It doesn't make a lot of sense, in-universe. As we know from KOTFE/ET, the Emperor doesn't care about blood purity, and probably never did. I can imagine him being apathetic to the Dark Council instituting it, but why would they care? AFAIK the original Hyperspace War-era Sith Empire didn't really push a blood purity craze either, they just happened to be mostly purebloods and a few humans.

 

The Empire of the vanilla era isn't based on speciesism, it's based on force power and adherence to the dark side, so rationally, someone like the Inquisitor, a strong force-sensitive alien, should have arisen a long time ago and been accepted. The only logical reason I can see for the Emperor pushing this policy [aside from complete indifference] is that making the focus on blood versus power makes the Empire more conservative, slower to change or adapt, making it easier to control or turn a blind eye to while he farted around Zakuul - you'll notice that there's no blood purity nonsense there either.

 

Out-of-universe, of course, the policy makes perfect sense because BW simply copied the OT Galactic Empire and made a few superficial changes. In Palpatine's Empire it arguably makes a little more sense, but basically they did it because "Space Nazi Wizards" was a popular bad guy motif for Lucas' films, so BW used the same concept in KOTOR 1 (where it made even less sense under Revan & Malak) and the Sith in this game.

 

I'm just annoyed that there isn't much thought put into why the Sith are big racists. They ought to be the ultimate meritocrats.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Ardrossan

"Space Nazi Wizards"

 

This is why

I'm just annoyed that there isn't much thought put into why the Sith are big racists. They ought to be the ultimate meritocrats.

I think the key (apart from the "Space Nazi Wizard" aspect) is the ambiguity of this word you use, the one I highlighted.

 

It can refer to a member of the Sith Order, or it can refer to a member of the *species* commonly referred to as "Pure-blooded Sith". The influence of the PBS over the SO is *strong*, but at the beginning of the game, that influence has been sufficiently weakened and/or contradicted by circumstances that the SO has opened the criteria for acceptance (visible in both Sith class stories) to include a broader range of species than just PBS/Human.

 

However, the SNW aspect remains strong in the general Empire, whence the multitude of opportunities for an alien Sith (especially Inquisitor) to at least imply that a speciesist has a glowing future as a charcoal briquette if he doesn't shut the [REDACTED] up about alien filth. (Ref: Bessiker Junior, Grand Moff Regus, that one dude in the back of one of the Imp bases on Taris, doing the <Story Arc> - "Watch it, human!")

The Empire of the vanilla era isn't based on speciesism, it's based on force power and adherence to the dark side, so rationally, someone like the Inquisitor, a strong force-sensitive alien, should have arisen a long time ago and been accepted. The only logical reason I can see for the Emperor pushing this policy [aside from complete indifference] is that making the focus on blood versus power makes the Empire more conservative, slower to change or adapt, making it easier to control or turn a blind eye to while he farted around Zakuul - you'll notice that there's no blood purity nonsense there either.

 

Out-of-universe, of course, the policy makes perfect sense because BW simply copied the OT Galactic Empire and made a few superficial changes. In Palpatine's Empire it arguably makes a little more sense, but basically they did it because "Space Nazi Wizards" was a popular bad guy motif for Lucas' films, so BW used the same concept in KOTOR 1 (where it made even less sense under Revan & Malak) and the Sith in this game.

Pretty much this.

As this is in the Story and Lore section I am not including spoiler tags, but be warned, here there be spoilers.

 

I would argue that the modern, movie era Empire had less reason to be xenophobic and speciesist that Vitiate's Empire. As already noted, the movie Empire was speciesist due to a Space Nazi Wizard, but the Old Republic era Empire was due to cultural reasons.

 

The first thing one has to understand is that Sith, as Steve already elucidated, is the name of both the species and the order. Around 6900 BBY (3247 BTC) the Human Dark Jedi exiles from the Hundred-Year Darkness arrived on Korriban and discovered the Sith species. The true Sith had some features of which we are familiar, the facial spurs and tentacles for example, but also some that we do not see in modern (in game era terms) Sith Pure Bloods such a tridactyl hands and feet. That is because modern Sith Pure Bloods are not pure Sith but a hybrid species created by a blending of those Human Dark Jedi exiles and the original Sith over the course of several centuries. For nearly two thousand years those Dark Jedi Humans manipulated the Sith through alchemy and science in order to blend with them and take on some of their traits. In particular the Sith species strong affinity toward the dark side of the Force.

 

By the time of the Great Hyperspace War in 5000 BBY (1347 BTC) the original Sith species had all but been subsumed by the new hybrid Human-Sith species and those with a greater amount of Sith heritage were considered Pure Blood. The Great Hyperspace War was triggered by the hyperspace explorers Gav and Jori Daragon after stumbling across the Sith Empire, which had been in isolation for those past 2000 years. It was the Great Hyperspace War that would ultimately lead to the creation of Emperor Vitiate.

 

Born about a century before the Great Hyperspace War, Tenebrae would wreak havoc and destruction across their homeworld of Medriaas. Eventually Tenebrae garnered the attention of Marka Ragnos, who would name Tenebrae Lord Vitiate, a Dark Lord of the Sith, and the new ruler of Medriaas, which would be renamed Nathema. Lord Vitiate would rule Nathema for the next century. When Naga Sadow was defeated in the Great Hyperspace War Lord Vitiate coerced the remaining Sith Lords to gather for a ritual on Nathema, a ritual that fueled Vitiates power and made them into the being we encounter in the game, and lead the rest of the Sith people to Dromund Kaas as the new Emperor Vitiate.

 

Remember, this is approximately 1300 years before the Treaty of Coruscant, which occurs ten years before the start of the class stories in the game. When Lord Vitiate led the Sith remnants to Dromund Kaas following the Great Hyperspace War the majority of people in the Empire had Sith features. By the start of the game approximately 98% of the Empire's population had some amount of Sith (species) ancestry, but often so little that it did not express itself in the physical features (red skin, yellow eyes, bone spurs, facial tentacles). Tenebrae was a Sith Pure Blood. The highest status in Sith society was being a Pure Blood, in having those markings. The Sith Empire, from its inception, viewed being Sith as the pinnacle. Being Sith was what mattered. The only other factor that had any great bearing was if one had a strong linage to the original Dark Jedi who found the Sith in 6000 BBY. Naga Sadow for example was proud of their Dark Jedi heritage.

 

The Sith Empire started with this idea of blood purity that only became more pronounced and important throughout the centuries, most of which the Empire was in isolation far out in the outer rim where they had little contact with other species. And when they did the Sith were conquerors; a holdover trait from both the original Sith species and the Dark Jedi who encountered them on Korriban.

 

The Sith Empire of the game has a foundational culture of xenophobia and blood purity with a focus on Sith heritage. The Empire of the movies just has a Human Space Nazi Wizard fueling their xenophobia and speciesism.

In fact, ceryxp, isn't there a mission on Korriban that explains part of that?

 

Center room of the Sith Academy, there's a Pureblood kneeling in front of the sculpture, he tasks the Warrior/Inquisitor with using a Holocron to scan various instructors at the Academy to determine the strength of their Sith (race) bloodlines due to concern that interbreeding with other species is slowly resulting in the 'Pureblood' Sith being bred out of existance. I remember he has roughly three sets of potential dialogue, one for human characters which is basic, one for Purebloods where he approves of the obvious strength of their bloodline, and one for the other races where he comments on the importance of Sith blood to the Empire's survival.

In fact, ceryxp, isn't there a mission on Korriban that explains part of that?

Yes, Lord Abbadon if I recall though his name could be wrong.

In fact, ceryxp, isn't there a mission on Korriban that explains part of that?

 

Center room of the Sith Academy, there's a Pureblood kneeling in front of the sculpture, he tasks the Warrior/Inquisitor with using a Holocron to scan various instructors at the Academy to determine the strength of their Sith (race) bloodlines due to concern that interbreeding with other species is slowly resulting in the 'Pureblood' Sith being bred out of existance. I remember he has roughly three sets of potential dialogue, one for human characters which is basic, one for Purebloods where he approves of the obvious strength of their bloodline, and one for the other races where he comments on the importance of Sith blood to the Empire's survival.

 

I actually just did that quest the other day on a Pureblood Sith and I believe it does have different dialogue cause I did it on a human before too and it seemed like the conversation was different.

Yes, Lord Abbadon if I recall though his name could be wrong.

Abaron. https://swtor.fandom.com/wiki/Abaron

Abaron. https://swtor.fandom.com/wiki/Abaron

 

Well at least I got the first letter right.

Real-world racism doesn't make much sense either, but there was still plenty of it.

 

In this fictional world, it's probably little more than another typical "bad guy" to apply to the Empire.

 

If there has to be some kind of logic, they probably have some kind of (incorrect) belief that those belonging to pure bloodline are somehow more powerful than those who aren't.

I do not usually post but I found this question interesting, as it pertains to my RL field of study. The answer IMHO is the effect of ethnocentric nationalism. In real world to have ethnocentric nationalism you often need key ingredients; shared unresolved historical trauma, race, and ideology. At the end of the Great Hyperspace War, the conflict that led the now Sith Empire to be created, the then Chancellor of the republic ordered the whole sale extermination of the Sith. Men, women, children, soldiers, civilians and force users alike. The refugees banded together under the Emperor Vitiate were unified by their racial ancestry i.e human and Sith species, shared trauma, and dark side ideology. The racism you see is direct result of this a sociological weapon the emperor used to forge a empire that would never forgive the republic and create a us vs them mentality that is to the very core of it's people. Edited October 18, 2020 by Ironacolyte

I believe that the answer is a bit more self evident if you consider this particular snippet.

 

Sith Warrior: "So, you're an elitist snob."

Overseer Tremel: "You say that like it's a bad thing."

In addition to the traditional xenophobia mentioned and its origins, this is one of the items of contention between Malgus's New Empire (as explained in the Ilum story) amd the traditionalists of the Empire as well.

 

Also, in the opening story if you do the inquisitor line, the story is that Korriban has only now opened up its doors to outside species, basically because more cannon fodder is needed for the upcoming wars (yes, you know that the treaty of coruscant is in effect, but there is a "cold war" status, and there are those on both sides chewing at the bit to get going again.

 

Another thing is that the Empire is not the only ones that are "specists".

If you do the Flashpoint with Revan (empire with Revan- not the SOR, the original one on the fleet), HK-47 wants to do a genocide vs the entire Sith Species. So some of that has carried forward. Additionally, if you do side missions on the Pub side on Coruscant, there is a certain degree of prejudice applied towards non-human species on that world. This carries over 3000 years later in TOS, where Palpatine's empire is against non-humans very much evident. (see as an example only grand moff that is non-human is Thrawn, and even he as a Chiss is near-human)

Additionally the Hutt empire carries out its own genocides vs the Evocii.