Unquiet Dead

[The Unknown Jedi]

In the time of the first Sith Empire – the so called old and true Sith Empire – there were a hundred worlds who pledged themselves to the Dark Lords of the Sith. From the frozen wastes of Khar Delba to the blood-red plains of Ch'hodos, each world became twisted by the Dark Side. Yet as history looks back upon these planets, scholars wonder if they were not somehow evil to begin with, if the darkness brought the Sith to them rather than the other way around.

Thousands of years since the fall of the true Empire, the stain of countless wars and mutinous battles still lingers. Whilst Korriban and Dromund Kaas attract bold pilgrims seeking the power of the Dark Side, few set foot upon Ashas Ree. Even the ancient Sith themselves saw the planet as a stepping stone – but one Sith could never move beyond the seemingly worthless world. Slain by his fellows and buried in a deep, dark tomb, his spirit became the centuries-old taint that could never be wiped from the surface of Ashas Ree. The tomb had never been intended for anyone of any great importance. That was why they had buried his bones there, as one last sneering attack on his pride. Four walls and a patch of earth, with nothing to mark the grave site. For those in tune with the Force, however, no such signposts were necessary.

In the shadow of the chest where the Sith bones were locked away, a body lay sprawled on the floor of the mausoleum, covered in dust and cobwebs.

One arm outstretched towards the shape of a lightsaber, just out of reach.

Fingertips twitched. He was not dead. Not yet.

Inside his skull, there was an endless murmur, a single word repeated until it drowned out all other thoughts, until it covered every fragment of what he once was in deep, dark waters.

Feed.

[The Unknown Jedi]

“You linger too long, watchman.” The hunger did not subside but the voice came through it, words rising like the outline of the shore from a dense sea fog.

“With every second that passes, the galaxy falls further into ruination. It is within your power to hold this entropy at bay - and yet here you languish: lost... forgotten.”

The words were like a poker, agitating the embers in the dying fire that was his life. He wanted – needed – to get up, but every part of his body felt so heavy. Was he buried? His eyes traveled down the length of his body – and widened in alarm.

Something had torn into his robes with bestial fury, the ragged fabric was dark and stiff with dried blood. Beneath it, his skin was deathly pale, but for a patch above his heart, that looked... blackened, wet, like rotten leaves.

How... how had this happened? It could not be! He blinked to clear away whatever strangeness had muddy his vision, but the wound remained. Blinked again, only one eye this time. The other was... blind. Panic pierced at his heart. Crippled, fallen. I am.. destroyed.

“You are made anew,” the voice said. “You need only seize that which is within your grasp.”

[Baska Tankreyd]

For more than a decade, Baska (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0d/ee/88/0dee887e84cb66328f9847dd0ad95ea7.jpg) had traveled across the galaxy, both to normal places but more importantly to ones filled with dark history. Her late Master had educated her in ancient knowledge and facts from the past. Though he had turned against Darkness in his old age and had required her to slay him as to cleanse the galaxy from his stench, the blonde had carried the torch since then. She didn't deny the importance of well known dark hubs that still brought people to visit them even centuries after rise and fall of different empires; but she knew there was much more to Sith history.

The irony was that coming to Ashas Ree was a sort of pilgrimage. There was no nostalgy in the blonde's heart though as she set foot on the abandoned world. It was here that she had taken some of her first steps as a Sith when still a teenager. Her late Master had followed old ways and brought her to the stepping stone Ashas Ree was in older times. She recalled the struggle to survive what her Master had thrown at her, when she had found the will to survive and become stronger and smarter all over again.

Now that she was more accomplished, beyond what she had first dreamed of, she had decided to return, to see the world with heightened perceptions. She wondered whether old relics or holocron might remain somewhere. She had learned that sometimes treasures were hidden in plain sight, and sometimes in the deeper shadows.

[The Unknown Jedi]

“I-” he managed, his voice a broken croak.

“Save your breath, watchman. You must gather your strength.”

He blinked his one eye and it rolled about in its socket as he searched for the source of the sound. It was everywhere, it was no where nowhere. His tongue, dry and scaly as a Dune Sea lizard, raked over his lips. I... hunger.

“All the sustenance you require is here. The Force will feed you. Glut yourself upon it.”

[Baska Tankreyd]

It was a whisper at first, a quiet humming feeling coming from the depth of darkness, farther West from where she was hiking. Baska threw herself into the tendrils of energy calling to her. She had developed strong affinity for the ethereal realm over the years, which blended as far as her combat skills. She had embraced her predator nature since she was a teenager trying to make a living in the underworld, and her training in the Dark Arts had molded her into an even more acute kind.

For a moment, she wondered whether it was a mere spirit, albeit strong in its lingering. As she progressed towards what must be hidden ruins, for little could be seen beyond the vegetation surviving amongst the rocky landscape, she realized there were spirits at work, but more than that. There was someone alive.

[The Unknown Jedi]

How? The watchman felt the ache inside of him growing. He was so hungry it was painful.

“Look within yourself. Feel the entity that is burrowed within your flesh.”

Dread trickled like ice-water through the watchman. His eye twitched wildly down to the blackened patch on his chest. Another surge of panic pulsed at the core of him. Was… something moving there? Was something alive within his flesh?

“The derriphan. It hungers for energy, for life. You need only feed it to regain your strength.”

[Baska Tankreyd]

There were more ruins than she remembered in the area, but that wasn't surprising. The place had been deeply entrenched in the dark side for millennia. There was an erratic feeling to the presence she felt besides looming spirits. It was hard to decipher, but the Sith was set on unveiling the mystery. She had felt the Force pull her to return to this planet. While she didn't know what exactly it might be about, she knew to heed such calls. And she grew more intrigued by the minute.

Finding the entrance to the tomb where she believed she would find that eerie presence, she let her heightened perceptions guide her. None of her physical weapons was far from reach but she hadn't drawn any. The Master was confident and curious, eager to figure out what and whom might have been unearthed.

She sensed other presences, weaker ones though, as she progressed through the tunnels. She had debated shrouding her presence from other's detection, but she had decided against it. In places of memories and undead like this one, she was a flame to any moth, and she was willing to take that risk.