RJ Writing Ink

Star Wars: History Abridged Pt 5

Continuing our countdown to ‘May the Fourth’ and ‘Revenge of the Fifth,” I keep covering the Old Sith Wars era of Star Wars. My last three posts were about the Great Sith War that saw the return of the Sith and the Jedi put to the test. In the end, they won the won, but at a high cost. As they and the Republic looked to rebuild, though, a familiar threat emerged beyond their borders. That of the Mandalorians Wars.

Rise of Mandalore the Ultimate

In my last entry, I wrote how the Mandalorians got their butts kicked at Onderon in the last days of the Great Sith War. Now I wish to elaborate: after being pushed back, Mandalore the Indomitable had his warriors retreat to Dxun. However, he crashed far from help and got killed by the local predators. A scout out searching for him found his remains helmet. In accordance with his people’s customs, he claimed it for himself, becoming the new Mandalore, Mandalore the Ultimate.

As his first act, Mandalore the Ultimate sought to wipe away the stain of defeat from the Great Sith War. He united his scattered people and grew their ranks by recruiting warriors of all races and creeds. Beyond the borders of the Republic, he trained his new armies in the Mandalorian way. Then, around 3,976 BBY, he sicced them on the Outer Rim. 

For the next ten years, the Mandalorians took every world they could get their hands on. With each victory, they grew in size, strength, and skill. By 3,966 BBY, they had reached the borders of the Republic. Battles between the two sides broke out along the border world of Taris. It was only a matter of time before the Mandalorian Wars would escalate.

The Mandalorian Wars Proper

After several months of stalemate, the Mandalorians broke through Republic lines around Taris and forced the Republic into retreat. Multiple fronts were opened along Republic space as Mandalore’s warriors struck deep into Republic territory. Entire worlds were nuked, burned, and otherwise wrecked.

Now, you’re wondering where the Jedi are during all this? Protecting people is part of their job. Well, after the Great Sith War, they didn’t want to get involved in another war. They were still healing from the damage Exar Kun did. However, not all of them thought that way.

The Rise of Revan

One vocal critic of the Jedi’s neutrality was a young Jedi Knight whose name remains unknown. What’s known is that he was one of the most powerful of the Jedi, was very charismatic, and had a strong moral compass. And with his best friend, Alek, he began to draw other Jedi with similar feelings. 

This “Revanchist” as the media dubbed him, gained more and more traction as he spoke out against the Jedi Council. Frustrated, the Council confronted the Revanchist on the (abandoned) planet Cathar and told him to stand down. That’s when he found an old Mandalorian mask in the dirt, and when he picked it up, it triggered a mass Force vision.

In the Great Sith War, the feline-like Cathar had bested the Mandalorians, and they held a grudge for it. When they reached their planet, they proceeded to kill every last Cathar they could find; 90% of them, wiped out. That mask belonged to a Mandalorian warrior who objected to the genocide and was killed for it.

Outraged beyond all reason, this Jedi donned the mask, took on the name Revan, and vowed not to rest until the Mandalorians were stopped. 

The Tide Begins to Turn

Meanwhile, the Mandalorian Wars were not going well. Despite a few victories, nothing seemed to be able to stop them. By 3,962 BBY, they had gotten as far as the Core. That was as far as they’d get. Under the leadership of Revan and Alek (now called Malak), the Jedi joined the war effort and began to push the Mandalorians back.

As it turned out, Revan was a genius at the art of war, creating masterful strategies and meeting the invaders with such aggression, even the Mandalorians were left in awe. Under his leadership, the Republic began to push the enemy back, retaking the worlds they had lost before pushing the Mandalorians back into their own territory. 

These actions made Revan and Malak heroes to the Republic, but as the war dragged on, it began to change them. Every battle would harden their hearts, making them more ruthless. Eventually, they became almost as violent as the enemy they sought to defeat. Years later, this would cost the Galaxy in ways few could imagine.

Final Victory at Malachor V

By 3,960 BBY, Revan had thrust deep into Mandalorian territory. At the ancient Sith world of Malachor V, Mandalore the Ultimate and his people made their last stand. Revan personally boarded the Mandalorian leader’s flagship and slew him in single combat. Meanwhile, as the battle began to reach a stalemate, one of Revan’s generals activated a device that weaponized the planet’s own gravity. Thousands of ships were pulled down from the sky, driving themselves deep into the planet’s crust. Battered and beaten beyond measure, the Mandalorian people unconditionally surrendered. 

The Mandalorian Wars ended in victory for the Republic, with the Mandalorians being dealt a blow they’d never recover from. Their people scattered across the Galaxy to survive, with their descendants becoming the bounty hunters and warriors we know from the films.

As for Revan himself, he didn’t return from Malachor V. Instead, he took his fleet into deep space in search of remnants of the Mandalorians. For a time, they were not heard from, with many fearing the heroes of the Republic to be dead. They weren’t. A year later, they would return, but not as heroes. But that’s a story for another day.

Pretty amazing story, huh? I like this because it introduces my all time favorite Star Wars character Revan. Come back tomorrow to learn why he’s my favorite.

If you want to learn more about the start of the Mandalorian Wars, read the Knights of the Old Republic series by Dark Horse Comics.  

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. Especially my posts on the Siege of Mandalore, the final arc of Star Wars the Clone Wars

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.