Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Insolent insect! Report Immediately to your overseer for execution! Our Empire is Infinity itself. Finite matter cannot outlast what the stars themselves have ordered. You clearly have shown yourself out of your senses and thus of no use to anyone.

A droid of the Infinite Empire, responding to an archaeologist when told the Empire had fallen.

The Bendu seek to understand the Force in all her forms; to be immersed in both Light and Dark without being swayed to the excesses of either the one or the other. The Bendu is to beware of those who seek to form attachments and make themselves slaves to their compassion.

Bendu Holocron, stating their mission to the Galaxy

Why should I restrain myself to serve the needs of my inferiors? The Force is my birthright, to command as I see fit. My power elevates me over those who are weaker. Let those who would impose upon my sovereignty come and challenge me: I shall take them, and my victory will be proof that I am right!

Rajivari, The Dark Prophet and originator of the Dark Acolytes, whose heirs would go on to form the Sith

We, the Jeedai, do hereby separate ourselves from the Order of the Bendu Monks, and commit ourselves to the cause of peace and justice. In exile, we have meditated upon the question of responsibility, and it is our conclusion that the duty of care cannot be abrogated. The Force, which is the Light, calls upon us to serve its will, and to root out the corruption, which is the Dark. We return with new understanding. There is no emotion when peace prevails; there is no ignorance where knowledge spreads; there is no passion where serenity reigns. Harmony, within ourselves and throughout the galaxy, shall banish all chaos. And we have learned the ultimate truth: there is no death, only the Force. The fear of death is senseless to those who embrace the Light. We therefore take it upon ourselves to spread this Light to all the galaxy. We will not obey cruel edicts; we will not be without compassion. On the contrary: we will extend compassion to all, and in so doing we will banish the Dark.

The initial statement of the First Jeedai Council, upon breaking with the Bendu Monks

From here, our glorious destiny shall be forged. We, the dark denizens of the universe, have found our home. Across the galaxy we have travelled, assembling the worthy in our mission to find a home among the stars -- and now the Dark side has called us here. We shall make our home here, on the world of the Sith, and break the last of our chains in order to begin our true ascent.

Ajunta Pall, Herald to Rajivari and leader of the Sith on arrival upon Korriban

“There is a natural hierarchy, which is self-evident for all with eyes to see. As you can see, it is self-evident that I am victorious, basking in the sun and eating what I will. It is self-evident that you are defeated and at my mercy, your son, in chains, brings me my food, your peasants die to build my glorious city. It is self-evident that the valiant Weeqay farm your lands and hold your chains because they obey my command. In time, the whole galaxy shall come to this natural order.”

Hutt Lord Gondora to the defeated Twi'lek King Vor'aan Von Shoare

"Engorged mud-swine! You think to treat us in the manner of your docile house slaves? You think this is a province already conquered? This is no region where you have any authority! This is Desevro!"

Desevran General Leontisk to Hutt Envoys, rejecting their peace offer

“Soon, with the Hutts pushed off their throne, and the rest of the Galaxy rid of vermin, my Empire shall take shape. The Tionese, ruling over the non-Tionese. The Triumph of the Warrior over the Slug. As all things were always meant to be.”

Xim the Despot, on the verge of total defeat above the planet Vontor at the Hands of Boonta the Hutt.

“A free people, worthy of the most glorious jewel in galactic history, a jewel they built through their hard work, and their virtue”

President Elana Davos of the Coruscanti Assembly, explaining the glory of the Corucscanti People.

“Nobility, forged of martial glory and philosophical wisdom, is the way of our brave, green, and blue planet; a glorious world, led by the wisest in law and the best in battle.”

King Jahan Panteer the Fourth of Alderran, in a letter to the Jedi Council.

“Nobility, democracy, bah. The talk of princes and fools; we Corellians are made of sterner stuff. We will venture where none has ventured before and come back richer than them all.”

Corellian Trader and Adventurer Daran Sal Reinan

“It would be sad and heartless, to see such a great conflagration only set the stage for continued strife and war, rather than Peace. We must not allow it, for the sake of the Force, for the sake of the Galaxy”

Grand Master Jora Awdyrsta on the Conclusion of the Coruscanti-Alderranian Contention.

“Recognizing the inalienable right of man and woman, of all species, to be free and live within a peaceful, well ordered state, this Republic is established to defend these rights and to thereby bring peace and prosperity to the people of the galaxy…

The Introduction of the Constitution of the First Galactic Republic

From here in the Core, the font of Civilization flourishes. Such a well ordered government, founded by a wise species, who have made up from the fires of war to forge a common understanding based on our shared forms of Government up men is truly a blessing. For which other species would come up with the wisdom of the populace having a say, while checked by a wise aristocracy,

Constitutional Scholar, Jace Volredan upon the foundation of the First Republic.

“None of you possess what it takes to lead us into the future, you lack vision or purpose beyond conquest and war. Our Order must be more! You want the throne? You want to be the Dark Lord? Take it through fire and cunning! To the Darkness!”

The Rajivari Holocron starting the Dark Succession Wars in the aftermath of Ajunta Palls death

"It seems that I am the worthiest, father..."

Marka Ragnos to his father, Lord Ratish, upon his ascension to Apprentice at the age of eight

Peace is a lie,There is only Passion,
Through Passion I gain Strength,
Through Strength I gain Power,
Through Power I gain Victory,
Through Victory My Chains are Broken,
The Force shall set me Free…

The Sith Code as set out by the Dark Lord Marka Ragnos.

1.The Galactic Republic shall recognise the Holdings of the Hutt Dominion and her alliances as true legitimate expressions of the Rim forthwith..

2. The Hut Dominion shall respect the Territorial integrity of the Republic and her allies systems and shall cease all extra territorial activity to enslave Republic or Republic Ally Citizens.

The Rendilli Concordat, establishing a lasting peace Between the Hutt Dominion and First Republic.

"Peace at what price? How many thousands of worlds have you condemned to chains and slavery?"

Rogue Jedi Grand Master, Geenderal on the Rendili Concordant

"I stand here as Unifier and Empress, the master of the waves, heir of the noble blood of Great Desevro. It is only proper for all this world to recognize my right to rule. Let my name ring out in a billion voices!"

Aneia Teta, upon conquering the Koros System and subsequently renaming it after herself.

Master Renasisus and the Corellian Conclave have grievously erred on the notion of attachment to land and planet over that of the Whole Body of the Galaxy and the Force....

Tython Jedi Council addressing the growing rift with the Corellian Enclave

Why face down the weak fools of the Jedi and Republic, why go after things out forefathers threw away to Dust..I say if you look for a true challenge it is time to go into the Unknown! Find challenge and Seize it there!

Lord Ludo Kressh to the assembly of Darkness making his case against Naga Sadow and his plan to conquer the Galaxy.

The Sith are some of the gentlest, kindest people I've ever seen in the Galaxy. True they are primitive but they have accomplished so much in these conditions. Lord Naga is truly one of the more enlightened leaders I have ever seen.

Gav Daragon, writing of the Sith as a guest of Naga Sadow.

These fools have only doomed their civilization, for within the fortnight, us Sith shall correct the historical error that the Jedi are and our men shall be ruling over the greatness of Coruscant, the skulls of senators as our cups. So glorious and so near I can taste it…

Dark Lord Naga Sadow as he prepared to conquer the Republic using the maps the Dragon Twins had provided them.

“Oh my sweet daughter Reneia…Lost to the barbarians…a future stolen. A grieving father waits still to embrace you in his arms”

A poem by Corellian Master Renasuis on the loss of his daughter to Sith Warriors

“By the Force, the flames, all I can sense is the flames.”

A Miruluka Jedi on the Blitz of Coruscant, above the bombarded Districts.

“We will not make the same mistake. This time we will pursue the Sith to the ends of the Galaxy and rip them out, root and branch, to save the Galaxy.

Jedi Grand Master Gennderal after the devastation of Tython

POWER! GLORIOUS POWER!

Naga Sadow cackling in triumph at his Jedi Foes as he is set to release the Thought Bomb on Ziost

Greetings, seeker. I am Master Olana Chion of the Jedi Order. At the behest of Grand Master Luke Skywalker, I have become the head of this concerted effort to reconstruct our historical archives, after the loss of many records during the Purge. It is up to you, seeker, as a Jedi, to ensure that none of this knowledge is left to be forgotten ever again. This shall be our first part in shaping the Great Holocron, looking at the times of Ancient History, from the emergence of Galactic Civilization to the Great Sith War. May the Force be with me, as I desire to keep my words true, and to help teach anyone, be they younglings or masters, of this venerable past.

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Who the hell are you?

Earl Warren or DukeEarl for this Website here, I've been a long time lurker on this site and a long time Star Wars Legends fan, and a writer in other places.

What is this?

It's a reposting of a personal fanverse for Star Wars Legends, through the lens of historiography. Im making a redux which will keep a great deal of text from previous versions

Isn’t this a reformatting of your old posts?

“Err…Yess…(hides quickly)

I would like to credit a number of people.

First, and foremost, I would like to credit Skallagrim, Kaiser Chris, and Dptullos for helping me with this project through editing, cowriting and their own contributions. Without it, the project would not be the versatile machine it is.

I would also like to credit Gerbbro from years ago for helping make this a thing by her old Star Wars Head Cannon inspiring me to write my own ideas down. Thank you very very much.

I would also like to shout out to two wonderful Authors on here, Emperor Norton 150 and HopefulPeinguin for their great work and inspiring me to polish up and post it on here.

I really hope you enjoy the ride and that I will in fact get further. Aside from that, on with the show!!!

Chapter Text

Introduction and Rakkata Civilization:

To get the true roots of our history, we must go back to the beginnings of recorded interstellar travel around 4,000 years ago. Before that point, the many species of the galaxy were scattered across the stars, each settled in their individual systems, consumed with their own individual quest for civilization. Among most species, knowledge of the Force was limited to only a handful. Only in particularly talented species (like the Miraluka, whose sight comes completely from the Force), and on worlds naturally steeped in the Force, was Force-sensitivity more widespread. Out of these places and species, two would arise and leave their everlasting mark upon the galaxy.

There is a saying: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. While it is a faulty saying to say the least, Power reveals as much as it corrupts and there have been plenty of powerful individuals throughout history, from Nomi Sunrider to Grand Master Luke himself, who have been shining emblems of the Light -- there is a core of truth in it. Because power is difficult to wield responsibly. Power that is improperly wielded, or improperly taught, can be a dangerous thing indeed. And therein lies the essence of the grim history of the Rakkatan Civilization.

Born on the dangerous jungle world of Lehon, the Rakkata were beset by the Dark Side, and came to totally embrace it. The Rakkata leap-frogged far ahead of other species, using their Dark powers to advance their technology of war and space-travel, fueling their campaigns of conquest and bringing immeasurable horror to countless victims. Acting as a culture of intelligent predators, the Rakkatans jumped from one planet to the other, using their command of the Force and their immensely powerful technology to kill and to enslave. Their victims, they used in Dark rituals -- among other things, to fuel their Force-based technology -- and as slaves to build their great monuments.

It its peak, the Rakkatan Infinite Empire stretched out across a vast swathe of the Galaxy, from the Core to the Rim. In their empire-building, they brought about vast diasporas, transporting their slave races from one end of the galaxy to the other as they saw fit. As enslaved races built the grand projects of Empire (such as the Star Forge, to maintain the Empire's impenetrable fleets, and the city-planet of Coruscant, to serve as a capital for the Empire), the enslaved races mixed and mingled, creating new hybrid populations. The oppressed servant peoples were deliberately kept uneducated and were indoctrinated to believe that their overlords were gods.


For a thousand years, this darkness reigned, keeping the galaxy’s peoples in misery and oppression, until -- as the servants of the Dark Side always do -- the Rakkatans overreached. In their quest for domination over yet more space, and to crush a series of particularly troubling revolts, the Rakkata developed a hideous virus. It was designed to kill species in a very specific manner as to cause their body to rip itself apart from the inside out, and it was made to target a specific species. The intent was to create a deadly plague that could be modified into strains, each targeting one or more species that they wished to exterminate.

How it came to pass that the disease turned on the Rakkata themselves is unknown, but it did. Some theorize that a civil war -- of the sort that always breaks out among those who are addled by the perverse ambitions of the Dark Side --led to a situation where some spiteful potentate, in defeat, unleashed it upon those who had crushed him. Others suspect that an attempt was made to design a strain that would only kill certain Rakkata, but it ended up mutating into a form that killed them all. The suggestion has been raised that a strain of the virus was accidentally released from the lab before it could be matured with test subjects. And some simply view the whol cataclysm as the Force itself punishing the Rakkata for their many crimes. (Quite a few religious traditions among the erstwhile slave races take that last view.)

Whatever the cause, the disease spread throughout the galaxy like wildfire and killed the Rakkatta in their billions. Seeing their Masters' weakness at long last, the slaves threw off their chains and turned on the false gods. Throughout the Galaxy, Masters already overcome by sickness were massacred in their beds by long-abused slaves who thirsted for justice and vengeance. The old order came crashing down as the empire's dark technology was rendered helpless. Truly, to say that madness and anarchy were unleashed would be an understatement.

The Rakkata were wiped out, and in a startlingly short span of time, but their legacy would live on. The peoples they had kidnapped and transported across the stars would build new societies -- particular in the Core, where Humans were soon predominant. Although much of the Rakkatan technology had ceased to function or was otherwise lost to the mists of time, the technology of space travel was preserved on many worlds. This would soon launch thousands of new civilizations forward, upward... outward. Into space they went, to settle new worlds. A wild new era had begun.

                                                                                                                                                                                      Tython, her people and the beginning of the Jeedai and Dark Acoyltes                                                     

 

One of the peoples the Rakkata disease had been meant to exterminate, as it happens, was the diverse group that we may call our spiritual ancestors: the inhabitants of Tython. This secluded world was unique and beautiful, filled with every sort of terrain imaginable, from Volcanic mountains to the famous green plains where most of its people lived. Hidden from the Rakkata by the star-masses of the Deep Core, Tython enjoyed a tranquil peace unsullied by their presence.

The other thing which made Tython unique was that the planet itself was a Force Nexus, where Light and Dark clashed in energetic waves and flurries. This conflict, ingrained to nature, affected everything on the planet -- from the terrain to the people. How those people first came to live there remains highly debated upon. Coming from many species which had yet to contact each other -- from Humans to Mon Calamari to Ancient Sith purebloods (the species, not to be confused with that Dark Order) -- the one thing they had in common was an innate sensitivity to the Force. Spread all throughout their world, they witness the clash of Dark and Light, and formed many religions around its use. However, one eventually began to dominate.

The Order of the Bendu Monks was devoted to an interpreation of the Force that we now know to be flawed; one they described as "Balance in all things". They believed that in order to successfully thrive within the Force, one must not allow either the Dark or Light Side to successfully take hold of one's allegiances; that one must suppress emotions which would cause either excessive anger or excessive compassion. Quickly, their ideals began to spread, and through a combination of conversion from peoples desperate to escape the constant conflict within themselves and outright military conquest, the once-humbed order of monks came to reign over the vast majority of habitable land on the planet.

For hundreds of years, the Bendu reigned in this fashion, keeping a false balance, isolated from the Galaxy and the Rakkata. This could not last, however. The Rakkata came at last, finally discovering the hidden planet and a way to reach it. Yet unlike other species, who were easily conquered by the might of the Rakkata fleet, the Bendu waged a cunning and ferocious campaign of resistance. They drew the enemy fleet into the system itself, and through the Force, they turned the Rakkata's very own technology against them. It was a terrible war. Ancient records show at least half the Bendu died in the conflict, but in the end, they were victorious. The Rakkata were driven off, and fell to their self-made plague before they could unleash it upon the surviving Bendu.

The gruesome war, however, had unleashed wild passions among the Bendu. Many had wholeheartedly thrown themselves into the Dark Side during the war, to help them face off against their foes and give them strength, while the Light Side crept into the souls of many as the love for their comrades and the desire to heal the countless wounded inspired them. The plague and the subsequent collapse of the Rakkata empire only heightened these issues, and debate raged over how to deal with the new chaotic state of Tython and the wider galaxy. The Light Siders desired to act as peaceful agents, while the Dark Siders desired conquest. Both approaches went against the wishes of the oldest Bendu Masters, who advocated a return to self-imposed isolation. To deal with the division in their ranks, the Bendu Order ordered the Tradition of Exile to be instituted. Those who strayed from the Balance or expressed other dissenting opinions were cast out into the wilds, to face their opposite emotions. Far from bringing the exiles back to the Balance, this ultimately consolidated them into new and separate factions.

In the Dark Volcanoes of Kaleth, the Students of Light were led by Learned scholar Awdrysta Pina, a teacher and healer who had done his best to help the people recover from the war, both physically and psychologically. He was initially tasked with restoring the Balance within his students to the liking of the Masters, but as his healing progressed, he quickly came to the inescapable truth: the Balance of the Bendu was impossible to maintain without psychopathic levels of non-attachment. This was not something he was willing to let his charges embrace again.

Instead, he began bringing his students to the Light and was inevitably exiled. Leading the Light Siders, Awdrysta meditated with them until the storm in their hearts stilled. They lived in peace, and delved into the nature of the Force and their place within its cosmic order. It is here that they ultimately chose to outright reject the Dark Side. Likewise, the dismissed the false equation of the Bendu, finding that a compromise between good and evil would only ever be to the benefit of evil. They organized the first Jeedai Council of yore, with Awdrysta as the first Grand Master. With this, they permanently separated from the Bendu Order, to embrace the principles of compassion, healing and duty to others, and to spread that throughout the galaxy.

The story was much different with the Dark Siders. Festering in bitterness over their exile, they strongly desired revenge on the Bendu, and domination on the whole of Tython. One man managed to distill this anger into a doctrine. Rajivari was a veteran commander of the war against the Rakkata. During the war, he had ultimately engaged in a ruthless philosophy of no mercy, instructing his troops not to tend to wounded, to never take prisoners, and to exploit their anger to the fullest extent. Immensely powerful in the Force, he became distinguished in personal combat where he took out his unrivaled bloodlust on his foes. He already had a wide group of followers from his days as a General, and his charisma was unmatched. He took command of the Dark Siders, destroying his sole competition, the Sorceress XoXaan. She had been a Healer, who had been driven mad by the loss of her husband and turned her skills to devising poisons and other chemical weapons against the Rakkata.

Unusually by his standards, Rajivari spared XoXaan's life upon defeating her, and took her on as one of his acolytes. Proclaiming a doctrine of social competition, strength and complete domination, Rajivari took command of his dark acolytes and in one decisive stroke began the Force Wars. Setting upon the capital of the Bendu under the cover of night, the Dark Acolytes slaughtered all those who would not submit to them bloodletting from the most savage pages of history. The Bendu never recovered from this assault, their remnants either fleeing to the moons around Tython or to the Jeedai (by whom they were ultimately absorbed).

It is recorded that in the Jeedai Council, there was much debate over what to do. Of course, all were horrified by the slaughter of the Bendu Order, but after the horrors of the Rakkata invasion, many did not want to ever go to war again. It was pointed out by some that Rajivari was a far more experienced commander, and with the Bendu he had subjugated he vastly outnumbered the Jeedai. Others pointed with outrage at the shameless atrocity, and at the Code they had established. Did it not demand that they face the Dark and protect the innocent from its terrors? It fell to the Grand Master to break the stalemate of the Council. Awdrysta did so with a famous proclamation:

"Our enemy will not stop. Nothing short of complete control will ever satisfy the Dark, because the Dark thrives on a selfish and spiteful greed. We face a foe who would, if he had the power, eclipse all the stars and plunge every single world into the howling void. If the Light is to prevail, it will be because we, its servants, prove ready to defend it. It is tempting to wait, but that is fear speaking -- and fear is yet another of the enemy's instruments. We must have hope. We must spark the Light within ourselves, first of all. The Light is our courage, and bearing it in our hearts, we will make a stand against evil!"

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As we have already seen, the Core Renaissance was sparked by the intensified contact between various worlds. Their opening up to interplanetary trade allowed resources, technology, ideas and wealth to spread rapidly. This was the basis for a wave of expansion, as the peoples of the various planets expanded and colonized new worlds. In the process, many old internal disputes (often fought over scarce resources) became meaningless: there were whole worlds to be won out there. Corellian trade companies primarily pioneered all these efforts, skilled Corellian pilots using their home world's unique position between various stars as a good navigation point chart safe courses past obstacles, mapping the way for others to follow. The profit-minded Corellian council was very willing to veritably drown promising mercantile enterprises in credits in order to gain contact with ever more worlds. (And in return, the council got to dictate the lucrative terms of many a new trade agreement.)

The Jedi (having shortened their name to the now-familiar form by this point) were no less active, albeit with quite more selfless motives. Primarily seeking to spread their knowledge, as well as to learn from the peoples of other worlds, many a Jedi found his way onto the exploration ships. Indeed, they were welcome additions to any crew, because they were often instrumental in diplomatic talks and establishing good relations. In return, the Corellian merchant marine ensured that Jedi were always welcome in any spaceport under the terms of their trade agreements. Under the Corellian economic charter of the time, killing a Jedi was one of the few crimes that warranted the highest possible sanction: universal economic boycott and embargo.

The Jedi of course also had the Force as their ally, guiding them past dangers which even the Corellian navigators had difficult avoiding, thus providing a fine first impression to those they met. This was yet another reason for all explorers to always think favorably of the Jedi. Standard policy of the Order was to have one group of Jedi Masters and students stay behind and set up a conclave to provide training for a world's Force sensitives (often in various stages of awakening to their abilities) and services for her people. They would provide navigational buoys which would run all the way back to Tython itself and connect communications between other Jedi enclaves, spreading knowledge and culture -- often providing the first steps to peace and global unification, which is so crucial for the steps needed to get a people off the surface and up into space.

The expansion of the Core's economic interaction sphere soon saw unprecedented affluence in the region. Wealth that no one world could have achieved on its own was created, and all sorts of new ideas spread across the spacelanes. As often happens in history, when one world can trade with another they both gain access not just to increased wealth and resources, but to all sorts of cultural and intellectual influences. The cultural exchange of the Core Renaissance influenced all the peoples involved in it, as new ideas from other systems took root on many worlds; ideas that would not ordinarily have achieved prominence if there hadn't been interplanetary contact. It was in this way that certain ideals of Alderaanian Humanism quickly took hold among many elites, and it was in the same manner that countless other things spread out, such as the martial arts of the Echani and their philosophy of expression through battle.

The Renaissance-era drive towards colonization and expansion also evolved into a great wandering of peoples. More than just colonization, entire peoples took to the stars, often intermingling and forming new cultures. Long before, the Rakkata had forced such developments: now they occurred in a more natural, voluntary way. Whether to relieve population pressures on their worlds of origin, to gain resources or indeed just for the thrill, billions would start settling on previously unexplored planets and build new societies. At first most of them were beholden to their benefactors back in the home planet, but most grew increasingly independent as time passed. This was especially the cases as populations merged and the ongoing cross pollination of ideas proceeded steadily. This forged new identities; new peoples.

Moreover, the difficulties of the typical colonial settlement in its early stages, and the shared hardships of this rough existence, tended to produced hardy people. Rugged societies arose, used to self-reliance, and subsequently fond and proud of their own independence. Many settlers came to consider their home worlds a bit soft, and more distant: full of people who could not have much understanding of their struggles on the frontier. Many worlds we all know -- Anaxes, Kuat, Chandrila and Alsakan -- were settled in this time period. (It is strange indeed, to think of such genteel Core Worlds as "rugged frontier settlements", yet that is what they were back then!)

Sadly, the time of peace and prosperity could not last forever. The same mechanism of expanding markets and new settlement, which had led to the cessation of many old hostilities on the participating worlds themselves, would soon prove to be a spark for conflict between those worlds. Almost immediately in this curious game of expansion and trade, Coruscant and Alderaan found themselves at odds. Their mutual enmity was to some extent rooted in an ideological distaste for the other's systems of government, but there was also the more prosaic issue of material needs.

Simply put: to stay afloat and keep the Coruscant running, the city planet needed vast amounts of resources and food, which could only be acquired via access to the open Galactic market, and particularly through colonial outposts to straight up exploit numerous agrarian worlds. The interplanetary expansion had put an end to the risk of starvation, allowing the Coruscant population to boom. This vast populace's very survival now relied on the constant arrival of food and resources. More than simply an economic interest, this was an existential condition upon which Coruscant was dependent.

Meanwhile, the Panteer dynasty of Alderaan already had ambitions at exercising power -- at least indirectly -- over the entire Core itself, and had her own needs to attend to. Specifically, the Alderaanian economy was stuck in a budget crunch. To maintain aristocratic rule, Delant had introduced a wide ranging series of policies. Specifically, a massive campaign of infrastructure works to connect and change Alderran into a more connected society for increased prosperity, and a expansive and intricate social welfare system which provided for the citizens on the bottom rungs of society. However, running this kind of welfare system for all of Alderaan and its dependencies was in no way cheap, and not at all helped by the Byzantine nature of Alderranian Taxation policies, which included many pocket exceptions for this or that community, and the Nobility and many loopholes to run through. The Monarchy would work endlessly to untangle this web but faced endless resistance from the nobility as to how to change there royal system. They did succeed in implementing increased tax levels on the Commons and tariffs on businesses, but even these tariffs could be avoided easily with "special economic zones", colonies which while giving large percentages of profit to the Alderranian Monarchy, in order to maintain a business-friendly environment would cut all tariffs on goods and encourage workers with the prospect of Freedom from increasing taxes, even as they received significant chunks of welfare.

The problem was that many of the working poor were moving en masse to the new colonies, specifically to the "special economic zones", where they mostly escaped taxation, while their families on Alderaan still claimed economic benefits. All possible options proved difficult te carry out. Eliminating the special economic zones would allow broader taxation but would drive away business in a heartbeat. Lowering taxes would mean cutting back on social welfare and infrastructure spending, risking mass social unrest. Trying to cut the families of those who did untaxed labour similarly risked riots and instability. Taking on the Nobles would be difficult, time consuming and even risk possible replacement of the dynasty by popular or unpopular means. Alderaan was in a bind. To make matters worse: increasingly more Alderaani workers left the Alderaanian economic sphere altogether, working in Corellian and Coruscanti colonies instead (often while their families still claimed welfare back on Alderaan).

The Royal Budgetary Office projected that the only option to resolve the impasse in a timely manner would be to double down on expansion. Exploitation of more colonies could easily create a budget surplus. The plan was to give entire worlds in trust to aristocratic houses, who in exchange for a loss of special tax emption and a larger sum of revenue given would gain worlds of there own to rule and larger wealth. The revenue would pay for universal welfaren and the finishing of infrastructural improvements back on the home planet. All in all, it made a certain kind of sense. But to manage this, it was calculated, Alderaan would need to gain the same worlds that Coruscant was eying hungrily, and indeed needed in order to keep its still-expanding population fed.

Initially, the conflict that resulted from these clashing and mutually exclusive ambitions was just a war of words: a series of diplomatic rows. Then, it became a series of economic battles, which saw the Coruscanti and the Alderaani competing to spread their values and gain more favorable trade deals. This was spurred by an massive media effort on both sides, often spurred on by the government, to portray the other world as either a “Festering black hole of corruption and filth” or a “Feudal pit of despair”. One would not be off the mark in calling it a propaganda war, aimed at turning the fledgling Galactic community against the rivaling party. As the mutual hatred among the two populations increased, aggressive action against the rival world became a popular policy, and indeed ideology.

On Coruscant this took the form of a new Nationalistic Union of Liberty and Glory sweeping the polls. Liberty and Glory proposed that Coruscant was the most civilized of the Core. After all, where Corellia was ruled by bankers and Alderran by the Nobility, Coruscant was ruled by the People, free and proud. That Free and Proud people not only had a duty to spread there glorious system of government, they deserved the spoils of their gains, those spoils being new worlds to settle, and resources to bring home. With their election, the Coruscanti took a much harder stance increasing there military budget to 15 percent and causing an Arms race.

In the Court of Alderran a generation of Nobles had grown up despising Coruscant, despising the festering world which was ruled by demagogues and coy politicians, completely unlike the refined, aristocratic, and more completely Human Alderranians. To these men, and in many ways to society at large, if Coruscant was allowed to triumph, than all the Core would be submerged by this mongrelized population, until there was no differences. More aggressive actions were now tolerated, and soon, the Court was issuing letters of Marque to at first young nobleman looking for adventure and then any pirate who came offering, an insult returned by the Coruscanti.

Once the letters of marque were issued, a proxy network of conflicts sprang up entracing the entire core. Both sides sponsored various outfits of pirates and free booters to raid the other side's colonies and plunder their commerce fleets. As a direct result, both factions increased their naval budgets and boosted their fleet activities. It took but little time before Alderaan and Coruscant would move on to planetary influence games and meddling in foreign wars. Soon the Core was knee-deep in several proxy wars, all spurred by Alderranian and Coruscanti Interest.

The Jedi Order (as always dedicated to peace and justice and horrified that innocent people would suffer in the conflict) and Corellian government (as always dedicated to trade and profit, and horrified that its two biggest economic partners were about to ravage each other and lay waste to the trade routes) rushed to prevent further escalation. At their behest, a last-ditch peace conference was organized, but even as the diplomats of both sides negotiated, the match was already set to the fuse. The magnificent Alderaanian vessel Light Of Aldera was attacked and destroyed by Coruscant-affiliated pirates as it attempted to escort a treasure ship across neutral space. Coruscant had not authorized its destruction, but that did not stop the Alderaanian Crown from demanding apologies and reparations. The incident became the foremost issue of all public debate, and it was soon impossible not to have an opinion... not to pick a side. And neither Coruscant nor Alderaan could now afford to back down. As the doomed peace conference dissolved in chaos, the first direct engagement between Alderaani and Coruscanti war-fleets already occurred before the diplomats had even formally adjourned the summit. The Jedi, in their sorrow, could feel the deaths of thousands instantly across the Core. (The Corellians, in their sorrow, could see the stock exchange take a deep plunge.)

The infamous Coruscant-Alderaan Contentions had begun in earnest.

Chapter Text

The Coruscanti-Alderrnain Contention

The Coruscant-Alderaan Contention was a war unlike any other the Core had seen to date at that time. It was fought at a lightning pace, and its destruction touched every corner of the Core worlds. Both the Coruscanti and Alderanian fleets would focus their energies primarily on two fronts: commerce warfare and attacks on colony settlements. The practice of aggressive state-sponsored commerce raiding exploded massively with increased involvement from the Republican Fleet and the Royal Navy, both dancing around each other in their deadly conflict over the colony worlds. No effort was spared to disrupt the opponent's trade and supply lines. At the same time, brutal attacks on existing colonies were systematically carried out in an attempt to drive the enemy from the contested space altogether.

The respective alliance systems, which both powers had so very carefully constructed beforehand, were initiated— this grappled new systems like Anaxes and Alsakan into the conflict, expanding the scope of the war and costing even more lives. The bloodshed raged across the Core, both on countless planetary surfaces and in the voids of space. From Kuat to Wukkar, entire planets became battlegrounds, covered with networks of trenches like crisscrossing scars. The very works of death that these manufacturing worlds produced were soon laying waste to their soil. Atrocity was widespread. The Coruscanti Goverment drenched itself in blood, with its political purges on Chandrila, targeting wide swathes of society deemed “Pro Alderranian” on the basis of religion, economic link, or even cultural taste and aggressive attempts at settler colonialism on Alsakan, soon overflowing with Coruscanti Settlers who lorded it over the local population. Meanwhile the Alderranian crown waged there own brutal campaigns of suppression and murder on Anaxes and Kalior. They also outright gave conquered planets to Noble Houses to rule , and made it a point of reducing ailens to their “Proper Place” in Alderran’s Humanocentric Caste system.   

Of course, during this time, the Jedi and the Corellians continued to seek a solution that could bring the two forces to the table -- but to no avail. At this point, it be political suicide for either government to back down, as the war had only exacerbated the resource issues which had initially sparked the conflict. In addition, the avid propaganda campaigns had done their work in whipping the masses into a jingoistic frenzy. Thus, turning back now would entail justifying the decision to an enraged public that had already been thrown into the furnace of war. The Union of Liberty and Glory had been swept into office on the backs of Anti Alderranian sentiment and had promised cultural supremacy and settlements to their voters. To fail to deliver on these promises would destroy the party and leave the men who voted them in to political ignominy. In Alderaan's case, Defeat could potentially even destroy the carefully established balance between the noble houses and unseat the Panteer house from the throne. House Organa in particular, which was at that time under the direction of the scheming Count Vidian, was eagerly waiting for a good opportunity to take the crown from the royal house. 

The two warring governments, now locked into the conflict and more committed to the course of war than ever, both endeavored to knock the other out of the conflict with one decisive blow. On Alderaan, the newly formed government of King Darman Panteer the Second. A young and energetic prince, coming from a generation in many ways defined by there anti Coruscati Ideology, had won broad support among all ranks of society by promising that he would bring swift victory, began Operation Dauntless. Presented as an end to the more sedate strategy that the new King dismissed as 'half measures', Dauntless was nothing short of a direct military assault on Coruscant itself. King Darman cannot be said to have had no vision: where all others -- on both sides -- relied on strategies focused on colonial campaigns, he realized that abandoning several colonies to their fate would be worth it if this freed up enough forces to take Coruscant directly. If he had the enemy's capital, he could then dictate peace terms and simply take back every lost colony... and more besides.

Wildly ambitious as the strategy may have been, it was not illogical. A key disadvantage of the Coruscant system's spatial geography was -- and remains to this day -- the sheer number of routes which can be opened through hyperspace directly into the system. There are always a few new ones being discovered throughout the centuries, and when an enemy learns of these routes before the Planetary Defense Force does, this lends would-be invaders an immense advantage. Repeatedly, Coruscant's unmatched accessibility -- at the very nexus of many hyperspace routes -- has proven to be as deadly to its defense as it has been profitable to its coffers. This was the method used by King Darman in his attempt to cut at Coruscant's throat. Utilizing secret contacts with various Corellian smugglers, the King would learn of one such secret route into the system, far enough outside the range of immediate Coruscanti sensors. Under the command of prominent nobleman Tyrosus Thul -- an excellent commander and, importantly for the purposes of domestic politics, completely beholden to the Panteer family which had raised the Thuls into the nobility -- the Alderaanian forces would jump in and lay waste to the enemy fleet before the Coruscanti even knew they were upon them.

It was a sound military plan, one which would indeed be employed successfully several times throughout the centuries -- however, this time, it was a devastating failure. A highly alert sensor technician happened to be on the watch that day, and spotted a gravitational flux where there shouldn't be one. He warned his superiors, who -- paranoid because of the ongoing war -- took it seriously where they would've probably dismissed the readings as a fluke during peacetime. The strange readings were verified within minutes. Detecting the approaching threat, and realizing what it meant, the Coruscanti mobilized with incredible speed. The entire merchant marine was conscripted into the defense of the system.

In the titanic battle that followed, both sides devastated each other's fleet. Understanding that he had lost the element of surprise, King Darman saw only one option remaining: he recommitted all Alderaanian forces to the attack on Coruscant. If this battle were to be lost, the war would be over for him anyway. This had to be won. For their part, the Coruscanti also withdrew their fleets at maximum speed. As a result, the battle would span six days and six nights of continuous fighting. More and more reinforcements arrived for each side, wave upon wave. The space around Coruscant became a massive graveyard of destroyed ships. Ultimately, faced with the destruction of essentially his entire fleet, Tyrosus chose to withdraw with those of his ships that could still escape. The Coruscanti fleet had no ships left with which to pursue him -- in fact, barely enough left to defend Coruscant. In the span of a week, two military superpowers had annihilated each other's forces almost completely.

                                                                             The Aftermath: Peace and Reconciliation                                                                                             

Devastated utterly, neither Coruscanti or Alderaani would be able to continue the conflict. After all this senseless destruction, a truce was signed that more or less agreed on status quo ante, pending further negotiations. Most outside observers expected -- and could be forgiven for expecting -- that both Coruscant and Alderaan would sink further into the abyss of dark hatred and resentment, the evil word of revanchism heavy in the air. Instead, something almost happened that may almost be called unique in galactic history: beaten and near-crippled by the destructive war, both sides approached each other and tried to reach an understanding. To understand how this came about, we will need to look at economics, politics, and indeed at military concerns at the time.

On the economic side of things, the war itself had been so devastating that both sides were quite simply forced to cooperate and trade with each other quite extensively. Refusal to do so would mean social collapse. This would make any resumption of hostilities quite simply suicidal from an economic standpoint. The side that hypothetically attempted such a thing would face bread riots within the month, and the government would fall within weeks of that. Everyone understood this. The subsequent trade would rapidly bring about increased contact with the other side, breaking down barriers that had lasted even through the Core Renaissance.

Politically speaking, the Coruscanti government, the Liberty and Glory was forced out by an insurgent reformist movement, who released documents pertaining to classified military operations before and during the  war. These documents proved, in a huge shock to the public, that the government of Coruscant had been involved in several false flag attacks on Coruscanti Shipping and allies, to help further provoke war and revealed the full extent of violence comitted on Chandrila. This would not in any way entirely erase the standing hostility between the Alderaani and Coruscanti peoples (there is a reason this is called the First Contention, after all) but it would lead to a far greater distrust of Militarism and imperialistic expansionism on the Coruscanti side. The people of Coruscant had avidly believed that they had been defending democracy from aristocratic colonialism. As it turned out, their own government had been involved in shady dealings, up to and including state-sponsored terrorism against there own people and had the lives of tens of thousands on its hands. A long-term effect of these revelations would be that Coruscanti became more distrusting of government for generations, and public opinion became more internationalist. The ideals of Coruscant could be achieved via other methods than conquest. 

On Alderaan, the political ramifications of the war were no less dramatic. After the failure of the King's grandiose campaign, the Organas had in fact taken the throne. They had done so in a palace coup, which they subsequently legitimized by assembling a Conclave of Nobility to formally remove King Darman -- in a manner as to preserve the familial lands of his House (and indeed even their ancestral claim to the throne, which they would later reclaim). Count Vidian -- now King Vidian -- had no interest in emulating the egalitarian traditions of Coruscant; he was merely interested in taking power from the Panteers. But he did desire peace, and quickly moved to cut down on those “Hungry for Blood”. In an adroit move, after the Coruscanti revelations, the King would admit that “Perhaps, Alderranian officers in the service of the Crown had not always behaved honrably”. To satisfy this, he would offer up 20 officers for trial to the Jedi Order, suggesting the Coruscanti do the same for there war criminals. These men were of noble houses hostile to Vidians reign but not so significant that they would more than unsettle the fellow Noble Houses, and presented Alderran in a better light for being willing to move forward.  On Coruscant, the new Peace and Unity government, made up of a a wide ranging coalition of Anti War Political Parties agreed to the offer and the Council seeing an opportunity. With Jedi Judges and Justices, the Tython Trials would become some of the first to establish intergalactic laws of War. Of course these trials were imperfect to say the least. Many who had committed horrid deeds would never face the bench and remain respected members of the community on both planets, and the law such as it was, remained contentious. However the Precadent set, would be an important one, that there was a Law which had to be followed among Core Worlds. 

The next monarch of Alderran, Queen Lana Organa the First, went further than her father.The Queen was a part of a new generation of Alderranian Noble thinking. Less bigoted than there forefathers, and raised on the lessons of the conflict, this generation viewed the Jedi Order as an idealized sect and viewed reconciliation with foreigners to be the best situation possible. In keeping. Lana invited the Jedi to Alderaan, beginning the long-standing relationship that the Organa family would have with the Jedi and Alderran more generally, with a Conclave of Jedi Knights standing all the way until the Consolidation of the Order to Coruscant during the High Republic. She began working with the Order to reform Alderaani society and Furthering Intergration with the rest of the Galaxy. She also began a campaign of using the order to help level society, on the basis that all were equal in the eyes of the Force and put in levels of appeal against direct Noble Intrusions into lives of the Commons. 

The thing though that, more than any other, led to rapid reconciliation between the two warring sides, however, had nothing to do with their internal affairs. It was in fact a military concern, which neither side had expected: the violent and terrifying raids of both Xim the Despot and the Hutts. From beyond the colony region, the raiders would come and pillage many worlds, not just on the frontier but deep into the Core itself. They would carry off whatever wealth they could, and they enslaved innocent civilians by the hundreds of thousands. This, they did without any fear of repercussion -- because Alderaan and Coruscant had crippled each other, so there were no mighty fleets left to guard the frontiers. The visceral terror that this spread within the Core forced the formerly warring sides to band together at once. This was the final factor that led them to abandon all plans at future peace negotiations, and to instead engage in negotiations of another sort entirely.

Their fleets destroyed, both sides relied heavily on Corellian and Jedi goodwill to defend them from raiders. The Corellians and the Jedi obliged readily, and this gave them a position of immense power and prestige -- both politically and morally. This authority, this good standing, they used in an attempt to prevent future wars between the powers of the Core. At the invitation of the neutral Jedi Order, the governments of Corellia, Coruscant and Alderaan began to discuss a permanent union between them, so that they should never fight among themselves again. So began the process of creating the First Republic.

   The Constitution of the First Republic

The Constitution of this new union would emerge from long and complex debates between statesmen. It was not an easy process. Indeed, the convention was almost abandoned several times as passions erupted over one hot issue to another. Yet in the end, a founding document was drawn up and ratified, setting in stone the Republic's dedication to liberty, its opposition to slavery, its respect for freedom of trade, freedom of religion, and a right to be heard.  The government itself was highly decentralized, allowing the individual systems to keep their own specific forms of government as long as they upheld the basic rights of sapients to Life and Liberty, with many going further (examples include the abolition of serfdom on Troithe and official emancipation of Ailens in Alderranian territories.)

All member systems committed themselves to contribute to the common defense. The Jedi Order would take a unique role in this republic, Joining as a full member, instead of a subordinate as in later eras. They would act as a critical arbitrating party, availing themselves to help foster good relations between all peoples, to help the peoples of the Republic, and to train those beings who were suited to it in the ways of the Force.

The First Constitution was certainly no perfect document. It had flaws that seem obvious to us in hindsight. First and foremost among them, is in the very beginning of it’s preamble: ““Recognizing the inalienable right of man and woman, of all species, to be free and live within a peaceful, well ordered state, this Republic is established to defend these rights and to thereby bring peace and prosperity to the people of the galaxy…”. The use of the term Man and woman, shows its Humanocentric nature. Make no mistake, there were other species, species who are proud to claim participation in the First Republic, such as the Duro and the Ithorians but it was generally a Human affair and many saw itself as such.  The constitution also made no efforts to elevate the rights of people whom its members regarded as Foreigners (mostly Ailens) beyond the basic rights of Life and Liberty. Domestic planets had the rights to manage and treat their “foreign populations” as they saw fit.  In  other areas it was exceptionally vague and left room for wide areas of interpretation. It also was exceptionally decentralized, with few obligations imposed on member worlds, save that of the Military, a Military voluntarily given by member worlds. Later when conflict loomed, this flaw would show itself to catastrophic effect.  Yet even with these flaws, it must be recognized that at the time it was drafted, it was a hopeful and innovative -- even unprecedented -- testament to the idealism and the aspirations for a more united and better galaxy, one which recongized some decree of rights and liberty for all, even if she often failed to live up to it. 

Now that we have looked at the essential formation of government in the Core Worlds, we would be remiss not to discuss the developments of the Outer Rim during this period. These, too, had consequences that affect us to this day. And indeed, while we have spoken of the Jedi Order and the role it took within the galaxy, we must also address the Rim, where new cultures and civilizations were taking shape, in the same breath as the core. 

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Introduction

The common historical view of the Outer Rim, which has been additionally enforced in recent times by the political depredations and propaganda of the Galactic Empire, contends that the Outer Rim as a region is simply a natural inferior to the Core. The underlying assumption is a deeply humanocentrist one: that the periphery is always held back by the lack of "Enlightened" high culture -- meaning human culture -- and by the fact that "savage" cultures -- meaning non-human cultures -- have long been dominant there. These persistent notions are as dangerous as they are false: they create a view of the galaxy in which there are natural "good" and natural "bad" species; those destined to lead civilizations, and those who can and should be dismissed and side-lined as mere barbarians. The crimes and injustices that can develop from such ideas barely need further enumeration!

As we move past the recent dark times, we Jedi must endeavor not to slip back into such assumptions. A thorough study of history demonstrates all too clearly that what was for so long the "conventional wisdom" was very far from wise. It is our duty to expose this historical view as false, and to correct it with true knowledge of the Outer Rim -- and the nuanced history which led to its current-day conditions. Once we understand the history, the issues and challenges of the present become easier to understand... and easier to deal with in a responsible manner.

When the Rakkatan Empire fell and galactic society was once more free to evolve in new directions, the Outer Rim lacked several distinct advantages that the Core enjoyed in abundance; advantages which would lead to the Core's dominant position in galactic history. Most distinct is the fact that, for reasons that remain unclear, the Outer Rim has a far lower proportion of truly habitable worlds than the more central regions of the galaxy. There is a great abundance of desert worlds and otherwise single-biome planets out on the Rim, and most of these biomes are uninviting to human and near-human species. The reason for this phenomenon has never been adequately explained. Although some have speculated that this is somehow a natural feature of the galaxy, others have suggested that the uneven distribution of inviting world has been somehow caused deliberately by some ancient power, usual pointers being the Rakkata.

Whatever the origins of the phenomenon may be, the unequally harsh environments of many Outer Rim worlds have traditionally been a severe inhibiting factor to development, as the population had to focus on ways to survive in harsh conditions -- and often compete for food and resources. This both kept many species that originated on Outer Rim worlds from developing interstellar travel on their own, and led to internecine conflict on the basis of ethnic tensions and harsh competition over scarce means. This can be seen in the history of Ryloth, for example. Furthermore, the relative lack of attractiveness to potential settlers considerably retarded any efforts to colonise the Outer Rim, which eventually solidified their peripheral status to the far more inter-connected inner regions of the galaxy.

Even to those Outer Rim civilizations that mastered space travel, the stellar geography of the region made contact and trade quite difficult, compared to the relative ease with which such things developed in the Core. There, settled worlds were quite close to one another, allowing for easier first contact and travel between them. In contrast, the planets of the Rim were more often separated by far greater distances: vast and sometimes literally insurmountable. Others found themselves confined to their own little pocket sectors, where interaction was only available between a small number of peoples and species. Separated by the dark voids of space as the peoples of the region were, they would learn that contact between worlds was delayed for much longer than in the Core. This made anything like the Core Renaissance impossible to be duplicated across the Rim, with only these pocket sectors like the Tion Cluster having anything close -- and even then, first contact was a hit or miss as always, with conflict often developing. The realities of distance even discouraged regular space travel itself. Why go into space when you cannot get anywhere?

Still, space faring civilizations did form in the Outer Rim regions -- and many of these thrived, building up their own rich, cultural traditions. It can be argued that under the conditions they encountered, only the most persistent, durasteel-willed peoples achieved success in their endeavors. From the clans of Ryloth who created great and prosperous cities in the cave systems of their planet to the Sullustans who managed to use the volcanism of their home world for both agrarian and industrial purposes, ultimately inventing durasteel -- the Outer Rim produced advanced and ambitious societies.

The vastness of space also led to the formation of nomadic space faring societies, well-accustomed to traveling the void. The captains of these cultures were in no way less intrepid than the pioneers of Corellia, and the distances they covered often far greater. They often provided the backbone of communication between isolated systems, and made first contact with those still isolated. Famous among these were the Miraluka, who had been enslaved by the Rakkata as navigators due to their inherent sight through the Force. Much as with the Jedi, this allowed them to sense obstacles out in space and steer safe courses. In their newfound freedom, they wandered as space travelers throughout the Rim, guided by the Force and their innate curiosity.

The Hutts Origins and Rise

Generally speaking, the Outer Rim was far more diverse than the Core. While the Rakkata had transferred species around the Galaxy, they did not always entirely remove them from their original homeworlds. This led to the further and separate evolution of those 'left behind'. It also led to a far more diverse pool than the Core, where humans predominated. (While there were Humans out on the Rim as well, they were very much in the minority.) However, this process was interrupted by the ascendancy of one species. There are many comparisons to be made between the Hutts and the Rakkata. Both originated from hostile jungle environments, which caused them to develop specific characteristics. The Rakkata delved fully into the Dark Side, the Hutts developed a massive body of acids and fats to stave off any predators. It also led both to adopt a hard, 'law of the jungle' mentality. This, perhaps, is the root cause of their most evident shared trait: they were both the founders of sprawling slavocratic empires.

In the ancient days, the Hutts even attempted to pass themselves off as gods, before realizing that this campaign of deception was not catching on. It is perhaps fitting, and equally tragic, that the Hutts would be one of the first species to master the Hyperdrive. They were as ambitious as they were ruthless. There is also an interesting parallel with the Corellian unification. Very much like Corellia, the Nal Hutta system, was at an intersection of many worlds, allowing it to establish broad contact earlier. The Hutts were divided between petty kings and those merchant lords who had access this trade network and its wealth. It was in this case a Hutt King, Blurdugg the Magnificent, who engineered a peace between the factions of Hutt society. Much like like Tail Solo of Corellia, his proposal was based on a shared effort to gain greater wealth. Instead of fighting, why not go out into the rest of the galaxy and build their fortunes equally?

Not all agreed to this, but the lure of profit was enough to build a coalition. With the united power of several clans behind him, Blurrdugg crushed his foes and codified make a set of laws, known as Blurrdugg’s Code, which would last until this very day. The Code included crucial rules that came to define Hutt society, such as that a Hutt must always show strength in front of another species. Division would be death. Indeed, this has helped keep the Hutts in power, all uniting whenever a rebellion arises or a new enemy comes in at the horizons.

Unlike the example of Corellia, there was never any goal of meaningful peace or free trade involved in Blurdugg’s plans -- only exploitation. First setting on the people of Evocor, the Hutts conquered the Evoci wholesale and brought them to Nal Hutta to slave away for their new masters; most famously building up the city-moon of Narr Shadda, which the Hutts would use as their great transfer hub of trade and slavery. During this project, so many Evoci were worked to death that the species would remain in perpetual endangered status. This would set the statute for further contact. Using the hyperspace routes they could map out, the Hutts conquered a large part of the space around their home sector, pouring even more profit into their own worlds. A martial species, the Hutts used their massive weight to crush their foes in battle. Although the cultural image of the corpulent and decadent Hutt crime lord now predominates, it must be stressed that a fully grown Hutt at the peak of physical health moving towards you at its top speed is a terrifying sight to say the least...

It is in the time of their early conquests that the Hutts developed their tendency towards racial enslavement -- a system which continues to this day. Often when they conquered a system, they assessed the species on the ground, searching for advantage and strengths. They would then assign a station to these species based on what they viewed as that species' natural inclination. Thus, they would fit all the races they conquered into a hierarchy of caste and designation. From this, new divisions rapidly strung forth, pitting soldier species like the Weequay against Twi'leks and the like. Much like the Rakkata, the Hutts did what they could to aim the animosity of their subject races against one another, keeping them divided and thus hopelessly ensnared in their servitude. (And sadly, some of the racial rivalries that the Hutts deliberately fostered in this manner persist even now.)

More and more, the Hutts would begin to rely on their slaves and the wealth they produced. They actively began delegating the key tasks of empire; encouraging subject species to prove themselves 'useful' in this regard, and subsequently granting special privileges to species who served well and without complaint. Conversely, those who were rebellious were viciously kept down with frequent punishments, including the razing of entire worlds, such as Varl. Often, the 'favoured slaves' were made complicit in these atrocities, thus forever binding them to their Hutt masters. If the system would ever be overthrown, these hated collaborators would be hunted down, so they had an interest in maintaining the system even if that system kept them enslaved, too. The Hutt Empire was a well-oiled, finely-tuned engine of oppression and exploitation.

However, it was still not enough. To maintain their rising levels of decadence and conquest, the Hutts would always need more and more resources, more and more slaves. Here is where the feared Hutt slave raids would be born. It took a long time to map out the hyperspace routes of the Rim, but once they were, a scourge was unleashed on many an unexpecting world. The Hutts would raid and take whatever they pleased. Beyond classical empire-building, they geared entire fleets to strike far beyond their own domains, purely to bring back slaves and other loot. Trillions, throughout the centuries, were thus ripped from their home and transported away to be slaves of the Hutts. The riches of countless planets would be stripped away by locust-like raider fleets, carried off to feed the excesses of Hutt decadence.

To keep this system going, the Hutts often sought out existing tensions in the local population and conspired with greedy individuals; men who did not give a care for their fellows and only desired power. And these weak links, the Hutts ruthlessly exploited, fueling a system of conflicts which set the Rim back by even more. It grew to the point that the warlords would often trade slaves for even more from the Hutts, creating a perverse incentive for more war and destruction which warped the lives of billions. While the methods would change over the centuries, the Hutts would continue this system of pillage and rape across the galaxy, spreading to all parts of the Outer Rim and extending well into the Mid Rim and even the Colony Regions. (The threat of Hutt slaving played a crucial factor in the formation of both the First and the Second Republic.) To this day, through various criminal enterprises all equally blatant, this perverse system still continues. It is an issue which the New Republic is still struggling to properly address, and which must be resolved if the Outer Rim is to rise above the shadows of the violent past.

The turbulent past, however, has more players than the Hutts alone. Although the Hutts violated countless systems, there were those who successfully resisted their attempts. The most famous would be the Tionese, whom we will talk of in later chapters, but more deserve our attention, including on the world of Dac. 

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Dac: The Intro of the World and the Mon Calamari and Quarren Species                                      

One of these worlds which resisted, was the planet of Dac. A blue planet, where the first surfaces above the water would have to be manmade. Beneath the waves would be a rich surface, from raging currents to ocean reefs, and great arching depth, indeed some of the greatest depths in the galaxy for an Ocean surface. Not least among this diverse planet would have to be its people. Dac bore many species, asides from the most populous and dominant Quarren and Mon Calamari, there are the massive  Whaledon and the Invertabrate Moappa.  the Mon Calamari and Quarren emerged as the dominant species on the planet, by simple virtue of Birth Rate and physiological disadvantage (while the Whaledon and Moappa both are intelligent and Sapient species, there lack of opposable hands proved to be a critical  difficulty for tool usage, something the Mon Calamari and Quarren did not have).

An out of the way world, these species were nonetheless, not spared the attentions of the Rakkatan Empire. The horrors of that millennium of slavery and darkness affected the people of Dac very differently. The Mon Calmari, unable to swim to the Great Depths, were enslaved to be used as ship builders, and spread across the Galaxy. In their chains, they became great  (if limited, for the Rakkata always limited what their slaves knew) engineers and when the Rakkatans fell, great warriors. It is in fact, in this uprising where the Mon Calamari gain their king. According to legend, the First King (whose name is lost to history) , was a shaman who foresaw the coming plague and the readied the people for the day. When the masters started dying in their droves, the Mon Calamari were there to hurry them on their way into the Dark Beyond. The King then presided over a golden age of city building and conflict, which built the magnificent realm of Mon Calamari. However sadly it was cut short by his unfortunate death, and the cities would divide into princlings.  While overly propagandized, the essential core narrative does seem to have a throughline here. We see references to a near divine monarch being made shortly after the fall of the Rakkata, and it seems the cities of the world were built in this time period. Indeed, the city states always proclaimed loyalty to a rightful King, albeit the question if he exercised any actual power or even the who exactly that was always seems to be in debate. City princes would pride themselves, as warrior engineers,  building works for their glorification and abiding by a strict code of honor, which meant everything in their society. Of course, this Code of Honor, did not prevent them from killing one another, it nevertheless drove actions and indeed remains a touch stone in Mon Calamari Society. 

 Another interesting phenomenon seems to be a small but noteworthy migration to nearby systems. The Mon Calamari as ship builders had the capability and not unlike the core, many statelets sponsored off world expeditions or people just desired to flee the many wars between the City Princes and the “Folk of the deep”. Those folk were the Quarren unlike the Mon Calamari, The Quarren were far more able to evolutionarily flee deep below the surface, to places which even the Mon Calamari could hardly fathom. So deep that the Rakkatans, rapacious as ever but easily bored, decided not to look for them. After all, what did these “primitives” have to offer worth the effort of hunting them down? For millennia the Quarren developed into an exceptionally resilient society. Divided politically, the Quarren would develop a political system based on ruthless meritocracy and religion.  Living in the depths was a hard business, and not for the faint of heart. To be leader, you must prove yourself utterly dedicated to the Survival of the Quarren, which in the religion of the species was the penultimate goal. For if the species died, then “The Soul” would die, leaving no afterlife. Nor could the Quarren people willingly be enslaved by those who would disperse them amongst the stars, for to be separated from the Homeland, was to die away from the Soul. To the ends of survival, the Quarren accomplished magnificent feats in terms of deep-sea civilization, surviving by hunting and truly inventive farming and manufacturing abilities, and occasional salvaging from the off casts of the Slave cities. When they heard of the fall of the Empire, a great migration began, intent on taking the nearer waters. At first beaten off by stronger Mon Calamari united, when the monarchy broke down, they made ground gaining considerably near the surface. These wars would be brutal, with Mon Cala cities sacked and Quarren Tribes exterminated in retaliation.    

The Intermediate Post Rakkata Period and Hutt Invasion 

For three hundred years, the planet of Dac would continue this cycle of violence, princes fighting princes, Quarren Tribes fighting Quarren tribes, and the races fighting eachother. It likely would have continued but for an Ambitious Huttling. Pizza was the last of five children by Gradulla the third of the  Sienuk blood dynasty and was longing for a conquest to gain his own dominion. Gradulla gave him a fleet of 100 ships and a million soldiers to go explore and conquer the unknown.  Going into the NorthEastern Quadrant, to avoid Mandalorian Space, the Hutts encountered one of the first Mon Calamari Colonies. Razing it to the ground and enslaving the rest, they discovered the heart world of this colony. He was utterly fascinated by these creatures, there technology, and culture and he saw an opportunity. If the Mon Calamari were his slaves, he could have them build him their ships, their products, and make him one of the most powerful Hutts in the Dominion. But even as he was dreaming of this world, the images of catastrophe, slaughter and conquest reached Dac proper, sending the world into chaos and preparation. 

In many other cases, the divided world would have been conquered, but not so on Mon Calamari. The Mon Calamari King of the time period, Lee Kar the Second, had always desired to be a king in fact, not just in name. Already, he was working to leverage his religious authority into actual authority, and had married a woman of the Char line, one of the most powerful Mon Calamari City Princes. The Invasion gave him a much-needed opening to extend his authority. In the midst of the Panic, The King promulgated a decree of Unity, proclaiming that 

“Feuds of Honor and power between the finest of our blood, must give way. The Barbarian Outlander from beyond the Stars calls to enslave us. To protect the blue waters of this world, unite, to the noble banners of the Kingdom for kith, kin and future” 

And, unite they did. Coming to the court of the Monarch, the lords and princes of Mon Cala pledged themselves to the cause of the King and the Freedom of Mon Cala from being ruled by any foreign creature. In place, Lee kar would cement these ties, with loyalty, first by the creation of the Royal Harem, by marrying the daughters of the Princling families and giving them a more direct familial tie to the throne, and more investment in Royal authority, claiming direct lineage and making the blood of Kings even more prestigous. These princlings were also given positions in the united force, very skillfully in ways which maximized their skill and usefulness to the union as it prepared for war.  Still, not just the Mon Cala alone could fight this. A planet divided would always be a planet where one species held a dagger to the back of the other against foreigners. So, Lee Kar would make his most outstanding reach yet, to the hated Folk of the Deep. Surprisingly, they were quite accommodating. 

Having heard of the Hutt’s coming, the Tribes of the Quaren, far from welcoming the destruction of there fellows from Dac, were horrified. The only experience they had with Ailens were of the Rakkata, Dark monsters who had driven to their ancestors to the deepest of the seas, who would send them across the Galaxy, ending the Great Soul forever. These Hutt’s seemed little different. Thus, when Kars messengers arrived, the tribes went into session. They knew there duty, to ensure the survival of the Great Soul. They could demand much of the Mon Calamari, but asking for too much was a deal which would not be honored, so they asked for what to the Mon Calamari seemed like the bare minimum but to the Quarren was everything, the preservation of the Great Soul. Lee Kar agreed to this immediately and signed this proclamation: 

"Where the Kingdom cannot promise harmony and peace for a thousand years, the Kingdom does make a Solemn Oath. That while the Mon Cal sword may shed the blood of Quarren warriors, Quarren homes sent to the deepest of the deep, and that one day, the Quarren may be forced to kiss the Kings fins in submission, no babe of Quarren blood shall be exterminated willfully by the the Kingdom. No Father shall have to fear his lineage to be dispersed amongst the stars by our hands, for as we would not wish to be separated from this glorious world, we recognize the deep and abiding desire of the Quarren to do the same. Let the Kingdom burn never to rise again if it is to be a lie..."

The Council Of Quarren agreed upon the basis that it was an oath which could stand and gained them the most critical promise of all: that no matter what happened, the Soul would survive and they would not be separated from their world. It was an uneasy alliance, the princes did not like making an agreement with those they considered to be nothing more than Barbarian vermin but with the whole future at stake, they agreed. After all, the terms did not seem…unbearable. Mere vassalage and serfdom in the future instead of extermination was not something that was unthinkable to the Princes of Mon Cala. It is indeed debatable if the alliance actually meaningfully shifted Mon Cala and Quarren relations but it worthies of note that no campaigns of Extermination would ever be launched by the Throne ever again and no campaigns of that nature would be endorsed. The Quarren 

That enemy was jumping towards Mon Cala at that very moment. Pizza was not a dumb Hutt by any stretch of the word. He came into his battle with detailed maps extracted from the Mon Cala, a plan to take the shipyards and a plan to play divide and rule. When he jumped into the system, he broadcasted to all to hear his proclamation that any who joined him now could reap great wealth as Major Domos of the Hutt Dominion. Envoys too were sent covertly on planet to find the Quarren and incite them into alliance. Ironically, Pizza had no intentions of enslaving the Quarren, instead planning to use them as enforcers. But the Quarren tribes had signed their oaths. The heads of the ambassadors were given to Lee Kar, who in keeping with his diplomatic tone actually sent an letter of apology to the Hutts and asked what the most correct form of Burial was.

Seeing his message rejected, Pizza moved in, with space forces planning to take the fortresses one by one while the Hutt Land forces conquered the surface out from under them. It would be a dual assault, not allowing the Mon Cala to get reinforcements to there positions above and then giving Pizza orbital superiority. However, while possibly sound, if the Mon Cala had been quaking in their boots or unaware of his force, they were neither of these things and here Pizza overreached fatally for his expedition and the name “Pizza” would forever be associated with foolhardiness and Hubris. 

Even with all the maps, the Hutts did not know the space or the seas of Dac. In space, the Hutt forces were outmaneuvered, forced into uncharted asteroids, even as they banged against the walls of the space fortresses above and failed to breach. On the seas of Dac, the joint Mon Calamari-Quarren operations were brutally effective on unprepared Hutts. A critical weakness of the campaign was having nonaquatic species being the main force. A million Niktos, Klatoonians and Weequay may be able to put on scuba diving gear, but they could never be as gifted in the water as their opponents. Intellectually, they may know of tides, Coral reefs, and the depths but they never actually had to experience the campaigns. They first tried the novel approach of going through underexplored regions, but critically, not only did they not know about the dangers lurking within, but the Quarren did also know. In the reef of the Damned, Hutt Forces were torn apart by Quarren warriors. There ships were breached, there warriors killed by far more experienced coming from depths and hidey holes they never knew possible. The other forces, concentrating on hitting the Mon Calamari cities were unprepared for the depths of defense. Assuming that they would be easily captured, the Hutts were surprised to find hardened resistance from massed battle formations. This was only compounded when Quarren forces swam out from under the deeps and surrounded them. To the underlings and peons of the Hutts, no mercy was shown. Of the million beings who set out for conquest on Dac, only around fifty thousand significant officers of rank. In the space above, the Hutts too were facing badly. Of the hundred ships that set out with the expedition, 40 were destroyed and twenty critically damaged over the course of a month. Pizza would not flee for to flee in his view would be back to humiliation and scorn, possibly assassination. So, he was captured by the Mon Calamari and taken to the King. 

Post Invasion Unification and Expansion 

However instead of the brutal drowning, which was the fate of his underlings, King Lee Kar was exceptionally hospitable. He complimented the Hutt on his daring in the expedition and bravery for the battle he fought, even though it was long lost. Indeed, he gave the Hutt a banquet, granted in celebration of Mon Calamari and Quarren victory but also one where he was treated as a guest rather than an amusement. When the time came for him to go, Pizza was sent parting with gifts of pearls, Mon Calamari gold and reefs. He was also sent with a letter: 

“While we greet you as a misunderstanding Wayfinder now, now that you know this our waters, never come again without invitation. We are the most hospitable of hosts to noble beings and the most voracious defenders of our home”. 

Pizza would take this to heart. Instead of seeking a dominion through conquest of the Mon Cala and Dac, he would become a trader and friend, shipping their goods to galaxy at cost and using the wealth to make him a attractive businessman and build wealth. While he never did inherit a piece of his father's lands, he would still give wealth to his child and to his grand child, the Wiley Durga the Wise. 

The Mon Calamari united by their king and riding high on victory set their own sights. Not of grand empire, but of regional hegemony. Over time the Mon Calamari would establish dominion over the local space in their region, subjugating many other species to their whims and dictates. The Nobility would remain in charge, but the people would pay their taxes and not interact with others outside the rule of the Mon Cal King. Mon Cal Settlers would flock out and create what became known as Mon Calamari space. The Quarren remained loyal to their word and retreated to their villages, awaiting for the day the Mon Cala would turn on them but not taking out the dagger first.  The Hutts meanwhile would not wonder into the region as their attention turned elsewhere for expansion and conquest. 

Chapter Text

An Introduction: The Taung and the dawn of History

The Mandalorian people have struck an iconic place in galactic history. Mandalorian have been depicted as everything from ravenous barbarian hordes and mercenary pirates. They also have been portrayed as honrable warriors and devoted farmers. A culture of conquest that built an interstellar empire, yet they have also been known as poor and scattered refugees, defined by both their homeland and their diaspora. All of these contradictions and more define the Mandalorian people, a people built on a history of struggle, and a religion of honor. 

The root of Mandalorian identity, like many prominent races and galactic nations, lies once more with the Infinite Empire. However, instead of being one of many slave races, the Mandalorians trace their heritage to being a pillar of the Empire, more specifically the role of the original Mandalorian species, the Taung as its warrior caste. While the Rakatans took pride in their conquest and domination of worlds as typical of the Dark Side, they were oxymoronically risk averse, not wanting to suffer the potential shame of losing to lesser species with the death of a Rakatan against a non-Rakatan being viewed as potentially carrying great dishonor. To limit this risk and to further the reach of their Empire, the Rakatans created a caste solely for warriors to act as the perfect soldiers for their conquest, here is where we find the Taung.

Unlike the Sith and the Massassi, there is no hard evidence that the Taung were a creation of the Rakatans, a creation theory that has persisted for millenia similar to that of the Twi’leks. Furthermore, much like humanity, it is unknown where the Taung called their homeworld, much like humanity.  They claim Coruscant as their homeworld with the first records of Taung existence deriving from Coruscant yet while their have been records found of extensive Taung Presence, their is evidence of others before them and sadly, no Evolutionary clues on the planet. Whether created or uplifted, the Taung were selected as the Rakatan’s finest warriors, and through alchemical enhancements, turned into tools with methods of encouraging aggression and martial prowess, hardening bones and muscle with an internal organ system resistant to most environments, while enhancing obedience and limiting intellectual potential.

Unfortunately for the Rakatans, the Force champions expression and identity in all living beings, and the Dark Side can never suppress such innate traits fully. As the centuries passed, the Taung developed their own unique culture and traditions, in reaction to Rakkata control and born out of camaraderie and battlefield experiences. From a rigid hierarchy and an extensive rules based system, a warrior code with a personal sense of honor and duty to the collective was created. Training and the refinement of a Taung into a warrior became ritualistic and sacred aspects of life. Most peculiar of the development of Taung culture, is how their alchemical augmentations increased neurological processes associated with empathy, ensuring that while they still performed the Rakatan’s conquests, the Taung became a more social and close-knit people, adopting a pack mentality similar to species such as Wookies and Cathar.

The Fall of the Infinite Empire and the Emergence of the Mandalore

Perhaps if the Infinite Empire had existed for a longer period, the Rakatans would have culled such behaviors or purged the Taung entirely. But they were too useful, the perfect warriors with strength that few species matched and cunning and tenacity that made them the deadliest weapon on the battlefield. Some scattered records show concern for the Taung’s individualism and proposals for action, though this occurred around the time of the Rakatans Fall, and like the rest of the galaxy, the Taung took action.

The exact timing of the Taung’s revolt against Rakatan rule is hard to place. Similar to a Chicken and Egg scenario, either the Taung revolted in response to the slave revolts with the Rakatans general dying, or it was the revolt of the Taung in response to the Rakatan’s Decline that caused the great slave revolts of the Infinite Empire. Whichever the case, the Taung would revolt against their masters at roughly the same time. Unlike the multitude of slave uprisings, the Taung’s revolution was guided and orchestrated solely by one figure, the Mandalore.

While Mandalore in modern Mandoa translates to “Sole Ruler”, in the ancient Taung dialect of Mandoa it more accurately translated to “Ruler of the Souls”. Decoded transcripts of the Taung in regards to their ancient pantheon told of a prophesied Messiah who would be granted sovereignty by the Mandalorian God Kad Ha’rangir to end the Dominion of Arasuum over the stars and bring salvation to the Taung. Upon the shattering of Arasuum’s Dominion, the Mand’alor would form a covenant with Kad’Harangir and all those who followed the Mand’alor would enter said Covenant, protecting their souls to experience salvation and fight alongside Kad Ha’rangir and the living souls in the final battle of Akaanati'kar'oya. This is the central story of the New Canon of Mandalorian faith, a tale which Mandalore the First used to rise to power, create the Mandalorian culture, and one that even modern secular Mandalorians hold as sacred.

The true identity of Mandalore the First has been lost to time, with him simply being referred to eternally as Mandalore. What is agreed upon is that he was a male Taung that was the son of a high ranking Taung General, almost killed and driven into exile from a young age due to his force sensitivity, a trait which the Rakatans had thought to all but wipe out. Mandalore first appeared on ancient Coruscant, and proclaimed himself as the Mand’alor of legend, that the Rakatans were servants of Arasuum and the time had come to end their Dominion and restore Kad Ha’rangir’s claim to the galaxy. In the twilight years of the Infinite Empire, a mass uprising of the Taung under the leadership of Mandalore would cement their end. Through the usage of the Rakatan’s own weapons against them as well as decades of refined martial skill and high zealotry, the Mandalorians as the followers of Mandalore came to be known as, left their first mark on the galaxy as a warrior people. It should be noted however that not many welcomed the Mandalore as their prophesied messiah with archives noting of Taung Mandalorians battling against Loyalists and Taung still fighting til the bitter end. 

While the Mandalorians had thrown off their shackles, they were not greeted kindly by the survivors of the Infinite Empire. The Taung had been associated for centuries as the boot of oppression, and all who threw off the Infinite Empire waged war against the Mandalorians for what they viewed as a final destruction of the Rakatan legacy. With no territories to call their own and little capability in infrastructure and intellectual capacity to recreate the Rakatan weapons and ships in large numbers, Mandalore the First called an Exodus to search for a new home, with the Taung leaving the Core and setting out in a 40 year journey across the galaxy. In this interim period, Mandalore finalized the creation of Mandalorian faith and culture, creating an entirely new people out of what came before. The conclusion of the Exodus saw the Mandalorian’s arrival to the Mandalore system and the world of Mandalore itself, named after their messiah and uniter. 

The Adoption of the Mandilians and Dromba

The early years on Mandalore were instrumental in the creation of many of the most core tenants of Mandalorian culture. The reverence of the Mythosaur and the creation of the Verd’goten through its hunt, the discovery and forging of Beskar, the taming of the Basilisks as companions of war, and the creation of the Canons of Honor by the First in what would one day be Keldabe. The last and most notable act of Mandalore the First would be the Conquest of Mandallia, a neighboring world and home to the Mandallian Giants. With the Mandalorians claiming the system as their holy land, they initially sought to conquer and exterminate the Mandallians to purify the land. However, the war would not be easy as the Mandallians lived in the Atomic Age and used their mastery of ballistics and atomic weaponry to kill tens of millions of Mandalorians and destroy many irreplaceable pieces of Rakatan technology. However, without access to space, victory was impossible and within three years the Mandallians were defeated. The mood of the Mandalorians was to exterminate the Mandallians and colonize the world completely, leaving them completely shocked when Mandalore the First extended the Covenant to the Mandallians and proclaimed them to be his Foundlings.

Throughout Mandalorian history, even in its most brutal and violent eras, the most important social bond has always been that of parent and child. So sacred is this relationship that even marriage is considered secondary to that of parents and their children. This is derived from the Rakatans manipulation of Mandalorian genetics, making reproduction an extremely painful and difficult process, fraught with miscarriages and stillbirths for the Taung while a Taung mother could at best deliver two children in her life, and such would be considered peak health. Such a method was done to keep Taung numbers in check and prevent them from turning on their masters. As a result, Taung deeply cherished their children with a culture of absolute and unconditional love. Furthermore, with high casualties taken in battle, adoptions were not only common but considered a noble duty, both to provide a child with the love of family and to fill in the void and sorrows caused by their species' painful fertility. Such a love even went beyond that of direct or adopted blood, for if a child was separated from its parents who were still alive, said child was to be considered a Foundling, and reunion with its parents was to be pursued above all else. 

With Mandalore the First referring to the Mandallian species as his Foundlings, he had essentially adopted all Mandallians and proclaimed them equal to the Taung, spiritual brothers and sisters. Mandalore would follow this by proclaiming that the Manda, the “Oversoul”, was to not be limited by species, that all beings were children of Kad Har’angir and merely needed to follow the Resol’nare creed to become Mandalorian and save their souls. In any other culture, such a proclamation would produce schism and war, for the Mandalorians, the word of Mandalore was absolute and the Warriors who had just recently called for the Mandallians extermination welcomed them as comrades. The integration of Mandallia was not an easy process as many of the Giants were disgusted by this unilateral adoption, but the Foundling tradition ensured their assimilation through the raising of a generation of Mandallian orphans as Mandalorian children, who then grew up as proper Mandalorian warriors and lead and married into the resistant Mandallian communities, until such a point where in decades Mandallian and Mandalorian culture were one and the same. The reasoning for the First’s decision to embrace the Mandallians is one of debate. Mandalorian legend says that the First was so impressed by the Mandallian’s courage and marital prowess that he considered them equals to the Taung in spirit. Many historians offer a more pragmatic viewpoint, that with the losses taken upon the Exodus and the Mandallian Conquest, that the low numbers of Taung were not sustainable and it was best to have multiple species fighting under the Mandalore for future wars. Whatever the reason, The First’s last great recorded act would be his most important, ensuring that the Mandalorians transitioned from simply a species, into a culture and idea, helping it to survive many conflicts which would have spelled an extinction for others.

After the Conquest and the First’s passing, the Mandalorians took to the stars and conquered nearby systems, settling what would become Mandalorian Space. However, time took a toll on the Mandalorians as they lacked the ingenuity and creativity of the Core worlds in reverse engineering Rakatan tech, leaving them reliant on their stockpile of Infinite Empire weapons and ships, along with a hodgepodge of pre-interstellar technologies and constructs by the Mandallians and other integrated species. Infighting began to spread and a general malaise set in for Mandalorian space as they had little effective tools to build upon their conquests. Then, everything would change when first contact was made with the Dromba.

The Dromba were one of the last groups of the Diaspora, the Thirteenth Tribe of Coruscant in its final years pre-unification, notable fo refusing to follow the Jee’dai brokered peace under Zeltron leadership and heading into the stars. Unfortunately for the Dromba, their journey was perilous and full of misfortune, leaving them to wander uncharted stars as a vast armada of tired and battered ships, and with a lack of reliable hyperlanes and poor luck in finding a home, cementing them as a nomadic people with each ship developing its own unique culture as a clan. After a 60 year Exodus, the Dromba had entered Mandalorian space, jumping in the Mandalorian system as Mandalore the Navigator sought to launch a crusade into the unknown in hopes of keeping the fractured Mandalorian people united. 

A tense impasse broke out within the system, with the Dromba being more numerous and technologically advanced, but being heavily aged and battered against a fleet made for conquest. Had a battle broken out, it may have very well meant the end for either people. Fortunately for both parties, the Navigator took a look at the advanced ships, completely absent of Rakatan influence, and saw an opportunity of integration through peace instead of the usual modus operandi of adoption via Conquest. In a move of canny diplomacy, the Navigator extended an offer of peace, and the Dromba Chieftans were invited to Keldabe to discuss the fate of both their peoples. In a narrative that is largely agreed as true (though perhaps embellished slightly), the Navigator accurately read the dire and tired state of the Dromba, stressing that they would soon meet their demise unless they found a home, and that battle within the system could very well mean their end. The Navigator presented the Mandalorian faith and culture to the Dromba, finding great synergy in Dromban values and customs. The Navigator presented an offer, just as the Mandallians before, the Navigator would adopt the Dromba as her Foundlings, marking them as full Mandalorians. The Dromba would gain a home to settle and billions of Beskar-clad warriors to defend them from all hostile races in space. In return, the Dromba would raise their children as Mandalorians, and teach the Mandalorians how to pursue modern technologies, explore the stars and turn their conquered worlds into gardens. Being presented an open invitation of belonging as equals, and spurred on by ancient Coruscanti legends of the Taung which enhanced the Mandalorian’s image, the Dromba agreed and joined the Covenant of the Manda, introducing humanity into the Mandalorian culture.

The Emergence of Mandalorian Space

The union of the Dromba into the Manda would serve as the last Cultural Reformation of the Mandalorian people until the reign of Mandalore the Preserver and add a multitude of key tenants to Mandalorian identity. The Dromba’s Clan culture would be adopted wholesale throughout the Mandalorian people during the reign of the Navigator. Gone was the structure of the Mandalorians as an autocratic nation divided into tribes which functioned little more as large-scale military legions. Instead, Mandalorian Space became a feudal nation divided into Clans, large multispecies families that served as the primary community and social unit of daily Mandalorian life with the largest of Clans acting as direct vassals to Mandalore and rulers of worlds. Many prominent modern Clans such as Skirata, Fett, Wren and would trace their roots back to the Dromba. The Dromba taught Mandalorians modern agriculture, engineering and medicine, diversifying Mandalorian society from pure warrior stock and creating paths of the Resol’nare that could be pursued in peace, even if many Mandalores pretended such were nonexistent. Most importantly of the Dromba’s addition was the gift of their Coruscanti-designed hyperdrives, allowing them access to the galaxy, which is where the Mandalorian would begin to leave their mark as galactic conquerors.

Such a rise to legend and infamy did not happen overnight, but within decades the Mandalorians would explore vast distances comparable to the Corellians, with Mandalore the Navigator becoming a legend in astrotography for mapping most hyperlanes in the New Territories. As the centuries passed, the Mandalorians would conquer hundreds of thousands of systems in their Crusades, and the Mandalorian nation grew to become a diverse melting pot as hundreds of species and thousands more cultures were inducted through conquest. Humans especially would rise to prominence in Mandalorian culture, forever having a favored child status due to being essential to their expansion and integration through peace instead of diplomacy, thus making them one of the most trusted races to the Taung in vassalage and leadership. Frequent infighting and divisions prevented the creation of a permanent galactic power akin to the Sith or Hutts, but the nomadic customs and lifestyle of the Dromba became imparted to the Mandalorian Clans, allowing them to proliferate and become synonymous with the Galactic North as a fixture of life in the New Territories and Borderlands. Many great and terrible Mandalores would rise and fall, and in due time the Mandalorian would play their role as an ever present player in galactic history, none more so than during the Galactic Dark Age.

Chapter Text

                                                                                             The Tionese Sector: 

 
Every region has its conquerors and kings, and the Tion Cluster produced many of them throughout its history. One of a few busy shipping sectors on the Outer Rim, the Tion Cluster had the advantage of slightly more Rakatan technology of use than most regions were left with -- most pointedly several starships and access to stardrives earlier than most others. Indeed, historians have pointed out several interesting similarities to Corellians in Tionese society, focusing much of their society on trade and competition with each other and exploring the depths of space. It must be noted, though, that due to the difficulties of long-range exploration out on the Rim, the Tionese did not have as much success in this endeavor as the Corellians did; at least not until much later.

Like sentient beings everywhere, the Tionese used their trade derived wealth to build great cities across their planets. They used the rick reserves of marble to build elegant column-lined promenades, where the wealthy elite sponsored famous schools of philosophy. In this, we may say, they were somewhat more like the Alderaani. But they were, unlike either the Corellian or Alderaanian people, deeply fractured. There was neither a Tail Solo nor a Delant Panteer to unite the factions, or to turn their attentions to some more focused and peaceful endeavor into the future. Instead, a hundred planetary societies. These states forged bonds of common culture based on philosophy of insularity, and humanity in the wilderness of the wild space and a warrior ethic system. Binding them all together was a polytheistic religion based on local planetary gods, with an overall top tier of Gods who ruled from the Mythical realm of Elyisium, controlling the Galaxy. 

Despite their common ties and religion, this did not stop conflict. Quite the contrary, the Tionese took to warring with each other over commercial rivalries and the desire to increase the power for their own local systems and glorified it in their philosophy and religion. These regional wars also allowed for the emergence of a despot class of military strongmen and royal families, as it elevated their importance as defenders and conquerors for their people and planet. Furthermore, these wars led to a system of mass chattel slavery, both for defeated Tionese and for Ailens, outside of the Tionese Realm. 

The two most prominent among these warring states were the planets of Desevro and Cron. Desevro was a highly militarized slavocracy with a citizen class completely and totally devoted to martial readiness and training, ready to suppress the much larger slave caste conquered from the planet of Elos. This slave caste, known as the Elots, would produce all the necessary facilities of life and infrastructure, being terrorized into submission by the Desevrans -- who would often cull them and use their military might to crush any uprising. Cron, meanwhile was a more traditional merchant kingdom with rival houses of trader-princes running the government, and with a complicated feudal hierarchy between the houses and their respective vassals and servant cohorts. They also kept slaves, like the Desevrans, but not to anything like the same extent.

                                                                                                                     The Hutt War 

In this early period of Tionese history, its explorers first encountered the Hutts. And as has often been the case when people encountered the Hutts, this development was distinctly marked by its negative and unpleasant character. The Hutts immediately sought to expand their own influence into the regional slave trade, by siding with the Military State of Desevro in their war against the Kingdom of Cron. However, it soon became clear that the Hutts desired to make both sides their vassals in the end. When the Desevrans refused to pay tribute, the Hutts sent their diplomatic envoys to bluster, threaten and insult the Desevrans in equal measure. The Hutt in charge of the diplomatic mission greatly insulted the Desevran rulers, suggesting they could be treasured vassals to the Hutts, which would be a much more elevated position than "the independence you now enjoy as base barbarians."

The reply of the Desevran General Leontisk has since become famous: "Engorged mud-swine! You think to treat us in the manner of your docile house slaves? You think this a province already conquered? This is no region where you have any authority! This is Desevro! " And having said this, he is said to have lopped off the Hutt's head in a single stroke. Whether this is true or not, it has been well-attested that the Desevrans confiscated the Hutts' diplomatic vessels, killed all their slave retainers, piled the corpses into the cheapest ship they could find, threw in the ambassador's severed head for good measure, and sent the thing off to Hutt space. The greatest insult, however, was that they didn't send back the other Hutts who were part of the mission. No. They enslaved those, and worked them to death in the mines. The lowest, most insulting treatment conceivable.

This predictably outraged the Hutt lord Arius, who sent a massive fleet into the Tion Cluster in order to enforce the hegemony of his species. Learning of this new threat posed by the Hutts, the Cronese halted their offensives against Desevro. After careful deliberation, they actively sided with their former enemy, knowing that only a united front could defeat the invaders. Together, the forces of Cron and Desevro pushed back the Hutt fleet at the battle of Liros (a moon of Desevro, which indicated how deeply the enemy had penetrated into the Tion Cluster). This would not be the end, however. Lerxes, son of Arius, greatly desired revenge for the humiliation his father had suffered. Before long, he and came back to face the Tionese again, with a much larger fleet. This time, the Hutts would have more success, smashing their way through the Cluster's gates and looting many worlds.

The Hutt fleet was unstoppable, and even a combined fleet of the Tionese wouldn't stand a chance. Which made the decision of their commanders to split up their fleets all the more surprising. The Hutts took this to mean that Cron and Desevro had once more fallen into their old enmity, and could now be destroyed individually... and at leasure. Arius split his own fleet in two, sending one contingent after the Cronese, and the other after the Desevrans. what followed were two of the most devastating defeats in Hutt history.

Leontisk, once more acclaimed Polemarch -- or highest general -- by the Desevrans, was by now an old man. He knew that what was to come would be his last battle. He resolved to make it a good one. Informing his Cronese allies (who in his youth had been his bitter foes) of his intentions, he lured the Hutts towards the binary stars of Zestothyrae. Like any experienced Tionese space commander, he was well aware of the powerful gravitational disturbances that made navigation between the twin stars nearly impossible. Knowing this, he set his course. The Hutts, unaware of what awaited there, and believing that they had him on the run, followed eagerly. They sound found themselves unable to escape, trapped in the destructive gravitational pull that threatened to rend their ships apart. Had they ended up in this position by chance, they would probably have been able to navigate their way out within a matter of hours. Many have done so, although it takes a skilled captain to pull it off. But Leontisk did not give them any time to attempt it.

Before the battle, he had sent away as many ships as he could, carrying as many men as possible. The remaining ships were still a sizable fleet, of three hundred vessels. They were manned by skeleton crews; mostly the old Polemarch's fellow aged veterans of previous wars. They used their fleet, and the gravity of the stars, to cram the Hutt fleet into a kill zone. In general space combat, certain weapons are impractical for ship-to-ship deployment, since they can be easily dodged under most circumstances. This is why ships mostly rely on turbolasers, rather than heavy ordinance missiles. Caught and unable to escape, the Hutts would not be in a position to dodge anything. The Desevrans, in a performance not been seen before or since, unloaded a barrage of thermonuclear warheads.

Naturally, they were also caught between the two stars, and battling the Hutts cost them the time they would certainly have needed to manage an escape of their own. They were also still outnumbered roughly ten to one. But the use of atomics rendered all these points moot. All ships were destroyed, Hutt and Desevran alike, and the latter had sold their lives at a very steep price indeed. The attempted invasion of Desevro was brought to a halt, and the Hutt forces were cut in half. Meanwhile, the remaining Desevran ships raced through hyperspace, to meet up with the Cronese fleet.

The Cronese, not to be outdone, had carefully lured the Hutt fleet pursuing them towards the Cychreus asteroid field, where they proceeded to evade the larger Hutt ships, which could not safely enter the field. The Hutts mocked this, calling the Cronese cowards, and proclaiming they could simply outlast them. The Cronese would run out of reserves before long, and would either have to surrender, or they would die in their asteroid field. This would have been true, but the Cronese knew what the Hutts did not: that the Desevran relief fleet was well on its way. This fleet exited hyperspace closely behind the Hutt ships, who had not expected to be attacked from that direction. At that very moment, the Cronese ships -- having carefully awaited this moment -- burst out of the asteroid field and likewise began to lay into the Hutts. It was a hard fought battle, but at the end of the day, the Hutts had to sound the retreat. The dual defeat at Zestothyrae and Cychreus humiliated the Hutts enormously, and led them to conclude that attempts to overpower the Tionese would be too much effort.

                                                                                                                                                 The Rise of Xim

With this, the Hutt threat was dealt with, and although the Hutts still coveted the riches of the Tion Cluster, the Cronese and the Desevrans could afford to consider the threat vanquished at least for the time being. This would have been an opportunity to usher in a new age for the Tionese nations, but instead, the Cronese and the Desevrans soon fell back onto old habits. A new generation, having fought in the recent wars, was eager for further victory. As soon as these younger officers gained positions of power, conflict was once again inevitable. The Tionese peoples fought their most brutal wars for supremacy yet, the so called Sector Wars.

All manner of warfare was unleashed upon the population, devastating entire worlds. A new ruthlessness had become the norm. Having fought an existential war against the Hutts, the new elites believed themselves invincible, and showed an aggressive attitude not seen previously in the internecine wars of the Cluster. Plague soon spread across the war-torn worlds, killing yet more than the battles. The pulling away of ships from patrolling duties also led to the emergence of pirates and their ilk in unprecedented numbers. Pirate chieftains managed to establish major holdings, outside effective state control. Eventually, after a long siege, the Desevrans won the conflict, and declared themselves lords and hegemons over defeated Cron. This triumph would be fleeting, however, as their overstretched fleet was soon called home to deal with internal rebellion.

In this environment, Xim was born. The bastard son of a pirate king who had emerged in the aftermath of the Sector Wars, Xim was confined between four other -- legitimate -- sons, all vying for power in their father's massive fleet. With the retreat of Desevran forces, pirate kings of this sort had a free hand in running large swathes of Cronese space. Misfortunate enough to have been born with a severe bone disease and a speech impediment, Xim was neglected by his father and siblings. His deformities, his stuttering lisp and his status as a mere bastard all marked him as a lesser son. It was expected that he would resign himself to the background as his brothers competed to fill their father's shoes one day. Xim was dismissed as the weakling of the family; a creature born of "lesser blood", when his father had impregnated some nameless concubine.

The way he was neglected, dismissed, and -- on unfortunate days -- cruelly tormented did not incline him to be a weakling. It kindled a fire in him. A burning desire to overcome his impediments and leaver his mark on history. His first advantage was his sharp mind. Whereas his brothers, and in fairness his father as well, were little more than thugs, Xim spent his lonely days in the library. With a keen eye, he saw the opportunities that the chaotic state of the Tionese region presented to those who looked beyond the obvious. He knew that if he did the right things, took the right steps, he could be more than just some pirate. Moreover, he believed in destiny. Studying technological advancements in biochemistry and droid technology, Xim gathered several engineers and -- using a supply of aurodium dragnars he stole from his father's treasury -- began the construction of a droid army. He based this force of mechanical soldiers on his own, innovative design.

It would take time to construct his army, especially since he had to work in secret, but as his family members squabbled over the spoils of his father's fleet, he managed to managed to carry out an attack that left all his brothers dead. The means by which he achieved this are contested. Some say he personally carried out the attack, wearing a mechanical suit of battle armor, of the sort for which he would later become famous. Others believe it was nothing so dramatic, and that he just filled the room with poison gas. Whatever his method was, it must have been impressive. Sufficiently so, at least, to gain the loyalty of the entire fleet. The fact that he unveiled his first battle droids to the fleet commanders may have played a role. These veterans must surely have grasped the uses of such advanced killing machines.

With the fleet at his command, and his droid army now constructed, Xim launched the first war in a bloody reign, aimed at reuniting the Tion Cluster -- and under his rule. Any opposition was swept aside with indiscriminate orbital bombardment and wave after wave of relentless droid forces. In ground combat, Xim made a name for himself by usually leading his forces in his mecha battle suit. His fearless attitude ensured that even his enemies respected him, and there was nothing that Xim so strongly desired as respect . The battle suit also ensured that this became the image of him in the eyes of the public: a metal-clad titan, conquering wherever he went. His physical deformities became a mere afterthought, of which few made any mention. Exactly as he had hoped. Xim made himself the ruler of all Tion, and he intended to write the history of his reign in a way that ensured that his legend would live on forever.

However, he still had larger schemes in mind than those involving just this one region. He wanted to conquer the Rim in its entirety, founding an empire of epic stature, thus securing his place in history and myth... forever. His name written among the stars themselves. He had received a prophesy, from no less a source than the Oracle of Appolyon.  He would not be merely known as Xim the Despot, one among many but Xim the Vanquisher. The man who would destroy the hated Hutts and their alien slave armies. Xim: conqueror and liberator. Xim: the greatest name in all recorded history. Xim believed in this destiny

                                                                                                        The Conquests and Downfall of the Despot

For a decade, he built up his forces and droid armies, while securing his rule at home. He achieved domestic stability both by playing to the masses with promises of new glory and riches and by building up the Genoharradan, a secret force of masked assassins who would strike out against any dissenter. He also planned magnificently, down to the very last detail, his conquests. He ordered wide spread scouting missions to be carried out, and had the stellar geography of vast regions mapped out in detail. New routes were found, including even routes to the Core Worlds. Xim's navy was calibrated along pirate lines: designed to strike with speed and fury before the enemy could respond, but still with enough fire power to level entire worlds if need be. Xim consistently sacrificed defensive abilities for offensive potential.

Finally, the time came to strike. Xim deemed his forces ready, and in characteristically decisive manner, wasted not one more day. His fleets swarmed out, and across Hutt Space, planets burned. Xim's campaign was absolutely savage. He issued no declarations of war, and cited no caused for his acts of aggression. Killing billions in just the first month, Xim aimed to overwhelm . His forces struck multiple planets across various trade routes, at once, no place in range of his Hyperspace was safe  as his forces burned world after world, before forcing the Hutt Fleet to battle above Gagaumalan.

The Hutts, who had been in the midst of a internal power struggle, were completely unprepared for the sheer mobility of the enemy forces and the speed of their attacks -- not to mention Xim's highly detailed knowledge of their fleets. The conqueror's careful, meticulous preparations paid off. In the first year of the war, Xim managed to conquer a good third of Hutt Space, and still he kept going.

Overwhelming as Xim's military advance may have been, we can say -- with the benefit of hindsight -- that his relentlessly aggressive campaign ultimately worked against him. At the time of his invasion, the Hutt Empire had been in a fragile state. The great Hutt lord Kossak had died earlier in the year, and the clans had been teetering on the edge of a clash -- perhaps even civil war. Xim assumed that the death of Kossak left a power vacuum that he could and should exploit. He didn't want to risk the ascent of a new supreme overlord of the Hutts. He wished to strike while there was still uncertainty about the future. In his haste, he misread the signs of the time. He underestimated the potential for civil war. Had he delayed, he might yet have been in a position to exploit a civil war within the Hutt Empire. As it was, in his eagerness, he squandered that chance.

Not only that, even. Unrest had also been stirring among the slave species at their tyrannical Hutt masters. Unrest that could have been turned into a revolt and unraveled the entire Hutt Empire. Again, Xim's ambition worked against him. His vision of a lightning-quick war left no room for any subtlety. Hutt worlds were bombed, burned and pillaged with no discretion or mercy. No distinction was made between slave and slave-master. All were butchered alike. This unmatched brutality only served to make the slaves reconsider their notions of revolt: better the master's whip than the invader's sword! Thus, the Hutt Empire rallied. Its internal weaknesses were quickly pushed to the background, and the imminent threat forced a newfound unity to arise. The existential threat that Xim posed even led to the very thing he had wanted to head off: the ascension of a new overlord. A daring Hutt warlord by the name of Boonta improvised a delaying strategy that allowed him to mobilize significant resources while Xim's forces were stuck besieging a number of highly fortified worlds.

It was a ruthless strategy; as ruthless as that of Xim himself. The besieged worlds were doomed from the start. Boonta promised them he would come to lift the siege, but he never planned to do any such thing. Instead, he sacrificed those planets to buy himself time. He actually used that time as well as he could: assembling an army that could match Xim's fleet in a direct confrontation. Time upon time, the two fleets clashed, wearing each other down. But Boonta had an advantage: Xim's strategy had relied on the doctrine of the rapid advance. Now that he was forced to a grinding pace, he had lost his forward momentum. And he was fighting far from home, with long supply lines behind him. Boonta was fighting within his own territory, and could rapidly mobilize raiding forces. Not to attack Xim's armies, but specifically to target those precious supply convoys upon which his armies relied.

Boonta even began to order raids into Tionese space, which humiliated Xim in front of his own people. The Hutts couldn't threaten the Tion Cluster seriously, but they could land enough blows to make Xim look bad. This forced Xim to divide his forces, allocating more and more ships to the duty of guarding his home territory and his supply lines. This of course reduced Xim's invasion forces significantly. To make up for that, Xim began to launch raids of his own, along several hyperlanes. His raids reached the outskirts of the Core, providing an... unpleasant... first contact between  the Core Worlds and one of the most prominent Rim-based powers. (This would be remembered, in later days.) The overall effect was to turn most near-by minor powers, previously neutral, fully against Xim. The Mon Calamari would deal a sharp defeat when forces under Xims commander Ptlom entered their region and the Rodians raised the legions to the borders, just in case he struck again. 

It has been said, pithily, that Xim lost the war the day he invaded, because his chosen strategy doomed his plans. Others claim that his generals suggested that he offer peace terms to the Hutts -- one half of their Empire in return for a treaty of friendship -- a while before Boonta rose to power, and that if he had done it, the still-terrified Hutts would have agreed in a heartbeat. But he didn't do it, and when Boonta gained supreme command over the Hutt forces, the opportunity was lost. Both these arguments have merit. It is safe to say that Xim lost the war a good while before the dramatic confrontation that sealed his fate.

Even on the very eve of the battle, Xim could have chosen to retreat, plundering Hutt worlds all the way back to his own borders. But his pride would not allow it. His skills were tremendous, but they were eclipsed by the still greater shadow of his ego. Boonta knew this well, being a great and prideful lord of the Hutts -- and himself no stranger to the realities of having a huge ego. Thus, he laid a clever trap. Taunting Xim with various insults, knowing of the notorious ego of the despot, he challenged him to ritual combat above the world of Vontor. Xim, by now desperate to somehow drag a triumph out of his collapsing campaign, saw an opportunity to achieve a victory after all. Here, he believed, he could end the war in one fell swoop. He donned his armor and led his droid forces to the surface, while his fleet engaged the Hutt ships in orbit.

Boonta had not chosen little-known Vontor without reason. Xim was not the only warlord to do extensive research on his enemies. Once on Vontor, Xim's war droids started sparking out in a combustion, the materials the droids were made of reacting violently with the planet's unusual atmospheric composition. Boonta had planned for that. Now, Xim was trapped on the ground -- without his elite units, and surrounded by the best of the Hutt army. In space, his navy was trapped by the Hutt war fleet. While that fight was more equal, Boonta's goal wasn't to win the space battle. Only to prevent Xim's fleet from saving their master. The Hutt warlord banked on the assumption that if he could defeat Xim himself, his fleet's morale would collapse.

Xim's last stand is reported -- albeit by Hutt histories -- to have been quite pathetic. His mechanical armor malfunctioning, he could barely put up a fight. There are stories that slave-soldiers from the Core turned on him, incentivized by Hutt promises of clemency and a return home. If that account is accurate, Boonta's promises were lies: Xim's ground forces were ritually slaughtered to the last man -- their corpses impaled on Vontor's surface as a grim testament to Hutt cruelty. Whatever the precise sequence of events may have been, xim was captured alive, pulled out of his armor, and humiliatingly paraded around by the Hutt forces. Boonta then gouged out his eyes, and made the once-mighty Xim crawl around in the dirt. As predicted, Xim's fleet lost all hope at this point, and fled in considerable disarray. Xim was not killed, but -- blinded and helpless -- locked in a cage for the rest of his days, like an animal for the Hutt elite to taunt. His physical deformities were cruelly mocked, and he spent the remainder of his life in utter misery.

The Tion Cluster soon broke apart into a dozen squabbling warlord states again. The Hutts, by now, were out for blood. The Tion Cluster was invaded in a punitive campaign. The Hutts would set an example for the ages, which would wipe the taste of defeat from their mouth and truely show the Rim who was in control. 

                                                                                                            The Destruction of the Old Tion and the final solidification of the Hutts

The planets of Cron and Desevro were burned from orbit in the same horrifying fashion as Xims campaign of destruction. The surrviors, were enslaved and forced to dismantle anything that remained of their society. Tionese were dispersed throughout the Dominion as the lowest of the Hutt Slave Peoples, forbidden to speak on pain of lashing and losing their tongues.  The most grand display of humiliation would be what is known as Boonta's Eve. On the anniversary of the Battle of Vontor, A Hundred thousand slaves from the Tionese worlds were paraded through Nal Hutta. Once great nobles were forced to race until all but one died of exhaustion, while the Priestesses of Appolyon crowned Boonta himself with the Crown of Victory, before having her eyes cut out. The date would henceforth be a celebration of Hutt glory, a date of reward for the loyal and dread for the punished.

Despite the best efforts of the Hutts, their conquests would not crush the spirit of the Tionese peoples. Many millions had fled the war, across the galaxy. Many went to the Mandalorians, where many warrior families were integrated into  Others went to the territory of the Mon Calamari, where although reduced to Serfdom, vibrant Tionese culture survived, and others settled along the Mid Rim,  building states and coming into contact with the Republic where they spread such cultural practices as Tionese Drama and verse to the Core.  Not even those who the Hutts had fully enslaved could be crushed.  On Lorrd, where the majority of Tionese Slaves were set to labor farming delicacies for the Hutt Table, a new culture was forming right under the overseers noses. Though forbidden to speak on pain of Mutilation and death, the Tionese people surrvived, forging a new language based on sign and body language, and still managing to pass down the stories of old to their children.  

Xims legacy has been resurrected from time and again by a variety of sources. Tionese Exiles glamorized him as a conquering hero brough by treacherous advisors, during the Galactic Dark Age, he became an Intrepid folk character who took down the alien Hutt barbarians throughout human space. This record was only somewhat ameliorated with the end of the Hutt Dominion and the assimilation of many Ailen Nations into the Second Republic, but the image remained among many of the more Human Supremicist organizations and would come into full abuse during the Separatist Crisis with the Rise of Ishin Il Raz. 

 Ultimately though, his legacy cannot be assessed as anything but a disaster. Xims conquests did not end in glory but the complete and utter desolation of his people. Entire species such as the Grizealyans and the Rabbiatany were driven to extinction or perpetual endangered species level. And  despite all his brutality, the campaign he waged against the Hutts and the peoples of the Hutt Empire  was the factor that ensured their Empire's unity upon Kossak's death. With their rule forged to steely consistency in the fires of war, the Hutts would now embark on the road to Galactic power, a power not fully broken for a millennium.

Chapter Text

1.The Galactic Republic shall recognize the holdings of the imperial Hutt Dominion and her alliances as true legitimate expressions of the Rim forthwith.

2. The Hutt Dominion shall respect the territorial integrity of the Republic and her allied systems and shall cease all extraterritorial activity to enslave Republic or Republic ally citizens.

The Rendilli Concordat, establishing a lasting peace Between the Hutt Dominion and First Republic.

The Stock Exchange took another jump today at the announcement of the accession of Manann into the Senate and the opening of their Koloto Reserves for full investment from off-worlders. Already the Virtanen Guild has promised to develop new revolutionary treatments and drugs based on Manann's bountiful resources.

Cornet News Holo-feed, 25 years before the fall of the First Republic

Alderaan stands against this blatant attempt by the Senate to override local prerogatives and taxation measures for the sake of Corellian and Coruscanti profligacy.

Senator Galt Organa the Ninth in the outstanding session on Galactic Taxation

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                                                                                                                         The Begginings and Building of a Golden Age 

In many ways, the establishment of the First Republic was perceived by the war-weary public as a welcome return to the era and sensibilities of the earlier Core Renaissance. Indeed, although formally united in a federalizing framework, the worlds of the galaxy's thriving Core went on much as they had in previous periods. The Republic's central authorities were relegated to a minor role. There was no interfering united government making galaxy-wide policy for each individual system. Economic regulation was kept to a minimum, save for ensuring free trade between systems and sporadically intervening in the cases of emergency.

The Senate's duties were similarly limited. It was, more than anything else, a diplomatic forum; a place of negotiation body between worlds, where grievances could be aired and ironed out, and where disputes on matters of affairs between planets ( particularly regarding minutiae of commerce and trade) could be peacefully resolved. The Senate's main power came from its legal power to call on the combined armies of the Republic’s member systems. This power was of course only meaningful in emergencies, and was not usually called upon at all. Less obviously meaningful, but ultimately more influential in the long term, was the Senate's prerogative to fund various organizations and legally invest them with certain public responsibilities. At first glance, this devolution of governmental tasks might seem a hallmark of the era's decentralist attitudes. We must not forget, however, that in earlier ages, no such authority had existed in the first place. That the Senate could invest Republic-encompassing power in bodies of its choosing was an unprecedented political evolution.

The most famous organization to be given chartered tasks and duties by the government was, inevitably, the Jedi Order. The Jedi were already firmly enmeshed in the affairs of many worlds; especially in regions where the Corellians had led the expansion efforts. With Senate funding, the public role of the Jedi Knights was made more generally recognized, further expanded, and more reliably supported. Navigators and negotiators already, now the Jedi were getting involved in the task of wielding new policing powers. The unique abilities of the Jedi made them ideally suited to be the core of a new, galaxy-spanning peacekeeper force. The Jedi were called upon to deal with particularly troublesome criminals, and were regularly commissioned as military commanders for united expeditions when the government needed a neutral commander for a multi-system task force.

These changes had been coming for a long time. It had never been unknown for the Jedi to help with the pursuit and apprehension of criminals. Nor had the Jedi ever shied away from humanitarian tasks, such as setting up farming infrastructure, as part of their goodwill missions. Naturally, this bled over into a certain degree of political involvement. So the steps for this new expanded role had often been laid on many worlds previously, but now this formalized relationship interlocked the Jedi into the galactic government, often with immense legal privileges. This relationship, which continued throughout the generations, was built on trust. The trust of the citizenry that we, the Jedi, had their best in intentions in mind. (It must be noted here that the erosion of the public trust is a sure sign of dark days to come, as the events of the last two decades prior to this recording clearly illustrate.)

The most important role of the newly-formed Republic in the development of the Core, and indeed other regions, was that it secured peace. No one would desire to fight each other for fear of retaliation from the rest of the Republic, whether through military force or economic sanction. This brought internal security and domestic tranquility. Externally speaking, the combined systems of the Republic formed a united front when facing the Hutts of the Rim systems. At the time of the First Republic's establishment, the Rim was still seen as an unexplored backwater region; dangerous and infested with pirates and raiders of all sorts. Wild tales, ranging from small misunderstandings to the fantastically wrong-headed, abounded throughout the Core regions. Yet one thing was known: the Hutts were very real, and no matter how decentralized the Republic was, it would be in the interest of all to maintain a common defense against such a threat.

Vigilance brought security, and security -- as always -- led to economic prosperity. Increasing wealth was the norm of this early period. With the Coruscanti and Alderaani putting their military clashes behind them, and the old grievances seeming to finally recede into the past, the recovery of the galaxy was deemed complete. The Republic ensured a free zone of trade without tariffs and other such interferences, and the economy correspondingly boomed without interruption. This prosperity was increased even more when the Republic began expanding into the Mid Rim, colonizing many a world and trading with newly contacted peoples. The cultural exchange of the Core Renaissance was revived and its tenets now solidified into the beginnings of a more or less united Core identity. For the first time, the intelligentsia of the Core Worlds began to speak of a "Galactic Civilization"... of which they deemed themselves the finest exponents, of course.

Despite its influence upon the lamentable doctrines of "Human High Culture" in latter ages, the notions of a galactic oikoumene, based on a mix of the values that we have already previously discussed, was essentially an idealistic belief. Unfortunately, it naturally engendered a dichotomy between the "civilized" and the "barbarian". Thus, a current of Core snobbery was present from the outset. This brought up quite a few problems when expansion into the Mid Rim. The explorers deemed themselves civilizing heroes, whereas those being on the receiving end generally saw their new overlords as arrogant colonists. (The more we study history, it seems, the more we can understand the causes of tensions and attitudes that persist into the present.)

The expansion of the Republic (in all its successive incarnations) could be laid at the feet of three factors: economic desire, opposition to foreign enemies (usually the Hutts), and a desire to spread certain civilizational ideals. This can be seen most clearly in the era of the First Republic and in the much later High Republic Period. We will naturally study the latter in more detail when we get to that, but at this stage, we will focus on the First Republic. Despite the criticisms, it must not be assumed that the Republic was at its heart a perfidious and exploitative imperialist power. There are revisionist schools, now arising in response to the Galactic Empire's recent glorification of colonialist attitudes, which claim that the Core was somehow always evil and despotic. This is a deeply unfair and biased position, and ignores the facts. The reality that there were wrongs does not mean that there were no rights. Most systems that joined the Republic did so eagerly and freely, because it offered them immense advantages. We can recognize this without failing to admit that there were injustices as well.

In the initial stages of the First Republic's period of expansion, the leaders in exploration were both the Jedi Order and the great trade corporations (or as they were at this time called, Guilds). The Jedi would act as missionaries of the Republic’s values and indeed services, helping negotiate peace, alleviating disasters and taking in Force sensitives for training. These Jedi missions would often set up permanent ourposts where the trained Force sensitives could continue to serve their people and provide a link back to the Core. This was particularly appreciated by worlds and species like the Ithorians and Mirialans, two groups that considered themselves deeply indebted to the Force. They welcomed contact with the Jedi and with the Republic.

At the same time, the great commerce guilds would bring the benefits of economic trade with the entire Republic, and would set themselves deeply within newly-contacted societies through their business ventures, setting up local contacts. They brought the guarantee of safe shipping across vast distances, all cargo ensured by the Guilds. This was unprecedented outside the Core, where at times as much as two-thirds of cargo was outright expected to be written off as losses to piracy. There can be no denying that contact with the Republic invariably preceded a huge economic boom. This does not mean there were no drawbacks. The merchant guilds were no humanitarian institutions, obviously, and were driven by profit alone. if they could get away with it, they would create a dependent relationship, ensuring that newly-contact worlds would end up beholden to the commercial hegemons for a long time. Indeed, the birth of Private Corporate Armies can be traced back to these times, instituted as a way to protect corporate interests -- and if necessary, act with various local associates to overthrow an uncooperative local government. We may conclude that a vast increase in wealth does not imply that this wealth was evenly distributed...

Many Core Worlders, enticed by the riches of the Mid Rim and tired by problems of overcrowding back home (a constant factor on worlds like Coruscant), would set out to furnish new homes for themselves on worlds outside the Core. This was often funded by the Guilds, since it ensured the viability of corporate settlements. Often, when these settlers encountered technologically less advanced peoples and they were in the majority, the colonists would slowly but steadily become the dominant population of the planet in question. Occasionally, this process would even be deliberate and outright oppressive, with the native population being subjugated and segregated into their own population hubs -- similar to the Corellian system with the Selonians, or the Coruscanti ghettos.

Seeing this treatment of other peoples at the hand of some Core Worlders definitely made many societies wary of joining the Republic. Did the benefits outweigh the potential risks? For many, the answer was yes, and for most of them, their choice ended up being a wise one. But it was not always a smooth process, and there was certainly no instant harmony between populations. Indeed, some in the Core were very anxious about letting in more and more non-human populations (or, as these groups tended to phrase it, "alien scum"). There was, for a time, a fear that such sentiments would become dominant, and that this would in turn mean that few worlds would wish to join the Republic in the future. All sane minds knew that this would mean the end of expansion and a decline into economic malaise. They despaired at a potential future in which the Republic became a xenophobic power, closing itself off from the wider galaxy. Yet this did not come to pass. No matter how things might have turned out, events forced the Republic’s hand.

                                                                                                                                         The Hutt Threat

There is some irony in the fact that the Hutts -- whose depraved empire might logically have been the prime argument in favor of the position that the Republic should stay far away from their regions of space -- instead became the factor that ensured the Republic would evolve into a true multi-species federation. As it happens, nothing unites people like a common enemy. And an enemy they were. The Hutts had long been a presence in the Mid Rim region, their slaving raids reaching far and wide. Outposts of their empire dotted the border to the Outer Rim. Likewise, their raids sometimes skirted the Core itself. To the Republic, the Hutts were the face of external evil. This idea certainly united the Core and the peoples of the Mid Rim, and when the threat of the Hutts expanded, it solidified their unision.

First, the campaigns of Xim passed, like a vast storm. Xim's desperate raids of the Core's colonies galvanized the isolationists. They argued that expansion invited doom and left the Republic vulnerable. In fact, many foresaw that if Xim won, he'd become the hegemon of much of the Mid Rim, and that those previously terrified of the Hutts would flock to his banner. In so doing, he'd "corner the market" (in Corellian terms) and render further Republic expansion into the region improbable at best. But Xim did not win. After Vontor, the prospects suddenly changed dramatically. Because now, with the Tionese crushed beneath their feet and their empire seemingly secure, Hutt Lords moved coreward, in search of greener pasture, bringing ever more systems into the same cycle of oppression that dominated the Rim. This terrified both the Republic and the free peoples of the Mid Rim. Suddenly, old grievances with the Republic's excesses were mostly forgotten. "Better the Republic than the Hutts" was the common conclusion.

This ensured that, in the face of Hutt expansion, countless systems outright petitioned to join the Republic. And the Republic welcomed them, because the Senate feared that some day, every single warm body would be needed to go and fight the Hutts in a struggle for survival. The isolationists had lost the moment; in a very short span of time, the reactionary dream of a human-exclusive Core union was lost forever. The Mid Rim begged for a protector -- any protector -- and the Republic moved in to counter the Hutts. The influx of non-human member states changed the First Republic's politics dramatically, lending far greater weight to the Mid Rim and creating what many hailed as a more equal union of worlds. (The Core’s more racially bigoted block attempted to keep them at a distant second class rank, only to fail in the face of the Republic constitution which explicitly barred such a move)

This would seem to be the hour of decision, where the Republic could live up to its ideals and stand up for freedom and justice in a titanic struggle over the fate of the galaxy. The Jedi openly called for it: Jedi volunteers were already engaged in the business of actively attacking all slaver ships and freeing their sapient cargo. Despite the horrors of war, the Order saw the annihilation of the Hutt Dominion as a matter of destiny. Yet in the fateful moment, the Republic proved unequal to the task. The Core Worlds were never willing to send their sons and daughters to die in a Crusade for Liberty and the Hutt's never explicitly invaded Republic Territory with soldiers, even as they raided for Slaves and Booty.  

                                                                                              The Rendili Concordat and the Great Divide and Schism

 Several border wars were fought against the Hutt raids, but the great conflict was staved off again and again. Compromise upon compromise was signed, as the two powers carefully demarcated spheres of influence, instead of fighting it out once and for all. Eventually, after several minor border clashes, the Republic and Hutts reached a more official understanding of mutual non aggression -- and indeed, of mutual trade. In the so-called Rendilli Concordat, terms of lasting co-existence were outlined.

The government presented this as getting the best possible result out of a difficult situation. A clear line of territorial division was drawn up. In exchange for not attacking Republic worlds, the Hutts could trust that the government would legally restrain Jedi and other interested parties from launching abolitionist raids into Hutt territory. As a benefit to this, the Republic would be free to trade with the Hutts and vice versa, thus opening both up to commercial opportunities. This new "relationship" was at once controversial. Peace with slavers? Trade with slavers?! Grand Master Gendraal of the Jedi Order addressed the Senate, calling for the proposal to be repudiated. The Senatorial elite, fearful of committing to a course of war, hastily fled from the Chamber in great numbers. They would not vote in favour of Gendraal's motion, nor against it: they would cowardly deny him a quorum, and let that be the end of it.

The government's commissioner, defending the treaty, assured the Grand Master that the only interest at stake was the establishment of lasting peace. At this, Gendraal only scoffed. "Peace at what price? How many thousands of worlds have you condemned to chains and slavery?" When the government's commissioner responded that those worlds were not members of the Republic and thus not the responsibility of the Senate, Gendraal responded acerbically: "Responsibility does not end at the border."

Words that would prove prophetic. Yet Gendraal was not to be cast in the role of a prophet. Instead, when the Republic began to deny the Jedi support, unless the Order desisted in "illegal" anti-slavery operations, Gendraal famously resigned from his position of Grand Master. Financed by an avidly abolitionist group of Corellian merchant princes, he and a group of fellow Jedi waged a long clandestine campaign against the Hutts. It got to the point that the Republic had to assure the Hutts that anyone caught in the neutral zone with a lightsaber would be arrested and extradited to the Hutts. This came to a head when a Republic patrol indeed caught Gendraal just as he was returning from the neutral regions. His ship was full of freshly-freed slaves, his clothes still smeared with Hutt blood. Yet he did not carry a lightsaber, and after seeing the miserable condition the former slaves were in, the captain was not inclined to look for any Jedi weapon very closely.

(As it happened, Gendraal made it a point to always hide his weapon in his long and magnificent beard. He was stopped and searched at least twenty times, but the weapon was never found. Some say that no Republic officer was willing to humiliate the venerated old man by frisking his beard. Others say that the officers knew perfectly well where the saber was hidden, but just pretended not to. Either way, the story became legendary. The saying "Gendraal's beard!", among Jedi, has even since indicated that one is deeply resolved to do something illegal, but morally just.)

Despite the constant clandestine actions to subvert the slave trade, the treaty held. Perhaps the fact that Hutt slavers illegally crossed the border quite regularly was a key factor in stopping the Hutts from exploiting their manufactured outrage at Gendraal's exploits. No matter what, the peace of cowardice was maintained for many decades, and most in the Republic reconciled themselves with it. They were, after all, safe and blessed by great prosperity. Yes, at the cost of leaving much of the Rim to rot under Hutt tyranny... but that was tragically easy to ignore. This was an age of moral compromise. The First Republic had missed its window of true greatness. It had, in so doing, also averted a galactic war, but as Gendraal asked: at what cost? Deep down, at the cost of its own soul. Everybody secretly knew it. And so, despite wealth and progress, an attitude of bitterness and cynicism settled into the Republic's culture. The root cause of this was collective shame.

Society hardened, somehow. The people grew cold and distant from one another. As the Republic settled into the sphere of power it had carved out for itself, bordering with the Hutts, internal conflicts flared back up again. The power of central authority and the place of the galactic Senate became more and more of a heated issue. It was no longer just a matter of identity. The Republic had been founded on the promise of self determination for all, and made expensive endeavors to preserve the sovereignty of all cultures even as they intermixed with others. Yet as the age of expansion halted, a period of consolidation began. The Senate took more and more tasks upon itself. Attempts to encroach on prior policies of self determination were met with ferocious rebuke by nationalistic partisans on many a world from members as old as Corellia to the more newly added Ithor. At the same time, both practical needs and cultural immersion led to calls for a growth of Senatorial power. Political battle-lines were drawn up. If the Republic could not fight the Hutts, it seemed, the Republic would fight itself.

Even the matter of relations with the Hutts were made, primarily, the subject of domestic policy disputes. Many felt that bordering the Hutt Dominion, the Republic now required a standing army to defend its borders. This would of course, represent a massive expenditure, to be added to the already massively inflating costs of central governance. The funding of the various guilds and of the expanding newer colonies already cost more every passing year. The Senate had thus far been operating on the basis of a voluntary system of donations and stipends by various member worlds, in addition to some irregular duties here and there. Increasingly, the need came in for more funds, and hence the need for direct taxation. The mere suggestion, however, caused intense uproar from the localists, who called it a 'violation of the spirit of the Republic'.

As this debate was roaring in the Senate, the Jedi Order was facing her own internal divisions. As the order had grown to include hundreds of Enclaves spread out across the worlds, the authority of the far away Jedi Council -- isolated as they were on Tython -- had frayed significantly. Many individual conclaves would have different ideas about the Force, and about politics. Some wanted to fully integrate themselves with the local population, in a manner very similar to what we know from the Corellian Jedi, while others were keen to become more fully involved with the Galactic Senate and its politics. Yet other wanted to retreat somewhat from such public entanglements. Of course, the matter of the Force itself was still very much open discussion, with many wide-ranging ideologies on what was safe and proper and where the Jedi should explore, including some very dangerous heresies which developed (such as the Philosophy of the Flow, the idea that Force Sensitives should simply detach themselves from the physical world and physical considerations, abandoning the Code's duty to defend the weak, and becoming solely devoted to an 'inward journey'.)

One thing most Jedi agreed upon was that the Republic had neglected to carry out its duty when it made peace with the Hutt Empire. The self-exile of Gendraal was a source of immense embarrassment and irritation. Thus, when the Republic's government proposed a convention to revise the Constitution, the Jedi declined to participate. Without the neutral Order's involvement, the proposal floundered. This decision has been hotly debated in ages since. Was this a moral decision; a clear choice not to get involved in increasingly dirty politics? Or was this spite on the Order's part; spite which proceeded to doom the Republic's best hope for structural reform? However we judge it, this decision meant that any reform of the Republic's institutions would be a slow, incremental process.

For the longest timed, it seemed like the Republic's underlying issues would indeed be resolved in due time, step by step. While there were still fractures, the Republic was seen as still relatively strong and prosperous during this time. Nobody knew how bad things really were. If the Jedi had known what was to come, they might well have acted differently. But they did not know. The First Republic was seen as healthy, and capable of coming out of any crisis stronger than before. Despite the compromises and the moral failings, it was at least a time of peace, when the Senate still mostly kept the balance between the various factions within the Republic.

But that all changed when the Sith Empire attacked.

Chapter Text

None of you here possess what it takes to lead us into the future. You all lack vision or purpose beyond simple conquest and war. Our great brotherhood must be more than simple minded goals. Our Empire, greater still, demands the ruling hand of a true visionary. You seek the throne? You seek to claim the title of Dark Lord? Then take it through your fire and your cunning! Let the Dark guide you, and only then will you be able to use the Dark to gain mastery over others. The worthiest of all contenders will gain the mantle of authority, and so will it ever be. You must fight a war like no other, to produce a ruler like no other!"

The Rajivari Holocron, starting the Wars of the Dark Succession in the aftermath of Ajunta Pall's death


"It seems that I am the worthiest, father..."

Marka Ragnos to his father, Lord Ratish, upon his ascension to Apprentice at the age of eight


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                                                                                                                         The Reign of Pall

Whereas the First Republic expanded in a mostly peaceful manner, this should not be mistaken for a universal norm throughout the galaxy. Indeed, as much as certain injustices of the Republic's expansionist policies can be criticized, the Republic at its very worst was still a beacon of civility compared to certain other powers. Naturally, the slavocratic Hutts provide one point of comparison, but there is another. One that would in many ways prove even more terrible and monstrous. Far away from the thriving heart of the Republic, hidden in the dark fringes, the Sith Empire arose in its own right.

Even as the Republic thrived, the Sith were embarking upon their own golden age. It was to be an era as cruel as it was prosperous. Striking out from Korriban, they built a society drenched in misery, rooted in oppression, and fueled by conquest. And it worked. Every new subjugation brought new slaves and plunder, to be divided among the warriors. Divided, of course, by the rulers, who first took all the best for themselves. But even still, so much looted wealth ensured that for those willing to be brutal and heartless, there was plenty to be gained in service of the Sith Empire. Thus, the whole of society was stimulated in a direction of feckless egomania. Those who were anything less than utterly ruthless were destroyed or enslaved, whereas those most cruel and violent rose to the highest positions of power.

Ajunta Pall reigned for a long century, overseeing the development of the Empire, and creating a new system of governance that gradually merged the Dark Acoyltes into the priestly caste of the old Sith elite. The most powerful bloodlines gave birth to the new aristocracy of Dark Lords. As he cleared the Tave Ari from their cities and began the process of dividing the spoils, he gave the most powerful of his followers their own cities, which they could rule without any overlord except for Ajunta Pall and the Dark Council. The weaker followers of the Dark Side would have to go out and conquer their own lands. Korriban was soon divided, and the new masters of the Sith began to strike out at nearby worlds. Thus, cruel colonialism began, overseen by the Dark Lords. Spoils were divided, and new conquests initiated.

At first, the Dark Lords consisted solely of the initial leaders of the Dark Acolytes and the foremost patriarchs of the priestly caste of Korriban. As time went on, new blood seeped in. Ambitious figures clawed their way into the ranks of power, often using the corpses of rivals as stepping stones. Just as the nature of the empire encouraged cutthroat behavior, so did the nature of its government. Killers leading killers. The Sith reveled in their own brutality. Advancement in rank was often a matter of challenging a rival, defeating him, gauging out his eyes, and giving him to the sorcerers to be sacrificed. The sorcerers and alchemists were now free and unconstrained, and they had endless numbers of slaves to sacrifice in dark rituals, or to use in twisted experiments. They thus delved deeper and deeper into the secrets of the Dark Side, with none to stand in their way. This was an age of evil, when dark and vile beings came perhaps closer than ever to becoming they evil gods they imagined themselves to be.

Just as one would expect of the Sith and their ways, the system of their culture was such that the great mass of the population existed in harrowing circumstances, as serves or slaves. Brutalized, oppressed, and constantly in mortal danger. To many of us, this is difficult to understand, but to the Sith, this was not a failing or even a mere side effect of their system. It was an intended feature. Some might say it was the core purpose. Constant violence and oppression would inevitably provide selective pressure, they believed, allowing the strongest and most exceptional to thrive -- not in spite of adversity, but because of it. All of the population was structurally indoctrinated to believe this.

There was also the fact that in between the elite of the Dark Lords and their warrior retainers on one hand and the serf population and teeming enslaved masses on the other hand, there was a considerable cohort of non Force sensitive soldiers. These were the direct descendants of the conquistadors who had followed the Sith to Korriban in their desire for blood and treasure. After the establishment on the Empire, they soon formed their own lesser fiefdoms, each pledging themselves to a Dark Lord, and to the cause of furthering his glory. This path was fraught with peril, of course, as it was not unknown for a entire family to be reduced to Gottenthu for making a wrong choice in the constant cutthroat competition of Sith society.

Nevertheless, those who prevailed were often rewarded richly, and this social caste served as crucial enforcers -- both keeping the serf population in line and following the Dark Lords in their conquests abroad. In return, they were appointed increasingly lavish positions in the new colonies. Rich estates with many slaves. Entire worlds were solely the domain of this caste. Indeed, both by their own choie and because their Sith masters wished it, they strictly held themselves apart. No interbreeding between Force-sensitive Sith and their "commoner" vassals was to be permitted. The strict eugenics of the Empire sought primarily to keep the Sith blood pure, but the conquistador class had its own reasons to stick to their own kind. They felt that by staying out of the Dark affairs of the Sith sorcerers, they could actually improve their own safety. All Sith Lords needed foot soldiers. By not getting involved in the jostling for power at the top, they could be foot soldiers to all the Sith. (This state of affairs would end up preserving the diversity of species within the original Sith Empire that would play a considerable role in the restored Sith Empire a thousand years later.)

While Pall remained alive as a steady hand to keep order, the vicious system remained remarkably stable. Pall's approach certainly wasn't to maintain peace, but to channel war and destruction in the directions he was as most fitting. He encouraged in-fighting, but specifically in ritualized combat. Deadly rivalries were thus channeled into a system that maintained the brutal competition, but wouldn't endanger the Empire. Broader warfare between Sith was discouraged: campaigns were ever to be directed outward.

                                                                                                                           The Age of Chaos

"The Worthiest of all shall rule all, by blood and strength."- Marka Ranges

By these words, the golden age of the Sith was shaped. None among their more perfectly encapsulate the evil spirit of these times than Marka Ragnos. Some have called him the embodiment of all that a Sith should be. To those who know the Sith, those are ominous words...

Marka Ragnos stands out especially, perhaps, because he was born at the right time. The Sith, of course, would never agree with that. It is their philosophy that will alone determines one's success. Will to power. But a more clinical look will show us that Marka Ragnos could do what he did because he was in the right place at the right time. Let us set the scene. Under the aegis of Ajunta Pall, the Sith had thrived and thrived. Eventually, they had become so successful that there were enough conquests to satisfy all the mighty lords. These lords grew busy governing (in cruel ways) the domains they already had. Lesser warriors attempted some further conquests, but they were lesser for a reason. Some of these ventures succeeded, but by and large, the Sith Empire had grown up to its full capacity.

Pall realized fully well that if the Sith united into one host, they could launch a campaign of conquest on a much larger scale. But he could not devise a way to unite all the Sith. As they governed their fiefs, their society became more and more disunited. To his ire, Pall found that his system had succeeded so well that it now threatened to undermine his own goals! The sith were beginning to become lax and sated. The success of their imperial ambitions had allowed a certain decadence to creep in. Very often, the mightiest Sith no longer died in mortal combat with their rivals, but were instead assassinated by poison at lavish banquets. The decline had been slow, of course. Such things often are. And perhaps because of that, Pall only truly grasped the danger by the time it was already too late.

He began agitating for a great crusade, but lacking an attractive target, he did not manage to get the Sith eager for such a thing. His advanced age played a role as well. He was old, and soon enough, he was dying. He tried to find a way to restore "the strong vitality of the mortal struggle" to Sith society, but to no avail. Like all men, no matter how powerful in the Force, he came face to face with his own mortality. Pall died, and scarcely a week after he was entombed, the system he had so carefully built up began to crumble. First, it remained functional, as all were by then well accustomed to tradition and ritual. So, in exact accordance with Pall's long established instructions, the Lords of the Sith gathered before the holocron of Rajivari. His specter would judge them all, and would -- as Pall had explained -- crown the worthiest of them to rule the Sith.

Following their ambitious natures, they all competed fiercely for Rajivari's favor. However, Rajivari was unsatisfied with the whole crop of candidates. As Rajivari contemplated in his holocron, he saw what Pall had also seen: complacency. And like Pall, he despised it. Instead of choosing a leader and ending the competition between candidates, he felt that the competition should be intensified. Pall, who had dedicated his whole life to preventing wars between the Sith factions, had instinctively shied away from this idea. Rajivari, however, was more willing to embrace destructive methods. He felt that the descendants of his erstwhile disciples would need to grow stronger again. They would have to build on their extensive knowledge of the Force, bringing their power into blood-soaked practice. They would have to fight. If not some external foe, then each other.

The core of Rajivari's thinking was always conflict. This would have to be the ideology and theology of the Sith Empire; one that would could resound throughout the ages. The belief that life was and ought to be a struggle for survival, where only the strongest survive and thrive. He did not see this murderous will to power in the leaders who came before him. No -- he saw weak leaders, mere fools who would only allow power to make them decadent and fat, and who would thus allow the power of the Sith to dissolve and decline, with no way of preserving it. In the Saga of Darkness, a Sith text on the history of this era, commisioned during the reign of Marka Ragnos, it is said: "Thus Rajivari proclaimed: let the most powerful rule, the most cunning, the strongest of mind and of will -- and let this ruler delve into the mysteries of the Dark, dive and keep themselves, and the one who emerges from that tempest will truly know the Dark, and will know what it means to be of the Darkness..."

The holocron of Rajivari spurred on the candidates with further words of action, making it very clear that no mere compromise could ever determine the rightful ruler of the Sith. Only through a bloodletting, a war like no other, could this matter be settled. Thus began a fierce competition, precisely as intended. The series of brutal conflicts would later be called the Wars of the Dark Succession. The would-be rulers of the Sith were pitted against each other, and the careful balance that Pall had maintained was cast aside with abandon. Unrestrained warfare, on a scale that dwarfed the battles of the ages before the Acolytes came, now ravaged not only Korriban, but vast swathes of the Empire.

In this conflict, sorcery was often most sought after power: a Dark ability that could be employed to destroy enemies, warp the realities of the battlefield, turn men insane and vanquish whole armies. The wars turned into a festival of carnage, with all sides engaging in mass slaughter of the most depraved sort. Whole populations were frequently sacrificed in dark rituals, all to gain some sort of advantage in the clash of the Sith Lords. The priestly class of old Korriban had now fully merged with the population derived from the original Acolytes, and the most prominent bloodlines of the Empire, who vied for absolute power, grew to embrace a concept akin to one the Alderaani would know very well: that of the philosopher king. But whereas on Alderaan, there was an ideal of nobility and wisdom, the Sith variant of the concept was quite different. The great lords of the Empire, all seeking the highest authority over their peers, one after another proclaimed themselves sovereign. And they were to be sorcerer-kings; dark monarchs who were at once warlord and chief priest.

Each of these sorcerer-kings would build a new temple looking for the dark secrets of the galaxy, to discover more knowledge and refine their techniques in alchemy. And while all this was happening, the lesser sons and daughters of the great houses, with no prospects to attain the highest position, would go off and conquer new lands. In doing so, they would all be busy carrying off the plunder and slaves back to Korriban or setting themselves up as new lords of these lands. In most cases, the chief purpose was to fund the war machine of their dynasty's pretender to the Imperial throne.

Two hundred seventy years into this era of conflict, Marka Ragnos was born. His father was one of the leading Dark Lords of the era: the insane Ratish of Moraband. Exceptionally well versed in arcane lore and mystical secrets, Ratish was a mad genius, who adopted a careful, scientific method in his quest to become the most learned and powerful of the Sith. His ambitions and his experiments were often deranged in nature, but the process by which he carried them out was painstakingly planned. He innovated many new uses and techniques in the field of Sith alchemy, with which he consumed himself. In regard to his children, born to various concubines and slaves, he alternated between utter neglect and horrific abuse (experimenting on them to make them more ruthless and twisted).

Marka Ragnos was to be a product of that environment. Accounts of his childhood, which are scarce enough, are littered with revisionist propaganda, and often skewered with latter interpolations and Sith hagiography. At any rate, they claim with feverous admiration that he was from the very moment of his birth "coated in the deepest darkness, layered with the shadowy film of power". It is written that "as the many weaklings scrambled for the things of mortal sustenance, the Great Lord studied higher matters, and came to conclusions of vast import..."

Already at the young age of eight, the child's character and abilities were demonstrated by his actions. Marka created a Sand Demon using rituals that his father had pioneered; a creature constructed by his own mind, to do his bidding. Experienced sorcerers shied away from such methods, because the process could easily go wrong. Perhaps the fact that Marka Ragnos tried it shows the way a child can leap into danger -- but the fact that he succeeded showed his exceptional abilities. And then there is the purpose to which he put his self-made "companion". That showed something else about him. Something terrible. No sooner had Marka Ragnos crafted the Sand Demon out of will and magic alone, or he ordered his creation -- in graphic detail -- to go and kill his siblings. Even at a young age, Marka was keenly aware of the threat his own siblings posed to his own supremacy.

Afterwards, he had the demon drag the bodies to his father's dungeon, where Ratish was carrying out his experiments, and proudly presented his handiwork. From that moment on, Ratish recognized Marka as his true heir, finally treated him as his own son, and began raising him to the prime of his potential. The son became the apprentice of the father, and together, they used their alchemy to build a sort of army never before seen. They warped and mutated their soldiers, creating fanatical berserkers and twisted abominations. After countless experiments, they began to use their abilities to enhance their own physical forms. They successfully expanded the territory of their city-state, as well as its many off-world colonies. (It must be understood that the central worlds of the Empire were often divided among competing states, but that each of these states had a number of lesser planets as colonies.) Conquering both neighboring cities directly and targeting the colonies of rival powers, father and son forged their already respectable realm into one of the foremost contenders for supreme power in the Empire.

Ultimately, Ratish could call himself lord and sovereign of all Moraband, and of all its colonies. The fiefs beholden to his dark throne were so numerous that Moraband even came to eclipse Korriban -- primarily because power over that great world was still divided among multiple competing claimants. So predominant was Moraband that some historical records of the era mean to refer to Moraband, and not Korriban, when they speak of "the seat of supreme power". This has given rise to the misconception that Moraband and Korriban were one and the same; that Moraband was simply an old name for Korriban. But despite several otherwise reputable historians repeating this myth, it is demonstrably false. One reason we know this is from the Stele of Kergahl, whose glyphs contain a boast by Lord Ratish that he would soon be "master of Moraband and Korriban alike; king of two worlds; king of all worlds".

This, however, was not to be. As is typical of practically all Sith masters and their apprentices, Marka and Ratish came to a point of conflict. The son increasingly followed his own ambitions, which were ever more clashing with those of his father. Ratish believed he could still keep his son in check, but Marka Ragnos was as ruthless as any person could conceivably be. At the bright young age of 16, he betrayed his father, carrying out a careful ploy whereby he pretended to grudgingly accept an off-world assignment, only to assassinate his father during the departure ceremony. He immediately took over the capital, murdering anyone whose loyalty was in doubt. Needless to say, it was a bloody affair. Consolidating his power, he ensured the loyalty of many officers thanks to the prospect of punitive campaigns against disloyal subjects. All plunder would be generously distributed.

After placing Moraband itself securely under his control, he embarked on a series of campaigns across his colonial holdings -- both to ensure lasting obedience, and to 'bleed' a new cadre of officers who had been promoted to fill gaps in the ranks. (Gaps created by his own bloody purge.) Over the next four years, the possessions of Lord Ratish -- now the possessions of his patricidal heir -- were the victim of new levels of brutality. Uncaring for the fate of his own people overall, Marka Ragnos deliberately sought to separate the truest killers from the rest. Only when he was satisfied that he had the strongest, most merciless army in the history of the Sith did he finally begin to push outward again. First, he struck out at some strategic gaps in his patchwork of possessions, ensuring that his domain was contiguous and well-defended. Then, he began his true offensive. Target: Korriban.

The young warlord, only twenty at the time, decided that a dragged out piecemeal conquest was unacceptable. In characteristic fashion, his alternative was so ambitious as to be ludicrous to most men. Only someone like Xim would have appreciated the dramatic boldness of it. For Marka Ragnos had concluded that if he could take Korriban itself, he would soon be able to bring into his sphere of power many -- if not all -- of the myriad colony worlds beholden to its previous rulers. After that, with the realms of Moraband and Korriban united, all other Sith fiefs would be unable to keep him back. Even if united in common cause against him, they would still be outnumbered by the forces at his disposal. And that is to say nothing of the legitimacy that holding Korriban would yield!

So Marka Ragnos fell upon the homeworld, unexpected and merciless. The assault was terrible, for the planet was extremely well-defended. All mighty Sith Lords -- and Korriban was home to some of the mightiest -- had dug in during the long decades of war. All cities were like bunkers. And great fleets orbited; usually aiming their weapons at each other in near-paranoid distrust, but now all ready to confront the sudden invasion from Moraband. Ready, yes -- to fight. But not to win. Victory came at a high price, but nothing less could have pleased Marka Ragnos. To him, every death in his own ranks meant a weakling erased from existence, leaving more room for the victorious survivors. Half his own fleet was destroyed. What of it? The enemy fleets were all shredded. The space over Korriban was his. The landings could commence.

In keeping with his victory-or-death mentality, Marka Ragnos did not care for supplies overly much. He would not repeat Xim's error of relying on vulnerable logistics. His aim was not to win a lengthy siege, but to win in a brutal campaign of shock, terror and utter devastation. His entire fleet aimed at one single city state, and began a bombardment of epic proportions. Even those trying to survive in the deepest bunkers were cooked alive as the surface above them liquified under the immense heat. No negotiations were even begun in advance. No terms of surrender were offered. This was no reprisal. This was a demonstration. Marka, already alling himself the master of Korriban, ensured that all were aware of precisely what he had done. He broadcasted the attack in detail. When it was done, he hailed all the other great lords of Korriban, and made his offer: the first to swear loyalty to him would be spared. all others would be bombarded in the same manner. The truth is this: he only had bombs left to carry out one more such bombardment. A score of them was beyond his means. But his confidence, his psychopathic determination, was enough to convince at least one of the Sith Lords of the surface. He broadcast his surrender almost at once.

A lesser lord of war, or a more humane one, might have chosen to take that opportunity, granted against all probability. To be glad that a bluff of such proportions had worked. Not Marka Ragnos. Instead, he broadcast the surrender as widely as possible, just as he had broadcast his own missives. The response of the other Sith Lords on the surface was just what he had expected. Knowing that with a foothold on the ground, the invader would be endlessly more dangerous, they rushed to attack the city that had offered to surrender. That city closed its gates in fear. It was besieged. The greatest armies on the surface encircled its walls -- and Marka Ragnos bombed not the city, but those armies. Only then did he launch his landing. He spared the Lord who had surrendered, but stripped him of all power. The city, in turn, was also stripped -- of all supplies. Its warriors were inducted into the invasion army. The lower classes were butchered for their meat. On such a diet did the armies of Marka Ragnos march across Korriban.

The other cities naturally defied him for as long as they could, but their armies had been lured out and obliterated. They stood no chance against the most savage legions in Sith history. Marka Ragnos was unstoppable. The young lord had used every method imaginable to conquer the people, and sacrificed entire cities to the Dark Side for his own personal strength. Alchemical weapons, dark magics, and ruthless cannibal legions -- these destroyed the great cities. All lesser cities were offered one chance to surrender, and the vast majority took it eagerly. Marka accepted them, indeed bringing them into his service and pitting them against the greater states. In this way, he conquered all of the Sith homeworld.

                                                                                                                                                           The Rule of Marka Ragnos

When the last of his rivals had finally by defeated -- and sacrificed in a gruesome ritual -- the task remained of bringing the many colonies of the conquered states into line. Many of these had already pledged their allegiance to Marka Ragnos as their new overlord, but others were not so eager to submit. Rather than striking out in direct conquest, Marka instead made his way to the site of the original landing, where the Dark Acolytes had first arrived. There, in a great temple complex, the holocron of Rajivari was stored, carefully guarded by his most dedicated acolytes. Marka came before the spectral visage of this great leader, and boldly declared that he had come to be named Lord of all the Sith. He was duly evaluated by Rajivari, who put him through near-endless mental tests and conditions. Established success was not enough. Rajivari wished to know whether Marka's mind was of the right sort.

As it turned out, it was. Paradoxically, Rajivari even expressed wonderment that a person could embody the ideals of the Sith to such a fanatical degree. There was a sliver of doubt, of disconcerted hesitation: Marka Ragnos straddled the line between a master and a madman; between the keeper of the orthodoxy and the raging fanatic. Yet was that not what the Sith needed? A tyrant without scruples or limits? Thus, Rajivari proclaimed Marka Ragnos to be the True Dark Lord and Emperor of the Sith. Advised by the holocron-bound sage, and assisted by a council of lords -- many of whom he had defeated in battle or forced into submission -- Marka Ragnos began his imperial reign by demanding the surrender of all colonies and all lesser fiefs. Those that failed to comply lived just long enough to severely regret their choice.

Having established harsh order, Marka wasted no time in starting the phase of wholesale expansion that Ajunta Pall had dreamed of before his time. But instead of a united crusade against some suitable target, he instead ordered expansion in all directions, along various hyperlanes. These were campaigns of conquest, but at the same time, they were part of a strategy to keep all potential rivals very busy... elsewhere. Ajunta Pall had only been able to dream of such things, for in his day, the Sith Lords were far more sovereign, and could not be ordered to undertake such actions. Thus, Pall had been condemned to watch as they grew complacent and ceased all expansionist warfare. But as Emperor, Marka Ragnos had brought the other Sith to their knees. He could order them do whatever he wished -- and woe unto those who disobeyed him!

Now began the next step of his grand plan: finally bringing the Sith teachings into one united philosophy. Rajivari saw this as perhaps the most important element of the new Emperor's great mission. Whether Marka himself agreed is not quite so clear, but it cannot be denied that this undertaking is the one that produced a legacy for the ages. At the city of Enecie, a grand council debated for months on end, and the Emperor listened to their visions. And as one would except of the Sith, it was he who made the ultimate decisions, and oversaw the codification of a unified doctrine for the Sith. The traditions of the Sith were poured into this document: a philosophy of domination and victory was expounded, proclaiming that every Force sensitive person in existence should be compelled to strive for their uppermost limits -- and to defeat all lessers who stood in the way. The inherent righteousness of the Empire, which was defined as the only legitimate government in existence, was proudly proclaimed. Its "civilizing" mission would be nothing short of universal conquest: the eradication of all other regimes and states. The codification project was part constitutional project, part philosophical treatise, and part religious canon. Here, the Sith defined themselves for all time. And to conclude that work, the tenets of their ways were poured into the now infamous Code of the Sith:


Peace is a lie, there is only passion

Through passion I gain strength

Through strength I gain power

Through power I gain victory

Through victory my chains are broken

The Force shall free me


It is often said that the Emperor penned these lines himself. Other sources attribute them to Rajivari. Whether either is true cannot be known for certain, but it is not in doubt that these boasting words reflected their mindset. They are dangerous words, often misunderstood by the young and impetuous, who mistake the appeal to "freedom" as having a noble intent. Nothing could be further from the truth: whenever a Sith says "freedom", he means it in the way Rajivari intended it. Freedom for the strongest -- slavery and death for all the rest. It is upon that guiding principle that all Sith society would be rigidly patterned. A dark meritocracy. The temples would be opened to training all Force sensitives, regardless of birth or station. Only power would determine advancement. The new Dark Lords, ruling fiefs within the Empire, would report directly to the Emperor, with local autonomy reduced to a bare minimum.

Marka Ragnos also gathered his vast army, and targeted precisely those places where his vassals had bogged down in their attempts at pushing the imperial borders outward. With his enormous host of mutated fanatics, he succeeded where they had failed, conquering planet after planet in the name of the Empire and either assimilating the population (if he thought them worthy) or enslaving them, making a new class of Gottenthu slaves. The aim of this was to show his superiority over all his lessers, thus discouraging any attempts at usurpation. By all accounts, it was effective. It was also a very thorough expansion of the Empire's power. Thorough, and merciless. Invariably, whenever Marka Ragnos conquered a new population, he would implement a policy which could be best summed up in a saying that is attributed to him in the Sagas:

"Simply killing an enemy and all his progeny is the mistake of barbarians without finesse. Much better is to reduce a foe to a dog at your feet, a servant at your whim, to drive home to him his complete inferiority, and then to have his own pup bite his face off. Much better is such a thorough victory, and much to be preferred over the all too brief satisfaction of merely twisting the knife."

In accordance with this attitude, he would refrain from killing enemy leaders when he could instead capture them alive. Their humiliation and helplessness thus become yet another... demonstration... of his own supremacy. Marka Ragnos knew well that half of being powerful is often to be seen being powerful. As he kept his enemies imprisoned, he would take their children, train them in his own forces, warp them to his liking, indoctrinate them until they were his instruments. After a number of years, the defeated enemy would be dragged in front of his people, often enslaved and fed false rumors of his survival and planning of a revolt if he was beloved, and the child would kill him in front of them all without hesitation. This form of domination, turning children against parents and others close to them, would become a constant of Sith tactics and theology for ages yet to come…