The Rakatan as we know were known as the builders, this was because of how advance they were for their time. They had built the galaxy's most powerful weapon, the Star Forge. As the Rakatan's knowledge grew and grew, the Rakatan began to turn on each other, the leader of the Rakatan's planet would get killed, a new Leader would rise and he to would be killed, and so forth. Only a small group of the Rakatan had managed to flee these power hungry rakatan. They became known as the Elders in Kotor. When Revan Found the Star Forge he was going to use it for evil, but soon Revan was captured and his memory wiped. Malak was the only person who new where the Star Forge was, so he deployed a large army, but Revan Arived intime to stop Malak and the Star Forge. It was the Highly advanced weapons like the Star Forge that drove the Rakatan to be power hungry.