Darth Revan's Sith Empire

The roots of Revan's Sith Empire can be traced back to the waning days of the Mandalorian Wars. Revan, who commanded the Republic's Jedi forces, journeyed to the ancient Trayus Academy located on the Sith world of Malachor V. While excavating the planet's long-buried secrets, Revan unearthed evidence suggesting that the Sith Empire persisted beyond the explored regions of space, posing a continued threat to the entire galaxy.

As Revan's forces clashed with the Mandalorians above the planet of Malachor V, he engaged their leader, Mandalore the Ultimate, in a fatal duel while their respective fleets remained locked in combat above. In Mandalore's dying breath, he revealed that he had been manipulated by a mysterious group of Sith. After the Mandalorian fleet suffered a devastating defeat above Malachor and subsequently surrendered, Revan and his comrade Malak ventured to the icy planet of Rekkiad to investigate the fallen leader's claims. From there, they followed a path that ultimately led them into the uncharted Unknown Regions with nearly a third of the Republic's naval strength—justifying their departure under the guise of pursuing the remaining Mandalorian forces.

Eventually, Revan and Malak found their way to Dromund Kaas, where they discovered the continued existence of the Sith Empire. Their attempt to assassinate the Sith Emperor failed miserably, resulting in the Emperor dominating their minds and corrupting them to the dark side. The Emperor, intending to exploit their knowledge to assess the Republic's vulnerabilities, designated Revan as Dark Lord of the Sith and bestowed upon them the title of Darth. He then tasked them with locating the legendary Star Forge using their knowledge of the forgotten Rakatan Infinite Empire, a superweapon that would enable him to construct an armada capable of crushing the Republic. Over the following year, they secretly sought out ancient Star Maps that would guide them to the Star Forge.

Revan was charged with preparing the major offensive against the Republic, acting under the Emperor's orders. However, the Emperor underestimated the will of the two former Jedi—Revan and Malak managed to break free from their mental conditioning and began to act independently. From the Star Forge, concealed within the uncharted Lehon system, Revan established a new Sith Empire. Adapting the ancient Sith teachings to suit his own purposes, he appointed his friend Malak as his Sith apprentice.

A year following their disappearance, Revan and Malak reappeared at the head of a formidable invasion fleet comprised of Republic vessels like the Leviathan, as well as advanced hybrid technologies produced by the Star Forge. The fleet was manned by seasoned ex-Republic veterans and commanded by some of the Republic's most accomplished officers, including Admiral Saul Karath, General Derred, and Mon Halan. Identifying themselves as the Sith, they declared war against the Republic.

Under the leadership of Darth Revan, the Sith invasion proved virtually unstoppable. His Sith assassins infiltrated the Republic from their base on Malachor V, systematically eliminating or capturing Jedi throughout Republic territory. On Malachor V, Revan's most loyal followers corrupted captured Jedi, turning them to the dark side. The Sith collaborated with the Czerka Corporation, one of the wealthiest and most influential galaxy-spanning organizations of the era, to secure essential resources. They also established a presence on the aquatic planet of Manaan, leveraging the neutrality of the native Selkath to export the healing substance kolto to their forces.

As the Sith's conquest continued without resistance, planets began to voluntarily align themselves with the Sith invasion fleet, either out of fear of the fate that had befallen Telos IV or due to the belief that the corrupt and ineffective Republic was on the verge of collapse. However, the Republic still possessed a crucial asset—the Jedi. The Republic's armadas were repeatedly saved from complete annihilation by the skills of a young Jedi Padawan named Bastila Shan. Her mastery of battle meditation prevented total defeat during a series of Republic setbacks.

As the Sith neared victory, a Jedi strike team launched an ambush on Revan's flagship. Led by Bastila, the Jedi cornered Revan on the bridge. Driven by ambition, Malak fired upon his master's ship, hoping to eliminate all his enemies in one decisive act, but his plan backfired. The ship was destroyed, but the Jedi managed to escape with a severely wounded Revan.

Following Revan's apparent death, Malak proclaimed himself the new Dark Lord of the Sith and continued his former master's war of conquest, but his vision differed from Revan's. Subsequently, he took on his own apprentice, Darth Bandon. While Revan had preserved key Republic infrastructure for post-war reconstruction, Malak and Bandon favored a war of total destruction and carnage.

Malak's primary objective quickly became the assassination or capture of Bastila Shan. He nearly achieved his goal when Bandon overwhelmed and boarded her flagship, the Endar Spire, during a Sith ambush above the planet Taris. Bastila managed to escape the battle in an escape pod. She was soon joined by an amnesiac Revan, who had escaped the Endar Spire with the help of Captain Carth Onasi, a former protégé of Saul Karath. After a fruitless quarantine and search of the planet, Darth Malak ordered Admiral Karath to destroy it. The entire surface of Taris—including all life—was completely obliterated during a combined sterilization operation by the Sith fleet, but Bastila, Revan, and their companions managed to escape and flee to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine aboard a stolen smuggler ship named the Ebon Hawk.

On Dantooine, Revan, unaware of his past, was retrained in the ways of the Force before being assigned a mission of critical importance to the Republic—retracing Darth Revan's path to the Star Forge. After retrieving data from three damaged Rakatan Star Maps and following Bandon's death, the crew of the Ebon Hawk were captured by Saul Karath's command ship, the Leviathan. Fortunately, Bastila and her group managed to break out of their cells and confronted Saul Karath on the bridge, where he was killed. As they were about to escape the vessel, Darth Malak arrived and confronted them. During the confrontation, Revan's true identity was revealed, and Bastila sacrificed herself to allow him and the others to escape. She was captured by Malak, and after enduring torture, she fell to the dark side and became his new apprentice.

Having uncovered the ancient Star Maps on Dantooine, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, and Korriban, Revan and his crew were able to piece together the location of the Star Forge. The Republic armadas were summoned to Lehon, and a massive space battle ensued between the Republic and Sith forces. After a confrontation with Revan, Bastila returned to the light side and betrayed her master, using her battle meditation to bolster the Republic forces. The Jedi Civil War concluded with Darth Malak's death at the hands of his former master. With Malak gone and the Star Forge destroyed, the Sith Empire's infrastructure collapsed. The remaining Dark Jedi descended into a state of civil war and virtually annihilated themselves.

Minor skirmishes led by former Sith forces persisted for several years, gradually undoing much of what Revan had established. Eventually, three new Sith Lords emerged to seize control of a remnant of the Empire, but they never possessed the strength to directly challenge the Republic. The fragile alliance between Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion, and Darth Traya, which nearly decimated the Jedi Order, was ultimately shattered by Meetra Surik, bringing an end to the Sith legacy initiated by Revan. Revan, meanwhile, vanished from known space, seemingly continuing his earlier efforts to confront the ancient Sith Empire on his own. Meetra followed him and eventually lost her life while Revan was imprisoned in stasis for centuries. Nearly three hundred years later, the ancient Sith Empire would return to once again plague the Republic.

During the Great Sith War, followers of Exar Kun established a Sith Academy on Korriban. These disciples maintained the academy even after Kun's defeat. When Revan and Malak rose to become Dark Lords of the Sith, Kun's followers pledged their allegiance to them, and Korriban became the official capital of their empire. As a result, Korriban attracted an ever-increasing number of students and acolytes to the burgeoning Sith Academy located there.

The organizational structure of Darth Revan's Sith Empire bore a striking resemblance to that of Darth Sidious' Galactic Empire. The Empire's guiding principle was natural selection, or survival of the fittest. Even the lowest-ranking soldiers were encouraged to compete for positions of power through any means necessary. While this promotion system created a tense and divisive governance structure, it ensured a powerful and capable military. Revan, and later Malak, served as the supreme rulers of the Empire, and their strength and charisma alone kept their subordinates in check.

The Sith employed a unique approach to managing conquered territories. A single governor, often a Dark Jedi, would be stationed on each world, residing within an embassy that housed a security force large enough to maintain control. The Sith fleet was frequently on the move, enabling the Dark Lord of the Sith to command from the front lines. All of these structures were designed to expedite the support and deployment of the Empire's military forces, rather than to establish a stable governing body like the Galactic Republic.

The Sith Academy on Korriban operated under similar principles. Aspiring students were taught to prioritize their own interests and to be ruthlessly independent. Furthermore, the Master of the academy could be replaced by his apprentice at any time.

Upon their return to known space, the Sith were well-prepared for war. The new Sith Empire's fleets initially consisted primarily of stolen Republic vessels during the early stages of the Jedi Civil War, but they were soon augmented by a large number of starships constructed by the Star Forge. The Star Forge itself served as a primary staging area and command center.

• Interdictor-class cruisers such as the Leviathan were among the most advanced vessels of their time.
• Centurion-class battlecruisers exemplified by the Ravager.
• Derriphan-class battleships
• Sith fighters represented a hybrid of Republic and Rakatan technologies mass-produced by the Star Forge.
• KT-400 military droid carriers
• Herald-class shuttles
• Sith Bombers

• Dark Lord of the Sith held the supreme command.
• Shadow Hand served as the Dark Lord's second-in-command.
• Sith Lords formed the leading echelon of the Sith, directly subordinate to the Dark Lord.
• Sith Acolytes and Sith apprentices were the trainees of the Lords, primarily stationed on the Star Forge and the Temple of the Ancients.
• Sith officers commanded the Sith's ground and space forces.
• Sith troopers constituted the backbone and primary fighting force of the Sith military.
• Dark Jedi were Jedi who had succumbed to the dark side and supported the Sith's main forces.
• Sith assassins were exclusively tasked with hunting, capturing, or eliminating Jedi.
• Various types of battle droids were mass-produced by the Star Forge for both offensive and defensive purposes. Known variants included: Sentinel droids, a series of battle droids employed by the Sith Empire. Mark IV assault droids, quadrupedal battle droids commonly used to guard military bases.

The Sith Empire under Darth Revan aimed to conquer territory and ultimately replace the Republic, contrasting with the Sith of the Great Sith War, whose primary objective was to spread discord and chaos. While the ancient Sith devastated a significant portion of the settled galaxy, Revan's Sith Empire at its peak controlled a third of the known galaxy. Shortly before the defeat at the Battle of Rakata Prime, high-ranking Sith officials estimated that they would encroach upon the inner Core Worlds within months, projecting the Republic's imminent collapse.

At its zenith, the Empire governed a vast area of the Outer Rim, encompassing much of what was previously known as Sith Space. Several territorial enclaves existed beyond the main Sith Empire, including those based in the Corellian and Tapani Sectors, granting the Sith Empire a substantial presence in the Core Worlds.

The canonical outcome of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic depicts Revan's redemption to the light side of the Force and his assistance to the Republic in reversing the tide against the Sith Empire. However, the game also features a non-canonical dark side ending where he reclaims the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith from his treacherous former apprentice, Darth Malak.

If the player of Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords selects this ending (during the initial conversation with Atton Rand), a recording discovered on Korriban, narrated by Bastila, reveals that Darth Revan returned to the Unknown Regions a few years after the Battle of Rakata Prime. The resulting power vacuum led to the collapse of Revan's empire due to infighting among lesser Sith.