Jedi Civil War



The Jedi Civil War (also known as the Second Sith War and the War of the Star Forge) was a devastating conflict that began when the fallen Jedi Revan founded a new Sith Empire and declared himself Dark Lord of the Sith. He and his apprentice Darth Malak led a massive invasion of the Galactic Republic in 3,959 BBY with the aid of veterans from the Mandalorian Wars and a host of Jedi converts. Darth Revan nearly conquered the Republic before the Jedi struck him down. After the redemption of Revan, the death of Malak, and the destruction of the Star Forge in 3,956 BBY, the war finally came to an end, although the last of Revan's forces lasted until the Destruction of Malachor V.

Origins
"Malak and Revan were once part of the Jedi Order, but they were young and headstrong. And against the wishes of the Council they went to battle the Mandalorians on the Outer Rim."

- Carth Onasi

In 3,976 BBY, the warrior people known as the Mandalorians began a brutal conquest of worlds and colonies on the brink of Republic space. Under the enlightened leadership of Mandalore the Ultimate, the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders carved out a clan territory greater than that ruled by the Hutts in the span of little more than a decade.

The Republic Senate initially failed to respond, choosing not to act in the defense of planets outside of the Republic's borders. The war weary senators would take no part unless the Mandalorians threatened to invade the Republic itself. Mandalore soon obliged them. In 3,963 BBY, his fleets poured into Republic Space through three invasion corridors in adjacent quadrants along the Outer Rim and sparked the Mandalorian Wars. In the opening battles of the conflict, the Republic armadas were soundly beaten, yet the Jedi Council refused the Republic's desperate pleas for aid. Though the youngest members of the Order were eager to combat the Mandalorians, the Masters would not allow it. They sensed that some unknown hand was at work behind the new war.

The Battle of Cathar would change everything. Under the leadership of Cassus Fett, Mandalore's greatest tactician, the world of Cathar was conquered and the Cathar species was enslaved and massacred. Later, it would be theorized that the flagrant attack was calculated to draw the Jedi into the conflict. The gamble paid off. Spurred by the genocide of the Cathar, the young and charismatic Jedi Knights Revan and Malak defied the Council and led a faction of the Jedi to war. They proved to be more than capable commanders in the field and rose through the ranks rapidly. Soon, they were given direct control over one-third of the entire Republic fleet. Revan used his new-found authority to spearhead the Republic war effort and under his ingenious leadership, the all-but-defeated Republic Navy began to push the Mandalorians back.



During the war, Revan visited the ancient Sith world of Malachor V while scouting for new outposts along the embattled Outer Rim Territories. Upon landing on its surface, he was nearly destroyed by the resonance of ancient Sith power. He managed to survive the encounter through sheer force of will but he did not escape unscathed. The dark side beckoned and Revan fell under its influence. There, he stumbled upon the Trayus Academy, an abandoned training center built by the first Sith Empire which was believed to have collapsed following the Great Hyperspace War a thousand years before. While unearthing the planet's buried secrets, Revan discovered evidence that the ancient Sith still existed beyond the boundaries of known space and continued to pose a threat to the Galaxy. Perhaps more importantly, he found historical traces of the Star Forge; a forgotten treasure of the Rakatan Infinite Empire.

After a series of bitterly contested battles on Dxun and Althir, victory was near. A plan soon took shape in Revan's mind, a way to end the war before the Galaxy was too far weakened by the conflict. He built a new Sith training school over the crumbling ruins of the older complex on Malachor V and used the ravenous dark side energies of that planet to bind the most trusted of his followers to his will. The resulting thralls were used to found the order of Sith Assassins&mdash;a group that he kept secret even from Malak.

Not long after, Revan forced a final confrontation with the Mandalorians above Malachor V. During the battle, he drew upon the Sith energies of the planet to manipulate the Jedi fighting in orbit. One by one, he overpowered them and drew them to the dark side. After ending the Mandalorian Wars with a crushing victory, Revan and Malak led the remainder of their forces into the Unknown Regions under the pretense of tracking down the remaining Mandalorians, but they did not come back and sent no word of their whereabouts. In time, the Republic feared them lost in some tragic disaster.

Prelude to war
"The wars' end was simply another beginning, and what seemed a victory for the Republic was far from it."

- Kreia

"After Malachor, after the Mandalorian Wars, that's when the Sith teachings started spreading through the ranks."

- Atton Rand

In the following months, the Jedi received numerous unsubstantiated reports that Revan and Malak had been spotted on various Republic worlds. Later, it would be revealed that they were completing a survey of planets that they had learned were once under the dominion of the mysterious Infinite Empire. Dantooine, Korriban, Manaan, Tatooine, and Kashyyyk were all visited in the hopes of finding clues to the location of the ancient Rakatan superweapon. Upon those remote worlds, Revan and Malak found the keys that would grant them access to enough power to topple the Republic&mdash;Star Maps that would lead them to the Star Forge.



From the bridge of the Star Forge, hidden in the unmapped Rakata system, Revan founded a new Sith Empire. Suspecting that the Mandalorian Wars were but a staged prelude to an attack by remnants of the ancient Sith, Revan decided to strike first. Believing deeply in the Sith precept of empowerment through conflict, he would attempt to conquer the galaxy in order to safeguard it or, should he fail, strengthen it through his own defeat. Revan became 'Darth' Revan and christened himself Dark Lord of the Sith. He chose his old friend Malak as his apprentice and Malak reluctantly assumed the lesser role in a grudging acknowledgment of Revan’s strength. Later, some such as Kreia, would postulate that Revan did not 'fall' to the dark side, but rather embraced it in the hope of saving the galaxy from the True Sith.

A year after their apparent disappearance, Darth Revan and Malak returned to known space at the head of a massive invasion fleet made up of stolen Republic vessels such as Leviathan as well as numerous vessels of Rakatan design constructed by the Star Forge. They were crewed by experienced veterans and commanded by some of the finest officers that the Republic had produced including Admiral Saul Karath, General Derred, and Mon Halan. Calling themselves the Sith, they declared war on the Republic.

The war begins
"Three years ago, Revan and Malak returned at the head of a massive invasion fleet. Revan had assumed the title of Sith Lord; the hero had become a conqueror."

- Dorak

Thus began the Second Sith War, a conflict that proved even more devastating than the recent Great Sith War. In the first major skirmish of the war, Revan and Malak raided the shipyards on Foerost and managed to capture a large part of the Republic fleet which was in space dock. It was a crippling blow to the already diminished Republic Navy. Soon after, Darth Malak commanded Admiral Saul Karath to destroy his home planet of Telos in order to prove his loyalty. Karath complied, bombarding the planet&mdash;a key Republic military world&mdash;until it was left incapable of supporting life.

With Darth Revan at the helm, the Sith invasion was all but unstoppable. His Sith assassins secretly flooded into the Republic from their base on Malachor V, killing and/or abducting Jedi throughout Republic space. Revan reestablished strongholds and academies upon worlds of ancient dark side power such as Rakata Prime, Dxun, and Korriban. In these dark places, his most faithful servants broke captured Jedi and led them to the dark side. The Sith conspired with the Czerka Corporation, one of the richest and most powerful galaxy-spanning companies of the time, to amass much needed resources. They also secured equal footing with the Republic on the ocean planet of Manaan, thanks to the native Selkath neutrality, and so were able to export the healing agent kolto to their forces.



As the Sith's conquest continued unchecked, worlds began to secede to the Sith invasion fleet voluntarily, either out of fear of what had happened to Telos or because they believed that the corrupt and ineffectual Republic was finally about to fall, but the Republic was not finished yet. It still had one last card to play. Feeling the time had come to intervene in galactic affairs, the Jedi decided to fight back. Time and again, the Republic armadas were saved from certain destruction by the prowess of one young Jedi: Bastila Shan. Her skills in Battle Meditation&mdash;a rare and potent Force technique that increased the effectiveness of friendly forces and sapped the will of the enemy&mdash;staved off many a defeat, but the war had became a conflict of attrition.

The Republic forces knew that they could not hold out forever against the seemingly infinite Sith forces. In a desperate attempt to put a quick end to the war, the Republic set a trap for Revan. Just when the Sith were on the brink of victory, Revan's command ship was invaded by a Jedi strike team during a fleet battle. Led by Bastila, the Jedi were able to corner Revan on the bridge of the Sith Lord's Command Ship. Ever ambitious, Malak fired upon his master's ship hoping to destroy all of his enemies with one swift stroke, but all did not go as he had planned. The ship was destroyed, but the Jedi were able to escape with a captive Revan. Bastila used the Force to save his life, thus forming a powerful Force bond between them. In time, his broken mind was reprogrammed by the Jedi Council in an effort to mask his true identity. In so doing, they hoped to use Revan's subconscious memories to locate the source of the Sith's apparently endless resources and destroy it.

Darth Malak
"Malak is a ruthless tyrant who'll crush any one who stands in his way... just like Revan. Experience has shown that the Sith won't stop until the Republic lies in ruins."

- Carth

After the apparent death of Revan, Malak crowned himself the Dark Lord of the Sith and continued his former master's war of conquest, but he did not share Revan's vision. Whereas Revan had kept key Republic infrastructure intact for the purposes of post-war rebuilding, Malak was a believer in more brutal methods. Likely ignorant of Revan's original intentions, he preferred an all-out war of destruction and carnage.

Malak's primary objective quickly became the assassination or capture of Bastila Shan. He almost got his wish when his fleet overwhelmed and boarded her flagship Endar Spire during a Sith ambush over the world of Taris, but she managed to flee the battle in an escape pod. She was soon joined by an amnesiac Revan who had been enlisted as a Republic agent and placed under Bastila's command. He had escaped the doomed vessel with the aid of Saul Karath's old protégé Captain Carth Onasi just before it was destroyed.

Finding Bastila a prisoner of the Black Vulkar swoop gang, Revan staged a daring rescue. Along the way, they picked up several companions including the young Twi'lek Mission Vao, her Wookiee companion Zaalbar, protocol droid T3-M4, and Mandalorian turned mercenary Canderous Ordo. After a fruitless quarantine and search of the planet, Darth Malak ordered Admiral Karath to destroy it. The urban centers of Taris were utterly obliterated in a hail of indiscriminate turbolaser fire, but Bastila and her party managed to escape and flee to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine aboard a stolen smuggler vessel named Ebon Hawk. There, Bastila convinced the local Jedi council to retrain Revan in the ways of the Jedi.

After completing his formal training in mere weeks, Revan joined Bastila in an investigation of some nearby ruins. They quickly uncovered the same Star Map he and his apprentice had unlocked years before. Though the Map was incomplete, it contained enough information to point to similar maps on other worlds.

The return of Revan
"What greater weapon is there than to turn an enemy to your cause? To use their own knowledge against them?"

- Bastila Shan

Upon their return to the enclave, Revan and his party reported their findings and were, in turn, formally tasked with a quest of the most vital importance to the survival of the Republic–retracing Darth Revan's path to the Star Forge. On each planet, the powerful dark side aura of the Rakata's ancient technology created perilous conditions which made access to the maps difficult. The crew of the Ebon Hawk found themselves hunted by bounty hunters and Dark Jedi, including Malak's new apprentice Darth Bandon, and they were confronted with the problems of the local populace at every turn, yet not all went amiss. Along the way, new allies such as Juhani, HK-47, and Jolee Bindo lent their considerable talents to the quest.



After recovering data from three damaged Star Maps, the crew of the Ebon Hawk was captured by Saul Karath's command ship Leviathan. During interrogation, they learned that the planet Dantooine had been sacked and the Jedi enclave there had been destroyed and looted. Fortunately, Bastila and her party managed to escape from their cells before Darth Malak could arrive. They confronted Saul Karath on the bridge and he was killed in an intense fire fight.

As they fled toward Ebon Hawk, Revan was confronted by a newly returned Darth Malak. Malak swiftly revealed Revan's former identity, hoping to sow discord between Revan and the Jedi Masters. A vicious lightsaber duel ensued in which Bastila sacrificed herself so that Revan and the others could escape. She was captured by Malak and after being subjected to torture, she fell to the dark side and replaced the slain Darth Bandon as his apprentice. Revan was allowed little time to cope with Malak's revelation and the loss of Bastila as the quest for the Star Forge had attained an ever more pressing urgency.

Having discovered ancient star maps on Dantooine, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, and Korriban, Revan and his crew were able to piece together the location of the Star Forge. They arrived in the Rakata system, but their ship was instantly disabled by a defensive distortion field and they crash landed on Rakata Prime. After gaining the support of the friendly Rakatan Elders tribe, Revan was able to knock out the distortion field, but not before confronting a fallen Bastila. Atop the Rakatan Temple of the Ancients, Bastila attempted to entice Revan to reclaim his former title of Dark Lord of the Sith, but Revan would not be swayed.



Revan made the choice of a Jedi and rejected Bastila's pleas. Enraged, she retreated back to the Star Forge with Revan and the crew of the Ebon Hawk in hot pursuit. The Republic armadas arrived in the nick of time supported by the survivors from the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine, including Master Vandar Tokare, and a massive space battle erupted between the Republic and Sith forces. Meanwhile, with the aid of the Jedi, Revan boarded the Star Forge. After battling through fierce Sith resistance in the form of elite soldiers, Dark Jedi, and droids, he ultimately faced Bastila one last time. After defeating her in another ferocious duel, he endeavored to convince her to return to the light side by drawing on the powerful bond of love that had formed between them during the course of their quest. Persuaded, she betrayed her Sith master by using her Battle Meditation to aid the Republic forces.

At long last, Revan confronted his old friend and apprentice Malak in an epic lightsaber duel on the bridge of the Star Forge; even as the fleets battled in the void outside the viewport behind them. Time and again, Revan struck Malak down, but his former apprentice was not so easily beaten. He sucked the life-force from Jedi captives held in stasis to replenish his energies, but in the end even that was not enough to defeat Revan (who was able to free some of the captive Jedi, allowing them to become one with the Force). The Jedi Civil War came to an end with the destruction of the Star Forge and the death of Darth Malak at the hands of his old master.

Aftermath
"The Jedi Civil War destroyed the Jedi. By the war's end, barely a hundred Jedi remained. Many fell in battle... and many more were seduced by Revan's teachings."

- Kreia

A year after the end of the war, Revan left the Republic. He bade farewell to the nine comrades who had accompanied him on his quest, knowing that in the places he had to walk none whom he loved could accompany him. He entrusted Carth Onasi with the Republic's safety, left the loyal Mandalorian Canderous Ordo on the Outer Rim, and said goodbye to Bastila. "It would have been better," Kreia, Revan's former Jedi Master, would later remark, "if he had made her understand. But she was always strong-willed, that one, and did not understand war as Revan did." Soon after, Revan disappeared, leaving Ebon Hawk with the droids T3-M4 and HK-47 on the edge of Known Space. "In one standard month the Republic will collapse. Not due to sucession or war but simply because it lacks the infastructure to support itself."

- G0-T0 (cica 3,951 BBY)

Though the war was over, the Galactic Republic continued to hover on the brink of total ruin. After a decade of fighting desperately for its surivial, the government's resources were depleted and its ressolve was deeply shaken. The Republic was stretched to the breaking point, unstable, and extremely vulnerable. Believing the surviving remanants of the ancient Sith would take advantage of the situation, Revan left for the Unknown Regions hoping to find a way to prevent an imminent attack. In his absence, the next threat to galactic security revealed itself, but the strike did not come from the Unknown Regions. It came from the past.

After the death of Malak and the destruction of the Star Forge, the infrastructure of the Sith Empire had disintigrated. Most of the dark Jedi who had survived the war wiped themselves out in struggles for dominance, yet five years after the Jedi Civil War's conclusion, scattered remnants of Revan's Empire remained entrenched in secret places of power. With time, they regrouped and new leaders emerged to guide them. On the ancient Sith world of Malachor V, Revan's Sith assassins still lingered. In the heart of the Trayus Academy, the Trayus Core, an alliance was forged between Darth Nihilus and Darth Sion, former apprentices of Darth Traya. Waging a shadow war, the new Sith triumvirate battled with only one goal in mind: the complete and utter destruction of the Jedi. They manipulated events from the darkness, causing local conflicts on key Republic planets. These worlds, if left to fall, would mean a quick and decisive end to the Republic. However, a Jedi Exile was about to return to known space to combat them...

Battles

 * Battle of Foerost
 * Various battles
 * Bombing of Telos IV
 * Various battles
 * Capture of Darth Revan
 * Battle of Taris
 * Devastation of Taris
 * Attack on Dantooine
 * Battle of Rakata Prime

The following battles were fought after the war, in 3,951 BBY, during local post-Jedi Civil War conflicts:
 * Destruction of Katarr
 * First Battle of Dantooine
 * First Battle of Onderon
 * Second Battle of Onderon
 * Battle of Telos IV
 * Destruction of Malachor V

Galactic Republic

 * Revan (Mind wiped)
 * Bastila Shan
 * Carth Onasi
 * Canderous Ordo
 * Juhani
 * Jolee Bindo
 * Vandar Tokare
 * Vrook Lamar
 * Dorak
 * Zhar Lestin
 * Forn Dodonna
 * Yusanis
 * Lelin-Dor

Sith Empire

 * Darth Revan
 * Darth Malak
 * Bastila Shan (as Malak's apprentice)
 * Darth Bandon
 * Saul Karath
 * Derred
 * Gann
 * Mon Halan
 * Yuthura Ban
 * Varko
 * Uthar Wynn

Behind the scenes
The depiction of the Jedi Civil War dictated in this article is almost exclusively compiled from the plot, dialog, promotional material, and background information written by BioWare Corp and Obsidian Entertainment, under the guidance and supervision of the LucasArts Entertainment Company, for the two games in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic franchise.

According to Chris Avellone, the retroactively applied name "Jedi Civil War" came from Obsidian Entertainment, and it was approved by LucasArts and Lucasfilm on the first pass.

Appearances

 * Shadows and Light in Star Wars Tales 23
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords