In 7000 BBY, the Second Great Schism escalated into the Hundred-Year Darkness. Dark Jedi dissidents attacked the Jedi Order and Galactic Republic using alchemy, dark-side sorcery, and engineered creatures. The conflict lasted roughly a century and ultimately produced one of the most consequential migrations in galactic history: the exile of surviving Dark Jedi beyond known Republic space.
A Jedi schism becomes a galactic war
The dissidents had separated from the Order in 7003 BBY.
By 7000 BBY, doctrinal rebellion had become sustained warfare involving Jedi and Republic forces.
Alchemy creates living weapons
Dark Jedi used the Force to mutate living organisms into war beasts, mounts, and Leviathans.
The conflict therefore blurred boundaries between military engineering, biology, and dark-side ritual.
A century of fighting
The war lasted until approximately 6900 BBY.
Several generations could enter Jedi training, fight, and die before the conflict ended.
The future Sith begin here
After eventual defeat at Corbos, surviving Dark Jedi were exiled beyond known space.
Their later encounter with the Sith species on Korriban created the political and religious tradition later known as the Sith Order.
Anthropological assessment
The Hundred-Year Darkness demonstrates how disputes over legitimate knowledge can become wars over institutional survival when dissidents build their own military community.
It also shows that exile can spread a conflict rather than end it. The Jedi removed the defeated dissidents from Republic space, but that displacement created the conditions for a new Sith empire.
7000 BBY · Legends · Source and continuity dossier
Hundred-Year Darkness · the war begins
Documented account
Legends chronology dates the outbreak to 7000 BBY, three years after the Second Great Schism. The Dark Jedi attacked Jedi and Republic forces using Force alchemy, weaponized organisms, and armies of created beings. Other accounts name the Battle of Balmorra and Trap at Fluwhaka among engagements during the century-long war. The final defeat happened a hundred years later at Corbos.
Anthropological interpretation
The use of engineered creatures raises a question beyond tactics: making a living being into a weapon changes the relation between creator, soldier, and victim. Conflict over permitted Jedi knowledge became a war that exposed worlds beyond the original disputed institution to the consequences. The repeated warfare cannot be reduced to a simple debate about lightsaber technique.
Dates, continuity and historical caution
The exiled Dark Jedi later conquered the Sith species' existing political order on Korriban. That 6900 BBY conquest was an aftermath of the war, not something already complete when the conflict began. The broader war's roster and dates are established in Legends reference works rather than in a single uninterrupted eyewitness novel.
Test the evidence: Did the indigenous Sith civilization originate with the outbreak of war in 7000 BBY?
Correction and insight: No. The Sith people and their own kingdoms existed long before the later Exiles arrived.
Publication trail: Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force; The Essential Atlas; Star Wars Insider 88. Public reference: Check this Legends source history →. Original publications may require independent print issue or page verification.
Sources and further reading
- Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force.
- The Essential Atlas.
- Hundred-Year Darkness/Legends, Wookieepedia