Sith Empire (Post–Great Hyperspace War)

"The true Sith have spent centuries building their strength in the depths of unknown space. The Sith Emperor patiently planned for the day when his Sith Empire would repay the Jedi for the humiliating defeats of the past. In that time, generations of Sith have come and gone, working hard and devoting their lives to the dream of vengeance."

- A HoloNet dossier on the Sith Order

In the aftermath of the Great Hyperspace War of 5,000 BBY, the remnants of the original Sith Empire established a new Sith Empire in the galaxy's Unknown Regions. This Empire, also known as the True Sith sect, was created after Sith survivors of Dark Lord of the Sith Naga Sadow's disastrous campaign against the Galactic Republic fled known space to escape persecution by the Republic and its Jedi Order. Led by a single Lord, the refugees wandered aimlessly through space in search of a new home. Twenty years after their departure from the original Empire's territory, the Sith discovered the forgotten world of Dromund Kaas and settled it to begin the process of rebuilding.

During the rebuilding process, the Sith Lord that had led the refugees to the planet proclaimed himself to be the Dark Lord of his order and Emperor of his people. Under the care of the Emperor and his Dark Council of Sith Lords, the Empire established its capital of Kaas City and began building a mighty war machine, with the intent of eventually returning to combat the Galactic Republic once more. The Empire worked towards that goal for over one thousand years, gradually expanding and gaining more power and influence. During that time, the Sith were discovered by Jedi Knights Revan and Malak, who turned to the dark side of the Force and became Sith as a result of the revelation. Although they were sent back to serve as the vanguards of the Empire's eventual invasion, the Republic defeated the two, and knowledge of the Empire remained hidden. Around three hundred years later, the Sith Empire&mdash;still under the command of the original Sith Emperor&mdash;was ready to return to the greater galaxy. After covertly installing puppet governments on Republic worlds across the Outer Rim Territories, the Sith invaded Republic space in a massive onslaught of unrivaled proportions.

After capturing and securing much of the Outer Rim in the early stages of what would become known as the Great Galactic War, the Sith Emperor began preparing for the push towards the Republic's bastion in the Galactic Core. Despite several setbacks in its campaign towards the core, the Empire surged forward once more, crippling the Republic economy through an alliance with the Mandalorian warrior clans. On the verge of victory, the Empire surprised the galaxy when the Dark Council extended an offer of peace to the Republic. Desperate, the Republic senate accepted, but during peace talks on Alderaan, the Empire launched a sneak attack on the Republic capital of Coruscant. The attack was a rousing success for the Empire, allowing the Sith to force the Republic to sign their draft of the document that would end the war, the Treaty of Coruscant.

With the war at an end and the Empire stronger than ever, the Emperor retreated from the public view and passed responsibilities of the day-to-day maintenance of the Empire to the Dark Council. As a result of the Empire's co-existence with the Republic, an interstellar Cold War emerged in the immediate aftermath of the Great War, during which time the Empire engaged in proxy battles and small conflicts with the Republic and its allies. By around 2,000 BBY, the Empire had seemingly vanished from the galaxy, and the Galactic Republic was once again the dominant government.

Fall of the Old Empire
"I cannot fail like this! Conquest is the destiny of the Sith Empire!"

- Naga Sadow during the defeat of the Sith Empire in the Great Hyperspace War.

The Sith Empire was formed from the remnants of the original Sith regime of the Manderon Period. The older Empire was the result of Dark Jedi Exiles dominating the Sith species after their defeat and banishment at the hands Galactic Republic and its Jedi Order in the Battle of Corbos. After discovering the Sith people on the Outer Rim world of Korriban, the Dark Jedi adopted the Sith name and proclaimed themselves Lords of an Empire based on Korriban. That regime ruled an area of space that encompassed 120 worlds at its height and developed in isolation from the Republic and other outside forces. The old Empire grew into incredible wealth and power, but was considered nothing more than a myth to the Republic, which had largely forgotten about the Exiles. Similarly, the Sith had forgotten about the Republic that defeated their ancestors centuries before. During what came to be known as the "Golden Age of the Sith," the Empire was ruled by the Dark Lord of the Sith Marka Ragnos. His century-long reign ended with his death in 5,000 BBY, after which Sith Lords Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh battled for command of the Empire. Sadow, who believed the Sith were destined to expand beyond the borders of Sith Space, eventually won out and became the new Dark Lord.

With the aid of hyperspace explorers Gav and Jori Daragon, Sadow and the Empire rediscovered the existance of the Republic. The progressive Dark Lord saw the Republic as an opportunity for the Sith to expand their Empire across the galaxy, and so manipulated his fellow Sith Lords into supporting him in a war of conquest. With a Sith armada at his command, Sadow initiated the Great Hyperspace War, attacking the Republic on three fronts&mdash;Koros Major and Kirrek in the Koros system and the Republic capital world of Coruscant. The Empire was beaten back on all three worlds and Sadow and his forces were forced to fall back to Korriban. Upon their arrival, Sadow's fleet was attacked by forces loyal to Ludo Kressh before being set upon once again by Republic forces that had followed them back to Sith Space. Between the combined blows of Republic counter-attacks and infighting within the Sith, the Empire's leadership crumbled.

The Sith scatter
"Following a crushing defeat in the Great Hyperspace War, the handful of surviving Sith desperately sought to escape annihilation at the hands of their Jedi foes. The desperate Sith, leaving their collective destiny to chance, chose to forgo all known hyperspace routes and attempt a series of dangerously random hyperspace jumps and blind scouting missions."

- A HoloNet dossier on Dromund Kaas

In the aftermath of the Great Hyperspace War, the Jedi and Republic systematically destroyed the Sith civilization, pushing the survivors of the war to flee Sith Space in search of a refuge. While Naga Sadow escaped to Yavin 4 in the Gordian Reach, other Sith hid out on Thule, where they hoped to one day be rediscovered by the Empire. Desperate to avoid persecution at the hands of the Jedi, a group of Sith left their former lives behind and joined one of the last surviving Dark Lords in an exodus from the crumbling Empire. Leaving their fate to chance, these Sith boarded an armada and made several random hyperspace jumps in a mission to scout for a new home. For two decades, the Sith were unsuccessful in their search for a new planet upon which to rebuild their Empire, and so wandered the Outer Rim aimlessly.

After twenty years in space, a random jump led the armada to the jungle world Dromund Kaas. The planet had once been part of the old Empire, but was forgotten when the hyperspace routes to the world were lost. The Sith landed on the planet and reclaimed Dromund Kaas, establishing the world as the capital of the new Empire to be commanded by the Dark Lord who had led them to the world&mdash;the now self-proclaimed Sith Emperor.

Forging a new empire
"Over the course of the next thousand years, the Sith Empire recovered its strength. The Emperor developed a massive Imperial military, a fleet of advanced warships, and undertook dark rituals which prolonged his life and his undisputed rule."

- A HoloNet dossier on the Empire

For the following century, the Sith dedicated themselves to the goal of forging a new Empire. Led by their Dark Lord, the Imperials worked to tame Dromund Kaas's dense jungles, in which they began to build their new capital, Kaas City. At the center of the city, the Sith erected a massive citadel to serve as both their center of government and a monument to the power of the Sith Emperor. During this time the Emperor commissioned the creation of the Dark Council&mdash;a body of twelve Sith Lords who aided in the governing of the Empire.

Once Dromund Kaas was successfully settled, the Empire changed its priorities from the building of a capital to the creation of a military. The Sith worked relentlessly for centuries to create a massive army and navy. Unlike the previous Empire, the revitalized Imperial dominion allowed for non-Sith to join its ranks, despite placing them lower in society than Force-wielding Sith. As its military swelled in numbers, the Empire itself did as well, encompassing a variety of worlds, including Malachor V, where the Trayus Academy was established for the education of new Sith devotees. The Empire eventually ceded the world, but left the Academy untouched, still filled with dark side teachings. The Dark Lord who led his people in their exodus from Sith Space still ruled during this period, having prolonged his life and rule through arcane rituals. These rituals, combined with rites of darkness he committed in Kaas City to increase his considerable power, turned the ionosphere of Dromund Kaas into a violent and continuous electric storm.

Influence on the larger galaxy
"It has been here for thousands of years. It is a place where Sith teachings run strong&hellip; It is the threshold of the borders of an ancient empire. Kreia says that it was a place of reflection for the ancient Sith&hellip; a gateway to their lands. It drew Lord Revan&hellip; and it calls to her as well. She said that the teachings here will lead one to the Sith&hellip; the true Sith&hellip; and all their shadowed worlds. This place led Revan to the graveyards of Korriban&hellip; and beyond."

- Darth Sion, on Malachor V

During this period of rebuilding, the Sith Empire was almost entirely hidden from the galaxy at large, but still had a heavy influence on the events that shaped the wider galaxy. The first of these major events was the Mandalorian Wars&mdash;a pan-galactic conflict between the Mandalorian warrior clans and the Galactic Republic. The Mandalorians were a fierce warrior people with an ancestral rivalry with the Jedi Order and a disdain for the Galactic Republic, and had been allied with a Sith sect led by the fallen Jedi Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma during the Great Sith War of 4,000–3,996 BBY. In the final stages of the war, the leader of the warrior clans, Mandalore the Indomitable, was killed and the Sith were defeated. The Mandalorian clans scattered, but the mantle of Mandalorian warrior-king was adopted by a Taung soldier who came to identify himself as Mandalore the Ultimate. The new Mandalore reformed his warrior clans into the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders with the intent of making his people into a force for conquest instead of solely conflict. While still hiding in the Unknown Regions, the Sith learned of these new Mandalorians and planned to manipulate them into weakening the Republic.

Representatives of the Sith approached the Mandalorians about undertaking a final, grand crusade against the Republic and the Jedi. The Mandalorians, who were eager to test their strength in battle against both factions, agreed to the proposition and initiated a plan to goad the Republic into a war it was unprepared to fight. Mandalore the Ultimate started by expanding the territory of the Mandalorian people into regions that were unaligned with the Galactic Republic. Although the Republic was weary of Mandalorian expansionism, the Galactic Senate chose not to take action against the warrior clans, as they had not yet made an incursion on Republic space. This changed when the Mandalorians neared the Republic business world of Taris, at which point the Republic Military was dispatched to defend the planet and its resource worlds. Although the Republic's defensive line was not enough to hold back the Mandalorian assault, Mandalore allowed for his enemy to believe they had halted the warrior's advance. The manufactured stalemate would later be termed the "False War," as the Republic had entered a state of warfare without fully committing to a galactic conflict. It was instead lulled into a false sense of security that Mandalore capitalized upon in his next stage of the war, termed "The Onslaught."

The Republic took heavy losses in this stage of the war, but was reinvigorated by the arrival of the Revanchists&mdash;a rogue group of Jedi who had chosen to defy the wishes of the Jedi High Council and join the fight against the Mandalorians. The Revanchists were led by two Jedi Knights, Revan and Malak, who organized successful campaigns against the Mandalorian armada. The two became such an asset to the Republic's war effort that the military granted them control of a third of its forces. While battling the brutal Mandalorians, the two Jedi developed a brutality of their own, and came to fight as their enemy did&mdash;with complete ruthlessness. In the latter stages of the war, Revan discovered the Sith's abandoned academy world of Malachor V. The planet was so saturated with the dark side of the Force that the experience nearly killed the young Jedi, but Revan instead embraced the darkness. While exploring the Trayus Academy, he learned the location of Korriban and discovered evidence that the Sith Empire sill existed in the Unknown Regions. Galvanized by the revelation of a new threat to the Republic, Revan put in motion a plan to quickly end the Mandalorian Wars. In a final, devastating battle over Malachor V, Revan killed Mandalore the Ultimate, and destroyed an incredible number of Mandalorian and Republic ships through the use of a superweapon called the Mass Shadow Generator. The activation of the weapon cracked the surface of Malachor and killed many of the Republic forces who were not totally loyal to Revan and Malak.

Following the battle, the surviving Mandalorians were disarmed and disbanded. Instead of returning to Republic space as heroes, however, Revan and Malak took their forces into the Unknown Regions, under the pretense of pursuing the remaining Mandalorian forces. In reality, the two Jedi were searching for the Sith Empire. They were successful in their mission and eventually encountered the Sith Emperor himself. The Emperor inducted the two into the Sith order, at which point they adopted the Sith honorific of "Darth," renaming themselves Darth Revan and Darth Malak. Revan became a Dark Lord with Malak as his apprentice, and the two were asked to return to known space and wage war against the Jedi and Republic as the vanguard for the Empire's return. They acquiesced to the command and converted their Republic fleet into what would become the core of a new armada for their splinter Empire. These forces were bolstered by the use of the Star Forge&mdash;an ancient factory station built by the Rakatan Infinite Empire and discovered by Revan and Malak.

In 3,959 BBY, the two initiated a conflict with the Republic that would later become known as the Jedi Civil War. The campaign was highly damaging for the Republic, which was unprepared to fight another war in the immediate wake of its battle against the Mandalorians. Revan and Malak were highly successful until 3,957 BBY, at which point a team of Jedi mounted an attempt at capturing Darth Revan during a conflict in space. Malak, who wished to ascend to the position of Dark Lord, used the Jedi's assault on Revan to enact a betrayal of his master. From a safe distance, Malak fired on Revan's ship, allowing the Jedi to capture the Dark Lord. The galaxy at large believed that Revan was killed during the battle, but in reality the Sith Lord was only injured, but experienced long-term amnesia as a result. He was taken to the Jedi Council, which filled his blank mind with false memories and placed him within the Republic Military, where they hoped he would be able to aid in revealing the source of power behind the Sith onslaught. While serving in the military, Revan began reconnecting to the Force and was accepted into the Jedi Order as a Padawan. He later encountered Malak, who revealed to the amnesiac Sith Lord his true identity, but Revan refused to accept his former path and instead aided in defeating Malak and the Sith Empire he had helped to forge.

Following the war, Revan abandoned the Jedi Order and returned to the Unknown Regions to combat the Sith Empire. This decision was known only to his droid companion and his former Jedi Master, Kreia. Kreia had admired Revan greatly and so launched an independent investigation into his fall to the dark side, which eventually resulted in her discovery of Malachor V and her own fall to the dark side and acceptance of Sith teachings. She adopted the name Darth Traya and, along with her two apprentices, Darth Nihilus and Darth Sion, continued the battle against the Jedi. The three formed the Sith Triumvirate and nearly wiped out the Jedi Order, but were ultimately defeated by a female Jedi known as the Exile. In the Exile's last confrontation with Traya, the Sith Lord revealed the continued existence of the Sith Empire and Revan's mission to destroy it. After defeating Traya the Exile destroyed Malchor V, ending its ability to further corrupt Force-sensitives. She then followed Revan's path into the Unknown Regions, hoping to join him in his mission to defeat the Empire.

Dark Council
It was the ruling body of the empire. It was formed by twelve powerful Sith Lords that obeyed the Sith Emperor, their Dark Lord.

Imperial Intelligence
Amongst the most elite operatives of Imperial Intelligence were those designed as "Ciphers" who were both recruited and trained to deal with the most dangerous as well as sensitive of missions for the Empire. This ranged from simply working undercover to carrying out assignments in broad daylight with the slightest mistake creating a catastrophe but ultimately secured the Empire domination of the galaxy.

Society and culture
The Imperial population was much smaller when compared to the Galactic Republic and was divided between both Sith as well as non-Sith. This division between the ranks meant that both were worlds apart and that the upper echelons of power were reserved for only Force-sensitive Sith alone who served as the elite. Whilst this was the case, the average citizen was still quite loyal to the Empire and many aspired to become Imperial Agents who were seen as the high achievement for non-Sith.

Army
Whilst the armies of the Sith were trained to conquer, they did so under the leadership of Sith Warriors who drove them in Empire campaigns.

Territory
The domains of the Sith Empire were not strictly located within the known worlds and included planets within the Unknown Regions. These were taken by military expeditions into those unknown tracts of space and the claiming of such worlds further expanded the influence of the Empire.

Korriban


Korriban was the original homeworld of the Sith species. A desert ridden planet of sand and red rock, it is considered holy ground by the Sith. Full of ancient Sith ruins, it houses many of the tombs for the ancient and powerful Dark Lords of the Sith, such as the Tomb of Ajunta Pall. Thus it is a haven for the dark side of the Force.

Retaking Korriban was one of the biggest priorities for the Sith Empire when it re-emerged during the Great Galactic War. In a well orchestrated military campaign, the Sith Empire eventually retook the planet and re-established the old Sith Academy in the midst of the Valley of the Dark Lords. A new generation of Sith students was then sent to the reclaimed Sith academy to be trained in the ways of the dark side. The Sith Masters pitted the students against each other, ensuring that only the strongest and most worthy survived long enough to become true Sith. On Korriban, intending to reclaim forgotten Sith knowledge, the Sith also began unearthing old artifacts of the ancient Sith Lords.

Korriban quickly became a major planet in Sith space and many Sith Lords, amongst them several members of the Dark Council, settled on Korriban.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic, Threat of Peace
 * Timeline 1: Treaty of Coruscant
 * Timeline 2: The Mandalorian Blockade is Broken
 * Timeline 3: The Return of the Mandalorians
 * Timeline 4: The Empire Changes Strategy
 * Timeline 5: The Battle of Bothawui
 * Timeline 6: Onslaught of the Sith Empire
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic