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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.

Click here to learn all there is about Star Wars with Wookiepedia, the Star Wars Wiki.

Click here to see more of my Star Wars Stuff.

Star Wars: History Abridged Pt. 3

Hello, everyone, Jay here with some more Star Wars: History Abridged. This series has been dormant for some time, but with “May the Fourth” next week, I thought it’s a good time to restart it. Picking up where we left off, this post will cover the start of the Old Sith Wars, my favorite period in Star Wars lore. The long and short of it is that, in fifty years, the Galaxy almost fell apart. The Republic came close to collapse, and the Jedi came closer to extinction than ever. Until Order 66, that is. And it all starts with the conflict known as the Great Sith War and a planet called Onderon.

Crisis on Onderon

According to Wookiepedia, the Great Sith War started in 3,996 BBY. However, its roots go back four years earlier, to a planet called Onderon (Yes, that Onderon). The world was harsh, filled with dangerous beasts from its moon, Dxun. The two were so close that they would briefly merge atmospheres and create an air bridge. Worse, there was an ongoing civil war between the ruling monarchy and the Beast Riders, outcasts who had tamed the dangerous beasts of the planet.

When Onderon asked to join the Republic, Jedi Master Arca Jeth sent his three Padawans, Tott Doneeta, Ulic Qel-Droma, and his younger brother Cay Qel-Droma, to resolve the conflict. They showed up right as the Beast Riders raided the Royal Palace and kidnapped Queen Amanoa’s only daughter, Galia. The three Padawans pursued the Princess’ abductors deep into Beast Rider territory, arriving at their base just as Galia was marrying their young leader, Oron Kira.

Years ago, Oron had snuck inside the Onderonian’s walled city. There he became friends with Galia. United by their shared desire for peace, the two fell in love. Galia knew her mother would never approve of their union, so they had secretly arranged all that had transpired. This abduction was nothing more than an elaborate plan to elope. One that the Jedi consented too once everything had been explained.

With that, the wedding continued, and everyone celebrated the union. However, Oron and Galia revealed a startling secret about Onderon to the three Jedi and their world’s connection to the Dark Side.

The Dark Truth of Onderon

Four hundred years ago, there was a young Jedi Padawan named Freedon Nadd. Everyone who met him saw him as a prodigy and thought he’d be one of the Order’s best. However, his strength made him arrogant, and when he was passed over for knighthood, he furiously left the Jedi Order. 

Traveling to the moon Yavin IV, Nadd discovered the Massassi, descendants of Naga Sadow’s followers who had joined him in exile centuries prior. What’s more, Nadd found an even bigger secret: Sadow himself kept alive in stasis for centuries. Recognizing Nadd’s strength in the Force, Naga Sadow taught Nadd everything he knew about the Dark Side. Then, Nadd killed him and declared himself a Dark Lord of the Sith. After this, he traveled to Onderon, where he established himself as King, banishing criminals and anyone who opposed him beyond his walled city to die. The Beast Riders were the descendants of these outcasts.

It gets worse. Nadd died centuries ago, but his ghost stuck around his Tomb underneath the Royal Palace. He spent centuries teaching his descendants the Dark Side in the hopes that one of them would be able to create him a new body to possess. 

Battle for Onderon

As freaked out as they were, the Jedi came to bring peace, so that’s what they were going to do. So with Galia and Oron in tow, they returned to the Capital city of Iziz to negotiate peace. 

Queen Amanoa wasn’t interested. Calling on the spirit of Nadd himself, the Queen used the strength of the Dark Side to empower her outnumbered forces. Iziz became a battleground between the royal army and the Beast Riders. The three Jedi were almost overwhelmed. However, Master Jeth’s timely arrival turned the tide of the battle in favor of the Beast Riders. With the Dark Side’s influence broken, the Jedi pursued Queen Amanoa into the palace to Nadd’s tomb, banishing Nadd’s influence. Which, unfortunately, killed the Queen. 

Naddist Uprising

With Amanoa’s death, Galia and Oron became the new monarch’s of Onderon, which officially joined the Republic. The only problem was what to do with the remains of Amanoa and Nadd? In 3,998 BBY, Arca Jeth chose to move them to a new tomb on Dxun where their Dark Side influence could be locked up. However, their bodies got stolen by the Naddist Sith Cult, led by Amanoa’s thought-to-be-deceased husband, King Ommin. With Master Jeth captured by the Naddists, Ulic Qel-Droma, now a Knight, called the Republic and Jedi for reinforcements.

In the battle that followed, thanks to the aid of Jedi Knight Nomi Sunrider, the Naddist forces were crushed, and King Ommin himself was slain by Qel-Droma. At last, Onderon was freed from the grip of Freedon Nadd.

What no one knew at the time was that this wasn’t the end of the crisis. Instead, it was only beginning.

Birth of the Krath

The Jedi didn’t know at the time, but just before Ommin’s defeat, he had visitors. Two cousins from a Deep Core system with an interest in the Dark Side and Sith Artifacts. Intrigued and realizing Onderon was a lost cause, Nadd chose to make them his new apprentices and helped them escape with Sith relics in tow. Together, they would found the Krath, a Sith Cult that would seize power in their system. 

Worse, Nadd had appeared before the Jedi and sensed darkness within Ulic Qel-Droma. Unknown to all, there was another Force-user that Nadd had taken an interest in, a young Jedi named Exar Kun. However, that is a story for another day.

To Be Continued

Pretty cool story, huh? If you want to learn more, click the links to Wookiepedia. Or if you want to read the story for yourself, search for the Tales of the Jedi series. Tomorrow, we’ll be picking things up with the rise of the Krath and the Return of the Sith as the Great Sith War begins!

May the Force be with you!

Click here to learn all there is about Star Wars with Wookiepedia, the Star Wars Wiki.

Click here to see more of my Star Wars Stuff.