In the early stages of the Great Galactic War, a conflict that ignited in 3681 BBY between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, the Empire faced an internal rebellion. This uprising was orchestrated by the ambitious Sith Lord Darth Vich. This internal Imperial strife began when Vich, at the head of his newly formed army composed of Force-sensitive Rattataki acolytes and warriors, challenged the authority of the ruling Dark Council. During this attempt, Vich met his death, and his army was decimated. Many of the Rattataki faced execution or were subjected to enslavement. This suppression of the rebellion enabled the Dark Council to maintain its control over the Empire and continue its war against the Republic, which had began in the Tingel Arm region.
The Sith Empire operated as an autocratic and xenophobic power. It was governed by the elusive Sith Emperor and managed by the twelve Dark Lords who formed the executive Dark Council. In 3681 BBY, the Empire's leadership directed its expansive military and numerous Sith Lords into a prolonged war against the Galactic Republic. This Great Galactic War was a conflict that would span twenty-eight years. The conflict commenced in the Tingel Arm area of the Outer Rim Territories, with the Sith achieving considerable initial success. This was despite the Emperor's hesitation to forge alliances and the pervasive Imperial tendency to favor only Humans and their Pureblooded Sith counterparts.
However, despite these initial triumphs, the Empire was threatened internally by the young and ambitious Sith Lord, Darth Vich. Around 3,681 BBY, Vich's attention was drawn to the planet of Rattatak, located in the Trilon sector. This world, a recent addition to the galactic community, was inhabited by the fierce Rattataki people, who had only recently begun to venture beyond their perpetually warring homeworld in search of violent exploits. Vich, aiming to usurp power from the Dark Council, viewed the Rattataki as a means to overthrow the existing Imperial order.
Ignoring a millennium of xenophobic Imperial practices, Vich journeyed to Rattatak. There, he enlisted hundreds of tribes of these aliens into his personal army by promising them glory through combat against the Republic during the Great Galactic War. Vich led them away from their planet and identified a number of them as having Force-sensitivity. While most of these aliens became formidable warriors for his cause, Vich trained those few who possessed talent in the Force in the ways of the dark side of the Force, turning them into acolytes and apprentices. Despite his considerable resources and ambition, Vich's attempt to rise to power was crushed by the Dark Council. Forces loyal to the Dark Lords killed Vich during the insurrection, and the deceased Sith Lord's army was quickly scattered. According to later rumors, Vich's own Rattataki acolytes betrayed him to the Dark Council, leading to his downfall.
In the wake of the insurrection, the Dark Council condemned many of the Rattataki warriors to death and subjected the remaining ones to enslavement. The Council then redirected its attention to the Great Galactic War. However, the insurrection had managed to capture the Empire's attention. The strongest of the enslaved Rattataki were soon removed from the slave labor pools and placed into training at the Sith academy on Korriban to complete the training that Darth Vich had initiated. Others resisted the Empire's presence on their homeworld, either by fleeing Rattatak to join fringe groups or by remaining on the planet to fight the occupiers and gain glory in battle.
The Great Galactic War continued for almost three more decades, ultimately resulting in a Sith victory. During the Cold War that directly followed the Great War, tales of Vich's surviving Rattataki Sith acolytes persisted as mere rumors. Although the Dark Council would continue to face occasional challenges from ambitious Sith Lords like Darth Vich, these secessionists, revolutionaries, and usurpers, such as Lord Tytonus and Darths Ikoral and Malgus, were all defeated and killed, allowing the Council to maintain its rule.
The insurrection led by Darth Vich was added to Star Wars canon as background information for the online role-playing video game Star Wars: The Old Republic. The event was first mentioned in the Rattataki entry on The Holonet, an online database containing information about characters and events in The Old Republic. The entry was initially posted in 2011 but was removed along with several others after the website's update before the game's release in December of that year.