KOTOR 2 - Someone help me understand the story...

[LordReaver]

Well, today I finished it after 45 hours of play, and at the end all I can say is, "What the heck?"

 

What in the hell was that all about? I like to think that I'm a relatively intelligent person with a good imagination and a reasonable reading skill level, but that storyline made absolutely no sense to me. I was more confused at the end of it than I was at the beginning. Just what all did that mean?

 

 

Okay, so... my character cut themself off from the Force after the battle at Malachor V because the pain they felt through the Force when all those deaths occured? And doing that created... a wound in the Force? And I didn't remember it afterwards? And when I went back to the Council they exiled me because... why? Because I was this wound? Because I was a natural leader? And Kreia hated the Force... why? And what was Darth Nihilis all about? Did I have something to do with that... thing? I just... I just don't get it.

 

 

Anyway, the game itself was top notch, bugs aside, but the story was so damn convoluted and crammed full of things it half the time didn't even want to let you in on that I feel like it's a bit of a mess. If someone can help me out, that would be wonderful.

 

Oh, and that ending sucked.

[Darth333]

I got a lot more of the story during my second playthrough.

I learned what happened to me and what Kreia was trying to do exaclty. I got a lot of info from the Jedi Council members at the end on Dantoine and from Atris. Do not kill them when you face them the first time you meet them. Wait until the end. And never chose the options like "I came to kill you". Ask all the questions you can and then select the option to kill people.

[Lord_Supra]

Originally posted by LordReaver

 

 

Okay, so... my character cut themself off from the Force after the battle at Malachor V because the pain they felt through the Force when all those deaths occured? And doing that created... a wound in the Force? And I didn't remember it afterwards? And when I went back to the Council they exiled me because... why? Because I was this wound? Because I was a natural leader? And Kreia hated the Force... why? And what was Darth Nihilis all about? Did I have something to do with that... thing? I just... I just don't get it.

 

 

 

Well; I feel exactly like you; I finished the game in 25 hours, but I think I understood a little more than you:

1

 

-You creatde a wound in the Force "an echo" you affect everyone in the Force, because you left it, you "expulsed" th Force from you, and thats why everyone follows you and inherently will die... so in the End ther won't be Force because evrybody will be either dead or another "echo"

 

2

 

The council exiled because: they considered you a threat to all life and the Force by being an Echo... or something like taht, thats why Kreia wanted to use you and you to master the Force again, so you could be stronger than the Force and finally kill it.. I think

 

3

 

Kreia hated the Force because.... I don't remember It has something to do with the council thinking of her as a traitor... I really don't know

 

4

 

Darth Nihilus was somekind of "monster" who was a man and because of the Sith "technique " he learnerd on Traya Aacademy, (HUNGER), he fed upon all the Life, ganing more and more power... which we coudn't really see in the game...

 

 

I hope that was of some help to you:

 

Now, my questions:

How exactly did Revan destroyed Malachor, it has to do something with Bao Dur?

 

 

2

Revan went to fight.. the TRUE sith?

[danielsr]

answer to lord supra question 2

revan went to fight th species know as the sith the biggest threat of all so he abbandoned his companions and went to the the place know as th unknown regions i think to find and face them alone

[McPurplesaber]

I don't understand ....

 

Kreia is an ex-jedi who hates the force? If she hates it so much, why does she use it so much in battle?

 

[Dragonball Fan]

Maybe she just wants to stay alive and wants to do everything she can to stay alive? Ever think of that?

[Whitebloodcell]

Kreia says she has just grown to rely on it, and through using can understand how to destroy it, but loathes doing so

[Derc]

Originally posted by Lord_Supra

3

 

Kreia hated the Force because.... I don't remember It has something to do with the council thinking of her as a traitor... I really don't know

[/Quote]

 

 

Kreia hated how it had a will of its own, determining someone's fate, for example.

 

 

Originally posted by Lord_Supra

Now, my questions:

How exactly did Revan destroyed Malachor, it has to do something with Bao Dur?

 

 

 

Revan was never at Malachor V that day. It was the Exile who ordered Bao-Dur to activate the Mass Shadow Generator, which effectively kill many if not all on both sides. The battleships were crushed, pulled in by the gravity well. Then the Exile deafened him/herself from the Force in order to survive.

 

[Drazin]

here is my take on the whole story.

 

1

At Malachor you commanded the republic fleet, and Bao-Dur was one of your subordinants that realized a gravitational anomoly between the planets of Malachor 5. He created the Mass Shadow Generator which pulled the planets out of the Orbit and drew them together, crushing them into each other. The devastation not only destroyed everything on the surface of those worlds, but nearly all of the ships fighting in that area. The level of Death caused an Echo in the force, and when you cut yourself off from the force, the Echo resonated within you. You became the void in the force that was created by so much death.

 

 

2

Kreia was a Jedi Master that was also Exiled for reasons unknown, but I would assume it was due to her either studying sith teachings or following Revan to war. Perhaps both. She, along with Nihilus and Sion studied the sith teachings at the Traya Academy on Malachor. Somehow it survived the devastation and eventually Sion and Nihilus Got impatient with Kriea and attacked her. They beat their master, stripped her of her power and raped her. Cast her out, and because of that she despises the Force. It has a will and plan for all life and she was angry at its plans for her, so she chose to use the force in order to destroy it. This part doesn't make a lot of sense, I can only assume they mean they removed Kreia from her title and Rank when they say they stripped her of her power.

 

 

3

Nihilus learned what had been the result of the destruction at Malachor. He learned how to feed on the force and other force users to grow stronger and sustain his life. Sion learned the lesson of Pain, through sacrifice and self mutilation he learned darker secrets of the force that allowed him to feel nothing except the dark side of the force itself. Kreia somehow escaped Malachor, perhaps a stowaway on the Ebon hawk as Revan and T3 left for the outer rim. She sought the Jedi Exile that created this echo in the force in order to use him to deliver the crushing blow to the force and kill it.

 

 

4

She found you, by coincidence... or the force, which only makes her more angry at the fact that it is still guiding her life. You cannot feel the force. You can feel the force in others, and use their force abilities at whim. She takes you on as her student, trying to reteach you how to use the force, but neither of you realize the truth. That because you are an empty void in the force, you draw the force of other to you. You go on the journey to understand more of what happened and due to self preservation you decide to hunt down the sith that are now after you.

 

 

5

You find Nihilus and he attempts to feed off of your Force, but you are an empty void and he gets nothing, more than nothing he feels the pain of the force in you and that weakens him enough for you to destroy him. through your journey you attract other force sensetives to you, and through them you grow stronger as you have more force to draw upon. The council finally realizes this but they still do not understand the truth. They think that while you live you are the death of the force, but in fact, while you live you are the life of the force. Killing you would release the Echo and it would ripple outward killing everything. The council exiled you because you defied them to follow Revan, but they felt something else in you they did not understand.

 

 

6

This part really gets confusing as we deal with your force bond with kreia. She thinks that by killing herself you will die and thus destroy the force. But why not simply kill you from the start? perhaps because she did not know the true effects of your life yet? At anyrate during your final confrontation with her you end up killing her, but why did you not die? You can feel the force in others and their pain as well. You are a vaccum, drawing it to you and others follow you blindly. I think perhaps that killing Kreia was simply severing your force bond with her. You no longer feel the force from her nor can you use it. And with Bao-dur's help you reverse the Mass Shadow Generator which I am assuming is some sort of redemption for the atrocity you caused and somehow heals the wound in the force, in you.

 

 

7

I am not sure what happens after that. you head after Revan to the outer rim, but are you still a void in the force or did releasing Malachor, killing Nihilus, Sion and Kreia heal the void and now you can once again feel the force yourself and not through others? Perhaps it was killing Nihilus who learned of the void and how to feed on it as you do healed a part of that void and part of you, allowing you to confront Kreia without harming yourself by her death. The next edition of the game should answer many of our questions as to what exactly happened and how.

 

[Derc]

Whoo, that was long...

Originally posted by Drazin

6

This part really gets confusing as we deal with your force bond with kreia. She thinks that by killing herself you will die and thus destroy the force. But why not simply kill you from the start? perhaps because she did not know the true effects of your life yet? At anyrate during your final confrontation with her you end up killing her, but why did you not die? You can feel the force in others and their pain as well.

 

Here's my take on that:

 

 

That Force Bond was just one of the many lies that she created to force you to go after her. The other Jedi Masters doubted that such a bond was possible anyways. She was a powerful Sith Lord, so she could make it seem that there was a force bond and/or connection.

 

[Lord_Supra]

wow, thanks to everyone, that was very helpful; I only hpe KOTOR 3 answers all of our questions!

[monkey joe]

Originally posted by Drazin

 

and raped her.

 

 

Did they actually do that:eek: and an old lady:eek:

or did you just make that up

[Achilles]

Originally posted by monkey joe

Did they actually do that:eek: and an old lady:eek:

or did you just make that up

Well, she says that she suffered "...indignities", a term that she uses again later to describe the dirty thoughts that Atton thinks of block Jedi from reading his mind. It might not be "true" but it's certainly the impression that I walked away from that conversation with.

 

[montnoir]

I enjoyed the story more when I didn't understand it and had too many questions. After reading through this topic I am left with an incredibly boring story. Who cares?

 

In KOTOR 1, Revan made a choice. To save or rule the Republic. By your actions Revan echoes through the galaxy at the end. Revans actions/your actions make a difference. What does the Exile do?

 

 

Even though a much larger responsibility lays on his shoulders (the death of the force and all life in the galaxy, duh). He doesn't do anything. His actions are 0. Nothing happens. He finds out he is a wound and that's it. He doesn't act upon it.

 

If you choose to make the Force the main character in the game then do something that grabs the attention of the audience. Do something that makes them feel like they make a difference.

 

As it is now. It is nothing. Exile feels sorry for himself, Kreia feels sorry for herself, Exile kill Kreia. The End.

 

Man what a difference I made...

 

Really, what's the point?

 

[degage]

Yeah, I can't help but agree with "who cares?"

 

All that story telling for something better keept in group counseling. I played the game both ways, very sorry that the story left off where it did. I was also hoping to find evidence of what happen to revan.

[90SK]

My take on the story is: It was genius, but not exactly video game-grade. It was too complex, and (sadly) thats not what most video-gamers are looking for. K1's story had more action, and was much easier to grasp, thus people loved it. K2's story was so much more intricate, and required more talk over action.

[montnoir]

No Skye, it's not that the story is too complex. It's because the story appears to be complex but to achieve complexity it needs details and depth. And it lacks these. It just hints at them, grazes them at the surface without delving into them.

 

As I stated, I enjoyed the game but it wasn't enough. It hinted at so much more... It could have been, so much more... It feels like they put down the base of: Star Wars: War and Peace and wrote it in - then someone tells them that "Short games sell better" and they cut off everything that isn't ABSOLUTELY necessary and leaves it at that.

 

I love the long dialogues, I save before any encounter so I can replay it just to have the dialogue again and to check all responses (the endplay with it's slash, slash, SLASH gameplay is annoing beyond measure - I mean WHY? Was it really necessary?). The storyline of K2 could have been great, immersive and complex with layers upon layers of Force and Sith/Jedi philosophy but it feels like the story they wanted to tell was not the story we played through.

 

As I said before:

 

You play through to find out what happened to you. And you find out you are a wound in the Force made at Malachor V. But that is also all. There is nothing more to it. It is a non-starter.

 

You kill 2 planets. You become deaf to the force. You don't know why. You start reusing the Force through people around you. You find out it's because Malachor V. You kill 3 Sith. The game ends.

 

 

 

There is no lesson learned, there is no conclusion drawn, there is no development for you as player. It leaves a wound, an emptiness, an echo within you just as in the Exile, without closure.

[murray87]

wtf is up with the ebon hawk at the end?

 

 

How does your character get it back?

 

How do all your friends get off and 'die old people' off on other planets. How'd they get off Malachor V?

Where were all your friends when you crashland on Malachor V? Suddenly Mira appears outside the ship?

 

 

[SoCal_B]

Thanks for the explanations. I kept wondering if I understood correctly what was happening. It's nice to hear that other people came to similar conclusions . . . I don't feel as clueless now.

 

 

I also thought that Kreia was out for some simple revenge against both the jedi council and the sith. It seems as though both had betrayed her. What better way to get even than to use the Exile.

 

Some other questions though:

 

1)

What is the purpose of having Bao-Dur's remote blasted by GOTO? Never figured out why, and it doesn't make sense that the remote is in the finale.

 

2)

HK is zapped by T3, what was the purpose for this? Something to do with navcomputer, but I could never get any answers.

 

3)

On the Ravager, when I pass by Visa's old cell, I give her the option to go back into the cell. She sits and meditates, then it says she has chosen the Dark Path. I didn't like this answer, so I reloaded the game, a chose a different set of actions/responses. This time, she went in the cell and chose the Light Path. Does her choice have any affect on the game?

 

4)

The Handmaiden mentions that Atris has some sort of feelings for the exile (LS Male) and implies that combat is the only true way to know what those feelings are. This is never really mentioned again.

 

[SuperSquall]

Re: Kreia, the Exile, and force isolation:

 

 

I got the impression that *she* was the one who had her power stripped by the Jedi Council actually. Throughout the first bit of the game you are led to believe you were the one who they cut off from the force, but in fact the PC's wound was self-inflicted - it happened as a consequence of all of the death at Malachor V. So many people died that it drowned out the Exile's ability to hear the force, which, as I understood it, is why the force is more like an Echo to him. It is explained that the Exile was deafened to the force, and the Echo is the returning 'sound' of the Force coming back. Either way, the Exile lost the force because of Malachor V. Kreia, I think, had it stripped from her because she had the tendency to lead her students astray. She taught Revan, Sion, and possibly Nihilus. All of her students were major Sith Lords and the Council cut her off from the force to prevent her from doing any more harm. But when she contacts the Exile she is awakened to the force as a result of the Force bond that forms.

 

Why she wants to destroy it:

She hates that it is controlling everything (it is obvious to all of us that she can't stand not being the one manipulating everything). She says at the end of the game that she uses the Force like she would use a poison - she hates it but is willing to use it to kill it. The exile is the key to this because he was able to exist apart from the force for a time. Though Kreia never really addresses the fact that even the Exile reconnected with the Force...

 

[epithet]

In order to understand the relationship between events and persons in the game, you have to put together all of what went on before:

 

Kreia was thought by the Jedi Council to have perished at Malachor V, but she obviously did not. The Council never undertook to sever her connection from the force, largely because they had no knowledge of her after the Mandalorian Wars. She was Revan's first and last teacher, and it was probably her disdain for the aloof arrogance of the Council that ultimately caused Revan to reject the Council's order and fight the Mandalorians.

 

The Mandalorians regarded Malachor as cursed, a system off-limits. Revan learned of this and investigated Malachor V, and discovered the place seen in the game as the Trayus Core. Overwhelmed by the power of the dark side of the force, it was at Malachor that Revan turned. He discovered the teachings and lore of the ancient Sith, which led him to Korriban. It is likely that it was at Korriban, in the tomb of Marka Ragnos, that Revan first learned of the Star Forge. Revan also learned that the Sith, the true Sith, had not died out, but were building their empire in the unknown regions of space, preparing for the day when they would overrun the Republic systems. Revan seems to have been determined to be ready for them.

 

The dark energies of Malachor V were fueled by death, draining force from the life energies of those who met their ends there. Revan determined to feed the Trayus core with war and bloodshed, so he lured the Mandalorians into battle there against Republic forces led by Revan's trusted general, the Exile.

 

Bao Dur was a Republic tech specialist who developed the mass shadow generator used at Malachor. No one, himself included, seems to have known exactly what it would do, but the battle of Malachor V was turning into a slaughter as the Mandalorians devastated the Republic forces. The Exile, then the commanding General of the Republic forces in the battle, ordered the MSG activated because it was the last desperate hope of stopping the Mandalorian advance. I think the Exile knew that the death toll would be devastating, but believed that it was necessary to protect the Republic from being overrun.

 

When the device was activated the lives of tens of thousands, Mandalorians, Republic soldiers, and Jedi, were snuffed out between one heartbeat and the next. The psychic scream of their deaths was deafening to the Exile, who by sheer willpower shut out the force. Deaf to the force and with a broken spirit, haunted by the ghosts of Malachor, the Exile turned away from war and returned to the Jedi Council. The Council perceived the wound in the force caused by the Exile's anguished will to be deaf to it, but it was beyond their understanding. Rather than try to heal the Exile, to provide a refuge for the Exile's recovery of spirit which might heal the wound in the force, they cast the Exile out. The Exile spent the next decade wandering the rim, alone with his armies of ghosts and the guilt and trauma of seeing the devastation caused by the order to activate the MSG.

 

Also at Malachor V, the man later known as Darth Nihilus had witnessed the annihilation of the Mandalorians, but he also perceived the feeding of Malachor V from the deaths of the Jedi caught in the mass shadows. He learned the lessons of hunger taught by Malachor V, and became a slave to the hunger, a creature defined by the need to consume the force. Kreia had also come to Malachor V, because she had felt Revan's fall, and sought to learn the cause. She became the "headmistress" of the Trayus Acadamy, breaking the will and draining the force of Jedi to turn them into Sith assassins, more creatures of hunger spawned of Malachor V, who could sense the force in others to hunt them.

 

Malachor had ended the threat from the Mandalorians, freeing Revan to turn his attention to the Republic. He began his systematic war of conquest, executed with brilliant surgical strikes that left behind systems that he could control. His strategy was to rule Republic space and marshal its forces and resources, preparing for the fight he knew was coming against the true Sith. This plan was derailed, however, when he was almost killed by Malak while defending himself against the Jedi strike team led by Bastila Shan.

 

Malak was the perfect example of the Sith Ravager, lacking the subtlety and strategy of Revan. He waged war as an application of brute force, devastating worlds like Telos and Taris. By the time Revan managed to end Malak's rampage, the damage had been done - both the Republic and the Sith were broken and weak. Revan came to understand, however, that the coming fight with the Sith was not going to be won or lost based on the strength of their armies and fleets, but by their mastery of the force. Whatever understanding he achieved came with a realization that he had to go and face the Sith alone. Just as he had never told Malak of his ultimate plans when he was Lord of the Sith, he kept his plans and destination secret from even those closest to him now, slipping out of sight into the unknown regions of the galaxy.

 

The Sith remaining after Malak's defeat turned upon each other, but spared enough of their attention to effectively wipe out the Jedi. The Sith Assassins hunted down the Jedi and fed them to the power at Malachor V, until less than 100 remained. As the Jedi vanished, however, the Sith withdrew into hiding as well. Atris, the head librarian of the Jedi, began to lose her sanity as the Order crumbled around her. She, like Exar Kun and Ulic Quel-Droma before her, determined to study the enemy, the Sith, in order to find a means to find and defeat them. She summoned a conclave of Jedi on Katarr, hoping that it would draw out the Sith, and it did - but the result was the destruction of all life on the Miraluka homeworld. Her sanity shredded, she clung to the memory of her hero, the Exile, and she began to try to draw the Exile out either to bait the Sith or, perhaps, with the hope that the Exile could save her.

 

When the three remaining Sith Lords, Sion, Nihilus, and Traya, learned about the Exile, they did not agree as to what should be done. Sion and Nihilus insisted that the Exile must be destroyed, but Traya refused, seeking instead to study the Exile's deafness to the force, the wound in the force that the Exile had created and carried. Nihilus and Sion cast her down, stripped her of her power, and inflicted *indignities* upon her. No longer a Jedi, no longer Sith, she sought out the Exile on her own, and found Revan's ship and droids who were also seeking the Exile. When the Exile surfaced and returned to the Galaxy aboard a Republic Cruiser, Kreia and T3 managed to get there one step ahead of Sion, who was seeking to destroy the Exile. Thus begins the game.

 

[Boba Rhett]

Kreia posed that Revan turned not because he fell but because he saw that he had to in order to prepare (harden) the Republic for the true threat that was to come.

[epithet]

What that leaves you with, in the game, is:

 

 

Kreia is a force parasite, drawing her power from the Exile through a force bond she crafted somehow, probably using a Sith technique. She feeds on the Exile's force connection, using it to regain her power. In the process she works with the Exile to restore the Exile's connection to the force, since it was only by the Exile's will that the connection was severed in the first place. As the Exile grows in power, so to does Kreia.

 

By the end of the game, she no longer needs the Exile. Either she has restored her power, or she is able to draw upon the power of Malachor V. It is also of note that she pointed out in the very beginning that the bond's effects would not be harmful if the Exile was in combat, mentally shielded from effects like the one felt on Peragus when Kreia lost her hand. As the Exile watched Traya perish from wounds that she got from the Exile's lightsaber in combat, I think the optimal conditions had been achieved for severing the bond without suffering ill effects.

 

Another explanation could be that the Exile never did reconnect with the force in the same way as before Malachor. Somehow, the Exile was using the Sith feeding process, having been exposed to it at Malachor and with Kreia guiding the instincts needed to use it. How the Exile could feed off of the force of slaughtered mining droids is something of a mystery, but it would serve to explain what happened with Nihilus. This is the explanation offered by the Jedi Council on Dantooine before Traya wastes them. The only other explanation for that event, the weakening of Nihilus, is that the Exile, like Visas Marr, has some kind of inherent resistance to Nihilus's power born of a willingness to voluntarily live without the force.

 

The more I think (and write) about this, the less it seems to make sense. Hmm.

 

 

[Lord_Supra]

It's a very, very complex story, which I loved it (the second time I passed the game) who really worths the efoort of all those influence "contests", now about the "Exile's trascendency" in the galaxy.

 

-Well, in K1, you had, as Revan, two choices: Save the Republic, or conquer it, now, in K2, you really see, that Revan's "conquer" of the Republic, was not really a threat, it was n intent to make stronger the Republic, so if you pass K1, as good guy, you destroy all that 1st Revan fought for, but you make stronger the Republic in some way, and as a bad guy, you make much more "stronger" the galaxy(Infinite Fleet).

 

But, now, the Exile's importance:

-if you pass the game as DS, you only weaken the galxy (except for Onderon), but in the end you destroy all that Revan "built" with the war, because you cause separation within the republic.

-If you pass it as LS, then you make stronger the galaxy, by joining the main systems to the Republic.

 

And in the end the "Full memory" Revan will fight against the True Sith and try to unify the galaxy; whter you like it or not.

 

That's the principal "importance" of the Exile: Preserving the Galaxy strong, or weaken it to the core.

[hotpants]

thanks dude. you answered all my questions and i now understand the story line. now off to beat the game playing the DS. muwahaha!

 

Originally posted by epithet

In order to understand the relationship between events and persons in the game, you have to put together all of what went on before:

 

Kreia was thought by the Jedi Council to have perished at Malachor V, but she obviously did not. The Council never undertook to sever her connection from the force, largely because they had no knowledge of her after the Mandalorian Wars. She was Revan's first and last teacher, and it was probably her disdain for the aloof arrogance of the Council that ultimately caused Revan to reject the Council's order and fight the Mandalorians.

 

The Mandalorians regarded Malachor as cursed, a system off-limits. Revan learned of this and investigated Malachor V, and discovered the place seen in the game as the Trayus Core. Overwhelmed by the power of the dark side of the force, it was at Malachor that Revan turned. He discovered the teachings and lore of the ancient Sith, which led him to Korriban. It is likely that it was at Korriban, in the tomb of Marka Ragnos, that Revan first learned of the Star Forge. Revan also learned that the Sith, the true Sith, had not died out, but were building their empire in the unknown regions of space, preparing for the day when they would overrun the Republic systems. Revan seems to have been determined to be ready for them.

 

The dark energies of Malachor V were fueled by death, draining force from the life energies of those who met their ends there. Revan determined to feed the Trayus core with war and bloodshed, so he lured the Mandalorians into battle there against Republic forces led by Revan's trusted general, the Exile.

 

Bao Dur was a Republic tech specialist who developed the mass shadow generator used at Malachor. No one, himself included, seems to have known exactly what it would do, but the battle of Malachor V was turning into a slaughter as the Mandalorians devastated the Republic forces. The Exile, then the commanding General of the Republic forces in the battle, ordered the MSG activated because it was the last desperate hope of stopping the Mandalorian advance. I think the Exile knew that the death toll would be devastating, but believed that it was necessary to protect the Republic from being overrun.

 

When the device was activated the lives of tens of thousands, Mandalorians, Republic soldiers, and Jedi, were snuffed out between one heartbeat and the next. The psychic scream of their deaths was deafening to the Exile, who by sheer willpower shut out the force. Deaf to the force and with a broken spirit, haunted by the ghosts of Malachor, the Exile turned away from war and returned to the Jedi Council. The Council perceived the wound in the force caused by the Exile's anguished will to be deaf to it, but it was beyond their understanding. Rather than try to heal the Exile, to provide a refuge for the Exile's recovery of spirit which might heal the wound in the force, they cast the Exile out. The Exile spent the next decade wandering the rim, alone with his armies of ghosts and the guilt and trauma of seeing the devastation caused by the order to activate the MSG.

 

Also at Malachor V, the man later known as Darth Nihilus had witnessed the annihilation of the Mandalorians, but he also perceived the feeding of Malachor V from the deaths of the Jedi caught in the mass shadows. He learned the lessons of hunger taught by Malachor V, and became a slave to the hunger, a creature defined by the need to consume the force. Kreia had also come to Malachor V, because she had felt Revan's fall, and sought to learn the cause. She became the "headmistress" of the Trayus Acadamy, breaking the will and draining the force of Jedi to turn them into Sith assassins, more creatures of hunger spawned of Malachor V, who could sense the force in others to hunt them.

 

Malachor had ended the threat from the Mandalorians, freeing Revan to turn his attention to the Republic. He began his systematic war of conquest, executed with brilliant surgical strikes that left behind systems that he could control. His strategy was to rule Republic space and marshal its forces and resources, preparing for the fight he knew was coming against the true Sith. This plan was derailed, however, when he was almost killed by Malak while defending himself against the Jedi strike team led by Bastila Shan.

 

Malak was the perfect example of the Sith Ravager, lacking the subtlety and strategy of Revan. He waged war as an application of brute force, devastating worlds like Telos and Taris. By the time Revan managed to end Malak's rampage, the damage had been done - both the Republic and the Sith were broken and weak. Revan came to understand, however, that the coming fight with the Sith was not going to be won or lost based on the strength of their armies and fleets, but by their mastery of the force. Whatever understanding he achieved came with a realization that he had to go and face the Sith alone. Just as he had never told Malak of his ultimate plans when he was Lord of the Sith, he kept his plans and destination secret from even those closest to him now, slipping out of sight into the unknown regions of the galaxy.

 

The Sith remaining after Malak's defeat turned upon each other, but spared enough of their attention to effectively wipe out the Jedi. The Sith Assassins hunted down the Jedi and fed them to the power at Malachor V, until less than 100 remained. As the Jedi vanished, however, the Sith withdrew into hiding as well. Atris, the head librarian of the Jedi, began to lose her sanity as the Order crumbled around her. She, like Exar Kun and Ulic Quel-Droma before her, determined to study the enemy, the Sith, in order to find a means to find and defeat them. She summoned a conclave of Jedi on Katarr, hoping that it would draw out the Sith, and it did - but the result was the destruction of all life on the Miraluka homeworld. Her sanity shredded, she clung to the memory of her hero, the Exile, and she began to try to draw the Exile out either to bait the Sith or, perhaps, with the hope that the Exile could save her.

 

When the three remaining Sith Lords, Sion, Nihilus, and Traya, learned about the Exile, they did not agree as to what should be done. Sion and Nihilus insisted that the Exile must be destroyed, but Traya refused, seeking instead to study the Exile's deafness to the force, the wound in the force that the Exile had created and carried. Nihilus and Sion cast her down, stripped her of her power, and inflicted *indignities* upon her. No longer a Jedi, no longer Sith, she sought out the Exile on her own, and found Revan's ship and droids who were also seeking the Exile. When the Exile surfaced and returned to the Galaxy aboard a Republic Cruiser, Kreia and T3 managed to get there one step ahead of Sion, who was seeking to destroy the Exile. Thus begins the game.