| Galactic Timeline: Part I | |||
|
|
Galactic Timeline will be a brand new weekly series that will explore the early Star Wars timeline preceding the Sacking of Coruscant: from the Rakatan Empire to the Great Galactic War and the return of the Sith (if I ever make it that far). The timeline will be presented, to the best of my ability, in Before the Treaty of Coruscant format. Part I: Fall of the Infinite Empire (approximately 26,300-21,500 BTC) Remembering back to our KOTOR experience, you have to admit that the Star Forge was pretty impressive when you first found it. We all knew about the force, or thought we knew about it, but Bioware showed us a machine that fed off of the dark side and gathered raw material from a nearby star in order to create an endless supply of warships for Malak. You can’t tell me that a space station that draws power directly from a nearby star does not blow your mind. It was the ultimate weapon that could have spelt the doom for the Galactic Republic had we not so heroically (or not so heroically) neutralized it. What sort of species could possibly harness the power to construct a fleet of battleships by sucking the energy straight out of stars? It was the same primitive species that called the mystery planet home.
The Rakata that Revan found on the planet of Lehon were pretty pitiful. Besides the fact that they had Rancor pets, they were no match for a former Sith Lord. Yet, from clues spread throughout the game, their true and very impressive ancient history was revealed. Predating the Galactic Republic, the Rakata once amassed an expansive civilization, referred to as the Infinite Empire. They had innovated new technologies that employed the force and developed hyperdrives for interstellar space travel. Strangely enough, some of their force infused artifacts, like the star maps, had later, unusual side-effects, like the extreme plant growth on Kashyyyk (remember the Wookiee elevator timelapse in KOTOR? That was one huge tree!). Where were the other species like humans during this time period? They were enslaved by the Rakatans and were made to work on projects like the Star Forge. So life pretty much sucked back then…unless you enjoy forced labor Ancient Egyptian style.  Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever: especially when it comes to large and evil societies (well, argualby evil). Around 21,500 BTC, the Rakatans experienced a huge and random plague to which their species was solely sensitive to. It was like a galactic black plague of sorts. Diseases aren’t too much fun to have around and soon billions of the citizens ended up being wasted by the pestilence. Thanks to human ingenuity, they realized that having their superiors die out might be a good thing, and multiple slave rebellions crippled and destroyed the remnants of the once proud and power-hungry empire. The survivors were then battered again (not very good luck on their part) by a plague mutation that left them force insensitive. Pretty much in one stroke, the whole empire collapsed. What a shame… Left over from the galaxy spanning civilization were the warring tribes of Rakatans that Revan encountered all those many years later. The technologies that allowed them to harness the force and travel to distant world was lost in place of barbarism. Coruscant and the human civilization, which had been under the control of the Infinite Empire, was now able to spread and advance unimpeded, held back only by lack of hyperspace technology.
That concludes my first installment of Galactic Timeline. Feel free to comment on it so I can improve my future articles. |
Comments
RSS feed for comments to this post.