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Click here for Wookieepedia's article on the Canon version of this subject.  This article covers the Legends version of this subject. 
For other uses, see Darkness.
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"Once we were mighty Jedi of the Republic, brothers in the Force. But the Great Schism between the dark side and the light turned Jedi against Jedi. Our ancestors were defeated, driven off… cast out!"
Marka Ragnos[3]

The Hundred-Year Darkness, also known as the Hundred-Year War,[1] was a conflict that began in 7000 BBY and lasted until approximately 6900 BBY, when a group of Dark Jedi created monstrous armies to battle the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic. The Hundred-Year Darkness began three years after the Dark Jedi split with the Order in the Second Great Schism. After ten decades of fighting, the Dark Jedi lost the war at the Battle of Corbos, but went on to conquer Korriban, and founded the Sith.

Beginnings[]

"So envious were the Jedi Knights of our ability to transform creatures into improved manifestations, they made it their ongoing duty to hunt us—the Dark Jedi—wherever we attempted to experiment and practice our knowledge."
―Ajunta Pall[1]
Schism4

An argument between master and apprentice becomes violent.

The Second Great Schism began when a small sect of Jedi Knights began practicing extended uses of the Force. By relying more and more upon the Force, these Knights learned that using the Force of sufficient intensity could bend life itself. With their new powers, the Knights experimented upon other lifeforms to create new species and predators as extensions of their will. It was postulated that their power could even be used to end death and revive dead worlds. Other Jedi looked upon these new powers with suspicion, suspecting that such power would only lead to abuse. The earliest rebels, the Legions of Lettow, had been defeated in the First Great Schism, but their legacy remained, and a second group of dissidents would emerge, led by such rogue Jedi as Ajunta Pall, XoXaan and Karness Muur.

All great conflicts began with passion, and this one was no different. Firmly adamant in protecting their newly-acquired powers, this sect of Jedi sought to convince the other Jedi to join their quest for eternal life and galactic bliss. The others were not convinced, and tried to distance themselves from the situation. Firmly convinced that their way was right, the arguments turned into conflict. The rogue Jedi were exiled along with their teachings. A war had begun that would last a hundred years.

War[]

"A Jedi sect, weren't they? The result of a kind of family feud."
―A young Palpatine, recalling his knowledge of the Sith's creation[4]
Corbosbattle

Jedi and Dark Jedi fight at the Battle of Corbos

Retreating from Jedi worlds such as Tython, the exiled Jedi raised an animalistic army of dark side abominations. The first form of Korriban zombies would be created during the earliest stages of the war. However, even against these incarnations of the dark side, the Jedi began to push the rogue Jedi back. The animalistic army was easily overwhelmed by the power of the Jedi, but the exiled Jedi refused to surrender. Duels to the death between Jedi became the end of many battles.

During the war, the Jedi constructed the Prism, a secret prison facility known only to the members of the Jedi High Council.[5]

By the second half of the war, the Dark Jedi were in a state of despair. They were simply outnumbered, and could see no way of winning. However, the Dark Jedi refused to surrender, and pooled all their resources into creating the most fearsome dark side creatures ever seen. Supported by monstrous creatures, such as the Leviathan, the Dark Jedi armies were reinvigorated. Armies fled in terror from the abilities of the Leviathan to suck life essences into the blister-traps upon their backs.

However, under combined efforts from the Jedi, the Dark Jedi were continually pushed back. The last stand of the Dark Jedi was on the world of Corbos. Infighting, along with the bombardment of the Jedi and the Republic, led to the surrender of the last of the Dark Jedi.

Exile[]

"Thousands of years ago, the Jedi had another civil war that split the Order. It was a... terrible thing. A faction among the Jedi abandoned the teachings of the order, following their own path. They waged war on their fellow Jedi, a war that raged across the galaxy. But these fallen Jedi were cast out, defeated, and they retreated to worlds in the Outer Rim. Over time, they took on the mantle of the Lords of the Sith. But in their hearts, they never forgot the Jedi. The hatred for the Jedi Order burns in their veins like fire, and echoes in their teachings."
Kreia[6]
Exodus1

The Dark Jedi are exiled.

After their defeat on Corbos, the surviving Dark Jedi were rounded up by the Jedi. The Exiles, as they became known to the Jedi, were stripped of their weapons and navigational instruments, herded onto unarmed[1] galleons, and banished beyond known space.[3][2]

The Hundred-Year Darkness was over, and the Jedi had weathered the Second Great Schism.[2]

A new world[]

"The surviving Dark Siders fled the Republic, finally coming to Korriban where the native Sith welcomed them as gods."
Darth Wyyrlok III[7]
Jedi exile JMGD

The primitive Sith witness the arrival of the exiles.

Coming out of hyperspace, the Dark Jedi gazed upon an uncharted world. Landing on the world, they were surprised to find a humanoid species calling themselves the Sith. Hakagram Graush, the ruling king of the Sith, or Sith'ari, was shocked at the appearance of the outsiders, but after witnessing their powers and advanced technology, the king welcomed the exiled Jedi to the world. However, this led to Graush's downfall. The Sith'ari's Shadow Hand conspired with the new arrivals, and betrayed his liege to the Dark Jedi. Using their training in the Force, the Exiles amazed the Sith and elevated themselves to god-like status on Korriban, becoming the rulers of the Sith people. The most powerful of the Dark Jedi, Ajunta Pall, became the first Dark Lord of the Sith.[2]

Some of the Exiles, however, were not content to rule the Sith and gather their strength. A few of the Dark Jedi returned to the territory of the Republic to attack the Jedi. They believed they now had the power to crush the Jedi Order and rule, but they were wrong. Their premature actions served only to alert the Republic and their defenders that some of the Exiles survived out in uncharted space.

As years passed, and interbreeding occurred between the Fallen Jedi and the Sith, the term "Sith" came to mean not only the original inhabitants of Korriban, but also their fallen Jedi masters. The Dark Jedi greatly accelerated the cultural development of the Sith. When first encountered, the Sith were a simple tribal species that wore primitive clothing and lived in small huts. With the influence of the Dark Jedi, elaborate clothing came into use, and large temples were erected by the Sith people for their overlords, including the Valley of the Dark Lords.

XoxaanMuur

XoXaan and Karness Muur are greeted by the Sith.

With the destruction of the Sith Empire, for the rest of galactic history, the term Sith was more often applied to only those dark-side Force-users who were the successors of Ajunta Pall and the Lords of the Sith.

It is from this rise to power and integration into Sith culture that the term "Dark Lord of the Sith" originated as a title bestowed upon the leader of the Old Sith Empire by a council of lesser Sith Lords. During the early history of the Sith Empire, the coming of the prophesied savior of the Sith Order, the Sith'ari, was foretold. The Sith'ari was a perfect being who would one day lead the Sith. According to prophecy, the Sith'ari would rise up and destroy the Sith, but in the process make them stronger than ever before. Some see this as a striking parallel to the Chosen One of Jedi legend.

Return[]

After becoming Sith Lords, several Exiles took the ship they had arrived on along with new weapons, Massassi warriors, and their new secrets of Sith alchemy in an attempt to destroy the Jedi against Ajunta Pall's orders, only to have themselves destroyed, and giving the Jedi the knowledge that Sith Space existed, and that the Exiles had survived.

Behind the scenes[]

The first reference to fallen Jedi becoming the rulers of the "Sith civilization" to be published was in Tales of the Jedi – The Freedon Nadd Uprising 1. This information was again mentioned in Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith 1. The first mention of the name "the Hundred-Year Darkness" was in Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith 3 in a list of events involving the Dark Side. No further information about it was mentioned.

In Tales of the Jedi – The Golden Age of the Sith 0, it's mentioned that the "First Great Schism" was followed by "a hundred years of bloodshed" that ended with the Dark Jedi faction getting exiled and becoming the first Sith Lords. In Tales of the Jedi – The Golden Age of the Sith 2, the Dark Lord of the Sith Marka Ragnos says that the ancestors of the Dark Lords of the Sith were exiled as a result of the "Great Schism," implying that thanks to his ancestors being exiled at the end of the "First Great Schism", he's unaware that there was a "Second Great Schism."

Arden Lyn's biography in "The Emperor's Pawns”, a list of biographies that were published in Star Wars Gamer 5, says that the "First Great Schism" occured ~25,000 BBY. The timeline in the beginning of The New Essential Guide to Characters mentions that "circa 7,000 BBY", "The Jedi Knights lead the Republic through the Hundred-Year Darkness", with no further information being given. The New Essential Guide to Characters also restates the information about the "First Great Schism" from Tales of the Jedi: Golden Age of the Sith and the year from "The Emperor's Pawns" in the timeline in the beginning of the book and in the character entry for Naga Sadow.

The New Essential Chronology restates that the Hundred-Year Darkness occured ~7000 BBY, but also revealed it to be the same event as the "hundred years of bloodshed" mentioned in Tales of the Jedi: Golden Age of the Sith and to have followed the "Second Great Schism" while the "First Great Schism" was retconned to be a separate event. When asked about this retcon, Daniel Wallace, author of The New Esssential Chronology, said it was because of "LFL internal documents" dating Dark Jedi contact with the Sith at ~7000 BBY.[8]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

External links[]

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