Criticism of the Rakatan Infinite Empire

I meant in the sense that the Kwa are now the Kwi.

I get the impression that FOTJ is going to introduce something even badder than the Celestials that could have caused them to devolve by destroying their civilization, the same way that the Rakata did to the Kwa.

These ancient civilizations are interesting, but I think it would be wise for TPTB to never to divulge too much information about them to maintain that aura of mystique for the reader, so that they share in that with the characters that are equally ignorant about them. I think we'll be learning a bit more about the Celestials in FOTJ, though. Likewise, I think the Rakata will again feature in The Old Republic's story.

 

Nope, that was the Force Demons.

 

That, or the danger of using a hiveminded, easily influenced group of insects to handle all of your labor.

 

I'm disappointed that no one has brought up Waru yet.

 

Yeah. Not to mention that the "Infinite" Empire is a joke. It was a handful of scattered planets they ruled, no more significant than any other sector satrapy. It's just that, due to the nature of their hyperdrive, those handful of worlds were far-flung. They had nothing in the way of territorial contiguity.

 

For some reason I'd rather the Celestials not be force users. Instead they can be the ultimate expression of 'mundane' mysterious technology. Perhaps it was the rise of force users that caused them to disappear.

We know that his corpse (or at least a corpse) was placed in his tomb at some point. That's all. He could have died on his ship and then his servants salvaged his body and put it in his tomb.

I'm pretty much of the opinion that "retconned sources don't count as evidence when they conflict against the retcon that replaced them".

None of which really needs anything more than "stolen Rakatan hyperdrives" to make sense.

A pre-exile Sith Empire that spans multiple planets is more or less canon. It contained at least Ziost and Korriban and existed after Adas' death fighting the Rakata.

Perhaps it collapsed after a few decades (or centuries) when the stolen hyperdrives became unmaintainable.

In KotOR 1 there's no definate link between the plague and the Rakata's loss of force sensitivity, just that they happened at more or less the same time. The Unknown Regions sourcebook suggests otherwise but that sounds like an error to me (not that canon isn't often created through the acumulation of errors, much like real history).

Here's an angle I'm not sure I've seen discussed.

Rakatan Mind Prisons have been discussed here before, they're related to sith holocron tech and they appear in KotOR 1 and the Unknown Regions source book.

So, these prisons allow the occupant, who exists purely in non-physical form, to possess any idiot that opens them.

They are basically a mass produced version of the transfer essense force power.

The force power that was once thought to be only used by Palpatine, the force power that Krayt spent ages trying to get, the force power that Exar Kun messed up and got trapped in a ruin as a ghost for 4 thousand years, the force power that offers potential immortality. The Rakatans managed to build a piece of tech that could mass produce this and just used it to make their jails keep up less space.

Either the Rakata were incredibly stupid and only used this for space management, or they had an entire society based on essense transfer and immortality to the point where the tech filtrated down into unimportant areas. They may just have had one body hoping immortal emperor, but these guys need force sensitive pilots to make their hyperdrives work, so dark side users must be a large portion of the population and its not like Rakata wouldn't keep stealing prison tech so they could be immortal like the emperor. It's more likely that the Rakata were basically a civilisation of immortal wizards who changed form at a whim.

It's not an infinite "area of space" empire its and infinite "lifespan" empire. They're "the empire that has conquored transience and can extend into infinity.

So the Rakatan race (or just their force using nobility) keep transfering their essences into younger bodies. Then one day their force powers stop working. Suddenly you have thousands of millenia old Rakatans who have for the first time had to consider their own mortality. It would be like that Asimov story where everyone lives on a planet that only sees night time every aeon or so, except this is the ruling caste of an intersteller empire.

Maybe there wasn't

 

The Rakata are victorious on all fronts.

 

The second KotOR implies that what stripped the rakata of their Force sensitivity was directly related to their reliance on the Star Forge. The one quote I remember very well was by Dark!Bastila: "Knowing what we do of the Builders and their fate, I am convinced that Revan did not intend us to keep the Star Forge."

 

Just wait fro Grand Admiral Jello to find the thread

 

They are basically a mass produced version of the transfer essense force power.
Except that essence transfer can be forced. The mind prison requires a person's explicit permission to be possessed.

I'm disappointed that no one has brought up Waru yet.
Well, he is from another dimension, but I don't think he is ancient.

 

Essense transfer can be resisted. There needn't be an actual differance there. It could be that the prison has an additional fail safe built into it, or that the prisoner just didn't have the training/will power to force it.

Even if the tech involved needs permission, there are still plenty of ways to get mind wiped bodies that can't refuse.

 

How do we know this?

 

I'm assuming Bevel Lemelisk.

I've also found a quote that I think my eliminate the notion of an ancient, pre-Rakata Sith Empire:

"Even though the original Sith were steeped in sortilege, sentient sacrifices, and wars, they lived spiritually serene lives, never doubting conflict's integral role to existence. Only with their introduction to methodic Rakatan malice did these Sith truly embrace the dark side." -- KOTOR Campaign Guide Web Enhancement 5 Karnak Tetsu, Sorcerer of Tund

 

"These Sith..." Could refer to the Sith left behind to become primitives on Korriban.

Besides, TOTJ Companion says they spread across the galaxy, introduced Sith teachings to other races and had many Sith sorcerers.

 

Where does it say that in the TOTJ Companion? And the article makes it clear that "these Sith" is referring to the "original Sith."

 

Regarding the Kwa/Kwi

there is no such thing as de-evolving, you can only evolve, it dose not always lead to better, smarter, stronger, faster. Its about whats best suited to survive in a certain environment.

If an enviornment exists in which a higly developed brain is too expensive energy/calorie wise somethings gonna get cut.

 

The whole thing with Bane and Zannah mostly.

And Palps trying to take over Anakin (Solo).

Speaking of Mind Traps...it seems that the Unknown Regions guide, upon a second reading, seems to suggest that the criminals trap inside physically returned tot he world. Improved model, plot hole, or did I just read that completely wrong?

 

Personally, I aint a fan of bumping the ancient Sith to being the oldest, most powerful bad guys in existence that created the Rakata, defeated the Celestials etc etc etc. It just seems like unnecessarily hyping and linking everything to the Sith when it doesnt need to be.

EDIT:

Actually the person didnt say de-evolve but rather devolve namely to degenerate or deteroriate gradually over a passage of time which is certainly what happened to the Kwa since they were once a mighty civilization that devolved into primitives on Dathomir.

 

It's just too vague. It says "released", nothing more or less specific.