Star Wars: Darth Revan
Greetings acolytes, last time I wrote I mentioned the Old Galactic Republic era and how in that time era lived one of my favorite characters in Star Wars, as you can obviously tell that character was Darth Revan.
Jedi Knight turned Sith Lord who would later return to the light. Revan was both the greats Jedi and Sith of his time, as a Jedi he would save the Republic during the Mandalorian wars and as a Sith he would bring it to it’s knees.
Revan had many teachers in his time as a youngling and padawan all of which believed he was destined for greatness, little did they know how right they were.
Revan started his path to fame during the Mandalorian wars, at the start the Jedi didn’t join due to the Council being cautious believing the Mandalorians were pawns in a trap by the Sith. So they wanted to wait till the Sith revealed themselves but the Republic was losing the war. Planet after planet the Mandalorians spread their control on the galaxy, many Jedi were getting impatient wanting go out and do what they were trained to do. Two Jedi had stepped up defying the Council and went out of their way to convince other Jedi to join them in entering the war. Those two Jedi were Revan and Alek (Later renaming himself Malak after the Council put out an arrest warrant for him).
Revan and Malak quickly went through the ranks becoming high ranking officials in no time. As their fame grew the trust and loyalty of their soldiers grew too. Their soldiers would do anything for them as later shown when they would leave the Republic to join them after their fall to the dark side.
If you’ve noticed Revan’s attire you probably realized he’s wearing a Mandalorian helmet. It’s not the helmet of their leader or an important Mandalorian figure, it has a little more significance than that. The helmet belonged to a female Mandalorian, currently unnamed, who was killed by her commander after trying to stop the genocide of the Cathar people. Ten years after her death Revan found her helmet while trying to find evidence of the Mandalorians atrocities. Picking it up he gets a vision of what occurred, angry and finding a new drive to stop the Mandalorian threat he puts it on vowing to not take it off till the Mandalorian threat has been vanquished. Revan would wear the helmet long after the Mandalorian wars going into his time as a Sith.
After winning the Mandalorian Wars all the Jedi who joined Revan and Malak returned, save for one Jedi Meetra Surik, only to start a new war that would be called the Jedi Civil War (JCW) or Second Sith War. Although called the JCW Revan and Malak had declared themselves Sith but most of the people don’t see the difference between the two. Revan formed his Sith Empire in order to take of the Republic in anticipation of another Sith Empire hidden in the Unknown Regions. Like the Mandalorian wars the Republic was losing, having just survived the Madalorians only to have their heroes and many of their soldiers turn on them they were unprepared and very tired. Revan had them on the ropes and he would’ve been victorious had the Jedi not gone for a hail marry attack on Revan’s ship sending in Bastila Shan and a team of Jedi Knights.
They were successful debatably only because Malak turned his ships turrets on his Master’s ship a blast hit their position killing some of the Jedi and leaving Revan barely alive. Bastila saved his life and brought him to the Jedi council. Not knowing where Revan and Malak got their ships and technology they the decided the only way to learn this information was through Revan. But he would never tell it willingly, so instead they erased his memory believing with enough familiar areas and events he would lead them to how he gained so many resources. And this worked, after saving Bastila on Taris and escaping the Sith army, along with a Republic soldier named Carth Onasi, a twi’lek girl named Mission Vao, a Mandalorian named Canderous Ordo, astromech T3-M4 and a wookie named Zaalbar, they go to the Jedi enclave on Dantooine.
There he goes through his Jedi training again picking it up easily due to muscle memory he was given his first assignment to go to ruins where a pull to the dark side was sensed. There he found the dark jedi Juhani, a Cathar padawan who believed she had killed her master when in reality she had just injured her. After a duel and some convincing Revan redeems her and she returns to the Enclave; she later joined him on his adventures. After this Revan and Bastila enter another set of ruins where after successfully completing trials they found a piece of a Star map. The same Star map Revan and Malak found years ago that lead them to a self maintaining factory called the Star Forge.
However because it was only part of the map they would need to go and search the galaxy for the other pieces. Through visions Revan knew which planets to search, after some “convincing” the council allowed Revan and his allies to go in search for the Star Forge. Visiting Mannan, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, and Korriban; throughout this search they would gain new allies including an old Jedi knight named Jolee Bindo and an assassin droid HK-47, who would later reveal he was Revan’s assassin droid after unlocking its memory unit.
While searching for the Star maps Revan would help his teammates with personal issues such as when he helped Bastila retrieve her father’s holocron from the cave of a Krayt dragon for her mother, even helping them reconcile. He helped Carth find his long lost son at the Sith academy and reunited them. He would also cause set backs for the Sith Empire. Like when he went to the neutral planet Mannan and exposed the Sith’s under the table deals with Mannan officials and the stopped the training of Selkath force sensitives and the chaos he caused in the Sith Academy on Korriban resulting in the Sith’s fall once again.
As the journey went on and Revan’s strength grew so did his connections with his allies. The major connection he grew was with Bastila, over time they grew close and fell in love but Bastila wanted reject that love, growing up as a Jedi she was told that emotions and attachments were a path to the dark side. And knowing Revan’s true past she didn’t want to risk putting him back on that path and revealing his true identity.
But that concern didn’t matter because after getting the 4th Star map Revan and his allies are captured by Malak on his Sith flagship the Leviathan. After escaping their cells Revan, Carth, and Bastila head up to the Bridge while everyone else went to their ship to prepare to take off once they get the tractor beam turned off. There Carth is face to face with his old mentor Admiral Karath who betrayed him after joining Revan and Malak when they formed their Sith Empire. After a quick battle with him and a few Dark Jedi they turn the tractor beam, Carth had his chance to get his revenge but with some convincing from Revan and Bastila he doesn’t finish Karath. But that didn’t matter for he didn’t last very long due to his injuries but in his last moments he revealed to Carth that the man he had been traveling with was the Dark Lord himself. This causes an argument between Carth and Bastila which is cut short due to the urgency of their situation. They would rush to the hangar but are cut off by the new Dark Lord Malak.
Malak, realizing Revan had no memories revealed the truth, this would shock Revan as suddenly all the dots start to connect. A fight would ensue but being unprepared Malak was winning, not seeing a choice Bastila would shut a door between her and her allies forcing them to leave without her. Bastila was captured would later be tortured into joining Malak in his Sith Empire.
After getting the last Star map they would travel to the Star Forge but due to an unforeseen disruptor field which forces them to land on an unknown planet. After a rough landing they would investigate their new surroundings due to their stabilizers. During their rough landing they notice other shipwrecks could be seen, they choose to search these wreckages in hopes of finding the parts they need for repairs.
Upon stepping foot on the land they soon realize they’re surrounded by the planet’s inhabitants, a long forgotten species and the architecture of the Star Forge called the Rakatan.
The Rakata go on to explain their history to Revan and his allies saying how they once had an incredibly powerful empire, enslaving countless and stripping their planets down to the core for resources. They were once powerful Force users, focusing more on the dark side. Of course with the Star Forge being crafted with dark side powers it would corrupt their species even more resulting in civil war. And while they fought their slaves made a disease that would nearly wipe out the Rakata but that wasn’t the worst of it. They would soon realize that their connection to the Force would disappear for unknown reasons, later revealed to have been caused by the plague.
They would then help Revan shut down the planet’s disruptor field so that the Republic can attack the Star Forge and allow Revan to board it. There Revan and his team will find and fight Bastila who had turned to the dark side, she had been using her battle meditation technique to help Malak’s forces win the battle. After the fight Bastila was redeemed by Revan and they had truly accepted each other’s love damning the consequences. Bastila would then use her battle meditation to aid the Republic turn the tide of the battle. Revan would then face Malak on his own, the battle was fierce as Malak would drain the life an power from captured Jedi throughout the battle giving himself more power. Ultimately it was in vain as Revan struck him down, even while he was dying Revan never gave up on Malak hoping to redeem him, but it never came to fruition.
Revan and his team would escape the Star Forge in time escaping its destruction. They would return as heroes, Revan and Bastila would later on have a son named Vaner Shan. He lived in peace for a while, til he started having visions about the unknown regions. Feeling a dark looming presence and wanting to protect his new family he left with the Ebon Hawk and T3-M4. And that would be the last time anyone will hear anything on the hero til years later when he was found by Meetra Surik. But that’s a story for another time.
Revan would meet his end 3 centuries later, yes Revan lived well over his life span. Due to Emperor Vitiate putting him in stasis, after Revan tried assassinating him. In those 300 years Revan would subtly influence the Emperor into never invading the Republic saving countless lives. He would meet his end soon after his first attempt to destroy the Empire but part of his spirit would refuse to die and become one with the Force so it turned to the Dark side and live on. Eventually the light side of Revan’s spirit would appear and merge with it’s counter part and finally help the galaxy defeat Emperor Vitiate ending his story.
Revan’s legacy and Sith holocron would go on to help Darth Bane invent the Sith Rule of Two forever making the Sith that much more dangerous and his story would go on to inspire many to become great Jedi. Revan’s story although crazy and a little confusing but no one can deny it was a great one.
That’s all on Revan, hopefully I can get my next post out faster. I hope you enjoyed and learned something new. May the Force be with you