Designing the Dark Side
Inspired by notorious characters such as Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, the Sith Inquisitor and Sith Warrior take different approaches to their rise to power. The Sith Warrior achieves victory through pure aggression and might while the Sith Inquisitor excels by cunning ambition and Force manipulation.

From storyline, to art style, to combat tactics, each design decision was made to support the dark side themes of power, domination, and destruction.

Watch Developer Dispatch: Designing the Dark Side, and learn how Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ developers created this dominating force. (Source)

Top Secret: Dossier on the Imperial Agent!
Senior Writer Alexander Freed divulges some of the secrets of the life of the Imperial Agent!

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20100101_001

… and now Sean is going back to bed; Happy New Year (and new Decade) everyone! (Source)

Far in the Outer Rim, the sands of Tatooine bake beneath the glare of two bright suns. Small pockets of barely civilized communities dot the desolate landscape, surrounded by the endless expanse of barren dunes and rocky canyons that have silently slain so many of those who ventured out into desert. Among the small shantytowns and settlements that persist, travelers may find shelter from the brutal climate, but trust is as rare as water on this lawless world. Visitors and locals alike must constantly watch their backs in Tatooine’s townships.

The twenty-second issue of Threat of Peace™ takes us to the long-abandoned Jedi Enclave on Dantooine, where Lieutenant Tavus meets the true culprit behind the efforts to undermine the peace treaty. It seems Master Dar’Nala survived her Imperial captivity after all, and everything that’s happened since has been all part of her plan. Despite his doubts, Lieutenant Tavus agrees to assist Master Dar’Nala in completing her plan by slaying the Sith mastermind, Lord Baras.

Check out the latest issue of Threat of Peace now.

Wow. Great thread. It’s fantastic to see all the excitement around the KOTOR lore. There is much that we obviously aren’t revealing but I did want to clear up any misconceptions about what I was talking about in the interview.

• Revan and Malak went into deep space and met the Sith Emperor. They were turned and sent back to prepare the way for the return of the true Sith.
• Being Sith and away from the Emperor’s direct influence neither Revan nor Malak followed orders exactly as they were supposed to. Then, of course, Malak betrayed Revan.
• The Jedi took in Revan and returned him to the light, though as it was not a natural turn for him when he went dark, there was much they couldn’t undo and they decided to remove his memories and hopefully his taint with it. Yes, Revan’s return to the light (and his gender as male) are canon.
• Later Revan returned to deep space to confront what he knew was out there but how much he actually remembered and how clearly he remembered it is still a mystery, as are the events that followed. What we do know is that it took hundreds of years for the Sith to re-emerge as originally planned.

The rest is all speculation and have fun with that. For those of you convinced that somehow we’re going to destroy KOTOR, I ask you to remember that the creative team (including the lead writer and lead designer) that was in charge of KOTOR’s story is on this staff, working on this game. Trust us that our investment in this lore is at least as strong as yours.

LucasArts and BioWare are forging a new Star Wars™ era of epic adventure with their forthcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. Set more than 3,500 years in the past of the far-away galaxy, the game occurs in a time when the Jedi and the Galactic Republic clashed with the Sith Empire. It is an era rich with storytelling opportunities not only for players, but for fans of Star Wars literature.

Already, online fans are aware of Threat of Peace™, the serialized web-comic written by BioWare’s Rob Chestney. This April, Dark Horse Comics begins collecting the comic into a 96-page trade paperback, Star Wars: The Old Republic Volume 1: Threat of Peace, with art by Alex Sanchez, and colors by Michael Atiyeh.

Threat of Peace author Rob Chestney is also slated to write a new, original The Old Republic short story for online publication here at StarWars.com.

Next July, Del Rey Books will publish in hardcover Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, a novel by bestselling author Sean Williams. Now in the early planning stages is a second novel set in the Old Republic time frame, written by Paul Kemp, author of the forthcoming Crosscurrent.

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