Arkanian Revolution

The Arkanian Revolution was a fierce and bloody civil war fought on Arkania in 50 BBY between the planet's Dominion government and the Arkanian Renegades. Known for their genetic and cybernetic expertise, Arkanian scientists began to experiment on the local, unintelligent Yaka species, despite the objections of a faction of more socially conscious scientists. Eventually, several centuries later, the noninventionist faction, known as the Arkanian Renegades, launched a coup against the Dominion, after creating a powerful mercenary army, part cyborg, part organic.

The Renegades' army, whose number included Gorm the Dissolver, butchered the Dominion's forces in early clashes. The desperate Dominion appealed to the Republic and Jedi Order to intervene on their behalf; Republic policing squads were eventually deployed to Arkania, supplemented by Jedi forces including Mace Windu, Aqinos, and the Iron Knights. The Renegades were soundly defeated by the reinforcements, and those not killed in battle were executed for their treason. Some of their cyborg creations, including Gorm the Dissolver, survived, becoming bounty hunters and hired killers. The Arkanian Revolution, although unsuccessful, contributed greatly to the escalating public fear of droids.

Prelude
Based on their adopted homeworld of Arkania in the Colonies, the Arkanian species considered themselves the pinnacle of evolution, and were one of the most advanced species in the galaxy by the time of the formation of the Galactic Republic. Known for their scientific and medical breakthroughs, the Arkanians were keen geneticists, with their earliest and best known experiments leading to the creation of the Quermian species from the Xexto. Eager to carry out genetic research that the Republic had outlawed, a group of Arkanian scientists relocated a group of Xexto from their Outer Rim homeworld of Troiken to another Outer Rim world, Quermia. The experiment was cut short when the Arkanians decided to abandon the idea, fearing Republic repurcussions, leaving the newly-altered Quermians to evolve on their own.

Thousands of years later, in 490 BBY, the Arkanians discovered the Yaka species in the nearby Yaka system. The Arkanians considered the Yakas feebleminded and weak, and took it upon themselves to use their knowledge of genetics and technology to improve the species' intelligence, implanting high-tech cyborg brains into the Yakas. Some Arkanians were distressed by their compatriots' actions, considering them to be morally questionable, but their objections were ignored. The Yakas adapted quickly to their alterations, developing mental abilities considered to be at a genius level. The downside to the experiments was their apparent loss of emotion, and a twisted, often cruel sense of humor. The Arkanians' genetic experiments were considered by some portions of galactic society as some of the greatest atrocities ever known.

Conflict
The issue came to the fore several centuries later, some fifty years before the Battle of Yavin. A faction styling themselves as the Arkanian Renegades intensified the objections to the interference of the Yakas, but the Dominion government again turned a blind eye to the issues being raised and continued to fit Yaka offspring with enhancements.

The Renegades decided to take matters into their own hands and formulated a plan to launch a coup and overthrow the Dominion, establishing a new order. Like their political opponents, the Renegades possessed and intimate knowledge of genetics and technology, and they opted to use this expertise to their advantage. They set about building a spliced-together, patchwork army, ultimately performing experiments not unlike those they opposed. Using arcane and forbidden practices, they constructed a half-mechanical, half-organic mercenary army, created with parts of various different alien species and droids, with a determined, warlike attitude. This army would fight the Renegades' fight, and they were confident it would topple the Dominion.

The army&mdash;whose number included Gorm, a formidable warrior who would achieve much greater notoriety in later decades&mdash;proved almost invincible against the forces of the Arkanian Dominion in combat. The cyborgs slaughtered thousands of interventionist Arkanians, and the Renegades soon had the upper hand over their helpless opposition. The desperate Dominion eventually pleaded for the Republic and Jedi Order to intervene.

Intervention
The Republic eventually acquiesced to the Arkanians' entreaty, consenting to send Republic policing squads and a number of Jedi, including a young Mace Windu, as well as Aqinos, a heterodox Sunesi Jedi Master. Aqinos had controversially spent the previous ten years training a group of Force-sensitive Shard as Jedi, and these, later known as the Iron Knights, accompanied him to Arkania.

The arrival of the combined Jedi/Republic task force quickly turned the tide in the conflict, which was turning increasing bloody. Mace Windu did battle with Gorm, though both individuals survived. Eventually, the Arkanian Revolution was quashed with the eventual defeat of the mercenary army at the hands of the Jedi. The surviving Renegades were executed and the Dominion remained in power. The ultimate death toll was high, with thousands of interventionist scientists, the Arkanian Renegades, and the majority of their cyborg army dead.

Aftermath
The surviving cyborgs fled Arkania and spread out into the wider galaxy, with many pursuing a career in bounty hunting. Gorm became the most infamous of the cyborgs, quickly acquiring a fearsome reputation as well as the sobriquet "the Dissolver." He was still in active bounty hunting service over sixty years after the Revolution, having learned to update and maintain himself through the decades. It was believed that, assuming he continued to patch himself up as necessary, Gorm the Dissolver could in theory continue to exist indefinitely.

Mace Windu went on to become one of the most famous Jedi of the era, ultimately becoming Master of the Order until his death in 19 BBY. Aqinos' future was less bright; he was excommunicated from the Order for his unauthorized training of the Iron Knights, though ultimately joined Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order and perished in the Yuuzhan Vong War.

The Dominion remained in power, continuing their experiments and earning a reputation as "mad scientists" during the time of the Galactic Empire. Though the existence of the Arkanian Renegades was suppressed to the extent that few had heard of them, knowledge of the Revolution itself was commonplace. The conflict greatly revived a public fear of droids originating in the much larger-scale Great Droid Revolution on Coruscant thousands of years before. The conflict was also the first in a string of local uprisings to afflict the Republic during this period, one of many factors that weakened it and ultimately laid the foundations for Palpatine's coup in 19 BBY.

Jedi Order
Founded over twenty-five thousand years before the Arkanian Revolution, the Jedi Order was a monastic peacekeeping organization tied to the Galactic Republic.

The Order only became involved in the Arkanian Revolution after being petitioned by the Dominion; the Jedi had a reputation for not rushing into hasty decisions and often refused to involve themselves in local conflicts. Mace Windu was among the Jedi sent to Arkania to contain the violence; known for his martial prowess, he would be given a seat on the Jedi High Council several years after the bloody resolution on Arkania. Another of the Jedi dispatched to Arkania was Aqinos, a Sunesi Jedi Master. Aqinos brought with him the controversial Iron Knights, crystalline Shard encased within Uulshos Justice droid bodies, who had been trained to utilize the Force.

Behind the scenes
The Arkanian Revolution was created by Daniel Wallace for The Essential Guide to Droids (1999), tying into the backstory of bounty hunter Gorm the Dissolver from Tom Veitch's Dark Empire 3: The Battle for Calamari (1992). Ann Margaret Lewis' The Essential Guide to Alien Species (2001) later briefly expanded upon the conflict, before Wallace made references to it in his New Essential Guide to Characters (2002), New Essential Chronology (2005), and New Essential Guide to Droids (2006). Abel G. Peña also referenced it in Droids, Technology and the Force: A Clash of Phenomena, a Star Wars Hyperspace article published in 2005.