Darth Revan's Sith Empire

The seeds of Revan's Sith Empire were sown near the conclusion 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 delving into the planet's hidden history, Revan uncovered evidence suggesting that the Sith Empire persisted beyond the explored regions of space and remained a potential danger to the entire galaxy.

As Revan's forces clashed with the Mandalorians in the skies above the planet of Malachor V, he engaged Mandalore the Ultimate, their leader, in a fatal duel while the fleets of both sides hovered in orbit. In his dying breath, Mandalore revealed to Revan that he had been manipulated by a mysterious group of Sith. Following the devastating defeat and subsequent surrender of the Mandalorian fleet above Malachor, Revan and his comrade Malak ventured to the icy planet of Rekkiad to investigate the claims made by their fallen enemy. From there, they followed a path that took them into the Unknown Regions with nearly a third of the Republic's naval forces—justifying their expedition as a pursuit of the remaining Mandalorian forces.

However, Revan and Malak ultimately discovered the route to Dromund Kaas, confirming the continued existence of the Sith Empire. Their attempt to assassinate the Sith Emperor failed spectacularly, as the Emperor seized control of their minds and corrupted them to the dark side. The Emperor, intending to use them to probe the Republic's defenses, designated Revan as a Dark Lord of the Sith and bestowed upon them the title of Darth. He then tasked them with utilizing their knowledge of the forgotten Rakatan Infinite Empire to locate the legendary Star Forge, a device that would enable him to build an armada capable of crushing the Republic. The subsequent year was spent in secret, searching for ancient Star Maps that would lead them to the Star Forge's location.

Revan received orders from the Emperor to prepare for a major offensive against the Republic. However, the Emperor underestimated the strength of will possessed by the two former Jedi—Revan and Malak managed to break free from his mental control and began to act according to their own designs. From the Star Forge, concealed within the uncharted Lehon system, Revan established a new Sith Empire. He adapted the teachings of the ancient Sith to suit his own purposes and appointed Malak as his Sith apprentice.

A year after their disappearance, Revan and Malak reappeared, leading a massive invasion fleet composed of captured Republic ships, including vessels like the Leviathan, and advanced hybrid technologies produced by the Star Forge. This fleet was manned by seasoned veterans from the Republic military and commanded by some of the Republic's most skilled officers, including Admiral Saul Karath, General Derred, and Mon Halan. Identifying themselves as the Sith, they declared war against the Republic.

Under the command of Darth Revan, the Sith invasion proved nearly unstoppable. Sith assassins infiltrated the Republic from their base on Malachor V, targeting Jedi for assassination or capture throughout Republic territory. On Malachor V, Revan's most loyal followers corrupted captured Jedi, turning them to the dark side. The Sith entered into a conspiracy with the Czerka Corporation, one of the wealthiest and most influential galactic corporations of the era, to secure vital resources. They also established a presence on the oceanic planet of Manaan, exploiting 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 join the Sith invasion force, either out of fear of the fate that befell Telos IV or because they believed 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 fleets were repeatedly saved from complete annihilation by the exceptional abilities of a young Jedi Padawan named Bastila Shan. During a series of Republic defeats, her mastery of battle meditation prevented total destruction.

As the Sith neared victory, Revan's flagship was boarded by a Jedi strike team during an ambush. Led by Bastila, the Jedi confronted Revan on the bridge. Driven by ambition, Malak fired upon his master's ship, hoping to eliminate all his enemies with a single strike, but his plan backfired. The ship was destroyed, but the Jedi managed to escape with the critically wounded Revan.

Following Revan's apparent death, Malak proclaimed himself the new Dark Lord of the Sith and continued the war of conquest initiated by his former master, but his vision differed significantly from Revan's. He then chose Darth Bandon as his own apprentice. While Revan had preserved key Republic infrastructure for post-war reconstruction, Malak and Bandon favored a campaign of unrestrained destruction and carnage.

Malak's primary goal quickly became the assassination or capture of Bastila Shan. He nearly achieved this 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 assistance of Captain Carth Onasi, a former protégé of Saul Karath. After a futile quarantine and search of the planet, Darth Malak ordered Admiral Karath to destroy it. The entire surface of Taris—including all life there—was completely annihilated 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 and tasked with a mission of vital importance to the Republic—retracing Darth Revan's journey to the Star Forge. After acquiring data from three damaged Rakatan Star Maps and after Bandon's death, the crew of the Ebon Hawk were captured by Saul Karath's command ship, the Leviathan. Fortunately, Bastila and her group escaped from their prison 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 succumbed to the dark side and became his new apprentice.

Having located the ancient Star Maps on Dantooine, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, and Korriban, Revan and his crew successfully pieced together the location of the Star Forge. The Republic fleets 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 by 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 eliminated and the Star Forge destroyed, the Sith Empire's infrastructure crumbled. The remaining Dark Jedi descended into a state of civil war and effectively annihilated themselves.

Minor skirmishes led by former Sith forces persisted for several years, gradually dismantling much of what Revan had established. Eventually, three new Sith Lords emerged to seize control of a remnant of the Empire, but they lacked the strength to directly challenge the Republic. The fragile alliance among Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion, and Darth Traya, which nearly extinguished the Jedi Order, was ultimately broken by Meetra Surik, bringing an end to the Sith legacy initiated by Revan. Revan, meanwhile, vanished from known space, seemingly continuing his previous strategy of confronting the ancient Sith Empire alone. Meetra followed him and eventually lost her life while Revan was imprisoned in stasis for centuries. Almost three centuries later, the ancient Sith Empire would return to once again threaten the Republic.

During the Great Sith War, followers of Exar Kun founded a Sith Academy on Korriban. Kun's disciples maintained this academy even after Kun's defeat. When Revan and Malak became Dark Lords of the Sith, Kun's followers pledged their loyalty to them, and Korriban became the official capital of their empire. Consequently, Korriban began to attract an increasing number of students and acolytes to the expanding 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 core principle of the Empire was based on natural selection, or the survival of the fittest. Even the lowest-ranking soldiers were encouraged to compete for positions of power through any means necessary. While this system of promotion fostered a tense and divisive governance, it nevertheless ensured a powerful and competent military force. Revan, and later Malak, served as the supreme rulers of the Empire, and their strength and charisma were the only factors that 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 and housed within an embassy that contained a security force large enough to maintain control of the planet. The Sith fleet was frequently on the move, enabling even 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 adhered to similar principles. Aspiring students were taught to prioritize their own self-interest 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 relied heavily on 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 ships of their time.
• Centurion-class battlecruisers exemplified by the Ravager.
• Derriphan-class battleships
• Sith fighters were a blend 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 was the supreme commander.
• Shadow Hand served as the Dark Lord's second-in-command.
• Sith Lords formed the core leadership of the Sith, reporting directly to the Dark Lord.
• Sith Acolytes and Sith apprentices were the trainees of the Lords and were primarily stationed on the Star Forge and the Temple of the Ancients.
• Sith officers commanded the Sith's ground and space forces.
• Sith troopers formed the backbone and main fighting force of the Sith military.
• Dark Jedi were Jedi who had fallen to the dark side and supported the Sith's main forces.
• Sith assassins were specifically 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 well-known battle droid series employed by the Sith Empire. Mark IV assault droids, quadrupedal battle droids frequently used to guard their military installations.

The Sith Empire of Darth Revan aimed to conquer territory and ultimately supplant the Republic, in contrast to the Sith of the Great Sith War, whose primary objective was to spread chaos and discord. 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. Just before their defeat at the Battle of Rakata Prime, high-ranking Sith officials estimated that it would only be a matter of months before the Sith advanced into the inner Core Worlds themselves, with the Republic's collapse projected to follow shortly thereafter.

At its zenith, the Empire governed a vast area of the Outer Rim, including 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, giving the Sith Empire a significant presence in the Core Worlds.

The canonical ending 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 of the war against the Sith Empire. However, the game also features a non-canonical dark side ending where he/she reclaims the title 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 chooses 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 the lesser Sith.