In light of the much anticipated release of Bioware's new Star Wars MMORPG, The Old Republic, set to release next spring, I have decided to analyze and decode the enormously complex plot that spans thousands of years in the Star Wars lore. If you have not played Knights of the Old Republic or Knights of the Old Republic II (Xbox and PC) I would suggest you stop reading this now due to massive spoilers (unless of course you never plan on playing either game, which would be very disappointing due to their sheer awesomeness). Star Wars' time line is based on BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) and ABY (After the Battle of Yavin) which makes the final space battle in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope their version of the birth of Christ I suppose. In the Kotor era (Knights of the Old Republic) they use BTC (Before the Treaty of Coruscant) and ATC (After the Treaty of Coruscant), which was a treaty signed after the True Sith reappeared after a millennium of exile and sacked the Republic capital of Coruscant... but we'll get back to that. These two time lines can be confusing because prior to ToR's (The Old Republic) creation the Kotor era was still using the BBY time line. To put this in perspective the Treaty of Coruscant was signed in 3,653 BBY, so I will try my best to convert anything that is recorded in BTC/ATC to BBY.... now that the confusion is out of the way...
This analysis will focus on the main players and major events associated with this era, so some details will be left out... there's so much detail! I will attempt to be brief with my summery... so let us begin...
In 49,000 BBY (yeah, an even longer time ago in the same galaxy that happens to be far, far away) an ancient race of force-sensitive beings known as the Rakata ruled much of the known galaxy in what was called, The Infinite Empire. Many of the planets in the Republic today were once part of this vast empire and some traces of their civilization can still be unearthed all the way up to the Clone Wars/Galactic Civil War era (the movies :P). As their empire grew, so did their use of the darkside of the force and at the height of their power they had about ten billion Rakata and one trillion slaves. The slaves didn't like this very much and decided to create a plague that forever severed the Rakata species from the force weakening them and leaving them vulnerable to slave insurrection. Eventually they were pushed back to their homeworld, Lehon, where they lived in isolation for millenia... until one day when a certain someone decided to pay the species a visit... but we'll get to that.
Fast-forward 44,000 years to 5,000 BBY when the Republic defended itself from the evil forces of a newly established Sith Empire, led by the Naga Sadow, a great Sith Lord that fled to Yavin 4 (well fancy that) after his Empire was decimated. Naga Sadow's evil spirit endured through centuries of isolation in the Ancient Sith ruins until he was eventually taken care of... by... I'll get to that later. Anyway, when the empire crumbled it is presumed that at least one other Sith had escaped its destruction and fled to the Unknown Regions of space... this is probably one of the biggest and most downplayed details of this whole analysis, so try to remember that.
To Be Continued in Part II...
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