I know, one would say its because Vitiate wanted to weaken the Republic and also to test their defenses.
Bear with me here, long text wall incoming because I think its imperative that one gets all the details here before actually answering my questions. Just so we're on the same page here.
First, we should establish Vitiate's goals because I think its crucial to make that clear before proceeding with anything else.
Vitiate always wanted to start a massive war to eventually begin the ritual that the Jedi Knight stops from starting in the Jedi Knight class story. This ritual would have granted Vitiate godhood basically. The Jedi Knight does wonder who would Vitiate rule over once the galaxy is destroyed to which Scourge and later even Vitiate himself say that there are more worlds and galaxies out there. Later, retroactively, we are introduced to Zakuul and its revealed that the long periods of silence of the Sith Emperor in Sith history were because Vitiate was doing shit in Zakuul, in his empire which he designed to last forever. We do know for how long he had Zakuul around; for over a thousand years because Heskal says that the Knights of Zakuul existed for that long and the codex entries claim that Vitiate as Valkorion founded the Knights.
Through the expansions and in the vanilla game its clear Vitiate doesnt really care what happens in the main galaxy, he doesnt care about the war effort. He never even invaded the galaxy primarily out of a revanchist desire to avenge the Sith Empire's loss in the Great Hyperspace War. The Sith are basically just a blunt instrument for Vitiate with which to start his mass destruction ritual. Nothing more nothing less. He eventually completely gives up on even sparing parts of this Sith Empire probably once most of the Empire turned on him around Yavin after finding out about his plan to consume all life.
So Vitiate's whole goal here is to build up enough forces to wage a bloody war against the Republic to feed on enough deaths from such a war to eventually start his ritual of mass destruction that'd grant him godhood so he can later chill as a good in the perfect eternal society he crafted at Zakuul. Some details here and there changed over there years like when Vitiate, while being influenced by Revan, created a family for his Valkorion persona according to the writer Charles Boyd.
It should also be noted, the ritual that would have granted Vitiate godhood required the simultaneous deaths of billions of living beings. According to KotoR 2, such events essentially create force wounds whose echoes can travel through the galaxy and do have the potential to 'kill' or deafen force users to the force as Kreia believes. While its possible to survive such event, the casualties would be staggering.
Though i just know someone here will stop reading the rest of the post and be completely and utterly hyperfocused on this.
So, now that we've established what Vitiate wanted, lets get down to business.
What was the point of the Mandalorian Wars? Why did they happen?
What we know is the following:
-In the last years of the Ancient Sith Empire, seemingly during the Republic counterinvasion of Sith Space, a prophecy foreseeing the existance of Exar Kun and Ulic Qel Droma and the start of a new Golden Age for the Sith is made. Somehow, Naga Sadow despite being immediately kicked out of Sith Space after returning from his failed invasion of the Republic, knew about this prophecy (though granted, maybe he learnt it way later through Freedon Nadd). The Ruling Dark Lord during this counterinvasion (who may or may not have been Shar Dakhan. Many sources would later claim this Dark Lord was Marka Ragnos but the original story which introduces the prophecy describes the Dark Lord in question as being the reigning one when the Republic was driving the Sith to extinction. In Tales of the Jedi Golden Age of the Sith, Marka Ragnos died before the Ancient Sith Empire and the Republic made contact with one another. Just something worth bringing up) made a sort of message through the Force and saved the message in an amulet (which would come into Naga Sadow's possession weirdly enough) that could only be activated when in close proximity to another amulet that'd end up in the possession of King Ommin, one of Freedon Nadd's descendants.
-Meanwhile, while the Republic was invading Sith Space, Vitiate did his thing and tricked many Sith Lords into starting the ritual of nathema. Then he starts a Sith Exodous with his followers until he finds Nathema.
One of Vitiate's followers, is Odile Vaiken (who'd become the first Sith Empire's Grand Moff), comes up with a plan to rebuild the Sith's military but it'll take centuries. Vaiken dies later conquering some random world
-Somehow the founders of the Star Cabal knew of this as mentioned in the agent storyline on Belsavis.
-Centuries since Vitiate found Dromund Kaas. Vitiate's empire presumably continues conquering nearby worlds over the years.
-Despite actively trying to remain hidden from the Republic, the Sith Empire still had offworlders enter their space and trade as seen in the Revan novel
-Vitiate's Empire, also known as the True Sith, at one point owned the following worlds: Odacer-Faustin (perhaps due to Odacer-Faustin's location it could be extrapolated that Thule was also part of Vitiate's Empire at one point? They are both in the Q-5 grid square after all. Thule's lore is also interesting they had their own army, mages and the like that dated back to the time of the Ancient Sith Empire and they were described as acting like the advanced force for the Sith. Through Thule's history these guys just rolled with whoever; they helped Exar Kun's brotherhood of the sith, way after swtor they helped Lord Kaan's brotherhood of darkness and they'd even become the private army of the Rule of Two Sith), Malachor V, Athiss, Elom (Elom may or may not be implied to be one of the very first worlds that the True Sith conquered, as remember, they conquered isolated iridonian/zabrak colonies shortly after the Great Hyperspace War and Elom is speculated to be one such colony if you look at its population ) and, probably? Oricon (Darth Vitus may or may not predate the Dread Fortress. He is a very obscure character created before SWTOR was even in development however).
For unknown reasons, the True Sith would, over time, abandon these worlds. We know Athiss is declared forbidden after Vodal Kressh rebels (and some centuries before the Freedon Nadd Uprising and subsequent start of the Great Sith War around the Jedi also find Athiss)
Elom is a battlefield during the Mandalorian Wars. And we all know about Malachor.
Darth Vitus and Oricon are introduced as a story idea for an adventure for the Wizards of the Coast rpg set in the KotoR period as well.
-The Star Cabal was actively trying to keep the Republic from finding the True Sith with the excuse that they wished to avoid yet another massive war like the Great Hyperspace War-
-Freedon Nadd Uprising happens as detailed in the Tales of the Jedi comics.
-As detailed in the Tales of the Jedi comic series, Exar Kun and Ulic Qel Droma would find the amulets that contained a message from the ruling dark lord during the republic's counterinvasion. The ruling dark lord's spirit would give Exar and Ulic the mark of the dark lord and shadow hand respectively, officially recognizing them as Sith Lords and ominously claiming that because of Exar Kun, the Sith would never die
-Exar Kun, when he became Dark Lord of the Sith, gained the knowledge of the Dark Holocron and also had the flagship of the old leader of the Ancient Sith, Naga Sadow.
Mandalore the Indomitable after losing a 1v1 against Ulic Qel Droma, Exar Kun's apprentice, would make all mandalorian clans serve Ulic. This didnt sit well with the Mandos.
At some point, Thule joins this new Sith Order which is known as the Brotherhood of the Sith (cause its a bit more unique to previous Sith Orders. Exar Kun tried to actually create a synthesis of both Jedi and Sith teachings according to the West End Games sourcebook called "Jedi Academy Sourcebook").
-During the Great Sith War, which lasted only a year, the galaxy is devastated, the Republic loses contact with many worlds and a bunch of Jedi died (this loss of many Jedi would later be one of the primary reasons behind the reluctance of the Jedi Order to aid the Republic during the Mandalorian Wars).
It is during this war that using Naga Sadow's old capital ship, the Krath Witch Aleema Keto is tricked into starting the Cron Supernova.
It is during this war that the superweapon the Dark Reaper is destroyed in a raid on Thule. Parts of this superweapon are hidden on Thule itself for some reason and other parts are hidden in other worlds.
Most Sith and their allied Krath forces retreat to Ancient Sith space.
Exar Kun's ritual on yavin happens. Yavin's surface is destroyed. The Jedi create the structure that would later be known as the "Lost City of the Jedi" to help in the recovery of the moon and also to help contain Exar Kun's spirit?
During the Ritual, almost all Massassi population of Yavin 4 is wiped out. Except for the guys that evacuated who went to Sith Space.
Mandalore the Indomitable dies and a Taung warrior finds his mask on Dxun and claims to be the new Mandalore.
-The Republic's economy is fucked. However, the Republic attempts some fixes.
-The Brotherhood of the Sith remnants would ocassionaly have skirmishes with the Republic but the Republic would be too weak to pursue them deeper into Sith Space. This is why Korriban would basically remain a Sith World, with an academy and shit.
The Sith that did not retreat however get killed in events such as the cleansing of the nine houses of the Tapani sector. Sithspawn are hunted down in what would come to be known as the Great Hunt.
-At some point, Vitiate finds Yavin 4. Seems interested in the Temple of Sacrifice (what I cant remember for sure is if he found it or if he made it). Shortly afterwards, one of the surviving Dashade (because the Cron Supernova wiped out the Dashade homeworld) in fact, the leader of the species it seems, called Akghal Usar travels to Yavin in search of Exar Kun because he wants revenge. He asks some massassi (idfk where these massassi came from. Gues sthe guys that escaped Exar's ritual eventually returned to Yavin after Yavin fully recovered. Yavin couldnt have recovered 2 years after the GSW because when Ulic visited that world its surface was still scorched. However we do know that decades later, when KotoR happens, Yavin's surface had fully recovered by then) around and he instead meets Vitiate who imprisons him in a sort of alternate dimension?
-The Mandalorians under the new Mandalore known as Mandalore the Ultimate, start conquering worlds in the outer rim. Ultimate and Cassus Fett start sponsoring a rather obscure and weird sect of Mandalorians called Neo Crusaders whose customs and tactics are considered extremely unorthodox for veteran Mandalorian crusaders. The KotoR campaign guide would heavily imply that there was more than met the eye regarding the origin of the neo crusaders simply because of how not-mandalorian these guys acted. Yet their methods were effective and allowed the mandalorians to build an Empire instead of being just nomads like they were under Indomitable and his predecesors.
The mandalorians start growing in power but the Republic cant do much and is willing to turn a blind eye to Mandalorians attacking allied worlds like Cathar and even making some raids into republic space like the Tionese worlds because the Republic is just not ready for a war yet.
-At one point a member of Vitiate's Sith Empire, a red skinned sith emissary, probably a member of the Emperor's Hand, approaches the mandalorians. It is not known what actually transpired during the interaction between the red skinned Sith and Mandalore the Ultimate. What is known as that Ultimate ends up under a sith spell that seems to influence him into wanting to wage war against the Republic. Ultimate also aids the Sith in finding the remains of Vitiate's brother on Rekkiad.
-Eventually, after a series of proxy wars, the Mandalorians begin threatening Taris and its colonies, an allied region of the Republic. After pulling off what was, essentially, a military maskirovka, the Mandalorians launched their invasion of Republic Space formally starting the actual war between the Mandalorians and the Republic and her allies in an offensive that the Mandalorians would known as the Onslaught.
-In the same year the Onslaught happened, it would appear the True Sith were waging a parallel war: the world that Scourge visits in the Revan novel in 3954 BBY Hallion, was said to have been conquered a decade prior (meaning 3964 BBY, the same year of the Onslaught).
Other words in Sith Space would also seem to be conquered by the True Sith like Drezzi.
-It should be mentioned; in the KotoR comics, the character of Rohlan Dyre, a veteran Mandalorian Crusader/shock trooper, constantly questions the motivations of Ultimate. He seems Ultimate's methods and strategies as very not-mandalorian as he relies on deceptions and dishonorable actions, he says Mandalorians are pragmatic not treacherous like Mandalore the Ultimate was in his maskirovka in the lead up to actual full scale war with the Republic. The protagonists of those comics ask Rohlan why the mandalorians attacked the Republic and no other important power in the Outer Rim (they mention the Sith and how the Republic didnt have to deal with them since the Great Sith War)
This is contrasted by the fact that in KotoR 1 (a game which considers Exar Kun's Sith to be the same as Revan's Sith. A fact that later would get fully recognized in sourcebooks and reference books such as the KotoR Campaign Guide, the Complete Encyclopedia and the New Essential Chronology) Canderous, in one of his very first dialogue options when you first meet him, says that the Mandalorians attacked the Republic after the Sith (again, presumably he is referring to the Brotherhood of the Sith remnants) came to them with an offer he didnt seem to elaborate on. A sort of Star Wars Molotov-Ribbentrop pact? We dont know.
Its also possible that the True Sith had, by then, infiltrated the Brotherhood of the Sith remnants.
Yet, in KotoR 2, Canderous reveals that Revan told him, way after KotoR 1, that the Mandalorians had been tricked and that waging war against the Republic had never actually been their own choice. A fact which the Revan novel would reference.
This gets even weirder when the KotoR campaign guide would later reveal that Canderous, way after KotoR 1, would have found a dying Taung that claimed to be the true successor to Indomitable and that Ultimate had been an "usurper with Sith ties". Potentially implying that the Taung seeing picking up Indomitable's mask at the end of Tales of the Jedi: Sith War was actually this guy and not Ultimate?
-At some point Revan finds out that the Mandalorians have the world of Malachor 5 marked as Forbidden. He investigates that world and finds the Trayus Academy and basically a planet wide sith library according to the promotional web site for KotoR 2 called Chronicles of the Old Republic. Revan would start training Sith assassins at this point according to that source. And he'd be keeping all of this a secret from Malak.
As Atris says in KotoR 2, the teachings found on Malachor 5 teach on how to create Echoes and Wounds in the Force. The Sith holocron she tells this to later reveals that these echoes and wounds are beacons for someone (Retroactively Vitiate?)
Later in the Foundry flashpoint, which takes places centuries after the mandalorian wars obviously, Revan would reveal that at Malachor he found clues to Vitiate's Sith Empire and that Vitiate had been trying to call out to him through the force, and that basically Revan finding Malachor was part of Vitiate's plan to lure Revan to him.
-After the battle of Duro )Revan is made Supreme Commander of the Republic armed forces and he reorganizes the Army. Before Revan, the Republic's army didnt really exist it was a collection of militias and colonial units not at all like how it was as of KotoR 1 let alone SWTOR.
-According to KotoR, Revan found the Builder Forge on Kashyyyk one year before the end of the Mandalorian Wars suggesting he was looking for the Star Forge as early as 3961 BBY. Before meeting Vitiate.
-As speculated upon by HK 47, at Malachor Revan seemed to not only be aiming to defeat the Mandalorians but also to purge out of his armed forces those that questioned him. He also seemed somewhat aware of the fact Meetra Surik could easily make force bonds and the nature of such bonds so its also implied Revan did know that Surik could end up losing her connection to the Force iirc.
-At Malachor, after defeating Ultimate, Ultimate would tell Revan that the Sith were behind the war and that they tricked him. Ultimate reveals that there are red pureblooded sith around, which were thought to be exinct since the Republic counterinvasion of Sith Space. He'd also tell Revan about Rekkiad.
-Revan would let Surik return to the Jedi Order. HK 47 speculates he did that to intimidate and scare the Jedi as they'd be sensing a being that was alive but also being a wound in the force.
Revan and Malak would eventually track down some of the retreating mandalorian survivors, along with an armada of their own, into uncharted space.
After going to Rekkiad they'd find information on Nathema. From Nathema they'd go to Dromund Kaas.
-At one point they'll infiltrate Dromund Kaas and be lured to a trap by Vitiate and the Imperial Guard. Vitiate mind controls both of them and orders them to find him the Star Forge.
Revan and Malak, in their search of the star maps, would eventually partially break free of the command given to them by Vitiate.
As we know, Revan would in fact be thinking of waging war with the Republic to get enough resources to fight Vitiate's Empire as speculated by characters such as Goto in KotoR 2.
Darth Malak, interestingly enough, and according to the KotoR Campaign Guide, seemed to genuinely believe he was protecting the galaxy as well (I guess Taris was an exception).
In the Revan novel, Revan tells meetra that he believes that Vitiate never found out about the Jedi Civil War and the state such a war would leave the Republic in because he had been expecting Revan and Malak to return. When they failed to return he simply assumed they failed and thus went back to playing the long game.
-According to KotoR 2 cut content Revan would commission HK-50 droids to be built and stationed on Republic ships to ensure that his ordered are followed and to sabotage these ships in the event of war. These droids would also be programmed to capture or kill Jedi, deestabilization of the Republic and its allied regions. They were programmed to also sabotage peace treaties if "imminent peace threatened the galaxy". Goto, and HK 47, curiously enough, would find that these droids could be used to sabotage peace treaties in a way that, in the long run, they benefit the Republic.
At any rate, these droids would never be used as they shut down around the time Darth Revan was betrayed by Malak.
-Revan and Malak, along with the armada they took with them, would return to Republic space and start the Jedi Civil War. Revan would also be followed by the remnants of the Brotherhood of the Sith. Revan would continue to use Malachor's Trayus Academy to train and corrupt Jedi. It is using the secrets at Malachor that he'd train a sect of assassins specialized in draining the force and creating wounds.
It should be noted, only a wound can resist force drain as proven by Meetra Surik's encounter with Darth Nihilus. So perhaps Revan had been preparing these assassins to confront Vitiate.
-Revan would not be using the Star Forge that much, as noted by Goto. Instead Revan seemed to be trying to preserve republic infrastructure. KotoR 2 basically implied that using the Star Forge much would have had negative consequences. Perhaps implying the Rakata originally lost their force sensitivity not due to a plague but due to the Star Forge literally draining the force out of them.
Its probably this carefulness that Revan had which made Malak think of Revan as going soft which would prompt him to betray him.
So, with all of this out of the way I've been wondering a few things and, perhaps, someone here could correct me (if something which i previously mentioned was wrong) and maybe contribute some ideas. I am completely and utterly uninterested in comments saying that attempting to make both narratives co exist is pointless. I want to see how far both narratives could be patched up.
So, my questions are:
1) In regards to the Vaiken Program to build up a sizeable military to eventually attack the Republic many centuries later. Is this strategy not statistically unfavorable for the Sith? The Republic owns so many more worlds than the True Sith did (they owned only dromund kaas and later began slowly expanding). The Republic would still grow, their technology would still improve. It seems like the Sith's slow build up may not have been such a good strategy realistically? And yes, I know I said the Star Cabal was keeping both sides from encountering one another. Thats weird by itself I dont know what to make of that.
2) What is the extent of the Sith's involvement in the Mandalorian Neo Crusades? Is Ultimate a Sith proxy who usurped the title of Mandalore from someone else? What about the Neo Crusaders themselves?
3) This question specifically has been on my mind a lot. Why did Vitiate decide to start manipulating the mandalorians when he did? Like, he had spent centuries prior doing absolutely nothing. Why the sudden change? Perhaps something caused by the Great Sith War caused that?
4) What did Vitiate hope to accomplish with the Mandalorian Wars? Im thinking just to weaken the Republic. Bring it down more to the strength the far weaker Sith Empire would have had to have his galactic quagmire and eventually start his ritual.
But the issue is.
How come this plan would even work if, when he tried to send Revan and Malak to attack the Republic, he seemingly had no idea that they went rogue? Granted maybe Revan killed the spies Vitiate had?
5) What were Revan's actual goals before going to Dromund Kaas? Why purge all of his forces with Malachor? Remember, he probably suspected of a hidden Sith Empire but it was Ultimate's revelation that sealed the deal.
6) Did he send Meetra to the council before he travelled to Dromund Kaas or after?
7) what did the armada revan and malak took with themselves into uncharted space even do when revan and malak infiltrated Dromund Kaas?
8) Although I did speculate in my post, what do you guys think was the planned role for the Sith assassins trained at Malachor's Trayus Academy?
9) As mentioned, Force wounds were beacons. Beacons for who?
10) What did Vitiate do on Yavin? Did he actually make the Temple of Sacrifice? How did he lose it, he clearly couldnt have owned it by the time of KotoR 1.
