Dromund Kaas

"Welcome to Dromund Kaas, where freedom goes to die, and legends are forced on the galaxy."

- Vette, upon exiting Dromund Kaas Spaceport

Dromund Kaas was the third planet in the Dromund system, a star system in the Sith Worlds region of the Outer Rim Territories's Esstran sector. Originally a colony of the Sith Empire, its location was lost by the time of the Great Hyperspace War with the Galactic Republic, but the Sith Emperor led his people on a twenty-year odyssey that ended with the rediscovery of Dromund Kaas in 4980 BBY. The Emperor and the remnants of the shattered Sith society reconstituted the Sith Empire with Dromund Kaas as its capital, taming the planet's savage jungles and building up their Empire's strength from the skyscrapers of Kaas City. Dromund Kaas remained safe from Republic reprisal when the Empire launched the Great Galactic War in 3681 BBY, though a Republic invasion fleet assaulted the Imperial capital in 3641 BBY during the Galactic War with the Empire while a Jedi Knight fought and defeated the Emperor in personal combat.

The reconstituted Empire eventually dissolved before 2000 BBY, and Dromund Kaas' jungles gave way to murky swamps over the centuries as the planet's location once again fell into obscurity. A major battle of the New Sith Wars was fought on Dromund Kaas, and several decades later the rogue Sith Lord Darth Millennial established the Dark Force religion on Dromund Kaas after he rejected the Rule of Two and abandoned the Order of the Sith Lords. The Prophets of the Dark Side who followed Millennial's religion ruled Dromund Kaas for almost a thousand years before they incurred the wrath of Darth Sidious, causing the Prophets to abandon the planet for Bosthirda. Despite its relative obscurity, the planet became embroiled in the galactic conflict known as the Clone Wars, but the powerful influence of the dark side of the Force on Dromund Kaas continued to draw both Jedi and Sith to the planet over the next several decades.

Description
"I'm not sure I like the look of that swamp."

- Mara Jade

Dromund Kaas was the third planet of the Dromund system, a star system located in the Sith Worlds &mdash;a region of the Outer Rim Territories's Esstran sector that was enclosed in the nebula known as the Stygian Caldera. Dromund Kaas had three moons and orbited the star Dromund, and it lay along the Kamat Krote hyperspace route between the planets Jaguada and Bosthirda. By the time of the Great Hyperspace War with the Galactic Republic, Dromund Kaas was largely covered by jungles and oceans. When the survivors of the old Sith Empire arrived on the planet in 4980 BBY, they were forced to tame the seemingly endless jungles and fend off the planet's violent predators in order to establish their society, and the planet remained largely jungles, oceans, and swamps other than the metropolis of Kaas City and other locations on the surface. Dromund Kaas' atmosphere was also heavily charged with electricity to the point that lightning was a near-constant sight in the almost perpetually clouded sky; a result of the Sith Emperor's experiments in arcane and forbidden uses of the dark side of the Force.

In the centuries after the Galactic War between the Empire and the Republic, the planet's jungles were largely overtaken by swamps and marshes, submerging most of the planet's solid ground. The breathable atmosphere became more stable, though it remained a wet and humid world with a varying climate. Massive, dark-wooded trees grew in the swampy water, forming canyon-like groupings of foliage that were covered in vines and infested with the lizard-like ysalamiri creatures. The planet was shrouded in a pervasive miasma of dark side energy, and locations such as the Dark Temple and the Dark Force Temple were the sites of intensely strong Force nexuses.

Capital of the Sith Empire
"Dromund Kaas is the Imperial capitol. Legions of Sith call it home. The remaining population is almost entirely Imperial military."

- Lord Scourge

Dromund Kaas was originally a colony of the Sith Empire, but its location was lost several centuries before 5000 BBY. The rediscovery of Dromund Kaas began in the aftermath of the Great Hyperspace War, when the Sith Lord Vitiate ordered his researchers and historians to locate a safe haven for the people of the shattered Empire. Once they succeeded in rediscovering Dromund Kaas' location, Vitiate summoned all of the remaining Sith Lords to his homeworld of Nathema and mentally enslaved them, using their strength to perform a dark side ritual that stripped the life from Nathema and made him immortal. Vitiate then gathered the remaining people of the Sith Empire and embarked on a twenty-year wandering journey that finally ended in 4980 BBY with the "rediscovery" of Dromund Kaas thanks to Vitiate's advice.

Upon arriving on the surface of Dromund Kaas, Vitiate declared a reconstituted Empire with himself at the head that would one day return and take revenge upon the Republic. Under the guidance of the newly-created Dark Council, a group of twelve Dark Lords of the Sith who each assumed leadership over an aspect of the Empire, the new Empire gradually tamed their new homeworld and built their strength. Odile Vaiken, the Human who founded the new Imperial Military, led a military campaign into the wild jungle in order to clear the wilderness and make way for the Empire's capital, Kaas City. Vaiken himself slew a terentatek on the future site of the Imperial Citadel, the building that would house the headquarters of the new Sith Order and the Empire's Ministries of War, Intelligence, and Logistics. From Dromund Kaas, the Empire gradually expanded their domain.

Prophets of the Dark Side
After the fall of the Sith Empire prior to 2000 BBY, it was effectively abandoned until it became a refuge for the rogue Sith Lord Darth Millennial sometime after 990 BBY. Having rejected the Rule of Two, a doctrine that insisted there only be two Sith at any given time, Millennial sought to begin a new dark side religion on the planet, beginning what would later be known as the Dark Force. Followers of this religion, the so-called Prophets of the Dark Side, would rule the planet for years, until its rediscovery by one Darth Sidious sometime before the onset of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY.

Sidious, after enlisting the Prophets to his service, kept the planet's existence a secret. He would later use it as a testing ground for his Dark Side Adepts, and the planet remained known only to those few.

Roly Melusar's father tried to encourage the natives to rebel against the Prophets, but was killed by them. As a result, Roly Melusar developed a strong hatred toward any and all Force-sensitives.

These events, however, took place outside of the public eye, and was unknown to the Jedi Order. Believed by most to be a myth, a story used by young Padawans to frighten each other, for years only rumors were heard of Dromund Kaas in the greater galaxy, and belief in its existence was held only by cultists and anti-Jedi conspiracy theorists. However, during the Clone Wars, Jedi Master Yoda, while investigating the deletion of several planetary systems from the Jedi Archives, discovered that not only was Dromund Kaas real, but the more unsettling news that it was within the boundaries of the Old Sith Empire.

It was believed that Yoda may have personally investigated the system, however any such mission would have been known only to the highest ranks of the Jedi, and any records of the project had been lost. Despite this level of secrecy, the 327th Star Corps would later fight a battle on Dromund Kaas during the Clone Wars.

The New Republic and beyond
After the rise and fall of the Empire, Dromund Kaas was once more forgotten, until Jedi Knight Kyle Katarn learned of the planet from ancient inscriptions in 9 ABY. Abruptly ending the training of his pupil, Mara Jade, Katarn located the system and battled many Sith abominations to reach the Dark Force Temple, where he succumbed to the temptations of the dark side.

After he fell out of contact, Jade began to worry for the Jedi. Setting out for Dromund Kaas herself, Jade worked her way through both local monsters and many Sith traps, eventually finding Katarn's shuttle, and later the Temple itself. Within the ancient structure Jade fought stranger, more powerful foes than even the swamps had offered; strange, animated statues and the resurrected corpses of long-dead Sith rose to meet her, along with the dark side apparition known as Dark Mara. After a long, winding chase through the Temple's catacombs, Jade finally confronted Katarn. After dueling for a time, Jade lowered her weapon in surrender&mdash;an act of faith in Katarn's heart. Seeing this display, Katarn realized that he could not kill his own friend and ally, and was able to overthrow the dark taint of the Temple, and free himself from the clutches of the dark side, fleeing the planet with Jade.

Katarn, along with Luke Skywalker and other Jedi, was later able to piece together some of the planet’s history. Wary after Katarn's fall, Skywalker decided that Dromund Kaas was a danger that could wait until the New Jedi Order became stronger. With the aid of New Republic Intelligence, he was able to ensure that Dromund Kaas stayed a myth, as it had for millennia.

Luke Skywalker, Ben Skywalker, Jaina Solo, and Vestara Khai traveled to the planet in 44 ABY in order to find the Dark Side Entity Abeloth. While there they were attacked by 10 Sith Sabers led by Gavar Khai. Despite being outnumbered and the Sith being powered by the Force nexus of Dromund Kaas the Jedi managed to defeat all the Sith and Vestara killed her own father, who had fallen under Abeloth's thrall.

Inhabitants
"Then watch your back. It's not the jungles that are dangerous on Dromund Kaas--it's the people."

- Q'kal.

Dromund Kaas was, for the most part, an abandoned world, once the heart of the reborn Sith Empire it was now lacking almost anything in the way of sentient life. The major exception to this rule was the lasting presence of the Prophets of the Dark Side, and even they were few in number, remaining mostly confined to their Temple.

In the centuries between their founding by Darth Millennial and their rediscovery, very few even knew of the existence of Dromund Kaas, much less that of the Prophets, with only whispers of the Dark Force being spoken in the wider galaxy. However, after their indoctrination by Sidious, groups of Prophets were moved off-world: Supreme Prophet Kadann and the Dark Jedi Sariss, the daughter of Lord Cronal, among them. In turn, Sidious would use Dromund Kaas as a proving ground for his Dark Side Adepts, entrusting the Prophets with their early training.

After enraging Sidious with one of his prophecies, Kadann pulled the Dark Force off of Dromund Kaas, relocating to Bosthirda. The planet would then remain, for the most part, deserted.

By 10 ABY, the skeletal remains of Human or near-Human explorers were scattered across the swamps, picked clean by either time or native creatures.

Locations
Being a world of almost entirely sea and swamp, Dromund Kaas possessed very few notable locations with many falling into obscurity or destroyed by the time of the Galactic Civil War. The one major exception, however, was the Dark Force Temple. Located in the heart of the swamp, the Temple contained a nexus of dark side energy so powerful that it disrupted most types of weapons on the planet's surface, including blasters, rail launchers and various explosives.

Built during the original Sith Empire, the Temple was deserted shortly after the Great Hyperspace War of 5000 BBY. However, during the time of the Great Galactic War and the subsequent Cold War, Dromund Kaas was the base of operations for the resurgent Sith Empire. The Sith built buildings such as the Imperial Intelligence headquarters in Kaas City, but these settlements, like the rest of the planet, were deserted after the end of the Galactic War. Forgotten for nearly three thousand years, the Temple's location eventually fell into the hands of Seviss Vaa, a Sith Lord in the Brotherhood of Darkness, who passed the information on to Lord Kaan.

After the instigation of the Rule of Two, Darth Millennial based his Dark Force religion there, where they would remain for nearly a thousand years, until the Prophets of the Dark Side relocated to Bosthirda, fearing the wrath of Darth Sidious. The surrounding swamp would reclaim much of the Temple between then and 10 ABY, when the ruins were visited by Mara Jade and Kyle Katarn, the latter of whom briefly fell under the Temple's dark sway.

Behind the scenes
Dromund Kaas (spelled Drommund Kaas) first appeared as the setting for the final three levels of Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith. In-game, the player (as Mara Jade) treks through the swamps and temples, eventually facing Kyle Katarn in the heart of the catacombs.

Mysteries of the Sith writer Ryan Kaufman originally intended Kyle Katarn to have discovered the planet accidentally during an ill-fated pirate raid, years before he realized its significance and returned. However, this idea never made it into the final game, and was later discarded completely in The Dark Forces Saga.

There is a discrepancy regarding exactly where Dromund Kaas is located. The Dark Forces Saga claims that it is the third planet of the Dromund system, while Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force mentions it being in the Thurra system. However, later in the book, Jedi vs. Sith correctly states that the planet is in the Dromund system. It can therefore be assumed that the mention of Thurra was a typo.

Dromund Kaas appears in the game Star Wars: The Old Republic as the capital of the Sith Empire and is a major hub for Sith-aligned players.

Appearances

 * The Old Republic: Revan
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire Act 1: Shades of the Sith
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire Act 3: Burn the Future
 * The Old Republic: Deceived
 * Timeline 1: Treaty of Coruscant
 * Timeline 2: The Mandalorian Blockade is Broken
 * Timeline 2: The Mandalorian Blockade is Broken
 * Timeline 4: The Empire Changes Strategy
 * Timeline 5: The Battle of Bothawui
 * Timeline 6: Onslaught of the Sith Empire
 * Timeline 7: Peace for the Republic?
 * Timeline 8: The Jedi Civil War
 * Timeline 9: The Mandalorian Wars
 * Timeline 10: The Exar Kun War
 * Timeline 11: Rebirth of the Sith Empire
 * Timeline 12: The Great Hyperspace War
 * The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * The Old Republic: Annihilation
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Galactic Starfighter
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Shadow of Revan
 * Darth Plagueis
 * Imperial Commando: 501st
 * Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith
 * Fate of the Jedi: Ascension