Ravilan Wroth

Ravilan, nicknamed Rav by Yaru Korsin and the "crimson man" by the Keshiri, was a male member of the Sith species who served as the quartermaster and keeper of the Massassi warrior contingent that was transported on board the Sith dreadnaught Omen. When the starship crash-landed on the planet Kesh, Ravilan was among the survivors. Following the subjugation of the native Keshiri after the Sith convinced them that they were their Skyborn deities, Ravilan became the leader of the Omen's Red Sith survivors.

Fifteen years after Korsin's rise to power as the Grand Lord of the Lost Tribe of Sith, several thousand Keshiri died due to the poisoning of the water supplies. Ravilan and his Red Sith were revealed as the culprits behind this plot. Lady Seelah Korsin, Yaru's wife and one of the leaders of the Tribe, ordered all the Red Sith rounded up. Korsin himself launched the purge of every single Red Sith on Kesh. Ravilan was tortured and then killed by Jariad Korsin, Seelah's son and Yaru's nephew, after Seelah told him that she had been killing the babies of the Red Sith when they were born.

Biography
Ravilan was a male of the Sith species, a native to the Sith Empire during the time of the Great Hyperspace War around 5,000 BBY. During this time a massive power vacuum had been left by the death of the Dark Lord of the Sith Marka Ragnos and his century long rule that had brought the Sith Empire into its Golden Age. Two Sith lords had stepped up to take his place as the Dark lord of the Sith, Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh. Ravilan was a supporter of Naga Sadow, who had more expansionist attitudes towards the Sith Empire, compared to Ludo Kressh who was more conservative and believed the Sith Empire should be maintained in its current wealthy state. With the Sith Empire split into factions under Kressh and Sadow, Sadow took control of his faction as Dark Lord of the Sith and expanded into the Republic to create a conflict known as the Great Hyperspace War.

Omen
Under Sadow’s command, Ravilan was the quartermaster aboard Omen during this time and was the keeper of the Massassi shock troops contingent on the ship. Ravilan had been on Omen for some time, long enough to share several missions on board it with the captain Yaru Korsin, who he had fenced with on occasions. Omen’s permanent crew, like Yaru, was made out of Humans descended from the exiles of a Tapani noble house. They were now Force-sensitive like Ravilan’s species after their bloodlines were mixed with that of the Dark Jedi/Sith centuries before. Before the battle of Kirrek, Naga Sadow had dispatched Omen and another ship Harbinger with the Dark Jedi Saes Rrogon as captain, in search of Lignan crystals for use during this battle against the Jedi and the Republic. The mining flotilla including Omen and Harbinger gathered at Primus Goluud to recruit miners to carry out the task Naga Sadow had set them, Omen was a popular ship, and most people with a choice – unlike the Massassi -- would end up choosing it along with Yaru, who unlike Saes was considered trust worthy by the Sith. The mining flotilla with their crews set out to mine Phaegon III for the Lignan crystals, but as Harbinger and Omen had just finished and readied to leave a Jedi starfighter attacked them. With first priority to protect the cargo of Lignan crystals, Omen made preparations to go into Hyperspace, but before they could jump Harbinger started producing nonsensical sensor readings and began to lean very close to Omen, about to collide, and at the last moment the ship’s experienced navigator Boyle Marcom had engaged the hyperdrive, sending Omen into Hyperspace. However, Ravilan along with the rest of the crew would find out that they had not avoided the collision with Harbinger and in fact the ship had been knocked off course slightly as a result. The warped physics of Hyperspace combined with the collision as they were going into it damaged the ship. First the shielding failed, then the bulkheads gave and then the armoury exploded, but in Hyperspace, the effect was not the same, instead of exploding and destroying a large part of the ship and the Massassi on board near to it, the armoury simply vanished, taking along a large portion of the quarterdeck with it.

Omen had exited Hyperspace out of control and plunging towards and unknown planet. Desperately, Yaru tried to control the ship, and finally managed to crash land the ship into a sharp mountain range surrounded by sea, just managing to stop Omen before it fell off the edge of one of the cliffs into an abyss. Three-Hundred and fifty-five people survived the crash, but due to injuries and the hazardous terrain as they were coming down from the mountain, twenty-one died along the way. By sunrise Ravilan met up with Yaru and Seelah Korsin – previous battlefield medic and the wife of Yaru’s brother -- to discuss what was happening to the Massassi. Eighty of Ravilan’s Massassi had survived the crash, but for unknown reasons they all seemed to be dying rapidly from exposure to the planet’s atmosphere. Already, at this point Ravilan’s assistants were burning a third of those Massassi that had survived the crash and were now dead in a pyre.

Two days later Ravilan split the last of the Massassi between himself and Yaru. With his Massassi, Yaru went up to the crash site to test the transmitter and see if it was possible for the Sith Empire to find them, to rescue them and take the Lignan crystals. When Yaru returned Ravilan was initially surprised to see him --without his brother. After finding out if that the transmitter beacon did not work, he was saddened to find out that Yaru’s Massassi, like those that had accompanied Ravilan – The last of the Massassi that had been on Omen -- had died.

Adari Vaal
That night, the second night after Ravilan and the crew of Omen crash landed on the planet, a native to the planet accidentally intruded the encampment of Sith, alerting the Sith within. After three days, the native Keshiri – Adari Vaal – learnt to talk comfortably with the Sith, with Yaru and Ravilan’s cyborg cousin Hestus trying to learn her language. Hestus had a “special ear” which helped to speed up the transfer of information between the Sith and Adari. However, this exchange was very one sided, with the Sith learning more about the Keshiri and their life on Kesh than Adari was learning about the Sith.

Eventually, Yaru was able to inform Adari of their concerns and needs to reach the mainland. Although, according to Adari the only way she could go to the mainland was alone and on her Uvak, Nink, and then return. This caused worry amongst the Sith, especially Seelah who was convinced that by letting her go alone, she would abandon them there. The fact that they had learnt that she would unlikely be listened to by her own species only added to their concern. Ravilan eyed Yaru and exchanged a worried look at Hestus, however, this was a risk they had to take.

The crew of Omen had been stranded for a week and Adari had been gone one day when she returned. The Sith met with the Keshiri, and after seeing their appearance and talents, the Sith were considered by the Keshiri people to be the God-like “Skyborn” of Keshiri legends. With their new found authority and status amongst the Keshiri, Ravilan and the rest of the “Skyborn” took the previously ruling Neshtovar’s quarters as their own.

At some point while Yaru was giving knowledge to Adari Vaal in the Keshiri city of Tahv, Adari had tried an experiment out on Ravilan to test if the Sith could really “read minds”. She did this by sending him into the busiest quarter in the city of Tahv to find a specific location. She noted that he – like her – would get lost in the same neighbourhood as she would; and although his perceptive abilities were amazing, he still needed accurate information from others in order to find his way. She concluded from this that the Sith could read minds – to an extent.

During this time Ravilan was aloof after recently losing his Massassi he had cared for. Adari had referred to him as a minority within a minority, part of the small group of Red Sith within the small group of Sith, a huge change from what was usual within the Sith Empire.

Genocide
Fifteen years had passed since the Sith crew of Omen had crash landed on Kesh. Over this time Ravilan’s colouring had changed to more of a sombre maroon hue, and without the Massassi and without a mission he had had a series of strange jobs to pass this time. But his most important job was the spokesperson for the Fifty-Seven. The Fifty-Seven was a group that included the Red Sith – those whose bloodlines ran truest to the Sith species – and those beings who were more interested in leaving Kesh than staying there. However, “The Fifty-Seven” was no longer an appropriate name, as a dozen had died over the time since they had landed due to accident or lack of ability. The fact that none of the Red Sith offspring were surviving past a single day added to their reasons for leaving Kesh. As the spokesperson, Ravilan had earned a nickname for himself amongst the Keshiri, known to them as the “crimson man”.

On his second year on Kesh, Ravilan had also injured his leg in a confrontation with an Uvak. Ravilan was now crippled and was forced to limp.

Crisis at Tetsubal
During a meeting, the Houk Gloyd was describing his latest idea for getting off Kesh, and to get the Sith Empire to notice them, not knowing that by this time the Sith Empire had already fell. After he finished his speech Ravilan stepped forward. Yaru – now the “Grand Lord” of the Keshiri addressed him, expecting Ravilan to also present an idea about getting them off Kesh, instead Ravilan brought up the subject of ancestry and how the people under the service of Seelah were documenting the ancestry of the crew of Omen. Even though this was explained that this only applied to those of the Sith that were Human, Ravilan objected because most of the Red Sith on Kesh had at least some Human blood, and many of the Human crew had some Sith blood. For Ravilan and the Red Sith on Kesh, the subject of the interbreeding with the Dark Jedi was a moment of great pride, and that picking it apart through documenting it is a sensitive topic for his people. Seelah pointed out however, that it was necessary because of the unknown reasons the Massassi died and why the Red Sith offspring were dying. On this topic of the Sith offspring dying, Ravilan suggested that one of the Red Sith people be accepted into the crèche -- that Seelah was in charge of -- as a midwife to better understand this issue. Seelah immediately refused his suggestion as the Red Sith were not qualified medical personnel that were so necessary in times like this, fact that she had previously been a slave under the rival Dark Lord Ludo Kressh and had since developed an extreme hatred towards the Red Sith did not help Ravilan's cause. But Ravilan was insistent, he was complimenting her work and it was only fair that the Red Sith, like her Sith are allowed to thrive. Stopping the conversation between the two, Yaru told them that the talk would be continued later. On a new subject, Ravilan informed Yaru that he would be in the south visiting the towns of the Ragnos Lakes where he had been assigned by Yaru to examine the eight villages – specifically the bodies of water they were on and the specimens of fluorescent algae they contained. Because they had found out that Kesh was devoid of any useful metals, these algae had potential use in lighting the Sith structures. Ravilan was to start over the vast amount of territory in Tetsubal, which was the village farthest away from the Sith mountain sanctum. Before Ravilan left, Yaru told him that he should bring the rest of the Red Sith, so that the work gets completed faster. He also brought Ravilan closer to him and spoke into his ear that next time he addressed Yaru, Seelah – nowYaru’s new wife after the death of Devore – wanted him to address him as “Grand Lord”. It was an order, and Ravilan had no choice but to obey his commands even though it was only a name for the Keshiri.

Earlier, while investigating if there was anything left on Omen that the Sith could use, he had found some Cyanogen silicate – a cauterising agent used for the Massassi by their healers. A Keshiri which was working with his group there had come into contact with it and soon died, from this Ravilan was able to determine that the Cyanogen silicate does not affect the Red Sith, but it’s properties would affect the Keshiri. When Ravilan arrived in Tetsubal he took the Cyanogen silicate, and put into the aqueducts of the villages where it intensified with its contact with the water, killing all those in the village like a plague, including his Human Sith aide. It seemed the Cyanogen silicate also could be used against the Humans. Only Ravilan was unaffected. After this Ravilan sent a message through the force to the Takara mountains where the Sith sanctum was, to alert them that everyone had died at Tetsubal, although he did not reveal that he was responsible.

When Yaru and Seelah arrived in Tetsubal, Ravilan was not completely honest with them, telling them that he had gone to meet his contacts in the town circle with a plaza and a large sundial. He told them that he could not find his Human aide he had brought with him and so he had leapt up on top of the sundial to call for her and to survey the plague that was consuming the Keshiri. Seelah and Yaru wondered what had happed, if it was a Biological agent or an airborne disease. Their worries intensified when they eventually found Ravilan’s Human aide dead, and realised that this illness not only affected the Keshiri but it could also affect the Human Sith. Ravilan suggested that because of this is it would be necessary to not only burn the village to keep the illness from speading, but to also cease all contact between the Sith and the Keshiri – a suggestion that Yaru was taken aback by. Seelah disagreed, the Sith depended on the Keshiri too much and she believed that without them they would not survive. Ravilan however, reminded them that they were Sith, and that they should not be dependent on non-Sith like the Keshiri. He even went as far as to suggest that since they have been standing there for some time and the plague had not affected them, that this plague was really a warning from the dark side. Coming back to reality at this comment, Yaru took Ravilan off on a walk through the village to discuss this, meanwhile Seelah held back where she was and examined the body of Ravilan’s aide. Suddenly she called out that she must retreat back to the Sith sanctum in the Takara Mountains. Ravilan looked back and cautioned her about bringing the plague into the Sith stronghold before she left.

Ravilan and Yaru arrived back at the Takara mountains in the dead of the night, the word had spread of the crisis amongst the Sith. Communications were the main problem, as the Sith had been so stirred and confused by the information of the recent event that even the most experienced heralds were having trouble fielding messages. Yaru had called for all the Sith to return to the Takara mountains, but he had to be careful so that the word of the crisis did not reach the ears of Keshiri. He also had reconnaissance fliers out checking the surrounding areas around Tetsubal to check if the plague had spread.

Sith Purge
Ravilan and Yaru were talking, and then Ravilan reported to him that all the Red Sith had returned safely, Ravilan was obviously pleased. But then a messenger arrived bringing news that the plague had struck again but this time at Rabolow, which was another village on the Ragnos Lakes. Ravilan was very surprised and disturbed by this news; he and his people had only planted the Cyanogen silicate in the aqueducts of Tetsubal. Ignoring Seelah’s remark pointing out that his people were assigned there, Ravilan went off to talk with his associate that had just returned from there to figure out what had happened.

Reports of Ragnos Lake villages struck by the plague continued to pour in, and without Ravilan around, eventually Seelah told Yaru that it was obviously Ravilan and his people who were adding Cyanogen silicate which he had recovered from Omen to the aqueducts and wells in all the villages. Yaru believed her, convinced that the Red Sith were plotting to destroy them he called in all the Sith, excluding the Red Sith.They would destroy and wipe out the Red Sith for this supposed treachery, no mercy would be shown.

Outnumbered and caught be surprise, the Red Sith were driven back and slaughtered, the Human Sith staking the heads of Red Sith at even intervals along the main plaza. With only a small Red Sith remnant left, Yaru and his chief lieutenants drove them back to a last stand beside the precipice where Omen had crashed and nearly fell into the abyss fifteen years ago. Those who surrendered were shown no mercy and were flung over the side of the mountain to their deaths.

The only Red Sith remaining alive on Kesh, Ravilan was captured early due to his damaged leg. As the leader of the Red Sith, he was kept alive, strung up centimetres off the ground by strong cords of the Keshiri used to keep Uvaks still while they are washed. Out of the stable master’s stone silo where Ravilan was held, with Uvak enclosures spread out all around him, water poured out of slots high up the tower for one minute at a time and drenched Ravilan, choking him to the point of complete exhaustion. Taking a while to recover, Ravilan finally registered Seelah’s presence. She confirmed to him that all the Red Sith were wiped out – apart from him. Confused, Ravilan admitted that he and his people were responsible for the “plague”, but they had only done it on Tetsubal, he knew nothing about the other villages. Seelah revealed that it was her in fact that was responsible for the other villages that lead to the extermination of the Red Sith. That she had sent her most trusted aides out to the various Ragnos Lake villages after she arrived back from Tetsubal, planting the Cyanogen silicate in the aqueducts and wells of each, made possible by the fact that her ward had the last remaining supply of the chemical. While she could not determine what had happened to the Keshiri of the village due to not knowing their biology, she had figured out that Cyanogen silicate was causing it by the swollen, blue features on the tongue of Ravilan’s dead Human aide. This horrified Ravilan, disgusted at the genocide she had caused against his people. Seelah though, saw it as something that was inevitable in the Sith Empire the way things were going in Naga Sadow's hands, with his expanding and allowing other species into higher ranked positions. Ravilan disagreed, stating that Naga Sadow valued the old and the new, the new potential Sith and the old Sith.Seelah gestured to the guard beside Ravilan, releasing more water down on top of him. This time it took him much longer to recover. He explained how he thought the Sith society could have worked on Kesh, like the Dark Jedi and the Sith species did millennia ago, if only his children had survived on Kesh.Then, he let out an agonised scream in horror and disgust as he realised that Seelah was responsible for deaths of all the Red Sith children who had been born on Kesh, as it was she who was in charge of the Sith crèche and had a deep hatred towards the Sith species. At this, Seelah told him that the Red Sith would have eventually done the same thing to the Human Sith. With Ravilan still moaning in horror at what she had done, Seelah told the guard – her son, Jariad Korsin – to finish him off. Jariad stepped forward and Ravilan saw him coming as he wielded a jagged vibroblade and leapt at Ravilan, cutting him down with his lightsaber. The last of the Red Sith on Kesh was dead, leaving Gloyd as the only non-Human Sith alive on the planet.

Although it seemed that this plan to exterminate the Red Sith was completely Seelah's ideas, it turned out that she had been manipulated by the Keshiri Adari Vaal and Tilden Kaah in their larger plan to rid the Sith from Kesh.

Personality and Traits


Ravilan was a Red Sith, and so naturally he, like all the other members of his species, was a Force-sensitive individual. Also, based on his appearance, Yaru Korsin had the belief that Ravilan looked as pureblooded as possible for a Red Sith, therefore Ravilan had a crimson skin and yellow eyes, as well as eyebrow-stalks and cheek tendrils which were characteristics of the Sith species. Ravilan's skin colour would change over his time on Kesh, from a red colour to one a more sombre maroon. Over this time Ravilan continued to wear his earrings and other Sith ornamentation, which eventually served only to make people on Kesh who were beneath him seem all the more dull. Also, in his second year on Kesh, Ravilan crippled himself in a confrontation with an Uvak, damaging his leg. This was an injury that never healed for Ravilan, and partly contributed to his ultimate fate at the hands of Seelah and Jariad Korsin.

Ravilan was a Sith that was very proud of his Sith heritage, especially the period of interbreeding between the Sith species and the Dark Jedi exiles from the Hundred-Year Darkness, therefore suggesting that he considered himself related the the Dark Jedi in some way despite his pureblooded Sith appearance. Although this period of interbreeding was a very proud moment for him and the Red Sith on Kesh, he felt it was a very sensitive topic, going as far as to try to stop the Sith on Kesh from researching the Sith ancestry, to stop the ancestry of the Red Sith from being revealed, even if it only applied to Human individuals.

Ravilan was also a supporter of Dark Lord Naga Sadow instead of Ludo Kressh during the Great Hyperspace War. He believed that through Naga Sadow's progressive ways, Naga Sadow valued power, and that and saw it in the old and the new. He believed that Naga Sadow valued and saw potential in the new species brought into the Empire as well as the old species -- like the Red Sith.

As quartermaster and keeper of the Massassi on board Omen, Ravilan became very attached to the Massassi -- or at least his job of looking after them. Saddened by their deaths once they had all died due to exposure to Kesh's atmosphere, Ravilan became aloof from that point onwards. He was unable to fully replace his job he had of looking after the Massassi with any other job he had over his fifteen years on Kesh, perhaps with the exception of being the spokesperson for the fifty-seven.

Powers and Abilities
As keeper of the Massassi on board Omen, Ravilan was able to control the Massassi warriors. The feat of gaining the loyalty of the Massassi must be earned, and cannot be bought or forced.

Also, as a Force-sensitive, Ravilan was capable of manipulating the Force like all members of his species. He demonstrated his skill of telepathy numerous times on Kesh; he was able to determine that Yaru Korsin had found something out and met someone when he came back from checking if Omen's transmitter worked. Also, once Ravilan had become one of the Skyborn on Kesh, Adari Vaal had carried out an experiment on him to test if the Sith could really read minds. She did this by sending him into the busiest quarter of the city of Tahv to find a specific location. Without ever being in the city before, Ravilan was able to find his way through the city, but in one particularly busy neighborhood he could not progress to find the location without the aide of accaurate information of others through asking them directly. He was also able to answer Seelah Korsin's thoughts when she had unconsciously left them unguarded, picking up the exact lines of her thoughts.

Behind the Scenes
Ravilan first was introduced as a quartermaster aboard Omen who had crash landed on Kesh with the rest of the crew in the eBook Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice, released on May 28, 2009, which was written by John Jackson Miller. He then appeared again in the sequel Skyborn, and then also in the third eBook in the Lost Tribe of the Sith series; Paragon, where his character was explained more in-depth than the other two stories and where he was eventually killed.

Appearances

 * Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice
 * Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn
 * Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon

Notes and references
Ravilan