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 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.

The war itself ended on Ruusan, where the Sith were presumed to have been wiped out to the last man.

Schism
For almost a thousand years after the final Alsakan Conflict, the galaxy had enjoyed an era of relative peace and social and economic stability. The Sith had not been heard of since the end of the Cold War sixteen hundred years prior, and what little remnants of that order existed, posed no threat to the now unchallenged, if complacent Jedi.

During this period, a Jedi Master named Phanius resigned his commission, citing ideological objections to current Jedi dogma. Though his peers disagreed with his views, the parting was amicable, and Phanius would be commemorated as the first of the Lost Twenty, a special group of revered Jedi who had nevertheless felt the need to leave the Jedi Order.

Behind such amiability, however, the Umbaran Jedi harbored darker thoughts, ones unknown to his Jedi peers. His true reasons for abandoning his Jedi commitment was linked to his intention to pursue prohibited teachings. Phanius disappeared from public view, and when he re-emerged, it was as Darth Ruin, the first Dark Lord of the Sith in a thousand years, and preaching a creed of malevolent solipsism. Ruin's transformation was total, and such was the disconnect between his original persona and his new mantle, that Ruin's former Jedi peers never realized that their new foe was once their cherished friend, Phanius.

Darth Ruin's nascent order quickly grew - fifty Jedi Knights deserted to join shortly after, in an event that would be later labeled the Fourth Great Schism of 2,000 BBY. He filled out the rest of his new order's ranks by first infiltrating and then uniting the surviving Sith clans under his own leadership.

Merciless and supremely-self-centered, Ruin's capricious and egocentric whims led to the deaths of many of his own followers and, eventually, Ruin's single-mindedness proved to be his undoing - he was eventually killed by his minions after a defeat. Despite Ruin's death, the rebirth of the Sith was complete.

Sith ascendancy
In the ensuing decades, the Sith quickly carved out a sprawling dominion, labeled the New Sith Empire, and their relentless attacks wore away from the reeling Republic. They quickly recaptured ancient Sith worlds such as Yavin IV and Ziost in initial attacks, and secretly sabotaged the Republic's own defense. After Ruin's demise, the first quarter of the New Sith Wars was dominated by the Dark Underlord, who was supported by the Black Knights, a faction of Sith commanded by a Zeltron General. The Black Knights and the Underlord ravaged space stations along the Zona Miki route until the Republic counterattacked. The Underlord's final confrontation with the Jedi and the Republic came at Malrev IV, where Jedi Master Murrtaggh forged a Faustian pact with the traditionally hostile Mandalorians to bring the Underlord down. Though successful, the assassination came at the cost of Murtaggh's own life.

The Jedi were frequently at the forefront of the Republic's war effort, though not always to their own benefit - a disastrous intervention to contain an outbreak of Ubese aggression in the Battle of Uba IV led to accusations of xenocide. Just as in the Old Sith Wars, the Republic assembled a mighty fleet, mainly provided by Kuat Drive Yards.

Just over five centuries after Ruin's betrayal, the Sith scored one of their most decisive victories in history, when they crushed the Republic and Jedi forces in the Battle of Mizra, a bloody conflict later immortalized by the poet Felloux. Over five hundred thousands soldiers died in a single battle and hundreds of Jedi converted to the Dark Side.

The terrible defeat caused a crisis in the Republic, and despite victories at Gap Nine, Corephelion and King's Galquek and the defeat of Darth Rivan at Almas , the Republic plunged into turmoil. Mineral mines ran dry, corporations failed, and the Republic's borders began to shrink for the first time since the Cold War as colonies were abandoned to the Sith advance and the economic collapse. Law and order suffered as the Jedi found themselves overstretched.

Civilization decays
The collapse of the HoloNet and interstellar commerce and the general downward spiral of the Galactic Republic continued unabated. Jedi were forced to assume greater leadership, commanding the Republic military, and even becoming Supreme Chancellors, despite the public opinion against them. In 1,400 BBY the last non-Jedi ended his service as Supreme Chancellor. For the next four centuries, only Jedi would serve in the post. An outbreak of Candorian plague killed two-thirds of the inhabitants of some Republic worlds.

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

The Sictis Wars came to an end with Darzu's death at the hands of the Mecrosa Order, who, though nominally allied with the New Sith Empire, poisoned Darzu due to unwanted Sith incursions on Tapani territory.

Dark Age
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 much of the period. . The Sith, though exponentially increased in number, were divided against one another, as the various warlords and self-proclaimed Dark Lords fought each other for supremacy. The Republic officially branded the war a "series of protracted military engagements" against an illegal organization but in reality the Sith were rampaging across the galaxy virtually unhindered, oppressing entire star systems.

The Republic, for its part, was a shrunken remnant, a pale shadow of what it once was. Much of its former territory was in the hands of independent Sith warlords, including Odion and Daiman. These warlords squabbled over the dying embers of the New Sith Empire, and while they remained divided, the Republic was given some respite.

Light and Dark
"Kaan turned away from the light and formed the Brotherhood of Darkness. The Brotherhood used the dark side of the Force to build an empire and were well on their way toward expanding it when an army was raised to oppose them. The army of opposition consisted of beings of many species and planets, representing all walks of life. But they had one thing in common. They were Jedi."

- Luke Skywalker

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. In an attempt to end the internecine feuds that had torn their empire apart, Kaan ended the tradition of a sole Dark Lord of the Sith, and recognized each and every claim to the title by the rival warlords. Kaan forged his alliance with the creed of "Rule by the Strong" and "All are equal in the Brotherhood of Darkness". He made his headquarters on the planet Roon.

Beginning in around 1,010 BBY, this new group launched a series of attacks designed to destroy the Jedi and the Republic. Kaan, along with the two strongest of the former warlords, Qordis and Kopecz, began their campaign with a daring and symbolic assault on the ancient Sith homeworld of Korriban, which at that time was still under nominal Republic control. The successful capture of that world sealed their alliance, and enabled the reopening of the ancient Sith academy under Qordis' leadership.

As Qordis trained new recruits, Kaan and Kopecz continued their war, seizing worlds like Kashyyyk, and even briefly Corulag, Chandrila and Brentaal IV. By 1,001 BBY, they seemed almost poised to conquer Coruscant, pressing the Republic on many fronts with the assistance of allies such as the turncoat Jedi King Lahzar , who battled the Republic in the Tholatin system. and a colony of Chiss on Thule, abducted from the Unknown Regions by agents of Kaan.

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 end of the Sith
"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 war ended with the armies of Hoth and Kaan facing each other on the world of Ruusan. Lord Hoth was supported by such Jedi as Lord Valenthyne Farfalla, Lord Gale , Lord Saleeh and General Kiel Charny  , while Kaan's Brotherhood was led by himself, Qordis, Kopecz and less familiar Dark Lords such as Seviss Vaa , LaTor and Githany. The Army of the Light and the Brotherhood of Darkness clashed seven times on the world, each battle causing terrible casualties as Sith and Jedi died in the thousands. The campaign would later be considered to be the most deadly clash between Jedi and Sith in galactic history. So many Jedi died that Hoth was forced to enlist younger and younger force-sensitive recruits, and Jedi scouts such as Torr Snapit began to bring pre-adolescents to the battlefield. Though Hoth and his advisors found this distasteful, they reluctantly agreed to accept the child recruits, reasoning that it was better for them to be found by the Jedi than by Kaan's Sith.

Finally, with both armies nearly destroyed, and the once lush planet totally devastated, the seventh and final Battle of Ruusan took place, ending with Kaan's decision to use an ancient Sith technique known as the thought bomb. Lord Hoth, knowing of his opponents final gambit, took 99 of his most trusted knights with him and confronted Kaan in an attempt to dissuade the Sith Lord from unleashing the weapon. The attempt was fruitless, as Kaan's mind had broken during the conflict and the Sith Lord, insanity clouding his vision, was determined to destroy himself and his followers, hoping to annihilate the Army of the Light at the same time.

As Kaan unleashed his weapon, both his own army and Hoth's were destroyed in an instant. Those Jedi that survived quickly rallied under Lord Farfalla, and the remaining Sith were easily defeated. After a thousand years, the New Sith Wars had finally come to an end.

Reformations
With the apparent destruction of the Sith, Farfalla, as highest ranking surviving Jedi, used his authority to remove the Jedi from the position of galactic leadership they had acquired during the past centuries, and hand control back to civilian leadership. Tarsus Valorum became the first non-Jedi to serve as Chancellor for six hundred years and, with Farfalla's assistance, Valorum passed far-reaching legislation that restructured both the Republic and the Jedi Order.

There was to be no full-scale war after the New Sith War for almost a thousand years, until the Clone Wars erupted.

Legacy
"I am Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith. I will survive. At any cost."

- Darth Bane

Unknown to the Jedi and the Republic, one Sith Lord survived: Darth Bane, retreating from the carnage of Ruusan, found a Force-sensitive child named Rain from among the child recruits of the Army of Light. After the final battle the pair escaped the effects of the thought bomb and made their way, separately, to Onderon.

Bane would accept Rain as his apprentice, dubbing her Darth Zannah, and from her would continue an unbroken line of Sith Lords culminating in Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, who achieved what the Sith of the past never could: the destruction of the Republic and the Jedi.

Timeline of events

 * Fourth Great Schism (c. 2,000 BBY)

Early Draggulch Period

 * 1,991 BBY
 * Jomark is colonized.


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


 * 1,800 BBY
 * Battle of Uba IV


 * c. 1,750 BBY
 * Campaign(s) against the Dark Underlord
 * First Battle of Malrev IV.


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


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

Mid Draggulch Period

 * 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..


 * 1,466 BBY
 * Battle of Mizra


 * 1,289 BBY
 * Belia Darzu builds a massive temple on Tython that she uses as barracks for her army of Technobeasts..


 * before 1,250 BBY
 * Battle of Almas.


 * 1,250 BBY
 * Sictis Wars begin..
 * The planet Cularin was forgotten sometime after this date..


 * 1,230 BBY
 * Sictis Wars end..


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


 * 1,163 BBY
 * Over a millennium from this date, Jedi Master Minos Fel'Kona, would determine that the fortress of Darth Rivan on Almas had been built prior to this time.

Late Draggulch Period/Republic Dark Age

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


 * c. 1,050 BBY
 * Tarsus Valorum, Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic during the Ruusan Reformations, is born on Coruscant. c.
 * Kerra Holt born.


 * 1,032 BBY
 * Kerra Holt embarks on her mission behind Sith lines.


 * 1,026 BBY
 * Darth Bane is born.


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


 * 1,019 BBY
 * Johun Othone is born on Sermeria


 * 1,013 BBY
 * Darovit is born on Somov Rit)


 * 1,010 BBY - 1,006 BBY
 * Somewhere in this four year period, Dannik Jerriko is born on Anzat.


 * 1,010 BBY
 * Second Sith Civil War c.
 * Light and Darkness War begins c.
 * A Sith Lord named Seviss Vaa creates the Behemoth from the World Below on Aduba-3.
 * Rain, (who would later become Darth Zannah), is born on Somov Rit.


 * 1,009 BBY
 * Johun Othone joins the Jedi Order.


 * 1,008 BBY
 * Hurst dies on Apatros.


 * 1,001 BBY
 * Spira is colonized.


 * 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



 * Abyssin Jedi
 * Aru-Wen
 * General Kiel Charny
 * Chayka
 * Darovit
 * Karist Dem
 * Lord Valenthyne Farfalla
 * General Newar Forrth
 * Lord Gale
 * Ginger
 * Githany
 * Handa
 * Hardin
 * Set Harth
 * Kerra Holt
 * 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

 * Jaing
 * Ung Kusp

Other groups

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

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 (the JK backstory and Lucas' Episode I backstory) came a year after Episode I 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

 * Star Wars: Knight Errant 1: Aflame, Part 1
 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
 * Darkness Shared
 * Jedi vs. Sith
 * Darth Bane: Rule of Two
 * Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace novel
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: Republic 63: Striking from the Shadows
 * Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
 * Echoes of the Jedi
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight
 * Echoes of the Jedi
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight

Notes and references
Nowe wojny Sithów