I'm sorry if this has been covered but the search feature on this forum is abhorred and I can't find the answer. Is this game canon in terms of the Empire's existence? My understanding is that Empire only came into existence with Palpatine and the "new order". he brought about.

 

Be gentle, I'm new to this "LOL LORE" stuff in Star Wars as my knowledge of the game and it's lore extends only to Shadows of the Empire and the six movies lol.

This is three thousand years pre-movies. So yes, it is canon.

I'll say up front, I really appreciate your doing a forum search first. It'd save a lot of people a lot of repetitive answers

 

The Sith Empire has canonically been expanding and fading throughout history for thousands of years, though Palpatine certainly implemented a distinctive and strong one. Some history is laid out on Wookiepedia. The Galactic Empire was Palpatine/Darth Sidious's creation; the Empire of SWTOR's timeline, created by Darth Vitiate (SWTOR's Emperor) came much earlier.

Edited December 9, 2012 by bright_ephemera

The Sith Empire is originally from a Star Wars comic series from the mid 90s and is a totally different empire than Palpatine's Galactic Empire. The reason it seems so similar to his in TOR is because Bioware wanted the game and most of its content to be very similar to the movies so as to give players a familiar Star Wars experience. There is no Lore reason for it. Edited December 9, 2012 by OldVengeance

There have been multiple empires led by the Sith. What Palpatine did in the movies was bring the ancient Empire back by changing the Republic into the Empire. He did not create the first Sith Empire in Star Wars. Edited December 11, 2012 by Superninfreak

I'm sorry if this has been covered but the search feature on this forum is abhorred and I can't find the answer. Is this game canon in terms of the Empire's existence? My understanding is that Empire only came into existence with Palpatine and the "new order". he brought about.

 

Be gentle, I'm new to this "LOL LORE" stuff in Star Wars as my knowledge of the game and it's lore extends only to Shadows of the Empire and the six movies lol.

 

It's canon. The tricky part is the canonicity of what the player characters did. IIRC that led to a nice debate at Wookieepedia.

The timeline is something like this:

*Around 7,000 years before the movies- A group of dark jedi are banished from the Jedi Order/Republic and find the Sith species on Korriban. They form the first Sith Empire, with the banished jedi as the first Dark Lords of the Sith.

 

*5,000 years before the movies- The Sith Empire (led by Naga Saddow) encounters the Republic and invades, starting the Great Hyperspace War. The Republic wins the war and almost completely wipes out the Sith Empire. Darth Vitiate leads a group of survivors to Dromund Kaas to rebuild, effectively founding the new Sith Empire that you fight or play as in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Darth Vitiate starts being known only as "The Emperor" or "The Sith Emperor" at this time.

 

*Around 3,680 years before the movies- The rebuilt Sith Empire invades the Republic, starting the Great Galactic War. The war lasts almost 30 years and ends with the Treaty of Coruscant, starting the Cold War.

 

*Around 3,640 years before the movies- About 10 years into the Cold War, the story in The Old Republic begins.

 

*Between 3,640 and 1,000 years before the movies- the new Sith Empire falls apart/is defeated/somehow disappears. There are other Dark Lords of the Sith who rise up, make their own empires/kingdoms/trouble and are defeated by the Jedi/Republic throughout this time. The last large-scale group of Sith is defeated 1,000 years before the movies.

 

*1,000 years before the movies- Darth Bane, one of the last surviving Sith, starts the "Rule of Two" establishing that the Sith will only have one Master and one Apprentice (as seen in the movies).

 

*During the movies- Palpatine/Darth Sidious reforms the Republic into the Galactic Empire, and makes himself Emperor.

Edited January 19, 2013 by DarthDymond