Feathers on the Water

Banishing the Dark Jedi is how they galaxy ended up with the Hyperspace war. Those banished Jedi took over the Sith empire and came with war ships and an army.

Trying to murder all the dark sider is led to the Reconstituted Sith Empire who came back with An Army, a war fleet and Generational Trauma. also genocide is against the Jedi Code.

The Sith order is in the galaxy and openly recruiting. If they reject the fallen/at risk Jedi the Sith could take them in.

By Act 3 there are also compelling reasons to allow the Barsen'thor and Hero of Tython in particular to be kept on the mission roster, no matter how red their eyes glow. The Barsen'thor has become the leader of the Rift Alliance and can't be censured without risking offending them. Lord Scourge has attached himself to the Hero of Tython; such a high-ranking defector so close to the Sith Emperor is hugely valuable.

Spoilers, kinda.

So regardless of whether we acknowledge the idea of the Sith Empire and brainwashing, I was surprised to learn that Korriban was already occupied when Revan and Malak showed up. It seems to be implied Czerka already set up shop there, but more interestingly, Jorak Uln, the crazy old coot that holes up in one of the tombs, is a remnant from Exar Kun's war 40 years previously. As is Sion, from the second kotor game.

That would be the war that Jolee fought in against them.

Looking at the history further, it seems that Sith war ended and a few scattered Sith made a run for it in various parts of space. Some of them ended up on Korriban and restarted the academy there. Its been running the *entire time* and none of the Jedi did anything about it.

The current headmaster of the academy as in the time of gameplay is Jorak's pupil, so guess is good he's been there a long while as well.

And that led me to thinking- when exactly did Yuthura show up in all of this?

Now my immediate reaction to this was "this is ridiculous, this is dumb, this has to be an oversight, there's no way these Sith have been here for 40 years and roll over and show belly and fall in line the moment the new punk kids show up on the block" but then THAT got me thinking about something else that doesn't entirely make sense either-

One of the first battles Revan and Malak engaged in was attacking Foerost. This battle is an almost exact copy of another battle that was initiated by Qel-Droma... 40 years earlier... in the last Sith war... with Exar Kun. Spoils of this battle ended with Revan and Malak taking most of the Republic fleet from drydocks and also heralding themselves in as the new Sith Lords.

Which brings us back to Korriban. What better way to make a bang and convince these Sith holdouts to fall in line than copying a battle from their own past war? Maybe even doing it better? Proving their mettle?

If we add in that perhaps this was preventing Revan from accessing the Star Map, capturing the Republic fleet makes a whole lot of sense too. Or even if not, asset denial.

Your theory about Revan and Malak redoing the Battle of Foerost but better in part to attract the survivors of Kun and Qel-Droma's old following to them makes a lot of sense. Revan seems to have put effort into forcibly converting captured Jedi to the cause and to the Dark-Side. Recruiting existing Dark-Siders – or killing them if they refused to accept Revan's leadership – would match that.

It's such an effective way for Revan to signal the weakness of the Republic and the Jedi. The Sith attacked Foerost in the last war, but have the defences improved since then? No, Revan and Malak being able to one-up Qel-Droma suggests that the Republic learnt no lessons from the Great Sith War at all. Stealing a fleet that would otherwise be fielded against you is also just a strategically sound opening move too.

Huh, I had completely missed that Darth Sion was one of Exar Kun's old acolytes. I assumed that he was one of the Revanchist Jedi like Nihlus, that he had known the Jedi Exile during the Mandalorian Wars, however distantly.

(It's 4 AM and I can't sleep and this is all un fact checked stream of consciousness thought)

First of all, very true that Korriban is a huge place. I remember a line about Dreshdae being the only active settlement on the planet though, so either the Sith remnants were roughing it or like I said, no one bothered to check in on the place.

Also, if Czerka was there before, it might be even more obscure. Seeing as they renamed Kashyyyk "Edean," anything goes. Korriban might have fallen completely off the map basically. Its location and lore locked in the forbidden Jedi archives. So can't match it to this little nowhere settlement.

That's possibly why Revan and Malak never found it sooner, if there were historical and naming inconsistencies and they were forbidden from the Archives.

Speaking of, on the other hand, maybe that's how they learned about some of the Sith things in the first place. Revan and Malak had a huge thirst for knowledge. So if they learned about that lack of mop up in the wake of the last war (thanks for that addition, I'd missed that) then it looks something like this:

*learns Sith remnant exists out there*

"Oh. That could be a problem."

*Mandalorians start attacking."

"Now that is a PROBLEM."

Jedi Council: *believes there is an unseen dark threat*

Revan and Malak: *put two and two and remember what they read from before*

So again. All the more reason to argue to go to war if they believe that is the secret dark threat behind the war. A resurgence of Sith from 40 years before, pulling the strings behind the scenes.

And about the brainwashing/Sith Empire lore- I don't HATE it, I just waffle between "this is a cop out, let Revan be feral" and "this makes it easier and more sensible for why you can be a light side paragon in kotor."

I took Dreshdae being described as the only active settlement on Korriban to imply that there were other known abandoned ones. Korriban’s location was almost certainly restricted from the young Knights but the Jedi Master who would go on to call herself Kreia was a former keeper of the Jedi archives and histories. I bet she knew where Korriban was.

Given the way the Jedi Council talks about Revan and Malak, it doesn’t sound like there were any red flags in their behaviour prior to them leaving to fight in the Mandalorian Wars. To the contrary, Revan seems to have been held up as the paragon of that generation, driven to fight the Mandalorians by the atrocities committed on Cathar. Revan and Malak are pretty much quintessential fallen heroes. Sure, the seeds of Darth Revan’s flaws – ruthlessness, utilitarianism, manipulativeness, secrecy – were presumably already there, but those qualities are fine in moderation.

If you’re asking “What turns a hero into a villain?” then “mind-control” isn’t a satisfying answer. For one thing it means your villain was never truly a villain, just a victim of mind control, so you haven’t actually answered the question. One of the plot holes in the mind-control story is the part where the mind-control broke early in the Jedi Civil War but Revan and Malak kept invading like nothing had changed. It also requires all the other Revanchists to somehow not notice the massive suspicious shift in Revan and Malak’s priorities after their jaunt off to the Sith Empire, or for Vitiate to mind control all of them which – given what we see on Ziost – would likely be beyond even his capabilities.

The mind-control story also doesn’t answer the question of why Revan in particular fell because Revan was already making some extremely ethically dubious choices before the end of the Mandalorian Wars. Revan orchestrated the Battle of Malachor V in a way that enabled it to be used as a purge. Revan probably intentionally delayed their fleet’s arrival to force the use of the Mass Shadow Generator.

Revan fell because of the Mandalorian Wars. War changes people. What I wrote about the Revanchist Jedi falling during the war because the shift to military decision making and the moral injury that caused, I think was especially true of Revan. Revan was in overall command – billions lived and died by Revan’s decisions. Choice after choice after choice, each more horrible than the last. Revan warped under that pressure.

It makes sense amnesia could have scraped away the layers to reveal Revan’s “true self” – the compassionate nature eroded away – because the layers scraped away included the memories of the Mandalorian Wars, which were what had changed Revan. Being temporarily cut off from the Force also probably helped, as being enmeshed in the Dark-Side cannot have been helping whatever anger management issues led Revan to rip Malak’s jaw off.

Darth Revan Rising

It is a period of turmoil in the Galaxy. The fierce Mandalorian warrior race begins the MANDALORIAN WAR by viciously and simultaneously attacking three quadrants of Republic space. As the battle rages on, Jedi Master REVAN moves surreptitiously between unknown sectors, scouting for potential strongholds to withstand the attacks. He soon discovers the shadowy Malachor V, a planet listed by Mandalorian scholars as "forbidden" to step foot on. The reason for this soon becomes clear as Revan is almost devoured by primal Sith forces on the world's surface. Revan's will allows him to feed on (and not be consumed by) the power of the dark side. Revan develops an evil but brilliant plan: Using the dark power of Malachor V, he will seduce an army of Jedi, completely loyal to him alone. He will then turn the planet's evil power against the Mandalorian army in battle, luring them to his stronghold and destroying them completely. A stronghold is immediately constructed.

Meanwhile on Dantooine, the small Jedi academy overseen by Master Vodo-Siosk Baas is shocked to learn that a lone Jedi Padawan has disobeyed a direct order from Jedi Master ATRIS, a prominent Jedi on the Council. This single student has left behind the relative safety of the training grounds to fight alongside the Jedi loyal to Master Revan. But this young one, like the other Jedi brethren, is unaware of the tremendous dark side power wielded by Revan and the terrible secrets of Malachor V. Revan's power continues to grow, and he secretly strengthens his stronghold, hiding it even from his apprentice, DARTH MALAK. Soon, the evil force infecting the planet became the FORGE for Darth Revan's shock troops; the feared SITH ASSASSINS - fallen Jedi, tempted and cajoled by the evil of Malachor V, and under Revan's evil command. Soon, a shadow academy to the one on Korriban is constructed; and an evil enclave mirroring the Jedi academy on Dantooine is complete.

Proving Grounds

It is a period of tumult and astuteness for the galaxy's most powerful entities, as the Mandalorian conflict culminates. The Jedi, fighting alongside the Republic and their finest tactical minds, such as Admiral SAUL KARATH aboard his flagship Leviathan, begin to force the fierce Mandalorians back into a retreat. The rout of the Mandalorians reaches a crescendo above the skies of Malachor V. Unbeknownst to the Jedi Order, DARTH REVAN has discovered numerous Sith artifacts and holocrons, all stored in great tomb-like cities buried beneath Malachor V's surface. As Revan plundered these tombs and relics, he fell deeper into the Dark Side. He learned of the location and the true nature of Korriban, he learned of the location of other Sith artifacts, and he learned how those strong in the light side of the Force could be seduced and made to see the strength inherent in the Sith teachings.

Revan knew he had discovered more than a staging area for the Mandalorian War - he had discovered an ancient, planet-sized Sith storehouse of knowledge. He had discovered a world that held one purpose - to teach and train others in the ways of the Sith. He had discovered a weapon that he could use against the Mandalorians, and a weapon by which he could convert more Jedi to his cause. This process of "turning" Jedi into SITH ASSASSINS continued even as the Jedi Council hailed Revan as a hero, as he lead the Republic forces to victory over the Mandalorians in the skies above Malachor V, and forces them to surrender. Revan is able to draw upon the dark side energies of the planet below and use it during the battle, destroying the Mandalore and ending the Mandalorian threat. Simultaneously, more and more Jedi, unable to ignore the power emanating from the planet below, become corrupted by its influence.

A lone Jedi Knight, who had journeyed earlier to fight alongside Revan, forsakes him after the surrender of the Mandalorians - and the apparent loss of the Knight's connection to the Force during the battle - and journeys back to the Old Republic, determined not to fight any longer. The Knight is exiled by the Jedi Order, and the Knight's lightsaber is removed. Meanwhile, Darth Revan and his apprentice, DARTH MALAK, return from the Mandalorian War with a new fleet, comprising many previously loyal Republic soldiers and commanders, and a systematic and lethal attack begins. In tandem with the attacks of his fleet, Revan orders his SITH ASSASSINS to ratchet up the frequency and brutality of their swift attack strikes. The period of history known as the Old Republic Insurrection begins.

In disarray, the Jedi Council quickly gathers a small band of Jedi warriors together under the command of Jedi BASTILA SHAN with an imperative and almost suicidal mission; to capture Darth Revan, demoralize his troops, and strangle the insurrection. Setting a trap against a small Republic fleet, a small Jedi strike force boards Revan's ship, battling the Dark Lord into submission. Rather than helping his Master, DARTH MALAK lets the Jedi drag Revan from the throne after attempting a mind-wipe which was only partially successful. Returning to the Council with a comatose Revan, Jedi Masters healed Revan's mind, and implanted a loyal Republic personality.

The Feeding of Malachor V

It is a period of uncertainty across the galaxy. After a long and vicious battle in the deepest area of the STAR FORGE, Dark Lord of the Sith DARTH REVAN succeeds in destroying his ex-apprentice DARTH MALAK. After recovering from the duel, Revan seeks out the secret dark outposts he established during the Mandalorian War. Journeying to the Outer Rim in the EBON HAWK, Revan is focused with a single purpose: locating the source of the dark power on MALACHOR V. Those awaiting Revan's arrival, including members of the Sith and the Jedi, are shocked when he fails to return from this pilgrimage. It is unknown whether Revan destroyed or resurrected the primal Sith forces on this forbidden planetoid.

The turmoil of the previous decade has had a detrimental effect on the surviving members of the Jedi Order. Disillusionment and despair persists in the wake of the war both throughout the Old Republic, and within the Jedi Order itself. Furthering exacerbating the malaise is the corruption of Darth Revan and Darth Malak, and the untold harm their actions had brought to the Republic. These three reasons were cited by many the impetus for the disbanding of the Jedi. While the Jedi mull over their troubles, the battle-hardened Mandalorian hero CANDEROUS ORDO returns to the homeworld of DXUN, seeking to rebuild his clan, and find a new purpose in the galaxy. Through prowess and cunning, he rises to eventually become Mandalore.

JEDI MASTER KREIA, Revan's old mentor, is still haunted by guilt, wondering whether it was her teaching that resulted in Revan's fall to the dark side, and begins to search for him. Sensing his last location, she travels to Malachor V, but is unable to shield her emotions, and is completely consumed by the dark side of the Force. She is lost to the Jedi, spending the next several years on Malachor V, learning its secrets, and eventually becoming The master of the Sith academy there. Guided by Kreia's influence, Sith assassins once again begin to emerge silently from Malachor V and strike at isolated Jedi across the Republic, capturing some Jedi to turn to the dark side, and slaying those that resist. Taken to the dark side world of Malachor V to be fed to the planet's dark energies, these Jedi husks create even more assassins and DARK JEDI, feeding the planet's hunger.

~~Personal comments resume here~~

Now, I still have a few bones to pick with this version as well. "Revan's will allows him to feed on and not be consumed by the power of the dark side" and then the next sentence is the brillinant plan of 'Hey, let's conquer our own Republic!'

Which seems like a very corrupted dark side thing to do. There's just no way around that.

Like you said, I think the best explanation is basically wartime trauma. My personal version goes like this: (LSF!Revan personally so going to use she/her in this bit) Revan is looking for tactics against the Mandalorians. The reason it was picked was because it was a taboo world to them. She wants to find out why and maybe use this to her advantage. Goes there, probably discovers the Trayus Academy and is horrified by this, especially since the world is opening up to settlers now. Decides to take two birds with one stone and defeat the Mandalorians there and get rid of this dark side nexus at the same time. (Jury's out on whether the temptation of knowledge is too strong and she Dabbles in some of the things there. Probably a strong possibility. Malak definitely does.) Bao-Dur creates the Mass Shadow Generator, they have the big fight, but she screwed up and it worked better (worse?) than ever intended. Everyone gets a touch of void and it makes all the Jedi go mad and dark side, including Revan. And if you're going a bit mad, things like disappearing into the Unknown Regions become a bit more justifiable in the addled mess of her mind. Especially, referencing another post here, that the Jedi didn't set a great track record of being welcoming and forgiving when they exiled the one Jedi who returned to them and covered up the true reason why. None of the Revanchists would have any reason to feel inclined to come home. At some point during the war, (referencing comics) just before the Covenant affair was exposed on Coruscant, some of the Jedi Council even put arrest warrants out on Revan and Malak. So they definitely weren't going to get the welcome mat back home.

To quote Bastila- "The dark side is not simply giving in to anger or temptation to use the Force to destructive ends. These things only lead to the dark side. The dark side grows stronger and more insidious the closer you draw to it. It begs you to surrender to it, to release all its terrible power… and it becomes harder and harder to resist. And once you stop resisting, it is too late. It twists you up inside and… and turns you into a mockery of everything you once stood for."

To clarify a couple of my base assumptions, I don’t believe that the Dark-Side Force is intrinsically evil because I don’t believe ontological evil is a thing. Evil is a philosophical concept and a useful short-hand, but not something that objectively exists. I view the Light-Side/Dark-Side divide as a passion vs serenity dichotomy (and even then all dichotomies are false dichotomies, Voss please elaborate on the Force being grey). The ancient Je’daii managed to balance practicing the use of the Light and Dark-Sides of the Force for thousands of years before the Force Wars broke out, which is no worse than the Jedi’s track record with that kind of conflict.

I see the wound of Malachor V as being similar to the wound of the Exile – not a thing of evil but a thing of trauma. The Exile’s wound is something that most Force-sensitives who perceive it react to as something pitiable, abominable, or unnerving, but it exerts no control over their decision-making. The Exile subconsciously feeds on the deaths of the people they kill, but they decide to kill independently of the Force-drain; they aren’t killing people to feed on them or by feeding on them. So far as we know, they spent their nine years of lonesome wandering not killing anyone.

Given how badly the Jedi above Malachor V react to its destruction, relative to characters’ reaction to the destruction of Alderaan, I assume that Malachor V must also have been an inhabited world at the time it was destroyed. What shoved the Revanchist Jedi at Malachor V over the final precipice was feeling the deaths of millions or billions of people funnelled into them through the Force. Adding to the depth of the wound is that Malachor V was an old Sith world now in the sphere of Republic known space, presumably conquered during the Counter-invasion following the Great Hyperspace War which left other older scars ripped open by the Mass Shadow Generator. Possibly there was also something that happened on the planet during the Old Sith Empire, but nothing that prevented its continuing habitation.

My assumption is that the Trayus Academy was founded by Darth Traya, since you know Trayus Traya. There probably had been an old Sith Academy or library on the site, but I think its particular terrible teachings were the product of the Revanchist Sith marinading themselves in the wound at Malachor V. Specifically, the stealth/life-drain abilities that pinnacled in Darth Nihlus seem to have been something new, something that that the Jedi had never seen before. Given that the Jedi Council didn’t recognise the kind of threat the Sith had metamorphosed into during the Dark War and that they still believe Kreia had died in the Mandalorian Wars, I think that Nihlus and Traya mostly stayed on Malachor V during the Jedi Civil War because they weren’t fighting the Republic.

Spoilers, kinda.

So regardless of whether we acknowledge the idea of the Sith Empire and brainwashing, I was surprised to learn that Korriban was already occupied when Revan and Malak showed up. It seems to be implied Czerka already set up shop there, but more interestingly, Jorak Uln, the crazy old coot that holes up in one of the tombs, is a remnant from Exar Kun's war 40 years previously. As is Sion, from the second kotor game.

That would be the war that Jolee fought in against them.

Looking at the history further, it seems that Sith war ended and a few scattered Sith made a run for it in various parts of space. Some of them ended up on Korriban and restarted the academy there. Its been running the *entire time* and none of the Jedi did anything about it.

The current headmaster of the academy as in the time of gameplay is Jorak's pupil, so guess is good he's been there a long while as well.

And that led me to thinking- when exactly did Yuthura show up in all of this?

Now my immediate reaction to this was "this is ridiculous, this is dumb, this has to be an oversight, there's no way these Sith have been here for 40 years and roll over and show belly and fall in line the moment the new punk kids show up on the block" but then THAT got me thinking about something else that doesn't entirely make sense either-

One of the first battles Revan and Malak engaged in was attacking Foerost. This battle is an almost exact copy of another battle that was initiated by Qel-Droma... 40 years earlier... in the last Sith war... with Exar Kun. Spoils of this battle ended with Revan and Malak taking most of the Republic fleet from drydocks and also heralding themselves in as the new Sith Lords.

Which brings us back to Korriban. What better way to make a bang and convince these Sith holdouts to fall in line than copying a battle from their own past war? Maybe even doing it better? Proving their mettle?

If we add in that perhaps this was preventing Revan from accessing the Star Map, capturing the Republic fleet makes a whole lot of sense too. Or even if not, asset denial.

Your theory about Revan and Malak redoing the Battle of Foerost but better in part to attract the survivors of Kun and Qel-Droma's old following to them makes a lot of sense. Revan seems to have put effort into forcibly converting captured Jedi to the cause and to the Dark-Side. Recruiting existing Dark-Siders – or killing them if they refused to accept Revan's leadership – would match that.

It's such an effective way for Revan to signal the weakness of the Republic and the Jedi. The Sith attacked Foerost in the last war, but have the defences improved since then? No, Revan and Malak being able to one-up Qel-Droma suggests that the Republic learnt no lessons from the Great Sith War at all. Stealing a fleet that would otherwise be fielded against you is also just a strategically sound opening move too.

Huh, I had completely missed that Darth Sion was one of Exar Kun's old acolytes. I assumed that he was one of the Revanchist Jedi like Nihlus, that he had known the Jedi Exile during the Mandalorian Wars, however distantly.

(It's 4 AM and I can't sleep and this is all un fact checked stream of consciousness thought)

First of all, very true that Korriban is a huge place. I remember a line about Dreshdae being the only active settlement on the planet though, so either the Sith remnants were roughing it or like I said, no one bothered to check in on the place.

Also, if Czerka was there before, it might be even more obscure. Seeing as they renamed Kashyyyk "Edean," anything goes. Korriban might have fallen completely off the map basically. Its location and lore locked in the forbidden Jedi archives. So can't match it to this little nowhere settlement.

That's possibly why Revan and Malak never found it sooner, if there were historical and naming inconsistencies and they were forbidden from the Archives.

Speaking of, on the other hand, maybe that's how they learned about some of the Sith things in the first place. Revan and Malak had a huge thirst for knowledge. So if they learned about that lack of mop up in the wake of the last war (thanks for that addition, I'd missed that) then it looks something like this:

*learns Sith remnant exists out there*

"Oh. That could be a problem."

*Mandalorians start attacking."

"Now that is a PROBLEM."

Jedi Council: *believes there is an unseen dark threat*

Revan and Malak: *put two and two and remember what they read from before*

So again. All the more reason to argue to go to war if they believe that is the secret dark threat behind the war. A resurgence of Sith from 40 years before, pulling the strings behind the scenes.

And about the brainwashing/Sith Empire lore- I don't HATE it, I just waffle between "this is a cop out, let Revan be feral" and "this makes it easier and more sensible for why you can be a light side paragon in kotor."

I took Dreshdae being described as the only active settlement on Korriban to imply that there were other known abandoned ones. Korriban’s location was almost certainly restricted from the young Knights but the Jedi Master who would go on to call herself Kreia was a former keeper of the Jedi archives and histories. I bet she knew where Korriban was.

Given the way the Jedi Council talks about Revan and Malak, it doesn’t sound like there were any red flags in their behaviour prior to them leaving to fight in the Mandalorian Wars. To the contrary, Revan seems to have been held up as the paragon of that generation, driven to fight the Mandalorians by the atrocities committed on Cathar. Revan and Malak are pretty much quintessential fallen heroes. Sure, the seeds of Darth Revan’s flaws – ruthlessness, utilitarianism, manipulativeness, secrecy – were presumably already there, but those qualities are fine in moderation.

If you’re asking “What turns a hero into a villain?” then “mind-control” isn’t a satisfying answer. For one thing it means your villain was never truly a villain, just a victim of mind control, so you haven’t actually answered the question. One of the plot holes in the mind-control story is the part where the mind-control broke early in the Jedi Civil War but Revan and Malak kept invading like nothing had changed. It also requires all the other Revanchists to somehow not notice the massive suspicious shift in Revan and Malak’s priorities after their jaunt off to the Sith Empire, or for Vitiate to mind control all of them which – given what we see on Ziost – would likely be beyond even his capabilities.

The mind-control story also doesn’t answer the question of why Revan in particular fell because Revan was already making some extremely ethically dubious choices before the end of the Mandalorian Wars. Revan orchestrated the Battle of Malachor V in a way that enabled it to be used as a purge. Revan probably intentionally delayed their fleet’s arrival to force the use of the Mass Shadow Generator.

Revan fell because of the Mandalorian Wars. War changes people. What I wrote about the Revanchist Jedi falling during the war because the shift to military decision making and the moral injury that caused, I think was especially true of Revan. Revan was in overall command – billions lived and died by Revan’s decisions. Choice after choice after choice, each more horrible than the last. Revan warped under that pressure.

It makes sense amnesia could have scraped away the layers to reveal Revan’s “true self” – the compassionate nature eroded away – because the layers scraped away included the memories of the Mandalorian Wars, which were what had changed Revan. Being temporarily cut off from the Force also probably helped, as being enmeshed in the Dark-Side cannot have been helping whatever anger management issues led Revan to rip Malak’s jaw off.

Spoilers, kinda.

So regardless of whether we acknowledge the idea of the Sith Empire and brainwashing, I was surprised to learn that Korriban was already occupied when Revan and Malak showed up. It seems to be implied Czerka already set up shop there, but more interestingly, Jorak Uln, the crazy old coot that holes up in one of the tombs, is a remnant from Exar Kun's war 40 years previously. As is Sion, from the second kotor game.

That would be the war that Jolee fought in against them.

Looking at the history further, it seems that Sith war ended and a few scattered Sith made a run for it in various parts of space. Some of them ended up on Korriban and restarted the academy there. Its been running the *entire time* and none of the Jedi did anything about it.

The current headmaster of the academy as in the time of gameplay is Jorak's pupil, so guess is good he's been there a long while as well.

And that led me to thinking- when exactly did Yuthura show up in all of this?

Now my immediate reaction to this was "this is ridiculous, this is dumb, this has to be an oversight, there's no way these Sith have been here for 40 years and roll over and show belly and fall in line the moment the new punk kids show up on the block" but then THAT got me thinking about something else that doesn't entirely make sense either-

One of the first battles Revan and Malak engaged in was attacking Foerost. This battle is an almost exact copy of another battle that was initiated by Qel-Droma... 40 years earlier... in the last Sith war... with Exar Kun. Spoils of this battle ended with Revan and Malak taking most of the Republic fleet from drydocks and also heralding themselves in as the new Sith Lords.

Which brings us back to Korriban. What better way to make a bang and convince these Sith holdouts to fall in line than copying a battle from their own past war? Maybe even doing it better? Proving their mettle?

If we add in that perhaps this was preventing Revan from accessing the Star Map, capturing the Republic fleet makes a whole lot of sense too. Or even if not, asset denial.

Your theory about Revan and Malak redoing the Battle of Foerost but better in part to attract the survivors of Kun and Qel-Droma's old following to them makes a lot of sense. Revan seems to have put effort into forcibly converting captured Jedi to the cause and to the Dark-Side. Recruiting existing Dark-Siders – or killing them if they refused to accept Revan's leadership – would match that.

It's such an effective way for Revan to signal the weakness of the Republic and the Jedi. The Sith attacked Foerost in the last war, but have the defences improved since then? No, Revan and Malak being able to one-up Qel-Droma suggests that the Republic learnt no lessons from the Great Sith War at all. Stealing a fleet that would otherwise be fielded against you is also just a strategically sound opening move too.

Huh, I had completely missed that Darth Sion was one of Exar Kun's old acolytes. I assumed that he was one of the Revanchist Jedi like Nihlus, that he had known the Jedi Exile during the Mandalorian Wars, however distantly.

But because that world collapsed seemingly as a result of his actions, he connects sacrificing his happiness to his ultimate goal of preserving every world.

From a storytelling perspective we KNOW he's in the wrong because that's how these stories work, but from a practical perspective he has more insight and experience and we trust he's correct in his assessment because he literally knows best. He could still be wrong but the idea of it is less compelling.

Like, Miguel probably wasn't doing too well even before that happened. We see what draws the Spiderpeople to each other and it's empathy and loneliness. Miguel and Jessica can't leave Gwen behind, even though they think in the greater scheme of things they should, because she's just had her relationship with her father disintegrate in front of them; they can't leave her alone to suffer with nobody who understands.

How isolated to you have to feel to willingly give up your own life to live somebody else's? Miguel adopted his other self's family as much because he wanted to be a part of it as to protect them from grief, so when things go horribly wrong he blames it on his own selfishness. But who would foresee that going off to live in a parallel universe would cause that parallel universe to collapse? It's not like you're causing a time paradox.

Besides, if we can trust Miguel's rant about how everything is Miles' fault (which, we obviously can't, but anyway), the anomalies began around the start of the first movie in line with the supercollider multiverse experiments. Miles' being bitten by the Wrong Spider was just a consequence of those experiments, like the Spiderpeople crashing into his universe. So, the root cause of the instability in the Spiderverse, including the collapse of Miguel's adopted universe, is almost certainly the ongoing effects of the supercollider experiments.

(Holey Moley really is the Big Bad. He's going to be so chuffed about that. Not only is he Miles' nemesis but Miguel's as well! ALL THE SPIDERPEOPLE WILL ACKNOWLEDGE HIS THREAT LEVEL!)

Miles wasn't to blame for the things that went wrong around him and Miguel wasn't either. But if Miguel blames himself he can believe that he can prevent that kind of tragedy from happening again by avoiding his past mistakes and helping other people avoid his past mistakes. By locking them in containment fields if necessary.

And Miguel does a great job of keeping the negative effects of the ongoing anomalies in check! And (given that Miles finds what appears to be every single other Spiderbeing in existence hanging out in a cool secret society he wasn't invited to join) Miguel adopts every Spiderperson he meets because they're all so lonely without any other Spiderpeople around, it would be like leaving a wet kitten by the side of the road.

It's just with Miles, Miles who Miguel sees too much of himself in, Miles who acts as a trigger for all of that unaddressed self-loathing, that Miguel comes undone. That's why we see the group of Miles' Spiderfriends break off and decide to help him after the chase scene - the chase scene was when it became obvious just how badly Miguel was projecting and how much his trauma had overwhelmed his ability to analyse the situation.

Houses Ulgo and Rist’s assassination of Price Gaul and Queen Silara Panteer is one of those decisions where – though murder is wrong, though it triggered great strife – I absolutely understand why they did it. Ulgo and Rist removed what they viewed as dangerously incompetent leadership because they believed it was necessary to protect Alderaan.

The Galactic Republic agreed to sign the Treaty of Coruscant because they lost the Great Galactic War. The Imperial fleet had succeeded in occupying Coruscant’s skies, giving them the ability to launch an orbital bombardment at will, while the Republic lacked the means to dislodge them. Imperial troops had taken the Galactic Senate hostage and killed the Supreme Chancellor. Because the Empire had already been winning the war even before they seized the capital to use as a bargaining chip, the Sith Emperor was the one to set the terms of the frosty peace.

The Treaty of Coruscant was a shockingly good deal for the Republic under the circumstances (which is why many in the Empire were so resentful of it). The only territory the Empire demanded they cede which the Empire had not already occupied or was actively contesting was seven uninhabited star systems, when the Republic did not expect to be able to hold most of those fronts. The Empire had Republic representatives followed around by droids to monitor their adherence to the Treaty, but did not demand any Republic citizens be handed over to stand trial in the Empire for crimes real or invented. Crucially, Empire set no caps on the Republic’s ship building or military expenditure and extracted no economic reparations.

Those like Gaul Panteer, Leontyne Saresh and Elin Garza who publicly decried the Treaty, saying that the Republic should have kept fighting rather than accept peace with the Empire, were in denial about the political reality of the situation. At that time, the Republic had no prospect of being able to swing the tide of the war to put themselves in a stronger position in the peace negotiations. If the Republic had refused to ratify the Treaty the Empire could have levelled its capital, killing billions and decapitating institutions like the SIS headquartered on the planet. The only meaningful blow the Republic was dealt by the Treaty of Coruscant was to its pride.

Bouris Ulgo hated the Sith Empire, but he wasn’t an idiot. The Treaty of Coruscant, humiliating though it may have been, gave the Republic the perfect opportunity to rearm itself in the breathing space provided by the Cold War. The Republic was bigger than the Empire – bigger economy, bigger population – so given the opportunity they could out produce and out recruit the Empire. If the Republic was patient, then they could have their vengeance and victory.

But being protected by the Treaty of Coruscant long enough to rearm required remaining part of the Galactic Republic, because the Empire made the Treaty with the Republic. The moment Alderaan seceded, it was no longer protected by the Empire’s promise to withdraw, and the Imperial Military could launch a second invasion without breaking the Treaty. And why wouldn’t the Sith Empire invade Alderaan? What else did all their forces ordered to break off the attacks on Coruscant and other Republic worlds have to do? Gaul Panteer’s very loud and public removal Alderaan from the Republic must have looked like an open invitation for the Empire to come and conquer some beautiful new camping sites.

This is a really good point. Bouris Ulgo was a diplomatic disaster for himself and his rule, but it seems like no one else on Alderaan really grasped the potential consequences of Gaul's actions. At least no one with sufficient power or presence to do something about it. (Whether that was take the sort of action Bouris did, or convince Queen Silara and/or enough heads of noble houses to take less violent political action.)

It's actually a little surprising that the Empire didn't just sweep in and take over. ... Or, then again, maybe it's not. If they'd done as Bouris feared, that might have reduced the chances that other systems and planets would withdraw from the Republic. By just aiding one faction of the internal conflict, the Empire could downplay the threat they posed to independent worlds. And we know from Ord Mantell that they were trying to get more worlds to secede from the Republic.

And, honestly, that's probably the best way to ensure that they'd win when the Cold War heated back up. There's no way that the military and strategic minds of the Empire didn't know they were out numbered. But if they used the time of peace to pick away at the Republic, fracture it, capture bits of it through internal conflicts, then they might meet on less uneven footing next time.

Gaul Panteer’s decision to secede is said to have been very controversial, and Ulgo and Rist managing to stay in the fight against Thul and Organa for years without the backing of a powerful foreign government suggests Ulgo might have been the faction with the greatest local support (definitely they had the military). But, of course, only a tiny number of people on Alderaan have any kind of vote. The other Great Houses proved themselves incapable of setting aside their own interests to comprise in the failed election, so they would have been equally unable to compromise to unite to challenge House Panteer. Which is … strange. Strange that the system of the aristocratic assembly remained stable for so long, but failed right after they'd had a patriotic war to fight. Strange that the assembly should become gridlocked when trying to elect a new monarch, which had been done many times before.

If I were going to go full blown conspiracy theorist, I would say that Gaul Panteer was poisoning his mother Queen Silara as part of a plan to illegally seize the crown. Or if not poisoning, then exaggerating the severity of her illness to trap her away from the public eye so he could act as her regent.

Zash being Zash, though, I don’t think she was interested in teaching them much more than they needed to a) survive and b) not embarrass her/themself. Because embarrassing themself would be embarrassing her.

Poor Ahene ended up on Balmorra without really even understanding how to meditate properly because everything Zash said on the subject was either baffling or (from her perspective) flat-out counterproductive. And that’s kind of… important. For psychological stability. But she was just kind of going “probably it’s normal that I’m horribly stressed all the time? I am very traumatized, this is probably normal?” Until the holocron of Kel’eth Ur had to help her out. (She’s not a secret lightsider, so his method didn’t help, but he helped her develop one!) She’s still kind of horribly stressed, but now it’s more from the actual trauma and less from the trauma plus not putting her mind in order ever.

Honestly, barring noncanonical holocron theft, the Inquisitor’s best bet for the presumable offscreen training they had is probably Kallig.

Duelling? Zash isn’t planning to take the Inquisitor on in an honourable swordfight. Healing? Provided its things like how to set and fuse bones on the fly rather than any energy-draining techniques definitely – got to make sure the body stays in good shape. History? So long as it isn’t about Tulak Hord’s era and avoids any important instances of possession that should be safe enough. Filing taxes? The structure of the Pyramid of Ancient Knowledge? Etiquette? Dancing? If it distracts the Inquisitor from what she isn’t teaching them, Zash will spend the afternoon showing her new apprentice how to requisition datapads.

But anything related to rituals, the Emperor and his Voice, ghosts, mind tricks, or Sith magic? No way. Maybe the same for literacy if the Inquisitor were unlucky enough to be lacking in the area – that would make it easier for them to go poking around on their own, but if Zash were the one to teach them that might cement the Inquisitor’s faith in her desire for their well-being.

My Inquisitor had a fun time with Zash. They went to the opera together. They hosted a couple of parties together. Zash encouraged Lys’trel to go to college to study a certificate in archival practices, because in another few months once she’s learnt the ropes Zash can secure her an official research bursary. Zash encouraged Lys’trel to adopt aspects of Zash’s fighting style, because really the Overseers pushing her into Makashi had been a form of sabotage. Zash encouraged Lys’trel’s interest in the Jedi Civil War, because the age of Tulak Hord has been picked over for centuries and that will make it so much harder to come up with a truly groundbreaking thesis topic.

Which didn’t, uh. Work. Because Zash was really sure that Ahene was so desperate for praise and kindness that she wouldn’t be able to tell that Zash kept undercutting anything that would make her feel safe enough to be independent, because Zash doesn’t really think of other people as people. Zash thinks of people as collections of responses and motivations that will respond the “right” way to things, and can’t imagine someone who’s survived that kind of physical and emotional deprivation not clinging onto the first person to show actual (alleged) kindness.

Training is a good way to observe the quirks of your apprentice. Spending time with them is a good way of getting to know them, their personality, how they act, etc. For an emotionally starved Inquisitor who does buy into it, Zash is fool’s gold: her motives are hostile, but her actions would be so fulfilling. A seemingly genuine connection and relationship filled with respect and love and compassion that ends with complete heartbreak because it was all a lie—of sorts: I do believe that Zash, assuming you play your cards right, has genuine affection for the Inquisitor. They just prioritise their own life over them.

Ooh, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but I could def see Horak-Mul and Ludo Kressh having a real heartfelt reunion, because so much has passed since they last saw one another, and… to be honest, from my perspective, Ludo Kressh and his side of the war was the “right” side of the war who just so happened to lose. Like, had Ludo Kressh been made Dark Lord, the Hyperspace war would never have happened (or as it happened in canon) and the Empire wouldn’t have fallen as it did.

It'd also help out my Inqui, because it would automatically predispose Horak-Mul to her, being favoured by Ludo Kressh as she was. Also, like. I could totally see Ludo Kressh and Horak-Mul getting absolutely giddy at the idea of destroying the Sadow’een Temple. My Inquisitor is worried about the lost history, but also doesn’t like Sadow, much, either.

As for Adas… Freedon Nadd had the holocron on Onderon, but, after the Naddists were wiped out, it was taken by the Jedi elsewhere. However, how long after the Naddists is what I’m playing with. The general idea I’m working on is that the Adas holocron was stored in the Sith Temple on Dxun, and that it was during the Cold War when Jedi began looking into known Sith locations to pillage and destroy or at least confiscate Sith artefacts—Adas’ holocron being one of them.

In replacing Balmorra’s quest with a quest to Dxun, because it just makes sense for one of Tulak Hord’s treasures to be hidden away there, at the hands of a man who canonically pillaged Sith artefacts and lore (Nadd).

Adas is a cranky man who has high expectations for anyone he trains, so my Inqui has to actually make something of herself before he teaches her what he knows—though, history is free, because there was a long period where none of the Sith who held his holocron wanted to learn about history or philosophy and were instead more focused on how best to murder people with the Force, and he just really wants to learn some history.

My Zash also isn’t particularly inclined to bother with the “unnecessary” parts in general—she considers it a point of pride to do the training she does give to her own standards of quality, she just… doesn’t see her paper-doll apprentice as needing to know anything but mission/survival skills and enough social understanding to avoid Incidents and keep from being eaten alive. (And with Ahene, she can’t use the lessons as a bribe very well, though she’ll probably get a better handle on why that’s not been working later.) Hence keeping Ahene—and most of my inquisitors, though not necessarily quite to the same extent—away from Sith society as much as possible, to keep her from making the kind of allies who might realize that someone else was riding around in that meatsuit.

That obviously isn’t ideal for coming into it with connections—but it’s very difficult to pretend to be another person, in person, to someone who knows that person. Especially in a world where there are shapeshifters and Force illusions and ghostly possessions. So Zash has been very on board with Ahene making connections with normal people—who are not making reciprocal two-way emotional connections with Sith, generally, and are easier to get rid of if things go wrong—and very down on Ahene interacting much with other Sith.

(It is also… a thing with my Zash that while she was attached to Ahene in her terrible possessive way, all her genuine affection was predicated on the ability to mold someone in her image—even if literal body theft hadn’t been on the table, I see her as someone who doesn’t really see a difference between caring about someone and owning them. So she did care about Ahene, but only to the exact extent that Ahene was hers, and that would always have fallen apart horribly.)

… Honestly, it’s probably a bit more emotionally rational to be taken in a bit. It is very much Ahene’s trauma that led her to the worst possible conclusion, which just happened to be mostly correct. It has been very not-correct in other circumstances. Like when she reacted with immediate distrust towards Bessiker.

Also! Ludo Kressh was right. I will insist on this forever. (And I am deeply horribly attached to Horak-Mul.)

One reason why she encouraged Lys'trel to study the certification was because it's a huge entry level course taken mostly by non-Sith and it's believable that Lys'trel might not remember any given one of her fellow students afterwards. (Another reason was that Zash didn't want to have to retake that certification herself.)

My assumption about why Zash kept the fact that she had taken two new apprentices secret is that it wasn't actually because she wanted to keep the Inquisitor away from Corrin and Kaal, it was because she needed to keep Corrin and Kaal away from the Inquisitor. Corrin and Kaal weren't in on the body-snatching plot but Zash was planning on keeping them around afterwards. That meant she had to carefully control everything they knew about the Inquisitor – Zash's bestie who knew everything about Zash and who Zash had totally passed on all of her cool ritual knowledge and Sith magic tricks to, who Zash was immeasurably proud of and foresaw leading the Sith into a new age of glory, and who Zash planned on leaving everything to in the event of her death including her two adorable junior apprentices who Kallig was so looking forward to meeting when they arrived back on Dromund Kaas.

It pinged as a red flag to Lys'trel when Grandpa Kallig told her about Kaal and Corrin. Not because it was suspicious that Zash would take more apprentices, but because if Zash and Lys'trel's relationship really was what Zash presented it as being, Zash would have told Lys'trel that she'd expanded their little Teaching-Linage. Lys'trel was certain Zash had a deeply self-interested motivation for taking her as an apprentice and promoting her to Lord so quickly, but she thought it might be that Zash was over her head in the Sith infighting and needed a powerful and loyal ally to survive. The lie of omission signaled it was something more sinister.

@themildestofwriters I very much agree that Zash never would have wanted it revealed that she had stolen her apprentice's body. I headcanon that it's illegal for the living to possess people in the Reconstituted Empire, or even to research how to possess people, because Vitiate doesn't want anyone figuring about how his deal with the Voice works because that would be useful knowledge for people seeking to inconvenience him. (Vitiate's excuse for why it's okay for him to do it is that he has ascended to godhood.)

This provides a Watsonian explanation for Thanaton's non-specific accusations against Zash and the Inquisitor. Thanaton knew that Zash was illegally researching possession but couldn't use that information against her without revealing that he also knew more than was legal about that field of knowledge. Part of what Thanaton knew was about the Emperor's Children, so he needed to be careful that never came out because it would open him up to accusations of treason.

It wasn’t just pragmatic thinking that led to her selecting from a coterie of slave-born acolytes, but the genuine belief that doing so would lead not just to her surviving her affliction, but that doing so would be the best way forward.

Zash being Zash, though, I don’t think she was interested in teaching them much more than they needed to a) survive and b) not embarrass her/themself. Because embarrassing themself would be embarrassing her.

Poor Ahene ended up on Balmorra without really even understanding how to meditate properly because everything Zash said on the subject was either baffling or (from her perspective) flat-out counterproductive. And that’s kind of… important. For psychological stability. But she was just kind of going “probably it’s normal that I’m horribly stressed all the time? I am very traumatized, this is probably normal?” Until the holocron of Kel’eth Ur had to help her out. (She’s not a secret lightsider, so his method didn’t help, but he helped her develop one!) She’s still kind of horribly stressed, but now it’s more from the actual trauma and less from the trauma plus not putting her mind in order ever.

Honestly, barring noncanonical holocron theft, the Inquisitor’s best bet for the presumable offscreen training they had is probably Kallig.

Duelling? Zash isn’t planning to take the Inquisitor on in an honourable swordfight. Healing? Provided its things like how to set and fuse bones on the fly rather than any energy-draining techniques definitely – got to make sure the body stays in good shape. History? So long as it isn’t about Tulak Hord’s era and avoids any important instances of possession that should be safe enough. Filing taxes? The structure of the Pyramid of Ancient Knowledge? Etiquette? Dancing? If it distracts the Inquisitor from what she isn’t teaching them, Zash will spend the afternoon showing her new apprentice how to requisition datapads.

But anything related to rituals, the Emperor and his Voice, ghosts, mind tricks, or Sith magic? No way. Maybe the same for literacy if the Inquisitor were unlucky enough to be lacking in the area – that would make it easier for them to go poking around on their own, but if Zash were the one to teach them that might cement the Inquisitor’s faith in her desire for their well-being.

My Inquisitor had a fun time with Zash. They went to the opera together. They hosted a couple of parties together. Zash encouraged Lys’trel to go to college to study a certificate in archival practices, because in another few months once she’s learnt the ropes Zash can secure her an official research bursary. Zash encouraged Lys’trel to adopt aspects of Zash’s fighting style, because really the Overseers pushing her into Makashi had been a form of sabotage. Zash encouraged Lys’trel’s interest in the Jedi Civil War, because the age of Tulak Hord has been picked over for centuries and that will make it so much harder to come up with a truly groundbreaking thesis topic.

Which didn’t, uh. Work. Because Zash was really sure that Ahene was so desperate for praise and kindness that she wouldn’t be able to tell that Zash kept undercutting anything that would make her feel safe enough to be independent, because Zash doesn’t really think of other people as people. Zash thinks of people as collections of responses and motivations that will respond the “right” way to things, and can’t imagine someone who’s survived that kind of physical and emotional deprivation not clinging onto the first person to show actual (alleged) kindness.

Training is a good way to observe the quirks of your apprentice. Spending time with them is a good way of getting to know them, their personality, how they act, etc. For an emotionally starved Inquisitor who does buy into it, Zash is fool’s gold: her motives are hostile, but her actions would be so fulfilling. A seemingly genuine connection and relationship filled with respect and love and compassion that ends with complete heartbreak because it was all a lie—of sorts: I do believe that Zash, assuming you play your cards right, has genuine affection for the Inquisitor. They just prioritise their own life over them.

Ooh, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but I could def see Horak-Mul and Ludo Kressh having a real heartfelt reunion, because so much has passed since they last saw one another, and… to be honest, from my perspective, Ludo Kressh and his side of the war was the “right” side of the war who just so happened to lose. Like, had Ludo Kressh been made Dark Lord, the Hyperspace war would never have happened (or as it happened in canon) and the Empire wouldn’t have fallen as it did.

It'd also help out my Inqui, because it would automatically predispose Horak-Mul to her, being favoured by Ludo Kressh as she was. Also, like. I could totally see Ludo Kressh and Horak-Mul getting absolutely giddy at the idea of destroying the Sadow’een Temple. My Inquisitor is worried about the lost history, but also doesn’t like Sadow, much, either.

As for Adas… Freedon Nadd had the holocron on Onderon, but, after the Naddists were wiped out, it was taken by the Jedi elsewhere. However, how long after the Naddists is what I’m playing with. The general idea I’m working on is that the Adas holocron was stored in the Sith Temple on Dxun, and that it was during the Cold War when Jedi began looking into known Sith locations to pillage and destroy or at least confiscate Sith artefacts—Adas’ holocron being one of them.

In replacing Balmorra’s quest with a quest to Dxun, because it just makes sense for one of Tulak Hord’s treasures to be hidden away there, at the hands of a man who canonically pillaged Sith artefacts and lore (Nadd).

Adas is a cranky man who has high expectations for anyone he trains, so my Inqui has to actually make something of herself before he teaches her what he knows—though, history is free, because there was a long period where none of the Sith who held his holocron wanted to learn about history or philosophy and were instead more focused on how best to murder people with the Force, and he just really wants to learn some history.

My Zash also isn’t particularly inclined to bother with the “unnecessary” parts in general—she considers it a point of pride to do the training she does give to her own standards of quality, she just… doesn’t see her paper-doll apprentice as needing to know anything but mission/survival skills and enough social understanding to avoid Incidents and keep from being eaten alive. (And with Ahene, she can’t use the lessons as a bribe very well, though she’ll probably get a better handle on why that’s not been working later.) Hence keeping Ahene—and most of my inquisitors, though not necessarily quite to the same extent—away from Sith society as much as possible, to keep her from making the kind of allies who might realize that someone else was riding around in that meatsuit.

That obviously isn’t ideal for coming into it with connections—but it’s very difficult to pretend to be another person, in person, to someone who knows that person. Especially in a world where there are shapeshifters and Force illusions and ghostly possessions. So Zash has been very on board with Ahene making connections with normal people—who are not making reciprocal two-way emotional connections with Sith, generally, and are easier to get rid of if things go wrong—and very down on Ahene interacting much with other Sith.

(It is also… a thing with my Zash that while she was attached to Ahene in her terrible possessive way, all her genuine affection was predicated on the ability to mold someone in her image—even if literal body theft hadn’t been on the table, I see her as someone who doesn’t really see a difference between caring about someone and owning them. So she did care about Ahene, but only to the exact extent that Ahene was hers, and that would always have fallen apart horribly.)

… Honestly, it’s probably a bit more emotionally rational to be taken in a bit. It is very much Ahene’s trauma that led her to the worst possible conclusion, which just happened to be mostly correct. It has been very not-correct in other circumstances. Like when she reacted with immediate distrust towards Bessiker.

Also! Ludo Kressh was right. I will insist on this forever. (And I am deeply horribly attached to Horak-Mul.)

One reason why she encouraged Lys'trel to study the certification was because it's a huge entry level course taken mostly by non-Sith and it's believable that Lys'trel might not remember any given one of her fellow students afterwards. (Another reason was that Zash didn't want to have to retake that certification herself.)

My assumption about why Zash kept the fact that she had taken two new apprentices secret is that it wasn't actually because she wanted to keep the Inquisitor away from Corrin and Kaal, it was because she needed to keep Corrin and Kaal away from the Inquisitor. Corrin and Kaal weren't in on the body-snatching plot but Zash was planning on keeping them around afterwards. That meant she had to carefully control everything they knew about the Inquisitor – Zash's bestie who knew everything about Zash and who Zash had totally passed on all of her cool ritual knowledge and Sith magic tricks to, who Zash was immeasurably proud of and foresaw leading the Sith into a new age of glory, and who Zash planned on leaving everything to in the event of her death including her two adorable junior apprentices who Kallig was so looking forward to meeting when they arrived back on Dromund Kaas.

It pinged as a red flag to Lys'trel when Grandpa Kallig told her about Kaal and Corrin. Not because it was suspicious that Zash would take more apprentices, but because if Zash and Lys'trel's relationship really was what Zash presented it as being, Zash would have told Lys'trel that she'd expanded their little Teaching-Linage. Lys'trel was certain Zash had a deeply self-interested motivation for taking her as an apprentice and promoting her to Lord so quickly, but she thought it might be that Zash was over her head in the Sith infighting and needed a powerful and loyal ally to survive. The lie of omission signaled it was something more sinister.

@themildestofwriters I very much agree that Zash never would have wanted it revealed that she had stolen her apprentice's body. I headcanon that it's illegal for the living to possess people in the Reconstituted Empire, or even to research how to possess people, because Vitiate doesn't want anyone figuring about how his deal with the Voice works because that would be useful knowledge for people seeking to inconvenience him. (Vitiate's excuse for why it's okay for him to do it is that he has ascended to godhood.)

This provides a Watsonian explanation for Thanaton's non-specific accusations against Zash and the Inquisitor. Thanaton knew that Zash was illegally researching possession but couldn't use that information against her without revealing that he also knew more than was legal about that field of knowledge. Part of what Thanaton knew was about the Emperor's Children, so he needed to be careful that never came out because it would open him up to accusations of treason.

Zash being Zash, though, I don’t think she was interested in teaching them much more than they needed to a) survive and b) not embarrass her/themself. Because embarrassing themself would be embarrassing her.

Poor Ahene ended up on Balmorra without really even understanding how to meditate properly because everything Zash said on the subject was either baffling or (from her perspective) flat-out counterproductive. And that’s kind of… important. For psychological stability. But she was just kind of going “probably it’s normal that I’m horribly stressed all the time? I am very traumatized, this is probably normal?” Until the holocron of Kel’eth Ur had to help her out. (She’s not a secret lightsider, so his method didn’t help, but he helped her develop one!) She’s still kind of horribly stressed, but now it’s more from the actual trauma and less from the trauma plus not putting her mind in order ever.

Honestly, barring noncanonical holocron theft, the Inquisitor’s best bet for the presumable offscreen training they had is probably Kallig.

Duelling? Zash isn’t planning to take the Inquisitor on in an honourable swordfight. Healing? Provided its things like how to set and fuse bones on the fly rather than any energy-draining techniques definitely – got to make sure the body stays in good shape. History? So long as it isn’t about Tulak Hord’s era and avoids any important instances of possession that should be safe enough. Filing taxes? The structure of the Pyramid of Ancient Knowledge? Etiquette? Dancing? If it distracts the Inquisitor from what she isn’t teaching them, Zash will spend the afternoon showing her new apprentice how to requisition datapads.

But anything related to rituals, the Emperor and his Voice, ghosts, mind tricks, or Sith magic? No way. Maybe the same for literacy if the Inquisitor were unlucky enough to be lacking in the area – that would make it easier for them to go poking around on their own, but if Zash were the one to teach them that might cement the Inquisitor’s faith in her desire for their well-being.

My Inquisitor had a fun time with Zash. They went to the opera together. They hosted a couple of parties together. Zash encouraged Lys’trel to go to college to study a certificate in archival practices, because in another few months once she’s learnt the ropes Zash can secure her an official research bursary. Zash encouraged Lys’trel to adopt aspects of Zash’s fighting style, because really the Overseers pushing her into Makashi had been a form of sabotage. Zash encouraged Lys’trel’s interest in the Jedi Civil War, because the age of Tulak Hord has been picked over for centuries and that will make it so much harder to come up with a truly groundbreaking thesis topic.