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Star Wars: History Abridged Pt. 5- The Great Sith War

Hello everyone, Jay here with the next installment of Star Wars: History Abridged. Where I take the lore of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and sum it up for your enjoyment. In the last two parts, I’ve covered the events leading up to the return of the Sith more than 4,000 years before the events of the films. First the galaxy was rocked by the Onderon Crisis and the revelation of the Sith cult that ruled the planet. Next, we had the rise of the Krath and their “Holy Crusade” against the Galaxy. In 3,996 BBY, everything came to a head when the ancient Sith Lords crowned two fallen Jedi, Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma, as the new Dark Lords of the Sith. At last the Great Sith War begins!

New Allies Minions Join the Sith

Even with the combined forces of the Krath and Kun’s Massassi warriors, the the Sith remained outnumbered by the Jedi and Republic. They would need to gather more followers to help topple the Republic. Thus, Exar Kun and Ulic each sought out new recruits to bring about the Sith’s return to power.

Amidst the chaos, another power was on the march. The legendary Mandalorian warriors (yes, these guys) sought out new enemies to face, and began raiding Krath space. Angered, Ulic sent a message to their leader, Mandalore the Indomitable and demanded his surrender. However, Mandalore challenged him to a duel for control of the Mandalorian clans. In the end, Qel-Droma’s skill as a warrior proved too much for the leader of the Mandalorians. Thus, the Mandalorians joined the Sith forces.

Meanwhile, Exar Kun traveled to the Jedi library world of Ossus. There, he fooled many younger Jedi into following him to Yavin IV, promising to teach them Force techniques the Masters would not. Instead, he used the Dark Side to corrupt them, turn them into Sith acolytes, and set them loose on their former masters. Thus the Brotherhood of Sith was born.

The Great Sith War Engulfs the Galaxy

With their combined Mandalorian, Krath, and Dark Jedi, the Sith launched a brutal campaign of conquest. The Great Sith War spread throughout the Galaxy, with no region safe from the bloodshed. Even Coruscant itself became a battleground when Qel-Droma launched a brazen attack on it. However, due to the treachery of Aleema, Ulic was captured by his former allies. Subsequently, his trial was interrupted by Exar Kun himself. The halls of the Senate became a battlefield as the Dark Lord cut the Supreme Chancellor down in front of helpless onlookers before facing off against his former master. Exar Kun took the chance to show off his latest creation: a double-bladed lightsaber, the first ever created, and christened with the blood of Kun’s Jedi Master.

Following the raid on Coruscant, the two Sith dealt with the treacherous Aleema. On Yavin IV, Kun had discovered the ancient warship of Naga Sadow. Armed with Sith talismans brimming with Dark Side power, Kun gave it to Aleema. In a repeat of events from the Great Hyperspace War, Aleema used the ship to cause a cluster of stars to go supernova. However, they neglected to tell Aleema that this would kill everyone in reach, including herself. Worse, the shockwave would lay waste to every planet in the region. Among them was Ossus, one of the Jedi’s most important planets and home to an incalculable wealth of knowledge and artifacts.

The Fall of the Sith

The Jedi scrambled to evacuate Ossus, but still despaired. For they knew that there were too many artifacts for them to save. Which is what the Sith wanted. While the evacuation proceeded, the Sith raided the doomed planet to steal as much as they could. However, Ulic found himself confronted by a familiar face: Cay Qel-Droma, his younger brother. The two brothers dueled as the younger Qel-Droma made one final attempt to bring the elder back from darkness. Enraged, Ulic tore into his younger brother before finally slaying him, an act witnessed by two Jedi. One of which was Nomi Sunrider, Ulic’s former friend and lover. Giving into her grief, Nomi unleashed the full extent of the Light Side on Ulic, permanently cutting him off from the Force.

No longer under the Dark Side’s influence, Ulic’s long-dormant conscience finally made him realize how far he had fallen. Wracked with guilt over his crimes, he became undone. As a result, he turned himself into the Jedi and led them to Yavin IV, to put an end to the war he had helped start.

Facing the full might of the Republic and Jedi, Exar Kun knew he had no chance of winning. However, instead of surrendering or fighting to the death, the Dark Lord chose another option. Using an incredibly risky Sith technique, the Sith Lord would use the life force of most of the Massassi warriors to free his spirit from his body and flee the jungle moon. Not know what he was up to, the Jedi erected a light barrier around Yavin IV to contain the Dark Side. By doing so, they trapped Kun’s spirit on Yavin IV, but the resulting collision of raw Force energy set the moon ablaze. Yavin IV became a wasteland devoid of almost all life. Horrified, the Jedi left the system behind.

Elsewhere, the Republic was able to finally liberate the Empress Teta System, while the Mandalorians were routed in a failed invasion of Onderon. The survivors of the Brotherhood of Sith went into hiding, bringing the Great Sith War to an end.

Aftermath

The short but brutal Great Sith War had ended, but at great cost. Despite their best efforts, the Jedi failed to stop the return of the Sith. Many of their best and brightest were either dead or fell to the Dark Side, and one of their most important worlds was lost. It would take generations for them to recover.

As for Exar Kun, he remained trapped as a ghost on Yavin IV for millennia until Luke set up shop. Then he manipulated one of his students to the Dark Side, led to the “Sun Crusher Incident”, and tried to kill Luke. Fortunately, Luke’s students banished his spirit for all eternity.

Redemption of Ulic Qel-Droma

Those who survived would carry the scars of the war as they struggled to recover from the darkness. Nomi Sunrider would become a key leader in the rebuilding process, which led to her eventually being made Grand Master of the Order. Unfortunately, her new responsibilities led her to neglect her family.

See, before she became a Jedi, she had been married to one (he died) and they had a daughter, Vima. As Vima got older, Nomi tried to train her daughter herself, but was too busy to do so. As a result, by 3986 BBY, a now fourteen-year-old Vima became fed up with how busy her mom was. Thus, she went looking for the only other person she thought could teach her: Ulic Qel-Droma.

After the Great Sith War, for some reason, Ulic was allowed to walk away and spent a decade wandering the Galaxy, trying to find some semblance of peace. That’s when Vima dropped in on him and asked to become his student. In the end, her persistence won out, and he agreed to teach her. Despite the fact that he could no longer use the Force.

Despite his lack of Force-sensitivity, Ulic proved an effective teacher, and Vima an eager student who quickly excelled at her training. They got so close that the young Padawan saw Ulic as the father-figure she never had, while she helped him come to terms with his past. Sadly, Ulic was killed by a pilot seeking to gain fame from his death. Though before he died, he helped Nomi and Vima reconcile and made amends with his former lover before becoming one with the force.

Round Two, Jedi!

I wish I could say this was the end of the Old Sith Wars, but this was just round one. The next two rounds would see the Jedi and Republic be pushed to the brink. Come back tomorrow as I cover the next conflict of the Old Sith Wars Era, the Mandalorian Wars.

If you want to learn more about the Great Sith War, look up Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi comic book series by Dark Horse. It covers all the events that I’ve mentioned.

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Star Wars: History Abridged Pt. 4

Welcome back to another entry in Star Wars: History Abridged, the series where I take the best of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and break it down into bite-sized pieces. Yesterday, I started going over the Great Sith War with the crisis on Onderon. In 4,000 BBY, this Inner Rim planet was looking to join the Republic. When the Jedi came to stop its centuries-long civil war, though, they found the planet had a dark secret. For centuries, the planet had been ruled by the lineage of an ancient Sith Lord. With the help of the Jedi, the dark influence of the Sith was banished and peace brought to the planet. However, this was just the beginning of an even larger conflict. Today, we cover the rise of the Krath cult and the return of the Sith in full force.

The Krath Holy Crusade Begins

At the end of my last post, I mentioned two visitors came to Onderon as a cult of Sith worshippers threatened the planet. Their names were Aleema and Satal Keto, two aristocratic cousins from the Empress Teta System in the Deep Core. The cousins were spoiled brats with an interest in Sith lore and had founded a Dark Side cult called the Krath. Their visit caught the eye of the ghost of Freedon Nadd, whose bloodline had ruled Onderon for centuries. However, Nadd realized Onderon was a lost cause, so he gave the Keto’s a trove of Sith artifacts and texts. As a result of their Dark Side knowledge, the Krath overthrew the government and became the new rulers of the Empress Teta system.

Realizing the threat the Krath posed, a Republic-Jedi strike force, led by Ulic Qel-Droma and Nomi Sunrider, was sent to liberate the system. They promptly got their butts handed to them. As a result, close to ten thousand Jedi gathered in a conclave to figure out their next move. It’s there that Ulic came up with a dangerous plan. He would go undercover within the Krath and bring them down from the inside, saving lives that would be lost in a full blown war. Many Jedi told Ulic that that was a terrible idea; the Dark Side would corrupt him like so many others.

Before they could argue the matter further, the Krath struck first. They had snuck into the conclave and set an army of droids loose on the Jedi, killing many of them. Among the casualties was Arca Jeth, Ulic’s own master. Outraged, Ulic went through his plan to infiltrate the Krath, despite the concerns of his brother, Cay, and lover, Nomi. This would have terrible consequences for everyone.

Fall Rise of Exar Kun

In another part of the Galaxy, there lived a young Jedi Knight by the name of Exar Kun. He was powerful in the Force, but also an arrogant blowhard with serious anger issues. Throw in the fact that he was obsessed with learning about the Sith, and that’s a recipe for disaster. His curiosity led him to seek out the new tomb of Freedon Nadd on Dxun, wherein he met Nadd’s ghost. Seeing Kun’s strength in the Force, Nadd took the already wavering Jedi and led him down a path to darkness.

Kun would next travel to the ancient Sith home of Korriban before finally journeying to Yavin IV. There, at the mercy of the planet’s Massassi, Exar Kun fully embraced the Dark Side, much to Nadd’s delight. Seeing the former Jedi as his best chance to gain a new body, Nadd urged him to do just that. However, Kun had become fed up with Nadd’s meddling and, using his newfound power, banished his spirit to the afterlife for good.

Fall of Ulic Qel-Droma

Meanwhile, Ulic’s mission to infiltrate the Krath went as bad as everyone said it would. Satal was on to the Jedi from the start and tortured him for weeks. Meanwhile, Aleema used her charm to seduce him even further into the Dark Side. When Nomi and Cay came looking for him, he refused to leave with the pair. Instead, he killed Satal and took in the Krath leadership.

Seeing the red flags being waved, Nomi and Cay led an even larger strike force on a raid into the Krath’s stronghold. Although, by that point, Qel-Droma was too far into the Dark Side to come back of his own volition. Plus, attempts to bring him back by force failed as well. Ulic’s friends reluctantly accepted that he was now lost to them and retreated.

As the Krath celebrated, they found their victory party was crashed by an unexpected guest: Exar Kun.

The Sith, Reborn

Rather than remain on Yavin IV, Exar Kun had sought out Dark Side users that would be a threat to his power. Learning of the Krath’s existence and that they had also been taught by Freedon Nadd, the Dark Jedi sought to eliminate them. Upon arrival, Kun and Qel-Droma fought in an intense duel, yet neither could gain the upper hand on each other. Then, something unexpected happened. Both combatants wore an ancient Sith amulet, and as the two clashed, their amulets reacted to each other. Their reunion created a surge of Dark Side energy that summoned the spirit of the long-dead Sith Lord, Marka Ragnos.

Ragnos saw how strong Kun and Qel-Droma were in the Dark Side and had the strength to restore the Sith. Thus, he declared Exar Kun the new Dark Lord of the Sith, with Exar Kun as his apprentice. With the two Sith and Krath united under one banner, the Jedi’s worst fears came true: the Sith had been reborn.

To Be Concluded

Pretty epic story, huh? Well, that’s only the start. The return of the Sith would start the Great Sith War. With Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun leading the Sith-Krath forces, the Jedi and Republic would face their greatest test in a thousand years. Next time, we’ll be covering the Great Sith War and its aftermath. May the Force be with you!

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A Look at How Darth Sidious Cheated Death in the Expanded Universe

Ever since the trailers for The Rise of Skywalker dropped and we heard the laughter of Ian McDiarmid, Star Wars fans went crazy. As a lifelong fan of the franchise, who is admittedly a little bitter over the loss of the EU (#MakeRevanCanonAgain), I was skeptical. I immediately asked one question, the same question everyone is asking: how the heck could Darth Sidious still be alive? We saw Anakin throw him over the railing and explode in a ball of dark side energy. Not even a Sith Lord could survive that.

However, assuming it’s not a red herring or he’s a ghost, I keep coming back to a single theory: cloning. We know Palpatine has access to advanced cloning technology. It’s possible he could have made clones of himself when and if he died. It’s a theory that’s been proposed already, but that’s not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about the time in the Expanded Universe where Palpatine did, in fact, come back from the dead. It’s called the Dark Empire series, and I think it gives us clues on his possible return in The Rise of Skywalker.

Sidious’ Cheat Code

Like many Sith, Palpatine tried looking for a way to cheat death so he could rule his Empire for eternity. Fortunately for the Galaxy, while the Force has ways to extend one’s life by decades, even centuries, true immortality is a myth. Thus, Sidious found himself a workaround using cloning technology. He made an army of mindless clones of himself that he could inhabit when his original body died.

As a result, when a redeemed Anakin threw him down that reactor, he did die, but his spirit stayed behind. He traveled to his private fortress near the center of the galaxy, where he possessed a younger clone of himself. Thus, Darth Sidious returned from death.

The Shadow Hand

One would think that his first priority would be letting the Galaxy know he’s alive. Rather than do that, Palpatine stayed in the Deep Core and watched his Empire tear itself apart like a pack of starved Womp Rats. He built up his forces and created an arsenal of super weapons. These included the Eclipse and Eclipse II, two Super Star Destroyers with miniature versions of the Death Stars superlaser. There were the World Devastators, mobile factories that sucked planets of resources and churned out ships and weapons. Then my personal favorite, the Galaxy Gun, a platform capable of firing planet-destroying missiles through hyperspace. It’s like the galaxy’s biggest sniper rifle.

Around six years after the defeat at Endor, Sidious made his move. Using the Force to create a portal to his fortress world of Byss, Sidious captured Luke Skywalker. Rather than face certain death, Luke pretended to bend to the reborn Sith. However, Sidious eventually broke him for real, turning him into the leader of his armies. With an armada of ships and deadly superweapons, Sidious announced his return to the Galaxy.

However, Sidious once again underestimated the power of love for another person. Leia chose to confront her brother, and was able to bring him back from the Dark Side. Together, they used the Force to cut off the Emperor’s connection to it. As a result, he lost control of the massive Force Storm he just created, destroying him and his flagship.

He then came back, again.

Final Death

Having suffered several major setbacks, things only got worse for the Sith Lord. Due to the actions of a traitorous guard, Sidious’ remaining supply of clones were falling apart; even the genetic template was damaged. Desperate, Sidious sought the aid of the spirits of the Ancient Sith Lords. They advised him to take the body of Leia’s infant son, Anakin Solo.

Yes, Leia and Han names their youngest son Anakin. They wanted the name to stand for something good again.

Sidious tracked the family to Onderon and brought his armada in to finish the job. However, Luke arrived soon afterwards. Alongside him and Han was a Jedi survivor of Order 66, Empatojayos Brand, and his padawan, Rayf Ysanna. The three Jedi engaged in a furious fight with the Sith Lord and his Dark Jedi guards. Despite besting his guards, the Emperor killed Ysanna and mortally wounded Brand. However, Han Solo arrived, and with a well placed blaster shot, struck the Dark Lord down; which is what Sidious wanted. No longer needing his body, his spirit rushed towards young Anakin. Before he could do anything though, Brand used the last of his strength to throw himself in front of the baby and his mother.

Knowing that he was dying, Brand used all his power to trap Sidious within him. He told Luke he would drag the Emperor to the depths of hell, where all the Jedi he’d murdered would ensure he would never return. Thus, cursing the Skywalker bloodline, Darth Sidious died, this time for good.

A Similar Scenario for Sidious?

First off, this story came out in the early 90s, well before the Prequel Trilogy established the idea of the Chosen One. Thus, even though it’s said the Chosen One would destroy the Sith, Sidious’ survival seems to contradict that. It was a crazy time for Star Wars.

Secondly, I bring this story up now because, in my opinion, cloning may be the best way to explain how Sidious’ returns in The Rise of Skywalker. He could have created clones of himself on some remote planet where he could lay low and gather his strength over the next thirty years. That, and he’d probably see the Galaxy falling apart as some sort of sadistic entertainment.

How he came back, though, doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is that Darth Sidious is back from the dead, and by the look of things, he has dark plans for Kylo Ren and Rey. What’s surprising, though, is how I’ve warmed up to the idea of Sidious returning. If the rumors and speculations are true, then he’s been behind everything in the movies. He’s one of the greatest villains of all time, the overarching antagonist to Star Wars. Seeing him one last time will be awesome. Plus, after all’s said and done, he’s still got the Villain Pub on How it Should Have Ended to go back to.

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Check out this fan animation for the comics that I just found!