The complete history of the Old Republic would fill a thousand libraries. Some events and some sacrifices have become legend, passed from generation to generation.

As with any history that extends back for millennia, details and facts become blurred by time. Events that took place so long ago become shoured in contradictions and myth. The exact sequence and some of the names may not be entirely accurate, but without question the overall conflicts are real.

Pre-Republic history is incredibly ancient and notoriously difficult to research. At some point in this ancient era the Corellian system was artificially created, providing evidence that our region of space was once visited by stunningly powerful alien architects, who may also have been responsible for the unlikely cluster of black holes near Kessel known as the Maw. On Coruscant, prime planet of what would later be known as the Core Worlds, two armies-the Taungs and the Battalions of Zhell-clashed in a legendary battle. The Zhell were defeated when a sudden volcanic eruption smothered their encampment, and the towering plume of black ash loomed aver the Taungs took the name Warriors of the Shadow-or, in the ancient tongue, Dha Werda Verda. Their story is recounted in the epic poem of the same name. The original site of this battlefield is now buried beneath the skyscrapers of Imperial City.

Xim the Despot is the most celebrated pre-Republic conqueror of all. In the remote region now known as the Tion Hegemony, Xim gathered vast armies under his banner, including a legion of unstoppable war droids-the earliest-known combat automatons. Xim's glorious empire spread to encompass hundreds of thousands of worlds in the vicinity of the Tion. The warlord miscalculated, however, when he tried to expand into Hutt Space. The Hutts had built up their own formidable star empire, and they fiercely opposed Xim for possession of the Si'klaata Cluster. Two exhausting but inconclusive battles were fought on the planet Vontor. In the third such confrontation, Xim's war droids were opposed by the Hutt's latest conscripts-a horde of fighters from the Nikto, Vodran and Klattooinan species. Xim was utterly vanquished, and Kossak the Hutt declared victory in the Third Battle of Vontor.

Appoximately twenty-five thousand years before the New Republic, the widespread use of faster-than-light hyperspace travel brought the galaxy together as a single community, giving birth to a democratic union of star systems known as the Galactic Republic. From the time of its inception, he Republic grew, over many millennia, to encompass vast numbers of inhabited worlds.

The mystical energy field known as the Force, as represented by the order of Jedi Knights, made up the fundamental underpinnings of the Republic. The earliest Jedi were philosophers, studying the Force's light, dark, living, and unifying aspects, and prophesying that one day a Chosen One would arise and bring balance to the Force. Later generations took a more active role in the galactic community, wielding the Force in defense against the legions of evil. In those glorious days, many Forcesensitive individuals entered arduous training under accomplished Jedi Masters, taking up the weapons, the knowledge, and the powers of the Jedi way. Some say the order of Jedi Knights began on the planet Ossus, thought that claim has never been verified.