“It means we’re not just a Tribe… we’re a lost Tribe.”
The collected stories featured in John Jackson Miller’s The Lost Tribe of the Sith were originally published individually in free ebook format (excluding the final novella entitled “Pandemonium” which was first published in this collection). The nine stories portray thousands of years of history for a secret lost tribe of the Sith that became trapped on a remote planet called Kesh only to resurface during the “Fate of the Jedi” era. As John Jackson Miller mentions in his opening acknowledgement, in the nine Fate of the Jedi novels, Aaron Allston, Christie Golden, and Troy Denning introduced a “Lost Tribe of the Sith” marooned on the planet Kesh, later discovered in Luke Skywalker’s time. This fascinating little collection offers a richly imagined story with new creatures and maps detailing an entirely unfamiliar world, but I honestly struggled to maintain interest in the stories (in a way, it reminded me of Dawn of the Jedi). It takes place across multiple eras, with entirely different characters every couple chapters, and it stretches back to an age so remote from the Skywalker saga that it bears almost no resemblance. This is more for the deep lore fans I’d say. The Lost Tribe of the Sith serves as a prequel tie-in of sorts to the “Fate of the Jedi” series and admittedly I have not read any of the “Fate of the Jedi” books yet, so perhaps I will revisit this unique short story collection again in the future for better clarity and perspective.
The first couple short stories (“Precipice,” “Skyborn,” “Paragon,” and “Savior”) take place approximately 5,000 years BBY during the “Great Hyperspace War” in which a Sith ship called the Omen is transporting Lignan crystals (which are used in lightsabers) on behalf of the tentacle-faced “Red Sith” leader Naga Sadow when the ship is suddenly attacked by the Jedi, sending it crashing into its sister ship the Harbinger. The Omen narrowly survives a crashlanding on the nearby remote planet of Kesh. From this point in the story, there is quite a bit of interesting lore about a deeply religious native tribe who ride on winged Uvak creatures, fascinating locales like the capital city of Tahv, and the ship’s crash-site in the Takara Mountains which becomes a sacred place and so on, all the while Captain Yaru Korsin leads the remaining survivors to a new life on this strange planet. Captain Korsin battles against his half-brother Devore, ultimately killing him and dumping his half-brother’s body off the cliffside where the ship landed. Korsin then becomes the Grand Lord of the Lost Tribe of the Sith, but this earns him a secret enemy in Devore’s wife, Seelah, and her son Jariad. But Seelah marries Korsin and they have a daughter together, Nida, even as Seelah is secretly plotting vengeance on him.
The drama unfolds in biological warfare as an infection is unleashed on the tribe and tensions grow between the pureblood Sith (led by Ravilan Wroth and his Massassi warriors) and the others, along with a rebellion by a native rebel named Adari Vaal who leads the covert resistance against Seelah’s secret sabotage campaign. This culminates in a dramatic fight between Korsin and his allies and Seelah, Jariad, and their warriors. It ends with Seelah being defeated but Korsin is also killed in the enshrined remains of the crashed Omen, and, while seated in his old captain’s chair, Korsin passes leadership of the tribe onto his daughter Nida.
The next couple short stories take place over a thousand years later (“Purgatory” and “Sentinel”) in which factions have arisen on Kesh, ruling Sith elected by means of succession and lower-class slaves they rule over. The stories follow Orielle “Ori” Kitai, a Sith noblewoman, who befriends and eventually falls in love with a slave named Jelph Marrian, thus marking herself with the rest of the tribe. One day, she finds a hidden hyperspace-capable starfighter which turns out to be the damaged craft of Jelph (whom we learn is secretly a Jedi who has been stranded on Kesh). When he reveals his secret to Ori, they both decide to destroy the ship before it can be activated by the Sith and they flee to live in the jungle together. But this is only after they listen to a Jedi transmission on the ship which says there is a civil war within the Jedi led by a recalcitrant named Revan (thus tying this story to the broader narrative arc of the Old Republic) and it runs concurrently with the mysterious disappearance of the Grand Lord Lillia Venn in what becomes known as the “Upside-Down Meteor” leading to centuries of inner conflict and stagnation known as “The Time of the Rot.”
Then two thousand years after the Omen crashed on Kesh, the next two short stories (“Pantheon” and “Secrets”) depict the events of Varner Hilts, an elder Sith Caretaker and historian/archivist of sorts, who is confronted by Iliana Merko, a member of the Sisters of Seelah (they believe Seelah is the true founder of the tribe). They battle with the Korsinite League and other factions. But in the ensuing conflict, a secret ancient recording is uncovered of the fearsome ancient Sith Lord Naga Sadow speaking to Captain Korsin, which clearly shows that the Omen was not a divine skyborn vessel, but rather simply an ordinary transport vessel and that Korsin was merely operating under the vassalage of Naga Sadow. It is a shocking revelation. From there, Varner Hilts and others decide to infiltrate the sealed temple where they discover a hidden map revealing other continents across the oceans of Kesh (the uvaks haven’t been able to fly that far). This unites the factions as Hilts is named a new “Grand Lord” as in the days of old and the era is known as “The Hilts Restoration.” They organize themselves together and construct a large watercraft as Hilts marries Iliana.
The final bonus novella (“Pandemonium”) tells the story of Hilts and the Sith as they finally voyage to the new continent known as Alanciar. It introduces a few new characters: an engineer and mathematician named Edell Vrai who leads a fleet of air ships to the new continent of Alanciar, as well as prospective Alanciari lovers, Quarra Thayn and Jogan Halder (even though Quarra is married), as well as a villainous conqueror Sith Lord named Bentado. But under the rule of Grand Lord Hilts, there is hope for a future unification of all Kesh in spite of a deception on Hilts’s part. Admittedly, I was fairly bored with “Pandemonium.” It is by far the longest story in the collection, but a few of the earlier stories are worth a read for the serious Star Wars Expanded Universe completionist.
Lost Tribe of the Sith offers an interesting meditation on the development of religion and politics over time. At the start of the short story collection, we meet several characters who later become elevated to the level of divine figures thousands of years in the future. But when the truth of their ordinariness is revealed (i.e. when the tribe learns that Captain Korsin was little more than a delivery boy for Naga Sadow), they grow angry, disparate, and even violent. The nobility of the religious lie is perhaps justified in the stability it provides to the tribe. At any rate, John Jackson Miller is a top notch media tie-in writer, however in my view Lost Tribe of the Sith is simply too disconnected from the broader Star Wars timeline for casual fans to connect with. But I hope to encounter the fearsome tentacle-headed Sith Lord Naga Sadow again in a future EU novel.
Miller, John Jackson. Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories. Del Rey, New York, New York (2012). Dedicated to “Jack and Josie” Miller’s “own little tribe.”