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Sith
The Sith
KotORCG p15
started out on the world Korriban, a highly
volcanic planet with lush, dangerous jungles nestled in its valleys.
The ecology had numerous dangerous predators, including terentateks, shyracks, tuk’ata, wraids,
and
warbirds.
UA p113
tBoS p37
DNA analysis
suggests that template animal used to create the para-human Sith
was the tuk’ata.
JATM p131–47
The Sith are scaly omnivorous endothermicviviparous para-humans, with
skins varying from (common) crimson to (rare) black and eyes (common) golden
to (rare) orange or black; their blue blood uses copper instead of iron to
bind oxygen. They have barbels on their
heads and faces (three under the jaw, two on the upper lip, two functioning as
eyebrows, and a backward-projecting cluster on the top, sides and back of the
head), which once served their four-footed kin in hunting and still alert them
to changes in the breeze; they may give clues to the Sith’s emotional state.
Some males have a jutting, bony chin. They possess both ripping and grinding
teeth, and have birdlike talons on their fingertips and toes (three fingers
and an opposed thumb; three toes and a heel claw). Their noses run somewhat
shorter than human, and their jaws often show more prognathism. They are
most often left-handed.
Sith are
fond of piercings, tugging on them when they need a bit of pain to help them
stoke or focus their passions. Sith Lords often bear a tattoo on their
forehead, which can be found replicated in the corresponding part of their
headgear, and elsewhere on their minions. (The tattoo ink is made using Sith
alchemy, and administered by specially mutated scorpion-like creatures who
have the ink injected into their poison glands.)
Sith are naturally mercurial and passionate, by nature as well as culture.
They evolved from pack hunters and have a strong sense of hierarchy. The Sith
emotion corresponding to love is intertwined with greed and lust and
possessiveness, and only exists between mates where a battle between them is
inconclusive— it can sometimes resemble an addiction, with the desire to
possess the other outweighing the desire to dominate. The emotional bond
comparable to friendship is that of alpha to beta; one is always dominant.
The Sith seen in The Golden Age of the Sith
and The Fall of the Sith Empire fall into two
categories. The ones with the prognathous jaws and generally gorilla-like
visages are the results of using Sith Alchemy to breed human Dark Jedi with
Sith. They have hair (most commonly dark brown, but sometimes chestnut or
black) and the men have beards that grow between their jaw-barbels (so none
could have a human-style full beard, but they can easily manage goatees). The
skin is several shades paler than their pure-Sith ancestors, their blood red
with hemoglobin, and the talons are closer to being fingernails. These
hybrids are able to mate with pure humans, giving results like Naga Sadow, who
lack the eyebrow-barbels of the alchemical breeds and have a more human face.
Their innate competitiveness caused their natural selection to occur at a
furious rate, and they were already fighting with jet aircraft and slugthrower
weapons and stripping their planet’s resources when they were discovered by an
early hyperdrive scout vessel. The humans
aboard were easily mastered by the same power that Sith used to command the
beasts of their homeworld, and this new treasure was swiftly brought to the
attention of the lord Zypahl, who saw the potential of a galaxy full of
slaves. Zypahl, driven by his vision, unified Korriban under his rule and
directed the Sith civilization to master the technologies in the scout ship
and its knowledge in its library computer.
Korriban’s ecology was wrecked by the crash program of industrialization;
the world that Sith now embrace as their own
is Ziost, and Korriban is now their
tombworld; the other worlds of
the Stygian Caldera thrive to a
lesser extent. When Haymakh (Zypahl’s nephew) proclaimed himself the first
Galactic Emperor, he chose the
ecumenopolis Coruscant as his
Throne World.
They use their own
language for communication amongst each other and Basic as the
language of instruction to slaves.
High Sith
writing is ideographic; the oldest samples from ancient tombs on
Korriban are very much in the style
of Maya script,
but they have gone through considerable abstraction since then and are
now precise combinations of boxes and lines. The efficiency of
alphabetic scripts led to the development of
the Common
Sith alphabet.
Naming
Sith names have a personal name, deed, and affiliation (territory,
military unit, craft organization, temple). e.g. Pamat Bladedroid of
Qordat Droidworks. Achieving noble rank is itself a deed, and
moves the deed in front of the name, e.g. Baron Kaj-Ul-Fa of
the Planet Zartan.
Weapons
The ancient Sith weapon, the lanvarok (Weapon:3),
is still practiced as part of their martial skill
KotORCG p69, but in the age of blasters,
they now use a similarly dangerous weapon called a plasma scourge,
which emits a chaotic, writhing lash of lightninglike plasma that can only be
controlled by the Power. It can lash out to 25m (two zones) if the wielder
just wants to tag someone, or to 10m (adjacent zone) if they want to place
something in a cage of lightning. The chaotic behavior makes it good at
snaking around defenses, and makes it difficult to target the wielder. It can
absorb blaster bolts (getting bigger and delivering more damage for a few
rounds) and deliver both burns and electric shocks. The burn damage it does
can be crippling. (Maneuvers: touch the bolt to a person’s spine for
electrical havoc, or to their wrist to make their hand spasm and drop a
weapon. Blow a droid’s breakers. Absorb a blaster bolt and use the energy to
increase range for a strike. Absorb a blaster bolt and hurl a lightning bolt
containing the energy with a whip-crack maneuver.) The plasma
scourge is a one-handed weapon; the other hand is free use another weapon
(usually a throwing weapon or a short blade— a long one tends to interfere
with the lash) or make arcane gestures. They tend to melt down or explode
when their wielder dies or loses consciousness; many Sith sport cybernetic
hands to replace ones lost to a destroyed plasma scourge.
Unsticking a plasma
scourge from a lightsaber requires a Good check with Energy, though a Jedi can
resist with their own Energy if they want to use an action.
Some Sith take great pride in their prowess in melee. Weapons such as
the Sith sword,
doubled-bladed Sith war
sword, and armor forged with the secret arts of Sith alchemy are
known for their ability to channel the wielder’s Power— a Sith-forged
doubleblade exhibits unnatural sharpness in the hands of anyone strong
in the Power, trained or not, and a rare suit of Sith-forged plate
armor (worn by a rare Sith who prizes defense over mobility) can
withstand a bolt from a blaster cannon. Little is known about Sith
alchemy, but metallurgists believe they derive the carbon for their
steel from the blood of sentient beings; certainly, Zuguruk
mastersmiths are known to purchase champion gladiators who are never
seen again. Escapees from alchemical metallurgy labs have often died
of overwhelming heavy metal poisoning shortly thereafter.
The shikkar
is an assassination weapon, sacred to the god Vorket, made of alchemical
glass. After a successful stab, the assassin twists the weapon, breaking
the blade off inside the wound. They are often crafted to be beautiful
as well as deadly; some collect them for their beauty.
tBoS p23
The Sith parang is a
heavy, curved blade, normally the length of the wielder’s arm, that
can be used to cut through heavy undergrowth or thrown like a
boomerang. They are often made of alchemical glass. They require at
least Fair Might to wield in combat.
tBoS p23
The steel fist is a gauntlet covering
the hand from wrist to knuckles, leaving the fingertips free for fine
work; the palm is armored and can catch a sword. Adds to fist damage,
more if equipped with razor-sharp talons on the knuckles, more if
it’s Sith steel. Some are enchanted by the Kissai with Power-resonant
crystals to enhance your Might for a scene (costs 2 stress reduced by
Resolve vs. Average, makes you feel powerful and contemptuous).
The steel forearm is similar and also
functions as a vambrace, and adds an elbow gouge attack.
The steel arm goes all the way up to the
shoulder; it requires light armor proficiency but does not encumber.
Helps with ramming through obstacles with your shoulder. All three of
these leave plenty of flesh uncovered and don’t count as
armor for general attacks, but can be useful in parrying.
The steel brow is a headdress or diadem that
spans the forehead and drops side panels at the edge of the jaw.
They are largely ornamental, mostly used to display insignia,
though some are enchanted to create effects like Battlemind or Rage.
Castes
The Sith are divided into castes, though it is possible to fight from
one into another— if you can defeat someone in a caste, you can join the
caste.
Slaves: the Grotthu
The slave caste is made up of those who lack enough of the Power to be
effective. They are meek and easily dominated by anyone who shows strength,
and will be vicious to anyone who shows weakness. Very few of them are
seen outside the Stygian Caldera. Among some Sith, having an ancestor who
started with two Grotthu parents and fought their way into another caste
is a note of prestige; among others, it’s an insult.
tBoS p20
Makers: the Zuguruk
Skilled and intelligent. These are engineers, craftsmen, and
technicians. They are the experts in Sith
Alchemy. They know how to manufacture holocrons and plasma
scourges, as well as the chrysalide monsters
that emerge from their biolabs,
and mechu-deru droids and cyborgs. About 20%
of Sith lords are Zuguruk.
Zuguruk do not often become nobles, but the ones that do usually
have a great number of tricks up their sleeve.
Massassi warriors vary a great deal. They usually carry on family
traditions, though some will find that their talent lies in a different
form of battle. About 45% of Sith lords are Massassi. They tend to
wield the more direct uses of the Power, such as Force Push and
Force Lightning; it is rare for them to use Sith Sorcery or Sith Alchemy.
Marauders are known for their fearsome battle-rages,
and serve on the front lines of pitched battles. They almost never become
nobles. 90% of marauders are Massassi warriors, but some Kissai priests who
have trouble
not channeling their deity have been known to become Marauders
as well.
Stalwarts bank the fires of their anger and hatred
rather than fanning them to a blaze, and serve well as the rank and file of
Sith troops; in the current era, they usually serve in all-Sith units, with
noncommissioned officers often being transferred to mixed units of other
species. It takes a strong lord to keep a hierarchy under control if a Sith
NCO is placed under a non-Sith officer. Stalwarts occasionally battle their
way into noble rank.
Strikers are more thoughtful, and have learned to
focus their anger into a precise weapon. They serve as officers in the Sith
armies and fleets and make up a large fraction of the nobility.
Paladins are extremely strong in the Power, and are
usually Knights or Lords in their own right.
Priests are the experts in invoking the Sith deities, who sometimes manifest
as transparent figures that offer insights, or visit the dreams of their
worshipers. Sith believe that it is possible to become a god, and that those
who succeed in ascension can struggle for even greater powers. They have an
extremely magical view of the Power, and are the experts
in Sith Sorcery and the powers of illusion; the ones
most obsessed with the Power know Sith Alchemy as well. About 35% of Sith
lords are Kissai.
Priests who are particularly adept at sorcery often turn it to their own
advancement. They are usually competent fighters on their own, but are most
fearsome when using their powers to bolster their minions; in single combat,
they are fond of draining the life from enemies or causing them to
spontaneously combust.
Society
Fettered, I am born.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
I shall be free.
— The Way of the Sith
Traditionally, Sith hierarchies are in:
Crafts. Craftlords, generally of the
Zuguruk caste, rule over technicians and craftsmen, and are called
craftlords. These are people that have the power of making the tools of
power, and usually keep the very best for themselves. (A smith wouldn’t sell
a blade that was better than his own best personal weapon.) They create
technology and keep infrastructure running.
War. Warlords of the Massassi warrior caste
rule over soldiers and support personnel, and are called warlords. They
conquer territory, put down uprisings, and enforce the will of their
overlord.
Trade. Tradelords handle trade and markets,
and are called tradelords. These negotiators are part merchant, part lawyer,
and part assassin. They handle commerce, diplomacy, spying, and networking.
They are a recent development, with members of other castes drifting out of
their traditional roles, and may diversify into a caste.
Religion. The Kissai priest caste maintain
the connection between the Sith and their hungry deities. They can work
together to channel greater numbers of sacrifices into prolonging the lives of
powerful lords.
Territory. These hold noble titles, and are
called overlords. Craftlords, warlords, and tradelords based in their
territory count as their minions.
The Sith have slowly been dwindling in number; with less drive to grow and
conquer, the females choose to invest more in personal power than in breeding.
No Sith (outside the slave caste members within the Stygian Caldera) has held a
menial job in 3000 years. Increasingly, the Sith are relying on hierarchies
of vassals to handle tasks.
Preceptors
An exception to the usual hierarchy are
the preceptors. A preceptor has no master, no
apprentice, no territory, no allegiance. They provide instruction in anything
where secret techniques are useful— usually the Power. They make their living
instructing other Sith— they are paid in anything from currency to slaves to
secrets. Some of them wander the galaxy as passengers on anything from tramp
freighters to passenger liners; some own entire hypercapable cruise
ships. They are a key to the stability of the Sith Galactic Empire;
otherwise, secrets would be lost when masters fail to teach them to
apprentices. They are expected to keep their word when promising not to teach
a technique until the person who teaches it to them is dead. It takes the
acclaim of a Preceptor to make another Preceptor. Preceptors are the most
common authors of holocrons, though some
powerful lords will create them and hide them behind numerous layers of
challenges as a way to extend their will into the future.
Preceptors seldom battle directly, but will often do so by proxy by training
students to battle the students of other preceptors, with a promise of new
secret techniques if they win.
Lifecycle and Reproduction
Sith are vulnerable to domination by the Power of those with strong kinship
ties, and traditionally their parents place Power Shackles on them. Shackled
Sith can be tapped for energy by their parents. Parents have incentive to
mate with someone powerful enough to produce children who will be a good
source of power; for the most powerful, those are in short supply, and they
keep harems instead. Sith are considered to have won to adulthood when they
break free of the Power Shackles of both their parents, and are given
preferment in society; they often apprentice themselves to their parents.
Those who are free because their parents were killed have to start on the
fringes. These are the first chains a Sith must break.
There is a careful balance in the number of children to have in queue:
old enough to be a useful source of power, not in imminent danger of
breaking free.
The female power level tends to wax and wane with the investment of
biological resources, so they tend to be more conservative; males have more
consistent power levels and can take more risks, getting them killed more
often. Females who survive past the age of reproduction with all their
children departed are usually powerful from all the practice reining in their
children.
Sith are able to use the Power to transfer life force from other beings to
heal themselves and reduce the effects of aging; particularly strong ones can
do so to prolong their own lives, killing the subject. The healthier the
subject, the more can be transferred; the older the Sith, the less it helps.
The best sources are late adolescent/early adult sentients in good physical
and mental condition. The most powerful Sith have been known to live three or
four centuries in this manner. Even beyond this point, they can cling to life
through sheer willpower as their body wastes away; some have even been known
to survive as severed heads, flying under their own power or being borne by
their slaves.
Some Sith are adept at transferring their own spirits to other bodies,
particularly those of their descendants and apprentices. Often, the elder
simply obliterates the spirit of the younger one, but sometimes there is a
blending, in which the younger one may prevail, gaining the knowledge and
power of their former master without losing their own identity.
Finally, some Sith choose to move beyond the mortal plane altogether, either
under their own power or with the Kissai assistance. Some (particularly
preceptors) become saints, receiving sacrifices in
exchange for insight and teachings or just possessing someone; these are
always attached to something, whether it be a place or a bloodline or a weapon
or holocron. The mightiest will seek godhood, either carving out a new divine
role (an Emperor became the god of Wealth this way, around 1200 years after
Haymakh proclaimed the Galactic Empire) or battling one of the existing gods
for their position. Sith contending for godhood have been known to wipe out
large cities in blood sacrifice.
A seriously pissed off Sith saint can screw up a starship enough to force a
crash.
The Power
Sith rely on the Power in all walks of life. They have a talent
dubbed precognitive paranoia; it is very difficult to surprise a
Sith lord with a preset explosive device, whether it be an individual
shaped charge or a fusion warhead. Assassination usually requires combat
or military defeat.
Some Sith will not trust an underling whose mind they cannot probe, and
will kill those who remain inscrutable; others believe that if a minion
can keep their own lord out, they’ll be able to keep out interlopers
as well, and simply set up tests of loyalty. Showing inability to probe
someone’s mind in public is a sign of weakness, so being probed
publicly has extra possiblities of risk or survival, depending on the
temperament of the lord.
Sith are able to induce phobias and addictions in their minions; there is
a technique for crushing the will which leaves a person’s mind
intact but largely without autonomy. Some have shown a talent for impelling
people to confess their secrets, while others can remove a person’s
sense of self-preservation for hours to weeks.
Psychology
Sith prefer to think in absolutes; they prefer clear-cut choices that
stir the passions, not the careful nuance that requires deliberation.
Sith will usually kill people who fail them in important tasks. For
mundane tasks, they usually just demote them; trained minions are hard
to find. People who challenge them directly elicit a variety of
reactions:
Break them to become an apprentice. (This works for the
challenger as well: I am the Master now!
Play with them to demonstrate mastery. The arena and survival
labyrinths aren’t just for amusement; they’re also to
show strength. A Sith Lord who executes a serious challenger is
showing weakness, which would signal other potential challengers.
Sith engage in large projects not as a matter of investment but ego. Building
something that everyone knows is going to last a thousand years
impresses people, that you have such powerful resources that you can build
impressive monuments to your own majesty without leaving yourself vulnerable,
and that you have confidence that you are strong enough in the Power to
achieve some form of immortality. Long-term projects, like terraforming, are
a way of demonstrating that you have talented climatological engineers at your
command— and everyone knows that it’s much easier to screw up an ecosystem
than to fix one, so those engineers are an implicit threat to enemies. The
precision deorbiting of comets and ice asteroids
onto Tatooine isn’t a
generational project; it’s a demonstration that the overlord there is equipped
to perform orbital bombardment.
Sith are never content; their ambition may be to fight their way up to the
Imperial Throne, to become a Preceptor and develop their own mastery, to
become the richest tradelord or most clever craftlord, or to ascend to godhood
and immortality. Even the Emperor will have ambitions to make their mark on
the galaxy, or be planning the greatest mass sacrifice in history to challenge
a god. In these decadent days of the Empire, the notion of the Imperial
Progress has arrived: a traveling festival that brings the Imperial retinue
and several battle fleets on tours of the galaxy at huge expense. (This is a
fine time for a challenger to capture Coruscant, and three reigns back, the
Emperor used a Progress as a way to lure his opponents into a trap.)
Popular Sith Aspects
Brutal
Subtle
Ruthless
Tyrannical
Conniving
Malicious
Sadistic
Voracious
Greedy
Power-Hungry
Cruel
Efficient
Show-Off
Proud
Temperamental
Mercurial
Disciplined
Hot-tempered
Disdainful
Contemptuous
Despises X
Loathes X
Hates X
Fears X
Philosophies of Rulership
There are several schools of thought on rulership. A Sith whose philosophy
differs from his overlord may clash, but as long as the overlord’s auditors
deem his tribute appropriate and the underling is not fomenting rebellion, the
overlord will let it stand.
Tyrants
The oldest style of rulership. Phrases like oderint, dum
metuant and pour encourager les
autres would make excellent sense to them. They rule with an iron
fist, harshly punishing failure. They aren’t just cruel— they’re arbitrary,
always leaving the hope that someone might survive or even be rewarded.
They’re fond of decimation, hostage-taking, public torture, and leaving heads
on pikes as ways to get the best performance out of their underlings, and will
use classic Roman-style
decimation as a motivational tool. An underling who eschews such tactics
on his own minions needs to be very confident and effective to stand up to
this kind of overlord.
Hierarchs
Strict disciplinarians with a penchant for rules, rules, rules. Each node
in the hierarchy is responsible for all dependent nodes. If you can’t keep
the beings under your command in line, you will be punished. Hierarchs
generally insist on military discipline throughout the societies they control.
Like the underlings of tyrants, underlings who have differing philosophies
need to be very confident and effective.
Capitalists
These Sith have been learning from the societies they conquered and
adapting their tactics to using financial incentives to accomplish
their will. For fungible things they want accomplished, they post
bounties. For fixed things (e.g. infrastructure), they have
competitive bidding for contracts— with the twist that failure to
deliver on time and within budget usually leads to anything from
demotion to public death by torture. They tend to conduct
negotiations in rooms where they have a throne surrounded by force
field projectors; if parties in the negotiation attack each other,
they just turn on the field and watch the fun. (Killing your boss for
providing unrealistic time estimates meets with great approval.)
A new school of thought among Sith. They rely on pleasure and pain as
motivation; they can induce them directly in serfs and vassals using
the Power, and they have their closest slaves wired with cybernetic
implants that go directly to the pleasure and pain centers. (The
surgery for this is too complicated to inflict on mass populations,
since competent neurosurgery droids are very expensive; it’s
just not practical to have an assembly line doing this on large
populations. Biotech implants that secrete drugs on remote command,
on the other hand, can be implanted by a standard surgical droid.)
This can lead to thoroughly addicted minions.
They also have policies of rewards with luxuries and drugs and penalties
that involve privation.
Those who decline the more sybaritic rewards tend to elicit notice as
possessing judgment that can lead to promotion.
Religion
Most species have a notion of powerful transcendent beings that
control destiny. The Sith know that theirs are real, and perform
regular blood sacrifice to please them. The gods manifest in a
variety of ways: as spectral beings, or by possessing people, or
speaking to them as a ghostly voice in their head, or appearing in
their dreams, or as extreme weather events and unlikely coincidences.
They seem to be able to show up anywhere, though they do so most often
near their places of worship.
Sith gods appear to each have metaphysical territory staked out; if there
is no god for a particular territory, it is possible for a Sith to ascend
there without challenge (as Emperor ???? did to become the god of wealth),
but if your chosen specialty is already taken, it is necessary to defeat
the god— which means convincing a large enough number of the priestly
caste to perform blood sacrifices to fuel your ascension, risking
retribution from the god you are challenging if you fail.
The gods are best pleased by blood sacrifice of enemies, but your own
slaves and criminals will do. Many arena games have a religious component,
and some slaves are picked for sacrifice after a particular number of
victories (usually 216, sometimes 1296).
The known Sith gods are:
Zyantha, god of War (strategy, large-scale planning)
Mekhath, god of Battle (tactics, pitched battle)
Hezarkal, god of Monomachy (individual duels)
Vorket of the Glass Blade, god of Assassination (killing by surprise)
Typhogem, the Left-Handed God, god of Sorcery (extreme uses of the Power)
tBoS p20
Urgak-Val, god of Tyranny (imposing will upon the populace)
Hes’falda, god of Manipulation (intrigue— making people do what you
want them to)
Slythmnr, god of Wealth (a deified galactic Emperor)
Gods can battle amongst each other, and can even consume each other; living
in a time in which two gods are struggling for power is usually dangerous.
Lifestyle
Sith pride themselves on prowess in battle, and all but the slaves
have collections of their favorite weapons. Any Sith of substance
possesses a trophy room with reminders of foes they have vanquished—
beasts hunted, opponents bested. Trophies range from taxidermy (even
of sentients) to weapons to items that their quarry prized, even if
the Sith doesn’t see the value in them.
Contacting is the art of reaching to the level of spirits; the flip side of it
is moving to the level of spirits. With Transfer Essence, it is
possible to leave your own body and occupy another one, which must be reduced
to helplessness before you enter it. This can be done temporarily or
permanently. The consciousness of the host can fight you for control, and a
wily one will wait until you are in dire straits and willing to Concede by
accepting one of its aspects to replace one of your own rather than face
enemies within and without; whenever it begins one of these struggles, it
opens itself to the possibility of defeat, and each time it is Taken Out you
neutralize one of its aspects (which cannot recover without a Concession from
you). If you neutralize all of its aspects other than species, the body is
yours; if it replaces all of your aspects with its own, your identity is lost
and it gains all your knowledge. (SWd20: Transfer Essence.
DSS p16
UA p158)
Concessions can include changing an aspect to being something new to either
host or possessor.
If the total of all your Force skills is higher than that of your host
body, your power may have a debilitating effect on the body. After
any scene in which you use your powers in earnest (any power with a
base stress of 3 or higher, or actually racking up that third point of
stress using lesser powers), take the difference in those totals and
roll it as an attack; defend with the body’s Fortitude. This
will show up as physical stress and may inflict consequences.
Minor amulets can create protective shields, knit injured flesh,
sharpen battle focus, or energize weakened muscles; this is represented
by a rating for the amulet, which also makes an attack against the
wearer’s Resolve (or Spirit), leading them down the path to addiction and
insanity.
JATM p68
DSS p67
tBoS p24
An amulet that enlists the spirits of the dead to act as translators for
the voices of the living. As a side effect, it forces the wearer to hear to
chatter of ghosts.
tBoS p24
Sith-steel weapons are produced using Sith alchemy, which starts with
smelting black sand and charcoal and the blood of a sacrificed warrior,
with the alchemist staying awake for three days to monitor the process;
forging occasionally requires that the blade be run through another
warrior as well, which makes gladiators rather nervous about being
too successful in the arena.
(Inspirational ideas from traditional Japanese swordsmithing:
jewel
steel, clay
furnaces, blade patterns.)
In the hands of someone strong in the Power, they have a Weapon rating
one level higher; a Zuguruk swordsmith can give them the
Finesse or Power
aspects as he forges them. They can be made with Devaronian edges by
incorporating that into the final stages of the tempering, and custom hilts
can be added after creation. They are only rarely for sale, and usually fetch
at least a Superb price. Trained Massassi warriors are known to be able to
parry even blaster bolts with Sith-steel weapons, though most observers
believe this is only possible through some form of precognition that lets
them know where to move the blade in time.
RCR p60
Sith-steel, wielded by someone with the Power, can block a lightsaber without
requiring cortosis weave.
Sith metallurgy can also be used to create mechanical locks whose plates will
simply not engage without the proper key being wielded by someone strong in
the Power; they resist attempts to manipulate them with telekinesis if the key
is lacking. Fancier locks are dial-based combination locks that require that
the opener have fine telekinetic control and be able to project particular
emotions (anger, greed, fear, etc.) when turning particular dials.
Abominations are the result of Sith alchemy being used to force directed,
radical mutation on a creature, using the Force to coerce biological
unity on the mutations and select them for utility rather than fast-growing
cancers and multiple organ failure. Most of the failures die quickly;
even the runoff from the vats involved tends to create unpleasant
mutations in the local vermin.
Abominations gain the Force-Sensitive stunt, +1 Endurance, +1
Intimidation, and the aspect
Abomination, which can be compelled for
poor impulse control and short-term thinking; the changes in physical
appearance can be invoked to terrify and compelled to horrify. They
can wield Intimidation as an area attack at the beginning of a combat,
triggering fear responses in their opponents. The process of
abomination can also add other stunts, such as enhanced musculature,
stamina, or reflexes; bodily weapons, armored hide, extra pairs of limbs,
a spiked tail, redundant organs (creating extra consequence slots),
poison glands, or an extra head. Particularly
adept alchemists can even graft organs from other species and force an
adaptation, adding wings or tentacles to a creature that normally would
have nothing like that in its evolutionary heritage.
JATM p22–3,123
DSS p118–20.
UA p140
Silooth.
tBoS p36
JATM p69
DSS p65
tBoS p23
In this era, it’s used as a test by Sith Lords who wish to determine
the mettle of their knights. A Sith who cannot master the power of
the poison usually lacks the self-control to become a Lord.
Consequences of the poison (when it doesn’t kill outright)
include Pain,
Paralysis,
and Blood Frenzy.
Destroying a Sith holocron is risky. Considerable power is built up in
the crystals within, and the data-ghost gatekeeper can wield it to avenge
the loss of its home.
DSS p66
tBoS p29–31
Notable Sith
Emperor Krel Zyan IX
Sith do not normally change their name upon ascension to a throne. The
reason that Krel Zyan is called the Ninth is that he has been
following the path of transferring his soul into the body of a knight
when his current body wears out. Whether the host personality has
ever defeated him is well-camouflaged, if it has occurred at all.
he administers the
Duchy of the Imperial Throne
and receives tribute from the entire galaxy. He is known to be a
competent sorcerer and warrior, and no stranger to the principles of
Sith alchemy. He has reigned for almost two millennia.
About three thousand years ago, Grauac Niss was a Kissai lord who wanted new
worlds to subjugate, and had the farsight to know there were more important
worlds to conquer in the poorly mapped northern rim of the galaxy, offering
mass sacrifices to the Sith gods on each world. Some say he might have
ascended to challenge one of the Sith gods himself, had one of his knights not
beheaded him in a surprise attack; Niss now uses Sith sorcery to sustain the
consciousness of his severed head, killing one slave each day (and the
occasional failed Sith knight) to replenish himself from their lifeblood.
He is of the old-style tyrannical Sith, quick to punish and quick to reward.
A 700-year-old Zuguruk lord, held together by a mixture of cybernetic
implants and a variety of enchantments of her own design. Her body is a
mixture of withered flesh, cybernetic limbs and panels, and crystal-bedecked
Sith enchantments.
Tur-Ak-Vath is a capitalist Sith, happy to collect tribute and spend it.
Sekher is a Massassi lord who is extremely good at reaping life force from her
opponents. She has made it to age 430 by killing people— lots and lots of
people. She used to only kill off one competent warrior per month, but now
she’s up to one or two per week. For now, she’s able to get by on arena
slaves and the occasional failed minion (who are given a weapon and told that
if they can draw even a drop of her blood in combat, they get another chance—
only a handful have managed this).
She rules the Duchy of Vendaxa with a mostly hedonic style, with lots of
prizes for success as well as punishments for failure. Her style is to
create lots of luxuries and opportunities for envy, and let people fight
for them in ways that benefit her.