Keshiri

The Keshiri were a near-Human sentient species native to the planet Kesh. Powerfully built, they had purple skin and black, red, or violet eyes. They were typically found to be very attractive by Human standard, although the two species were different enough to be biologically incapable of reproduction. The Keshiri had long traditions of crafting and the arts, with glassblowing being a particular specialty and pantomime a favorite art form. They were a very religious species, worshiping gods known as the Skyborn, whom they believed had formed all of the land on Kesh, from which the Keshiri were born. They acknowledged the Skyborn as the Protectors who kept another group, the Destructors, at bay. After a group of Jedi crash-landed on Kesh and fought a ruinous Great Battle against a band of Dark Jedi and Sith, the events took on the status of legend, remembered as the Great Cataclysm.

In 5000 BBY, a group of Sith crashed onto the continent of Keshtah in their starship, the Omen, after being knocked off-course during a hyperspace jump. The Keshiri there believed the newcomers to be the Skyborn and gave themselves over to lives of service to the Sith. The Keshiri religion and government of Keshtah were led by the Neshtovar, who believed in the importance of tradition and religion above science and technological progress. Nevertheless, one Keshiri, a female named Adari Vaal, realized the dangers the Sith presented and led a resistance movement. She was eventually forced to flee Keshtah for Alanciar, a larger continent with its own Keshiri population. There, she became revered as the Herald for warning the Alanciari to prepare for an inevitable invasion by the Sith. The people heeded her warnings and rebuilt their civilization along martial lines. When the invasion finally occurred millennia later, the Sith High Lord Varner Hilts duped the Alanciari into joining their Keshtah kin in service to the Sith. Nevertheless, he had a newfound respect for the Keshiri species and thought them potentially worthy to join the Sith Tribe.

The Keshiri eventually found that the Sith were not their gods, but they continued serving them for thousands of years. By 41 ABY, the Keshiri had come to be seen almost as equals to the Sith, and several were accepted into the Sith Tribe, with at least one serving on the Circle of Lords, the Tribe's ruling council. Around the time of the Second Galactic Civil War, members of the Keshiri species were able to travel off-world for the first time in the newly formed Sith armada. Several Keshiri served as leaders in the fleet, such as High Lord Sarasu Taalon. However, the Tribe's attempted invasion of the galaxy resulted in the elimination of numerous Sith, including many Keshiri, on the planet Coruscant by the Jedi.

Text and facts from the “Keshiri/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.