Darth Rivan, Revan, Darth Revan...Can someone explain the differences?

So I have not played KOTOR but I am currently playing SWTOR and I see Revan in his cool mask in the cut scenes and I have read the Darth Bane books and know about Bane finding Darth Revan's old holocron and starting a new order. That is about all I know about Revan so I decided to go to Wookieepedia and read up and maybe see where to start if I wanted to read some books on him. But when I got there I was more confused than ever. I found Revan ( who appears to be a Jedi who fell to the dark side for a while but not long and certainly doesn't seem to be someone Darth Bane would look up to) and Darth Rivan which is says also goes by the name Darth Revan but when you click on Darth Revan it takes you straight to Jedi Revans page. What is the story here and what is Darth Revan's part in Sith history?

 

Darth Revan IS the Jedi that fell to the dark side and was redeemed, but like Boba Fett, his helmet was sufficiently cool that the subsequent bad guys are required to look up to him in spite of everything. Darth Rivan has no connection.

 

Wow. I'm shocked at that. He is talked about like he was a great Sith Lord that did so much for the Sith Order and when I was reading his story I was like, this can't be him right? I mean, he was only a Sith for like a minute and then he went back to the Jedi....wouldn't that be a disgrace to the later Sith? So weird. I am very underwhelmed now.

 

He was Sith for three years, then saved the day and disappeared.

 

Lame. Why is he so celebrated by fans as a Sith? Just cause he looks cool?

 

Cause he was pragmatic evil rather then stupid evil like Lord Kaan and all the people Bane had to put up with.

 

Fair enough. Thanks for the info!

 

First of welcome to the Boards Darth_BDO I think your opinion of Revan would be much improved if you played KOTOR and KOTOR II.

But yes, Revan was a Jedi who embraced the dark side (thus becoming Darth Revan) and created a Sith Empire; according to one, dominant interpretation, he did this in order to destroy the Sith you see in TOR, who were hiding in the Unknown Regions at the time. He was a manipulative sociopath even before he was a Dark Lord of the Sith, a tactical and strategic genius and pragmatist who excelled in seducing others to his cause, which is how he managed to build an entire Empire out of Jedi renunciates and Republic defectors in the space of less than a year and nearly took over the galaxy after a mere two years of war (compare and contrast to Vitiate/TOR Sith ahem).

He wasn't redeemed, but rather mind wiped by the Jedi and reprogrammed. By the time he recovered his memories, he'd already single-handedly crippled the Sith Empire of his own creation and killed the reigning Dark Lord who replaced him, and then he went off into the Unknown Regions to fight the Sith Emperor of TOR. He left a rather dark legacy in the form of a Sith Order (very separate from the one in TOR) which destroyed all but a handful of Jedi (probably less than ten, here, so a purge perhaps even more successful than Palpatine's), and crippled the Republic to a greater degree than the Sith Empire of TOR. He also was the first Sith we know of who recognised that taking on more than one apprentice was foolish, and thus formed the basis for the Rule of Two.

He returns in TOR, of course, as a threat so formidable both the Republic and Sith Empire need to band together to fight him.

Now, I say all of this without even being a Revan fan, indeed I think until KOTOR II he was a very shallow if snarkily humorous character, but I do think he's one badass guy.

Darth Rivan was a much later Dark Lord of the Sith, over two thousand years after TOR and a couple hundred before Darth Bane. He was Dark Lord in an era where the Sith Empire was fragmented, but did control nearly the entire galaxy. He took his name in honour of Darth Revan, but otherwise there's no relation between the two.

 

Thank you very much for the welcome! I am enjoying my time here so far. Maybe you are right in thinking that my lack of understanding in Revan is because I have not played KOTOR. I have been told to play them by the person that introduced me to SW and I bought them and started them and just couldn't get past the 1990's graphics. lol I don't get much time to game so its hard for me to turn down playing SWTOR or WoW or Dragon Age or something like that. I have thought about watching the you tube videos of other people playing so that I can get the story at least but I can watch it on my phone when I have a few free minutes at a time.

I have heard nothing but amazing things about the story and I feel like it is the missing piece to my SW history. I know some individual events but I don't really understand how they all fit together so maybe that game is the key.