Malachor V, or simply Malachor, was an Outer Rim planet located in the Malachor system. Prior to the final battle of the Mandalorian Wars, the planet was fertile and hospitable. After the cataclysm caused by the Mass Shadow Generator, it became a cracked and twisted wasteland covered with jagged cliffs and plagued by constant lightning storms. It was inhabited by monstrous storm beasts. The gravity of the planet was unstable, which made it dangerous for starships to stay there for very long.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early history 1.2 Mandalorian Wars 1.3 Jedi Civil War 1.4 Final destruction 1.5 Legacy 2 Behind the scenes 3 Appearances 4 Sources 5 See also 6 Notes and references 6.1 In other languages

HistoryEdit

Early historyEdit

The early history of Malachor V remained largely unknown. Vague reports established that an ancient branch of the Sith—the True Sith—constructed a Sith academy on the planet's surface. In time the Academy, and Malachor itself, became a place of great power within the dark side of the Force. At some point in time the empire of the True Sith disintegrated, and they retreated further back into the Unknown Regions, seemingly abandoning and forgetting their stronghold on Malachor V.

Later, after the Old Sith Wars, a fallen Jedi named Kreia came across the ruins of the academy and began to use it as a training ground for the new army of the Sith Triumvirate.

It had been suggested by some that the Sith who populated the planet were members (or former members) of the Sith Empire. The hypothesis remained controversial among historians and had yet to be proven, however. The historical records clearly pointed out, though, that there was some connection between the mysterious True Sith and the Sith Empire. The extent and manner of that connection also had yet to be discovered. As it turned out, the True Sith was a remnant of the Sith Empire, led by the man who would become the Sith Emperor. Fleeing their defeat at the end of the Great Hyperspace War, they eventually came to the world of Dromund Kaas. At some point, they apparently came to Malachor V where they built the Trayus Academy. During their time on Malachor V, the Empire experienced an uprising led by Dakar Sol.

Mandalorian WarsEdit

Centuries later, Malachor became the site of the final battle of the Mandalorian Wars, during which the most terrible atrocity of the war was committed. Malachor was restricted to Mandalorians, a taboo in Mandalorian culture, something that the Jedi General Revan used against them in order to win the war. Revan amassed an enormous fleet composed, not coincidentally, of Jedi and Republic soldiers whose loyalty to Revan was in question, at the planet, providing the Mandalorians with a target that was too good to pass up. At the head of this force Revan placed one of his top generals: Meetra Surik, who was later known as the Jedi Exile.

During the Battle of Malachor V, Revan single-handedly slew Mandalore the Ultimate aboard the warlord's flagship. As Republic and Mandalorian forces outsystem from the planet itself continued to clash, Surik ordered the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator superweapon with a single, wordless nod towards its inventor, Bao-Dur, in order to prevent the Mandalorian forces they faced from overwhelming them and moving on to attack Revan's forces from behind. In an instant, Malachor's gravity crushed every combatant in and around its atmosphere—Mandalorian, Republic, and Jedi alike. Malachor's surface was transformed into a barren, shattered and lifeless wasteland—all of Revan's enemies were eliminated in a single stroke. The planet was left scarred from the battle as the surface had been crushed. Long afterward, there was still evidence of crashed Republic cruisers buried deep within the surface.

Jedi Civil WarEdit

Following his victory, Revan journeyed into the Unknown Regions with Malak in search of Mandalore's mysterious masters, which the pair learned to be Sith on the ice world of Rekkiad. However, they were ultimately turned to the dark side and mentally programmed to attack the Republic by the Sith Emperor, who sent them back to the Republic to wage war. But the Emperor underestimated the pair's resolve, as they broke free of his commands not long after and decided to conquer the Republic for themselves and adopted the title of Dark Lord of the Sith. During the Jedi Civil War, circa 3,959–3,956 BBY, he used the Trayus Academy, located on the planet's surface as one of several secret Sith bases dedicated to the conversion of captured Jedi Knights. Throughout the war, Jedi were captured by his Sith Assassins and other specially trained forces, and brought to the Academy. The corruptive nature of the location weakened their wills so that Revan and his loyal servants could easily lure them to the dark side. In such places, he converted hosts of Jedi into fanatical Dark Jedi and Sith Assassins for his Sith Empire.

Several years after the war had ended, Revan's old Master Kreia traveled to Malachor V in search of what had corrupted her apprentice. Like Revan, she was corrupted by the dark side energy resonating throughout the planet; in secret, she then took the moniker of Darth Traya and began training new students of the dark side at the Trayus Academy, which had remained unscathed despite the devastation wrought by the Mass Shadow Generator. Among her first two students were Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus, who soon became powerful enough to overthrow her. The three Sith Lords formed an uneasy alliance against the Jedi, but the two apprentices eventually broke the alliance, and Darth Traya was cast down, stripped of her power, and exiled from Malachor.

Final destructionEdit

In 3,951 BBY, Kreia located Meetra Surik, the only Jedi who had fought at Malachor V and not been killed or corrupted. Plotting revenge against her apprentices, Kreia began orchestrating events to set up a final confrontation between herself and Surik at the Trayus Academy. After slaying Darth Nihilus, Surik arrived at the Academy and defeated the Sith there, including Darth Sion and Darth Traya, thus silencing the echoes of the atrocity that, until then, Malachor had still sent through the force.

While Surik fought in the Academy, Bao-Dur, the technician who had originally designed the Mass Shadow Generator, ordered his remote to reactivate the superweapon in an effort to destroy the tainted world of Malachor V once and for all. Despite G0-T0's attempts to thwart it, the remote succeeded in its task. As Surik departed Malachor in the Ebon Hawk, the dead planet crumbled under the pressure of the mass shadow's gravity, leaving behind only asteroids and the wreckage of many hundreds of blasted warships, a grim memorial to the Battle of Malachor V.

LegacyEdit

By 3,640 BBY,^[4] surveys showed small pockets of biological life was still active in Malachor V's remains.^[5]

The planet's infamy led to its name becoming a swearword, synonymous with "Hell". By the Clone Wars, Republic Colonel Meebur Gascon used it in anger.^[6]

Behind the scenesEdit

If the player chooses to take the path of the dark side, Surik throws Darth Traya's body into the abyss and takes the title of Dark Lord of the Sith; the planet itself survives.

AppearancesEdit

• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (First mentioned)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan (Mentioned only)
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (First appearance)
• Timeline 8: The Jedi Civil War (Mentioned only)
• Timeline 9: The Mandalorian Wars (Appears in hologram)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic (Mentioned only)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Missing in Action" (Mentioned only)

SourcesEdit

• Chronicles of the Old Republic
• The New Essential Chronology
• The New Essential Guide to Droids
• Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force
• Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• Jedi Academy Training Manual
• The Essential Atlas
• Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side
• "10 Great Military Leaders"—Star Wars Insider Special Edition 2013
•  Missing in Action Trivia Gallery on StarWars.com (backup link on Archive.org) (Slide 7)

See alsoEdit

• Battle of Malachor V
• Destruction of Malachor V

Notes and referencesEdit