So... Now with KotoR. and the Republic series the Sith of Ziost and Korriban had Darth names and lightsabers? And what are those crystals they are wearing and using in their ships? How can they blow up stars and become ghosts inside their tombs? What's up with these guys? Well, they were created before the prequels, in the Tales of the Jedi series, so it's logical they differ from the Sith we see in the films. It's also logical that there are many seeming contradictions with other EU sources and even the films themselves... Do not dispair! That's what ret-cons are for!

1.) The Darth names

A few years ago, there was supposed a guy, the heir of the Bane family, whose mommy and daddy named Darth. What a cute name! Darth grew up to be a Sith Lord who killed people for fun. What a shame for so cute a name... Anyway, his Apprentice came from a planet where they had names instead of nicknames, so he dedided to start a tradition where guys would change their name to Darth Insert-Your-Nickname-Here in honor of himself and his Apprentice. So the cuttest name in the galaxy became the trademark of the most evil b@st@rds in the galaxy. A few years later, a game came out that introduced us to some of the most evil b@st@rds in the galaxy that carried the Darth name but lived three thousand years before Bane! The rules changed, and now, fortunately, there's neither a Bane family nor parents who name their sons Darth... Now Bane is the heir of a Darth name tradition. How far back does that tradition go? We really don't know... Some theories connect it to Malachor V, others claim it was invented by Revan, etc etc. Well, I think it existed for as long as the Sith did. That's about 25.000 years. But what about Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, Freedon Nadd, Exar Kun, Ulic Quel-Droma and all the Sith who seemingly have no Sith names? Who told us they don't have a Darth name but they're just not using it? Nobody. While Darth Naga Sadow is a really stupid notion, why couldn't Naga Sadow carry the title Darth Whatever? If nobody calls him Darth Whatever, it doesn't necessary mean that his title was not Darth Whatever. So, I think the official title of Sith Lords was Darth Insert-Your-Nickname-Here since they were created. Why don't we see them using it then? They can if they choose to, it just happens that the ones we see chose not to. Not all of them though. A guy called Darth Andeddu is dressed like a Pharaoh but is called Darth and carries a lightsaber! He chose to be remembered with his Sith name, not his real one. I'll analyze the lightsaber in the second part of this entry. Why then all the Sith after Bane had to cease to be called what they were called before and adopt a Darth name? That's simple: They were in hiding. They had to make sure nobody would discover them. If Mrs Antilles' neigbor became a Sith for example, young Antilles would see him in a black robe and start screaming, "Hey, look mom, that's the sir who used to live next door! But he wears funny clothes and carries a lasersword, look at him mommy!". The Sith couldn't work that way in a galaxy who hunted them down like outlaws. Thy had to abandon their names for the Darth title, using it as a moniker like other Sith before them, and wear their hoods up and hide their lightsabers to disguise themselves. That was why in order for someone to become a Sith, he had to forget his real name and become Darth Something. Darth as a title existed loooong before Bane or even Revan and Malak. But it was optional to abandon your real name and when you got cool names like Marka Ragnos and Exar Kun, it's hard to let them be forgotten... Darth Andeddu had a silly-sounding real name we must presume... Yes, even more silly-sounding than "Darth Andeddu"...

2.) The lightsabers

Lightsabers existed since the Jedi were first formed. The first page of Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith #0 clearly shows this. As a young Jedi reads about the Great Jedi Schism, we see a clash of ancient lightsabers from c. 25.000 BBY. Perhaps they had a "material" blade inside the energy one, perhaps they had other "primitive" characteristics, and they surely were wired to their batteries, but they were lightsabers. Then, two issues or so later, as Marka Ragnos is recounting the formation of the Sith, we see similar scenes once again, but this time they got swords like the ones we have on Earth. That's because the artist is different. In-universe though, that's because swords like the ones we know were a widespread weapon in the ancient Star Wars galaxy, as we know from KotOR. In the game, you can wield metal swords and vibroblades as a Jedi. Back when the Jedi were first formed and they had no traditions, it is logical that their arsenal included a wider choise of weapons than the new invention, the lightsaber, since it hadn't yet been incorporated into their tradition yet. Perhaps some of the swords are even switched-off blades if you like the theory about ancient lightsabers having a "material" core --I do--. But if the first Sith had lightsabers, how can their decendants, 20.000 years later, use only crystal and metal swords and not lightsabers? On top of that, Darth Andeddu, who looks perfectly Ancient-Sith-Empire-y, wields a lightsaber with a red blade whose crystal is acquired by Quinlan Vos during the Clone Wars. How can that be? It has been ret-conned in KotOR: Ancient Sith prefered to feel metal cutting through the flesh of their enemies than the feel of cutting through butter you get when choppin' with a lightsaber. Plus, we know the technology of the Jedi exiles in the Sith Empire started disappearing in favor of the more primitive ways of the Sith race. A lot of things can happen in 20.000 years, you know!

3.) The crystals

What are those crystals the Sith wear in their gaunts and lecklaces and everywhere in general? Remember Splinter of the Mind's Eye and the first drafts of the films? Kyber/Kiber/Kaiburr crystals! Call them whatever you want, they are crystals who magnify the Force and increase a Force power's strenght a thousandfold. That explains the great glory of the ancient Sith Empire and the extraordinary powers of its Sith rulers! And that Sith flagship that can blow up red giants and summon solar flares! It's full of crystals, but not normal crystals like other ships of the period. Kiber/Kyber/Kaiburr crystals! It's full of them and Naga Sadow and Aleema are seen clearly summoning energy from them to hit stars. In TotJ: The Sith War, Exar Kun says to Aleema, "A thousand years ago, one of my predecessors, the Dark Lord Naga Sadow, used this ship to flee Republic fighters. It has the power to wrench fire from the stars... Let me show you how to use it, Aleema.". And he shows her a mass of big crystals connected with wires. Aleema then remarks, "Yes, I can sense the Sith power vibrating through the walls.". So it's not something technological. It's the Force, the Force that is amplified by the crystals with which the ship is full. She later blows up an entire system using that power by triggering the explosion of a supergiant at the heart of a star cluster, just like Naga Sadow triggered the explosion of the supergiant Primus Goluud a thousand years before. When he did so, and whenever one of these crystals was used in the comics, we saw energy coming out of it, the same one that empowered the metal and crystal swords of the Sith. This signifies that the Force is multiplied in strengh by the crystals, leading to the amazing things we see the Sith of the period doing. They encase their spirits in crystal amulets and crystal holocrons and can only come back as ghosts through them. They are not truly immortal, they are just prisoned to this world through the immense power the crystals give them. Exar Kun had crystals like that with which he managed to do a mind trick to all the members of the Senate and turn the Chancellor into a puppet but they were small and few. After the fall of the Sith Empire, these crystals couldn't be found any more. Exar Kun propably possessed the last of them that were still working. The rest must have lost their power after the death of their masters just like the one Luke took from the Temple of Pomojema lost its power when it was transferred to another planet. These thing seem to be alive but I won't explain my theory about what they are here; it's too complex and... bold.

Originally posted here: http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=20931761&replies=0