Jabba the Hutt was said to have lived by a
simple axiom: “too much of a good thing is never, ever enough.” This mentality was
shared by most members of his species, the bloated, sluglike Hutts, who were one of the
wealthiest and most powerful races in the galaxy. Virtually all of this wealth and power was
ill-begotten, a result of criminal activity and ancient imperial conquests. Their greed and
ambition knew no bounds, and thousands of years before the Battle of Yavin, these traits led them
to concoct a plan to take over the known galaxy. We’ll be discussing that plot, and the
Republic’s equally abhorrent response to it, in this fifth installment of our
series on the history of the Republic. Our story resumes where it left off at the
end of the last episode - in 15,000 BBY, at the end of the Indecta
Era. Up to that point in time, despite some early civil wars. the Republic had
managed to insulate itself from major threats, as most of the civilizations it encountered only
spanned a few star systems at most. However, as the Indecta Era ended and the Kymoodon
Era began, that was about to change. By 15,000 BBY, the Republic had made
contact with several alien civilizations that had neglected to join it, including the
Bothans of Bothawui, the Nautolans of Glee Anselm, and the Zabraks of Iridonia. Tionese explorers
told tales of the distant alien world Salin, while Republic scouts started to push further
into the Slice. But the Republic was also coming up on the borders of two major alien empires:
the Herglic Trade Empire and the Hutt Empire. The Herglic Trade Empire controlled
a large swath of the Southern Core, just off the Republic’s western border. From their
homeworld of Giju, the whale-like Herglics had influence over many civilizations, including
Abregado-Rae, the Daupherm Planet States, and the Botor Enclave. The Herglics were powerful,
wealthy, and highly advanced, having first taken to the stars two thousand years before the
Republic’s formation. Fortunately for the Republic, they were also quite friendly. They had
known of the Republic since its formation thanks to regular trade with the Duros, and the Republic
had little to fear from contact with them. The Hutts, however, were another story entirely.
Like the Herglic Trade Empire, the Hutt Empire was founded long before the Republic, and
it grew to be quite wealthy and powerful, having enslaved entire species over the years.
Ruled from the ancient Hutt homeworld of Varl, the Hutt Empire had been known to the Republic since
the Tionese War in 24,000 BBY. As the Republic pushed further into the Rim, it was cautious
of this distant empire of gluttonous slugs, unwilling to come into conflict with them. The
Hutt Empire, meanwhile, didn’t bother much with the Republic, at least while the Republic’s
colonies were still far from its borders. When Republic settlers started colonizing worlds closer
to Hutt Space, however, the Hutts responded with raids, slaughtering or enslaving the populations
of entire planets. Though both sides stopped short of full-scale war, a confrontation between
the two great civilizations became inevitable. Fortunately for the Republic, the Hutt
Empire imploded before that could happen. In 15,000 BBY, the Hutt Empire tore itself
apart in a civil war called the Hutt Cataclysms. For unknown reasons, Hutt clans
turned terrible weapons against each other, reducing some of their most ancient
colonies to lifeless wastes. Worst of all, the Cataclysms claimed Varl
itself, which had its atmosphere vaporized and surface obliterated. Greatly weakened, the
surviving Hutts regrouped at the planet Evocar, which they renamed Nal Hutta, and attempted
to cobble together a new civilization. With the Hutt Empire gone, the Republic
experienced another period of booming expansion, much like the earlier Great
Manifest Period. But the Hutts had led the Republic to develop a greater sense of
caution about colonization efforts, leading to the reestablishment of the Republic Navy in
15,000 BBY. In its first few years of service, the new Navy proved itself in border conflicts
at Caulbon, Esaga, and the Sundered Veil nebula, as well as in a brief war against the Aqualish
of Ando. It also kept Republic borders safe during the Herglic Crush of 14,743 BBY, a
civil war within the Herglic Trade Empire. Following the Herglic Crush, there were
concerns within the Republic about whether peace with the Trade Empire would last, but
these fears were assuaged in around 13,000 BBY, when the Herglics and their empire
decided to join the Republic. Of course, the Kymoodon Era wasn’t all fun
and games. Starting in 14,500 BBY, the Third Alsakan Conflict began, which saw Coruscant-loyal
Republic forces attack Alsakani-allied worlds in the Commenor Run Campaign, hitting Kattada,
Alderaan, and finally Tepasi before attacking Alsakan itself, destroying the city of Rupacar.
That conflict ended in 14,300 BBY, after which there was peace for about five hundred years. A
Fourth Alsakan Conflict followed from 13,800 to 13,200 BBY, shortly after which a Fifth Alsakan
Conflict erupted in 13,050 BBY. That conflict was focused around the Northern Dependencies,
the Republic colonies north of Coruscant, which had been largely settled by Alsakan. In
that conflict, the Alsakani Admiral Hirken, equipped with a fleet of brand-new cruisers,
commanded a furious defense of these colonies, routing Republic forces at Borleias,
Twith, Xa Fel, Dachat, Glee Anselm, and Iridonia. His efforts ended the
conflict in Alsakan’s favor in 12,700 BBY. This was just in time, because the Republic was
starting to have real problems right about then. Proper contact was finally being established
with the Hutts, as Republic scouts had blazed a hyperspace lane, the Ootmian Pabol, from Gyndine
to Nal Hutta itself, the Hutts’ new homeworld. This contact renewed concerns about the Hutts -
and not without reason. After the loss of Varl, the Hutts had moved to Evocar, which they bought
piecemeal from the native Evocii through a series of scams. After taking the planet, which was
renamed Nal Hutta, they all but exterminated the Evocii. Inspired by this new method of conquest,
the Hutt leader Budhila Hestilic Amura instituted a philosophy called kajidic. In line with kajidic,
the Hutts put an end to the old imperial ways, eschewing military conquest in favor of achieving
economic control over planets and organizations. This ultimately led to the formation of
the Hutt Cartel, which became a powerful force in the galactic black market. By the
time of the forging of the Ootmian Pabol, the Hutts and their black market had become
wealthy and powerful enough to infiltrate the Republic itself. The Hutts wanted to take over the
Republic, but not militarily - rather, they sought to seize control of the Republic’s economy, and
thus indirectly conquer the galaxy from within. From the beginning, the Hutts were met with
success. The Galactic Senate was already corrupt, and the Hutts were easily able to corrupt
it much further, to their own benefit. But the growing corruption and gridlock in the
Republic had an unintended side-effect - it led to the rise of a religion called Pius Dea [PIE-us
DAY-uh]. Centered around the worship of an entity called only the Goddess, Pius Dea became popular
among the humans of the Core Worlds due to its emphasis on purity, internal policing, and the
purging of unsavory elements within communities. However, the religion had a dark underside
to it. Pius Dea was violently humanocentrist, deeming virtually all alien species as
impure and lesser in comparison to humans. In 11,987 BBY, a Pius Dea conspiracy in the
Galactic Senate saw the corrupt Bothan Supreme Chancellor Pers’lya impeached and assassinated,
with Contispex I, a Pius Dea adherent, rising to replace him. So began the Pius
Dea Era, a dark time for the Republic. Over the course of the next few decades, Contispex
transformed the Republic into a theocracy, handing over virtually all important government
positions to members of the Pius Dea hierarchy. Those of you who have seen our previous
video on this era know what came next. In 11,965 BBY, Contispex declared war
on the Hutts, sparking the first of the thirty-four Pius Dea Crusades. These horrible,
genocidal wars between the Pius Dea Republic and various alien civilizations
dominated the next millennium, as millions of human soldiers crowded onto
cathedral ships and stormed alien worlds with cries of “the Goddess wills it.” Under the
guidance of Contispex I and his successors, who all took the name Contispex in his honor,
they wiped out entire species, and ruined the civilizations of many more, carrying their wealth
and resources back to the Core aboard galleons. The first few Pius Dea Crusades were directed
against the Hutts, as the Hutts were widely hated in the Republic. In the First, Second, Third, and
Fourth Crusades, the crusaders pushed the Hutts back Rimward through Wild Space, slaughtering
any nonhumans they encountered along the way. The brutality the crusaders
showed in these early battles shocked many in the Republic. The Jedi Order,
in particular, condemned the crusaders’ actions and cut ties with the Republic, withdrawing
to Ossus and refusing to participate, though they were. at that point. unwilling to
battle the Republic they were sworn to protect. Of course, some Jedi Knights fought against the
crusaders anyway, while a few troubled souls joined them, falling to the Dark Side and
becoming the Order of the Terrible Glare. After the first few crusades, the Pius Dea turned
their attention to other alien species. While aliens and alien-sympathetic humans were hunted
down and branded heretics [HEH-reh-tiks] within the Republic, the military began
attacking neighboring civilizations. In 11,884 BBY, the Great Northern Crusade, or
the Seventh Crusade, saw bloody assaults on the Zabraks and the Ithorians, while the Crusade of
the Wilds in 11,791 BBY, or the Tenth Crusade, saw the genocide of various species living
along the Salin Corridor. Fortunately, not everyone in the Republic was keen to
go along with this madness. In 11,820 BBY, the Alsakani finally did something useful in
the Sixth Alsakan Conflict, during which they established lines of communication with the Duros,
Herglics, Hutts, and other alien species. The Alsakani offered these species covert protection
from the Republic in the centuries that followed. The Pius Dea Crusades went on for nearly
a full thousand years, and featured many terrible atrocities. The Eleventh Crusade
devastated Herglic Space, while the Twelfth Crusade saw the Republic Navy bomb the Zarracines
of Zarracina III and the Teirasans of Teirasa back into the stone age. Not every species
the Pius Dea fought was wiped out, however. The Baragwin, the targets of the Fifteenth
Crusade, were able to weather the storm, as were the Bothans and Lanniks, the
targets of the Twenty-Third Crusade. By 11,500 BBY, the Pius Dea dominated millions
of worlds, a mix of human colonies and conquered alien worlds. Many of the more remote
colonies became Ordnance/Regional Depots, or ORDs for short, which were essentially
naval fortress worlds. On these worlds, many of which retained the prefix Ord even to
the modern era, the Pius Dea housed fleets of sinister Cathedral Ships, tasked with laying
waste to any nearby alien civilizations perceived as a threat, alongside smaller
man-o-war vessels and primitive bi-wings. But despite the establishment of
this well-oiled military machine, the Pius Dea’s wars began to stall in around
11,100 BBY, likely due to a lack of good targets. As a result, the zealotry of the
Pius Dea Republic turned inwards, and a bloody series of Inquisitions began. As the
Republic tore itself to shreds, Caamasi diplomats finally convinced the Jedi Council to end
their centuries-long Recusal, and the Order entered into a conspiracy with the Caamasi, the
Alsakani, and an alliance of other alien species. After the Thirty-Fourth Crusade in 11,057 BBY,
they spread a secret heresy among the Pius Dea, allying with millions of Renunciates in the
military who were sick of all the cult garbage. In 10,967 BBY, these heretics declared
themselves, sparking the Renunciation, a brutal civil war that was also known as the
Seventh Alsakan Conflict. Under the leadership of the Jedi, the Renunciates, the Alsakani, and
their alien allies waged war across the galaxy, smiting Pius Dea fleets at Ord Mirit,
Ixtlar, Fondor, Ord Carida, and Cyrillia. Most of the Republic Military defected to join the
Renunciates, but the Pius Dea Faithful nonetheless retained their fleets of cathedral ships and their
crusader armies. However, a year into the war, the cult was dealt a killing blow when the Bureau
of Ships and Services sided with the Renunciates. The Bureau seeded every cathedral ship
in the fleet with bad navicomputer data, forcing the ships to jump out into the middle
of nowhere, and then remotely disabling their hyperdrives. Most of the surviving
crusaders were left to starve in the void, as they damn well deserved. But the vanguard
of the Pius Dea fleet was sent to Uquine, where it was routed by the Jedi and the
Renunciates. After a team of Jedi Knights boarded the fleet’s flagship, the Flame of Sinthara,
and captured Contispex XIX, the Pius Dea finally collapsed. The cult was purged from the Republic,
and its leaders were imprisoned for life. An uneasy period of rebuilding and reconciliation
ensued, during which the Jedi all but took over the Republic in a bid to put it back
together. They were successful, in the end, but worse problems than the
Pius Dea were soon to follow, as a new threat to the Republic
blossomed within the Jedi Order itself. But that’s a story for another time - namely,
when we release the next video in this series. But what did you think of this video? Feel free
to post your thoughts in the comments below.
