed the world.
Following the death of the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Ruin, whose actions introduced a new age of expansion for the Sith, numerous Sith worlds, particularly Ziost and Yavin 4, were reclaimed.[2] During the New Sith Wars, Brotherhood of Darkness member Seviss Vaa researched the worlds of the Sith Empire, and recounted in his writings the Sith relocation to Ziost and that the world was largely stripped of its Sith treasures after the end of the Great Hyperspace War.[4] Around 1960 BBY,[40] the Amulet of Kalara was constructed on the planet.[7] Between 1004 and 1000 BBY, the region around Ziost fell into the control of the Brotherhood of Darkness, a Sith group that launched a campaign to control the galaxy, during the New Sith Wars.[2] Ziost's existence was once again forgotten after the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, due to the secrecy of Darth Bane's Sith Order. Many ancient and evil secrets remained on this place of great dark power.
A Sith holocron was plucked from a derelict starship on Ziost centuries before it ended up in Eben Kinahay's collection.[41] The world was also the original site of an ancient Sith ritual altar that was present in the Emperor Palpatine Surgical Reconstruction Center on Coruscant[42] in 19 BBY.[43] In the years following the Clone Wars, all records of Ziost were eliminated from astrogation charts and public databases.[5]
It was left largely untouched by the rise of the Galactic Empire and the Galactic Civil War,[2] until in 3 BBY, fugitive Jedi Rahm Kota visited Ziost while on the run from the Galactic Empire. The following year, Galen Marek came to the system during his search for Kota.[18][44][45]
Lumiya visited the planet and created her lightwhip using technology she found on Ziost.[46][47][48] The area containing Sith Space came to fall into the hands of Warlord Zsinj by around 7 ABY.[2] Nearly nine years after the Battle of Endor, the Jedi scholar Tionne Solusar set out to find the mutated Massassi Kalgrath, who was sent to the former location of the ancient Sith Empire.[12] She traced his trail as far as Ziost, but there it disappeared. She was informed by researchers on Ziost that they had seen a dark shadow creeping around their camp.[12] Despite this, it remains unknown whether the one-of-a-kind creature found his way to the fallen Sith Empire, with little more than rumours to back up Tionne's hypothesis.[49] Another ten years later bounty hunter Zekk, ran into Dengar on the planet while the rival bounty hunters were searching for Bornan Thul.[50]
In 38 ABY, the world was mentioned in the xenolinguist Doctor Milanda Vorgan's article "The Written Word: A Brief Introduction to the Writing Systems of Galactic Basic."[25]
Second Galactic Civil War[]
- "There's information on Ziost that I don't have. Like the coordinates where he was supposed to set down, the cave where he was supposed to leave the amulet—I guess he abandoned that part of the plan after he got hurt—and a lot of locations marked RUINS. I bet that wherever there are ruins, there's stuff to find. Maybe even people. Maybe even the base that TIE fighter is from. We're headed for the nearest ruins site. I bet Faskus was, too."
- ―Ben Skywalker
Following the Battle of Hapes, Ben Skywalker returned to the Jedi Temple to train. One day while practicing his lightsaber skills with a remote, he met a girl who introduced herself as Seha Dorvald. While they had a banal discussion relating to practice techniques, Dorvald discreetly gave him a card, which contained a secret message from Jacen Solo when scanned. In the message, Solo gave Skywalker a mission: go to Almania's moon Drewwa and retrieve an artifact called the Amulet of Kalara, which was in a display case in the Almanian planetary offices of the Tendrando Arms arms company. According to Solo, the Amulet of Kalara, when activated, would make the being using it invisible in the Force. Evidently, Dorvald was working together with Solo and would also assist Skywalker in getting out of the Jedi Temple inconspicuously. Skywalker exited the Temple through an emergency door which had had its emergency alarm disabled by Dorvald. Skywalker then got transport to a minor spaceport about four hundred kilometers away from the Jedi Temple and boarded a shuttle destined for Drewwa.[7]
Skywalker landed on Drewwa and immediately went to a local dining establishment for some breakfast. He ordered caf and one of his favorite delicacies, kruffy pot pie, but upon attempting to pay with his credcard he was notified that the special banking account set up for his mission did not work. Skywalker tried accessing the account at several different banks, but each time the banking machines could not find his account. Hungry and without funds, Skywalker resorted to stealing money from a bystander and using it to purchase his food, despite his reservations about thievery. Having had his meal, Skywalker set out for the Crossroutes Business Habitat, a large office building where Tendrando Arms rented several floors. The Amulet was on the 215th floor, and wanting to obtain the artifact unobserved, Skywalker took the building's turbolift to the 216th floor, which was owned by a consulting firm called Lyster Innovations. He successfully tricked Lyster's greeter, Gilthor Breen, into leaving his job, giving him free space to open a viewport and climb outside. Once outside he descended to the 215th floor after momentarily losing his grip on his climbing equipment. Having successfully gotten onto the 215th floor without being detected, Skywalker raced to the Amulet's display case only to find that the Amulet was not there. In its place, he found a note from a man named Faskus of Ziost, which explained that he had taken the artifact.[7]
Skywalker decided to go to Ziost to track the Amulet of Kalara down, but didn't have a means of transportation since the planet Ziost did not appear in any public database. Since his money-stealing technique had improved and he had become more receptive to thieving, Skywalker made up his mind that he would steal a ship and go to Ziost. He found an unattended Y-wing starfighter in a spaceport and, pretending he was a trainee working there, stole an R2-series astromech droid by punching out a spaceport employee. Along with the droid named Shaker, he took the Y-wing and flew to Ziost. Soon after landing on the planet and exiting his Y-wing, the starfighter was destroyed by an unknown vehicle. The thought of dying alone on Ziost without any mode of transportation disheartened Skywalker, but he soon overcame his anguish and resigned himself to his mission. He also decided to find and take revenge on the people who had destroyed his starfighter and stranded him on Ziost.[7]
Skywalker spent a night with Shaker in Ziost's dark forest but spotted smoke rising above the trees, a sign that other beings were on the planet. He went toward the source of the smoke and found a camp belonging to Faskus, who was present with the Amulet of Kalara draped around his neck. Skywalker sneaked up behind him and overpowered Faskus. After the scuffle, Skywalker noticed a young girl, Faskus' daughter, watching in horror. The girl tried to defend her father by throwing her toys and various objects at Skywalker, who was trying to treat Faskus' injury. Faskus was still strong enough to explain his story to Skywalker. He worked as a courier, who was given the Amulet by a Bothan named Byalfin Dyur, who instructed him to leave the Amulet in a Ziost cave. When he brought it to the cave, he saw a TIE fighter firing on his YT-2400 light freighter, the Blacktooth, with his daughter still inside. He raced to the camp to save his daughter but was hit in the abdomen by a shard of durasteel, mortally wounding him. With his life slipping away, Faskus entrusted his daughter, named Kiara's care to Skywalker.[7]
Skywalker decided to leave Kiara behind, as she would consume more resources and slow him and Shaker down on their quest to find a way off Ziost. However, his overwhelming guilt about leaving a young girl alone on a hostile world prompted him to return to the camp. After helping Kiara bury her father, he brought her along. After a few days trekking through the woods, Shaker detected a faint ion trail of the type produced by a TIE fighter. Skywalker realized that whoever destroyed the Y-wing and the Blacktooth was following them. Nevertheless, the three pushed on, coming to rest at an abandoned settlement. Shaker alerted Skywalker that his datapad had sent an unprompted comm signal, leading Skywalker to believe that the datapad was a tracking device which the owner of the TIE fighter was using to follow their movements. Skywalker checked all of the objects on his belt for a tracking device and found it inside his belt pouch. Skywalker scanned the skies for the TIE fighter and saw it speeding toward them. Skywalker was able to get Shaker and Kiara to cover as the TIE strafed the ruins and used the Force to hurl a boulder at the TIE, damaging it. None of the group were injured by the TIE's attack.[7]
Things quickly got a lot harder for Kiara and Skywalker, as their food supply was running low and they were being routinely attacked by predatory neks. On one night, Skywalker heard strange, unexplained voices talking to him, telling him to protect Kiara. Half-asleep, Skywalker murmured that he needed to find a ship, to which the voices replied by giving him a mental picture of an odd ball-shaped organic craft. Skywalker suddenly gained the knowledge of how to find the ship, if it even existed. They spotted a ruined citadel upon a ledge and climbed up to it for shelter. But a short distance from the building Shaker stopped, communicating to Skywalker that he lacked sufficient power to move any farther. Skywalker told Shaker to shut down and that he would wake him up when he found a power source. Skywalker was attacked suddenly by a nek, which he fended off. He and Kiara camped at the citadel, where Skywalker was tormented by a dream where he was confronted by a strange creature which crawled down from the ceiling of the building. When he awoke, the voices no longer told him to protect Kiara; they told him to eat her and grow stronger. Skywalker, lean from starvation, weighed his options, coming to the conclusion that cannibalizing Kiara was the most logical choice, but refused to do so. They then set a trap for the TIE fighter, who attacked a dummy of Ben while the real Skywalker Force-threw rocks at the fighter. The trap worked, and they were able to recover power packs from the wreckage of the TIE to power Shaker. That night Skywalker heard the voices again, which he followed to find the craft he had seen in his vision. Skywalker, Kiara, and Shaker got into the craft, which Skywalker communicated with and commanded with his mind, finally departing Ziost. After leaving Ziost's atmosphere, they were attacked by Dyur's ship, the Boneyard Rendezvous, which was in orbit. However, the ship's weapons quickly destroyed the starship. Skywalker commanded the ship to bring him home to Coruscant.[7]
The New Empire[]
In 137 ABY, the area around Ziost fell under the control of Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire.[2]
Inhabitants[]
- "The Sith caste system under our rule—our will is imposed on the Kissai priests, the Zuguruk engineers, and the Massassi warriors. The slaves or Grotthu serve all."
- ―Sorzus Syn
Sith Purebloods
Following the invasion of Korriban by the Rakata[26] and a bloody[28] civil war[27] around 27,700 BBY,[2] Ziost came to host a population of the Sith, a red-skinned, Force-sensitive species, who had fled from their homeworld of Korriban in the Stygian Caldera.[26] Though the Sith had long engaged in sortilege, civil war, and sentient sacrifice, they led spiritually serene lives, never once doubting or questioning the critical role conflict played in their kratocratic society. It was only with the introduction of the Rakatans' methodic malice that the Sith first fell to the dark side.[51] These Sith,[26] most of whom were of the Kissai priest and Massassi warrior castes,[16] brought the High Sith and Common Sith writing scripts with them[25] and established Ziost as a capital of the Sith Empire.[26] As the Kissai priests oversaw the rebuilding efforts,[16] they established the Sith Citadel on the planet.[4]
Eventually suffering from an ice age, the lush Ziost saw complete devastation of the planetary civilization and its vast woodlands, leaving the Citadel among the few remaining structures.[4] For many millenia thereafter, the Sith continued to expand their Empire, colonizing nearby worlds.[16] Until they were met by the Exiles,[10] traitorous Jedi defeated in a galactic war called the Hundred-Year Darkness,[26] as they mapped local hyperlanes of the Sith Worlds and emerged on Ziost following their discovery of Korriban.[10]
As they established[10] their capital[2][29] on Ziost, the Exiles built their palaces to rule as Sith Lords on the planet and formed a Sith Council. Sorzus Syn also noted that Sith respected power and were content to serve them. They were served by their priest caste, the Kissai, who have come to worship them as demigods, particurarly regarding Ajunta Pall as the manifestation of Typhojem. While Zuguruk caste of engineers were loyal, Sorzus Syn thought they built too many burial mounds and not enough battleships, seeing the Massassi caste of warriors as their greatest asset if they were to strike back the Republic. They were also served by the caste of mixed species slaves called Grotthu.[10] At this time most inhabitants lived meager, caste-structured lives, toiling to build their rulers' tombs or dying by the millions in innumerable internecine wars. With the collapse of the Sith Empire following the Great Hyperspace War, the Sith all but disappeared from Sith Space and the galaxy as a whole.[2]
Locations[]
Sith Citadel[]
Main article: - "The towering Sith Citadel is among the few remaining structures, and it was adopted as the central meeting place for the original Sith Lords, those Exiles of the Jedi Order who found their way to Sith space following the Hundred-Year War."
- ―An extract from Seviss Vaa's account of the ice age on Ziost recorded in Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force
The Sith Citadel was the central meeting place of the Sith Council.
The Sith Citadel was a fortress that served as the central meeting place of the Sith Council during the reign of the Sith Empire.[4] It was originally constructed high atop a precarious cliff[5] by the Sith species of the Kissai caste[16] after they relocated their capital from Korriban.[4] The Citadel had a holding bay and a prisoner level in the frozen ice caves of fortress' lower levels.[8]
During the Golden Age of the Sith, the prisoner level held Gav and Jori Daragon, while, in the levels above, a great debate raged among the Council concerning the Daragons' future.[8] It was also here that Naga Sadow had the Mark of Dark Lord of the Sith applied to his forehead by Sith pincerbugs, an act which most believed made his claim to the seat of Dark Lord of the Sith official.[13]
New Adasta[]
- "You can feel the oppression of this place. The hopeless despair of the entire city."
- ―Gnost-Dural
New Adasta was the capital of Ziost.
New Adasta was the capital city of the planet Ziost, the original seat of the old Sith Empire, and a major commercial, political, and population center of the reconstituted Sith. A metropolitan city, New Adasta was constructed atop a rocky crag in the tundra of Ziost, and the city's Central District was in fact located in the cave underneath that crag. The centerpiece of the city was the People's Tower, a large skyscraper similar in design to the Imperial Citadel. During the Invasion of Ziost, the former Sith Emperor Vitiate focused a significant portion of his attention and power to New Adasta as he possessed the population of the planet.[9]
Behind the scenes[]
Ziost first appeared as the capital of the Sith Empire in the third issue of the comic miniseries Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith, which was written by Kevin J. Anderson, and published by Dark Horse Comics[8] on December 11, 1996.[52] While multiple sources state that the Sith relocated their capital to Ziost following the death of King Adas,[28][26][4] the Fantasy Flight Games' 2015 roleplaying game book Star Wars: Force and Destiny Core Rulebook states that the planet was the capital under King Adas.[53] This article assumes Star Wars: Force and Destiny Core Rulebook is in error.
Although the Ziost system, and therefore the planet, was listed as being located in grid square R-5 in the Appendix section of The Essential Atlas, the book's map of the Sith Worlds placed it within square R-4,[2] which was repeated in the StarWars.com Online Companion to the book.[1] This article assumes the book's Appendix section is erroneous and that R-4 is the correct square.
Ziost versus Korriban?[]
Ziost prior to the devastation.
Although Ziost was established as the capital of the Sith Empire in Tales of the Jedi – The Golden Age of the Sith 3, in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Deesra Luur Jada describes Korriban as "a dark world some believe to be the birthplace of the Sith" and Bastila Shan says, "There are some who believe Korriban is the birthplace of the Sith". Furthermore, in Shadows and Light, Cale Berkona refers to Korriban as "the Sith homeworld". This lead to confusion as to whether Korriban or Ziost was the homeworld of the Sith species.
The article Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties by Abel G. Peña explained that the Sith species originated on Korriban and relocated to Ziost before the arrival of the Dark Jedi exiles during the Hundred-Year Darkness, although the Dark Jedi exiles themselves landed on Korriban.
From the article Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties:
Without Adas' unifying influence, wars once again raged for rule of the Sith people, with the reigning combatants arrogantly claiming the title of Sith'ari, and eventually forcing a relocation of the Sith capitol to the planet Ziost. Eventually, almost two-dozen millennia after Adas' death, a proper successor to Adas seemed to come at last. Known in Republic space as the Exiles, traitorous Jedi defeated in a galactic war called the Hundred-Year Darkness arrived on Korriban and cowed the Sith people with their astounding Force abilities, lightsabers, and superior technology.
Other appearances[]
- "We've been translating the Rakata inscriptions. Most are indecipherable, but a few refer to a prisoner called "the Infernal One." We've seen the title before, in the Dead Corals of Rugosa and the Ziost Abyss. We thought it a myth—the Rakata warlord who bled and enslaved a thousand planets."
- ―Threnoldt
The surface of Ziost after the ritual
In the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, General Threnoldt mentions Rakata Inscriptions in a place called the Ziost Abyss, suggesting that the Rakata may have once had a major presence on Ziost. These inscriptions, discovered and translated by the Imperial Reclamation Service, are said to describe a Rakatan prisoner on Belsavis called The Infernal One. In another instance, when playing Empire on Tatooine one can hear Imperial Reclamation Service member Hael Phirce remembering his experience during an expedition on Ziost where he was buried alive. Also, one of the capital ships on the imperial fleet is called The Ziost Shadow.
Part of the 2012 Drew Karpyshyn novel The Old Republic: Annihilation also takes place on the planet. Ziost appears in Game Update 3.2 of The Old Republic, which was released on April 28th 2015.
Appearances[]
Sources[]
Notes and references[]
External links[]
Ziost on Star Wars: The Old Republic Wiki- Ziost on William Hewitt's profile on ArtStation (backup link)
- Star Wars: The Old Republic - Shadow of Revan on Jonathon Ruland's profile on ArtStation (backup link)
- SWTOR Ziost on Brian Hagan's profile on ArtStation (backup link)
- Ziost on Chris Anderson's profile on ArtStation (backup link)
