Rise of the Sith

Searching for answers

"So Mandalore was telling the truth."
"Did you really think his last words would be a lie?"
"Now what?"
"We have our proof. The Sith are not extinct. They have to be stopped."
"What about the Mandalorians?"
"Without the Mask, they are nothing."
?Malak and Revan[src]
Birth Darth Revan Darth Malak
Revan and Malak, shortly after the Mandalorian Wars
In the weeks that followed, Revan ordered that the remaining Mandalorians be str
ipped of their weapons and armor, and that they dismantle their basilisk war dro
ids. Knowing that they would only resume the fight if a new leader took Mandalor
e the Ultimate's place, Revan refused to return the Mask to the Mandalorians, an
d many of the warriors soon became bounty hunters or mercenaries.[1] Shortly aft
er the Battle of Malachor V,[12] Revan completed a new assassin droid named HK-4
7, which he based on the Czerka Corporation's HK-24 series assassin droid.[8] No
t wanting to repeat the devastation that occurred at Malachor, Revan decided to
use HK-47 in order to assassinate selective opponents.[12] When analyzing Revan'
s actions during the Mandalorian Wars and particularly at Malachor, HK-47 came t
o believe that Revan may have had an ulterior motive the droid believed that the d
evastation was meant to "break" the Jedi and make them loyal to Revan alone.[12]
After Malachor, Meetra Surik was left bereft of a connection to the Force, and s
he decided to answer the Jedi Council's demands for Revan, Malak, and Surik to a
nswer for their actions. However, Revan and Malak refused and took the remainder
of their forces into the Unknown Regions, claiming to be pursuing the remaining
Mandalorians.[12] Malak urged Revan to kill Surik, but Revan refused, claiming
that the Jedi was "already dead."[2] Revan took Malak alone to Rekkiad, where th
ey followed Mandalore's directions to the twin ice structures known as the Twin
Spears. There, they discovered the tomb of the Sith Lord Dramath the Second and
a datacron within his sarcophagus that confirmed Mandalore's tale. The datacron
spoke of a planet named Nathema, and the two Jedi decided to travel there in ord
er to seek out the Sith who had manipulated Mandalore. Before departing, Revan l
eft Mandalore's Mask in Dramath's sarcophagus to ensure that the Mandalorians di
d not rediscover it.[1]
Revan and Malak traveled alone to Nathema,[1] which was a world in the distant C
horlian sector,[31] and they were astonished to discover that the planet was com
pletely barren of the Force. There, the two Jedi learned the story of the Sith L
ord Vitiate, who had lived around the time of the Great Hyperspace War between t
he Republic and the Sith Empire a thousand years earlier. In 4999 BBY,[32] Vitia
te had convinced many of the remaining Sith to join him in a ritual of Sith magi
c, but the Ritual of Nathema had resulted in the extinction of all life on the s
urface of Nathema and the immortality of Vitiate, who took on the name of Sith E
mperor and gathered the younger generations of Sith before departing the remains
of the shattered Sith Empire.[1]
Revan Malak Sith Emperor
Revan and Malak confront the Sith Emperor.
Determined to locate the Sith threat, Revan and Malak followed the Sith survivor
s' trail to the storm-covered world of Dromund Kaas, which they discovered to be
the capital of a new Sith Empire. Posing as mercenaries, the pair spent months
learning everything they could about the Empire and its ruler, and they soon unc
overed the Emperor's plans for an invasion of the Republic. But instead of warni
ng the Republic, the two Jedi proud and overconfident believed that they could defea
t the Emperor alone, and they looked for a way to infiltrate the Imperial Citade
l in the Empire's capital city of Kaas City so that they could confront the Sith
ruler. The pair received aid from Yarri, a member of the Imperial Guard who pro
tected the Emperor, but the Jedi were unaware that all Guardsmen were bound to t
he Emperor's will and that she was leading them into a trap.[1]
When Revan and Malak arrived at the Emperor's throne room, the Sith ruler was re
ady for them instead of fighting them, the Emperor reached out and dominated their
minds, twisting the pair into willing servants and completing their fall to the
dark side before he scoured their minds for useful information. Anointing his n
ew servants as Darth Revan and Darth Malak, the Dark Lords of the Sith, the Empe
ror sent them back to the Republic as a vanguard to his own invasion, ordering t
hem to make use of the Rakatan Star Forge and to report back when they had crush
ed the Republic's resistance. Publicly, the Emperor announced that Revan and Mal
ak had been Republic spies, showing images of the pair to his people and proclai
ming that they had been executed in the depths of the Citadel.[1]
Dark Lord of the Sith
DarthRevan DarthMalak EGF
Darth Revan and Darth Malak as newly anointed Sith Lords
"When they left after the Mandalorian Wars ended, they were Jedi. When they
returned they were something else."
?Carth Onasi, regarding Revan and Malak[src]
Departing Dromund Kaas as willing servants of the Emperor, Darth Revan and Darth
Malak followed the Dantooine and Kashyyyk Star Maps to locate similar Star Maps
on Manaan, Tatooine and Korriban. On Korriban, Revan delved further into the da
rk side while plundering[29] the tomb of the ancient Sith Tulak Hord.[32] Among
the Sith relics he recovered from the tomb was Tulak Hord's mask,[33] and the tw
o Sith soon located the Star Map in the depths of the tomb of the ancient Sith L
ord Naga Sadow.[12] During this time, Revan created his own Sith Holocron, which
contained Revan's thoughts on the nature of the relationship between a Sith Mas
ter and apprentice.[16] By 3959 BBY, using information from the four Star Maps,
Revan and Malak were able to triangulate the location of the Star Forge in the L
ehon system. However, their ship crashed on the planet Lehon upon arrival, and t
he two were taken captive by the native Black Rakata. Unable to understand the p
rimitives' language, Revan tore the knowledge from the One, the Rakatan leader.[
12]
Speaking with the One, Revan made a deal with the Rakata: in exchange for the th
eft of an ancient tome from the rival Elder tribe, the One would help Revan and
Malak gain access to the Temple of the Ancients, a nearby structure that was the
key to accessing the Star Forge but was sealed without a spoken ritual from the
tome. However, when Revan and Malak met with the Elders, Revan instead allied h
imself with them. During his time among the Rakata, Revan spoke to Ll'awa, a Rak
atan researcher who was attempting to restore the Force-sensitivity of his speci
es, and Revan reached a compromise with the Elders: they would open the Temple o
f the Ancients for him and him alone if he would destroy the Star Forge and help
the Elders free themselves from their dark past. However, once the Elders opene
d the Temple, Revan broke his word and entered the Temple with Malak, and the tw
o used the knowledge they gleaned from the Temple to shut down the disruptor fie
ld around the planet and to access the Star Forge.[12] Before departing, Revan l
eft his holocron in the lowest level of the Temple.[16]
The pair had broken free of the Emperor's control by the time they boarded the S
tar Forge[32] in orbit above the star Abo,[12] and the two former Jedi their minds
still twisted to the dark side interpreted the Emperor's mental commands as their
 own desires.[1] Darths Revan and Malak declared themselves leaders of a new Sit
h Empire, and Darth Revan took on Darth Malak as his Sith apprentice.[32] Assumi
ng command of the Republic ships and soldiers who had followed him into the Unkn
own Regions, Revan made them into the military of his new Empire, and he used th
e Star Forge to manufacture ships, weapons, and other war materiel to supply the
m.[32] The Sith Lords quickly reclaimed Korriban, reestablishing the Sith Academ
y so as to supply their Empire with Sith.[8]
MalakRevanSithtroops-Timeline8
Darth Revan and Darth Malak lead their troops.
Revan had continued to study the Star Forge, and he soon learned that it was cap
able of far more than just the creation of weapons. Taking a fragment of the Sta
r Forge, no bigger than a fingertip, Revan experimented with it and discovered t
hat the device fed on whatever it was given whether it be the Force or simply basi
c mass and returned the basic building blocks of the universe: water, air, carbon,
and even life. He left the fragment in the depths of the moon Nar Shaddaa in th
e care of a number of alien slaves in a large complex. The slaves, whose descend
ants came to know Revan only as a godlike figure known as "the Revan", remained
loyal to the Revan's instructions and cared for the "Infinite Engine."[34] Howev
er, Revan didn't know that the Star Forge itself could be a threat, as the Rakat
a's reliance on the station had caused it to feed on their negative emotions and
nearly lead to their destruction. As a result, he merely saw the "enormous fact
ory" as a means to an end. He unwittingly minimized his exposure to the Star For
ge beyond taking a fragment and constructing his infinite fleet, which would ove
rwhelm the Republic. It was a decision that Malak would later criticize.[12]
For his first attack as part of a planned twenty-year campaign against the Repub
lic,[35] Revan used his knowledge of the Republic Military's inner workings and
attacked the shipyards of Foerost[32] in 3958 BBY.[8] In the Battle of Foerost,
Revan's forces seized most of the Republic warships there and destroyed the rest
, beginning the Jedi Civil War.[32] When the Republic officer Saul Karath defect
ed to Revan's forces, Revan eventually promoted Karath to commander of the entir
e Sith fleet.[29] However, Malak ordered the Admiral to bombard the surface of t
he planet Telos IV with his flagship Leviathan, despite the fact that Revan had
intended to conquer the planet.[12] As the title of Darth was previously unknown
to the Republic and the Jedi at that point in time, many scholars later believe
d that Revan and Malak were the first Sith to use it, and they speculated that t
he title was derived from the Rakatan language.[16]
During the war, Revan ordered the assassination of a number of political figures
, including an Echani Senator[12] and Senators Mimas Yoon of Corellia and Lelin-
Dor of Serroco. It was Revan's intention to leave the Republic economy and milit
ary functionally intact, so that he could rebuild a stronger Republic[2] and con
front the mysterious threat Revan remembered in the Unknown Regions.[1] However,
the Echani general Yusanis learned of Revan's role in the Echani Senator's deat
h and challenged the Sith Lord to a duel, though the general was slain in combat
with Revan. Not long after the Battle of Foerost, Revan entered into a partners
hip with Czerka Corporation, offering them a trade monopoly within the territory
of his empire in return for logistical and economic support. With Revan's suppo
rt, Czerka established their regional headquarters in the colony of Dreshdae on
Korriban near the Sith Academy.[12] A major part of Revan's battle strategy was
the capture and corruption of Jedi; any captured Jedi would be tortured and conv
erted into Dark Jedi and Sith, and Revan's specially-trained Sith assassins stru
ck at targets across the galaxy, capturing enemy Jedi and killing those who woul
d not turn.[2]
By 3957 BBY, Malak had begun to resent his Master, and he openly expressed his o
pinion that Revan was too soft to be a Sith while the two were aboard Revan's fl
agship. Malak's comments sparked a duel between the two that ended when Revan de
livered a lightsaber strike to his apprentice that removed Malak's jaw. Malak su
rvived the fight, but was forced to wear a large metal prosthesis over his lower
face and spoke through a vocabulator for the rest of his life.[8] Around that t
ime, Malak asked HK-47 what he thought of him, and Revan was so amused by HK-47'
s description of Malak as a "meatbag" that he programmed the droid to refer to a
ll organics as such. The success of HK-47 led Revan to decide that more droids l
ike him would help maintain galactic stability,[12] and HK-47 became the basis f
or the HK-50 series of droids which were constructed on Telos.[2]
RevanVSBastila
Revan and Bastila battle aboard his flagship.
Later that year, the Jedi Council set a trap for Revan, sending a small fleet to
the Outer Rim as bait. Revan attacked the fleet, but a small Jedi strike team l
ed by the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan who was capable of battle meditation, a Force a
bility that strengthened one's allies and weakened enemies through the Force attac
ked Revan's flagship. Revan dispatched several Jedi and Republic soldiers when t
hey attacked him on the command deck of his vessel, but Shan and three other Jed
i arrived to confront the Sith Lord before he could leave the bridge.[12] Malak,
on his own vessel nearby, sensed that Revan was in danger and decided to take a
dvantage of the situation to take his Master's place. Just as Revan prepared to
duel Shan and the other Jedi, Malak's vessel opened fire upon the bridge of Reva
n's ship.[12] Amid the confusion, Shan rushed forward and delivered a Force push
to the Sith Lord's chest, sending him flying,[16] Revan was critically injured
in the explosions and the fighting that followed. The only survivor of her strik
e team, Shan saved Revan's life with the Force and took him to safety forming a po
werful Force bond between them in the process. Shan brought the comatose Sith Lo
rd with her to Dantooine, where the Jedi Order healed Revan's broken body, and t
he Jedi Council decided to take action against Revan: joining together, the memb
ers of the Council wiped Revan's mind clean, erasing his memories and giving him
a new identity[12] as a soldier[32] from the planet Deralia.[12] Shan also secr
etly kept Revan's mask, which she had recovered before fleeing Revan's doomed fl
agship.[1]