New Sith Wars

"Either we win this war or the Sith will, and what then will change?"

- Lord Hoth

The New Sith War, also known as the Light and Darkness War, or the Draggulch Period, and known to the Sith as the War of the Fittest, The Betrayal and The Curse of Qalydon, is the name given to the thousand years of conflict between the Jedi and the Sith, which lasted from approximately 2,000 to 1,000 BBY. The last century of the conflict is commonly known as the Republic Dark Age, and the name Light and Darkness War is sometimes specifically applied to the final series of battles between the Sith Brotherhood of Darkness and the Jedi Army of Light.

History
The beginning of the conflict was the Fourth Great Schism of 2,000 BBY, when the former Jedi known as Darth Ruin fell to the dark side and created his own Sith Order, with fifty of his fellow Jedi Knights following him. Although Ruin was eventually killed by his own followers after a defeat, for centuries, the Sith were all but unstoppable, rampaging throughout the galaxy and winning great victories, such as at Mizra. The collapse of the HoloNet and interstellar commerce led to the Republic Dark Age. Jedi were forced to assume greater leadership, commanding the Republic military, and even becoming Supreme Chancellors, despite the public opinion against them, due to such actions as the Battle of Uba IV. Just as in the Old Sith Wars, the Republic assembled a mighty fleet, mainly provided by Kuat Drive Yards.

The period from 1,250 to 1,230 BBY is known as the Sictis Wars. In that era, Belia Darzu ruled as Dark Lord of the Sith, unleashing Technobeasts against the Jedi forces.

After nearly a thousand years of war, the Sith were in near-collapse&mdash;although the eleventh century BBY would later be described as the "Republic Dark Age", there is little evidence for any coherent Sith threat for more than two centuries after 1,230 BBY. The Sith were divided against one another, as the various warlords and self-proclaimed Dark Lords fought each other for supremacy, and according to the Republic, the war was officially a "series of protracted military engagements" against an illegal organization, as opposed to an actual war.

Out of the ashes of the New Sith Empire, a former Jedi Master, Lord Kaan, reorganized the Sith into the Brotherhood of Darkness, over 20,000 strong. Beginning in around 1,010 BBY, this new group launched a series of attacks designed to destroy the Jedi and the Republic, seizing worlds like Kashyyyk, and even briefly Corulag, Chandrila and Brentaal IV by 1,001 BBY, they seemed almost poised to conquer Coruscant.

However, Lord Hoth, a Jedi Master and Republic General, had been scoring victories of his own against the Sith. Driving the Brotherhood from their home in the heavily-defended region of space known as the Cloak of the Sith, Hoth chased them from world to world, from Hoth to Dromund Kaas to Malrev IV. In many of his earlier campaigns, he commanded Republic fleets and armies, but around 1,002 BBY, he forged the bulk of the Jedi Order's fighting strength into an independent military force known as the Army of Light.

The war ended with the armies of Hoth and Kaan facing each other on the world of Ruusan. It was here that the final Battle of Ruusan took place, which ended with Kaan's use of the thought bomb.

The conflict resulted in the restructuring of the Republic and the apparent destruction of the Sith (and, it is speculated, the formation of the Cosmic Balance religion). There was to be no full-scale war after the New Sith War for almost a thousand years, until the Clone Wars erupted.

Known battles



 * Fourth Great Schism (c. 2,000 BBY)
 * Battle of Uba IV
 * Campaign(s) against the Dark Underlord (c. 1,750 BBY)
 * First Battle of Malrev IV
 * Battle of Gap Nine (1,532 BBY)
 * Battle of Mizra (1,466 BBY)
 * Battle of Almas (before (1,250 BBY)
 * Sictis Wars (1,250-1,230 BBY)
 * Third Sith Civil War (c. 1,010 BBY)
 * Light and Darkness War (c. 1,010 BBY - 1,000 BBY)
 * Battle of Korriban (1,006 BBY)
 * Lord Hoth's Campaign (c. 1,004 BBY)
 * Battle of Hoth
 * Battle of Dromund Kaas
 * Second Battle of Malrev IV
 * Battle of Harpori (1,003 BBY)
 * Battle of Kashyyyk (c. 1,002 BBY)
 * Battle of Hsskhor (c. 1,002 BBY)
 * Battle of Phaseera (1,002 BBY)
 * Battle of Balowa (1,002 BBY)
 * Battle of Ambria (1,002 BBY)
 * Lord Kaan's Campaign (1,002 BBY)
 * Battle of Bespin
 * Battle of Sullust
 * Battle of Taanab
 * Bormea Sector Campaign (1,002 BBY)
 * Battle of Corulag
 * Battle of Chandrila
 * Battle of Brentaal IV




 * Ruusan campaign (1,002-1,000 BBY)
 * First Battle of Ruusan (1,002 BBY)
 * Second Battle of Ruusan (1,002 BBY)
 * Third Battle of Ruusan (1,002 BBY)
 * Fourth Battle of Ruusan (1,001 BBY)
 * Fifth Battle of Ruusan (1,000 BBY)
 * Sixth Battle of Ruusan (1,000 BBY)
 * Seventh Battle of Ruusan (1,000 BBY)

Galactic Republic and Jedi Order



 * Aru-Wen
 * General Kiel Charny
 * Chayka
 * Darovit
 * Karist Dem
 * Lord Valenthyne Farfalla
 * General Newar Forrth
 * Lord Gale
 * Ginger
 * Githany
 * Handa
 * Hardin
 * Set Harth
 * Lord Hoth
 * Master Kaan
 * Lirondo
 * Johun Othone
 * General Crian Maru
 * Murrtaggh
 * Pernicar
 * Petja
 * Rajan
 * Lord Saleeh
 * Master Tal
 * Torr Snapit
 * Turpimir
 * Supreme Chancellor Tarsus Valorum
 * Dree Vandap
 * Myl Vlahu
 * Zor Vlahu
 * Zannah

New Sith Empire



 * Adanar
 * Darth Bane
 * Borthis
 * Darovit
 * Dark Underlord
 * Belia Darzu
 * Durge
 * Lord Githany
 * Lord Hezzoran
 * Lord Kaan
 * Lord Kas'im
 * Lord Kopecz
 * Lord Kaox Krul
 * King Lahzar
 * Lord LaTor
 * Llokay
 * Lucia
 * Admiral Adrianna Nyras
 * Lord Orilltha
 * Lord Qordis
 * Darth Rivan
 * Darth Ruin
 * Lord Seviss Vaa
 * Lord Shenayag
 * Lieutenant Ulabore
 * Yevra
 * Zannah

Mandalorians

 * Durge
 * Jaing
 * Ung Kusp

Other groups

 * Felloux
 * Nubyl
 * Outer Rim cyberneticist
 * Ubese of Uba IV

Other events of this period

 * 1,998 BBY
 * Ecclessis Figg is born.


 * 1,991 BBY
 * Jomark is colonized.


 * 1,989 BBY
 * The planet of Bespin is first colonized.


 * c. 1,550 BBY
 * The end of the height of Saffa painting.


 * 1,532 BBY
 * The Koorivar win back control of Kooriva.


 * c. 1,500 BBY
 * Jaing and Durge are used as pawns in an unnamed Outer Rim cyberneticist's plot to start a war between the Mandalorians and the Sith.


 * 1,489 BBY
 * The Sayings are printed for the Atrisian nobility.


 * c. 1,196 BBY
 * The civilization on Hathrox III is destroyed in a biochemical civil war.


 * 1,100 BBY
 * Tatooine is rediscovered by the Galactic Republic.


 * 1,026 BBY
 * Darth Bane is born.


 * 1,020 BBY
 * The planet Melida/Daan is colonized.


 * 1,010 BBY
 * A Sith Lord creates the Behemoth from the World Below on Aduba-3.
 * Dannik Jerriko is born on Anzat.
 * Rain, (who would later become Darth Zannah), is born on Somov Rit.


 * 1,001 BBY
 * Spira is colonized.

Behind the scenes
One of the names of the New Sith Wars, the "Light and Darkness War," is also the name of a comic series made by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy, the creators of Dark Empire.

The development of the New Sith Wars' backstory is perhaps one of the more convoluted productions of the Expanded Universe. The first glimmer of what would become the war appeared in the video game Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, which featured the Valley of the Jedi as the location for a vague ancient battle between Jedi and Dark Jedi. The game's novelization, Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, extrapolated from the game, mainly introducing the Jedi Army of Light and its commander, Lord Hoth, and the Dark Jedi Brotherhood of Darkness, under Lord Kaan, as well as the thought bomb, several ancillary characters, and a setting for the battle as having been fought "centuries ago." In neither source was the Brotherhood stated as being Sith; instead, it was variously referred to as Dark Jedi, or just Jedi.

At around the time Jedi Knight was published, George Lucas was developing a backstory of the Jedi and Sith for the prequel trilogy of films. His version, much of which appeared as exposition in The Phantom Menace novelization, stated that the Sith were formed from a Jedi Knight who broke away from the order two thousand years before the movies. He was followed by fifty other Knights who formed the Sith, and they engaged in a thousand-year war against the Jedi. They conquered the galaxy, but were eventually wiped out from a civil war, out of which Darth Bane emerged as the sole survivor.

The first connection between the two events came a year after Episode I's release, in The Essential Chronology. The Essential Chronology established that the founder of the Sith was merely the founder of a new sect of Sith (in order to mesh with the established Expanded Universe). It slightly altered the timeline of Lucas's outline &mdash; following the Sith civil war, Kaan (now established as one of the few surviving Sith Lords) created the Brotherhood of Darkness (now established as a collection of Sith), with the Army of Light being hastily formed to deal with the new threat. Darth Bane was then established as having emerged only following the Brotherhood's defeat at Ruusan.

A year after The Essential Chronology came out, the comic Jedi vs. Sith was published. It showed the final battles of Ruusan, taking information from all three sources. Notably, it established Bane as being one of Kaan's followers and rivals, further tying the two original views together.

The New Sith Wars were included in one other major crossover, again from George Lucas. In Attack of the Clones, Lucas retconned the Republic as having been only one thousand years old, presumably a misremembrance of Obi-Wan Kenobi's "[For] over a thousand generations" dialogue in the 1977 Star Wars film. However, it still managed to tie in with the new backstory involving Bane and the rampaging Sith. As a solution to this new discrepancy, the HoloNet News website created the Ruusan Reformation, stating that the Republic reset its measurements and reformed its government in totality following the end of the war on Ruusan.

Of lesser importance are the revelations that the New Sith Wars were responsible for the previously-established destruction of the Ubese homeworld, and the construction of the Sith temple on Malrev IV. In addition, as with most major Star Wars events, a number of lesser events and personalities of the New Sith Wars have been covered by a variety of sourcebooks and articles. Notably, Abel G. Peña has written all of the latter.

Appearances

 * Prototypes
 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
 * Darkness Shared
 * Jedi vs. Sith
 * All for You
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace novel
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight