From the time the Jedi Exile left to find Revan in the Unknown Regions in 3,951 BBY to 3,681 BBY the galaxy was at peace, one of the longest periods of peace since the end of the Great Hyperspace War. The Republic prospered and with the help of Visas Marr and the rest of the apprentices left behind by the Exile, the Jedi Order was restored and reestablished itself in the Coruscant Jedi Temple. No one had the faintest clue that there was anything to fear. As far as the galaxy at large was concerned talk of the "True Sith" died with Kreia on Malachor V. This proved false of curse.
In 3,681 BBY the long forgotten Sith, the True Sith, launched a galaxy wide assault on the Republic that the defenders had no chance of predicting. Years of war followed in what was called the Great Galactic War. The Sith allied themselves with the Mandalorians when they created a puppet
Mandalore for them to follow. The Mandalorians were eventually defeated and many discovered that they had been used when another would-be Mandalore, Artus, exposed the false Mandalore and defeated him in single combat. Decades passed and the Sith grew increasingly desperate after the Mandalorians failed, but they had one more ace in the hole. They called for peace talks with the Republic on the planet Alderaan hoping to come of with a treaty. This was however, a trap. An elite army of Sith invaded the Republic capital of Coruscant utterly destroying the Jedi Temple and held the planet hostage until the Republic signed the Treaty of Coruscant, a treaty that would force the Republic to withdraw its forces from many of its allies worlds leaving them defenseless (video at the bottom of the blog is a video depicting the attack... its super bad ass). As you could imagine, the political climate after that faithful day was hostile, to say the least. The war officially ends on 3,653 BBY."Centuries after being driven into exile, the Sith Empire returned from deep space to launch the most calculated military assault in Republic history."
- Jedi Master Gnost-Dural
The Old Republic takes place right after the war putting the players in a galaxy divided and on the verge of another war.... I can't wait!
Anyway, I promised I would go back and
answer all those "I'll get to that later"'s (the ones I haven't yet covered) and explain why everything happened the way it did. Its pretty simple really. Don't believe me? I promise. Remember the Great Hyperspace War way back in 5,000 BBY and how aside from Naga Sadow, at least one other Sith escaped the vengeance of the Jedi? Well that Sith traveled to the Unknown Regions of space with what was left of his fleet. Hidden from the prying eyes of the Republic and the Jedi, this Sith secretly began building an army. At some point he begins raising entire generations of Sith warriors teaching them the ancient Sith ways.This mysterious Sith's sole desire and motivation is to get revenge on the Republic and to do this he would not only build a powerful fleet, but also employ the ancient Sith art of subterfuge and deception, carefully and slowly weakening the Republic until it was the perfect opportunity to finally attack...
Wait a minute... they don't even attack until 3,681 BBY! That's over a millennium after the Great Hyperspace War! Well yeah... that's right. Whoever the identity of this Sith is... he is the perfect representation of what a True Sith Lord aspires to be. He plans, plots and sabotages for roughly 1,300 years using ancient Sith rituals to prolong his life. One of the most notable attacks of direct sabotage is the Mandalorian Wars of 3,964 BBY. Told you I would explain why it happened in the first place! The Sith Lord, now referred to as the Sith Emperor, goaded the Mandalorians into attacking the Republic (as he did once more during the Great Galactic War 300 years later) hoping to weaken them. What he did not count on however was Revan's cunning and ruthlessness that ended the war on Malachor V.
The Mandalorian Wars would have been a minor failure if not for what it caused. Revan had fallen to the dark side and traveled with Malek to find the True Sith. It had not been explained until recently that Revan and Malek had in fact found the Sith Emperor who gave Revan the mission of harnessing the power of the Star Forge to weaken the Republic further. Revan and Malek accept their responsibility and return to the Republic with a massive Sith Fleet starting the Jedi Civil War in 3,959 BBY. What no one knew however (except Kreia presumably),
is that Revan actually planned on turning the fleet on the Emperor himself once he had conquered the Republic. This plan failed when Malek betrayed his former master and the Jedi mind wiped Revan.Since then, the Emperor had done a number of other things to weaken the Republic, including sending Sith spies to join the Jedi Order. The most well know case of this is when, in 3,756 BBY, the Jedi Master Barel Ovair and his Padawan Eison Gynt traveled to the Sith ruins on Yavin 4 to extinguish the spirit of Naga Sadow. History believed this to be a mission for the Jedi Order, but it is clear now that Master Ovair was secretly taking orders from the Sith Empire who wanted all possible threats, including ancient Sith rivals, dealt with before the Sith Emperor returned. In fact, it has been revealed that Ovair is actually part of a family of Sith
spies that infiltrated the Order sometimes after the fall of Darth Traya and the restoration of the Jedi. More information continues to come out of Bioware regarding the Emperor's actions during his time in hiding on a regular basis.No one knows what became of Revan after he returned to the Unknown Regions or the Jedi Exile who followed suite like she had before during the Mandalorian Wars. There are strange little hints however. If you watch the video of the Sacking of Coruscant you will notice that the Sith warriors all wear masks remarkably similar to Revan's. We can immediately rule out that this is somehow a Sith tradition of any kind because Revan obtained his mask from a Mandalorian during the Mandalorian Wars. It is also interesting to note that the Grand Master of the Jedi Order after the Great Galactic War is none other than Satele Shan, the descendant of Revan and Bastila Shan... oh snap. In a web-comic that has been comic out periodically on www.swtor.com (The Old Republic's homepage) it is revealed that the Sith want to capture and turn Satele to the dark side noting that she has, "the blood of Revan".
Whatever happened to Revan and the Exile will hopefully be revealed next year when the game finally comes out. Oh yeah, another interesting note. This era is not the last time the "True Sith" are ever see. Thousands of years later in 130 ABY (during the Legacy Era) the True Sith are reborn under the command of the fallen Jedi Darth Krayt, however it doesn't really bare any relevance to The Old Republic.
Hopefully I answered any lingering questions... anyway play the games if you haven't and I'll see you in The Old Republic next year!
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