The Great War was the galaxy-wide conflict between the Altarin'Dakor and the allied forces of the rest of the galaxy. It effectively ended the Golden Age of the galaxy and lasted around 2,500 years until the founding of the Old Republic. During the war, much of the galaxy's infrastructure was destroyed, including many worlds and races entirely, and many technologies and advancements were lost. In the end, the Altarin'Dakor were driven out of the galaxy entirely, where they retreated to a younger, riper galaxy for the taking, to bide their time until the Return.
History of the War[]
In 28,503 BBY, the first Great Schism occurred among the Followers of Ashla, and this is often marked as the sunset of the Golden Age of the Galaxy. Nearly half the Jedi left and were not heard from for several years. They called themselves the Jedicon, or True Jedi. Then, in 28,499 BBY the Altarin'Dakor (Servants of Power) emerged with overwhelming forces, backed by the Shok'Thola and accompanied by corrupted, engineered races such as the Crinn, Zelduk, and Mortigena. The tide of conquest swept across the galaxy. The Taung and many more races in the galaxy joined the Altarin’Dakor in order to gain power. The Great War erupted.
The Altarin’Dakor and their forces fight the Followers of Ashla and nearly all the other races of the galaxy in the greatest war the galaxy has ever seen. Though at first the Altarin'Dakor advanced and conquered large swaths of space, eventually the other races of the galaxy combine into an alliance known as the Galactic Alliance of Free Systems. The war lasted for 2,500 years and was brutal, the advantage swinging from one side to the other. Many races were wiped out, planets and star systems were obliterated, many of the great feats accomplished during the Golden Age were wasted. Hijarna was devastated and the entire race living there vanished without a trace.
In 28,389 BBY the Followers, with a combined force of most of the other races, mounted a counteroffensive. Under overwhelming pressure from the combined might of most of the galaxy, the Altarin’Dakor advance slowed, and for centuries the tide stemmed back and forth. The Morodins colonized Varonat when the Altarin’Dakor wipe out their homeworld.
Then, once an enemy of the galaxy at large, the Altarin’Dakor invasion and the Great War caused the Rakatans to temporary ally with the Alliance. However, a plague created by the Warlord Sado caused them to lose their connectivity to the Force. As a result, their legions of slaves revolted and caused an uprising that destroyed the Rakatan Empire. They never discovered the cause of the plague, and it is never known that the Altarin’Dakor defeated the Rakatans. The Altarin’Dakor move in to their territory and for a time took control of galactic government, including Coruscant. They rule there for several centuries, this time, slowly consolidating their power.
However, during this time, the Alliance regroups and eventually mounts another counteroffensive. With some of the most powerful Jedi in history leading the Alliance's cause, the Altarin'Dakor were routed from Coruscant and are forced on the defensive once more. Along the way they assumed a type of scorched-earth policy. Zalaria and Nimrod wiped out every living thing on their home planet of Merinama. The Kashi Mer system went supernova and the entire system was destroyed by Altarin'Dakor sabotage. But this time, the Altarin'Dakor did not regroup. The Alliance forced them further and further toward the edge of the galaxy, as parts of the Altarin’Dakor splintered and broke off from the pressure. Some of the final battles took place in Epsilon Sector. The Crinn disagreed with the others and refused to stand there, and ran the Allianc blockade. Though most of them did not make it, some managed to reach their eventual hiding place on the Crinn homeworld.
The Altarin’Dakor made a valiant stand in Epsilon Sector. Most of the civilizations in the sector itself were wiped out. One of the greatest Jedicon Generals, named Lasitus, took his army to Varnus and there made his last stand. An incredible battle ensued, and though he was initially victorious, a second force descended, destroyed his entire army, and captured Lasitus. He was tried, and his sentence was to be imprisoned in a stasis field for all eternity, where he would remain until being found by the New Imperium.
Driven beyond their capacity to defend, the Altarin’Dakor crossed the Great Rift into the far Spiral Arm. The Alliance followed them through, however, and the final battles were fought there. The Altarin’Dakor, in desperation, built the Galactic Gate and sent their fleet through to another galaxy, though at the time they knew nothing more than its location. The Alliance discovered this move and confronted them just as they were moving their vast star fleet through. The final great battle of the war occured there, and the galactic gate was destroyed in the process. Much of the Altarin'Dakor fleet made it through, though many remnants were left behind, and those remnants would continue to plague the galaxy for 25,000 years.
The largest concentration of Altarin’Dakor remaining in the galaxy fled to the Unknown Regions, discovered a flourishing race in a remote corner of space, and subjugated it. The Crinn went into hiding in their own little pocket in space-time. The Altarin’Dakor, in their newfound galaxy, began to subjugate it and all its races, forming their empire anew. The Alliance and other races, themselves devastated from the war, began to recover and reorganize, eventually founding the Republic.