When I think about the Jedi, I usually picture calm guardians with glowing sabers who stand for peace and justice. But if you dig into the old Legends timeline, you’ll find one event that changes how you see them forever — a moment so extreme that later Jedi called it a mistake. It’s known as the Sith Holocaust, and it’s one of the darkest chapters in Star Wars history.
Fear, War, And A Devastating Defeat
Thousands of years before the Clone Wars, around 6900 BBY, a civil war inside the Jedi Order ended with several powerful Jedi being exiled. These exiles, known as the Dark Jedi, wandered the galaxy until they reached a world called Korriban, home to a red-skinned, Force-sensitive people called the Sith species. The exiles realized these people had a deep connection to the dark side, and they started teaching and mixing their Force knowledge with Sith magic. Over generations, their descendants became rulers of what we know as the Sith Empire.
By around 5000 BBY, the Empire had been hidden for centuries inside a cluster of worlds known as the Stygian Caldera. When the great Sith Lord Marka Ragnos died, two rivals — Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh — fought for control. During that power struggle, two Republic explorers, Gav and Jori Daragon, accidentally landed on Korriban. The Sith didn’t take that well. They remembered how the Rakata once invaded them under the guise of friendship, so paranoia ran deep.
Naga Sadow saw the Daragons’ arrival as a chance to expand. He used the fear of invasion to justify a preemptive war against the Republic. With a massive fleet and his own Force illusions amplifying his forces, he launched what became the Great Hyperspace War. At first, things went Sadow’s way. His armies stormed Republic worlds, including Coruscant, and crushed defenses.
But when his illusions fell apart after a betrayal, the Republic and Jedi regrouped. Led by Empress Teta, they fought back, pushing the Sith forces all the way to Korriban. The Second Battle of Korriban destroyed the Empire’s fleet, ending the war. Sadow fled to Yavin 4, and the Sith Empire was left in ruins.
At that point, the threat was over. The Sith were broken, their leadership gone. But the Republic and Jedi weren’t done.
When Victory Turned Into Extermination
After the war, Supreme Chancellor Pultimo decided the destruction of the Sith Empire wasn’t enough. He wanted to make sure it could never rise again. So, he gave a direct order: invade the Sith Worlds and wipe out every trace of their civilization. Jedi and Republic forces carried it out together, and this became the event later known as the Sith Holocaust.
“It was at this moment that the Republic made what might now be considered a mistake: the Sith no longer posed a threat to the Republic,
but the Supreme Chancellor was unsatisfied. Jedi and Republic forces were sent to Korriban and other Sith planets to ensure no remnants of the Sith Empire remained.”
That’s what kicked off a campaign that turned into something far more brutal than a cleanup mission.
The Republic fleet bombarded Sith strongholds, cities, and temples across Korriban, Ziost, and nearby colonies. Ground troops followed, capturing or killing anyone left. The Jedi played an active role, leading strike teams and purging everything related to the dark side.
Jedi Shadows scoured ancient tombs, vaults, and libraries for Sith holocrons, scrolls, and relics. Most of them were destroyed on the spot. A few ended up in the Galactic Museum’s Sith Hall, and others were stored in the Great Jedi Library on Ossus. Still, some caches of artifacts survived, hidden away for future dark siders to rediscover.
Even sacred places didn’t survive. The Valley of the Dark Lords was bombarded, and Veeshas Tuwan—a massive Sith library-temple on Arkania—was wiped out completely. The Jedi destroyed priceless cultural records and dark side teachings, fearing that knowledge could bring the Sith back.
Billions of beings, many of them civilians and noncombatants, died across the Sith Worlds. The combined Republic and Jedi forces had reduced the Sith civilization to ashes. In the eyes of many historians, this was a full-scale genocide.
What Escaped The Fire
A few Sith survived the slaughter. Among them was a powerful figure named Vitiate, who took advantage of the chaos. He called the remaining Sith Lords to his homeworld, Nathema, promising them a ritual that would save their people. Instead, the ritual drained the life from the entire planet, giving Vitiate immense power and near immortality. He told others the Jedi had done it, using that lie to unite survivors under him.
Vitiate then gathered young Sith survivors, formed an exile fleet, and vanished into the Unknown Regions. Over twenty years, they traveled to Dromund Kaas, where they founded a new Sith Empire. Vitiate ruled as Emperor, and his Dark Council governed in his name. Meanwhile, smaller Sith groups hid in places like Ambria, Thule, Tund, and Vjun, and a few Kissai and Massassi communities managed to endure on Korriban itself.
Centuries later, the exiled Empire came back stronger. They reclaimed Korriban, began the Great Galactic War, and even sacked the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Their comeback forced the Republic to sign the Treaty of Coruscant, splitting the galaxy in half.
The story of the Sith Holocaust became a key piece of Sith propaganda. Vitiate’s followers pointed to it as proof that the Jedi and Republic would always try to destroy them completely. That belief helped fuel generations of hatred and vengeance, shaping the wars that followed.
The Timeline At A Glance (Legends)
- 6900–5100 BBY: Dark Jedi Exiles form the Sith Empire on Korriban.
- 5000 BBY: Death of Marka Ragnos; Naga Sadow rises; the Great Hyperspace War begins and ends.
- 5000–4999 BBY: Republic and Jedi invade the Sith Worlds, destroying their civilization.
- 4999–4980 BBY: The Ritual of Nathema; Vitiate’s exile fleet leaves for Dromund Kaas.
- 4980 BBY onward: The new Sith Empire forms in secret, leading to the Great Galactic War.