The Old Republic: Revan

[DigiFluid]

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE OLD REPUBLIC: REVAN. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

Still quite new, but worthy of discussion IMO. Has anyone else read it? I got the book for Xmas and finished it off last night.

I found the writing style a little disjointed (though that's pretty par for the course with Drew Karpyshyn novels), and I was a touch disappointed with the ending, but largely I enjoyed it as a new adventure with Revan and the Exile. And really appreciated the effort to tie KOTOR in with TOR.

Some interesting new bits of canon for my next KOTOR play-throughs :

• Revan is dark-haired
• Revan had a beard during KOTOR
• Revan's lightsaber is green, suggesting that he's a Jedi Consular, though this is not made explicit. This also appears to contradict having seen Revan with lightsabers in blue, cyan, and purple in various comics and Timeline videos. Maybe the guy just changes crystals a lot
• the Jedi Exile has short hair
• the Jedi Exile finally gets a name! Meetra Surik!
• the Jedi Exile's lightsaber is blue
• it's implied that Satele Shan is the descendant of Revan as well, not just Bastila

Anyway to get down to the nitty gritty, I found it a little odd that the book was told (essentially) as two stories threaded together by some random Sith. I have no idea why Karpyshyn decided on having a 3 year gap pass from one chapter to the next instead of something like putting in a page that says "Part II" or something between.

So first we've got Revan's story, searching out the Mask of Mandalore with Canderous. I liked that, even though the Mandalorians weren't really well characterized. And in the second half we had Meetra's story. I enjoyed it too, but it was a little difficult for the storytelling to progress when she spends a good part of the beginning of it only being able to converse with T3--a droid who doesn't actually talk.

The Sith Emperor though, wow. Completely stole the show in this book. One of the most fascinating characters in the EU IMO. I want to be mad that we didn't get more of him in the story, but he was in it just enough to tease the reader and leave you itching to learn more.

As to the ending....I was sad to read T3 got blown apart. And I was really bitterly disappointed that the Exile got killed by being (literally) stabbed in the back. I understand that for the sake of linking up with TOR the story had to end in defeat for the Jedi, but I wish certain things had been done differently.

Overall I found it an enjoyable experience, but there was just enough in there to disappoint me too.

[SaberBlade]

How much of the book is canon with the KOTOR games? Should we take the events of this book as KOTOR 3, or should we expect T3 to pop up in TOR at some point and learn that Exile wasn't killed.

It's always one of my issues with books, the events can be so easily retconned for another form of media, like TOR or even KOTOR 3 (should it be done).

[DigiFluid]

Not sure I follow. Games and books are both C-canon and expected to follow the same continuity. If someone decided to reverse things here, it would take a lot of retconning, because there's not a lot of wiggle room.

[DigiFluid]

KOTOR 1/2, Revan, TOR plot and how they all tie together (SPOILERS AHOY for The Old Republic: Revan, KOTOR 1/2, and backstory of TOR, do not read this if you're planning on reading Revan and will be angry with spoilers)

Spoiler:

ca. 5000 BBY -- The Great Hyperspace War
On Nathema, an insignificant agricultural world of the Sith Empire around this time, a child is born who is the illegitimate child of the world's ruling Sith Lord and a peasant woman. As a young child, the boy manifests tremendous talent with the Force--a prodigy among prodigies. But since neither of his parents are Force sensitive, his mother admits to the liason. The boy uses the Force to kill his father to protect his mother, and then kills his mother for betraying the family. His life goes on killing more and more people until the planet's ruler acknowledges him as his son...until the boy (a man by now) kills him too and claims rulership over the planet as Lord Vitiate with the permission of new ruler of the Empire Naga Sadow.

Come 5000 BBY, the Empire launches its assault on the Republic starting the Great Hyperspace war. But they're quickly turned around and defeated. The Republic bombs many of the Empire's worlds, including Korriban, into extinction to end the Sith threat forever.

But they didn't get all the Empire's worlds. Nathema survived unnoticed in the war. Having ruled over the world for a number of years by this point, Vitiate had had his people frantically searching for the location of and safest hyperspace path to Dromund Kaas, the long-lost homeworld of the Sith. Once they had learned it, Vitiate called all the surviving Sith leaders to his world, ostensibly to discuss their future.

Of course it was a trap, but given that Vitiate was just one man among the hundreds coming to his world, they didn't think he could ensnare them. But they didn't know the extent of the Sith sorcery he had learned--the prodigy of prodigies. Once the remaining Sith leadership were on his world, he engaged in a ritual designed to grant himself immortality...at the cost of all life on the planet. Every man, woman, child, plant, insect, invertebrate, you name it. Even the Force is sucked dry on the planet. Later histories see this as when he truly became the Sith Emperor.

Blaming the loss of his world on the Republic, he gathers the remnants of the Sith Empire and leads them into Unknown Regions; eventually Dromund Kaas.

3976-60 BBY -- The Mandalorian Wars
The Mandalorians launch their assault on the Republic. After repeated Republic defeats and a lot of Jedi waffling, Revan, together with his friends and allies Malak and Meetra (later the Exile) and any other Jedi who will follow them, defy the Council to aid the Republic. Eventually the war is effectively won at the Battle of Malachor V, when Meetra gives the order to activate the Mass Shadow Generator. Meetra closes herself off from the Force to protect herself from the horrific pain of that final moment.

Shortly after the battle, Revan challenges Mandalore the Ultimate to single combat. Revan prevails, but is witness to a startling confession from Mandalore as he takes his last breaths. Mandalore laments that he's been tricked, betrayed. That the Sith had manipulated him into believing that his victory over the Republic would be easily achieved. And then he dies.

Revan and Malak quickly set out to hide Mandalore's Mask, to end the Mandalorian threat once and for all. They choose the nearby ice planet Rekkiad, and on it discover the tomb of a Sith Lord more recent than the end of the Great Hyperspace War. In this barren, isolated place, Revan hides Mandalore's Mask and learns of another Sith world called Nathema.

3960-59 BBY
So now Revan knows that the Mandalorians were just a pawn of an even greater threat. He knows that the Sith Empire somehow survived the Great Hyperspace War over a thousand years ago. Rather than return to the Republic as heroes, Revan and Malak head into unknown space to try to save the Republic once more.

Meanwhile, Meetra returns to the Jedi to face judgement for defying the Council. She is condemned for what she did--especially Malachor V--stripped of the right to call herself Jedi, and branded the Exile. With nowhere to go, she turns to mercenary work for a number of years.

In their search for the Sith Empire, Revan and MalakThey go there and through it learn the location of Dromund Kaas. There they go to work as spies to learn whatever they can about the Empire (it's not explained what their fleet is doing during this period, which is a pretty gaping plot hole IMO). Eventually they decide to take down the Emperor himself.

They infiltrate the Citadel, believing they've bribed one of the Imperial Guards to let them in. Turns out this was a trap. The Imperial Guards are fanatically devoted to the Emperor, both by choice and by some kind of Sith sorcery that's part of their initiation into the Guard. They're brought before the Emperor and are unable to challenge him before he dominates both of their minds through sheer power of the Force, corrupting them both to the Dark Side. The Emperor sends them back as his agents to soften or even defeat the Republic before he can do it himself.

3959-56 BBY -- Jedi Civil War & KOTOR
Revan and Malak return from the Unknown Regions as Dark Lords of the Sith. By force of will (remember, Revan is no-one to sneeze at), the spell of the Sith Emperor is broken, though the taint of the Dark Side remains. Revan and Malak find the Star Forge and return to Republic space...as conquerors, instead of heroes. On goes the war pretty steadily until Revan's capture and memory-blanking by the Jedi Council.

Enter Knights of the Old Republic. Canon: Revan is male, romances Bastila, redeems Bastila from the Dark Side, and defeats Darth Malak to save the galaxy.

3954 BBY -- Revan (first half)
Revan and Bastila are married and living together on Coruscant. While publicly acclaimed as the savior of the galaxy, that's only really the public image. Both the Senate and the Council remain wary of him and involve him as little as possible. And that's not a one-way street, Revan doesn't involve himself much with them either.

But Revan has begun to have dreams; memories of his first life resurfacing either of their own volition or by will of the Force, and he can't shake the feeling that there's a threat to the Republic hiding out there, and that he needs to do something. He asks Canderous for help in finding out more about the dark and stormy world he keeps dreaming of. Canderous turns up nothing, but in his search finds out that the Mandalorian clans are gathering once more and have been searching for Mandalore's Mask. And they're on Rekkiad, having narrowed their search to only a handful of worlds because Revan and Malak were only gone from the fleet for a couple of days after slaying Mandalore.

Revan accepts when Canderous asks for his help, believing that the Mandalorians united under Clan Ordo could be an ally to the Republic instead of an enemy. On Rekkiad, they rediscover the Sith tomb and with it Mandalore's Mask. And in finding those, Revan once again finds reference to Nathema. He leaves the Mask with Canderous and instructions to rebuild the Mandalorians into a powerful ally of the Republic, before setting out for Nathema again.

When he gets there, it just so happens to be at the same time that a Sith Lady of the Dark Council and her new thug Lord Scourge (both of them of the Sith species) are leaving--a conceit of storytelling, neatly wrapped up in a "will of the Force" explanation. They were there because she was letting Scourge in on her schemes to challenge the Emperor and his plot to attack the Republic. Apparently after a thousand years, the wounds of the Great Hyperspace War still hurt and a lot of upper-echelon Sith believe an attack on the Republic would be suicide.

They shoot down the Ebon Hawk, and T3 hides just so that he can take a holo of the one abducting Revan (Scourge). Revan is taken back to Dromund Kaas with the two Sith, to rot away in a cell so they can gather information.

3954-51
T3 spends three years scrounging parts from the dead world to repair the Ebon Hawk enough to fly. He finally gets it off the ground, and on his way back to Republic space runs into Meetra, the Exile.

3951 BBY -- KOTOR 2
Enter Knights of the Old Republic II. Canon choices: blue lightsaber, Sith Triumvirate defeated, officially restarts the Jedi Order with companions. T3 neglects to share the information about Revan until the quest is over due to prioritizing the mission to save the galaxy over saving one life. Once the conflict is done, T3 tells Meetra, but refuses to show the vid to anyone but Bastila.

Post Part 1

[DigiFluid]

Post Part 2:

SAME spoiler warning as above!

Spoiler:

3950 BBY -- Revan (second half)
T3 shows Bastila and Meetra the vid of the Sith taking Revan. They're relieved to know that he's alive and startled to see a living Sith. Meetra resolves to go find out what happened to Revan, for duty to a former commanding officer and the safety of the Republic, and for obligation to a dear friend. Before she leaves, Bastila reveals that she has been in possession of Revan's mask ever since capturing him, and gives it to Meetra to return to Revan--that maybe it can help him.

Meetra takes the Ebon Hawk and T3 back to Nathema to try to learn where the Sith may have taken Revan. While there, she experiences the horror of the Void, the term given to the sheer lack of life or even the Force at the planet. The Void makes her realize that something even worse than Malachor V happened there. Through sliced data records, Meetra learns of Dromund Kaas in the same way that Revan and Malak did 10 years previous, and sets off for there.

She lands on the planet without incident (evidently the Sith feel as safe in Dromund Kaas as the Republic does on Coruscant), and bribes her way through several people to find out the identity of the Sith in the vid, Lord Scourge, and set up a meeting with him. They meet on what just happens to be the same day that captive Revan told Scourge that help was coming for him (a conveniently timed bluff once more explained as "will of the Force" stuff).

Over the past 3-4 years, Scourge has come to believe that Revan is his best hope for allying with to destroy the Emperor before he can attack the Republic. Meetra's arrival is the catalyst to set things in motion. Scourge needs a diversion in order to spring Revan, so he brings all kinds of evidence to the Emperor himself about his master's (and several other of the Dark Council) plots to challenge him and his goals.

The ensuing assault on Nyriss' (Scourge's master) compound provides the distraction they needs. Scourge and Meetra are able to get through the compound with minimal effort and into the detention centre. Meetra gives Revan his mask, and all the memories of his first life return in an instant. Together the three escape the compound, and upon learning that the Emperor has moved to exterminate all members of the Dark Council simultaneously, decide to wait the night out. The chaos has resulted in the imposition of martial law on Dromund Kaas and they figure that day will be a better time to move, because most of the troops will have been involved in the bloodbath of the night before.

Overnight, Scourge experiences his first-ever Force Vision, and sees the three of them laying broken and defeated at the feet of the Emperor. Doubt enters his mind.

Scourge uses his newfound influence with the Imperial Guard (he got the ball rolling for the Emperor's big move) to walk them right into the Citadel and up to the doors of the throne room. The captain of the guard shows up to find out what's going on, and then things descend into battle because she recognizes Revan's mask--she was the one who betrayed him the first time he was on Dromund Kaas.

As Scourge and Meetra hold off the Imperial Guard (outnumbered 2-to-1), Revan forces his way into the throne room and confronts the Emperor directly. He tries to fight, but the might of the Emperor's Force abilities means he doesn't even need to draw a weapon of his own. As he's electrocuting Revan to death, T3 interrupts by flamethrower-ing him and is promptly smashed to tiny pieces in response. The Emperor takes Revan's lightsaber and prepares to strike Revan down with his own weapon.

Scourge and Meetra are just finishing up with the Guard at this point and see what's happening. Meetra makes a heat-of-the-moment decision that affects the galaxy for centuries yet to come. She hurls her lightsaber--not to kill the distracted Emperor at the cost of Revan's life--but just to deflect the blow from killing him. The Emperor turns his lightning on Meetra, bringing her to her knees as well.

Scourge knows that the battle is lost, but can't allow the Emperor's plot against the Republic to continue. So he makes the only choice he can: he betrays the Jedi. He murders Meetra by impaling her through the back with his lightsaber, and explains away his actions to the Emperor.

Rather than kill Revan, the Emperor has him taken away. Revan is a being with an extraordinary connection to the Force, both light and dark sides. The Emperor has him stored in semi-stasis--physically he won't age, but he will be conscious for all of it. In stasis, the Emperor can "feed" on Revan's spirit and connection to the Force. Revan is left only with the 'while he's in my mind, I'll be in his' option, and for centuries does his best to plant subtle seeds of doubt in the Emperor's mind about the Empire's ability to defeat the Republic.

And Meetra, while not a Force spirit, still exists in some ethereal Force form; staying by Revan's side to "feed" him so that he isn't consumed utterly by the Sith Emperor.

3681 BBY -- Onslaught of the Sith Empire
Three centuries later, it appears that the Emperor has finally won. The Empire recaptures the Sith holy world Korriban, before launching an assault on the Republic the likes of which had never been seen in the galaxy.

3667-60 BBY -- Mandalorians
By manipulating circumstances, the Empire is able to handpick a new Mandalore--and then use the Mandalorians against the Republic. The Mandalorians are instrumental in blockading a primary trade route for nearly 8 years before it's broken.

3653 BBY -- Treaty of Coruscant
The Empire, seeing no victory in sight even after nearly 30 years of constant war, scheme to end things in their favour. The make peace overtures and meet with Republic representatives on Alderaan. But while talks are in progress, an Imperial infiltrator takes down the Coruscant defense network, allowing the Imperial fleet's surprise attack. Coruscant is sacked and the Jedi Temple razed, and the Republic is forced to accept a humiliating peace treaty ceding half the galaxy to the Empire and abandoning countless worlds to fend for themselves.

3643-41 BBY -- The Old Republic
This is when the MMO is set.

[SaberBlade]

When it comes to the canon, I don't mean within the grand scheme of Star Wars but what is considered from the overall KOTOR/TOR canon.

KOTOR 1 and 2 have what I'd consider a subjective canon. Somethings are canon, others aren't. It really depends on how you play the game. I'm wondering if the book fits the same criteria, either it's completely canon within the KOTOR/TOR story or it's subjective, with some things being a what-if.

[DigiFluid]

Well it takes the same stance that most of the SW novels do with regard to games. It mentions characters generally in passing (except for those featured), it accepts the light side ending as canon, and that's about it. The main body of plot moments is assumed fact just as it is in the games (ie Revan's memory wipe, Taris, Bastila's brief fall to the Dark Side).

Games, for the most part, aren't "subjective" canon. The nitty gritty details of them, like say who was in your party when you went to Korriban (or whatever), or how hard it was to kill x, these things are just considered part of gameplay rather than story. Main game story is pretty much always hard fact in the SW EU.

[Giantevilhead]

Holy crap, this is a ****ty book. It barfs all over KotoR1 and puts KotoR2 into a wood shredder, dumps the chopped up pieces into the sewers, and set it on fire with napalm. The author just takes everything that was interesting in KotoR2 and destroys it. The Exile is just a regular Jedi. Kreia, Sion and Nihilus are barely mentioned.

And the Emperor's backstory is just a rip off of the Exile and Nihilus. The Exile became a wound in the Force because of the destruction of Malachor V, essentially the same thing the Sith Emperor experienced. So the author basically stole the idea from KotoR2 and then retconned KotoR2 to make it seem like he came up with it.

The Sith Emperor is not impressive at all. Kreia claimed that Nihilus, who had the power to consume entire planets of life, was only approaching the power of the old Sith Masters. And she said this of the Old Sith, "If you were to face an ancient Sith Lord in combat, you would learn that we are as children playing with toys compared to the prowess of the old Masters." There's also this:

Exile: "But we've defeated the Sith!"
Kreia: "Have we? You thought that the corrupted remnants of the Republic, the machines spawned by technology that Revan led into battle were the Sith? You are wrong. The Sith is a belief. And its empire, the true Sith Empire, rules elsewhere. And Revan knew the true war is not against the Republic. It waits for us, beyond the Outer Rim. And he has gone to fight it, in his way. And he left the Ebon Hawk and all its machines behind, for he knew he would not need them. And, like you, he knew he must leave all loves behind as well, no matter how deeply one cares for them. Because such attachments would only bring doom to them both in the dark places where he now walks."

and this:

Kreia: "The Republic was never what was important - ever. It was but a shell that surrounds the Jedi - just as the teachings of the Jedi are a shell surrounding the heart of man. You see, the war, the true war, has never been one waged by droids, or warships, or soldiers. They are but crude matter, obstacles against which we test ourselves. The true war is waged in the hearts of all living things, against our own natures, light or dark. That is what shapes and binds this galaxy, not these creations of man. You are the battle ground. And if you fall, the death of the Republic will be such a quiet thing, a whisper, that shall herald the darkness to come."

Clearly, Kreia speaks of the True Sith as being something that wasn't just a physical threat. It is not enough to fight them with just an army. It would need to be a war of belief that ties into the spiritual aspect of the Force.

[DigiFluid]

Awful lot of derp in the post above Looks to me like an awful lot of mis-reading and misunderstanding.

[Giantevilhead]

I don't think the author actually played KotoR2. It's like he just read the wikipedia entry about it.

I don't know why the bothered to continue the story after KotoR2 if they were just going to ignore everything that was important in the game.

[DigiFluid]

*sigh*

Alright, here I go.

The Exile is just a regular Jedi.

The Exile always was just a regular Jedi, who happened to follow Revan into the Mandalorian Wars. The only thing that made her unique was her closing herself off from the Force, which is specifically mentioned in this book.

Kreia, Sion and Nihilus are barely mentioned.

...so what? Firstly, they are mentioned insofar as the book talks about the Triumvirate being defeated. And second, this book is about REVAN and what his quest into the Unknown Regions entails. This isn't and never was a book about the Exile or her past, and frankly, given its title, I can't imagine how you could've come to any other conclusion.

And the Emperor's backstory is just a rip off of the Exile and Nihilus. The Exile became a wound in the Force because of the destruction of Malachor V, essentially the same thing the Sith Emperor experienced. So the author basically stole the idea from KotoR2 and then retconned KotoR2 to make it seem like he came up with it.

No. Incorrect.

The Exile shut herself off from the Force because of all the pain and horror of Malachor V.

Nihilus was affected by the devastation Malachor V in such a way that he began to hunger for Force energy and life forms--hence the Jedi Purge of the Dark Wars. He fed on Force users, namely Jedi, to feed his hunger.

The Sith Emperor was already a Sith sorcerer, and very much mortal. He used that mega Sith spell because he wanted to be immortal, of his own volition--not because he was adversely affected by anything. And he didn't have to feed on Force users to sate any kind of hunger. No, he used the 'spell' to drain all life and even the Force itself from Nathema. And the drain on the world was so strong, so severe, that it didn't 'wound' the Force as happened at Malachor, it sucked it dry outright. Colossal differences.

The Sith Emperor is not impressive at all. Kreia claimed that Nihilus, who had the power to consume entire planets of life, was only approaching the power of the old Sith Masters.

Yet again, incorrect. For many of the same reasons. Nihilus was interested in feeding on Force sensitives. Nihilus didn't wipe out the Miraluka in entirety, he wiped out most of them in addition to the Jedi Enclave because the race is noted as being particularly Force sensitive. That's not feeding on life, that's feeding on Force.

And she said this of the Old Sith, "If you were to face an ancient Sith Lord in combat, you would learn that we are as children playing with toys compared to the prowess of the old Masters."

Like how Revan and Meetra got their asses handed to them by the Emperor and Nyriss (respectively)?

There's also this:

Exile: "But we've defeated the Sith!"
Kreia: "Have we? You thought that the corrupted remnants of the Republic, the machines spawned by technology that Revan led into battle were the Sith? You are wrong. The Sith is a belief. And its empire, the true Sith Empire, rules elsewhere. And Revan knew the true war is not against the Republic. It waits for us, beyond the Outer Rim. And he has gone to fight it, in his way. And he left the Ebon Hawk and all its machines behind, for he knew he would not need them. And, like you, he knew he must leave all loves behind as well, no matter how deeply one cares for them. Because such attachments would only bring doom to them both in the dark places where he now walks."

This is, so far, the only valid issue you've raised.

But even it can be explained away with relative ease. Novels and the EU in general don't treat the games as sacrosanct. They never have. The generalities of the plot are regarded as canon, but gameplay is most certainly not. That, that you've quoted there, is a diatribe that comes up as a result of dialogue choices if I remember correctly. Player choices are gameplay and not subject to canon recording.


and this:

Kreia: "The Republic was never what was important - ever. It was but a shell that surrounds the Jedi - just as the teachings of the Jedi are a shell surrounding the heart of man. You see, the war, the true war, has never been one waged by droids, or warships, or soldiers. They are but crude matter, obstacles against which we test ourselves. The true war is waged in the hearts of all living things, against our own natures, light or dark. That is what shapes and binds this galaxy, not these creations of man. You are the battle ground. And if you fall, the death of the Republic will be such a quiet thing, a whisper, that shall herald the darkness to come."

Clearly, Kreia speaks of the True Sith as being something that wasn't just a physical threat. It is not enough to fight them with just an army. It would need to be a war of belief that ties into the spiritual aspect of the Force.

I don't even know what you were trying to prove with this one.

In the first place, see previous response re: story vs. gameplay.

In the second--so what? Light vs. dark has always been an ideological war fought through soldiers and armies in the SW universe. From Tython right up till Legacy--War.

[Giantevilhead]

I guess you didn't play KotoR2 either.

The Exile wasn't just a regular Jedi. She was already able to from strong Force bonds with other people before she was cut off from the Force. The Exile became a wound in the Force precisely because of that ability. Her ability to form Force bonds meant that the suffering and pain of Malachor V were echoed within her and that's why she had to cut herself off from the Force. However, since her ability to form Force bonds remained even after she became a wound in the Force, she siphoned off the will and power of those she formed bonds with.

The Sith in KotoR2 "learned the lessons of Malachor V." They specifically train themselves to experience what the Exile had experienced so they too can become wounds in the Force and siphon the will and power of Force sensitives.

As for the battle between Light and Dark, Kreia clearly wasn't just talking about the war between armies. She specifically says, "You see, the war, the true war, has never been one waged by droids, or warships, or soldiers. They are but crude matter, obstacles against which we test ourselves. The true war is waged in the hearts of all living things, against our own natures, light or dark." The battle with the True Sith would not be about people killing each other and whoever kills the other is the winner. It would have been a war for the hearts and minds of people. Not so much about killing the other side as making them see that they were wrong and you are right.

[DigiFluid]

I guess you didn't play KotoR2 either.

The Exile wasn't just a regular Jedi. She was already able to from strong Force bonds with other people before she was cut off from the Force. The Exile became a wound in the Force precisely because of that ability. Her ability to form Force bonds meant that the suffering and pain of Malachor V were echoed within her and that's why she had to cut herself off from the Force. However, since her ability to form Force bonds remained even after she became a wound in the Force, she siphoned off the will and power of those she formed bonds with.

You're really grasping at nothing whatsoever here. The KOTOR2 companions (the Lost Jedi) were busy rebuilding the Jedi Order, and she didn't stop in to see them before she left. Her interactions in this book were with just a small handful of people--Bastila, who had to stay with her kid; T3 who's a droid and unaffected (but was along with her till his destruction nonetheless); the five minutes she spent with the dock worker and information guy who sent her to Sechel; the five minutes she spent with Sechel; and the couple of days she spent with Revan (with whom she already had a bond), and with Scourge who was only an ally of convenience.

Furthermore, her 'unique' Force ability was even alluded to when she went to Nathema. When Scourge was there, he was disturbed and felt it wrong. When Revan went, it didn't even merit a mention. When Meetra went, she felt physically ill and fled the planet as quickly as she could. That's a pretty stark difference in reaction, at a place where the Force itself is deadened. And do note that it was DEADENED, not just a cry of anguish like Malachor V. That was explicitly contrasted in the book.

The Sith in KotoR2 "learned the lessons of Malachor V." They specifically train themselves to experience what the Exile had experienced so they too can become wounds in the Force and siphon the will and power of Force sensitives.

As for the battle between Light and Dark, Kreia clearly wasn't just talking about the war between armies. She specifically says, "You see, the war, the true war, has never been one waged by droids, or warships, or soldiers. They are but crude matter, obstacles against which we test ourselves. The true war is waged in the hearts of all living things, against our own natures, light or dark." The battle with the True Sith would not be about people killing each other and whoever kills the other is the winner. It would have been a war for the hearts and minds of people. Not so much about killing the other side as making them see that they were wrong and you are right.

Once again I have no idea what you're talking about here. I understand that there's a philosophical struggle between light and dark, that's the hallmark of all Star Wars. Again--from Tython right up till Legacy--War. I have no bloody idea what you're even mentioning this for.

As to the specifics of the "Sith" emulating Nihilus; the "Sith" under the Triumvirate were disciples of Traya/Sion/Nihilus--neither they, nor their masters had any connection whatsoever to the Sith Empire in exile. When they died in the Dark Wars, that was the end of that.

And again, games are treated differently than novels. Novels provide a set path of hard facts telling a story. Games provide a central story, and individual player choices--be they fighting style, dialogue choices, quest order, whatever--are NOT canon and never have been. For any Star Wars game.

[Giantevilhead]

Yes, the games are treated differently than novels. And yes the novel is about Revan, but its main plot is based on ideas that were set up in KotoR2. The True Sith did not exist in KotoR1. They didn't say anything about what Revan did after the war in KotoR1. Revan was just a stereotypical evil Sith Lord bent on galactic conquest in KotoR1.

KotoR2 came up with the whole idea of there being a True Sith. KotoR2 came up with the idea of Revan having discovered the True Sith during the Mandalorian War. It was Kreia who revealed that Revan had gone to the Outer Rim after KotoR1 to face the True Sith.

If the novel's main plotline is follows from something that was laid out by the KotoR2 then why completely ignore so many important associated ideas and concepts?

For example, not only did KotoR2 reveal that Revan discovered the True Sith, it also revealed that Revan willingly sacrificed himself to the Dark Side so that he could have the strength to oppose the True Sith. It was revealed that although the Mandalorian Wars were orchestrated by the True Sith, the war Revan waged against the Jedi was meant to strengthen the galaxy against the True Sith. The book ignores that and basically says that Revan got turned evil by the Emperor and then he became too power hungry and decided to conquer the galaxy on his own. If they want to follow something that was established in KotoR2 then why do it so half assed?

As for the philosophical/spiritual conflict between the Jedi and the Sith, that ties into one of the main themes KotoR2 dealt with, stagnation within both the Republic and the Jedi Order. KotoR2 delved quite extensively into the internal workings of the Republic and the Jedi. It revealed that the Republic had become bloated and corrupt, and that the Jedi had become arrogant and aloof.

Both the Republic and the Jedi had essentially lost their ways. The Republic had been so bogged down in bureaucracy and corruption that it had became ineffectual. The Jedi in turn had became so concerned with internal matters they were disconnected from the rest of the galaxy. They had both lost sight of the central tenants of their beliefs.

That's why Revan chose to fall to the Dark Side. He believed that the Republic and the Jedi needed to be challenged so that they can again know what it is they were really fighting for, have their beliefs reaffirmed once more as they fight for it, and grow strong from the conflict.

That is how the threat of True Sith was being set up. While the Republic and Jedi had all but forgotten what they were really fighting for, the True Sith did not. With the weakened resolve of the Republic and the Jedi, the True Sith could easily break them psychologically. Not only would the True Sith be able to dominate the Republic and the Jedi physically, they would also be able to crush their ideals and their beliefs.

[Rawtheran]

Man it was a good book, and had a very surprising ending. The Sith Emperor captured him, and keeps torturing him. It was also neat to learn the name of the Exile Meetra Surik.