Once, it was the home to the witches of Dathomir, otherwise known as the Nightsisters. Tucked away in from the rest of the galaxy in an isolated cluster, the Nightsisters were able to draw energy from the planet itself, and pursued a type of ritualistic magic. They ruled over the population of Zabarak—Nightbrothers—and used them as a warrior caste to serve their purposes.

Then, the Clone Wars. The Nightsisters were pulled into the conflict due to the machinations of Mother Talzin and her rival Darth Sidious. This ultimately lead to the eradication of the Dathomarians and their settlements. The desolation was claimed by the Confederacy of Independent Systems after the last Nightsiser fell.

Now, the planet known as Dathomir is a haunted skeleton of its former greatness. A perpetual crimson glow coats the planet. The bleak world has become an amalgamation of ruined forest, decrepit swamplands, and withered mountains worn to the sands of time.

In the desolate swamps, faint echoes haunt the graves of the long-dead witches, infusing the green fog that spreads above the damp ground. Dreadful whispers rumoured to be lingering incantations defend the world from intruders. Tall tales and rumors of zombies and ritual sacrifice alluding to grisly flashes of imagery.

The trees, large and misshapen, promise misery to those who touch their tortured bark and open themselves to the memories of the place. Eerie as the voices over the wind, the water beneath the fog appears red and bubbling, as if the land itself were pockmarked in cauldrons of blood to keep the incantations alive.

Creatures unaffected by the purge of the Nightsisters still remain. Snakes, reptiles and insects of varying lethality wander the wasteland. Reports have even said that rancor still roam freely.

This is Dathomir.

The faint crimson glow of the decrepit swamp irritated Qor Palpatine’s eyes, who wandered further into the mysteriously ancient lands. One soggy boot in front of the other, pink mud splashed and coated his black leather boots. He grunted in protest and shook the mud off.

What was the point? Qor thought and sighed.

He still had a few meters to go before he met the distress signal. It was a familiar signal from Clan Naga Sadow, the owner didn’t bother to cover it up. If they did, they were terrible at slicing. Qor felt it in the Force, an ambush ahead.

“I should get a look at my enemies’ face before I die, I guess.” Qor mumbled.

As Qor trudged through the swamp, mud splashed up and stained his grey-toned medic uniform with auburn. The Quarren came to a hill between him and the signal’s location. Digging his leathery claws into the mud, Qor began to climb, as he was using the roots as ropes to tug himself up. Then a Twi’lek female came into blurred vision.

Her brown-toned robe hugged her form like a glove and fitted her athletic form perfectly, while her expression seemed to be focused and flat. As Qor hobbled closer to the Twi’lek, he noticed a worn down vibrosword sat somewhat tightly into her palm.

“You! Palatinaean! You have lots of explaining to do!” She shouted as she flurried her vibrosword around. The tip cut the ground violently and caused a nearby lizard to scurry away. Qor approached slowly with his hands open and wide.

“Who are you and why do you come to me, demanding an answer?” Qor calmly replied, his bright but dead expression unchanged from the act of showmanship.

“Your Consul wanted our help, our fleet to stand with you, and when we were fighting together against a common threat, you just gave up! Attacked without reason and left us to die! Those pirates stole our credits and weapons! You will pay us for them!” The Twi’lek pointed her vibrosword at the Quarren. Her eyes turning bloodshot, teeth viciously snarled. Qor remembered the battle well, a three-way threat between the two clans and pirate thieves. She was a trained swordsman ready to kill him, he needed to disperse the anger.

“Look, I can explain exactly what happened. Just put the sword away.” Qor replied logically.

“No!” The Battlemaster shook her head and shouted.

She struck the ground with the tip of her sword and darted across the muddy terrain with incredible speed. Her body became a blur in the red mist, as she began to circle the squid with ease. She glided and shot through the mist, and eluded the Quarren’s perception for awhile. He only caught glimpses of her silhouette through the ruby clouds. Qor drew his saberstaff from the belt loop and ignited the emerald blades with a snap-hiss.

Worth a shot he thought.

The Seer waited for his opponent to appear again as a shadow against the bloodied light, then swung his weapon around and threw it towards her. As the disc of grass-green light curved through the air, it drew nearer to the stalking Twi’lek. The Quarren’s jaw dropped, as he witnessed the saberstaff rebound and headed towards him. Qor caught the weapon in a mid-air jump and waited in a defensive crouch.

A trigger warned him in the back of his mind to turn, but as his body reacted the mud restrained his boots. The Twi’lek rushed forward with her sword aimed behind her. A flick of her wrist landed a skin-deep slice onto the Quarren’s tough back, and she escaped into the mist again. The Seer gasped out and fell to his knees. Tears and whimpers escaped from him as the pain grew into fiery torture. The Force passively worked to repair his shallow wound.

BANG!

The sharp blast of a familiar slugthrower caused Qor to stand and turn, seeing a thin shadow holding the ranged weapon towards the Battlemaster.

Run Qor, RUN! His mind shouted.

The Quarren’s legs felt powerful as the muscles in his calves swelled with strength. The Seer felt like a leopard dancing across the swamp. Qor eventually came to the lip of an ankle-deep marsh and tumbled head first into the murky waters. Behind him, the Seer could hear the soft boots of the Twi’lek dashing closer in the blood-red fog.

As Tasha approached the Quarren’s last location, she took care to watch her footing. She had heard tales of the Dathomiri swamps. Some say that the swamp itself could suck you under the water very quickly. She didn't want to take a chance. The Battlemaster knew the Techweaver was hiding somewhere close by, but had to get him to come out. She smiled a bit to herself before calling out. “I can see the measure of your honor is to show another clan that cowering in fear is eternally praised. The full glory of your vaunted Empire is displayed on its knees,begging to be spared from torment by an inferior being. I can’t wait to bring the news to every single clan within the Brotherhood.”

Sheathing her blade, the Marauder paced along the edge of the marsh. She scanned the area and saw a rather heavy looking log lying to the side. She cleared her thoughts and concentrated hard. The log started to give way as she placed her hands out to guide it over the water and with a downward gesture of her hands, she turned the log vertically as if it were a spear and hurled it down the murky depths. Meanwhile down below the surface of the water, Qor saw the log racing towards him and swam to the side quickly to avoid being pierced.

He had heard the Twi’lek’s challenging rant and snorted a bit. He could not ignore such an outrageous comment from such an inferior person especially with his pride in question, however he had to figure out how he could strategically bring her down. Glancing about, there was that log. He swam down towards it,pulled his lightsaber and began to carve off a piece into a crude dagger-like shape. After cutting it out, he sheathed his blade and swam towards the surface. As he broke through the murky waters, Qor pulled out his philtre of the lost vial and coated his new weapon with the poison.With the toxin in place,he secreted away the container.

“I am here, Twi’lek!” He shouted as he readied himself.

“About time, Squidface.” Tasha answered back as she charged towards him. “Dodge this!” She leaped forward, calling her lightsaber to her hand, igniting it and brought it down. Qor anticipated this and released the poison-coated dagger from his hand and hurled it right into the left side of her chest before quickly moving backwards.

Burning pain radiated from the makeshift dagger’s entry and began to travel through her as she dropped to the ground and wrenched the dagger from her chest, a spurt of blood arcing as she hurled it away from her. The poison started to take effect as it ran through her body. She could hear them, twisted echoes of torture and hollow whispers. Their voices building into a rising crescendo, begging with her, asking the questions that burrowed behind her eyes. They pulled her heart and saber down, the unbearable weight of their venomous words flared through her mind as the toxin coursed through her veins. She flipped her saber’s ignition switch, her scowl curling her lips into a rictus of pain. She glared at her opponent, eyes tainted by the fatal mixture of hatred and woe.

You’re worthless, absolutely worthless.

You’re out here because you’re expendable, your clan does not love you.

Many will perish without your assistance, and it is all YOUR FAULT!

A cacophony of voices deafened Tasha’s ears while she lay there and strained against the whispers, her body shaking as her forehead crinkled.

Qor Palpatine slowly backed away and kept his hardened stare on her movements, watching that lightsaber in her hand and her off hand on the wound. He unhooked the saberstaff from his belt and activated the emerald blades.

“I am sorry that I have to kill you, but it must be done. For the Empire.” Qor whispered as his face remained calm and unchanged. The green glow of the lightsaber covered the Quarren and the water around them, changing it to a yellow tone. However as the blood swirled and leaked into the pool, an orange colour grew.

“I haven’t done anything wrong! It is his fault!” Tasha’Vel shouted out, her ravings seemed out of place to the Quarren.

“It is his fault!” She roared and forced herself up from the water. Her strength seemed to shockingly return, as Qor couldn’t believe it. He put it down to a hidden ability in controlling her pain through the Force, but now wasn’t the time to study it. She snapped her lightsaber to activate and began to dart around the Seer, flanking him and losing his sight.

As Qor turned through the marsh and tried to follow her last known location, he brought up his comlink and patched into his droid.

“HK, can you get a lock onto her movements, she seems to be evading me, even with a wound,” Qor whispered as his keen eyes darted across the red fog.

“Why don’t I just get in the Pathfinder and blast her from the planet?” HK chuckled as he spoke.

“Because I am one of the idiots on it,” Qor grumbled as he persisted with the order to his droid.

“I still don’t see the problem, Master.” HK replied, as Qor slowly placed a palm on his face.

Duck. Qor quickly dropped to the ground. Humming and spinning above his head was a red blade that soared extremely close to his back, cutting the water nearby with the tip. As the Seer raised from the red water, he launched his own saberstaff. He guided it, but saw the weapon itself divert back to him. He caught the blade in mid-air and the velocity of the weapon pushed him into the water, the ruby pool washing his clothes and face.

Qor dried his face with his muddy hand, he slowly rose back to his feet and saw the silhouette of a Twi’lek in the fog.

Move, The Force commanded him again as the Quarren quickly dived across the carved log. He dived behind the rotten wood and heard the sound of a ricochet against the bark. Qor treasured this moment and was breathing heavily, catching his breath, then hopped over the log and charged.

With his saberstaff above his head, the Seer took a second to analyse his opponent. Her left side below her chest was bleeding quite heavily, which signified she has some organ damage. Her shoto lightsaber was firmly in her left hand, which meant she couldn’t swing it much. She was curved over and panting, this meant to Qor that Tasha was tired, almost too tired to carry on.

Qor rushed over to her, as he flurried his saberstaff around his head and landed a heavy downcut blow. She tried to cross-block the blade but her wound forced her to hiss and buckle under the pressure. Qor seized the moment, turned on his heels and stabbed the rear blade directly through her stomach. The scent of cauterised flesh coiled around their noses as Tasha’Vel slid from his green blade and onto the floor. The Seer deactivated the weapon and brought up his comlink again.

“HK, belay your orders. Target is neutralised,” he sighed.

“State your business on this private channel, stranger. This is a secure bandwidth reserved for Palatinaean business only,” HK replied in a stern and loud tone.

“You bucket of rust nuts, I am a Palatinaean. It’s Qor! Just get your rear down here and collect the equipment this woman left.” Qor looked at the Twi’lek’s body. He had to bury her, it felt indecent if a droid did it.