On Friday, BioWare released the next update in the Timeline saga where Master Gnost-Dural went into detail about the complete onslaught of the Sith Empire when they first appeared to invade the Republic. This was the information most people were curious about: how did the Sith appear and how did they destroy so much so fast?

By materializing out of nowhere, the Sith were able to attack planets with such ferocity that the Empire was able to overwhelm entire systems with nearly no opposition. However, they wanted to show the complete fire power of their fleet. So, they waited for a Republic diplomatic team to come. Right after images were relayed showing the sheer size of the fleet, they were destroyed.

Planet after planet fell. Soon, planets that were once allies to the Republic became allies to the Sith. More planets fell. Korriban fell which became one of the staging grounds for the launch of the game.

When the Jedi and the Senate met to try and work together on finding some way of working together, it devolved into politics. Each planet was unwilling to give soldiers to the general effort out of fear that their planet would be left defenseless. So, it became a sense of “every planet for itself.” This was exactly what the Sith Emperor had wanted. By having the Republic fraction apart, he’d be able to sweep in and do some considerable damage.

Fortunately, the Jedi came along and slowed the Empire down. Because individual Masters were able to rally forces, they were able to fight decisive battles that would weaken the Empire and ensure that they couldn’t push forward unopposed. However, what the attack also showed was that they had been planning for hundreds of years. I’ll elaborate on this point in my next post…

To see the Timeline update, check out SWTOR’s site. They have the Timeline series.