A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GALAXY AND THE NEW GALACTIC EMPIRE
4-5 ABY:
-The events of Return of the Jedi: Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, known also as Darth Sidious, die above Endor.
-The victorious Rebel Alliance declares a New Republic, with Mon Mothma as the first Chancellor.
-The Galactic Empire swiftly fractures into rival fiefdoms with multiple warlords and self-proclaimed Emperors, but the Galactic Civil War continues.
-Meanwhile, in the darkness of the galaxy's Unknown Regions, beyond the Outer Rim, the ancient Immortal Gods of the Sith, known also as the Old Ones, the Architects, the Apocalyptic Deities from Beyond the Gap, and other such names, begin to gradually increase in activity and power after being sealed and spiritually imprisoned for over 30,000 years, their vast hidden armies stirring once more.
-These dark forces that worship the Sith Gods include the mysterious sorcerers of Rhand, a group of death-worshipping dark side users in the Unknown Regions said to be even worse than the Sith.
-**These Sorcerers of Rhand, like the Sorcerers of Tund, are the remnants of the ancient, so-called “True Sith Empire” Kreia warned about in KOTOR II, hidden in the Unknown Regions for thousands of years.** Palpatine, **aware of the True Sith threat,** sent Grand Admiral Thrawn into the Unknown Regions to investigate mysterious ancient terrors. **The death of the Chosen One above Endor caused a shockwave in the Force that awakened the True Sith and their Immortal Gods.**
-The ancient immortal Sith spirit Ku'ar Danar, **known also as Darth Dreadwar, Dread Lord of the True Sith and** the earliest ever recorded Dark Lord of the Sith, awakens and returns after 4,000 years.
-A mysterious army of ancient Sith imprisoned in carbonite on an unknown planet - **the army of Dreadwar and other awakening True Sith** - is awakened by Nightsister Silri.
6-11 ABY:
-Luke Skywalker creates the New Jedi Order.
-The New Republic captures Coruscant, and becomes the dominant galactic power, although is endangered by the (failed) Thrawn Campaigns in 9 ABY.
-**The True Sith begin to orchestrate events and conflicts in the galaxy, testing and weakening the New Republic through pushing their vassals and servants to war, including:** The unsuccessful Mindor campaigns of the mysterious Lord Shadowspawn (in reality a sorcerer of Rhand from the Unknown Regions called Cronal), the invasion of the Ssi-Ruuvi from the Unknown Regions, the invasion of the Nagai and Tof from the Firefist satellite galaxy (also in the Unknown Regions), as well as **orchestrating** the return of Palpatine (whose spirit was canonically resurrected from Chaos into a clone body by a group of mysterious ancient Sith spirits on Korriban, in the Dark Empire comics).
-Palpatine dies his final death in 11 ABY.
-Meanwhile, Sith devotees (the mysterious, unnamed Sith devotees on Korriban that formed the later New Sith Order of Darth Krayt, mentioned in The Unknown Regions sourcebook) begin to gather on Korriban. **They consist of various Sith acolytes, Dark Jedi and Inquisitors from Palpatine’s Galactic Empire, united in an ancient Sith Temple (in which is located the tomb of XoXaan) by Nielas Draxon, known also as Darth Vassago, and Xen Gaal, known also as Darth Dispicable.**
-**Vassago is a former Jedi corrupted to the dark side by the ancient True Sith spirit Lacerus, and Dispicable is, secretly, the ancient agent and Battlelord of the True Sith, Darth Cruor. Vassago becomes the first Dark Lord of the New Sith Order, and ends the Rule of Two, decreeing a new Rule of One - the One being the Sith Order itself.**
-**The True Sith secretly manipulate the rise of the New Sith Order, much as they once manipulated the rise of Darth Revan’s Sith Empire millennia prior.**
-Meanwhile, Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, Lumiya, continues Darth Bane’s Rule of Two lineage in secret as Dark Lady of the Sith, taking on various apprentices over the years, including Flint, Carnor Jax (a traitorous Imperial Guard who sabotaged Palpatine’s clone bodies) **and the lady who would one day become Darth Viscretus. Lumiya is unrelated to the True Sith and the New Sith Order, but is used as an unwitting pawn in the Nagai-Tof War.**
12 ABY:
-**The events of the first Sith Trials RPG from 2005-2006, Passage into Darkness: The Sith Trials. Cruor attempts a coup against Vassago’s reign, and although it fails, the seeds of division in the New Sith Order are planted. Vassago’s apprentice, Darth Draconis, is exiled into the wilds of Korriban.**
-Meanwhile, the Galactic Empire collapses into the Imperial Remnant.
13 ABY:
-**The events of the second Sith Trials RPG from 2006-2007, The Sith Wars Saga: The Sith Trials II. The New Sith Order is divided into the Black Sith - ‘classic’ Sith loyal to Vassago - and the breakaway Red Sith sect - ‘egalitarian,’ tribal Sith, more resembling the doctrines of Kaan, led by Darth Mentok. Both must fight off a failed invasion of Korriban by a rival sect of dark side vampires known as the Kiasyd.**
-**Although the Kiasyd are beaten, Vassago is ousted from power, and enters self-exile.**
14-30s ABY:
-The Galactic Civil War ends with the surrender of the Imperial Remnant.
-**Manipulated by the True Sith,** the Yuuzhan Vong attack the galaxy, and the Yuuzhan Vong War devastates the galaxy before they are defeated.
-The New Republic transforms into the Federal Galactic Republic, better known as the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances or Galactic Alliance, which incorporates the Imperial Remnant.
-**Darth Cruor is killed, but, as an ancient spirit, survives bound to his Mask, which is hidden on Korriban.**
-**The New Sith Order fractures further. Across multiple RPs from the 2007-2008 period, the Black Sith of Vassago loyalists flee Korriban to Ziost, becoming the “Acolytes of Darkness” under Vassago’s second-in-command Nemisis and former apprentice Draconis, and later being ruled by generations of various short-reigning Dark Lords. Some Red Sith flee Korriban to Lehon, becoming the “Dominion of Darkness,” likewise ruled by generations of various short-reigning Dark Lords, such as Darth Marvelous, Darth Mystique and Darth Haretisch.**
-**The Red Sith who stay on Korriban are taken over by Darth Krayt.** Krayt, a fallen Jedi captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, unites these pre-existing Sith devotees on Korriban to become the long-reigning Dark Lord of the “One Sith,” **one of the three splinter factions of** the New Sith Order.
40s ABY:
-As detailed in the Legacy of the Force novels, the unrelated Baneite Sith, Lumiya, turns Jacen Solo to the dark side (becoming Darth Caedus), kickstarting the three-way Second Galactic Civil War as Caedus manipulates his way to become Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance and takes on the rebellious Confederation and Jedi Coalition. The Imperial Remnant leaves the Alliance.
-**The events of the 2008 RPG Shadow Games, in which an ancient True Sith Lord, Darth Gorog, is almost freed from spiritual imprisonment on Corellia’s moon of Shadow during the Second Galactic Civil War.**
-After Caedus’ defeat, it is revealed he awakened the Old One, Abeloth, the last spiritual remnant of the 100,000-year-old Immortal God of the Sith sometimes called Vahl. In the Fate of the Jedi novels, she almost unleashes apocalypse upon the galaxy with another, unrelated Sith faction (the “Lost Tribe of Sith”), but is finally defeated (but not truly killed).
-The New Sith Order, **and its splinter factions**, remain in hiding, building up their strength, although Darth Krayt helps Luke Skywalker defeat Abeloth.
-Jaina Solo marries Jagged Fel, Head of State (later, the first Emperor since Palpatine) of the Imperial Remnant. They later found the Fel dynasty of Emperors, as well as a faction of Force-sensitive Imperial Jedi, called the “Imperial Knights,” who follow the light side.
50s-120s ABY:
-A big gap in the Expanded Universe continuity, between the Crucible novel and the Legacy comics.
-**Our ABYverse fills this gap with many RPGs from the 2007-2010 period, including The Force Cold War, Turning Point, The Collapsing Galaxy, The Unknown Terrors and Force War.**
-**These RPGs mostly detail the inner politics of the fractured New Sith Order over the years; Darth Krayt’s One Sith against the Acolytes, the Acolytes against the Dominion, secret missions designed to destabilise the Galactic Alliance, Sith trials and training, the rise and fall of dynasties of Dark Lords, and so on. The RPGs were all made so as to not impact the galaxy directly, but rather reinforce and flesh out Legends continuity, as Legends material was still being published at the time.**
-**Thanks to the Holocron of Darth Gorog, Darth Insipid emerges as a prominent Sith Lord, and later reigning Dark Lord, of the Dominion of Darkness, as well as infiltrating and operating within the Acolytes and the One Sith. In 128 ABY, Insipid is turned to ash by Darth Krayt, although he survives thanks to learning the secret of essence transfer.*
127-130 ABY:
-The canonical backstory of the Legacy comics, in which the New Sith Order (**or rather, the faction of it called* the One Sith) under Darth Krayt orchestrates a galactic war - the Sith-Imperial War - between the New Galactic Empire (formerly Imperial Remnant) of the Fel dynasty and the Galactic Alliance, joining the war in 128 ABY on the side of the Empire. Out of political necessity, Emperor Roan Fel accepts alliance with the Sith.
-In reality, all of these orchestrated events are made possible by, and result from, the manipulations of Imperial Moff and Intelligence agent Nyna Calixte, who, as one of her many alter-egos - Morrigan Corde - fathered a son with Jedi Grand Master Kol Skywalker some time before 117 ABY: Cade. **Calixte/Corde is, in truth, a secret agent and Dark Lady of the True Sith, sent by her masters to divide and conquer the galaxy in preparation for the True Sith’s invasion and finally use the New Sith Order as an opening salvo against the Jedi.**
-The Empire wins the Sith-Imperial War with the capture of Coruscant, and the Alliance falls. Emperor Roan Fel is couped by Darth Krayt, and Krayt becomes Galactic and Sith Emperor. Roan Fel and the Imperials loyal to him go into hiding (the Empire-in-Exile), the last fleet of the Galactic Alliance remains a thorn in Krayt’s side under Admiral Gar Stazi (the Alliance Remnant), and the Jedi Order goes into hiding after the Sith’s Massacre on Ossus (in which Kol Skywalker dies).
130-140 ABY:
-The events of Star Wars: Legacy, Legacy: War and Legacy II. Emperor Krayt rules the galaxy, and then is deposed by Darth Wyrlok, who rules the Galactic Empire as Regent, and then Krayt returns from the dead (having learned secrets from two spirits of ancient immortal Dark Lords from the Hundred-Year Darkness - **contemporaries of Dreadwar who, not coincidentally, reawaken during this era**) and defeats Wyyrlok, and then Krayt is defeated and killed (perhaps for the final time) by Cade Skywalker.
-The Empire-in-Exile, Alliance Remnant and New Jedi Order join forces to defeat the New Sith Order, and end their rule over the galaxy. They make their alliance formal by creating a new galactic government: the Galactic Federation Triumvirate, under Admiral Gar Stazi, Jedi Grand Master K’Kruhk, and Empress Marasiah Fel.
-Without an Emperor, the defeated Sith scatter across the Outer Rim, with prominent leaders such as Darth Nihl, Darth Maladi and Darth Talon surviving, but Darth Wredd (who becomes a follower of the Rule of Two) successfully manipulates a confrontation with the ascendant Federation that wipes out much of the New Sith Order at the Battle of the Floating World.
141-146 ABY:
-**As Legacy II was the last chronological installment of the Legends Expanded Universe, the ABYverse takes over entirely at this point. The surviving Dragons of the One Sith (former Krayt-ites) and the Acolytes of Darkness flee into the Unknown Regions following the Battle of the Floating World, escaping the pursuing forces of the Jedi and the Federation, where the Dominion of Darkness is already hiding on Lehon.**
-**The events of RPGs from the 2009-2012 period: Dominion of Darkness: The Shadow War, Acolytes of Darkness: The Shadow War and The Shadow Trials, set in 145 ABY, and The Shadow War: Times End, set in 146 ABY. The three factions of the New Sith Order engage in a bloody civil war in the shadows of the Unknown Regions called the Shadow War.**
-**During the Shadow War, they flee so deep into the Unknown Regions that they brush the borders of an ancient threat - the True Sith. They are promptly devastated by the mysterious foe across an insanity-inducing year of terror (which has the beneficial side-effect of unifying the Acolytes, Dominion and One Sith into a cohesive New Sith Order again). Dark Lord Insipid is defeated by an unknown apparition - Darth Dreadwar - but both are imprisoned in a Rakatan Mind Trap, gaining the Sith a brief reprieve which they use to limp back towards known space.**
-**Meanwhile, the uneasy alliance of opposing political forces that make up the Federation predictably starts to unravel.**
147-150 ABY:
-**The Federation Civil War begins, played out mostly in the 2013-2014 RPG Senate Aflame, set in 147 ABY. Kára Volshe (who is, in secret, a rogue Dark Lady of the Sith unrelated to the New Sith Order, a former apprentice of Lumiya, and the canonical unknown master of the Yuuzhan Vong Sith “Vongerella,” called Darth Viscretus) leads a faction called the New Galactic Empire into victory in the Galactic Senate, and manipulates her election as Chancellor. She promptly declares herself Empress. Empress Marasiah Fel, the Jedi, and a rival political faction called the Alliance to Preserve the Republic, oppose Volshe and her militant Imperialism, and thus the Federation explodes into civil war.**
150-151 ABY:
-**Meanwhile, the New Sith Order pours back out of the Unknown Regions, fleeing the unknown True Sith threat, and invades the Outer Rim. After 5 years' imprisonment in the Mind Trap, the mysterious apparition (Dreadwar) is back, this time with Insipid inexplicably serving him as his Herald, and becomes the new Emperor of the Sith - the first since Darth Krayt - unifying them all beneath his iron rule. His origins as a True Sith are unknown.**
-**With the Federation locked in its own (dwindling) civil war, the Sith take the Outer Rim fairly easily, and the Federation is keen to sign an armistice with their new Sith Empire.**
-**Empress Volshe's three-year rule over the galaxy comes to an end, and her loyalists flee to the Unknown Regions, with Marasiah Fel restored as Galactic Empress. The Federation takes the shape of a democracy - again a Federal Galactic Republic - protected by the Jedi, with Triumvir Fel as a ceremonial figurehead, and Triumvirs K'Kruhk and Gar Stazi as Co-Chancellors. Volshe is believed dead - but in reality flees to Korriban, and, as her alter-ego Viscretus, pledges her loyalty to Sith Emperor Dreadwar.**
152-154 ABY:
-**The Federation licks its wounds from its civil war, the Sith lick their wounds from theirs, and the armistice continues. Dreadwar begins training a new generation of Sith Apprentices on Korriban to replenish the New Sith Order’s diminished ranks. Viscretus becomes Head of Sith Intelligence.**
154-155 ABY:
-**The events of the 2017-2019 prequel RPG, The Old Sith Trials. The Unknown Regions tagsets focus on the New Galactic Empire loyalists, who have spent the last four years fleeing the Federation into the hyperspatial impossibilities of the Unknown Regions, and now have encountered, like the New Sith Order during the Shadow War, the unknown threat... and then the tagsets in known space, most on Korriban, focus on the New Sith Order's Sith Trials.**
-**The True Sith finalise their preparations for invasion.**
155-156 ABY:
**The events of The New Sith Trials (the 2016-2017 game). The Emperor Dreadwar is indisposed - or killed - as a result of Insipid throwing him into a black hole. Insipid and his allies then go to Mortis - disappearing for months.**
Galactic war between the Federation and the New Sith Order breaks out, and the New Sith Order splits into splinters and feudal lords, the main group still standing - but damaged.
In the vacuum, Kára Volshe returns to the known Galaxy, along with two young children: Dreadwar’s heirs. She lays claim to the Galactic throne, reviving her New Galactic Empire and unifying the fractured NSO to the best of her ability beneath her banner. She revives the Imperial Jedi Praxeum, and, in effort to save the Galaxy from oncoming storm, even shepherds other Force using factions under her rule.
157 ABY:
-The True Sith threat is revealed, and the final cosmic seal - Mortis - that holds the Immortal God of the Sith, the Left-Handed God Typhojem, known also as the Dark Sovereign of the True Sith Darth Nemesis, imprisoned in Chaos... is broken...
