Massassi/Legends

"Eventually all of the Sith--especially their Massassi warriors--lived only to serve their new masters. They really are amazingly malleable, the Massassi."

- Ajunta Pall

The Massassi were the warrior class of the ancient Sith race that was enslaved by the exiled Dark Jedi.

Biology and appearance
Like most members of the Sith race, the Massassi were red-skinned humanoids with tentacle beards, though they were more muscular and taller than most other Sith. Due to their strength and size, Massassi tended to be more aggressive and thus formed the military of the Sith.

Massassi also had blue blood; quills and bone spurs lined their skin, though this may have been due to Sith Alchemy performed on them by Dark Jedi exiles which had landed on Korriban in 7,000 BBY following their defeat at the Battle of Corbos.

Society and culture
Though they engaged in supposedly primitive practices such as sentient sacrifice, the Massassi held a strong caste system and their civilization was quite sophisticated; they saw these acts not as cruel or barbaric, but simply basic aspects of existence.

The Massassi language may be related to the Sith language. As with the Sith, war and violence were just as much a part of the natural order of life as peace or serenity for the Massassi. The Massassi also used a more primitive version of the Sith lanvarok which could also be used as a battle axe; this variant was known as the Massassi lanvarok.

History


As a subgroup of the Sith race, the ancient Massassi presumably originated on Korriban as well although in a much different breed than what came about after the dark jedi appeared. Since Sith society lasted as such for hundreds of centuries - from roughly 130,000 BBY to 7,000 BBY, it is presumed that the Massassi also had an ancient history. Except for the brief unification of their species under King Adas, Sith society was fragmented, with many individual Sith Lords ruling independent fiefdoms, most of them attempting to claim Adas' title of Sith'ari and unite their kind.

Circa 28,000 BBY, Adas, marked as a chosen one from a young age by his unusual black skin, united the nations of Korriban in violent warfare. He took the title of Sith'ari, meaning "overlord", and was seen by his people as an immortal being who would rule forever.

Eventually the Rakata of the Infinite Empire (which dominated the galaxy then) arrived on Korriban. Pretending to ally themselves with Adas at first and giving him the technology of holocrons, they soon revealed their intentions and attempted to conquer the Sith. Adas and the Sith fought back and drove off the forces of the Infinite Empire, with the king giving his life in the process. Without Adas's strong hand, Korriban soon collapsed into civil war, with many claiming themselves Sith'ari. The massive infighting eventually forced the Sith to relocate their capital to Ziost.

Around 7,000 BBY, Dark Jedi exiles fleeing from the Galactic Republic after their defeat in the Hundred Year Darkness, established themselves as "divine" rulers over their native Sith, uniting the world once again, this time under the rule of a Dark Lord of the Sith.

Over the generations, the Sith interbred with the Human Dark Jedi through a practice of the intermixing of Human and Sith bloodlines which became known as Sith Alchemy. This intermixing of species gave birth to the modern breed of Massassi warriors. Eventually, the Sith species in its original form was almost extinct. Due to their enormous size and brute strength, the new Dark Jedi masters found the Massassi useful and used them as their tools of power for the First Sith Empire. Much of the Sith Empire's military was composed of Massassi.



During the Great Hyperspace War in 5,000 BBY, the Dark Lord Naga Sadow fled to the jungle moon of Yavin 4 along with a contingent of Massassi followers to escape the pursuing Jedi and the Galactic Republic. There, Naga Sadow committed cruel experiments on his own Massassi warriors which resulted in them becoming dark side wielding savages. Despite these abuses, the Massassi treated Naga Sadow as a god, building huge temples and palaces to honor their Sith Lord. Eventually the Massassi on the moon devolved into a primitive hunter-warrior society.

In 3,997 BBY, Exar Kun elevated himself to the status of a god and enslaved the Massassi race. He then forced them to construct a great complex of temples that were used in arcane Sith ceremonies and rites. He also experimented on his slaves and created the Golden Globe that trapped the children of the Massassi and allowed him to drain their energies for his own purposes. During the Sith War in 3,996 BBY, the species became nearly extinct when Exar Kun sapped the life out of every Massassi on Yavin 4 so that he could free his soul from his body in order to escape the pursuing Jedi. The only Massassi that survived Kun's procedure was Kalgrath. However, there was at least one Massassi living on Korriban in 3,993 BBY, indicating that at least some members of the race survived.

Around four hundred years before the Battle of Yavin, the Kushiban Jedi Master Ikrit discovered the Golden Globe in the ruined Palace of the Woolamander and since he was unable to free the Massassi from the swirling golden sand within the globe, placed himself in hibernation for centuries.

During the Galactic Civil War, the Rebel Alliance built a base in the old Massassi temples on Yavin 4. It was from this base that the two Rebel squadrons of X-wings and Y-wings attacked the Death Star I.

Finally, in 22 ABY, Jedi trainees Anakin Solo and Tahiri Veila freed the trapped spirits from the swirling golden sand of the globe, and in the process befriended the mysterious Ikrit.

Behind the scenes
The word Massassi may be derived from "Maasai," an African warrior culture native to Kenya and northern Tanzania. It may also be a portmanteau of massacre and assassin.

Appearances



 * Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire
 * Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War
 * Shadows and Light
 * Underworld: The Yavin Vassilika
 * Star Wars Journal: The Fight for Justice
 * The Night Beast
 * Galaxy of Fear: Planet Plague
 * Dark Apprentice
 * Champions of the Force
 * Jedi Search
 * I, Jedi
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
 * Before the Storm
 * Junior Jedi Knights: The Golden Globe
 * Junior Jedi Knights: Lyric's World
 * Junior Jedi Knights: Promises
 * Junior Jedi Knights: Anakin's Quest
 * Junior Jedi Knights: Vader's Fortress
 * Edge of Victory I: Conquest
 * Star by Star