The Rakatan Civil War was a conflict that tore apart the Infinite Empire. Starting as internal strife, it was fueled by mass revolts of enslaved species across the galaxy. During the climax, a plague erupted that only infected the Rakata. It caused the collapse of the Empire and paved the way for the Galactic Republic to take the place of dominant galactic government.
Internal conflicts and civil war where the first cracks in the integrity of the Infinite Empire. Around 25,200 BBY, a plague which affected only the Rakata spread throughout the entirety of the Empire, killing billions of Rakata and an apparent mutation of the plague severed the survivors connection to the Force. The civil war and the plague weakened the Rakata's hold on the slave populations. Sensing the weakness in their Rakatan overlords, Humans and well as Duros, Herglics, Baragwins, Devaronians, and Gossams, rose up against their overlords in a series of massive violent slave revolts. With the Rakata's Force connection severed, Lehon fell into civil war, even as the Star Forge hung in orbit of the planet, inoperable due to the Rakata's severed Force connection. The slaves where successful and regained control of their subjugated worlds from the Rakata.
In the aftermath of the plague and civil war, the Rakata devolved into barbarism and forgot how to operate their own technology. The remaining Rakata were forced to retreat to their homeworld, Lehon, and their once powerful forces reduced to squabbling warlords and feuding clans, both on Lehon and on isolated, off-world colonies. It is a possibility that the Rakata's former subjects tried to erase the Rakata from history. With the galaxy now freed from Rakatan control, members of the Core Worlds formed the Galactic Republic in 25,053 BBY.
The order of events varies between sources. The New Essential Guide to Alien Species states that the Rakatan Civil War started with a revolt of subjugated populations, and then ended with the plague. Because other sources such as The Essential Atlas and The Unknown Regions describe the plague as the cause of the revolt, this article assumes the plague happened first.
- Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
- The New Essential Chronology
- The New Essential Guide to Alien Species
- Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force
- Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide
- The Essential Atlas
- The Unknown Regions
- The Essential Guide to Warfare
- Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia
- Dangerous Covenants