Malachor V

Malachor V was an Outer Rim planet located in the Malachor system. Prior to the final battle of the Mandalorian Wars, the planet was fertile and hospitable. After the cataclysm caused by the Mass Shadow Generator, it became a cracked and 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, which made it dangerous for starships to stay there for very long.

Early history
"Malachor, like Korriban, lies on the fringes of the ancient Sith Empire, where the true Sith wait for us, in the dark."

- Kreia

The early history of Malachor V remained largely unknown. Vague reports established that an ancient branch of the Sith&mdash;the True Sith&mdash;constructed a Sith academy on the planet's surface. In time the Academy, and Malachor itself, became a place of great power within the dark side of the Force. At some point in time the empire of the True Sith disintegrated, and they retreated further back into the Unknown Regions, seemingly abandoning and forgetting their stronghold on Malachor V.

Later, after the Old Sith Wars, a fallen Jedi named Kreia came across the ruins of the academy and began to use it as a training ground for the new army of the Sith Triumvirate.

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

Mandalorian Wars
"It was nothing more than a slaughter. A slaughter caused by one of my creations. Blame lies with me, for creating it. The situation forced your hand, anger forced mine. You realized that unless action was taken, the fleet would be destroyed, and the Republic would fall. None of us realized the magnitude of what we unleashed."

- Bao-Dur, to the Jedi Exile



Centuries later, Malachor became the site of the final battle of the Mandalorian Wars, during 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 that was too good to pass up. At the head of this force Revan placed one of his top generals, the soon-to-be Jedi Exile.

During the Battle of Malachor V, Revan single-handedly slew Mandalore the Ultimate aboard the warlord's flagship. As Republic and Mandalorian forces outsystem from the planet itself continued to clash, the Jedi Exile ordered the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator superweapon with a single, wordless nod towards its inventor, Bao-Dur, in order to prevent the Mandalorian forces they faced from overwhelming them and moving on to attack Revan's forces from behind. In an instant, Malachor's gravity crushed every combatant in and around its atmosphere&mdash;Mandalorian, Republic, and Jedi alike. Malachor's surface was transformed into a barren, shattered and 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. Long afterward, there was still evidence of crashed Republic cruisers buried deep within the surface.

Jedi Civil War
"There is a world on the Outer Rim surrounded by mass shadows. Past the graveyard of Mandalorian warships, this planet suffers, crushed in gravity's fist. To walk on its surface is to feel it crushing every cell of your being. It is like being buried alive until it seems you will never breathe again. What manner of creature would have birthed such a thing? Nothing human, to be sure."

- Kreia, to Bao-Dur

Following his victory, Revan abandoned the teachings of the Jedi Order, 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, located on the planet's surface as one of several secret Sith bases dedicated to the conversion of captured Jedi Knights. Throughout the war, Jedi were captured by his Sith Assassins 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 fanatical Dark Jedi and Sith Assassins for his Sith Empire.

Several years after the war had ended, 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, she then took the moniker of Darth Traya and began training new students of the dark side at the Trayus Academy, which had remained unscathed despite the devastation wrought by the Mass Shadow Generator. 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.

While the Exile fought in the Academy, Bao-Dur, the technician who had originally designed the Mass Shadow Generator, ordered his remote to reactivate the superweapon 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 many hundreds of blasted warships, 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 the Sith, which was very similar to the redeemed Anakin Skywalker throwing Emperor Palpatine down into the reactor core of the Death Star II in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The planet itself survives.

Appearances

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

Notes and references
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