Before the Galactic Republic, the galaxy was already filled with ancient civilizations, lost empires, and powers far older than the Jedi Order most fans know.
But if the Republic was not the first great power in galactic history, then who ruled the galaxy before it?
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The Kwa Were Ancient Dathomir’s First Great Civilization
Long before Dathomir became known as the world of Nightsisters, rancors, and dark-side witch clans, it was home to something much older.
In Legends, Dathomir was the birthplace of the Kwa, an ancient saurian species that rose during the Pre-Republic era. They were not a small tribal culture hidden on one world. They became one of the earliest known spacefaring civilizations in galactic history.
Their domain was known as the Kwa Holdings, an interstellar power in the Outer Rim. Unlike the Galactic Republic, it was not built around senators, laws, or a central galactic government on Coruscant. The Kwa represented an older kind of rule, coming from a time when the galaxy was still shaped by ancient species, lost technologies, and Force-connected civilizations.
The Kwa also understood the Force differently from the Jedi or Sith who came much later. They called it the Power of the Cosmos, and their mastery of it became the foundation of their civilization.
The Infinity Gates Made the Kwa Powerful
The greatest achievement of the Kwa was not a fleet, a senate, or a capital world. It was the Infinity Gates.
These were ancient structures built by the Kwa during the Pre-Republic era, and they allowed instantaneous travel between distant worlds. Instead of relying on normal hyperspace routes, the Kwa could move across the stars through a network of Gates, giving them a kind of reach that later civilizations would have struggled to understand.
The Gates were protected inside massive pyramid-shaped Star Temples. These temples were not only monuments. They were built to guard the technology from intruders, because the Gates were far more dangerous than simple transportation devices.
In Legends, the Infinity Gates could also be used as weapons. When activated in that way, they could release destructive Infinity Waves, powerful enough to threaten entire worlds.
The Kwa Fell After Their Own Knowledge Turned Against Them
Their fall began after their Infinity Gates carried them to Lehon, where they encountered the Rakata. At the time, the Rakata were still a primitive species, but the Kwa sensed that they were strong in the Force. Just as they had done with other worlds, the Kwa uplifted them, giving them knowledge of the Force and advanced technology.
That decision became one of the greatest mistakes in Kwa history.
The Rakata eventually turned against their former benefactors and began seeking the secrets of the Infinity Gates. The Kwa refused to give them that power, and the conflict between the two species became a war. The Kwa even fought them on Lehon itself, not to conquer the world, but to destroy the Infinity Gate there before it could be taken.
After that, the Kwa began destroying or disabling other Gates across the galaxy. They retreated from their enemies, with many returning to Dathomir while others remained on worlds such as Tython. Their Star Temples were sealed, and the Kwa set giant whuffa worms as guardians to protect what was left inside.
Across the galaxy, the Kwa were eventually wiped out as a major power. On Dathomir, the survivors changed over time into the Kwi, a more primitive saurian species that no longer carried the same knowledge their ancestors once had.
Their legacy did not end there. Thousands of years later, the Nightsisters discovered the Gate on Dathomir and slaughtered many of the Kwi while trying to unlock its secrets. The surviving Kwi fled into the deserts and formed tribes of their own, far removed from the ancient civilization that had once crossed the galaxy through the Infinity Gates.