The centuries immediately preceding the Great War were thought to be one of the most peaceful eras in Republic history. As he dives deeper into the galaxy’s history, Master Gnost-Dural discovers new evidence that suggests the dark influence of the Sith Empire was seeping into the Republic even then. Gnost-Dural’s latest report isolates one historical incident which suggests there was a Sith Lord pulling strings within the ranks of the Jedi decades before the war even began.And as per usual let me also include the full text of the Timeline update:
BTC 103 – More than a century before the Sacking of Coruscant, two Jedi scholars embarked on a journey which became one of most inexplicable mysteries of its time. Young Jedi Knight Eison Gynt joined his Master in a mission to investigate the Ancient Sith Temple of Yavin 4. On Yavin, the pair was attacked by the native Massassi and driven into the Tomb of Naga Sadow where a powerful force of darkness emerged. Gynt’s Master returned to Coruscant wounded and half-insane, remorseful that young Eison Gynt had been killed in the chaos. Years later, however, Gynt returned from Yavin on his own and attacked his former Master. Gynt was killed and all assumed that he had been tainted by the darkness on Yavin 4 and returned to Coruscant for revenge. Nonetheless, the truth, as Master Gnost-Dural has discovered, may have been far more sinister.
Watch the latest Timeline holorecord, Peace for the Republic?, narrated by actor Lance Henriksen.
You can also download a high resolution version of this video.
THE CENTURIES PRECEDING THE GREAT WAR WERE A TIME OF PEACE AND GROWTH FOR THE REPUBLIC.I must say that I enjoyed this timeline more than the previous ones. I guess it helps to have a little bit of unique story in there with its own mystery. And I couldn't help but consider all the possibilities for ingame stories in the full game connected to that. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if some quests (for some classes) look deeper into this whole thing to find what really went on there. And it wouldn't surprise me if Yavin-Four is another included planet; for some reason I always liek the idea of the place.
DOZENS OF NEW STAR SYSTEMS JOINED THE GALACTIC SENATE.
FOR THE SITH EMPIRE, HOWEVER, THESE CENTURIES WERE MARKED BY A RAPID ACCELERATION IN THE PREPARATIONS FOR WAR—AN EFFORT IN WHICH THE SITH SHOWED SURPRISING COOPERATION AND SACRIFICE.
I HAVE LONG SUSPECTED THAT DURING THIS EXTENDED PERIOD, THE SITH SPENT GENERATIONS INFILTRATING REPUBLIC POLITICAL CIRCLES AND EVEN THE JEDI ORDER.
REVIEWING HISTORICAL RECORDS, I HAVE UNCOVERED STRONG EVIDENCE OF ONE SUCH CASE.
EISON GYNT WAS A FOURTH GENERATION JEDI, WIDELY CONSIDERED TO BE THE MOST PROMISING PADAWAN IN THE ORDER.
HAVING A SIMILAR HERITAGE, THE VENERATED JEDI SCHOLAR, MASTER BAREL OVAIR, TOOK GYNT AS HIS APPRENTICE.
TOGETHER, OVAIR AND GYNT TRAVELED THE GALAXY, STUDYING THE MYSTERIES OF THE FORCE.
OVER THE YEARS, THE PAIR BECAME MORE AND MORE AMBITIOUS, EVENTUALLY UNDERTAKING A DAUNTING MISSION.
THEY SET OUT TO EXPLORE THE ANCIENT SITH TEMPLES ON YAVIN-FOUR.
THEIR GOAL WAS TO INVESTIGATE THE FINAL RESTING PLACE OF NAGA SADOW—ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL SITH LORDS WHO EVER LIVED.
ARRIVING ON YAVIN-FOUR, OVAIR AND GYNT DISCOVERED THAT NAGA SADOW’S TWISTED MASSASSI WARRIORS HAD SURVIVED THE CENTURIES.
THE MASSASSI ORIGINATED AS A SITH SUB-SPECIES, FORMING THE BACKBONE OF THE EARLIEST SITH ARMIES.
BUT NAGA SADOW SUBJECTED HIS MASSASSI FOLLOWERS TO HEINOUS EXPERIMENTS—TURNING THEM INTO DARK FORCE-WIELDING MONSTERS.
GYNT AND MASTER OVAIR FOUGHT BRAVELY AGAINST THE MASSASSI, BUT THEY WERE DEFEATED AND FORCED TO FLEE DEEP INTO THE TEMPLE.
THERE, THEY ENCOUNTERED THE DARK ENERGIES STILL LINGERING IN NAGA SADOW’S TOMB.
WEEKS LATER, MASTER OVAIR RETURNED TO THE JEDI TEMPLE ON CORUSCANT ALONE, WOUNDED AND HALF INSANE FROM THE TORTURES HE HAD ENDURED.
AFTER A LENGTHY RECOVERY, MASTER OVAIR TOLD A TALE OF THE HORRORS HE FACED, AND OF GYNT’S TRAGIC DEATH.
SEVERAL YEARS PASSED.
THEN ONE DAY, EESON GYNT MYSTERIOUSLY RE-APPEARED ON CORUSCANT, WEARING THE GARB OF THE MASSASSI WARRIORS AND BENT ON KILLING MASTER OVAIR.
POSSESSED BY THE DARK SPIRIT OF NAGA SADOW, GYNT ATTACKED HIS FORMER MASTER IN BROAD DAYLIGHT.
THE BRUTAL BATTLE BETWEEN THE TWO WAS STAGED WITH ALL OF THE REPUBLIC WATCHING.
GYNT’S BORROWED POWERS WERE FORMIDABLE, BUT MASTER OVAIR WON THE DAY.
OVAIR’S TRIUMPH OVER DARKNESS WAS CELEBRATED, AND THE JEDI COUNCIL ASSUMED THAT ALL WAS WELL.
THE QUESTION NO ONE ASKED WAS THIS:
WHY WOULD NAGA SADOW’S SPIRIT SEEK VENGEANCE, SPECIFICALLY AGAINST MASTER OVAIR?
THE ANSWER HAS BECOME CLEAR AFTER A CLOSER LOOK AT OVAIR’S JEDI HERITAGE:
HIS FATHER AND GRANDFATHER ALSO WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO VISIT THE TOMBS OF THE ANCIENT SITH LORDS.
THEY WERE A FAMILY OF SITH INFILTRATORS.
OVAIR’S MISSION ON YAVIN-FOUR WAS NOT FOR THE JEDI—IT WAS ON BEHALF OF HIS TRUE MASTER, THE DARK EMPEROR OF THE SITH.
THE EMPEROR KNEW THE SPIRITS OF THE ANCIENT SITH LORDS COULD BE A THREAT TO HIS POWER WHEN HE RETURNED TO THE KNOWN GALAXY A CENTURY LATER…
OVAIR’S TRIP TO YAVIN-FOUR WAS A PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE…
TO SEAL NAGA SADOW’S TOMB AND ENSURE THE EMPEROR’S ONLY ENEMIES WHEN HE RETURNED WOULD BE THE JEDI AND THE REPUBLIC.
HOW UNFORTUNATE THAT WE’VE ONLY LEARNED THE TERRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT MASTER OVAIR MORE THAN A CENTURY TOO LATE.
OF COURSE, THIS REVELATION ONLY RAISES FURTHER QUESTIONS…
WHAT OTHER ACTS OF DARK SUBTERFUGE WERE OVAIR AND HIS FAMILY INVOLVED IN?
THIS WILL BE THE STARTING POINT FOR MY NEXT REPORT.
And it seems clear now that Naga Sadow isn't the Sith Emperor.
Since the Friday update above there have also been a couple of developer posts on the official forums related to the subject. First is one by Rob Chestney, who comments on KotOR2 in relation to SWTOR:
Hey Folks, always nice to see the healthy debate sparked by the Timeline pieces. I love Star Wars history and particularly anything relating to KotOR. Even though KotOR 2 was developed by another developer, lots of folks at BioWare played and enjoyed it, including myself. If you look closely within the game, you will find several references to events or characters from KotOR 2, and we absolutely treat it as canon. I will also say that there have been discussions about the final fate of the Exile, who was indeed a woman according to the canon.I just hope that when he says that the Exile was a woman according to canon he's just talking about canon and not about SWTOR, because otherwise they'll likely also have Revan only as male in the game, and that would ruin the continuity of the story for me. I've long held that in a game they don't have to keep to a single canon and can keep things flexible (much like how in KotOR2 the game asks you what gender Revan was and then represents events as if that also was the truth of it). For me Revan was a woman and it would be extremely disappointing if that changed (and similarly I can see how it would be similar for those for whom the Exile was a man, not that anyone really seems to care much about the Exile anyway).
When outlining the Timeline series, though, we skipped over the events of KotOR2 for a few reasons:
(SPOILER ALERT if you haven't played KotOR 2)
Essentially, what happened in KotOR 2 is that a few years after Revan disappeared, a new trinity of Sith Lords materialized and drove the Jedi into hiding. Kreia (aka Darth Traya) sought out the Jedi Exile, and sought to use her as a mechanism for destroying the Force itself. The Exile defeated the Sith Lords, foiled Kreia's plan, and disappeared into deep space searching for Revan. The galaxy was essentially returned to the same state as it was in before the events of KotOR 2.
A few things about this: first, it all happened behind the scenes; the Jedi of the TOR era don't even know what really happened, in fact the only people who ever knew were the Exile and her companions. Second, because the events of KotOR 2 didn't really change the political landscape of the galaxy in any significant way, it's really more of an historical footnote to the Jedi Civil War rather than a major event in its own right.
This is absolutely not to say the story of KotOR 2 wasn't important. Taken in the context of the Timeline series, however, we decided it would be confusing and that the next note in the history of the galaxy should be the Jedi Civil War.
Thanks for all the feedback and interest in the game and in the Timeline videos. You guys remind us of why we're doing all this, so keep it up.
Cheers
The other post is by Daniel Erickson who talks about marriage in the Jedi Order:
How rare that I see a question I'm allowed to answer!I still have to scratch my head over how much difficulty the Jedi seem to have with the whole concept of love. But then that's always been backwards about the Jedi Order; I simply can't see their 'perfect detachment' of ever coming to anything good (the Sith take the opposite to a whole other extreme though). It doesn't help that the prequel movies which were supposed to show the dangers of romantic attachments (as that's supposedly what led to Anakin's fall) so completely botched the whole thing. I don't think anyone can realistically believe in Anakin's fall the way it's been portrayed. So I maintain that true love remains much more 'good' than the Jedi's detachment. But perhaps that's just me.
Following the decimation of the Jedi Order as revealed in Knights of the Old Republic 2, the Jedi were forced to bend and rethink many of their restrictions in order to rebuild. There is no denying that Force sensitivity can run strongly in particular bloodlines and so for a brief period of history it was allowable to romance, marry and have children much like anyone else. After a series of horrific feuds and padawans lost to the dark side in the following century, however, the Jedi once again tightened their rules. In the time of The Old Republic it is permissible to have children and even to marry within the order but only with direct permission from the Jedi Council. To be granted permission the Jedi must prove a perfect detachment and serenity, basically that he or she does not care more about their prospective spouse or parent of their child than they do about any other Jedi. Permission is very rarely granted but the rule has become something of a release valve, both relaxing the order from the oppression of earlier years and often bringing budding romances to the surface so they can be dealt with by Jedi Masters.
Might be interesting to note here that my first idea for a good Sith character was one who draws strength out of positive emotions (instead of the Sith's seemingly pure focus on negative ones). But from BioWare's description of the Sith classes it doesn't seem as if they'll really allow such an approach. But anyway.
Lastly there's an interview over on The Holonet Project with Web Designer Alyssa Gobelle. Here's an excerpt:
I have to say, being a fan of all things Star Wars lore I was extremely surprised, obviously in a good way, to see to what extent the Aurebesh was used within the HoloNet. Whose idea and decision was it to sneak the Aurebesh into the HoloNet?And that's it for now.
When they first brought me on, our first major task was to design the HoloNet. We wanted the HoloNet's voice to be as much 'within the lore of the game' as possible so we planned to add some generic Aurebesh to start. But we also wanted to add some hidden teases and notes for you guys to devour and ponder upon and play with. Give some more fuel to the speculation festivities.
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