I am not blind to the fact that many of my colleagues who read this will scoff.And while many have respected me, I was certainly not loved by all—a realityof public life to be expected. This dissertation is not a scientific paper, and Ihave not bothered to couch it in the obfuscating style common to formal academicworks replete with incomprehensible jargon that often disguise poorly thought-outhypotheses. I do this not in any act of reproach against the establishment I’d longworked in and esteemed, but because the time is short and my purpose for this work isnot for it to be dissected and debated amongst my colleagues, though undoubtedly itwill, but to speak to the average being in the galaxy for whom the light of truth,which so often seems elusive and far away, might perhaps better be seen.

To be a historian is to have an idealistic fascination with the past, even as we recognize that it was far from ideal. We are motivated not by prestige, but by the need tosate a hunger for a bygone age, to glimpse the peoples, places, and events that are nomore, to uncover the mysteries they left behind. Yet hunger alone is not sufficient.We must also possess the humility to recognize when we are wrong and the honestyto follow the truth no matter where it leads.

For in resurrecting the past—in all its grotesque glory and shame—we are giventhe opportunity to grow, for by learning the lessons taught by the noble and vile, indiscerning what abhorrent things should be left in the dust and what beneficentthings should be restored and cherished again, we can make a better future.

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My fascination with the ancient past began in my youth, and for years it slept inthe embers until it was rekindled with the incident on Alashan. That was when thefirst clue revealed itself to me.

Decades back, a company of archaeologists and historians probing the artifacts ofa vanished civilization in the City of Forever on the ancient world of Alashan,mysteriously disappeared. It was later learned that they’d been ruthlessly hunteddown and killed, but by who or what, none knew. The truth wasn’t discovered untila team led by Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Mici Shabandar came to Alashanand were confronted by the killer, a powerful custodial intelligence left behind by theAlashanians to ensure their secrets remained secret.

Thanks to her recordings and translation of some of the interior glyphs found uponthe walls of numerous structures in the city, Leia—a student of Pre-Republic historyunder the late Professor Arn Horada—was able to provide an invaluable key thatallowed us to decipher the Alashanian tongue.

Alashan means both “People of the Wing” and “Foremost Ones,” and a depictionof the unfamiliar-looking reptilian race was found centered and raised above several others, which I believe are offspring races (one of which could be identified as theS’kytri of Skye) being sent out to battle. Other hieroglyphics indicated a terriblecalamity, followed by a victory in war, and, finally, a mass withdrawal from galacticaffairs; this occurred in the midst of the Cosmic Wars, an unknown event in theancient past in which other races were said to have fled, disappeared, or becomeextinct: the Ahra Naffi, the Arbrans, the Eellayin, the Indur, the Osserians, theKilliks, the Kwa, the Cocytans, the original inhabitants of Yavin, and more.

What nameless threat could have caused such a mass exodus on the part of racesknown to be advanced? Some have made a case for the Rakata, but not only are thedates unequivocally off, but the records show that despite the boasts of Rakatanchroniclers, they were but a client race, one of several in league with a greater evil.2

The pictographs were only part of the clue. What few asked was how it was possible for Leia to have been able to decrypt unknown glyphs during her brief explorationof the Alashanian city. As brilliant as our former Chief of State is and as knowledgeable as Professor Horada was, this should have struck everyone as implausible. Ancientwritings from cultures that are no longer extant and which no one has previouslyexplored can take decades to decode with teams of university scholars working onthem. There are but two possible ways Leia could have accomplished this. One is ifthere had been a pre-existing key to the pictographs shown alongside other languages. Leia has verified that this was not the case, while confirming the otherconclusion: they were akin to the writings of another ancient civilization that shehad previously studied.

That this wasn’t earlier ascertained is due to a built-in creed that dictates thatprior to the discovery of Hyperspace travel, ancient civilizations evolved independently of one another. Scholars don’t see the connections because they don’t lookfor them. Additionally, the specialties are compartmentalized. Those who studyKillik writings only study Killik writings and not writings from the Ahra Naffi orEellayin. And even if similarities are discerned, they are deemed late-date writings,and despite all evidence to the contrary, are dismissed as the product of culturalcross-contamination.Thus, many ancient Pre-Republic artifacts are mislabeled ascoming from the post-hyperdrive era.

But the error of this approach had been laid bair. Leia could decipher pictographsfrom a lost, pre-hyperspace race because they were analogous to the written languageof the Kwa. Whatever embarrassment the scientific community might have felt overthis inconvenient truth aught to have been mitigated by the the greater light thediscovery has shed: the existence of a shared common language amongst ancient races.

This discovery came three decades ago, and there still has not been a major overhaulof our historical texts or even a discussion of its implications. It has simply beenignored. The reason for this is disappointing if not surprising: a linguistic connectionbetween extant races argues against the excessively ancient dates accepted by most. Aslinguists and philologists will verify, language in any civilization will change significantly from that of its forebears over a period of 5,000 years. Even in a culture diligentto preserve its ancestral tongue, 100,000 years would render it wholly unrecognizable.

The belief in the commonality of a shared, ancient language is not new, nor isbelief in the necessity of having to alter the chronology of civilization, though suchviews were only ever postulated by a few historiographers, tracing back to YmanVeli’kosyk and Rol Aviid, whose works proved popular with the public and were yetremain tucked away in the Spurious Directories, likely for this very reason. No onewants the onerous task of having to revise the ancient models or acknowledge thatsuppressed works might have been right after all. While I’m heartened to note that inrecent years, Aviid and Veli’kosyk’s works have become a subject of serious inquiryby the Society for Intergalactic Studies, such a monumental reexamination of accepted data and methodologies should be a much bigger deal than they are.

Thankfully, Professor Horada had agreed with some of their findings as well as theidea that the long-vanished Kwa held secrets to the origins of the galaxy. Scientistshad long studied the remains of Kwa Star Temples, though more for their technologythan their history. But with the knowledge of their linguistic correlation to theAlashan glyphs, and, as we discovered, Zeffonian tombs and cuneal writings of otherancient races, there now existed a lead to the past.

But a century of rigidity towards ironclad tenets seen as infallible, coupled with alaggard and even resentful response to the idea of change, meant that I would need alot more to convince the majority to even consider a discussion of the matter. If theirmovement was plodding, mine had to be swift. From the records on the Great Libraryof Ropagu I confirmed that by means of their Infinity Gates—portals which they hadbuilt some time in lost ages—the Kwa had established connections to numerous otherraces. Like them, the most ancient of these had been known as the Firstborn, FirstOnes, Precursors, Ancients, and Elder Races. Of these affiliations, we learned of arival to the Kwa who still existed: the Gree.

The Gree are an obscure race of six-limbed cephalopods who generally avoid the galaxy at large. I came to them alone on Asation, the first planet of the Gree Enclave.3From there I rode within one of their age-old city-ships to meet with the GuildCouncil by the standing arches of Satikan. These were their ancient and mysteriousHypergates. But a few remained, having been preserved in honor of the galactic bondin the age of Vernal Splendour, their wondrous secrets now forgotten, for the elders ofold would not pass them on. 

So as not to hit the same roadblock others before me had, I came prepared.

The Guild were more willing to provide me assistance once I procured for them theKhoz’zhak, an artifact of great antiquity that had been stolen decades earlier by myfriend, Corellia Antilles. Not wishing to start any clan wars, I wisely omitted thatinformation when mentioning how I’d acquired it. The Te Hasan branch of the Greehad initially retrieved it from Antilles, but they had covertly traded it back to herwithout the other branches’ knowledge in exchange for unlocking the ancienttechnological device and would pay her for any others she might be able to decrypt.4

From Satikan I was sent on another ship to Te Hasa, where I would be granted accessto the vast Great Library of Manuals. I could have spent years in the Gree Enclave.Although considered a civilization in decline, the grandeur of this Firstborn race waseverywhere on display, from the magnificent marvels of their lumbering city-ships tothe stunning, scalloped edifices, gravity-defying architecture, and visionary citieswherein fantastical, bio-engineered beings ambled about, guarding their treasures.Here was a race whose primary concern was the acquisition of knowledge and peace,and it was these qualities that made the Gree Enclave feel so intoxicating.

On Te Hasa, the Textmasters gave me a tour of the Halls of the Most Ancient andForgotten Days. After some weeks of research, it became clear that they were aptlynamed and why the Gree made pilgrimages to this city. For reasons that were notthen understood by me, their forefathers had obscured much of their past, coding itwithin numerous and now inoperable technological wonders and dense ciphers.

Notwithstanding, there were some things I was able to glean, including an earlyrecord of the Gree’s prolonged conflict with the ancient Kwa, a conflict that stemmedfrom their construction of the Infinity Gates.

It was once assumed that the Gree’s Hypergates were similar to the Kwa’s InfinityGates, but we’ve since learned that each operated on different principles. For somereason, the Gree saw the Kwa’s Infinity Gates as an abomination and ended theirfriendship with them. I was hardly the first historian allowed to examine the Halls,but prior ones had assumed religious bias or nationalistic jealousy on the part of theGree and concluded there was no need for further inquiry, but there was clearly moreto this story than met the eye.

And so I asked the Keepers of Artifacts if there were other races the Gree had endedtheir association with. They said there were several. When I asked them if they werethe figures in the Khoz'zhak and other artifacts in the Halls of the Most Ancient andForgotten Days, they acknowledged that they were.

Khoz'zhak means the “belligerent wanderers” and is one of several of the AccursedTablets that, when accessed, reveals details of the condemned races and their crimes.They were intended to serve as a reminder to later generations but also a warning toavoid committing the same sins. Thanks to Antilles, I could “open” the Khoz'zhakand show them the holographic, three-dimensional figures. Although the languagewas indecipherable, even to the Gree, and unconnected to the lingua franca used by them and others, when I asked the designated Keepers who they were, they readilyreplied: “It does not take a Textmaster to tell you that they are the Kwa, Siniteen,Sharu, Arbrans, Eruthros, and Duinuogwuin… Though much of our ancient writingscannot at this time be deciphered, these figures and their sigils have long been knownto us, for we are forbidden from trading or partaking of a meal with them. Our peopleare not as strict on this matter these days, for these are very old edicts and pertain toold times, but there are some amongst us who abide by them still.”

Once again, prior historians—assuming that pre-hyperdrive civilizations hadevolved independently in their own isolated pockets in space—determined thevarious figures present on Gree artifacts were mythological monsters or gods. “Whyhad you not corrected these researchers?” I asked.

“They had not asked us to confirm or deny their findings,” the Keeper replied.“Nor would they have listened anyway, as we discovered when we attempted toprovide correction and clarification on other matters.”

“Let me guess, you were met with a polite but impatient dismissal.”

“That is correct. You know your kind well, Arhul Hextrophon.”

“Do you know how to locate the Duinuogwuin Star Dragons?”

“We do not, but it is known that they have made themselves scarce in the galaxy.So too is it known that the Siniteen take a dim view of anyone digging into theirpast.”

“Do you know who the Eruthros are?”

“I am afraid that is also a mystery to us.”

“With the Kwa and Arbrans having vanished, I guess that leaves the Sharu…”

“We wish you the best, Arhul Hextrophon. Perhaps when you have found theknowledge you are seeking, you will return here and grace us with a copy of yourfindings.”

“Nothing would please me more,” I replied sincerely. “As soon as my notes havebeen properly transcribed and edited, I’ll personally bring you a copy.”

“We do not extend this courtesy to most non-Gree, but you are welcome to the TeHasan any time, regardless of whether or not you succeed in your quest.”

Thanking him, I returned to Asation and my ship and plotted a course to the Rafasystem, a curiously named place as I was later to discover.

Historians the galaxy over remain in debt to the famed gambler and entrepreneurLando Calrissian for awakening the Sharu by means of the enigmatic Mindharp.Unfortunately, once the Sharu returned, the Rafa system became overrun withscientists and researchers. The Obroan Institute alone sent five hundred to probe theirculture, invade their ancient dwellings, and disrupt their lives. To no great surprise,the Sharu resented the intrusion and feigned a kind of amnesia, leaving only thehieroglyphs etched in the walls of their mysterious structures for the researchers totry and crack. Eventually they departed with slightly more than their speculations. Imust say that without the aid of my droid, Cuenyne, I wouldn’t have gotten much further myself, but we ended up with more valuable insight in mere days than theObroan Institute had garnered in a year.

It was apparent that the Sharu were either terrible record-keepers or prone to contradiction and wild exaggeration. Their writings, which we could now better decrypt, contained discontinuity, inconsistent dates, and confusion over the identity oftheir ancient enemy. But the degree of inaccuracy seemed capricious, as if intendedto throw off those who would dare pry. If so, it was a rather ingenious way to guardtheir secrets. But why go to such lengths?

Through conversation with members of the Sharu priesthood who serve as theirannalists we began to get a slightly different picture of the ancient world than theirwritings indicated. The Sharu, we were informed, fearfully guarded their past, and itwas for this reason that we were asked to delve no further. Thanks to an anonymoussource sympathetic to our plight, we were given a contact and a destination:Kar’a’katok.

Kar’a’katok is an uncanny world, primal and haunted by the specter of a geniusloci from a sinister past. Even I, blind as I was by the dogma of materialism, could feelit gloaming contemptuously from its plethoric pyramids, vertiginous ziggurats, andexotic temples dedicated to ominous personages in immemorial times. The world hada different name then, its meaning one I could not parse. It was there that first I cameupon the accursed sigil that would ever madden my dreams and waking visions oftime’s dim recesses when sanguinary rites were offered up to the mysteries of Destinyand the awe of unknowable Astor, the ochre-clad King of Kar’a’katok.

For four millennia, the isolationist civilization of the xenophobic Shimholt wereruled by a sect of extremists who sought to keep Kar’a’katok in a moribund state, cutoff from the rest of the galaxy. During the Subterra Period, a number of Shimholtrenegades grew in secret and swelled into a movement that brought forth a civil war,overthrowing the wicked priests and re-dedicating the ancient temples to less malevolent gods and more noble purposes. As the millennia passed, the Shimholt madereparations and renewed their culture, bridging relations with neighboring worldswhile casting off the shadows of an unspeakable past. Therewith, in the Post-Manderonperiod, came the Nelori Marauders. The vicious gang stole many of their treasures,causing the Shimholt to withdraw once again from their galactic neighbors.

It would be a betrayal of those who aided us to reveal the details of our transaction, save to say that our contact provided us with copies of pertinent documents.One was a pronunciation guide to the ancient Shimholt tongue from the immemorialpast, which was a requisite subject of scholarly study by Shimholt priests of the HighTemple. The other document dealt with a period of conflict called the Twilight Warsand the return of an evil race feared in legend. Though incomplete, it spoke of theShimholt intent to depart their world along with their space brothers, an Elder Racewho were also fleeing their homeworld… a world that held the key to everything!

2 My reluctance to list dates does not mean that I believe all ancient dates are in error. Discernment isneeded here. The integrity of the ancient record-keepers must first be ascertained, and for those whopass this test, along with the commonly employed bibliographical, external, and internal tests, we canmore safely consider such dates as correct—assuming, of course, that the records have been properlytranslated and understood.

3 The word Asation exists in the same root language group of the Kwa and Alashan and means “Preeminence” and “Sanctuary.” The word Gree itself means “People of Goodwill.”

4 They’d heard of her skill in these matters from the popular holoseries, The Corellia Antilles Files.

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