In 7000 BBY, the Subterra Period ended and the Manderon Period began. The new period lasted until 5000 BBY and contained some of the most consequential ancient developments in Legends: the Hundred-Year Darkness, the rise of Mandalore, new trade routes, and the chain of events that eventually brought the Republic into direct conflict with the Sith Empire.
Two thousand years of change
The Manderon Period covered a span longer than many later galactic governments.
Its events connect the aftermath of early Republic expansion to the Great Hyperspace War.
It begins with the Hundred-Year Darkness
The period opened as the Second Great Schism became a century-long war.
The defeated Dark Jedi would later encounter the Sith species and create the Sith Order known to later history.
New routes reshape the galaxy
The period eventually saw completion of the Corellian Trade Spine and formation of the Rimma Trade Route.
Transportation infrastructure connected regions that had once developed more independently.
Anthropological assessment
The Manderon Period is useful because it links religious conflict, migration, warfare, and trade into one long phase of galactic integration.
Its opening also demonstrates that expansion and political control are not the same thing. The Republic had mapped large territories but still struggled to regulate the movements and ideologies that developed within them.
7000–5000 BBY · Legends · Source and continuity dossier
Manderon Period · two millennia in a history category
Documented account
The Essential Atlas divides Legends galactic history into several named periods. The Manderon Period covers roughly 7000 to 5000 BBY, following the Subterra Period and preceding the Post-Manderon period. It includes the Hundred-Year Darkness, the arrival of the Dark Jedi Exiles among the Sith, Mandalorian settlement and the expansion of transport networks.
Anthropological interpretation
An era label is a convenient historian's sorting device rather than proof that people scattered across the galaxy experienced events identically. A growing hyperspace route might transform merchants and frontier settlements while appearing unimportant to distant communities. Likewise, conflict between Jedi and dark-side dissidents was not all that happened in the same millennium.
Dates, continuity and historical caution
The 7000 BBY boundary is a later periodization convention, not an in-universe declaration by a named Chancellor on that date. The Great Hyperspace War and the discovery of Sith space often mark the end of this period. Do not mistake the era's 5000 BBY endpoint for the total extinction of Sith institutions.
Test the evidence: Did galactic governments issue a Manderon Period proclamation in 7000 BBY?
Correction and insight: No. It is a retrospective historical classification used in Legends reference works.
Publication trail: The Essential Atlas (2009), era classification; Legends chronological tables. Public reference: Check this Legends source history →. Original publications may require independent print issue or page verification.
Sources and further reading
- Daniel Wallace and Jason Fry, The Essential Atlas, 2009.
- Manderon Period, Wookieepedia