Theme Deployment: unexpected system error occurred - liferay

Question

I'm getting strange errors when I try to deploy a custom theme to my LR Portal. This happens on my local workstation as well as my server.
Steps:
1) Create a theme in the Plugins 6.2.0 SDK titled "My Theme"
2) Run the "deploy" function to create a .war for "My Theme" which is copied into the liferay-plugins-sdk-6.2.0/dist folder
3) Copy the .war and paste it manually into my liferayHome/deploy folder
4) The logs tell me it was deployed successfully, however I see error on my home screen upon selection of my theme:
**An unexpected system error occurred.**
javax.servlet.jsp.JspException: com.liferay.portal.kernel.template.TemplateException: Unable to process template Peaks-2.0_SERVLET_CONTEXT_/templates/portal_normal.ftl
and get this stack trace:
Caused by: freemarker.template.TemplateException: Error reading included file /
iferayPortal_SERVLET_CONTEXT_/html/themes/_unstyled/templates/init.ftl
at freemarker.core.Include.accept(Include.java:167)
at freemarker.core.Environment.visit(Environment.java:221)
at freemarker.core.MixedContent.accept(MixedContent.java:92)
at freemarker.core.Environment.visit(Environment.java:221)
at freemarker.core.Environment.process(Environment.java:199)
...
...
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.filters.invoker.InvokerFilterChain.doFilter(InvokerFilterChain.java:116)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.BaseFilter.processFilter(BaseFilter.java:169)
at com.liferay.portal.servlet.filters.secure.SecureFilter.processFilter(SecureFilter.java:293)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.BaseFilter.doFilter(BaseFilter.java:59)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.filters.invoker.InvokerFilterChain.processDoFilter(InvokerFilterChain.java:204)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.filters.invoker.InvokerFilterChain.doFilter(InvokerFilterChain.java:109)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.BaseFilter.processFilter(BaseFilter.java:169)
at com.liferay.portal.servlet.filters.jsoncontenttype.JSONContentTypeFilter.processFilter(JSONContentTypeFilter.java:42)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.BaseFilter.doFilter(BaseFilter.java:59)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.filters.invoker.InvokerFilterChain.processDoFilter(InvokerFilterChain.java:204)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.filters.invoker.InvokerFilterChain.doFilter(InvokerFilterChain.java:109)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.filters.invoker.InvokerFilter.doFilter(InvokerFilter.java:96)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.invoke(ApplicationDispatcher.java:749)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.processRequest(ApplicationDispatcher.java:487)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.doForward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:412)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.forward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:339)
at com.liferay.portal.servlet.FriendlyURLServlet.service(FriendlyURLServlet.java:160)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.filters.invoker.InvokerFilterChain.doFilter(InvokerFilterChain.java:116)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.BaseFilter.processFilter(BaseFilter.java:169)
at com.liferay.portal.servlet.filters.strip.StripFilter.processFilter(StripFilter.java:359)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.BaseFilter.doFilter(BaseFilter.java:59)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.filters.invoker.InvokerFilterChain.processDoFilter(InvokerFilterChain.java:204)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.filters.invoker.InvokerFilterChain.doFilter(InvokerFilterChain.java:109)
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.servlet.BaseFilter.processFilter(BaseFilter.java:169)
at com.liferay.portal.servlet.filters.gzip.GZipFilter.processFilter(GZipFi
lter.java:123)
... etc ...
Any ideas why this is happening and how to fix?