Star Wars: KotOR, Revan, Malachor, and Their Ties to Future Canon

If the sleuthing done by Eurogamer is found to be accurate, the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series may have subtle ties to the recently released Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie. That might not sound too substantial by itself, but given the fact that Disney has ambitious plans for additional Star Wars-branded video games, it’s worth noting in the event that it ever indirectly leads to the development of a Star Wars: KotOR III.

In short, they think that villain Kylo Ren was potentially inspired by the look used for Revan, and that the hilt-sporting lightsaber that he debuted in the film may reference an event mentioned in Star Wars: KotOR II where Revan used a Mass Shadow Generator above the planet of Malachor 5. While I’m a big fan of Star Wars in general, I’m certainly no expert when it comes to the full extent of its lore, so I’ll quote the key paragraphs below:

There’s a believable link between Kylo Ren’s crossguard Lightsaber and, specifically, Knights of the Old Republic 2, although KOTOR1 and Star Wars: The Old Republic have to be included because of their shared timeline and, particularly, main character Revan.

The link regards the origins of Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber, and a revelatory paragraph in a “Visual Dictionary” book accompanying the film. “Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber is an unusual design, dating back thousands of years to the Great Scourge of Malachor,” the book revealed, then said a bit more about the weapon’s design – although it’s really only the first sentence you need concern yourself with.

Nevertheless, here’s the extra stuff: “The crossguard blades, or quillons, are tributaries of the primary central blade, all spawning from a cracked kyber crystal that is the cause of their ragged, unstable appearance. An array of focusing crystal activators split the plasma stream into perpendicular blade energy channels, creating the quillons. The emitter shrouds on the crossguard protect the bearer’s hand from the smaller blades.”

The Lightsaber’s design dates back thousands of years to the Great Scourge of Malachor. What is the Great Scourge of Malachor? No one knows for sure because that’s the first we’ve heard of it. But rifling through Star Wars history there’s only one event I believe it can be: Revan using the Mass Shadow Generator above the planet Malachor 5. There is nothing else in Malachor’s known history that comes close.

Revan using the Mass Shadow Generator was backstory created for specifically for Knights of the Old Republic 2, although as it happened before Knights of the Old Republic 1, and involved Revan, it has to include that game as well.

The Mass Shadow Generator was a superweapon Revan used to bring about an end to the Mandalorian Wars, creating an immense gravitational vortex that sucked the planet and armies above it into ruin, and ripping all asunder. What was left was a planet – Malachor 5 – in pieces, held together by gravitational anomalies. Consider the definition of Scourge – “to cause great suffering to” – and you’ve hit it, spot on.