Bases & Space Stations

Star Forge

The Star Forge was a giant automated shipyard, designed to create the most powerful army of all time, constructed by the Rakatan Infinite Empire 30,000 years before the Battle of Yavin, five thousand years before the rise of the Galactic Republic. The Star Forge drew energy and matter from a nearby star which, when combined with the power of the Force, was capable of creating an endless supply of ships, droids, and other war matériel. The Rakata, also known as "The Builders," constructed the massive space station through the use of slaves from many subject worlds including, but not necessarily limited to, Corellia, Coruscant, Dantooine, Drall, Duro, Kashyyyk, Manaan, Selonia, Sleheyron and Tatooine. This technological marvel came at a terrible cost as the Rakata were by nature a cruel and savage species and the Star Forge began feeding off of these negative traits inherent in its creators. As a result the Star Forge became an immense tool of Dark Side power. 

The Star Forge, now a fusion of technology and Dark Side energies, began corrupting the Rakata in order to gain the immense power it required to operate itself and ultimately caused the collapse of the Rakatan Empire. The semi-living superweapon's ability to corrupt its users forced Darth Revan to limit his contact with the Dark Side artifact to avoid allowing it to control him as it did the Rakatans.

The size of the Star Forge was extraordinary for its time. Capital ships could easily move between the gaps of the three "fins" that radiated outwards from the central spherical structure. The fins extended downward to draw energy and matter from the sun of the Rakata system, using it to produce weapons and armament. While having few apparent docks for capital ships, many fighter craft and smaller freighters were able to dock at bays located on each of these fins. 

Externally, the Star Forge possessed very little defensive weaponry, save for several turbolaser batteries positioned near its hangar bays. Instead it depended entirely on its massive ship production capability as a means to defend itself. Internally, it was also capable of manufacturing thousands of battle droids for defense, and possessed several heavy blast doors that ran throughout the entire factory. It was also protected by a deadly ship-disabling energy field projected from Lehon's Temple of the Ancients on the Rakata homeworld nearby. The field caused ships to malfunction and be captured in the planet's gravity well, sending them spiraling down to the world below. 

As was the case with all apparent products of Rakatan Dark Side energy engineering, the Star Forge managed to survive several tens of thousands of years idling and without an operational crew by relying on its built-in automated repair systems. This trait was replicated in certain artifacts, such as the Star Maps. The Rakatan Builders destroyed the Star Maps after the completion of the Star Forge, but these slowly repaired themselves with the Star Forge's technology. While the data in each one was incomplete by the time the reformed Revan discovered them, their combined information was enough to reveal the location of the Star Forge. 

As an artifact of the Dark Side, the Star Forge corrupted those who used it, feeding its desire for death. Ajunta Pall hinted that it may have been known to, and used by, the early Sith. After the Mandalorian Wars, it came into the service of Revan and Malak, who had been powerful and honorable Jedi Knights until discovering the Star Maps leading to the location of the ancient dark space station, thus resulting in the rebirth of the Sith.

After having his memory erased by the Dantooine Enclave Council, Revan was directed to rediscover the location of the Star Forge, while it was under Malak's control who used it to strengthen the Sith fleet with a massive number of ships. It was destroyed at the end of the Jedi Civil War (3,956 years before the Battle of Yavin) by a Republic fleet aided by Bastila Shan's battle meditation. 

Immediately prior to his defeat at the hands of Revan, Malak attempted to harness a heretofore ignored property of the Star Forge. Using Jedi captured from the destroyed enclave on Dantooine, Malak was able to incorporate them into the Star Forge itself, which was seemingly capable of harnessing the power of Force-sensitives and channeling the power into a particular subject—in this case, Malak himself. The Jedi in the Star Forge were unable to become one with the Force while in this state, and Malak could use the energy inside the nearly lifeless bodies to regain his strength. The drained Jedi were apparently killed in the process. Revan sabotaged the system during his battle with Malak on the Star Forge Viewing Platform and it was subsequently destroyed along with the rest of the Star Forge.

After its destruction, the Star Forge fell into obscurity within the galactic community. The Republic, at the urging of the Jedi, felt it was unnecessary and detrimental to the rebuilding of the Republic to have the knowledge of the previously unknown Rakata surface. In their opinion, a reemergence of a culture that had once enslaved much of the known Galaxy would incite panic or fear. As a result, the Lehon system—with the wreckage from the final battle of Jedi Civil War, including the remains of the Star Forge—were quarantined. Only scant and obscure mention of the system and the Star Forge were known. 

1,000 years before the Battle of Yavin, Darth Bane had begun traveling the galaxy looking for information about the Sith predecessors to the Brotherhood of Darkness. His inquiries took him to the Valley of the Dark Lords on Korriban and then to the Lehon system while seeking information regarding Revan and Malak. During his approach to the Lehon system, he saw the still untouched remains of the Star Forge and the wreckage of the final battle. Large pieces of metal had fused together, creating a ring-like construct around the planet Lehon. The remaining pieces littered the system similar to an asteroid field.

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