Ossus Academy Session Three

So, so much of the history of the Sith wrong in this.

36000 years to 25000 years before ANH there was no light side/dark side schism, no Jedi or no Sith. The early order that would eventually diverge into the two opposing orders was a Dai Bendu offshoot known as the Je’Daii whose tenant was to strive for total balance between the Ashla(Light side) and Bogan(Dark Side), never diverging too broadly towards one side or the other. At least until the Force Wars, the outcome of which was the followers of the Dark Side being utterly defeated and the remaining order falling solely to the light side. Having ravaged Tython in the war the followers of Ashla left for Ossus and nearly 800 years later reforged the order into the Jedi.

During this time, roughly 24000 years before ANH, the Republic is formed as well, shortly after which is the First Great Schism occurs. This is the first emergence of dark side users since the Force Wars. The Jedi at the time banned study of the Dark Side but not all Jedi agreed with this and began to study it on their own. This group of Jedi dissidents, known as the Legion of Lettow, came into conflict with the rest of the Order until it was a full blown war. The result, again, was a victory for the Light Side followers. The dark side followers left were exterminated, leaving none alive.

The next rise of dark side followers didn’t occur for another 17000 years, 7000 years before ANH, 2000 years before the Great Hyperspace war, 3000 years before the Exar Kun war and 3400 years before the Treaty of Coruscant and the time of TOR. The Second Great Schism, also known as the Hundred Year Darkness, began, which would eventually lead to the formation of the Sith Order we know today.

The Second Great Schism, much like the first one, rose from a group of dissident Jedi who wished to study the dark side as well. This group was led by several famous Jedi who would become the first and some of the most well know Sith Lords, such as Dreypa, Ajunta Pal and Karness Muur. Unlike the first schism, this one lasted nearly a hundred years, saw the advent of the lightsaber(protosabers really) as the weapon of force users choice, and though ended with the defeat again of the Dark siders, did not see their extermination. Rather, the losers of this war were this time banished from the Republic to the Unknown Regions.

It was this group of Jedi exiles that stumbled upon the world of Korriban about 6900 years before ANH. The Sith species of the planet were a warlike tribal band of primitives with strong force sensitivities. Awed by the powers of the exiled Dark Jedi, they worshiped them as gods and submitted to their rule. Over time, these Jedi and their descendants interbred with the Sith species and formed their own bastardized version of the Jedi order themselves, adopting the name of the species that would form the backbone for it as their own. This was the true birth of the Sith Cult. They would build their own small empire in their region and be left unknown to the rest of the galaxy for nearly two millenia.

It wasn’t untill around 5000 years before ANH, when two explorers fresh from the Unification wars in the Empress Teta system, running from a spat of bad luck and prison, in a desperate attempt to map out undiscovered hyperspace routes would enter random coordinates and stumble upon Korriban in the middle of a power struggle. At this time the Sith Lords, who rulled their worlds would in turn be ruled and directed by a Dark Lord of the Sith, the last of which had just passed on, Marka Ragnos. This opened up position was now in contest between the Sith Lords Ludo Kresh and Naga Sadow. The accidental arrivals of the two explorers, a brother and sister, sends the Sith Lords into a panic believing that the Republic had finally discovered them and was planning an invasion.

Ludo Kressh wished to kill the interlopers and hope their absence would keep the discovery of their Empire secret while Naga Sadow saw them as an opportunity to wrest the Dark Lord title from Ludo and a means to use them as tools to drive the Sith Empire out into the Republic in an attempt to conquer it rather than hide from it. Ultimately, his ambitions led to defeat, forcing Naga Sadow to exile himself and his Massasi warriors, who were well trained but normal looking members of the Sith species at the time, to the fourth moon of Yavin, where he would build temples and brood in the hopes of rebuilding his ambitious Sith empire. A hope he would never see achieved.

The Sith empire, however, as a result of this defeat was hunted down and driven back into the Unkown regions by the Jedi and Republic in an attempted genocide to destroy them all, most specifically the members of the Empire who were of the Sith species itself. This one act is the primary reason for future Sith’s obsession with revenge.

A thousand years after the Great Hyperspace War, also know as the Sith wars, would once again see a resurgance of the Sith in the form of Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Dromma, among many other Jedi. Known as the Exar Kun wars, this would take place about 4000 years before ANH, about 30 years before KotOR and Revan’s saga, and about 350 years before the Treay of Coruscant (TOR). It was discovered that on the world of Onduran, a fallen jedi and former student of famed and ancient Jedi Master Odan-Urr, had discovered Naga Sadows holocron and various sith artifacts, which he used to embed himself and the Sith teachings into the ruling class of Onduran 300 years prior. When this is dicovered, Exar Kun, a Jedi who had an unhealthy fascination with dark side and sith knowledge, after encoutering the spirit of Freedon Nadd on Korriban, would travel their to reclaim the sith artifacts for himself.

Quickly given to the Dark Side, Exar travels to the tomb of Naga Sadow on Yavin, where he discovers all of the Siths knowledge and begins to use them for himself to rebuild the Sith Empire with the help of the remaining Massasi descendants, who through Sith Alchemy done by Naga Sadow, no longer resembled the Sith of their heritage but rather hulking tribal warriors. During this time, Ulic Qel-Dromma in an attempt to remove the influence of the Sith from Onduren, infiltrates the royalty but becomes infected with sith poison that increases his anger driving him to the dark side where upon he strikes a deal with Exar Kun as his apprentice and both he and Exar are branded Sith lords by the spirit of Freedon Nadd.