The Infinite Empire
Five thousand years before the formation of the Galactic
Republic, Rakatan civilization was at its peak after the decline of the
Celestials. Through the use of dark side fuelled technologies created a
powerful force powered hyperdrive, the Builders had formed the Infinite Empire
which dominated known space for thousands of years. Forming a distant and far
flung territory, the reason for this was because the Force empowered engines of
the Rakata sought out worlds that radiated in the Force and thus led to planets
such as Corellia, Honoghr, Generis, Hijarna, Xo along with Dantooine falling
under their dominion. This haphazard nature of their empire meant that loose
confederacies of other civilizations managed to develop in the spaces between
Rakatan worlds though made use of dangerous as well as unpredictable hyperdrive
technology. Their campaign of conquest led to the enslavement of numerous
developing species including the Duros, Selkath, and Humans. By transporting
these slave species to new worlds, the Rakata were believed to have
inadvertently seeded swaths of the galaxy with sentient life.
During their expansions, the Rakata came into conflict with two
other advanced as well as powerful civilizations; the inhabitants of the Gree
Enclave and the extragalactic Kwa. The Infinite Empire managed to force the
Gree to their native cluster and nearly exterminated the Kwa. With their
victory, the Rakata took Dathomir under their rule and even transported the
native Rancor's to their home world of Lehon as curiosities.
At its
height, the Empire governed 500 worlds and its population numbered ten billion
Rakatan warriors and one trillion slaves. Among its conquests were the Selkath
of Manaan, Wookiees of Kashyyyk, Kumumgah of Tatooine (who eventually evolved
to become both the Tusken Raiders and Jawas), Noghri of Honoghr, and the
natives of the Corellia n Sector. The powerful, Force-wielding Rakata may have
even displaced the most advanced species of that time period, including the
Killiks of Alderaan and the Sharu of the Rafa system, during their meteoric
rise to power. During their period of expansion, the Rakata encountered the
Sith species of Korriban. At first, the Rakata were wary and they pretended to
ally themselves with the warlord Adas, going so far as to show him how to
construct the pyramidal Sith holocron. In time, however, Adas learned that the
invaders were bent on conquest. When the two species went to war, he managed to
lead the Sith to victory and drive the Rakata from Korriban, but at the expense
of his life. After generations of galactic supremacy, the Infinite Empire began
to fracture. Constant tensions between internal factions suddenly erupted into
a devastating civil war caused by the Star Forge's corrupting influence.
Already weakened by warfare, the Builders were suddenly struck
by a deadly plague that spread rapidly through their ranks. Later, it would be
theorized that the disease was created by a slave species because it only
infected the Builders themselves. The virulent plague nearly exterminated the
Rakata and brought the Infinite Empire to its knees, yet the worst was yet to
come. The Rakata suddenly and inexplicably began to lose their connection to
the Force. Worse, they were unable to uncover the source of their failing
sensitivity. Rakatan scientists came up with numerous speculative hypotheses to
explain their worsening condition, but in the end, all of their theories proved
incorrect.
In time, it would be revealed that a mysterious mutation in the
plague had caused it to strip the Builders of their powers. As the Force users
were culled from the overall population at an ever increasing rate, the Rakata
lost their ability to manipulate their own technology. Soon, they were forced
to rely on inferior devices that were not dependent on the Force. Sensing
weakness, slave species rebelled in large-scale insurrections on many member
worlds and stemmed the total collapse of the Infinite Empire in 25,200 BBY. The
nearly decimated Rakata could do nothing but abandon their conquests and
retreat to the safety of their home world of Lehon. Some Rakata castoffs
survived the fall of the Infinite Empire in the Tion Cluster as late as 25,100
BBY, allowing Tion Humans access to their Force-sensitive technology. 
The
Lehon system was protected by a disruptor field that could disable any incoming
ship's communications and navigational systems.
The field, operated from the summit of a Temple on the surface
of Lehon, was originally constructed to protect the Star Forge, but it was now
used to protect the Rakata themselves. On their homeworld, Rakatan civilization
rapidly faded into obscurity and barbarism. Warlords devastated the surface of
the planet with weapons of mass destruction and the majority of the Rakata were
forced to flee underground. Years later, when the Rakatans resurfaced, they
called themselves Black Rakata, such as The One and his people. Only the
descendants of the Priest Caste, the Elders tribe, remained on the surface
protected by their ancient temples and enclaves. They were called Red Rakata by
the other Rakata tribes. They alone would retain full knowledge of the potent
technology and turbulent history of their species. In the following centuries,
the Builders were purposefully erased from the records of their slave subjects
and the Infinite Empire slipped from the pages of galactic history.
Jedi Civil War
More than 20,000 years after the fall of the Infinite Empire,
most Rakata had only just begun to reemerge onto the surface, yet the Elders
Tribe still thrived within their secluded compound. After long millennia of
solitude and contemplation, the Elders desired to destroy their great factory
so that they could finally put their bloody past behind them, but there was a
problem. They could no longer enter their own Temple of the Ancients, the nexus
of their collected knowledge and the key to accessing the Star Forge, because
the Force was lost to them.
Darth Revan and Darth Malak's timely arrival in the system gave
the elders a perfect opportunity. Promising to destroy the Star Forge, Revan
entered the temple, but he betrayed the Elder's trust and took the space
station for himself. Around 3,959 BBY, he harnessed the full power of the Star
Forge and began a massive military invasion of the Galactic Republic that would
culminate in the Jedi Civil War. Meanwhile, the Rakata were forced to watch
their species' actions repeat themselves through the person of Revan, powerless
to stop it. Their Temple and Star Forge became the dwellings of dark side users
once more. Yet Revan would return, unlooked-for, three years later and redress
that betrayal.
A redeemed Revan ended the Sith occupation of the Rakatan temple
and deactivated the planet's disruptor field so that the Star Forge could be
destroyed by a Republic fleet. He also aided the Rakata's efforts to regain
their lost Force sensitivity which they believed would eventually allow them to
rejoin the galactic community.
Post-Civil War
After the Jedi Civil War the Republic maintained an outpost in
the Lehon system, but did not bother to admit the Rakatans into the Republic.
Because all records of the Infinite Empire were lost to time, some were sceptical
of the notion that the seemingly primitive beings had once ruled hundreds of
worlds and dominated the galaxy. A number of the Rakata may have taken to the
stars and left their brethren behind on Lehon, who died out within a few
generations due to the limited gene pool remaining on their remote and isolated
homeworld. By the time Darth Bane arrived on Lehon in search of Darth Revan's
holocron (1,000 BBY), the planet was completely devoid of sentient life.
Credits go to the Rakatan Empire group for allowing us use their history of the Rakata for the Sith Archives.
