Malachor V

Malachor V was an Outer Rim planet in the Malachor system. Its original terrain and climate is unknown, but what is known is that following the Battle of Malachor V, it was a twisted wasteland covered with jagged cliffs and plagued by constant lightning storms. It was inhabited by monstrous storm beasts. The gravity of the planet was unstable, making it dangerous for ships to stay there for long.

Early history
The early history of Malachor V remains largely unknown. Vague and conflicting reports from the time period establish only that an ancient branch of the Sith&mdash;later dubbed the "True Sith" by a fallen Jedi named Kreia&mdash;constructed the Trayus Academy on the planet's surface. In time, the Academy, and Malachor itself, became a place of great dark side power that was populated by untold numbers of Sith. At some unknown point in time, the empire of the True Sith disintegrated, and they retreated further back into the Unknown Regions, abandoning their stronghold on Malachor V.



It had been suggested by some that the Sith who populated the planet were members (or former members) of the Sith Empire. The hypothesis remains controversial among historians and has yet to be proven. The historical records are clear, however, that there was some connection between the mysterious True Sith and the Sith Empire. The extent and manner of that connection has yet to be discovered.

The Battle of Malachor V
Centuries later, Malachor became the site of the final battle of the Mandalorian Wars, in which the most terrible atrocity of the war was committed. Malachor was a taboo world in Mandalorian culture, something that the Jedi general Revan used against them in order to win the war. Revan amassed an enormous fleet (composed, not coincidentally, of Jedi and Republic soldiers whose loyalty to Revan was in question) at the planet, providing the Mandalorians with a target too good to pass up.

During the Battle of Malachor V, Revan single-handedly slew Mandalore the Ultimate aboard a flagship. As the Republic and Mandalorian forces continued to clash, the Jedi Exile, a general under Revan, ordered the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator superweapon with a single, wordless nod towards its inventor, Bao-Dur. In an instant, Malachor's gravity crushed every combatant in and around its atmosphere&mdash; Mandalorian and Republic alike. Malachor's surface was transformed into a barren, lifeless wasteland, with all of Revan's enemies eliminated in a single stroke. The planet was left scarred from the battle as the surface had been crushed. There is still evidence of heavily buried Republic Cruisers on the surface.

Aftermath
Following his victory, Revan abandoned the teachings of the Jedi, adopted the title of Dark Lord of the Sith, and became Darth Revan. During the Jedi Civil War, circa 3,959–3,956 BBY, he used the Trayus Academy as one of several secret Sith bases dedicated to the conversion of captured Jedi. Throughout the war, Jedi were captured by his Sith Assassin, and other specially trained forces, and brought to the Academy. The corruptive nature of the location weakened their wills so that Revan and his loyal servants could easily lure them to the dark side. In such places, he converted hosts of Jedi into loyal Dark Jedi and Sith Assassins for his Sith Empire.

After the Jedi Civil War, Revan's old Master Kreia traveled to Malachor V in search of what had corrupted her apprentice. Like Revan, she was corrupted by the dark side energy resonating throughout the planet. In secret, Kreia took the moniker of Darth Traya and began training new students of the dark side in the Trayus Academy.

Among her first two students were Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus, who soon became powerful enough to overthrow her. The three Sith Lords formed an uneasy alliance against the Jedi, but the two apprentices eventually broke the alliance, and Darth Traya was cast down, stripped of her power, and exiled from Malachor.

Final destruction
In 3,951 BBY, Kreia located the Jedi Exile, the only Jedi who had fought at Malachor V and not been killed or corrupted. Plotting revenge against her apprentices, Kreia began orchestrating events to set up a final confrontation between herself and the Exile at the Trayus Academy. After slaying Darth Nihilus, the Exile arrived at the Academy and defeated the Sith there, including Darth Sion and Darth Traya (Kreia).

While the Exile fought in the Academy, Bao-Dur, the technician who had originally designed the Mass Shadow Generator, ordered his remote to activate the superweapon again in an effort to destroy the tainted world of Malachor V for all time. Despite G0-T0's attempts to thwart it, the remote succeeded in its task. As the Exile departed Malachor in the Ebon Hawk, the dead planet crumbled under the pressure of the mass shadow's gravity, leaving behind only asteroids and the wreckage of starships, a grim memorial to the Battle of Malachor V.

Behind the scenes

 * If the player chooses to take the path of the dark side, the Exile throws Darth Traya's body into the abyss and takes the title of Dark Lord of Malachor. The planet itself survives.
 * In the light side ending (the canon ending), the Ebon Hawk takes off from the planet as it flies towards what may be the Unknown Regions as the planet disintegrates.
 * Oddly, Malachor V is present in Star Wars: Rebellion, set thousands of years after Knights of the Old Republic II, though this inconsistency can be explained away easily, as Rebellion was released years before Knights of the Old Republic II.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Star Wars: Rebellion