Opening the topic: Why did "The Old Republic: Fate" choose 3700 BBY?
In the 30,000-year history of the Star Wars universe, 3700 BBY is a special juncture - it is not the moment when the Jedi were at their lowest ebb, nor the era when the Sith were at their most rampant. Instead, it is the "last second of the Old Republic's golden age." The lights of Coruscant illuminated millions of planets, hyperspace trade routes were bustling, and the Jedi Order, with tens of thousands of sword-bearing members, was hailed as the guardian of the galaxy. But beneath this prosperity lies a dark plot spanning 3,300 years. A war capable of toppling the galaxy was already brewing in the unknown regions, and a more terrifying hidden force was watching over this seemingly impregnable prosperity from across thousands of light years of nebulae.
This is precisely the core reason why "The Old Republic: Fate" chose this era: All the prosperity bestowed by fate had already been marked with a price a thousand years ago. And the starting point of all this goes back to the shocking schism that shook the Jedi Order 7,000 BBY.
I. Historical Prologue: The Schism of 7000 BBY - The Exiled Seeds of Darkness
Around 7000 BBY, exploration of the Force in the Star Wars universe remained unshackled by dogma. A group of Jedi scholars, focused on the essence of the Force, proposed a shocking theory: the Force itself has no inherent light or dark side. The dark side is not evil, but rather the “untamed potential” of the Force. Breaking taboos, they channeled emotions like anger and willpower into their training, attempting to build a discipline centered on the “complete Force.” They did not crave evil, but sought to understand the Force's entirety. Ultimately, however, the power consumed them, plunging them into the vortex of the dark side.
This radical exploration directly ignited the first schism in Jedi history: orthodox factions defending the purity of the light side clashed with reformists embracing dark power, an era known as the “Century of Darkness.” The war raged for a century, scorching half the galaxy's planets. Ultimately, twelve core Dark Jedi were captured in a crushing defeat at the Battle of Corbos.
▌Fatal Cycle: Two Dark Tragedies, One Millennium Apart Though their origins differed, both plunged into the same abyss of darkness, becoming the most painful mirror images in galactic history.
- 7000 BBY: The Jedi Researchers: Seeking the truth of the Force, they merged with the dark side. Their loss of control fractured the Force faith, setting Light and Darkness in irreconcilable opposition.
- Millennia Later: Anakin: To save his beloved Padmé, he craved the dark side's power. Turning to the Sith, he strangled his lover with his own hands, falling from Jedi hero to Darth Vader.
The dark side is never a tool to be mastered, but an abyss that devours reason. The Researchers' loss of control ignited millennia of galactic war, while Anakin's fall personally sounded the Republic's death knell. Before obsession, touching darkness always exacts an irreversible price.
Guided by the mercy of the light side, the Jedi Council rejected the Republic's proposal for a “public execution.” Instead, they stripped the Jedi of their weapons, placed them aboard ships without hyperspace navigation, and exiled them to the unknown reaches of space. They believed this was “redemption,” never imagining that this exile would allow the seeds of darkness to take root in the depths of the cosmos, growing into a towering tree that would devour the galaxy millennia later.
II. The Eve of 3700 BBY: The Thousand-Year Preparations of the Sith and the Lethal Slackness of the Jedi
(1)The Sith: Enduring a Thousand Years of Hibernation, Concealing the Power to Destroy the World
The exiled Dark Jedi, guided by the Force, unexpectedly arrived at the planet Korriban, rich in dark side energy. They conquered the primitive yet Force-talented Sith race there, merged Jedi knowledge with Sith culture, and established a hierarchical Sith Empire. For this revenge, they prepared for 3,300 years:
1. Power Consolidation: Sith Lord Vilext, through a dark side ritual, absorbed the life energy of the entire planet Korriban to achieve immortality, unified all Sith tribes and exiled forces in the Unknown Regions, and established the principle of "power above all, survival of the fittest" as the ruling logic.
2. Military and Technological Reserves: Mining the rare mineral "Korriban Crystal" in the Unknown Regions, they built a vast fleet centered around the dreadnought (a single dreadnought could destroy a Republic conventional fleet), and developed Force-enhanced lightsabers and mind control weapons.
3. Infiltration and Subversion: Formed the "Sith Infiltrator Legion", disguising themselves as merchants, politicians, and even Jedi apprentices, they infiltrated the core areas of the Republic - they planted spies in the Galactic Senate, sowed discord among the Jedi over ideological differences, and secretly funded the Mandalorians to harass the Republic's borders, depleting its military strength.
4. Strategic Deployment: Deliberately leaked the false news that the Sith were extinct to lull the Republic and the Jedi into complacency, while mapping out hyperspace strike routes covering all core planets of the Republic, waiting for the best time to strike.
(2) The Jedi: Able to Hold onto Dogma but Blind to Crisis
In sharp contrast to the Sith's meticulous planning, the Jedi Order displayed a fatal laxity:
1. Zero Alertness: Three centuries without large-scale wars led the Jedi to view the Sith threat as a "distant legend". The Jedi Council even destroyed some of the texts about the dark side, believing that "ignoring the dark side is to eliminate it".
2. Rigidity of Dogma: The radical exploration of young Jedi was strictly prohibited, and the concept of "absolute light" became a constraint - when an apprentice noticed the abnormal activities of the Mandalorians on the border and suspected the dark side's manipulation behind it, he was rebuked as "spreading panic".
3. Misguided Response: When news of the Sith fleet's surprise attack on the Minos Cluster reached them, the Jedi mobilized hastily but, lacking experience in large-scale warfare, their tactical command was chaotic: the conservatives insisted on "defending the Temple on Coruscant", while the reformists advocated "taking the initiative to strike into the unknown space", and the two sides argued endlessly, missing the three-day golden defense period.
4. Internal Division: Some young Jedi, dissatisfied with the dogma, defected to the Sith under the temptation of their power and the incitement of their ideology, even leaking the defense layout of the Jedi Temple to the Sith, which became the last straw that broke the defense line.
III. The Second Sith War: The Bloody Catastrophe of the Golden Age
The intensity of this war far exceeded the imagination of any race in the galaxy - it was not a border conflict, but a long-planned "revenge and extermination war" by the Sith:
- The Brutality of the Surprise Attack: The Sith fleet, following pre-drawn hyperspace routes, bypassed the Republic's border defenses and directly attacked the core star systems. The outer defense lines of Coruscant collapsed within three days. The Sith fighters' bombing turned this "jewel of the galaxy" into a sea of flames. The spires of the Jedi Temple crumbled under the air strikes, and thousands of Jedi apprentices who couldn't evacuate in time were buried in the fire.
- The Fierceness of the Confrontation: The confrontation between Sith Lords and Jedi Masters with the Force was widespread across all battlefields - on the ruins of Korriban, Jedi Master Serra sacrificed her life to seal the Sith's dark ritual with the light side of the Force; on the former colony of Tatooine, Sith Lord Darth Malak drained the life energy of an entire village with the dark side of the Force, all to enhance his own power.
- The Severity of the Losses: The war lasted for 28 years. The Republic lost one-third of its border star systems. Five billion lives were lost in the war (the genocide in the Kanz sector alone claimed 500 million Rodian lives). The hyperspace trade network was paralyzed, and the economic system was on the verge of collapse. The Jedi Order suffered more than half of its casualties, and many precious Force texts and training techniques were lost forever.
Ultimately, Jedi Master Hos Taranas led the remaining Jedi, in conjunction with the Republic fleet, to set a trap in the Battle of Coruscant, severely damaging the main Sith fleet and forcing Emperor Vichet of the Sith Empire to retreat into the Unknown Regions. However, this "bitter victory" did not end the crisis - the Sith Empire still maintained its complete military strength, merely lying low for the time being; while the Republic and the Jedi, having exhausted their vitality in the war, seemed to return to peace but in reality had become a "golden age of paper".
IV. Hidden Threat: The Eternal Empire Thousands of Light Years Away - The Invisible Hunter
When the Republic and the Sith Empire were both weakened and entered a cold war, a more terrifying force was rising in the depths of the unknown space - the "Eternal Empire" secretly established by Emperor Vichet.
This hidden empire is thousands of light years away from the core of the Republic, spanning through hyperspace turbulence and unknown nebulae. Its capital, the planet Zakur, has never appeared on the Republic's star charts, and not even a single Jedi could sense its existence through the Force. However, its power far exceeds the imagination of both sides:
- Military Overwhelming: It possesses the "Eternal Fleet" controlled by Gemini robots, with three times the number of ships as the combined fleets of the Republic and the Sith Empire, and has the ability of "hyperspace jump raids + indiscriminate destruction". The firepower of a single ship is enough to destroy a regular fleet.
- Unique Combat Power: The Zakur Warrior Order serves as the core combat force, enhanced through Force and biological modifications, capable of using unique skills such as "Force Drain" and "Mind Control", which ordinary Jedi are simply unable to contend with.
- Terror of Rule: Emperor Valkorian (the alias of Vichet) wields dark side power capable of distorting reality. Under his rule, the civilization is entirely dedicated to the war machine, with no art, no trade, only ceaseless preparations for war.
What's even more terrifying is that the Eternal Empire has long collected all the intelligence of the Republic and the Sith Empire through hidden hyperspace probes. The distance between it and the Old Republic has never been the physical "thousands of light years", but rather the informational "complete isolation" - while the senators of the Republic are still arguing over trade taxes and the Jedi Masters are still poring over incomplete ancient books in the temple, no one knows that thousands of light years away, an invincible fleet is quietly waiting, waiting for the moment when the two powers of the galaxy are exhausted to deliver a fatal blow.
Epilogue: The Fateful Choice of 3700 BBY - Your Decision, Rewrite the Galaxy
The tale of "The Old Republic: Fate" begins in this "calm before the storm." In 3700 BBY, the Old Republic is caught between the fading glory of its golden age and the resurgent ambitions of the Sith, with the hidden menace of the Eternal Empire lurking in the shadows.
You can choose to become a Jedi, uphold the light, attempt to mend the rigidity of dogma, and prevent the Sith's revenge, but you might inadvertently trigger the surprise attack of the Eternal Empire. You can also choose to join the Sith, embrace the dark side, overthrow the Republic's "false peace", but you might find yourself merely a pawn of the Eternal Empire. Or you can choose to remain neutral, seek profit and survival in the chaos, but you will ultimately not escape the reshuffling of the galactic order.
This seemingly prosperous galaxy has long been shrouded by the dark foreshadowing of a thousand years and hidden fatal threats. And every choice you make will determine whether the golden age of the Old Republic will last for another hundred years or come to a complete end in a bloodbath of catastrophe.
The game's content is based on the story preceding Star Wars: The Old Republic. After choosing a side—the Republic or the Sith—players may encounter different endings (also known as destiny choices).
FAQ
1. 7000 BBY: Was the exile of the Jedi research faction directly linked to the birth of the Sith?
Answer: It was the core origin. The exiled Dark Jedi arrived on Korriban, subjugated the native Sith species, and fused Jedi knowledge with Sith culture to establish the true Sith Empire. This exile served as the direct catalyst for the Sith's emergence.
2. 3700 BBY: Why is the Old Republic's golden age described as fraught with crisis?
Answer: The surface prosperity was an illusion—Republic bureaucracy was corrupt, internal and external wealth disparities were extreme, and the Jedi had become dogmatic and complacent. In the shadows, the Sith had prepared for millennia and watched with bated breath, while the Eternal Empire lurked thousands of light-years away. The golden age was truly the calm before the storm.
3. What's the connection between Fate of the Old Republic and Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR)?
A: Both are set in the Old Republic era with overlapping timelines: this game takes place in 3700 BBY (late Golden Age), while SWTOR occurs in 3653 BBY (post-Sith invasion). The former is a single-player RPG focused on fate-altering choices, while the latter is an MMORPG centered on galactic warfare. They share the same universe but have no direct narrative connection.
4. Why did the Second Sith War turn so devastating despite the Jedi's overwhelming numbers?
Answer: The core issue was the Jedi's fatal complacency—they dismissed the Sith as ancient legends, became dogmatically rigid and internally divided, and lacked war preparedness. In contrast, the Sith had spent millennia in hiding, executing preemptive infiltration and defection campaigns alongside meticulous strategic planning. Their surprise assault caught the Jedi and Republic utterly unprepared, making defeat inevitable.
5. Is the Eternal Empire more dangerous than the Sith Empire? How so?
Answer: A hundred times more dangerous. The Sith were a “visible enemy” who retreated after defeat. The Eternal Empire lurked in uncharted space, completely undetected by the Republic. Its fleet size was three times that of the Sith and Republic combined, possessing unique combat capabilities and an extreme ideology. It waited patiently for the two major powers to exhaust each other before delivering the fatal blow.
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