Whereas the first game implied that Revan's actions in the Mandalorian Wars caused Revan to fall to the dark side of the Force, The Sith Lords features characters who know Revan before and after his fall.
These characters speculate that Revan, during the Wars, discovered something outside the realm of the Old Republic: the original Sith Empire, believed to have collapsed in internecine fighting millennia ago. In learning this, the characters say, Revan felt compelled to protect the galaxy from this threat. Under this revelation and others, Revan's actions become quite different from the rash, destructive goals of Darth Malak and other, later Sith. These include:
- Ignoring, militarily, any planet with a strong industrial infrastructure: one that would be required to defend the galaxy against the unknown threat. Revan's plan was to leave the Old Republic's infrastructure intact, giving him a functional military and economy to work with once he had conquered the galaxy, rather than starting from scratch.
- Use of assassin droids, such as HK-47, to assassinate those who would have destabilized local governments, planets, or entire sectors.
- Focus on conversion, rather than murder, of Jedi. In joining the dark side, or at the very least, abandoning the constrictive Jedi teachings, these Dark Jedi would be stronger against the ancient Sith Empire. In the games it is mentioned that "Revan had a plan for every single Jedi Knight."
Even Revan's "fall" to the dark side of the Force takes on new significance with this information. Kreia, or Darth Traya, even goes so far as to believe that Revan did not fall to the dark side: when Revan was faced with the power of the dark side on Malachor V, he came to realize that a Dark Lord of the Sith was the only one who could defeat the old Sith Empire. Embracing the dark side, Revan founded a new Sith Empire.
In an ironic turn of events, Revan succeeded and failed at his task. Unexpectedly betrayed by Darth Malak, Revan's plans were quickly quashed by his brash and violent apprentice, who sought to destroy the Old Republic entirely. It was only the Force that kept Revan alive, being reborn with little existing memory of his earlier self. Using his slowly-returning memories, Revan began to accomplish his original undertakings.
It is unknown if Revan succeeded or failed at his task or once again he could have both succeeded and failed. It is generally assumed that the fate of Revan and the Jedi Exile will be a key aspect to any new Knights of the Old Republic sequels. Some argue that Revan succeeded - the Sith would not conquer the galaxy for almost another four thousand years. Others take the perspective that Revan failed, stating that regardless of "old Sith" or "new Sith", the Sith do indeed triumph against the Republic - it merely takes them four thousand years.
Revan is probably the most powerful Jedi/Sith ever in his era, and even perhaps the starting point of events after the Old Republic (although at a pace perhaps 3000 years later). Kreia is convinced of his strength and power of such extent that she states him as the "Heart of the Force". Although she is the only person stating the magnitude of Revan's strength, her insight of both light and dark side remains impartial, and is noted that her visions are amazingly accurate where she predicted events 4000 years later after her death. Also, Canderous Ordo, one of the greatest mandalorian warriors, who later became the Mandalore himself, even claimed that "We lost to the greatest single warrior the galaxy had ever known".
As for his powers, he was perhaps the closest stated in the current canon (Legacy of the Force) as the perfect practitioner of both Jedi/Sith powers, who wasn't truly influenced by the light or dark powers. If the hypothesis of his character to be a lesser evil so he can save the Republic from a bigger threat is true, he would be somewhere in between Jacen Solo and Anakin Skywalker steps of becoming the idealistic Sith user who was not influenced by greed or the one-sided judgment from the light side.
Besides having exceptional powers as a Force-user, as well as a master planner, he also proves to be a capable droid builder (similar to Anakin Skywalker), but programming it to be the ultimate assassin and droid translator instead of just a protocol droid. (The droid was required to be an assassin droid for gameplay purposes.)
In the book Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, Darth Bane finds a Sith holocron that was recorded by Darth Revan during his reign as the Dark Lord of the Sith. Through the teachings of wisdom and Sith philosophy imparted to him by Revan, Bane would reform the Sith Order into the Rule of Two (a master and an apprentice), a cult that would eventually culminate with Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, the rise of the Galactic Empire, and the near annihilation of the Jedi Order.
; "Darth Revan")
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