Kaggath

[Malon]

Kaggath


Category: Custom

"The Kaggath is an honored tradition of the Sith!"​

The Kaggath is an ancient Sith tradition and is central to both their religion and culture.

Since the foundations of Sith society, the practitioners of the dark side have always valued strength over weakness. And though the definition of strength changed with time, one thing remained constant: within the Sith, only the strongest were fit to lead. The kaggath tradition, then, was began to ensure the strongest always rose to the top. The kaggath was the perfect way to determine the superiority of the victor. Though it was common for Sith to duel one another to the death in order to advance in society, the kaggath proved the victor's superiority in a wide range of arenas.

The challenger set the terms for the engagement—including its scope and the types of "competitions" which would take place. Often, these "games" pit one Sith's power base against the others, testing not only their ability to rally followers, but their ability to fight strategically in what basically amounted to miniature war games. In these kaggath, the victor was usually the one who destroyed the other's power base. In the event of a tie, the competitors would duel one another to the death, though sometimes this would take place regardless of who was winning the competition.

The penalty for losing a kaggath was severe, in accordance with Sith religious beliefs. In addition to the loser's death, the victor assimilated all of the loser's wealth and their remaining power base (the members of which they could purge for having supported their fallen rival). Finally, the victor was given the option to strike the loser's name from historical records—the ultimate punishment for Sith who sought to leave a mark on future generations, or to emblazon their name in the annuals of Sith history.

However, there was a drawback. Infighting at this level quickly decimated the forces needed for the Sith to sustain their war effort against threats to their society. It is said that an abundance of kaggath contributed to the decline and collapse of the first Sith Empire. As a result, the practice was eventually discouraged and became rare. While some of the more zealous adherents to Sith rites and traditions still practiced it, most conventional Sith after the fall of the first Empire refused to compete in kaggath.

Instead, the tradition went through an evolution.

With the advent of the Sith Brotherhood, Mandalorian culture began to mix into Sith society. This was a result of the (initial) close ties between the Brotherhood and several factions of Mandalorians during its early skirmishes with the Republic and the Jedi. Now, instead of wasting resources in bids for superiority, the Sith challenged one another to single combat as Mandalorian warriors would often do to their leader, Mand'alor, to claim the mantle. Additionally, borrowing from the kaggath tradition, the challenger of these duels would set the terms. Just as in Mandalorian culture, refusal to take the challenge was met with a swift death; instead, both combatants were forced to prove their superiority in a fierce duel to the death.

Over time, these duels became known as Aurak'kesh, which, in the Sith tongue meant "rite of ascension." With the advent of the Aurak'kesh, the kaggath faded away entirely into Sith history, and was viewed as a relic of the past. Among the denizens of the second Sith Empire, some more zealous members of society sought to revive the tradition, but their attempts were always met with failure.

Intent​

To give some flavor to Sith culture and to explain how the Aurak'kesh of this timeline came to be. The Kaggath is a concept introduced in Legends, specifically The Old Republic, and was a prominent Sith tradition. However, it was eventually phased out due to its drawbacks. This profile was written to mirror that development, with the Sith replacing the archaic tradition with one that didn't weaken their martial forces.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Approved.