Ruusan Reformations

title: Ruusan Reformations

Following the New Sith Wars, a significant event known as the Ruusan Reformations, sometimes referred to as the Ruusan Reformation, took place. This event fundamentally reshaped the entire structure of the Galactic Republic, transferring authority away from the Supreme Chancellor and redistributing it to the Galactic Senate.

Reorganization

These reforms were implemented by the then-Chancellor Tarsus Valorum. Furthermore, they led to the Republic Measures & Standards Bureau establishing the year of the Seventh Battle of Ruusan as year zero, which subsequently became known as 1000 BBY according to the Galactic Standard Calendar.

While the governmental framework appeared to remain relatively consistent (given that the Republic had been governed by a Supreme Chancellor and the Galactic Senate since as early as 15,000 BBY), the Jedi Order underwent a substantial transformation. In largely symbolic gestures, intended to reassure the Republic that they would not evolve into a conquering force, the Jedi relinquished their combat armor, disavowed all military ranks (such as "Jedi Lord"), dissolved their commander-in-chief, dismantled their military, naval, and starfighter forces, and subjected themselves to the oversight of the Supreme Chancellor and the Judicial Department, effectively dismantling the Military. To mitigate the potential for a Sith resurgence, the Order initiated the practice of training children from infancy. Additionally, Padawans training was centralized on Coruscant to avert the risk of unsupervised students delving into forbidden Sith knowledge.

From a political standpoint, the Reformations did, however, influence representation within the Senate. In an attempt to combat corruption and decentralize power away from a select few influential Coreward sectors that possessed the most representation, Valorum reorganized the millions of existing sectors into only 1,024 sectors. Each of these newly formed sectors was granted its own Senator, although certain exceptions were made for politically powerful core worlds to maintain their individual representation. Additional positions, such as those representing species types and cultural entities, were also allocated. The Reformation Act was a crucial piece of legislation. The Armistice Celebrations commemorated the anniversary of the Ruusan Reformation as a holiday.

The Reformations brought an end to the Republic Dark Age. It is widely regarded as the beginning of the Golden Age of the Old Republic. In some instances, such as Palpatine's Declaration of a New Order, which signified the transition from the Old Republic to the Galactic Empire, this event was even recognized as the "official" founding of the Old Republic.

Concurrently, Darth Bane's Sith Order underwent its own restructuring, evolving into the Rule of Two.

Contextual Background

The Ruusan Reformation was integrated into the timeline to reconcile discrepancies between the Old Republic as depicted in the comics and its portrayal in the prequel trilogy.

Within Legends, the Republic is firmly established as having existed for approximately 25,000 years, based on Obi-Wan Kenobi's statement in A New Hope that the Jedi had served as "the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic" "for over a thousand generations." For a considerable period, Legends sources were the primary works set during the Republic era, most notably the acclaimed Tales of the Jedi sagas. However, in Attack of the Clones, Palpatine asserted that the Republic had "stood for a thousand years." This initially appeared to contradict both the broader history of the C-canon and the G-canon within the films. In G-canon, the distinction between the Old Republic and the Galactic Republic was addressed in the second season of the TV show Star Wars: The Clone Wars, referencing a fallen "Old Republic," which also featured the Jedi Order, predating the Prequel-era Republic.

Prior to that, within the Expanded Universe, the Ruusan Reformation—in which the Republic is reorganized following the already-established defeat of the Sith a thousand years prior to the films at the Seventh Battle of Ruusan—was conceived by subsequent writers to provide an explanation for Palpatine's line, thereby harmonizing all these sources through a retcon. It also clarifies how, within the context of the Expanded Universe, Sio Bibble could truthfully claim, in Attack of the Clones, that there had not been a full-scale war since the establishment of the Republic.

Palpatine's declaration that the Republic had "stood for a thousand years" could have been hyperbole—essentially, an expression equivalent to saying the Republic had "stood forever" and not intended to be interpreted literally. Given Palpatine's character as a politician, prone to making exaggerated statements and generalizations, this argument holds considerable weight. Sio Bibble's remark could also be interpreted similarly; he may not have considered the earlier wars as "full-scale," or alternatively, there may have been political revisions to the official Republic history (as occur in real life) that could have led to a prevailing public opinion that there had been no earlier wars, despite their actual occurrence.