Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith – Spiral #2

“There’s power here. I can tell.” — Spinner

“Spiral” Part 2

Having set sail on a prisoner vessel to uncharted territories, a rebel and a stowaway princess find themselves in a losing battle against a society of strange self-proclaimed exiles…

The Lost Tribe of the Sith – Spiral series was intended to feel legendary and mythological. This issue continues that, with the appearance of The Doomed and their story of an endless exile dating back to the early days of the Sith. They are the Protectors and the Destructors joined together in a single group — and they were here long before the Lost Tribe arrived. Fun stuff.

Well, maybe not so fun for Takara and Spinner, who still hate each other at this point in the story — and who are taken to a place neither imagined existed. I was really trying to capture how alien the situation must feel to the two of them: there haven’t been other sentient species on Kesh besides humans and Keshiri in centuries. They react appropriately here.

My intention all along had been to tie the Doomed’s arrival to Dreypa and the Dark Jedi. It had been suggested in the past that not all the Dark Jedi had been willing to stay in exile; that was the hook. (Though we purposefully don’t make it clear whether Dreypa left willingly — regardless of what he says here.) In the figure of Dreypa, I felt, we could have someone in a true position to judge the Lost Tribe on their “Sith-iness.”

Dreypa’s Oubliette had been a construct that John Ostrander had come up with for Vector; Dreypa’s name was his creation, the Oubliette name was mine (purloined from the old Magic: The Gathering card). Dreypa himself had just been shown for the first time in Daniel Wallace‘s Book of Sith — and I coordinated with Dan to make sure the depiction here was correct. Dreypa promotes himself from Baron to Lord here, as there really isn’t any reason for him not to.

One of the concerns, always, with Lost Tribe stories was making sure the planet wasn’t like Gilligan’s Island — a place where everyone else arrives and leaves, but not the castaways. My sense is this really isn’t a problem, because with the Doomed, the Tribe, and Jelph, we’ve shown three arrivals in four millennia. Plus, we’ve suggested a bit that the planet is, like the Stygian Caldera from with the Sith hail, easier to arrive on than to leave…

This issue concludes with another text piece: this time, Takara’s police report on Spinner’s actions up until the events of the first issue. We learn he was born right when all heck was breaking loose for the Tribe back near the end of Pantheon.

“The Force is a curse. A disease.” — Kaliska

The Code of the Doomed is inspired by the Jedi and Sith Codes, and is their own peculiar take on it.

Someone asked at one point what the numbers of the Doomed species needed to be in order to survive so long here. I’m not certain it’s necessarily that high a figure. The Doomed kept their knowledge of the past, recall — including an understanding of biology and genetics. While they’re by no means running cloning chambers, we might certainly expect them to have managed their own populations using methods available to humanity today. They’re already living in a freezer, after all — it’s a small step to keeping frozen genetic material from distant generations past.

The others besides Kaliska do talk, they just don’t have anything to say. She’s their spokeswoman.

Remulus Dreypa’s name appears for the first time here. It is, indeed, a fusion of Romulus and Remus, but it’s also a name I once used for an alias of Gryph’s.

Andrea Mutti loves drawing weird animals, and he sure gets his chance here.

The Doomed hadn’t been able to destroy the Oubliette themselves — but my thinking is they stopped trying thousands of years earlier. By now, this egg was about to hatch. Spinner just had to give it a nudge.

This issue released on the same day as Star Wars – Knight Errant – Escape #4. Issues #1-3 would all coincide with Knight Errant releases.

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Star Wars: Legends Epic Collection – The Old Republic Vol. 4

On a remote world, a lost tribe of Sith cut off from the galaxy is about to have its fate changed forever, as a rebellious outcast discovers ancient secrets that will lead him and his allies to the stars — and beyond!

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