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Star Wars: History Abridged Pt. 9- Great Sith Wars Epilogue

Hello, and welcome to the Revenge of the Fifth, my fellow Star Wars fans. Today we conclude my series on the Great Sith War Era of Star Wars, one of the best parts of the franchise and one that I think should be canon again. However, there are some secrets of the Sith that will change everything about what I have written about. If you want to learn the truth about the end of the Great Hyperspace War, the Mandalorian Wars, and Revan’s fall, then read on. Spoilers from the novel Star Wars the Old Republic: Revan ahead.

The Truth About Revan

Yesterday, I talked about how Revan had learned of a great evil that threatened the Galaxy. An evil that had used the Mandalorians as pawns in a game that would impress Darth Sidious. Now, let me take you back to the end of the Mandalorian Wars.

As Mandalore the Ultimate lay dying at Revan’s feet, he revealed a terrifying revelation: the Mandalorians had been manipulated to go to war by the Sith. Not the Brotherhood of the Sith or some cult, but the original Sith Empjre. Despite the belief that the Original Sith Empire had been destroyed, they survived beyond the reach of the Republic. Terrified, Revan took Malak and his forces into deep space, following the lead Mandalore the Ultimate gave him. There, he confirmed everything he heard to be true, and the existence of the being behind it.

The Sith Emperor

More than a century before the Great Hyperspace War, a young Sith Lord rose to power on a small world in the Sith Empire. This kid had no ability to feel anything aside from his desire for power. After killing his father, Marka Ragnos made him Lord of the planet.

Flash forward to the end of the Great Hyperspace War, and this Dark Lord saw opportunity. Gathering most of the surviving Sith Lords on his planet, he then bent them to his will. With their power, he then enacted a ritual unlike any the universe had ever seen. Drawing on the power of the Dark Side, the Lord proceeded to drain the life out of everything on the planet. Every being, plant, and animal had their life drained and absorbed by the Lord. As a result, he became a nigh-immortal being known only as the Sith Emperor. Afterwards, he took the remaining Sith beyond known space and re-established the Sith Empire far from the Republic’s eyes.

The Mandalorian Wars were simply a means to weaken/test the Republic’s defenses, but thanks to Revan, that plan was thwarted. Unfortunately, Revan’s solution to this ancient threat was to attack it head on. Already slipping to the Dark Side, the Emperor easily bent Revan and Malak to his will. It was he who sent them back to find the Star Forge and serve as the vanguard to his galactic conquest centuries ahead of schedule. Luckily, they overcame his brainwashing through sheer willpower, but failed to break free of the Dark Side. Malak never did, while the Jedi inadvertently helped Revan to do so.

Revan’s Quest

After the Jedi Civil War, Revan regained more of his lost memories, including the secrets of the Sith. As a result, he chose to resume his quest to take down the Sith Emperor, leaving his wife Bastila and unborn child behind. He was captured and imprisoned by the Sith for years, while his equivalent of Artoo, T3-M4, went to look for help. Help that he found in the form of the Jedi Exile, Meetra Surik. After returning to Republic space, Meetra proceeded to help stabilize the Republic and defeat the remnants of Revan’s Sith Empire.

After leaving Malachor V, Meetra went to Coruscant to find Bastila, who had survived the purge along with her son, Vaner. Teethree then told them the truth about everything, with Meetra leaving to save her old friend. She raided the estate where he was held captive, found Revan, and gave him a gift in the form of his mask. Bastila had recovered it from his ship and kept it hidden for years. When he held the mask that had compelled him to start his journey, all of Revan’s memories returned at last. He was neither a Jedi nor Sith. Instead, he was a pure badass.

The Final Confrontation

Here’s the reason why I love Revan so much: after regaining all of his memories, he reached a mastery of the Force that few in Star Wars have ever achieved. He could use both the Light and Dark sides to their full extent, finding a balance within the Force itself. In other words, he’s what Anakin Skywalker could have been. What’s more, Revan had gained a new ally, a young Sith Lord named Scourge, who realized how great an evil the Sith Emperor was.

The Emperor’s plan wasn’t to conquer the Galaxy. Instead, he wanted to repeat the ritual that made him immortal on a galactic scale, making himself into a god. If that happened, nothing in the universe could oppose him. Thus, the four set out to end the Emperor before his insane plans could be realized.

However, even with their combined power, the group stood no chance against the ancient Sith Lord. Their Sith ally realized that they stood no hope of winning; the one who would vanquish the Emperor had yet to be born. Thus, Scourge betrayed his allies, killed Meetra, and allowed Revan to be captured once more. As a reward, the Emperor made Scourge his personal enforcer and immortal, undying Wrath.

The Old Republic Continues

Revan did not die at this moment, though. Instead, the Emperor put him in stasis for centuries, using him as a Force conduit to the light. However, Revan resisted with all his might, and would continue to resist for centuries to come.

Despite his suffering, though, Revan did manage to do one thing: making sure that his friends would never face the horrors of the Sith in their lifetime. Bastila, Carth, his son and many others were able to live their lives. As for Meetra’s pupils, they went on to rebuild the Jedi. Within three hundred years, the Republic and Jedi had come back from the brink. Thus we bring our coverage of the Old Republic Era to an end.

If you want to learn what happened next to Revan and the Sith Empire, then go play Star Wars: The Old Republic online game. It’s been out for nine years, so it’s covered the fates of the Emperor, Revan and more.

If you stuck with me for the last week, then I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I could have just given you links to Wookiepedia and told you to read it for yourself. But I felt doing that would be a disservice to so much incredible content that deserves to be remembered.

Happy Revenge of the Fifth, people. May the Force be with you!

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

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Star Wars: History Abridged Pt. 8- The Dark Wars Pt. 2

Hello, everyone, and happy May the Fourth. Hopefully you’ll have already read my review for the final episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars by now. There’s more, though. For the last week, I’ve been continuing my history abridged series for the Expanded Universe, covering the era of the Old Sith Wars. Today is the grand finale. If you’ve read my last posts, then you know the Galaxy’s in bad shape. The Jedi are on the brink of extinction, the Republic’s at death’s door, and the Sith are making it worse. However, there’s still one person left who can help. So, come with me and learn the story of the Jedi Exile.

If you haven’t played Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, then major spoilers ahead. Just saying.

The Jedi Exile

The woman known to history as the Jedi Exile was born Meetra Surik, and she spent her youth trained as a Jedi Padawan. She was strong in the Force, far stronger than some teachers gave her credit for. In addition, she was to unconciosuly use the Force to create powerful bonds with others, making her a natural leader and compassionate person. When the Mandalorian Wars broke out, she was one of the Jedi who followed Revan and Malak into battle. Next to Malak, she became Revan’s most trusted follower.

At the final battle of Malachor V, Revan entrusted Meetra with the superweapon that would wreck the planet. As a result of, she saw many of the friends she made die in front of her. It broke her, and she became the only Jedi to return to the Council to face judgement. They chose to exile her for what she did. In addition, they also seemed to sever her connection to the Force. she spent the next ten years wandering the Outer Rim. That is, until Revan’s friend Carth found her and brought her back to the Republic.

Hunted by the Sith

In 3,951 BBY, Meetra, aka the Jedi Exile, returned to Republic space. Naturally, this attracted the attention of many factions, including the Sith. Darth Sion and his Sith Assassins infiltrated the Republic ship she was on and came close to capturing her. However, she would be saved by none other than Darth Traya. Her students had turned on her, stripped her of the Force, and threw her out. Now she wanted revenge on them and saw the Jedi Exile as the key to that, and more.

With her new companions, along with several she picked up while on the run, she narrowly escaped the Sith. After returning to the Republic, she then set out on a quest to reunite the remaining Jedi Masters, take down the Sith, learn why she was exiled and why she was starting to regain her connection with the Force.

Journey of the Jedi Exile

With her new companions, Meetra began to travel to multiple worlds touched by the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War. While doing so, she ended up helping the locals out with a lot of problems that were keeping them from rebuilding. She also gained a few more companions in the process. Among them were Visas Marr, the lone survivor of Katarr and Nihilus’ apprentice, and Mandalore the Preserver. The latter was trying to rebuild his people after their defeat, and saw aiding the Republic as their best option.

After traveling to multiple planets and fending off Sith assassins and bounty hunters, events would reach a fever pitch on the familiar world of Onderon. It had been fifty years since the events surrounding Freedon Nadd and the Beast Riders. Now the planet was ruled by Oron Kira and Galia’s descendant, Talia. However, a growing force wanted Onderon to secede from the Republic. What no one knew was that these separatists were backed by the Sith.

Ulimately, Onderon became engulfed in a Civil War that the Exile and her companions found themselves caught in. On the moon of Dxun, the group worked with their Mandalorian allies to drive the Sith out of Nadd’s tomb, which they were using to bolster enemy with the Dark Side. Meetra herself led the counterattack that would save Talia and end the conflict in victory. As a bonus, she found the last Jedi Master she was looking for.

Revelations

With all the (still) living Jedi Masters found, Meetra returned to Dantooine to learn the truth about her exile and her regaining the Force. The revelations were pretty big.

As it turned out, the Council never took her connection to the Force. She did that herself at Malchor V. If she hadn’t, the backlash from feeling all her friends die would have killed her. As for how she could use it again, it was through her bonds with others. So the masters wanted to exile her again, for good. However, Kreia intervened.

Kreia had come to believe that the source of much of the Galaxy’s strife was the Force itself and sought to destroy it. And in the Exile, she saw a truth that the Jedi refused to believe: that people did not need to rely on the Force to survive. So, she slew the masters and abandoned the Exile before journeying to Malachor V.

Fall of the Triumvirate

After Kreia left her, Meetra learned what she was planning. The countless deaths at Malachor V had made it a wound in the Force. By expanding it, she could cut the Force off from the entire Galaxy. In other words, killing it. But doing so would probably kill countless beings in the process. So, they had to stop that. First, though, the Sith had to be dealt with.

Firstly, Meetra managed to slay Darth Nihilus when he came out of hiding to consume another planet. After that, the group traveled to what was left of Malachor V, took down the Sith assassins, and convinced Sion to let go of his hate and pass on. After that, she confronted and struck down Kreia/Darth Traya, and then reactivated the superweapon that destroyed Malachor V to destroy the planet, closing the wound in the Force.

The Jedi are Reborn

However, this is where the story of the Jedi Exile ends in Republic Space. with her dying breath, Kriea told Meetra the truth about what happened to Revan, why he became a Sith Lord, and why he had left after the Jedi Civil War. He had discovered that the Mandalorians were pawns for a much greater evil, lurking in depths of space. An evil so great, that Revan sought to prepare the Galaxy for it by any means necessary. It was this evil that he left to confront on his own, and now the Exile would follow in his footsteps.

Meetra didn’t leave the Republic unguarded, though. Many of her companions on this journey were Force-sensitive. She chose to pass on her knowledge and training to them before she left. These students of hers would rebuild the Jedi Order and the Republic in the decades to follow. Thus, the Old Sith Wars came to an end.

May the Fourth Be With You

I didn’t intend on making this post as detailed as it was. However, I found that the only way to give this story any credit was to dedicate a separate post to it. This isn’t the end of the story, though. There are some pretty crazy things left to tell you about the Mandalorian Wars, Revan, and the Exile. So, come back tomorrow for Revenge of the Fifth as I give you the epilogue to the Old Sith Wars.

May the Force be with you.

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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. 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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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!

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