Star Wars Legacies
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"Once, they were brothers in the Force; but the dark side turned them, Jedi against Jedi. The Jedi cast out their dark brethren—exiled them to the farthest corners of space. Yet, they never forgot the Jedi. The hatred for their former brothers was too strong; it burned in their hearts and echoed in their teachings. And so, from the hundred years that followed, the Sith were born."
—Journal of the Whills, 1:100
Pictured above: Early members of the Jedi Order gather to discuss the nature of the Force.
Over a thousand generations before the reign of Emperor Palpatine and the Lord Darth Vader, the Jedi Order was born in the watery cradle of Ahch-To. A collection of scholars, philosophers, and warriors united by their sensitivity to the Force, the early Jedi sought the guidance of the Force's light side and steadily gained a reputation as peacekeepers and mediators to whomever required their help.
But in the millennia that followed, not every Jedi was satisfied with the life of a peaceful monk. Others began to experiment, seeking strength from their most passionate emotions. These Jedi were rewarded with unparalleled strength and began to see themselves as warriors and conquerers, the naturally superior breed destined to rule over those untouched by the Force; thus, their rule would bring order, prevent war, and establish their own vision of "peace." They had unknowingly discovered the Force's dark side and became known by their skeptical brothers as the Dark Jedi.
Increasingly, the dark side made the Dark Jedi arrogant and violent. Their light brothers became worried that the darkness would consume them. Likewise, the Dark Jedi believed their light brethren too weak-willed and indecisive. They argued that the light side had made the Jedi soft and blinded them to the true nature of the Force. As tensions mounted, the Jedi called a conclave at their first temple on the Force-rich oceanic world of Ahch-To. There, the early Jedi Council forbid the usage of the dark side and expelled those who insisted on clinging to it; and thus, the history of the galaxy was forever changed.
The banished Jedi, called Exiles by their former brethren, did not take the insult kindly. Retreating to the galaxy's Outer Rim, the Exiles fully embraced the dark side of the Force and began to conquer, building armies and preparing for the moment they would be permitted to seek revenge on the Jedi Order. Decades passed, during which time the Exiles learned to mutate creatures with the dark side and animate the bones of the dead. With their army of slave soldiers and dark side abominations, the Exiles finally launched a brutal offensive on the Jedi. So began a war that would last a hundred years.
Pictured above: The Battle of Tython
The Jedi Order had not been idle in the decades their exiled brethren had been gone. The Order had more than doubled in size and built other centers of training and knowledge on worlds such as Tython and Ossus. Yet, they had no army. As a result, thousands of Jedi perished as the Exiles steamrolled their way into the Inner Rim, where they were delayed by the Grand Army of the Republic. Finally comprehending the threat their dark brethren posed to the galaxy, the Order reorganized and sent the new Jedi Guardians to assist the Republic in pushing back the exile menace.
The Exiles were not deterred. Their army of the dead marched on Tython and the ensuing battle saw the utter annihilation of the Jedi Temple; but the battle was a mistake. The then-Jedi Grandmaster Orus Fariya sacrificed himself to bring the great temple down around himself and the Exile generals, burying them alive. The resulting imbalance in the Force, caused by the battle, also triggered Tython's highly Force-sensitive weather patterns, summoning devastating Force storms that destroyed most of the Exiles' undead army and forced them to abandon whatever was left. The Jedi gathered their surviving warriors and used the chaos to push the Dark Jedi back to the Mid Rim.
The war of attrition that followed saw a considerable toughening of the Jedi Order, as the Order sought to right its role in the creation of the Exiles. Thousands, on both sides, died and many worlds were devastated as the two sides sought the utter elimination of the other. The rest of the galaxy, seeing the war as a "family feud," with Jedi on both sides, began to resent the Jedi and the Exiles alike. As a result, Force users were discriminated against with extreme prejudice and several criminal organizations, seeing an opportunity, put bounties on anyone wielding a lightsaber.
The war's climax occurred when the Jedi Guardians pushed their foes back to the sacred world of Ilum, where many Jedi harvested the kyber crystals that powered their lightsabers. The intent of both sides was to eradicate the other in a decisive victory that would end the war. To this end, the Exiles secured a massive kyber crystal and—using the same technique used to turn their lightsabers crimson—bled it, empowering it with the vast energies of the dark side. As if by design, a Jedi strike force, led by the new Grandmaster, Syresh Lapar, penetrated the Exiles' lines and reached the weapon. On the cusp of victory, the Jedi were not able to see the horror that was about to unfold; in what would have been their moment of triumph, the Grandmaster turned on his allies and took control of the crystal, unleashing its awesome power.
Pictured above: The Tragedy of Ilum
The blast decimated Jedi and Exile alike, leaving both orders on the brink of extinction. Shocked and grieved by the senseless deaths caused by the betrayal of their former leader, the remaining Jedi Guardians retreated from the galaxy to their stronghold on Jedha. The Tragedy of Ilum, as history would remember it, splintered the Jedi Order. While the Jedi Guardians remained on Jedha, intent on healing their broken Order, Jedi Consulars and Sentinels attempted to rally the Order to rebuild the galaxy that had been ravaged in the wake of their war, and protect the people from the lingering threats of the war. Others, like the Jedi Shadows, Crusaders, and Emmisaries, direct products of the tragedy, refused to wait for the Order to lick its wounds, instead intent on finishing the job once and for all, calling for the complete eradication of the Exiles.
The Exiles too recovered, though, like the Jedi, they too were fragmented and were led by various warlords rather than a single, strong leader. As they did, it quickly became apparent to both sides that traditional warfare would no longer benefit their causes. As a result, both sides sent their deadliest assassins to eliminate the other. The Jedi Shadows and the Exiles' assassins, then, became the central soldiers in a deadly shadow war that defined the final years of the Hundred-Year Darkness.
Pictured above: Gulla Hestilic Ujalli, Supreme Mogul of the Hutt Cartel
Meanwhile, the civil war amongst the Jedi removed a critical service of the Order for almost a century: their propensity to intervene on behalf of the galaxy's (particularly the Republic's) denizens, brokering alliances and keeping the peace, which had the side-effect of keeping crime in check. Without the Jedi to keep a watch on galactic crime organizations, the Hutt Cartel quickly rose to prominence in the Outer Rim.
One Hutt, Gulla Hestilic Ujalli, the head of a powerful kajidic known as the Hestilic, was named Supreme Mogul of the Hutt Cartel at the Hosko Conclave of Worms after strong-arming the other kajidic under his singular rule. Under his command, the Cartel engaged in a new era of piracy aimed at robbing the Republic of its precious trade routes, thus expanding the Cartel's influence. Under his control, the Hutts saw an unprecedented growth, the likes of which had not been seen since the ancient Hutt Empire.
And so the galaxy entered, arguably, one of its darkest eras. The light of the Jedi fading; the dark side, freshly born and growing in strength; and crime rampant. But the true threat, some argued, was still out there, hiding behind the veil of stars in the galaxy's Unknown Regions. Some horrific consequence of Ilum that still echoed its cold, empty waves across the Force. Something predatory and hungry, waiting for the perfect moment to strike and gorge itself on all life in the galaxy...
Pictured above: Alais Drast's Trial.
A deadly shadow war ensued after the Battle of IIum and, for many years, the galaxy attempted to rebuild while the Jedi Shadows and the Exile assassins fought for a final conclusion to the conflict in the background.
Though the Jedi Order found itself few and splintered, it's attention was caught by the actions of a young woman and her disturbing vision that they believed to be prophetic. It was a vision of her: Alais. A powerful ruler, reigning over the galaxy, wreathed in infinite darkness, or so the Jedi thought. The Jedi Council sentenced her to exile and attempted to cut her off from the Force, only to have her turn on them and kill Jedi Councilor Ryell Vao in a burst of lightning unusually powerful for her age. That day Alais escaped, determined to get her revenge on the Jedi order.
The young exile continued to gain the loyalty of other exile's as she lead several successful attacks on the Jedi; one attack was on the Ossus Temple. It was then that Alais took on a new name: Andraste. From there on she went from battle to battle, gaining men, support, assets and in 6903 BBY she claimed her superiority and became the Overlord of the Exile's. Her claim was met with little resistance; the Warlords that did not show up to support her were hunted down and replaced, further legitimatizing her rule.
With the Warlords firmly under her control and following her orders, Andraste unified her people, established relationships with the Outer Rim world of Mon Cala and a mutually-beneficial alliance with the Hutt Cartel. Meanwhile, her Warlords, Kravos, Leviticus and Cregan secured forces for her on Shu-Torun, Mandalore and Zygerria, while the Warlord Siris usurped The Eternal, securing the allegiance of the mysterious Exile's military forces.
Pictured above: The Sith Throne
With a sufficient military force under the Overlord's thumb, and a burgeoning fleet beginning to be built on Mon Cala, she turned her eyes towards the Stygian Caldera. Her forces first encountered the mysterious alien species, called the Sith, on Malachor and Dromund Kaas. There, they discovered ancient maps leading them to the Sith Worlds: Korriban, Moraband and Ziost.
Seeking to settle and finally establish her empire, Andraste led her forces to the twin worlds of Korriban and Moraband, where she defeated and killed the Sith king and her followers usurped the ruling caste of Sith. Styling themselves as "Lords of the Sith," with Andraste as their Empress, the Sith Kingdom became the Sith Empire and the Jedi Exiles transformed into the Sith Order...
As the Sith rose, they continued their century-long conflict with the Jedi Order. Meanwhile, the Sith signed a treaty with the Hutt Cartel and the Republic voted to stay out of the Jedi and Sith conflict. Signing a NAP with the Sith and forcing the Jedi to sign it too. The NAP put the Jedi Order in an even weaker spot.
One-by-one, the Jedi Council began to fall until all that remained were Jedi Masters Shivaaga, Corliss, and Wyck. Cadef Sige was elected the Jedi Grand Master around the same time, but his reign was short, as a betrayal on Jedha led to the Skyward Sword, a recently obtained Jedi frigate, turning on the Order and destroying the Jedha temple's hangar with Sige inside at the time. Sige's death finally propelled the remnants of the Jedi Order into action. Masters Fennex Zeerda and Jon Atreides led an expedition to reclaim Ellora: an ancient Jedi world in the Unknown Regions. Jedi Master Imani Sage led a successful effort to reclaim the Jedi heart-world Tython, in the Deep Core.
After rebuilding their temple on Tython, the Jedi voted Wyck to Grand Master of the order. And the Jedi flourished under Wyck's leadership. He set out and successfully forged an alliance with Burnin Konn—striking a deal to have their shipyards reactivated for the Jedi Order—and started to fill the empty seats on the Jedi Council.
Pictured above: The Grand Army of the Republic
Even though the Republic signed a NAP with the Sith, they still voted to rearm their forces. It was a smart move as havoc ensued shortly after. An assassination attempt on Supreme Chancellor Mori Valorum sent shockwaves through the Republic, though to some it was not a surprise because of her support of the NAP and friendliness with the Sith Empire. Mori Valorum stepped down shortly after, in fear of her life and her peoples health. In light her stepping down, the Republic voted a new Supreme Chancellor: Admiral Vincent Deryck. His discussion with the Empress after his election was rocky as she did not like how friendly the Republic had been getting with the Jedi, but it resulted in no hostile actions taking place.
Shortly after, Queen Lucille was found to be the culprit behind the death of her mother and the last Queen of Alderaan, in addition to a testimony that indicated her relationship with the Cartel. The Republic acted on the news swiftly, launching an attack on the wayward Queen. The assault only raised hostilities between the Republic and Hutt Cartel and plummeted Alderaan, a Republic world, into civil war.
With everything coming to a head, the Hutts officially attacked the Republic. Prompting a senate meeting resulting in a vote to go to war with the Hutt Cartel. At the same time, the Empress called a Dark Council meeting and also voted to go to war with the Hutt Cartel because the Republic, under the guise of the Hutt Cartel, had begun to strategically attack the Empire, framing Nem'ro's as the commander behind them.
Slowly, the Galaxy slipped back into war...