Darth Revan
height= Unknown|planet= Unknown Outer Rim World, possibly Deralia (as claimed in one dialogue with Bastila)|vehicle=Ebon Hawk|affiliation=Jedi, Old Republic, Sith|portrayer= N/A|
"Revan was power. Staring into his eyes was like staring into the heart of the Force. Even then, you could see the Jedi he would slay etched on his soul." — Jedi Master Kreia, in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Darth Revan (pronounced //) was a fallen Jedi and Dark Lord of the Sith in the Star Wars universe. Revan was featured in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which was set 40 years after the Great Sith War and the fall of Exar Kun, or 3,956 years BBY.
NB: In the game, Revan may be either male or female. Due to incomplete software development, several points in the game indicate that Revan is male, which is the canonically stated preference. The player's choice of a male or female Revan will not change the game's endings or Revan's allies (beyond determining which characters the player character can fall in love with), but this article will follow Star Wars Expanded Universe canon and address Revan as male.NameThe name Revan is possibly derived from any number of European words for "revenge", such as the Czech word "revans", or the French word, "revanche". It could also reference a revenant, a corpse that has been reborn according to medieval mythology, or it could be an alteration of the word raven. There is also a possibility of Revan being gained from the French verb "revenir", which means to return, to come back. Another likely possibility is that Revan's name is taken from the term revanchism, a term used to describe a political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses, often by way of war. Unlike other Sith Lords, Revan did not adopt a pseudonym when taking on the Darth title. Instead, Revan and Malak both used their real names.GenderWhile Revan's gender is specified by the player, the canonical Revan is confirmed by Leland Chee to be male [1]. Also, The New Essential Chronology and the Chronicles of the Old Republic, published prior to the release of The Sith Lords, both refer to Revan as male. It is notable, however that the game's chief developer stated that he pictured Revan as female [2] and that the New Essential Chronology's author went out of his way NOT to specify gender, just making note of what he had heard secondhand.
In KOTOR II, if the player chooses not to define Revan's gender during an important conversation with Atton Rand, the game sets Revan to a light side male by default. However, it is notable that Atton, at first, apparently assumes Revan to be female. This may well have been a genuine mistake, or just an attempt to hide his past. Bastila also refers to Revan as "she," even though Bastila did know the truth about Revan's gender. The actual physical appearance of the character has not been defined in continuity.
If the player does define Revan as light side female, Bastila never appears in game, and it focuses much more on Carth Onasi. In speaking to him as the Exile at the end of KOTOR II, the player learns that Revan remained with Carth after destroying the Star Forge. Carth informs the Exile that after some time, Revan became more distant, and finally told him that a threat beyond the Mandalorians (presumably the Old Sith Empire) was beyond the Outer Rim, and she had to go stop it. Carth is desperate for word of Revan, and is upset that the Exile has returned with Revan's ship, the Ebon Hawk, but has seen no sign of her.
Nonetheless, the choice of LucasArts to give an "official" gender to Revan has proved controversial, with over a third of participants on official boards stating a preference for the female storyline, despite being rendered "unofficial." [3] [4] Even the decision to "canonize" the Jedi Exile as female has done little to mollify female fans. [5] Revan's gender is often cited with Lucas's infamous quote that Star Wars is "a boys' movie" in the book Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans [6] when accusing LucasArts of being unresponsive or hostile to its female fan base.Before the WarsIt is possible that Revan's homeworld is Deralia, though this may be a false memory implanted by the Jedi Council.When Revan was first being trained as a Jedi Padawan, he was found to be very strong in the Force. His close friend Malak was strong in the Force as well, though Revan was undeniably the more powerful of the pair. Revan's first Jedi Master was Kreia, though he learned from several others, including Masters Zhar, Dorak, and Kae. But after learning from these Masters, he came back to learn more from Kreia. After the Jedi Civil War, Kreia was overcome with guilt and confusion about Revan's fall. She journeyed to Malachor V, where she was corrupted by the dark side, becoming Darth Traya (although, it is also believed that Kreia was already Traya before this).The Mandalorian WarsNearly 4,000 years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, a warrior race known as the Mandalorians began raiding worlds on the edge of the galaxy. Despite Revan and Malak's belief that the Jedi should help the Republic, the Jedi Order insisted on staying out of the war, feeling that the true threat had not yet revealed itself. Many younger Jedi were unwilling to wait as the Mandalorians assaulted planet after planet, and so Revan and his friend Malak organized a force of rebellious Jedi Knights to assist the Republic in defeating the Mandalorians. Many Jedi felt inspired by the charismatic Revan, and so they joined him. The Mandalorians expected Master Kavar (an established general, and one of Revan's teachers) to lead the battle instead of him. Revan proved to be not only one of the more powerful Jedi Knights in the order, but also an excellent tactician and strategist. He was willing to sacrifice entire planets so as to make the most important ones impenetrable. And despite taking massive casualties (sometimes as many as ten Republic soldiers for every Mandalorian), Revan was consistently able to outmaneuver and overwhelm the enemy both in space and on the ground.
The final battle of the war took place at Malachor V, a cultural taboo to the Mandalorians. Revan sent his least loyal troops to lure the remnants of the Mandalorian fleet there, where a mass shadow generator had been placed. The general overseeing its use was the Jedi Exile, who gave the order to activate it. The result nearly destroyed the planet. Few on either side survived. Around the conclusion of the Mandalorian Wars, Revan fought Mandalore (the Mandalorian leader) in a grueling battle. Revan won, killing Mandalore, and thus struck a crippling blow to the Mandalorian war effort.
At Malachor V, Revan discovered the Trayus Academy, where he was supposedly corrupted by the teachings of the Sith. In reality, he discovered the truth about a new threat beyond the borders of the galaxy, the hidden empire of the ancient Sith. The planet itself was an ancient storehouse of the Sith; steeped in a darkness so great that it almost destroyed Revan. He was able to survive this darkness only by giving into the dark side of the Force. Now with the knowledge of the hidden Sith threat, he decided to create a new Sith order to destroy the old order of the Sith hiding in the shadows. Taking the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith, he launched a massive campaign to try and strengthen the Republic to face the Sith threat. He thought that by defeating the Republic, he could began to bolster it and militarize it enough to defeat the Old Sith. And, as a back-up, if he lost, the Republic will still have gained enough strength to win over the hidden threat. Bringing more Jedi to his side and utilizing dangerous assassin droids like HK-47 to take out corrupt polititions and warlords that threatened the destabilization of the Republic government, he created an army of "New Sith" to take over the galaxy. Malak, now Darth Malak, grudgingly assumed the title of apprentice.
Ironically, it seemed that by trying to save the Republic, he had to invade it to prepare it for the oncoming threat. He was a savior, a conqueror, a hero, and a villain all at once.The Star ForgeAfter his corruption, Revan took ships beyond the known galaxy in search of an ancient artifact, a megastructure known as the Star Forge. For several years prior to the war, Revan and Malak had been researching artifacts in reference to this powerful Star Forge. They discovered that it was a massive space station with the ability to produce an almost limitless number of ships, accomplished by siphoning matter and energy from a nearby star as well as feeding on the dark side energies imbued within it. Revan and Malak, now beholden to the dark side, created a massive fleet to destroy the Old Republic and the Jedi, whom Revan thought were too pacifist to be of any use in the New Order of the Sith. He reformed and converted the ex-Republic forces who followed them into a militaristic empire. | Bastila and her Jedi confront Darth Revan |
The reinvigorated Sith won battle after battle, until a young Jedi named Bastila Shan entered the fray with her Battle Meditation. This rare and powerful Force ability increased the combat effectiveness of the Old Republic's forces and sapped the will of enemy combatants. Even with this power, however, the Old Republic's forces knew that they could not hold out forever against the Sith. In a desperate attempt to end the war, the Old Republic set a trap for Revan and Malak, during which Bastila and a team of Jedi boarded Revan's flagship and managed to corner the Dark Lord on the bridge. Revan most likely would have defeated Bastila and the remnants of her Jedi strike team if he was given the chance. However, Malak, likely knowing he could not defeat Revan in personal combat, took this opportunity to kill both Revan and Bastila with one swift stroke. He fired upon the flagship from a nearby battle cruiser but failed to kill either his master or Bastila. Revan, nearly dead, was partly healed by Bastila Shan, creating a Force bond between the two. His mind was reprogrammed by the Jedi Council to hide the Dark Lord's old identity, while enabling the Jedi to use Revan's subconscious memories to locate the Star Forge and destroy it.
Revan was enlisted as a soldier in the Old Republic army and placed under Bastila's command on the Old Republic warship Endar Spire. Since Revan's demise, Malak, thinking his master dead, had decided to base the New Sith completely on the Dark Side, something that Revan had tried to avoid. Malak then devoted all his forces to the hunt for Bastila. In orbit over the world of Taris, the Endar Spire was attacked by a Sith fleet and destroyed. Bastila managed to escape to the planet's surface, followed soon after by Revan and fellow Republic soldier Carth Onasi. The Sith blockaded Taris, intent on capturing Bastila. They were unaware that the young female Jedi had already been taken prisoner by a swoop gang called the Black Vulkars, who intended to give her to the winner of an underground swoop racing tournament as a slave. Revan eventually succeeded in rescuing her when he infiltrated and won the tournament. As the group decided on how to escape Taris, Revan mentioned to Bastila about a couple of visions he had had, and Bastila knew that Revan's Force powers were beginning to reawaken. Because of his winning the race, Revan received a message from Canderous Ordo about an offer to escape the planet. Meeting up with the Mandalorian at the cantina, Ordo said that if they work together, he could provide the means to escape Taris, Davik Kang's flagship, the Ebon Hawk. First, Revan had to break into the Sith military base and steal the launch codes to bypass the quarantine. Revan used the help of a droid named T3-M4. Using the droid's security hacking skills he sucsessfully aquired the bypass codes. Shortly afterwards he then infiltrated Davik's lair, via Canderous' recommendation to join the Exchange, and acquired the Ebon Hawk.However, in orbit, Darth Malak, deciding that the search for Bastila was taking too long, gave the order to destroy the entire planet. Positioning themselves in strategic formations, the ships of his fleet unleashed a devastating planetary bombardment that wiped out nearly all life on Taris's surface. Revan confronted Davik and Calo Nord who both had the same idea of escaping and weren't about to let Revan take the Hawk. Revan killed Davik and Nord was about to blow everything and everyone up, but was caught and trapped underneath hanger debris. Revan and his new found crew barely escaped in time aboard the Ebon Hawk. Revan and his companions fled to the Jedi stronghold of Dantooine, where Bastila convinced the Jedi academy council to retrain the amnesiac Dark Lord in the ways of the Jedi. After Revan completed his formal training, he and Bastila were sent to investigate an ancient stone structure. Inside, the two uncovered an ancient artifact known as a Star Map, a relic of the long-forgotten Infinite Empire of the Rakata. Though the Map was not complete, it pointed the way to the worlds of Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, and Korriban, on which more Star Maps could be found. Only with the combined information of these five worlds, Revan discovered, could the location of a mysterious Rakatan artifact called the "Star Forge" be found.
Revan, Bastila, and their companions journeyed to these worlds, tracing the steps Darth Revan and Darth Malak had taken years before. On each planet, the powerful dark side aura of the Star Maps had created perilous conditions that made access to the Maps difficult. Additionally, the crew of the Ebon Hawk found themselves hunted by Sith and bounty hunters, and confronted with the problems of the local populace at every turn.
After discovering the fourth Star Map (including the one found in the ruins on Dantooine), Revan and his allies were captured by the Sith flagship Leviathan. They managed to escape from their holding cells, but, as they fled toward the Ebon Hawk, Revan was confronted by Darth Malak, who revealed to him his former life as the Dark Lord of the Sith. A vicious lightsaber duel ensued, culminating with Bastila's capture by Malak. Revan was forced to deal with Malak's revelation and his loss of Bastila as the quest for the Star Forge stepped up, until at last it was found in the home system of the ancient Rakata.
After gaining the support of this race, Revan was forced to confront a fallen Bastila. Following weeks of torture at Malak's hands, Bastila had at last given in to her hate, or perhaps despair over her forbidden love for Revan, and had fallen to the dark side. She now claimed to be the Dark Lord's new apprentice. His original apprentice, a former Jedi named Darth Bandon, had previously been slain by Revan during the search for the Star Maps.
Atop an ancient Rakatan temple, Bastila attempted to entice Revan to reclaim his former title of Dark Lord of the Sith. This was the climax of the quest for the Star Forge, and it ended with Revan, once again, making a choice that would change the fate of the galaxy.Revan's fateRevan made the choice of a Jedi. Enraged, Bastila retreated to the Star Forge. Revan and the crew of the Ebon Hawk pursued her as an Old Republic fleet commenced an assault of its own.Aboard the Star Forge, Revan almost single-handedly defeated an entire army of Sith and Dark Jedi, a testament to his power in the Force and mastery of lightsaber combat. Near the end, he faced off against Bastila once again. After defeating her, he succeeded in convincing her to return to the light side by drawing on their love which had formed between them during the course of their quest. Bastila returned to the light and agreed to use her Battle Meditation to aid the Republic Fleet. The Old Republic fleet, now no longer hindered, but now aided by Bastila's Battle Meditation, continued its bombardment of the Star Forge. Finally, Revan again confronted his old friend and apprentice, Malak, in an epic lightsaber duel. During their duel, Malak continually sucked the life force from Jedi held in stasis to replenish his energies. This, however, was not enough to defeat Revan, as he forcefully released the captive Jedi, allowing them to become one with the Force. At last, Malak was cut down. Before dying, Malak asked Revan what would have happened if their roles had been reversed, and wondered what he would've become had Revan not led him down the dark path. Revan openly apologized for his friend's downfall, but reminded Malak that it was his own choice to continue down the dark path. Malak accepted his apology, realizing that he had no one to blame for his fate save himself. Then Darth Malak, Dark Lord of the Sith, died, his life ending in darkness and regret, and the Star Forge was destroyed.
A mere year after the defeat of Malak and the collapse of the Sith Empire, Revan left the Old Republic, having recovered his memories regarding the remnants of the ancient Sith Empire he had discovered as the Dark Lord. Hoping to put an end to the threat it posed before it could attack the weakened Old Republic, Revan bade farewell to the nine comrades who had accompanied him on his quest, knowing that none whom he loved could safely accompany him in the places he had to walk.
He entrusted Carth Onasi with the Old Republic's safety, and said goodbye to his love Bastila Shan. "It would have been better", Kreia would later remark, "if he had made her understand. But she was always strong-willed, that one, and did not understand war as Revan did." Then Revan disappeared, leaving the Ebon Hawk with T3-M4 and HK-47 on the edge of Known Space. It is believed that the Jedi Exile later chose to search out her former commander and assist him in his mission.
Whether Revan ever completed his self-appointed mission and returned to the Old Republic and his waiting friends is as of yet unknown. It is possible that answers to questions like why Revan had gone to the Unknown Regions and whether he defeated the Sith Empire single-handedly will be revealed in the projected Knights of the Old Republic III, expected to be developed by Obsidian Entertainment [7].Revan embraces the dark side | Darth Revan, Dark Lord of the Sith |
Accepting her offer, Revan and Bastila struck down the Jedi Jolee Bindo and/or Juhani (Juhani can be killed on Dantooine), the stain of their blood on the temple stone symbolizing Revan's return to power.
Returning to his starship, the Ebon Hawk, Revan explained the absence of Jolee and Juhani to his stunned party. Shocked by his return to the dark side, Carth Onasi fled, leaving Mission Vao to be mercilessly struck down by Revan. (Alternatively, Revan uses his mind-dominating Force powers to convince Zaalbar to kill Mission or Revan must kill both Mission and Zaalbar. There is no way to save Mission.) Canderous, who admires Revan's abilities and his expertise in tactics and strategy during the Mandalorian Wars, stays with Revan. The droids, HK-47 and T3-M4, who are programmed to do their master's bidding, follow Revan as well.
Flying to the Star Forge, Bastila used her Battle Meditation to thwart the Old Republic fleet, allowing Revan to penetrate the depths of the Star Forge to fight with Darth Malak. Ruthlessly striking Malak down, Revan regained his rightful place as Dark Lord of the Sith.
Using the resources he now commanded as Master of the Star Forge, Revan created an infinite fleet that rolled forth, nearly crushing the Old Republic. Surprisingly, however, Revan soon halted his offensive. It was noted as odd that Revan deliberately avoided striking the Republic's manufacturing facilities in his previous war, and again that he seemingly ended the Star Forge's production of vessels early. Bastila Shan, in a holocron discovered on Korriban, reported that Revan mysteriously vanished one day and told her to wait for him. Without its strong leader, the Forge atrophied and was destroyed. It is assumed that Darth Revan visited all his former strongholds searching for something that is not yet readily apparent. It is known, however, that he headed for the Unknown Regions with the intent of stopping something menacingly powerful, something that was apparently responsible for initially coercing the Mandalorians to invade. Revan's former master, Kreia, suggests that Revan was searching for the original Sith Empire.Revan as a womanRevan's history is largely the same regardless, but Revan is a male for the cannon ending; however, if Revan is female, she has the potential to fall in love with Carth. Juhani may express that she cares for Revan, a plotline that Bioware developers confirmed was meant to be female-only. [8] Carth may attempt to offer his love and support in order to keep Revan from falling to the dark side.
If Revan is light sided, she will refuse Bastila's temptations on the temple summit and take the Ebon Hawk to the Star Forge, where she will defeat Malak. Later, she will leave Carth behind with instructions to keep the Republic strong. Carth knows beforehand about her leaving and tells T3-M4 to help her if possible.
If Revan is dark sided, she accepts Bastila as her apprentice and retakes the Star Forge after killing Jolee and Juhani (if she was not killed on Dantooine). After Revan defeats Malak, if she had previously fallen in love with Carth, he will show up on the Star Forge and attempt to turn her back to the light. He is unsuccessful in this, and either Revan or Bastila will kill him.
There was an alternate ending for Carth and the dark sided Revan's romance, but it was cut because of time constraints. In it, Revan could choose redemption by staying with Carth, defeating Bastila, and destroying the Star Forge. Fans have released a mod that restores this ending, minus the unfinished cutscene. [9] It's this unfinished ending that the game's chief developer, stated was his "favorite."One of the most interesting revelations in The Sith Lords is one many gamers have missed, concerning Revan himself. Whereas the first game implied that Revan's actions in the Mandalorian Wars caused Revan to fall to the dark side of the Force, The Sith Lords features characters who know Revan before and after his fall.
These characters point out that Revan, during the Wars, discovered something outside the realm of the Old Republic: the original Sith Empire, believed to have collapsed in internecine fighting millennia ago. In learning this, the characters say, Revan felt compelled to protect the galaxy from this threat. Under this revelation and others, Revan's actions become quite different from the rash, destructive goals of Darth Malak and other, later Sith. These include:
*Ignoring, militarily, any planet with a strong industrial infrastructure: one that would be required to defend the galaxy against the unknown threat. Revan's plan was to leave the Old Republic's infrastructure intact, giving him a functional military and economy to work with once he had conquered the galaxy, rather than starting from scratch.
*Use of assassin droids, such as HK-47, to assassinate those who would have destabilized local governments, planets, or entire sectors.
*Focus on conversion, rather than murder, of Jedi. In joining the dark side, or at the very least, abandoning the constrictive Jedi teachings, these Dark Jedi would be stronger against the ancient Sith Empire. In the games it is mentioned that "Revan had a plan for every single Jedi Knight."
Even Revan's fall to the dark side of the Force takes on new significance with this information. Darth Traya even goes so far as to stubbornly believe that Revan did not fall to the dark side: when Revan was faced with the power of the dark side on Malachor V, he came to realize that a Dark Lord of the Sith was the only one who could defeat the old Sith Empire. Embracing the dark side, Revan founded a new Sith Empire to defeat the old. To save the galaxy, he would conquer it. To become the galaxy's greatest hero, he would become its greatest villain. | The final duel between Darth Revan and Darth Malak on the Star Forge |
In an ironic turn of events, Revan succeeded and failed at his task. Unexpectedly betrayed by Darth Malak, Revan's plans were quickly quashed by his brash and violent apprentice, who sought to destroy the Old Republic entirely. It was only the Force that kept Revan alive, being reborn with little existing memory of his earlier self. Using his slowly-returning memories, Revan began to accomplish his original undertakings. His memories once again fully restored, Revan left Known Space to take the fight to the old Sith Empire.
It is unknown if Revan succeeded or failed at his task. It is generally assumed that the fate of Revan and the Exile will be a key aspect to any new Knights of the Old Republic sequels. Some argue that Revan succeeded - the Sith would not conquer the galaxy for almost another two thousand years. Others take the perspective that Revan failed, stating that regardless of "old Sith" or "new Sith", the Sith do indeed triumph against the Republic - it merely takes them four thousand years.Similarity with Darth VaderMany have also noticed a few notable similarities between Revan and another Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader. Both were among the most powerful Force-users of their time, as well as being highly skilled warriors who fell to the Dark Side of the Force at the end of galactic conflicts (the Mandalorian and Clone Wars respectively). The two characters' identities also went through drastic changes as the result of lightsaber duels, though Revan's were mental, while Vader's physical. Both Vader and Revan also share having constructed and lost protocol droids, only to be reunited with them on the same planet (Tatooine) by the will of the Force. The two Dark Lords also have strikingly similar attire: black robes and armor, with a face covered by a metallic mask, designed to strike fear at the hearts of enemies. Also similar are their motivations: both abandoned the Jedi in an attempt to save the things they cared for, and ultimately return to the Light and atone their actions. However, Revan's motive for leaving the Jedi is more ambiguous than Vader's. From comments by the Jedi Master Kreia, Revan might have viewed his 'fall' to the darkside as necessary in order to save the Republic, but there are also other more hidden reasons which might be revealed in the final installment of Knights of the Old Republic.In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, at the ancient cave in Korriban, the Jedi Exile confronts a vision of Darth Revan in which he appears to wield two lightsabers, one red and one purple, and attacks the Exile.# # David Gaider (lead writer on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) on# Juhani romance discussion on Bioware's boards#KOTOR Fanmedia survey on gender of PC# Official LucasArts board thread about the gender players prefer using# George Lucas, quoted by Will Brooker
*Official LucasArts Knights of the Old Republic site
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