In this section, I am going to attempt to summarize the relevant pieces of galactic history that are necessary to comfortably play in the time period this campaign is set in. I will try to be brief, and will focus most of my attention on the Sith-Imperial War and the Second Imperial Civil War, which are the events that provide the backdrop to this campaign. Luckily, the events of these two wars start nearly 200 years after the events of the official Star Wars movies, and most information before the year 127 ABY (after the Battle of Yavin) can be considered irrelevant. This page will also provide links to separate pages providing more detailed background information about the people, places, factions, and events that take place right before the start of this campaign. Don’t be overwhelmed by the bulk of information presented here, as I will be providing each character with a more specific background that details their recent history and position in relation to the galaxy at large. After reading through this historical summary, be sure to look at the pages in the other sections that detail the major factions, key individuals, and major planets.
(If unfamiliar with the layout and cosmology of the Star Wars galaxy, I suggest reading this to better acquaint yourself.)

PROLOGUE – THE YUUZHAN VONG WAR

The year is 25 ABY, and for the first time an alien race from outside the galaxy threatens the lives of all those within.
The Yuuzhan Vong War (25 ABY–29 ABY) was a pan-galactic conflict which arose when the Yuuzhan Vong, a warlike species which had long ago fled the destruction of its own galaxy, invaded the Outer Rim.
The ill-prepared and inefficient New Republic was unable to prevent the extra-galactic species from driving inexorably toward the Core. Coruscant, the galactic capital, was conquered and remade by the invaders two years after the invasion commenced; by which time, countless species had been rendered extinct and entire planets were now uninhabitable.
Utilizing advanced biotechnology in every field of life, the Yuuzhan Vong were masters of adaptation and subterfuge, as well as brute force and terror tactics.
The end to the war was brought about after years of brutal fighting and billions of civilian deaths when Zonama Sekot, a seed of the lost living homeworld of the Yuuzhan Vong, emerged over Coruscant, its arrival precipitating the final battle of the conflict. Luke Skywalker and other leading Jedi, who had located Zonama Sekot and urged its return, defeated the leader of the Yuuzhan Vong during the battle, while fleets of warships clashed once more in space. The Yuuzhan Vong War ended with the deaths of the Supreme Overlord and the surrender of Warmaster Nas Choka’s armada. The resulting Sekot Accords, which stipulated disarmament and amnesty for the Yuuzhan Vong, proved deeply unpopular for many; both the Yuuzhan Vong, and the aftermath of their devastating war, played a major role in events to come. (hint hint)

SITH-IMPERIAL WAR

The year is 127 ABY, and the galaxy is a much different place.
The [[Sith–Imperial War]] was a conflict occurring from 127–130 ABY, which saw the return of the Empire as the dominant galactic power.

The roots of the war could be traced back to the Ossus Project, during which the Jedi Order convinced the Galactic Alliance to allow Yuuzhan Vong Shapers, headed by Master Shaper Nei Rin, to use a desolate portion of Ossus, one of the order’s most ancient strongholds, as a test site.

The intent of those who championed the project—such as Jedi Master Kol Skywalker, a leading member of the Jedi Council—was to see if Yuuzhan Vong terraforming methods, like those that decades before had transformed Coruscant into the Yuuzhan Vong’s temporary homeworld of Yuuzhan’tar (27–29 ABY), could restore the barren and devastated world. Should they be successful, Skywalker expected that the process could be used to transform and restore ailing worlds, and at the same time transform the galaxy’s perception of the Yuuzhan Vong. The experiment appeared to work, returning Ossus to vibrant life again, and when the Jedi revealed the results to the outside galaxy, other worlds vied for the chance to restore planets left devastated by the Yuuzhan Vong War.

Ultimately, one hundred planets were chosen for terraforming. Yuuzhan Vong Shapers, accompanied by Jedi, set to work, and at first the results were wondrous to behold. But no one had reckoned with interference by the One Sith. On the command of the cult’s leader, Darth Krayt and the help of a renegade Yuuzhan Vong agent, Zenoc Quah, the Sith secretly sabotaged the terraforming process on these worlds. Plants grew deformed, and painful bony growths, of a kind not seen since the Yuuzhan Vong forcibly took populations as slaves, sprouted from the skin of the inhabitants.

The Yuuzhan Vong were shocked; none of the preliminary experiments on Ossus had shown any of the later mutations. Master Shaper Rin made it her mission to learn what had happened, and why. The Jedi suspected sabotage at once, but had no idea who was responsible. Across the galaxy, however, fingers were pointed at the Yuuzhan Vong; too many bad feelings existed against the authors of one of the most destructive wars the galaxy had ever seen for people not to suspect that the Yuuzhan Vong had resumed their crusade by other means (exactly what the Sith had intended). The Jedi were certain that the Yuuzhan Vong were innocent, however, and they convinced the Alliance to support the Yuuzhan Vong against domestic criticism. This provoked anger amongst Alliance member worlds and because of that, many left the Alliance or declared their neutrality.

This was too much for the Fel Empire, which took an opportunity opened by the loss of confidence in the Galactic Alliance. The Empire and the Alliance formed a ceasefire nearly a century before, and were considered friendly rivals. But its nominal government, the members of the Moff Council, still had many hard-line holdovers to the old ways who sought to return the Empire back to primacy as the dominant galactic power, peace treaty or not. Now they called for retribution and, invoking the Treaty of Anaxes, which stated that the two governments would provide military support to one another in the instance of another Yuuzhan Vong attack, declared war on the Galactic Alliance. The peace that so many had fought and died for in decades past was undone due to the actions of the new Sith Order.

From the start, the Alliance was handicapped. Its defense of the Yuuzhan Vong had alienated numerous member worlds, whose populations still nursed bitter memories of the Vong invasion, and many of them refused to support the GA. Suddenly, the Alliance found itself facing a secession movement as well as general war. The Empire used this to its advantage, luring some of these disaffected worlds into the Imperial camp and weakening the GA government. Other worlds declared neutrality. Thus the war began with the Empire possessing all the advantages.

In 128 ABY, one year into the war, things were not going well for the Fel Empire.
Despite the Alliance handicap, the Jedi were more than making up for that. Also, because Roan Fel refused to let the Imperial Knights enter the war, the Empire didn’t have the strength necessary to counter the Jedi. But the Sith soon insinuated themselves into the conflict.

Via the ruthless and ambitious Director of Imperial Intelligence, Grand Moff Nyna Calixte, the Sith approached the Empire and allied themselves with the Imperial cause. When the Sith then declared themselves openly, the Jedi knew that the Sith had been behind the sabotage of the Vong terraforming projects. The Jedi were unable to prove this, but as events progressed, eventually even members of the Imperial camp—including Emperor Fel himself—realized the truth of it, though far too late to halt the plans that the Sith had set in motion. Fel personally hated the Sith, but was overruled in his objections to allying with them by the Moff Council, as no Emperor had ruled absolutely since the days of Palpatine. The Council, eager to use whatever advantage at their disposal to once again bring about Imperial dominance of the galaxy, eagerly accepted an alliance with them. The Yuuzhan Vong, upon learning the truth, were at first relieved that it was not the work of their gods, then determined to reverse the damage the sabotage had caused. Shaper Nei Rin journeyed from Ossus to try to discover the Sith’s method of sabotage, hoping that this knowledge could help discredit the Sith and end the war.

After three years of bloody warfare, the Galactic Alliance was a spent force, while the Sith only grew in power and strength, even independently manufacturing and fielding their own starfighters.
Under the command of Grand Admiral Morlish Veed, Calixte’s lover and a participant in the Sith conspiracy, the Imperial fleet dealt a crushing blow to the Galactic Alliance at the Battle of Caamas. Admiral Gar Stazi, one of the Alliance’s task force commanders at Caamas, was forced to execute a fighting withdrawal from the system to save his ships.

Veed’s announcement of victory essentially signaled the end of the war altogether. With the Galactic Alliance Defense Force in tatters, there was nothing left to defend the capital, Coruscant. The Galactic Alliance had little choice but to surrender, and its territory was absorbed into the Empire, but the Galactic Alliance Core Fleet, under the command of Admiral Stazi remained active and continued to fight the Empire. Although knowing the Jedi would never comply, the Emperor called on the Jedi Order to surrender and subject itself to the will of the Empire.

Some of them did so, joining the Imperial Knights. But the rest, remaining true to the will of the Force, refused to ally themselves with the Sith and withdrew from Coruscant to their temple on Ossus. The Sith eventually followed the Jedi there, where Darth Nihl led a brutal attack, aided by Imperial forces under Moff Rulf Yage. The Massacre at Ossus scattered the Jedi across the galaxy, though the Jedi Order was not yet entirely defeated. As the Sith attacked before the entire Order could gather at Ossus, about half of them survived and went into hiding throughout the galaxy. Nei Rin returned to Ossus the day after with proof that the Sith had been behind the projects sabotage, but unfortunately too late to stop either the war or the massacre.

Following the war, the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances surrendered, though surviving portions of its military reformed into the Galactic Alliance Remnant, intent on keeping up the opposition against the Empire and the Sith. However, the Sith took control of the former, causing Roan Fel and his followers to form the True Empire.

Shortly after, the Sith, determined to rule the galaxy directly, launched a deadly palace coup against Emperor Roan Fel and his Imperial Knights. After killing what he later determined to have been a double of the Emperor, the Attack on Emperor Fel succeeded with Darth Krayt assuming the Imperial throne himself, restoring, for the first time in over a century, the rule of a Sith Lord over most of the galaxy. A new Sith Empire was born.

THE SECOND IMPERIAL CIVIL WAR

The Second Imperial Civil War was a conflict that began with the end of the [[Sith–Imperial War]] in 130 ABY.
It was the result of the Imperial victory at Caamas, in which part of the Galactic Alliance Defense Fleet refused to surrender; the Massacre at Ossus took place, in which several Jedi managed to survive; and, finally, the coup executed by Darth Krayt and the One Sith. This resulted in the fragmentation of the Fel Empire into two factions, one loyal to Fel and another loyal to the Dark Lord of the Sith. Over the next seven years, Krayt’s empire was challenged by both Fel’s Imperial supporters and the remnants of the Galactic Alliance under Admiral Gar Stazi, whose campaign was called the Second Rebellion.

By 137 ABY the insurgency was still ongoing and was accelerated by Fel’s capture of the Outer Rim Imperial fortress world of Bastion, providing Fel’s forces with a staging center to coordinate the war against Krayt’s Empire. Following the Battle of Dac and Krayt’s genocidal campaign against the Mon Calamari species, Fel’s Imperial faction aligned itself with the Stazi’s Galactic Alliance Remnant despite earlier Sith attempts to sabotage negotiation efforts. Both forces cooperated in several key campaigns including a raid on Ralltiir and the Evacuation of Dac.

A fourth faction within the conflict was composed by the surviving members of the Jedi Order, such as Wolf Sazen, Shado Vao and K’Kruhk, with the support of Master Shaper Nei Rin, who also sought to work with Fel and Stazi in order to bring down the Sith and reestablish their place in the Galaxy.

Soon the three splintered factions joined together in a final attack on Coruscant, and in the ensuing space battle the Sith fleet was defeated. Meanwhile on the planet’s surface, Cade Skywalker dueled with Darth Krayt and defeated him. Because of the Sith’s ability to cheat death through a combination of Yuuzhan Vong implants and Sith alchemy, Skywalker sent his body into the local star, Coruscant Prime, killing him once and for all.

Emperor Roan Fel was assassinated at about the same time that Darth Krayt was defeated. His daughter Empress Marasiah Fel succeeded him.

In the aftermath of the Second Imperial Civil War, The Galactic Federation Triumvirate was formed. The three Triumvirs were Galactic Alliance Remnant leader and former Admiral of the Galactic Alliance Core Fleet Gar Stazi, Empress of the Empire-in-exile and daughter of the late Roan Fel Marasiah Fel, and 259 year old Jedi Master K’Kruhk of the Jedi Order.

SHADOW ON THE CORE

Shadow on the Core starts sometime after the last canonical event, the formation of the Galactic Federation Triumvirate in 138 BBY. In the aftermath of the Second Imperial Civil War, the heads of the three largest remaining factions, the Empire-in-exile, the Galactic Alliance Remnant, and the Jedi Order formed a Triumvirate at the head of a new Galactic Federation of United Sectors. This Galactic Federation was formed out of the shambles of the two governmental/military behemoths, and united a larger portion of the galaxy than had ever been under the domain of any one entity. Like most galaxy-wide governments before it, its capitol was established on the planet Coruscant.
The common enemy of this alliance, the One Sith, reunited under Darth Nihl and spread out over the galaxy with the intention of taking over governments planet by planet.

In the year following the formation of the Triumvirate, the organizational structure of the new Galactic Federation was established.

One major deviation from the governments of the past few thousand years was the choice to stop having the Intergalactic Banking Clan based on the Muun homeworld of Muunilinst back the official Credit. Rather than outsource the value and operation of the galactic currency, the new Federation chose to centralize this power within the Galactic Federation Treasury.