Hundred-Year Darkness

For other uses, see Darkness.

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Hundred-Year Darkness

Outcome

Jedi victory^[4]
Surviving Dark Jedi are exiled by the Jedi from Galactic Republic territory^[4]
- Eventual founding of the Sith Order^[4]

Major battles

Assault on the Jedi Order^[3]
Battle of Balmorra^[4]
Trap at Fluwhaka^[4]
Battle of Corbos^[4]

Combatants
Jedi Order^[4] Galactic Republic^[4] Jedi Hunters^[5]	Dark Jedi dissidents^[4]

Commanders
	Ajunta Pall^[4] XoXaan^[4] Karness Muur^[4] Remulus Dreypa^[4] Sorzus Syn^[4]

"Once we were mighty Jedi of the Republic, brothers in the Force. But the Great Schism between the dark side and the light turned Jedi against Jedi. Our ancestors were defeated, driven off… cast out!"

―Marka Ragnos^[6]

The Hundred-Year Darkness, also known as the Hundred-Year War,^[1] was a conflict that began in 7000 BBY and lasted until approximately 6900 BBY, when a group of Dark Jedi created monstrous armies to battle the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic. The Hundred-Year Darkness began three years after the Dark Jedi split with the Order in the Second Great Schism. After a century of fighting, the Dark Jedi lost the war at the Battle of Corbos, but went on to conquer Korriban and found the Sith.

Beginnings

"So envious were the Jedi Knights of our ability to transform creatures into improved manifestations, they made it their ongoing duty to hunt us—the Dark Jedi—wherever we attempted to experiment and practice our knowledge."

―Ajunta Pall^[1]

The Second Great Schism began when a group of Jedi began practicing extended uses of the Dark side of the Force. By relying more and more upon the dark side, these Jedi learned that using the Force of sufficient intensity could bend life itself.^[5] With their new powers, the Knights experimented upon other lifeforms to create monsters as extensions of their will. Other Jedi looked upon these new powers with horror. The earliest rebels, the Legions of Lettow, had been defeated in the First Great Schism, but their legacy remained, and a second group of dissidents would emerge,^[7] led by Ajunta Pall.^[8]

All great conflicts began with passion, and this one was no different. Firmly adamant in protecting their newly-acquired powers, this sect of Jedi sought to convince the other Jedi to embrace the Dark Side instead of fearing it. The others were not convinced. Firmly convinced that their way was right, the arguments turned into conflict.^[4] The rogue Jedi were exiled along with their teachings. A war had begun that would last a hundred years.^[7]

War

"A Jedi sect, weren't they? The result of a kind of family feud."

―A young Palpatine, recalling his knowledge of the Sith's creation^[9]

Jedi and Dark Jedi fight at the Battle of Corbos

During the war, the Jedi constructed the Prism, a secret prison facility known only to the members of the Jedi High Council.^[10]

As the war went on, Sorzus Syn created Shamblers, Howlers, Pit Horrors, and ultimately, Leviathans, creatures that could suck life essences into blister-traps on their backs.^[4]

The last stand of the Dark Jedi was on the world of Corbos. With the help of infighting, the Dark Jedi were defeated.^[5]

Exile

"Thousands of years ago, the Jedi had another civil war that split the Order. It was a... terrible thing. A faction among the Jedi abandoned the teachings of the order, following their own path. They waged war on their fellow Jedi, a war that raged across the galaxy. But these fallen Jedi were cast out, defeated, and they retreated to worlds in the Outer Rim. Over time, they took on the mantle of the Lords of the Sith. But in their hearts, they never forgot the Jedi. The hatred for the Jedi Order burns in their veins like fire, and echoes in their teachings."

―Kreia^[11]

The are exiled. — The Dark Jedi are exiled.

After their defeat on Corbos, the surviving Dark Jedi were rounded up by the Jedi. The Exiles, as they became known to the Jedi, were stripped of their weapons and navigational instruments, herded onto unarmed^[1] galleons, and banished beyond known space.^[6]^[4]

The Hundred-Year Darkness was over, and the Jedi had weathered the Second Great Schism.^[4]

A new world

"The surviving Dark Siders fled the Republic, finally coming to Korriban where the native Sith welcomed them as gods."

―Darth Wyyrlok III^[12]

The primitive witness the arrival of the . — The primitive Sith witness the arrival of the exiles.

Inspired by rumors of the Kingdom of Sith, Sorzus Syn guided the Dark Jedi to Korriban. Landing on the world, they found that true to the rumors, it was inhabited by a humanoid species calling themselves the Sith. Hakagram Graush, the King of the Sith, was shocked at the appearance of the outsiders, but after witnessing their powers and advanced technology, the king welcomed the exiled Jedi to the world. However, this led to Graush's downfall. Graush's Shadow Hand conspired with the new arrivals, and betrayed his liege to the Dark Jedi. Using his training in the Force, Ajunta Pall beheaded Graush, convincing the Sith that the Exiles were gods. The Exiles became the rulers of the Sith and came to be called the Lords of the Sith. Ajunta Pall became the first Dark Lord of the Sith.^[4]

and are greeted by the Sith. — XoXaan and Karness Muur are greeted by the Sith.

Sorzus Syn learned the prophecy of the Sith'ari from the Sith. The Sith'ari was a perfect being who would one day lead the Sith. According to prophecy, the Sith'ari would rise up and destroy the Sith, but in the process make them stronger than ever before. Syn saw this as a striking parallel to the Chosen One of Jedi legend and speculated that she was the Sith'ari.^[4]

Return

After becoming Sith Lords, several Exiles took the ship they had arrived on along with new weapons, Massassi warriors, and their new secrets of Sith alchemy in an attempt to destroy the Jedi against Ajunta Pall's orders, only to have themselves destroyed, and giving the Jedi the knowledge that Sith Space existed, and that the Exiles had survived.^[1]

Legacy

As time passed, and interbreeding occurred between the Exiles and the Sith, the term "Sith" came to mean not only species, but also their fallen Jedi masters. When they first met the Exiles, the Sith wore primitive clothing. With the influence of the Exiles, elaborate clothing came into use.^[6]

Behind the scenes

"While the details are lost in the mists of time, Galactic historians believe there has been a rift between the light side and the dark side of the Force almost since the foundation of the Jedi Order some 25,000 standard years before the Battle of Yavin. Many think it was one rogue Jedi who fell to the dark side, turned others, and eventually built an entire army of dark siders. For the next century, a deadly war swept the galaxy, destroying planets and civilizations before the Jedi Knights prevailed."

―Stephen J. Sansweet^[13]

The first reference to fallen Jedi becoming the rulers of the "Sith civilization" to be published was in Tales of the Jedi – The Freedon Nadd Uprising 1.^[14] This information was again mentioned in Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith 1.^[15] The first mention of the name "the Hundred-Year Darkness" was in Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith 3 in a list of events involving the Dark Side. No further information about it was mentioned.^[16]

In the comic book Tales of the Jedi - The Golden Age of the Sith 0, published on July 31, 1996^[17] by Dark Horse Comics,^[18] a young Jedi, Odan-Urr, conveys tales of the Sith to Master Ooroo, recounting that "Dark Jedi" of "the First Great Schism of the Jedi Knights" were "defeated after a century of bloodshed" and that the "Jedi Exiles", noted as such in the text of issue 0, subsequently "forged the Sith civilization into a new empire ".^[2] In 1996's Tales of the Jedi – The Golden Age of the Sith 2, the ghost of Marka Ragnos recounts how this "Great Schism between the Dark Side and the Light turned Jedi against Jedi." Ragnos goes on to say that it has been "many centuries" since then. In the same issue, Odan-Urr tells Teta that "it has been many centuries" since "evil Jedi" were "banished".^[19] In Tales of the Jedi – The Golden Age of the Sith 4, Odan-Urr warns the Galactic Senate about "exiled Jedi, defeated millennia ago".^[20]

The Essential Chronology (2000), described "a century of bloodshed" associated with "the first great schism within the Jedi Knights" "centuries" before the Great Hyperspace War.^[21]

Elaborating on comments made by Stephen J. Sansweet via the StarWars.com's Ask the Lucasfilm Jedi Council feature in 2000,^[13] Star Wars: Secrets of the Sith (2000), by Iain R. Morris, Ben Harper and Marc Cerasini, placed the "first uprising of the dark side" and subsequent "century-long battle" somewhere between "25,000-5,000 B.B.Y.", and further described the idea that galactic historians believed that one rogue Jedi Knight was responsible for turning fellow Knights, which then led to the creation of a "fleet of spacecraft" used against the Jedi during the "next hundred years."^[22]

Arden Lyn's biography in Abel G. Peña's "The Emperor's Pawns", a collection of biographies that were published in Star Wars Gamer #5 (2001), stated that "Xendor and his minions wreaked havoc during the First Great Schism" while the attached "Adventure Seed: Life After Death", stated that Arden was "twisted after 250 centuries of 'death,'" meaning the First Great Schism took place approximately 25,000 years prior to her reawakening.^[23] On June 29, 2006, Abel revealed that he had exorcised portions of his article, "Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties" related to a Second Great Schism in 10,000 BBY.^[24]

The Dark Side Sourcebook (2001), released only a month after The Emperor's Pawns, did not mention Xendor or Arden Lyn, only describing "the first dark side uprising" that took place "during this ancient period" and that this battle lasted "more than a century" prior to these "Dark Jedi" discovering the Sith.^[25]

The timeline in the beginning of The New Essential Guide to Characters (2002) listed "The First Great Schism between followers of the dark side and the light side occurs. After more than a century, the dark-siders are driven off into the wilds of the galaxy" under the heading "circa 25,000 B.B.Y." while also having the "The Jedi Knights lead the Republic through the Hundred-Year Darkness" under the heading of "circa 7,000 B.B.Y.."^[26]

Naga Sadow's biography in The New Essential Guide to Characters says, "The First Great Schism between the light and dark sides of the Force occured in the early years of the Old Republic. Certain Jedi turned to the dark side, and when defeated, they fled the civilized galaxy and conquered a primitive species-the Sith. They made themselves the Lords of the Sith, and named the greatest among them the Dark Lord. Naga Sadow, heir to this wicked tradition, became the first Sith Lord in nearly twenty millennia to reestablish contact with the forgotten Republic".^[26]

The New Essential Chronology (2005) reasserted that the Hundred-Year Darkness occured ~7000 BBY, but also revealed it to be the same event as the "century of bloodshed" mentioned in Tales of the Jedi: Golden Age of the Sith and to now follow a "Second Great Schism" while the "First Great Schism" was retconned to be a separate event.^[5] In spite of this retcon, Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide: Special Edition, which was published in May 2007,^[27] and Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide: Updated and Expanded, which was published on April 30, 2012,^[28] say that the Exiles turned to the dark side "in the early years of the Old Republic."^[29]^[30]

When asked about this retcon, Daniel Wallace, author of The New Esssential Chronology, said it was because of "LFL internal documents" dating Dark Jedi contact with the Sith species at ~7000 BBY.^[31] On January 11, 2006, Leland Chee said that this retcon was to "correct the the [sic] original discrepency of the timing of the Great Schism introduced by The New Essential Guide to Characters."^[32] On June 30, 2006, Abel G. Peña stated that he "didn't quite understand this realignment of the origins of the Sith."^[33]