Riahtra

"Why does everyone insist on fighting!? We could accomplish so much more if the Sith would stop being so petty and just work together."

― Riahtra ―

Riahtra was a force-sensitive human female who served the Kesh order in the final years of her life. The mysterious Riahtra joined the Kesh Order as an acolyte at the ripe young age of seventeen, proving to have inexperience and a weak will. But with time and dedication, she grew and even formed a small powerbase with other acolytes. Before long, she was taken as the apprentice of Lord Tas'rae, who put her through diverse forms of training until she proved herself to be a capable apprentice. Riah stood by her master's side for a year or longer before her Tas'rae was destroyed by the loss of her lover, Darth Keshtah. The pain drove her into foolishness, which led to her death at the hand of Darth Ageresh, but not before Riah was able to defeat the Darth Herself through a strand of luck. Riah was taken by her master's usurper, Darth Deeskor, as an apprentice and put through severe training exercises until she mastered them. Soon after, Riah was sent to the outer rim to act as her master's agent, doing various tasks for her. News reached Riah of the destruction of the Kesh order, and in a rage, she pursued Cherm, a traitor of the order who had largely orchestrated its destruction. Upon confronting the sith, Riah failed to follow through on the killing thrust and ultimately lost her life because of it.

An Unorthodox Sith
"You will learn to abandon such weakness child. Whether you learn on your own or I have to torture you into submission"

― Lord Tas'rae lecturing Riah ―

Very little is known about Riah's life before joining the Kesh order, but what is known is that she was not traditionally trained to be Sith or Jedi, and she was eventually tracked down by Agent Richter and recruited to join the academy of the Kesh Order.

The young Riahtra wasn't familiar with the life of Sith training and thus suffered many consequences your average acolyte would be able to work around. With time she began to improve steadily, gaining two allies, the acolytes Lenna and Neystu and even receiving compliments from Darth Keshtahs apprentice, Sendure, for her skills in force healing.

A major challenge for Riahtra came when Lord Tas'rae led an attack on an estate belonging to the rival order of Edhiti. Riah was selected to attend the battle, along with a few others. Besides a few casualties, the battle was successful; however, the acolytes were ordered to kill what prisoners they had taken. While the other acolytes killed their assigned prisoners without pause, Riah could not bring herself to kill an unarmed man. She was reprimanded and physically punished for her failure but still, she felt she could never kill anyone who did not have the means to defend themselves.

This weakness became the cause for Riah to be the target of many insults, and even Sendure refused to speak to her for fear of being skewed as weak. These smears determined Riah to surpass her peers. She and her allies Neystu and Lenna began to call themselves a power base, and any who would challenge this powerbase would feel the full wrath of it. Tas'rae took notice of this increase in ferocity and took both Lenna and Riah as her apprentices, while Neystu became the apprentice of Lord Sirram. Soon after being taken as an apprentice, Lenna was sent on a mission to test her agility, but she did not survive. Neystu also became distent from Riah as her relationship with her master become closer, leaving Riah to once again fend for herself. Now against more than just acolytes.

Anara's Apprentice
"You will not be forgotten master, I swear it. I will be your legacy."

― Riahtra, to the corpse of Darth Anara.―

Tas'rae began testing Riah, sending her on dangerous missions into the wilderness or on hunts to kill criminals. Each time she would go and come back with good news, which pleased her master. But one night, Riah was summoned by her master for a different sort of test. She was ordered to kill the same prisoner that she had failed to end nearly a year prior. Riah once again hesitated but composed herself and killed the prisoner with a stab to the heart.

Shortly after this test, Tas'rae was given the title of Darth Anara by her master, Darth Keshtah, and the newly promoted Darth began looking for a second apprentice, her eyes fell on a female Merialin named Ledia. Riah did not like the acolyte and warned her master multiple times that she did not seem trustworthy, but her Anara ignored her pleas. Soon after, Ledia fled the Order to Dromund Kaas, and Anara, enraged by her betrayal, pursued the acolyte. Riah did not hear from her for some time after that, and even Darth Keshtah became distraught by her disappearance and went searching for her. Nearly four months later, Anara returned to the Order in a drop pod; she had been captured and used as bait to kill Darth Keshtah by someone named Darth Ageresh.

Anara became very distant after her return; she spoke to virtually no one, including her apprentice who brought her food and clothing twice a day and even offered to bathe her. Finally, after a month or more of nothing from Anara, Lord Sendure, now Anara's right hand discovered a base belonging to Ageresh on Dromund Kaas. Anara took Riah and attacked this base, only to discover it was another trap set by Ageresh, this time with a Jedi named Anamaki there to kill Riah's master. Anara's men were able to defeat the ambush and capture Anamaki after taking considerable casualties, but this trick only served to embolden Anara's destructive behaviors of anger and distance. Her master also discovered a holorecording of Darth Ageresh, challenging Anara to face him on Hoth to settle the dispute.

Anara and Riah returned to the Order for a short time during which Anamaki was imprisoned along with Lord Sendure for allowing Anara to walk into a trap. Anara then decided to face the sith, bringing with her only Riah. They arrived on Hoth to find Darth Ageresh and the treacherous acolyte Ledia waiting for them; Anara quickly attacked, and Riah followed her into battle. Riah was able to overwhelm and strike Ledia down just in time to see Ageresh lethally strike Anara. With a burst, a rage-filled speed Riah did not she had, she leaped towards the Darth and impaled him, throwing his body off the side of the cliff that they had fought on. Anara died in Riahs arms a few moments later, giving Riah her lightsaber as a final gift for her loyalty.

At the Mercy of the Usurper
"Up, apprentice stand up. Strike at me again, you will do this until you do not fall for the same simplistic attacks or one of us collapses from exhaustion."

― Darth Deeskor to Riahtra during Training―

A short time later, Sendure and her new ally Anamaki arrived at the battle sight, after escaping the brig and taking Sendures ship. Sendure announced that she had killed both Darths and threatened death upon Riah should she speak out against the decree. Sendure was given the title Darth Deeskor by Darth Feshath, and she took Riah as her apprentice to complete her training.

Deeskor applied much harder tests to Riah then she had previously experienced, forcing her to combat other apprentices and punishing her when she failed to defeat them. She also gave Riah weakly training lessons in private, teaching her to counter her weak points in lightsaber combat, though she ignored force training for the most part. Eventually, Deeskor forced Riah to choose between two prisoners to kill, an innocent Ithorian who had no family and a human imperial soldier with a family who had delivered false information to his post. Riah took awhile deciding who to kill but eventually chose fair justice, killing the Imperial for his treason; Deeskor was pleased with this choice.

After this, Deeskor began leaning on Riah to complete tasks for her in the outer rim, such as killing a former lover and recruiting acolytes of promise. There was very little time for Riah to be back at HQ, which she found disheartening as she felt she'd be more valuable at her master's side.

When word came to her about the destruction of the Order, Riah felt a wave of anger that she hadn't felt since the death of her master a year before. Despite being ordered to return to the cruiser with Darth Narrow, Riah went to find the person who had enabled this, Cherm. It took some time, and by the time she caught his scent Narrow was dead, and the Order was in hiding. She entered the small frigate that Cherm had taken to survey the remainder of the Kesh Order for artifacts and confronted him. The two dueled, but Riah found that she couldn't kill him out of anger. Cherm used this hesitation to strike her down, ending her life and story.