Seventh Battle of Ruusan

"We are being driven toward an inevitable and final confrontation. The faction that survives, Sith or Jedi, will determine the fate of the galaxy for the next thousand years."

- Lord Kopecz

The Seventh Battle of Ruusan was the final major engagement of the conflict known as the New Sith Wars. There were actually seven prior battles on the world during the last days of the war, but the pivotal and last battle is the one most remembered, due to the use of the thought bomb; it is usually referred to just as the Battle of Ruusan. This was also the event that would lead to the Ruusan Reformation of the Galactic Republic.

Prelude
"I ask that you join me in one last task: the creation of a weapon so powerful that when it is detonated, the victors shall become the vanquished and be swept from the pages of history."

- Kaan

The New Sith Wars began 2,000 years before the Battle of Yavin and ended after a thousand years of conflict, including internal Sith conflict, and all-out assaults on the Galactic Republic. At one stage during the long war, the Sith had been in control of most of the galaxy, but the Army of Light slowly regained the Republic's lost territory with decades of hard-fought campaigns.

Eventually, the Sith retreated to Ruusan, where, after six months of battle with the Jedi in six separate battles, the Sith were near defeat.

The Jedi Lord Valenthyne Farfalla crushed the Sith in the pivotal seventh battle of Ruusan, and Lord Hoth journeyed to apprehend the leaders of the Brotherhood of Darkness. The Sith, however, were waiting for them and had one final weapon.

Showdown
"What is this?" "Kaan's smartest decision&mdash;his suicide."

- Zannah and Darth Bane

In an act of desperation, Lord Kaan, leader of the Sith, unleashed the thought bomb and in an instant, every Force-sensitive in the blast radius was destroyed. Lord Farfalla had retreated with the majority of the Army of Light in accordance with Lord Hoth's final orders. The only surviving Sith was Darth Bane, who, while leaving the battlefield, came across the young girl Zannah.

Legacy
"There are no other Sith. There never will be, except for us. One Master and one apprentice; one to embody the power, the other to crave it."

- Bane, to Zannah

The conclusion of the final confrontation on Ruusan led to the apparent extinction of the Sith, and the restructuring of the Republic and of the Jedi Order.

Afterwards, the Jedi Johun Othone built a monument at the battlefield to commemorate the fallen Jedi of the war. It became known as the Valley of the Jedi, and was a powerful Force nexus. For over a thousand years the spirits of Hoth, of Kaan, and of countless other Jedi and Sith would remain trapped in the Valley, until they would be freed by mercenary-turned-Jedi Kyle Katarn in 5 ABY.

The outcome of the war also resulted in the last surviving Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Bane, deciding henceforth to concentrate the dark side of the Force in only one master and one apprentice thereby restructuring the Sith Order.

This decision allowed the Sith to hide within the Republic until their existence was finally revealed with the rise of Emperor Palpatine, whose apprentices included Darth Maul, Darth Tyranus, and finally Darth Vader.

The return of Anakin Skywalker, once Darth Vader, to the light, and the demise of the Emperor, who was the last true master of Darth Bane's reformed Sith Order, brought to fruition the prophecy of the Chosen One who would bring "balance to the Force".

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Jedi vs. Sith 6
 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
 * Darth Bane: Rule of Two
 * Star Wars: Darth Plagueis
 * Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace novelization
 * Echoes of the Jedi
 * Dark Forces: Rebel Agent
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight