Tens of thousands of years before the founding
of the Republic, the galaxy was dominated by a mysterious species known as the Celestials,
or Architects. Using the less-powerful species of the galaxy
as their servants, particularly three species known as the Gree, Kwa and Killiks, they were
able to complete massive projects throughout the galaxy, building entire systems including
Corellia and even the Black Hole cluster known as the Maw with massive stations equipped
with gigantic tractor beams, and then seeding many of the major systems of the future with
various species, including humans. Some of these humans, on coruscant, formed
the Battalions of Zhell and expelling the indigenous Taung species in a great war. 100,000 years before the Battle of Yavin (or
BBY), the Gree ruled a vast Empire creating tech unmatched even in the modern galaxy,
while the Columi of the Galactic Core used their own hyperdrive tech to survey planets
occupied by the humans and Duros, among others. Another species, the Rakata, fought a war
against the portal-using species, the Kwa, and installed themselves as the next great
power of the galaxy- the Infinite Empire. The Infinite Empire and their constructs,
including the Star Forge, enslaved much of the galaxy yet again. 30,000 years before the Battle of Yavin, they
reached their apex, covering most of the galaxy. Relics could be found located as widely spread
as Lehon, Dantooine, Honoghr and Tatooine, covering four completely opposite points in
the galaxy, although this included far fewer actual planets than what future civilization
would cover. Rakatan influence soon began to wane in the
galaxy, while other species started their own rise to prominence, and their own wars.Conflict
between different force wielding sects gave rise to the Force Wars of Tython in 25,793,
a hugely destructive decade-long conflict which, by its end, saw emergence of the Jedi
Order, with further development of their philosophy happening on the planet Ossus, including the
conception of the Dark and Light sides of the Force, building on earlier concepts of
the Bogan and Ashla. By 25,200 years before Yavin, the Infinite
Empire had collapsed. Billions of Rakata had died from a plague,
providing their slaves an opportunity to rise up. Eventually, the plague had mutated into a
form which, while seemingly less fatal, denied the Rakatans access to the Force, which powered
their hyperdrives, leaving them stranded and their civilization devolving into a series
of disconnected planets in the Unknown Regions. No longer under the control of the Rakata,
the other species of the galaxy were able to continue development of their own technology
and Empires, particularly the Humans, Duros, and Hutts. Humans on Coruscant began seeding the nearby
Core with sleeper ships, sending settlers to the worlds of Alsakan, Alderaan, Axum and
other planets representing all the letters of the alphabet, many of which were already
occupied- including Alderaan and its native population of Killiks. Improvements in hyperdrive technology began
linking the human civilization of the Core with the Curos colonies, and further reverse
engineering of Rakatan tech allowed them to expand their contact even further. In another corner of the galaxy, yet another
group of human colonists and alien castoffs known as the Tionese began expanding their
own territory. In 25,150, King Ferece of Cron was deposed
by King Xer of Argai. Xer’s son, Xim soon ruled as Xim the Despot,
raiding local space and vastly expanding the reach of Tionese territory. His expansion was stoped by yet another fledgling
Empire to their south, the Hutts, who had recently bound many species like the Klatooinians
and Nikto to their service. The Third Battle of Vontor in 25,100 BBY saw
the end of Tion’s expansion; Xim’s navy and powerful war droids were routed by Kossak
the Hutt, who captured the so-called pirate prince and imprisoned him until his death, 25,053 years BBY became a year of huge significance
in galactic history- advancement in hyperdrive tech had reduced trips within the Core to
a matter of a few days. These increasingly-integrated Core worlds
began a loosely affiliated democratic union, the Galactic Republic. The Republic grew quickly while the former
worlds of Xim fell into a millenium of infighting. The Jedi of Ossus became the protectors of
the fledgling Republic, and warned Coruscant against impending aggression from the Tionese
and Hutts, contact with whom had led the two outlying civilizations to believe the Core
was a prime, resource-rich target. After total mobilization of the Republic’s
industrial might in response to colonies wiped out by the Tionese, along with inciting the
Hutts to invade their traditional enemies, they easily swept through Tion, denying the
surrender of the last major world, Desevro, and sterilizing it entirely. The Republic continued its massive growth,
peaking in the Great Manifest Period of 20,000 to 17,000 BBY. Their harmony wouldn’t last forever, though. Another planet, alsakan, sought to challenge
Coruscant as the Galactic Capital- following millenia of tension, they rebelled, ending
the Great Manifest Period and starting the first of the 17 Alsakan Conflicts, intermittent
civil wars lasting the next 14,000 years. They were far from the only civil wars of
the time- in 15,000 BBY the Hutts engaged in their own civil war, the Hutt Cataclysms,
a war so devastating it left their homeworld of Varl uninhabitable and causing the Hutts
to eschew military force in favour of exerting their power financially and through the galactic
criminal underworld. In the Republic, the year 11,965 began the
millenia-long Pius Dea Crusades, initiated by Chancellor Contispex I. The Contispex Dynasty engaged in the crusades
to install human supremacy over aliens, purging what they called “irredeemable elements”
coming in the wake of Bothan supreme Chancellor Pers’lya’s impeachment and assassination,
ending with the Sixth Alsakan Conflict removing the Pius Dea cult from power. The leadup to 7000 BBY saw the formation of
two new enemies for the Republic. The Taung, whom had been forced off of Coruscant
millenia before, had ventured from their adopted planet of Roon and made their way to a new
planet, fighting giant mythosaurs, for domination. Their leader became known as Mandalore the
First, and began the early Mandalorian Crusades. At a similar time, a sect of Jedi emerged
who sought the power of the Dark Side and Dark Side alchemy, going to War with the rest
of the Order in the Hundred Year Darkness. Following their defeat on the planet Corbos,
these Jen’Jidai, led by ajunta Pall, were Exiled to the Unknown Regions. They became rulers of a species called the
Sith, who worshiped them as gods and became the backbone of a new Sith Empire, separated
over 2000 years from the Republic. This all changed when the sibling team of
Gav and Jori Daragon happened upon a desert world unknown to the Republic. This world was the Sith capital of Korriban,
and the Daragons had arrived during a power struggle between Lords Sadow and Kressh, each
hoping to replace the deceased Marka Ragnos. Sadow played to fears about the Republic scouts
who had discovered them, crushed Kressh, and began his plans for an invasion of the Republic-
the Great Hyperspace War of 5000 BBY. While Gav was seduced to the dark side, Jori
headed to the Koros system, warning Empress Teta and her navy of the impending Sith raid. Sadow’s forces arrived, and quickly began
to crush Republic forces. The Republic ultimately was victorious, and
Sadow escaped in his flagship to Yavin and put himself in a state of suspended animation,
awaiting a new apprentice. He was discovered 600 years later, in 4400
BBY by a Jedi named Freedon Nadd who sought Sadow’s power. Nadd took his new skills to the planet of
Onderon, installing himself as a King in the walled city of Iziz. His dynasty ruled in his style until 4000
BBY, when Queen Amanoa was deposed by the Jedi Master Arca Jeth and her daughter Gallia
reformed the politics of the planet and removed Nadd and her mother’s remains to the moon
of Dxun. Yet another fallen Jedi, Exar Kun, managed
to break into Sadow’s tomb. And claimed Sadow’s power for his own, installing
himself as the Dark Lord of the Sith. Supported by Dark Jedi Ulic Qel-Droma’s
forces from the now corrupt Empress Teta system, known as the Krath, as well as the Mandalorian
Crusaders, Exar Kun began the Great Sith War against the Republic. After killing his brother Cay during the Sith
assault on the Jedi planet Ossus, Ulic Qel-Droma saw the error of his ways, and successfully
led a Jedi strike team against Kun on Yavin. The Sith Lord’s spirit was trapped, his
Sith Empire collapsed, the Krath were scattered in the Outer Rim, and the Mandalorians were
defeated at the Battle of Onderon, ending the Sith War. Simultaneously, a group of pirates called
the Lorell Raiders were hunted by the Jedi in the Hapes cluster- their removal gave rise
to the matriarchal Hapan society in the Cluster. The Mandalorians did not stay away for long-
Mandalore the Ultimate formed the Neo-Crusaders and, taking advantage of the galactic devastation
of the Sith Wars, began the Mandalorian Wars of 3995-3961 BBY. They began slowly taking fringe Republic worlds,
taking advantage of Republic reluctance to fight back, until gathering enough momentum,
territory and material to strike the heart of the Republic. The purging of the Cathar prompted the Jedi
to support the Republic fleet, but the Jedi held back, urging caution in their response
and allowing the Mandalorians to continue their Crusades. Some of the Jedi disagreed with the Council’s
caution. Lead by the Revan and Malak, these Jedi took
command of the Republic war effort and through brutal tactics of their own, forced back the
Mandalorians. The war ended with the destruction of Malachor
V, where Revan dueled and defeated Mandalore the Ultimate and turning the Mandalorians
from contenders for galactic control, into a series of mercenary clans. For the three years following the Mandalorian
Wars, Revan and Malak gathered more power to themselves, following Rakatan star Maps
to a giant ship 3D printer called the Star Forge, building a fleet out of Rakatan and
Republic designs, initiating the Second Sith War from 3959 to 3956 BBY with the capture
of the primary Republic shipyard at Forost, pulling in many who were eager to support
the champions who rescued the Galaxy from the Mandalorians. Revan, after being captured and reprogrammed
by the Jedi,rejoined the Order, defeated his former apprentice Malak, and shut down the
Star Forge before heading to the Unknown Regions in search of an unknown Sith threat. While in the short term the Sith fell into
Civil War, the next few hundred years would see the Sith and Republic both growing in
power and fighting multiple times, including the Great Galactic War from 3681 to 3651. They even worked together against the emerging
threat known as the Eternal Empire in a series of short but complicated political and military
events. The Hapans sealed themselves off from the
galaxy around 3100 BBY, and after the final Alsakan Conflict in 3000 BBY, the galaxy entered
a rare millennium of relative peace, until the Fourth Great Schism within the Jedi led
to the New Sith Wars from 2000 to 1000 BBY. The Umbaran Jedi Master Pahnius left the Jedi,
and emerged as the first Sith Lord seen in over 1000 years, Darth Ruin. fifty Jedi joined
the merciless new Sith Lord, and the resulting conflict ended only once Darth Bane, who rose
from the ranks of the Sith Soldiers, realised the need for the Sith to reduce their numbers
and play for power in a different way, ending the Sith Wars in 1000 BBY and institution
the Rule of Two, with his apprentice Darth Zannah. The Republic followed the war with the Rusaan
reformation, ending their standing federal military. The next thousand years was relatively peaceful,
though the Sith began building their power in secret. In 67 BBY, Darth Plagueis became the new Lord
of the Sith by killing his master Darth Tenebrous. He took a young man named Palpatine from Naboo
on as his own apprentice, Darth Sidious, and the two set the installment of the Sith in
power over the Republic in motion. When Palpatine was elected Chancellor in 32
BBY, he killed his former master. From behind the scenes, Palpatine orchestrated
the devastating Clone Wars- in a galaxy hungry for order and security after three years of
war, stretching between 22 BBY and 19 BBY. He reorganized the Republic which had stood
for 25,000 years into the Galactic Empire, brutally destroying the Jedi Order with the
help of his new apprentice, Darth Vader, the former Jedi hero Anakin Skywalker. This initiated a period of fluctuating galactic
government compared to the relative stability of the prior millenia. The new Empire’s repressive and harsh methods
of quelling dissent galvanized its opposition under the leadership of Senators Mon Mothma,
Bail Organa and Garm Bel Iblis in 2 BBY, officially forming the Rebel Alliance after years of
disorganized responses to Imperial Authority. Vader’s twin children, Luke Skywalker and
Leia Organa, became key figures in the Rebellion. Leia was a central organizing figure, having
been raised by Bail Organa, and Luke Skywalker was responsible for the destruction of the
Empire’s planet-killing superstation, the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin. Four years after Yavin, the Emperor died for
the first time over Endor. His spirit escaped to the Deep Core via the
technique of Essence Transfer, inhabiting a series of Clone Bodies on the planet Byss. While he did slowly call various remaining
Imperial forces towards him, the Empire in the rest of the galaxy began to crumble and
fracture. The Rebellion formed the New Republic and
fought many Imperial Warlords, including Grand Admiral Thrawn 9 years after the battle of
Yavin, or ABY, and the return of Palpatine himself in 10-11 ABY, along with other threats
held at bay by the Empire, like the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium and the Duskhan League in the Black
Fleet Crisis of 16-17 ABY. By 19 ABY, the Empire had been reunited through
the efforts of Natasi Daala and Gilad Pellaeon, but Pellaeon saw the futility of fighting
on, and convinced the Moffs to sign the Pellaeon-Gavirsom treaty with the New Republic, ending decades
of war. 6 years later, the galaxy faced its biggest
threat yet- the Yuuzhan Vong, a species who used living ships and had fled from their
own galaxy thousands of years before, invaded the Star Wars galaxy. Much like with the Mandalorians 4000 years
earlier, the lack of willingness to fight yet another war hindered early organization
and allowed the Vong to establish a foothold. The Vong easily crushed most of the galaxy,
including elements of the Unknown Regions and Hutt Space. This convinced the galaxy to unite against
the existential threat facing them. The New Republic and the Empire united with
the Hapans and other governments to form the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances in 28
ABY, and through cooperation with the Chiss, Hutts and support from Luke Skywalker’s
new Jedi Order, they were able to defeat the Vong and recapture their lost capital of Coruscant
the following year, sending the remaining Vong forces to live on the living planet of
Zonama Sekot, and spending the next few years cooperating with Vong Warmaster Nas Choka
to root out remaining cells of Vong resistance. While the Vong War nearly wiped out galactic
civilization, it brought a period with unprecedented galactic connections, beginning the integration
of some Unknown Regions societies into the greater galaxy, primarily the Chiss. In 35 ABY, the Chiss and Killiks nearly brought
the galaxy into yet another massive war. The Killiks, typically peaceful and without
territorial ambition, had adopted a Jedi named Raynar Thul and two Dark Jedi into their hive
mind after they had been lost on a mission to the planet Myrkr during the Yuuzhan Vong
War. The integration of these Jedi caused the Killiks
to care for individual lives and lead to a population boom, expanding the Killik colonies
until they encroached on Chiss territory. This War, known as the Dark Nest Crisis, ended
with the death of the two Dark Jedi and the recapture of Raynar Thul by the Jedi Order. The wake of the Yuuzhan Vong War left many
systems feeling a greater need to take care of their own defenses- some motivated by the
lack of unified response under Borsk Fey’lya’s government in the Vong War, and some, like
Corellia, motivated by the desire for increased power for their own system. The Hutts had once again begun building their
own military, a sight rarely seen beyond the region known as Bootana Hutta, or the Garden
of the Hutts, since the Cataclysm. Many of these disaffected systems supported
Corellia in a revolt against the Galactic Alliance in 40 ABY, pitting many heroes of
the Rebellion era against each other as Corellia sought to secede at the head of its own independent
Confederacy. Jacen Solo, the son of Leia Organa and her
husband Han Solo, fell to the Dark Side becoming Darth Caedus during this war and installed
himself as the leader of the Galactic Alliance. The war ended in 44 ABY when Jacen’s sister
Jaina killed him aboard his flagship named after their deceased brother Anakin, but the
damage had already been done. The Confederacy was not reintegrated to the
Alliance after the War, and the Imperial Remnant began establishing itself yet again as an
independent Empire under the leadership of the young Jagged Fel, husband of Jaina Solo. Natasi Daala, former admiral of the Empire,
was placed in the office of the Galactic Alliance Chief of State. At some point over the next century, the Confederacy
is reintegrated with the Galactic Alliance, with the Empire developing under Jagged and
Jaina’s family line into the Fel Empire, with a parallel Jedi Order equivalent, the
Imperial Knights. In 127 ABY, war once again reignited. A group of Sith led by Darth Krayt, who had
been a Jedi named A’Sharad Hett during the Clone Wars, had been biding their time in
secret. They interfered with a project using Yuuzhan
Vong technology to help restore worlds formerly devastated by war, like Ossus, and bring the
Vong into galactic society. When the Sith interference caused the projects
to fail, the Jedi convinced the Galactic Alliance to support the Vong, causing widespread anger
and prompting the Fel Empire to declare war. The Sith joined forces with the Empire, and
after the Jedi refused to surrender, the Order was purged yet again. Emperor Fel was overthrown and replaced by
Krayt, beginning the Second Imperial Civil War in 130 ABY. Ultimately, the Empire and Galactic Alliance’s
remaining force sin exile saw the need to work together. They were finally able to defeat Krayt, and
the galaxy was unified once again- this time under a triumvirate of leaders in 138 ABY. This triumvirate was made up of Marasiah Fel,
the descendant of Anakin Skywalker representing the Empire, Admiral Gar Stazi of the former
Galactic Alliance, and Jedi Master K’Kruhk. The next year, 139 ABY, the Triumvirate faced
an insurrection attempt from Darth Wredd and survived, after which Empress Marasiah Fel
further opened the Imperial Knights, integrating them more with the Jedi Philosophy, and ending
the galactic timeline of Star Wars Legends as we know it.
