Order of Revan

Decades before the Cold War between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, the Human Tari Darkspanner stumbled across records of the ancient Force-user Revan, a man who had been both Jedi and Sith almost three hundred years earlier, while she was training to become a Sith. During her explorations, Darkspanner learned how Revan and his allies had confronted the Sith Emperor, and she came to believe that Revan had in fact emerged victorious—and that it was he, and not the Emperor, who sat on the throne of the Empire. She soon founded the Order of Revan, which recruited members of all species and walks of life from across the Empire. Devoting themselves to Revan's teachings, the Order sought to bring the Empire into balance between the light and dark sides of the Force—the ways of peace and war—from within.

Growing to be several hundred members strong, the Order—whose members became known as Revanites—began to attract scrutiny from the Empire's ruling Dark Council, who sought to stamp out their heretical teachings. This forced the Order to cease their meetings in the Empire's capital Kaas City on the planet Dromund Kaas and retreat into the jungles of Dromund Kaas. There, they established a compound that was located near a cave in which the Order maintained a shrine to Revan. Some Revanites devoted their entire lives to the Order's teachings and excluded themselves from Imperial society, while others met in secret and maintained their ordinary lives while adhering to Revan's teachings.

The Dark Council viewed the Revanites with contempt for mixing Jedi and Sith teachings. Hence, one of their goals was to root out and destroy the secretive organization before its teachings could spread even further throughout the Empire.

In 3637 BBY, during the Galactic War, Revan himself emerged at the head of the Order, having somehow survived his near-fatal battle with Imperial forces on the Foundry. However, Revan did not survive intact; due to centuries of torture by the Emperor and the Dread Masters, Revan's mind was split between his light and dark halves, the light half of him becoming a spirit while the dark half retained physical form, possessing strength and cunning but no wisdom. Obsessed with destroying the Emperor, Revan took control of the Revanites to achieve his objective. Under his direction, the Revanites secretly expanded, placing agents into high-ranking positions in both the Empire and Republic. Their agents, Darth Arkous of the Dark Council and Colonel Rian Darok of Republic Special Forces, orchestrated simultaneous smash-and-grab operations that were the Korriban Incursion and the assault on Tython to recover Rakata technology. With the aid of a Selkath geneticist named Gorima, they eventually created invincible cyborg supersoldiers to form the base of their Infinite Army. When strike teams from both galactic powers discovered what they were up to, the two conspirators fled with the research, destroying the underwater base where they created the supersoldiers, thus erasing all evidence that could expose their order. Sith Lord Lana Beniko and SIS agent Theron Shan, who had once worked closely with the conspirators, discerned that the Order of Revan planned on annihilating both Empire and Republic, and thus cooperated with each other, along with a Wookiee named Jakarro to find a way to stop them.

Arkous and Darok fled to Lehon and set up their cyborg conscription operation within the Temple of the Ancients. When their pursuers tracked them down, the subsequent battle resulted in the destruction of the Infinite Army and the two Revanites' deaths. Revan himself soon arrived in-system with a small fleet composed of both Imperial and Republic capital ships. Declaring the loss of the Infinite Army a minor setback, Revan opened fire on the temple in an attempt to kill the interlopers but they escaped via shuttle. Subsequently, the Revanites arranged to deal with the strike team's allies; Jakarro received twelve death sentences on his head, Theron was disavowed by the SIS and Lana was accused of murdering Arkous. The trio then went underground to find a way to expose the order.

The Order later enlisted the services of the Nova Blades pirate gang to target key hyperspace lanes to force both Republic and Imperial command fleets to the pirate haven of Rishi. The plan was for the Revanite fleet to attack both sides while sleeper agents aboard both fleets sabotaged the ships they were on. Theron, Lana and Jakarro contacted their allies and had them masquerade as a rival pirate gang for the purpose of harassing the Nova Blades to get intel on the Revanites' plan. Once they had information on the trap, the team fought past the Revanites guarding the signal jammer blocking communications in the sky battle. Once the jammer was deactivated, Theron uploaded the identities of Revanite agents to both fleets, resulting in their detainment.

With the Revanite infiltrators excised from their fleets and the Revanite flotilla routed, both Republic and Empire agreed to a temporary truce and ally against Revan. Revan took his remaining forces to Yavin 4, where the slumbering Sith Emperor resided after his defeat at the hands of the Hero of Tython. The Revanites overwhelmed the small number of Imperial Guardsmen stationed at Imperial Guard Academy and secured the Temple of Sacrifice. Within the temple was a device capable of consuming all life on the moon to resurrect the Emperor, whom Revan intended to bring back from the brink of death so he could destroy him for good. However, the coalition forces arrived on Yavin 4 and grudgingly worked together to break past the Revanite lines and destroyed the temple device, believing Revan would be unable to defeat the Emperor. Ultimately, the elite members of the Coalition confronted Revan on the Forgotten Terrace and defeated him permanently. The conflict between the Coalition and Revanites had fueled the Emperor's revival, who then departed Yavin 4 without taking a physical form or possessing a body. Revan was then confronted by a Force ghost of his other half, who convinced the dark half to release his hold on their physical form and merge, making Revan whole once more as his physical body vanished, leaving only his scarred mask and lightsaber behind.

With Revan's defeat, the Revanites were left leaderless and presumably disbanded. As the Republic and Empire departed Yavin 4, they left token forces to watch for any sign of the Revanites if they continued to operate on the moon.

Revanites believed that the path to power could not be followed by either Jedi or Sith. The idea of rebirth was of particular import to the Order, as they knew of how Revan had been Jedi, Sith, and then reborn as something new when he was betrayed by both. Though the Order of Revan's members were of the Sith Empire, the Order taught that one should not rely only on the dark side: Revan achieved greatness because he relied on both the light and the dark, using the Force as a whole. The Order was also patriotic; they did not seek to destroy the Empire, but instead change it from within.

The Revanites welcomed members of all alien species, as they knew how many of Revan's companions and allies had been droids and aliens—but they believed that Revan had done so because he thought servants were more useful when they were powerful. Because Revan accepted allies from many different walks of life, the Order did the same: the Order included members from every level of the Empire's society, from high-ranking Sith and military officers to commoners and even slaves. The Order also included Mandalorians of Clan Farr, who served the Order as a matter of honor, as Ceta Farr sought to ensure that Revan's name would be remembered. Tari Darkspanner, the Master of the Order, believed that Revan had defeated the Emperor and taken his throne, but she also believed that the Emperor's silence during the Cold War meant that the Dark Council had imprisoned Revan.

Those who sought to join the Order would have to undergo an initiation, in which they would complete various tasks for different members that would test their knowledge of the Order's ideals and their devotion to them. During the initiation, prospective members would visit the Revanite Cave and meditate before the Order's altar there, where many would receive visions of Revan. Every initiation also included a trial of the past, which would bind the initiate to Revan and help them understand the Order's history.

When Revan himself directly took control of the Order, the Revanites had expanded to include Republic individuals in their ranks. The Order had forgotten their roots, now fanatically devoted to the former Jedi. Having agents in high-ranking positions in both galactic superpowers enabled the Order to pull strings and covertly falsify information, similar to the Star Cabal. Despite this, the Republic and Imperial members remained wary of each other, having previously been on opposite sides. The Order's new purpose was to wipe out both Empire and Republic, a goal the Revanites had taken to the point of fanaticism.

The Order of Revan was first introduced in the 2011 BioWare video game Star Wars: The Old Republic, in which it is the subject of a series of missions on the planet Dromund Kaas. When discussing the fact that she is a woman, Tari Darkspanner claims that Revan's gender is uncertain in their records, a reference to the fact that players can choose to make Revan either male or female as the playable character in BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

• Star Wars: The Old Republic Explorer's Guide
• Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia