headcanon. the jedi in the late golden age are pretty confident that returns from the dark side are impossible. so holding to this, revan's 'return' to the light (via brainwashing, which in my opinion doesn't count regardless) is never properly recorded/never makes it into the history books. what the jedi did to revan was kept pretty hush-hush at the time, so even less information actually made it out of their era. in the history books, revan is slain by the strike team bastila shan was a part of, and bastila herself becomes the 'protagonist' of the story so to speak, tracking down the star forge and slaying malak herself.
i mentioned this on my old blog, but i believe there are almost... 3 1/2 different revans that exist in the golden age. to the mandalorians they are the butcher (of malachor, of te ani'la, of their progenitors), both a historical figure and a metaphor, wrapped up and buried deep in the context of mandalorian culture. to the jedi they are a cautionary tale, another example of how even the most righteous of causes can become corrupted and how heroes can turn against all they once stood for. the republic's revan is an extension of that, a war hero turned war criminal, someone grander than the actual tragedy of it, an early master of strategy and god of war that is admired by some [ in that way you can admire anyone given enough time stretched out to destroy the context between your two lives. ] and the sith have their own darth revan, one who saw truth in the dark side, who laid groundwork for what the sith were meant to become. and none of these are accurate, of course, just exaggerated facets of a broken legacy, but they're still there. [ the most 'true' part of their legacy is their name lost in a list of many in a record of conservation on various ancient jedi texts. ]
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