3959-3956 BBY: The Betrayal of Darth Revan

The title “The Betrayal of Darth Revan” began to worry me even before I started to read it. I thought ‘how does a guy who’s supposedly a major character down the line already get betrayed? What is more, who is doing the betraying?!?’ It was my thought that both Darth Revan and Darth Malak play complimentary villain roles in the KOTOR video game, but I have learned that this is not the case.

‘The Betrayal of Darth Revan’ is the story of Darth Revan’s capture by the Republic military, and more notably Bastila and her Jedi strike-force. It’s an RPG adventure intended to be played by characters level 10 or over. In the adventure, the heroes begin by searching for secret codes which would lure the Sith fleet into a trap, and later, clear the way for a Jedi boarding party, lead by Bastila, to confront and capture Darth Revan.

The adventure moves through four phases of play, each one entertaining and challenging. Like I said, the first phase is the acquiring of secret pass codes intended to be used to lure the Sith fleet into engagement with Republic forces. Once the Sith have been lured into Republic space, the second phase of the adventure begins, which consists of the heroes piloting star fighters and clearing a way through space for Bastila and her Jedi strike-force to board Revan’s flagship and begin the extraction mission. The heroes in this scenario have their work cut out for them, as they have to engage heavily armored Sith ships. Once the path has been cleared, the heroes must board Revan’s flagship and begin to clear its security forces. It is here that the heroes confront Darth Voren and his security team. The third phase of the adventure is the showdown between Darth Voren and the heroes, and Voren is no pushover. The heroes must again gain security pass-codes in order to lure the security forces away from Revan and his command station, and defeat or persuading of Voren is the key to victory here. The fourth phase of the adventure is escaping Revan’s flagship with Bastila (unconscious Revan in hand) and her Jedi strike-force.

What I found interesting about this story is that it does not explicitly state that Darth Revan was betrayed by Darth Malak here. The text simply reads: “Shortly after the heroes reach the hangar bay, the ship shudders several times from nearby attacks. If they rush to the opening, they see that several nearby ships have turned on the flagship and are ruthlessly attacking it.”(pg 7). It is in the KOTOR video game that we are told that it was Darth Malak who fired upon Revan’s ship. What is more, in the game we learn that once Malak and Revan ended the Mandalorian wars, and somewhere in that time became Sith Lords, that Malak accepted the role of apprentice only grudgingly. It was here that Malak saw his opportunity to rise to the title of Dark Lord of the Sith, and become himself the Master and not the apprentice. (I’ve started to play the video game. I’m about 4 hours into the content).

I also found the introduction of Darth Voren interesting as well. As a level 12 character, he is quite developed. There is not much written about him. His Wookieepedia page can be found here. But he was with Malak and Revan during that time they became Sith, and he himself became a Sith and started working against the Jedi and the Republic. The story leaves his fate open ended, so he could potentially continue to be a threat to peace during this time frame.
As I’ve already said, I’ve begun to play the KOTOR video game, so a lot of this story’s back-story was flushed out there.

For my next post I’ll be moving on to the last bit of RPG sources, and the only sources of history for this time period, to ‘Opportunities’ part 1, 2, and 3. Until next time my friends, may the Force be with you.