All language subtitles for 02. The Dominion Age — The Star Forge

Some mechanisms cannot be persuaded back
to life. Yes, Master.

Come. The Force has something else to
show you.

Show me what, Master?

You sensed something, didn't you?

The Force leaves impressions, even when
history forgets.

Is it Sith?

No. Older.

The stone felt unfamiliar.

Because it is not part of our Order's
memory.

Then who built it?

A civilization the Republic prefers to
call myth.

What is it?

A reminder.

That the Jedi were not the first to
listen.

Tell me more, Master.

More than 30,000 years ago, the Rakata
ruled vast regions of the galaxy.

Their beliefs crossed systems without
resistance.

Entire civilizations were folded into
their dominion.

For a time, it seemed nothing could
challenge them.

Conquest carried its own burden.

Worlds stripped for tribute cannot
sustain an empire forever.

Expansion flows.

Supply lines stretch thin.

Even the most powerful civilization must
confront its limits.

And the Rakata did not accept limits.

Instead of retreating, they changed
direction.

Their scholars replaced their generals.

Their attention turned inward.

Delegations arrived from subordinate
worlds bearing reduced offerings.

Mineral shipments below quota.

Labor contingents diminished by
collapse.

Agricultural exports contaminated by
environmental decay.

Entire worlds began to fall below viable
thresholds.

Tata did not withdraw from these
planets.

They intensified operations.

Additional labor was imported.

Infrastructure was expanded.

Extraction quotas were raised in an
effort to compensate for diminishing

returns.

The empire had been built on momentum.

Slowing down was not considered a
solution.

The solution demanded labor on an
unprecedented scale.

assigned to agricultural matrices,
mining complexes, and orbital

construction grids.

Entire species were cataloged according
to utility.

Efficiency replaced brutality as the
organizing principle.

During this reorganization, another
realization emerged.

Among the countless populations under
Rakatan control were individuals

sensitive to the Force.

Now

they were identified

systematically.

Examination chambers were constructed.

Protocols established.

The Force was no longer regarded as a
mystical advantage.

It was evaluated as a measurable asset.

At the heart of the Empire, a decisive
shift occurred.

The War Halls that had once planned
invasions were converted into strategic

chambers.

Generals found their authority
diminished.

In their place rose the scholar caste,
analysts, architects, theoreticians.

Under their direction, the Empire ceased
to think in terms of campaigns.

It began to think in terms of systems.

The Infinite Empire was no longer driven
by momentum.

It was preparing for something
deliberate.

And from that deliberation, a new design
would emerge.

In the deep core, beyond the reach of
most Imperial fleets, the Rakata

encountered the Qua structures, vast
chambers cut with precision, beyond

contemporary Rakatan methods.

Internal corridors aligned to
gravitational vectors with mathematical

intent. There were no inscriptions of
conquest, no symbols of dominion, only

design. The scholar caste initiated full
structural surveys.

Whoever had built these constructs had
solved problems the Rakata were only

beginning to articulate.

On Leon, within the Intercontinental
Complex, a chamber was constructed to

coordinate the totality of Imperial
resources.

It was not a war room.

It was an accounting center for the
galaxy itself.

Stellar output, planetary yield, labor
distribution.

Fleet deployment. All were mapped within
a single architectural system.

They began to search for a solution that
did not depend on planets or

populations.

or the patience that we conquered.

What they conceived would alter the
balance of the galaxy for millennia.

They would draw power not from worlds,
but from a star.

And from that decision, everything that
followed became inevitable.

The Star Forge.

Not every stellar body was suitable for
feeding.

Unstable stars would collapse under
forced extraction.

Younger stars fluctuated beyond
tolerable thresholds.

Older stars lacked the sustained output
required for continuous production.

Deep core survey expeditions identified
candidate systems whose stellar output

could be calculated centuries in
advance.

When a star met every requirement, mass,
rotation, stability, yield, it was

marked for utilization.

Only then the feeding began.

Extraction arrays extended along the
lower structures, channeling stellar

plasma through calibrated conduits.

Designed to withstand temperatures, no
planetary forge could survive.

Within the forge, that energy was
converted, stabilized, and distributed

into fabrication matrices of
unprecedented scale.

Ship hulls were formed without planetary
boundaries.

Weapon systems were assembled without
supply chains.

Entire fleets emerged without reliance
on conquered worlds.

The Empire had removed its greatest
vulnerability.

It no longer depended on tribute.

It depended on a star, and a star would
burn for millions of years.

From that moment forward, expansion was
no longer limited by distance or

depletion. The Infinite Empire had
become self-sustaining.

Force-sensitive captives were no longer
used only as navigators or enforcers.

They were integrated directly into
energy regulation systems.

Within secured chambers, restrained
subjects were connected to amplification

matrices that translated their force
output into usable power.

As the Empire's production capacity
expanded,

So too did its experimentation.

Among the Rakata themselves, certain
bloodlines were deemed unsuitable for

strategic or administrative roles.

Others were deliberately altered through
exposure to unstable force manipulation

and controlled genetic degradation.

The result was a subspecies, physically
resilient, mentally diminished, and

conditioned for obedience.

They became known as flesh raiders.

Those who demonstrated discipline,
endurance, and

measurable control were separated from
the general registry.

They were retrained.

Emotional restraint was stripped away.

Personal identity was diminished.

Loyalty was reinforced through isolation
and reward conditioning.

These individuals became known as
Forthounds. Their role was singular, to

locate, track, and neutralize forces
that were resistant, or it could

organize.

Populations were divided according to
function.

Entire civilizations were reduced to
statistical categories within imperial

registries.

Movement between strata was rare.

Reassignment was determined by yield.

The program was not chaotic.

It was methodical.

Among the many subjugated species were
the Angri, a people whose cognitive

structure favored abstract mathematics
and spatial reasoning.

Rather than eliminate them, the... Kada
redirected their talents.

Angree scholars were assigned to analyze
recovered artifacts of Gree origin.

These relics did not resemble Rakatan's
own, yet their internal logic suggested

a level of structural efficiency beyond
conventional engineering.

Under supervision,

The on-gree catalog ratios, stress
tolerances, and dimensional symmetries

embedded within the artifacts.

Within secured perfilities, experimental
programs were authorized under what

later records would describe as the
Architects of Fear.

Biological manipulation, force
amplification, and environmental

conditioning were combined to produce
entities designed for intimidation as

much as combat.

During this period of expansion, Rakatan
survey fleets encountered structures

of unmistakably artificial origin.

Vast circular constructs suspended in
deep space.

The hypergates were inactive, but not
destroyed.

Power signatures, though dormant,
suggested a network once capable of

linking distant regions through
instantaneous transit.

Though the Empire did not fully
replicate their function, exposure to

Qua engineering refined Rakuten
understanding of gravitational

manipulation.

in long-range alignment.

You speak of them as if they were
unstoppable.

If their power was that absolute, what
ended them?

Nothing ends power all at once, Obi-Wan.
It fractures. It overreaches. And

eventually, it meets something it did
not expect.

Another empire?

Not an empire.

A world that refused to kneel.

The Sith?

A king named Adas.

And a war the Rakata believed would be
routine.

It was not.

On Korriban, the Sith were not yet an
empire.

They were divided into rival clans,
bound by bloodlines and constant

struggle.

Leadership was temporary.

Power was contested.

Unity was rare.

That changed with Aras.

Unlike other warlords, he did not seek
dominance over a single territory. He

sought consolidation.

Through strength, strategy, and
calculated alliances, he subdued

opposing clans and absorbed their
warriors into a single command.

For the first time in recorded Thrift
history,

Korriban stood united under one
sovereign.

When Rakatan envoys arrived demanding
submission, they did not face scattered

tribes.

They faced a king.

you

Rakatan forces were forced into
organized withdrawal.

The invasion failed.

Victory did not come without cost.

Aras was grievously wounded during the
final engagement.

His armor shattered, his body weakened,
but his command never faltered until the

Rakatan fleet broke formation and
retreated from Sith space.

the wreckage of a fallen Rakatan vessel,
Aras claimed a device unlike any Sith

artifact, a holocron containing
fragments of Rakatan knowledge.

He did not live to master it. Within a
year of the victory, his wounds claimed

him.

Korriban remained free, but the unity he
forged did not survive him.

Empires do not abandon ambition because
of a single failure.

They adapt.

What did they do?

They reorganized, reinforced their
fleets, redirected their attention to

another world on the edge of their
territory.

Which world?

Tatooine. Did it fall? That is a story
for another time.