Sith Empire (Jedi Civil War)


 * For other Sith empires, see Sith Empire (disambiguation).

The Sith Empire was founded by Dark Jedi Revan and Malak as a dark side organization in direct opposition to the Galactic Republic and its Jedi defenders. Built upon a hardened core of veterans from the Mandalorian Wars and a host of Jedi converts, the fledgling new galactic power very nearly succeeded in conquering the Republic during the Jedi Civil War.

The founding
Towards the end of the Mandalorian Wars, 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, Revan was nearly destroyed by the resonance of ancient Sith power, but managed to survive by sheer force of will. There, Revan found the Trayus Academy, an abandoned training academy built by the first Sith Empire that was believed to have been destroyed during the Great Hyperspace War a thousand years earlier. 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 posed a threat to the galaxy. Perhaps more importantly, Revan found historical traces of the forgotten Infinite Empire of the Rakata that matched those he had found on Dantooine.

A plan soon began to take shape in Revan's mind&mdash;a way to end the war before both sides where too far weakened by the conflict. He built a new Sith training school over the crumbling ruins of the older academy on the surface of Malachor V and used the dark side energies of the planet to bind the most trusted of his followers to his will. The resulting thralls where used to found the order of Sith Assassins&mdash;a group kept secret even from Malak.

Not long after, Revan forced a final battle with the Mandalorians over Malachor V. During the conflict, he drew on the Sith power 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 (a third of the Republic's Fleet) 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.



In the following months, the Jedi recieved numerous unsubstantiated reports that Revan and Malak had been spotted on various Republic worlds. It would later be revealed that they were secretly visiting the planets of Korriban, Manaan, Tatooine, and Kashyyyk in the hopes of finding an 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.

Revan willfully fell to the dark side in a misguided attemt to save the Galaxy from the True Sith. From the deck of the Star Forge, hidden in the unmapped Rakata system, Revan founded a new Sith empire. Believing deeply in the Sith precept of empowerment through conflict, Revan would attempt to conquer the galaxy to protect it or strengthen it though defeat. Adapting the teachings of the ancient Sith to his own needs, Revan took his friend Malak as his apprentice. Revan became 'Darth' Revan and christened himself Dark Lord of the Sith.

A year later, Revan and Malak reappeared at the head of a massive invasion fleet made up of Republic vessels as well as a battleships of Rakatan design built by the Star Forge. They where 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 Jedi Civil War


In the first major battle of the war, Revan and Malak raided the shipyards on Foerost and managed to capture a large part of the Republic fleet 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, a key Republic military world, until it was left incapable of supporting life.



Due to Darth Revan's tactical genius, 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, Revan's most faithful servants broke captured Jedi and led them to the dark side. The Sith conspired with Czerka Corporation, one of the richest and most powerful galaxy-spanning companies of the time, to amass much needed resources. They also secured a place on the ocean planet of Manaan, thanks to the Selkathi 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 still had one last card to play. Unlike the Mandalorian Wars, the Jedi decided to fight back. Time and again, the Republic armadas where saved from certain destruction by the prowess of one young Jedi: Bastila Shan. During a long string of loses, her skills in Battle Meditation staved off utter defeat.

When the Sith where on the brink of victory, Revan's command ship was invaded by a Jedi strike team during a large-scale space engagement. Led by Bastila, the Jedi were able to corner Revan on the bridge of the ship. Seeing his chance at last, 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; while the ship was destroyed, the Jedi escaped with a captive Revan.

The betrayal of Darth Malak


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, preferring all-out war and destruction.

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. Bastila managed to flee the battle in an escape pod. She was soon joined by an amnesiac Revan who had escaped the Endar Spire with the aid of Saul Karath's old protégé Captain Carth Onasi. After a fruitless quarantine and search of the planet, Darth Malak ordered Admiral Karath to destroy it. The urban centers of Taris where utterly obliterated in a hail of indiscriminate turbolaser fire, but Bastilla and her party managed to escape and flee to the Jedi enclave on Dantooine onboard a stolen smuggler vessel named Ebon Hawk.



On Dantooine, they where given a quest of vital importance to the Republic&mdash;retracing Darth Revan's path to the Star Forge. After obtaining data from three damaged Rakatan Star Maps, the crew of the Ebon Hawk where captured by Saul Karath's command ship, Leviathan. During interrogation, they learned that the planet Dantooine had been attacked by Darth Malak. The Jedi Enclave was destroyed and looted and the Jedi Masters where forced to scatter to new hiding places. Bastilla and her party managed to escape from their cells and confronted Saul Karath on the bridge. He was killed in the cross-fire.

On the verge of escaping the vessel, Darth Malak arrived and faced them. During the confrontation, Revan's identity and memory where restored to him and Bastila sacrificed herself so that he and the others could escape. She was captured by Malak. After being tortured, she fell to the Dark Side and became his new apprentice.

The fall


Having discovered ancient star maps on Dantooine, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Menaan, and Korriban, Revan and his crew where able to piece together the location of the Star Forge. The Republic armadas where summoned to Rakata Prime and a massive space battle took place between the Republic and Sith forces. After a confrontation with Revan, Bastila returned to the light side and betrayed her master by using her Battle Meditation to aid the Republic forces. The Second Sith War ended as Darth Malak died at the hands of his old master Revan. With Malak dead and the Star Forge destroyed, the infrastructure of the Sith Empire collapsed. The remaining dark Jedi on Korriban and elsewhere soon fell into civil war and nearly wiped themselves out.

Aftermath
Small skirmishes led by ex-Sith forces continued for the next few years, until much of what Revan had built was undone. A short time later, three new Sith Lords arose to take control of a remnant of the empire, but they were never strong enough to directly challenge the Republic. The new Sith Lords were eventually destroyed by the Jedi Exile, bringing an end to the Sith legacy Revan had begun. Revan, meanwhile, had disappeared from known space, apparently having abandoned his previous tactics to take the ancient Sith Empire on by himself.

Organisation
The main principle in the organisation of the Sith Empire was natural selection; survival of the fittest. Even the lowliest grunts were encouraged to thin the competition. Whilst this may have stunted the Empire's growth, it nevertheless ensured a powerful and capable military. Revan himself needed to remain powerful enough to quell any opposition to his rule.

The Sith Academy on Korriban followed similar rules. Prospective students learnt to care only for themselves, and also to be ruthlessly independent. Additionally, the Master of the academy could, at any time, be succeeded by his apprentice.

The Sith utilised a form of governorship to manage conquered territory. A single governor would be posted on a world, housed within an embassy, which would contain a security force large enough to keep the planet under control. Additionally, the Sith fleet was often on the move, which enabled even the Dark Lord to command from the front lines. All of these principles were designed to keep the Sith Empire as an efficient military force, rather than the more sedate governing body and galactic security force that the Republic represented.

Equipment
Upon their return to known space, the Sith were well equipped for battle, having under their command;


 * Interdictor-class Star Cruisers, including Leviathan and Revan's flagship.
 * Sith fighters, a strange hybrid of technologies created by the Star Forge.
 * Sith troopers, the shock troops of the army, molded from traitorous Republic forces.
 * Dark Jedi, Jedi corrupted by the power of the Trayus Academy.
 * Battle droids, of which the Sith had legions at their disposal.
 * Unrecorded ground combat technologies.

The Star Forge had also created two types of Sith freighters, which were equipped with rudimentary defences, and possibly served as bombing craft.

The Star Forge itself served as a staging ground and command centre.

Subject worlds

 * Dantooine
 * Dxun
 * Korriban
 * Malachor V
 * Rakata Prime
 * Taris

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (remnant)