My Top 10 EU Characters

So it's been almost seven years since Disney announced that they would be ending the then-current line of novels, graphic novels, and video games - collectively known as the Expanded Universe. Before Disney's acquisition of LucasFilm and the release of the sequel trilogy, the EU allowed us to see what happened to our favourite characters in a galaxy far, far away. We got to see what happened to our favourite Rebels after Return of the Jedi, how Luke Skywalker established a New Jedi Order; how Leia Organa became a wife, a galactic leader, and a mother; how Han Solo handled life after smuggling, and grew past the pain in the wake of Chewbacca's untimely death.

We were also introduced to the wider galaxy, to new characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn and Jagged Fel, to new species like the Ssi-ruuk and the Yuuzhan Vong, and new planets such as Haruun Kal and Korriban. After Disney wiped the EU canon, some of the content has gradually seeped into the new canon, which allowed those of us who are EU fans to breathe a light sigh of relief knowing that they still existed in some fashion.

It took me some five years to finally get all the EU books for myself, and just as long to read through each and every one of them. There were characters I absolutely fell in love with, and just as many that I absolutely hated beyond belief. And with that in mind, this is my list of my personal Top 10 EU characters!

10 - Jedi Master Kyle Katarn

Introduced in the 1995 video game Star Wars: Dark Forces, the man who would become a member of Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order began life as a farmer on the planet Sulon, before enrolling in the Imperial Academy on Carida. Kyle grew distrustful of the Empire, eventually defecting to the Rebel Alliance shortly before the destruction of Alderaan - his first mission being to steal the Death Star plans.

A year after the Battle of Yavin, Kyle began to learn of his Force-sensitivity, though he later declined an offer of Jedi training from fellow Rebel Luke Skywalker. However, Kyle accepted Luke's second offer, and he began training at the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4. After a brief period away from his training, Kyle defeated the Dark Jedi Desann and was shortly promoted to Jedi Master, becoming the Praxeum's foremost Jedi Battlemaster and instructing a new generation of Jedi.

Kyle took Jaden Korr as an apprentice - himself promoted to Jedi Knight - and saw action during the war against the invading Yuuzhan Vong. During the war, Kyle even proposed marriage on several occasions to fellow Rebel Jan Ors, though she turned him down each time, afraid that every day might be their last.

After the war ended, Kyle was appointed to the Jedi High Council under Grand Master Luke Skywalker, and was known for speaking his mind and voicing his opinion. During the conflict with the Sith Lord Darth Caedus (former Jedi Knight Jacen Solo) Kyle was gravely wounded in a duel with Caedus on Coruscant, though later recovered to see the war's end.

Following the defeat of the ancient being Abeloth, Kyle was the first to support Skywalker's plan to permanently move the Jedi off of Coruscant and away from galactic politics.

9 - The Sith Triumvirate - Darth Traya, Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion

The woman who would become Darth Traya, the Lady of Betrayal, was introduced to us as the exiled Jedi Master Kreia in 2004's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Said to be the first and last teacher of the rogue Jedi Knight Revan, Kreia was forced out of the Jedi Order for her teachings and eventually found her way to Malachor V, a planet steeped in the Dark Side of the Force. There, Kreia fell to the Dark Side and christened herself Darth Traya.

Some time after this, Traya discovered two men who would become her apprentices - Darth Nihilus and Darth Sion - and the trio took control of the remnants of Darth Malak's Sith forces in the wake of the Jedi Civil War. Nihilus and Sion soon deposed Traya however, and cast her down and stripping her of the Force. The three of them then went their separate ways, all the while striking at the Jedi from the shadows.

Darth Nihilus, the Lord of Hunger, found that he had an insatiable hunger for Force energy, and this meant he had to feed on the Force energies of living beings in order to survive. 3,952 years before the Battle of Yavin he used this power on the planet of Katarr, absorbing the Force energy of the group of Jedi there (including several members of the Jedi High Council) as well as every living being on the planet. Only one native Miraluka survived - Visas Marr - and Nihilus took her as his apprentice.

Darth Sion, the Lord of Pain, used the Force to literally keep his body from dying - no matter how many injuries he sustained, how much damage he took, he used his pain and his hatred to keep himself from death, at the cost of all-consuming agony, and over the years Sion's body began to decompose.

Following the Great Sith War, Darth Sion allied with Darth Revan's - later Darth Malak's - Sith Empire, and watched from Korriban as the Empire fractured at the conclusion of the Jedi Civil War. After forming the Sith Triumvirate with Traya and Nihilus, Sion began hunting surviving Jedi from the shadows.

Then, in 3,951 BBY, Traya (once again known as Kreia) tracked the exiled Jedi Knight Meetra Surik aboard the Republic cruiser Harbinger. Traya wished to use Surik in order to achieve her goal of severing the galaxy from the influence of the Force, and it was aboard the Harbinger that she was reunited with Sion, where Traya lost a hand to Sion during a brief duel.

Following Kreia's reveal as Darth Traya, Surik encountered Nihilus aboard the Ravager during the Battle of Telos and, aided by the redeemed Visas Marr, Surik slew Nihilus aboard the Ravager's bridge.

Sion was killed by Surik at the Trayus Academy on Malachor V soon after, choosing to let go of his reliance on the Force and allowing his body to die a final death.

Traya fought a fierce duel with Surik deep in the Trayus Core, with Meetra emerging victorious. In the moments before her death, Traya made many prophecies regarding the future of Surik's companions, and of the future of the Jedi and Sith Orders.

8 - Emperor Jagged Fel

Born 3 years after the Battle of Endor on Nirauan, Jagged Fel was the eldest nephew of Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles, and was raised by his human parents in a Chiss society. Achieving the rank of colonel at the young age of 18, Jagged was sent to the New Republic by his father to aid in holding back the invading Yuuzhan Vong, and it was during the early Battle of Ithor that Jagged met the young Jedi Jaina Solo, who would later go on to become his wife.

First appearing in the 2000 novel The New Jedi Order: Dark Tide II: Ruin, Jagged Fel would emerge as the Head of State of the Imperial Remnant, later becoming Emperor of the succeeding Fel Empire.

7 - Grand Admiral Thrawn

Mitth'raw'nuruodo, commonly known by his core name Thrawn, first appeared in Star Wars canon in 1991's Heir to the Empire. Born on the Chiss world of Csilla, Thrawn was exiled by his people and found by the Galactic Empire. It was at this point that Thrawn met Emperor Palpatine, and was admitted to the Imperial Navy.

Thrawn proved himself an exceptional strategist, collecting the artworks of his enemies and using them to intuit their psychological and tactical limitations, often to lethal effect.

Thrawn became the Empire's thirteenth Grand Admiral around 3 ABY following Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin's failed coup against the Emperor, and was later sent to the Unknown Regions following Zaarin's death to continue mapping missions at around the same time as the Battle of Endor. After this decisive loss, Thrawn began to take command of the Imperial Remnant, and in 9 ABY even launched a successful siege against Coruscant itself.

Unfortunately, Thrawn met his end at the hands of his own personal bodyguards. Years before, the Empire had obtained the services of the Noghri after poisoning their world and, deceiving the Noghri into perpetual servitude by appearing to help cleanse their planet. Now, Leia Organa Solo had proof of the Empire's deception and the Noghri turned on Thrawn - including his bodyguard, Rukh. Rukh stabbed Thrawn in the chest on the bridge of his flagship, the Star Destroyer Chimaera, and after the Noghri escaped Captain Gilad Pellaeon took command of the ship and, ultimately, the Imperial Remnant.

Many years later, a clone of Thrawn had been created on the Chiss world of Nirauan, but he was killed in 19 ABY by the Jedi Knight, and former Emperor's Hand, Mara Jade.

That wasn't the end for Thrawn. After Disney's acquisition in 2014, the Chiss admiral appeared in the third & fourth seasons of Star Wars: Rebels, later appearing in his own trilogy of novels by Timothy Zahn - as well as a second trilogy, currently ongoing. With a smattering of references in other canon material, Thrawn was also mentioned in The Jedi, the thirteenth episode of The Mandalorian, in which we found Ahsoka Tano searching for his whereabouts.

6 - Nom Anor

Nom Anor, first appearing in 1998's graphic novel Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood 1, was a member of the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong, a race bent on conquering the galaxy after having left their own many centuries ago. Anor arrived in the galaxy in 6 ABY, and sought to destabilise any and all possible resistance against the Yuuzhan Vong. This naturally included stirring up resentments against the newly-formed New Republic, as well as Luke Skywalker's new generation of Jedi Knights. Anor also seeded several worlds with a range of Yuuzhan Vong diseases, even infecting the Jedi Knight Mara Jade Skywalker with Vong spores. With the use of the Force, Jade Skywalker was the only being to survive these spores.

Later, in 25 ABY, Anor brought about a war between the twin planets Rhommamool and Osarian, successfully blinding the New Republic to the imminent arrival of the Yuuzhan Vong forces, before moving to stir up strife closer to the Core Worlds to cover the Vong's invasion corridor at the border of the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant. Anor even formed the Peace Brigade, a pro-Yuuzhan Vong group who supported attempts to make peace with the invaders - by giving them Jedi Knights. The Outer Rim world of Sernpidal was also targeted and, by affecting the local gravity, forced Sernpidal's moon to crash into the planet itself. Millions perished in the destruction - including the Wookiee Chewbacca.

Sometime after the capture of Coruscant, Anor was disgraced in the eyes of his superiors and went underground, choosing to ally with a group of Yuuzhan Vong known as the Shamed Ones, before finding favour once again. Finally, during the end of the climactic Battle of Coruscant, Nom Anor was killed in a exploding Yuuzhan Vong bioship, choosing to die rather than face a new regime under the newly-formed Galactic Alliance.

5 - Jedi Knight Bastila Shan

Bastila Shan first appeared in 2003's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Repubic video game, a Jedi Knight with the gift of Battle Meditation - the ability to use the Force to increase the morale of her allies whilst demoralising her enemies. She was also a deadly opponent in combat, using a double-bladed yellow lightsabre, the mark of a Jedi Sentinel.

Born on the Republic world of Talravin, Bastila dearly loved her father, a treasure hunter, but had a troubled relationship with her mother, Helena Shan. Eventually she was found to be exceptionally strong in the Force, and Helena gave her daughter to the Jedi Order for training.

Years later during the Jedi Civil War, Bastila led a strike team to capture the Jedi-turned-Sith Darth Revan. Before they could succeed however, Revan's apprentice Darth Malak turned on his master and attempted to kill him. Seeing no other option, Bastila rescued the unconscious Revan and took him to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine, where the Jedi Council there succeeded in altering Revan's memories and implanting a false identity.

The amnesiac Revan was placed aboard the Republic cruiser Endar Spire under command of Bastila and Commander Carth Onasi. The ship was destroyed above the Outer Rim world of Taris, forcing Bastila - as well as Carth and Revan - to escape to the planet below, where the young Jedi was captured by a local swoop gang in the Undercity.

Bastila was eventually recued by Revan, and together with Carth and the Mandalorian mercenary Canderous Ordo, succeeded in escaping Darth Malak's bombardment of Taris aboard the freighter Ebon Hawk. Bastila led them to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine, where Revan was retrained in the ways of the Jedi. While there, she and Revan experienced visions that showed Revan and Malak seeking ancient Star Maps. This led to the group travelling to Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, and Korriban in search of these Star Maps, which themselves led to a massive space station called the Star Forge. The Star Forge was an ancient artefact of the defunct Infinite Empire, and Darth Malak was using it to churn out hundreds of Star Destroyers to fuel his war effort against the Republic. The Ebon Hawk was caught in a disruptor field and crash landed on the surface of Lehon, the only planet in the system. During the journey Bastila had begun to fall in love with Revan, though the pair kept this between them for the time being.

Unfortunately, during the search for the Star Forge Bastila had been captured by Darth Malak aboard the Leviathan, and she was tortured and eventually turned to the Dark Side of the Force - becoming Malak's apprentice. She attempted to seduce Revan back to the Dark Side on Lehon after a brief duel with him and fellow Jedi Jolee Bindo and Juhani. Bastila found her efforts rebuffed, and retreated to the Star Forge where she began ready herself for using her Battle Meditation against the coming Republic fleet.

Revan then boarded the Star Forge, having deactivated the disruptor field and called in the Republic fleet - led by Admiral Forn Dodonna and Jedi Master Vandar Tokare - and he and his companions fought their way through the vast space station to finally face Bastila. After a fierce duel, Bastila realised she was still no match for Revan and yielded, pleading for him to end her life. Revan managed to bring her back to the Light Side of the Force, telling her that he loved her and leaving himself completely open to an attack. Bastila, finding the strength within herself, could not strike him down, and she renounced the Dark Side and began to use her Battle Meditation for the Republic while Revan left to face Darth Malak. Following Malak's death, the Republic destroyed the Star Forge, bringing the Jedi Civil War to a close.

After the war, Bastila married Revan and the two settled on Coruscant. Bastila fell pregnant two years after the Star Forge's destruction, though Revan felt a call to face the true Sith threat in the Unknown Regions. Bastila secretly programmed the utility droid T3-M4 to return to find either her or any other Jedi should Revan encounter difficulties. T3 did eventually do just that, three years later in 3,951 BBY, by locating the exiled Jedi Meetra Surik and aiding her return to known space. During those months Bastila was forced to go into hiding in order to protect her son Vaner from the threat of the Sith Triumvirate and the Exchange.

Following the defeat of the Sith Triumvirate, and the restoration of the Jedi Order, Bastila served as a Jedi Master, although she still spent the majority of her time with her son. She never saw Revan again.

4 - Jedi Knights Jacen Solo, Jaina Solo Fel, and Anakin Solo

Jacen and Jaina Solo, the twin children of Han Solo and Leia Organa, were first introduced to us in 1993's The Last Command. Born on Coruscant, they inherited their Force-sensitivity from their mother and their grandfather, Anakin Skywalker. Their younger brother Anakin Solo arrived in the 1994 novel Dark Apprentice, a year and half later in-universe.

Before their conception, Leia had been troubled by the thought of having children, due to the perceived danger of their falling to the Dark Side of the Force like her father Anakin Skywalker. Finding the journals of her grandmother Shmi on Tatooine, Leia came to accept that Anakin hadn't always been consumed by the evil of Darth Vader, and so Jacen and Jaina were born a year later.

Even during childhood, the Solo children were subject to scrutiny - and danger; the twins were abducted multiple times, and the spirit of Darth Sidious attempted to possess Anakin before he was even born.

Jacen and Jaina began their Jedi training at Luke Skywalker's Praxeum on Yavin 4 in 22 ABY, and Jacen soon befriended fellow initiate Tenel Ka Djo, the heir to the Hapan throne. During a lightsabre training session however, Tenel's blade failed and Jacen accidentally severed her left arm above the elbow.

The Solo children were present during the destruction of Sernpidal during the opening stages of the Yuuzhan Vong War in 25 ABY, and Anakin suffered with guilt over Chewbacca's death due to the Wookiee saving his life and sacrificing his own.

Jaina would later meet her future husband, Jagged Fel, prior to the Battle of Ithor, and would serve as a pilot for Rogue Squadron.

In 27 ABY, during the middle stages of the war, Anakin Solo led a Jedi strike team to destroy a voxyn queen - the voxyn had been created by the Yuuzhan Vong in order to hunt down and eliminate all Force-sensitives in the galaxy. Although the mission was a success with Jacen Solo killing the queen, he was captured by the fallen Jedi Master Vergere - as well as six Jedi being killed during the assault, including Anakin Solo. Their mother felt her youngest child's death from Coruscant, which itself was being overrun by the Yuuzhan Vong. Jaina Solo was also on the strike team, though she managed to escape to the Hapes Cluster aboard Nom Anor's personal craft Ksstarr. It was during this period of capture and torture that Jacen began to take his first small steps toward the Dark Side of the Force.

Following the loss of Borleias, Jacen and Jaina, along with the other survivors of the Myrkr strike team, were promoted to Jedi Knights by the newly-reformed Jedi High Council, with Jaina named the Sword of the Jedi by her uncle Luke Skywalker, a title she took very seriously.

During the final Battle of Coruscant, the Solo twins faced the Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane, though it was Jedi Master Luke Skywalker who ultimately slew the Yuuzhan Vong leader. The twins pursued and dealt with Jamaane's jester, Onimi, and it was revealed that Onimi had in fact been manipulating Jamaane the whole time, and he was later killed as his bioship crashed.

Approximately five years later Jacen and Tenel Ka Djo - now Queen of the Hapes Cluster - conceived a daughter who was to be called Allana, named in honour of Allaya Djo (Tenel's grandmother) and Anakin Skywalker (Jacen's grandfather), though Allana's birth was initially hidden from her father.

In 40 ABY tensions erupted between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia, which threatened to divide the Skywalker-Solo family - Luke, Mara, and their son Ben, as well as Jacen and Jaina, sided with the GA, while Han and Leia sided with the Corellian government. During a skirmish above Corellia, Jaina refused an order from her brother to fire upon a civilian ship, and so he stripped her of rank and suspended her from further action.

Up to this point, Jacen had taken very few steps toward the Dark Side. Now that he had a daughter however, he became increasingly concerned with protecting Allana and her mother Queen Tenel Ka Djo. The Sith Lady Lumiya, an apprentice of Darth Vader 40 years previously, began to manipulate Jacen's worldview, gradually bringing him closer to the Dark Side as her apprentice. It was during this period that Jacen, already a leading member of the Galactic Alliance Guard on Coruscant, decided to enter into an alliance with Supreme Commander Cha Niathal to oust the GA's Chief of State Cal Omas from power. Omas was later killed, and Jacen and Niathal took joint control of the GA.

Seeking to become a Dark Lord of the Sith in order to gain the power to protect his family, Jacen ambushed and killed his aunt Mara Jade Skywalker, using her sacrifice to solidify his commitment to the Sith Order. Lumiya proceeded to shield Jacen from the repercussions by allowing herself to be killed by Luke Skywalker. From this point onward, Jacen Solo became Darth Caedus.

Caedus later declared the Jedi Order traitors to the GA, and ordered that they be handed over to him above Kashyyyk. The Wookiees, who had decided to back Master Skywalker, failed to comply with Caedus' orders, and so Caedus ordered his Star Destroyer, the Anakin Solo, to fire upon Kashyyyk. In so doing, he unleashed a firestorm that ravaged large swathes of the forest planet.

Following the burning of Kashyyyk, Jaina came to accept that she was the only one capable of defeating her fallen brother, and sought training from the bounty hunter Boba Fett. During this time, Caedus had his new apprentice, the fallen Jedi Tahiri Veila, assassinate Admiral Gilad Pellaeon aboard the Bloodfin.

Finally, having lured Caedus and his fleet into the Transitory Mists in order to rescue the captured Hapan Prince Isolder, Jaina boarded the Anakin Solo in an effort to free the prince as well as face her brother. She found Caedus in the bio-disposal area attempting to dispose of Isolder's body after having murdered the prince. A fierce duel ensued, with both twins landing blows upon the other. Eventually, Caedus stopped fighting and reached out with the Force to warn Tenel Ka of a retrovirus aimed at killing her and Allana, and in doing so allowed Jaina to land the killing blow. Jagged Fel and her parents soon arrived, to find Jaina cradling her brother's body.

After the end of the Second Galactic Civil War, Jaina married Jagged Fel, Chief of State of the Imperial Remnant. Eventually, they would have children of their own, coming to rule a new Empire as the Fel Dynasty.

3 - Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker

Mara Jade, Jedi Master, wife of Luke Skywaker, and former Emperor's Hand, began life in 1991's novel Heir to the Empire. At that point, she had been set on hunting down and killing the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker for his role in the death of her master Darth Sidious. Her search had led her to the smuggler Talon Karrde and, in 9 ABY, to the damaged X-wing of Luke Skywalker. At first Mara was intent on killing the man who she blamed for the death of the late Emperor Palpatine, though was stopped by Karrde.

After Luke's escape, Mara tracked him down to the planet Jomark, where he was training under the mad Dark Jedi clone Joruus C'baoth and convinced Luke to help her rescue Karrde from the grip of Grand Admiral Thrawn. They then made their way to Coruscant aboard the captured Millennium Falcon.

Mara soon learned that Thrawn was using a cloning facility on Wayland, and this was where she and Luke faced C'baoth once more - Luke duelled and killed his own clone, Luuke (created from Luke's severed hand on Cloud City, and wielding his father's lightsabre), while Mara fought C'baoth and killed the mad clone.

Two years later, Mara finally decided to forsake her Dark Side past and began her training as a Jedi at Luke's Praxeum on Yavin 4, and helped to defeat the spirit of the ancient Sith Lord Exar Kun. As well as her Jedi training, Mara continued her smuggling work with Talon Karrde.

In 19 ABY Mara and Luke encountered a clone of Thrawn on Nirauan and, after killing the clone and destroying the facility, discovered that they had both fallen in love with each other. Within a year, they were married on Coruscant.

Prior to the outbreak of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Mara was infected by deadly Yuuzhan Vong spores by the disguised Nom Anor. All others who had been exposed died, though Mara was able to keep herself alive through the sheer power of the Force.

It was during the war in 27 ABY that Mara discovered that she was pregnant. Before going into labour, Mara was throwing all of her Force energy into keeping the disease from affected her unborn child, and this was gradually killing her. Then, with the assistance of her husband and unborn son, Mara finally purged the Yuuzhan Vong disease from her body, before giving birth to a healthy Ben Skywalker.

After the war, Mara juggled motherhood with her Jedi responsibilities. When her nephew, the Jedi Knight and Galactic Alliance Chief of State Jacen Solo, fell to the Dark Side of the Force, Mara grew suspicious of Solo's motives, and after learning of his connection to the Sith Lady Lumiya, tracked Solo to the Hapes Cluster. Here, she first ambushed Solo in her StealthX fighter, before both ended up on the surface of Kavan.

In the fight that ensued, Mara and Solo engaged in a physical brawl. Just as Mara was about the kill Solo, her nephew used the Force to create the illusion of her son's face, causing Mara to hesitate for a split second - time enough for Solo to stab a poison dart into Mara's thigh. Before she died, Mara told Solo that he had become far worse, vile, and cruel than even Palpatine.

2 - Darth Bane

First mentioned in the novelisation of The Phantom Menace, and later starring in the 2001 short story Bane of the Sith, the miner known only as Dessel escaped from a life of poverty on Apatros after killing a Republic ensign in 1003 BBY. He then served as a foot-soldier in the Sith army, before being recognised as Force-sensitive and taken to the Sith Academy on Korriban. It was there that Dessel became known as Bane and, after becoming one of the academy's best students, chose to leave for the planet Lehon to study from the holocron of Darth Revan.

During the Battle of Ruusan, Bane used a Thought Bomb to annihilate the Sith forces, leaving Bane as the last surviving Sith - and the Jedi unaware of Bane's existence. Before leaving the planet, Bane became aware of a young girl named Zannah and made her his apprentice.

Bane soon learned of the holocron of Freedon Nadd on Dxun, and it was here that he was attacked by beetle-like creatures, called orbalisks, that attached themselves to his body. Unable to be rid of them, Bane found that while they couldn't be removed, their shells could not be cut even by lightsabre blades and gave Bane tremendous healing abilities - but at the cost of constant unending pain.

In 980 BBY, Darth Zannah had taken an apprentice of her own, Darth Cognus, and engaged Darth Bane in combat on Ciutric IV. As per Bane's Rule of Two, Zannah killed her master and continued the Sith line in secrecy. Eventually, in 19 BBY (Revenge of the Sith), Darth Bane's plans for Sith rule of the galaxy would come to fruition after Darth Sidious, in the guise of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, instituted a purge of the Jedi Order and plunged the galaxy into a period of evil and darkness.

1 - Jedi Master Revan

Revan - a Jedi Knight, a Republic hero, a Dark Lord of the Sith, and finally a Jedi Knight once again - arrived in the 2003 video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. At the beginning of the game, Revan is an amnesiac Republic soldier aboard the Endar Spire, before being stranded on a doomed Taris. With the aid of companions such as the Jedi Bastila Shan, the Twi'lek Mission Vao, and the Wookiee Zaalbar, Revan escaped Taris during Darth Malak's bombardment of the planet and was trained as a Jedi at the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine.

Unbeknownst to Revan at this time however, was that he had previously been a Dark Lord of the Sith and master to Darth Malak, leading a war effort against the Republic. Led by Bastila, a Jedi strike team boarded Revan's flagship with the intention of capturing the Dark Lord, though they were thwarted by Malak's attempt to kill Revan and claim power for himself. With Revan left unconscious and close to death, Bastila's team succeeded in bringing him to the Council, where they "reprogrammed" and planted false memories into Revan's mind. All this was done in order to find the location of Revan and Malak's Sith base, and destroy it.

In reality, Revan was found to be strong in the Force at a young age, and trained at the Temple on Coruscant as well as the Enclave on Dantooine. Eventually, Outer Rim worlds began to fall to the might of the Mandalorians, and Revan - along with Malak, Meetra Surik, and Arren Kae among others - led a counterattack against the Mandalorians. The Mandalorians eventually openly attacked the Republic, and Revan and his followers - now called Revanchists - were given command of a third of the Republic fleet by Chancellor Tol Cressa.

Sometime during the war, Revan found the Trayus Core on Malachor V, where he began to be seduced by the Dark Side of the Force.

By 3,960 BBY the Republic had beaten the Mandalorians into a stalemate. Revan found a way to end the war, setting a trap in the Malachor system. Using the Mass Shadow Generator, Revan first slew Mandalore in combat before ordering the MSG's activation, instantly altering Malachor's gravity well and crushing every living thing - Mandalorian, Jedi, and Republic alike - on the surface and in orbit of the planet. Even the planet itself wasn't spared; Malachor V would now exist as a shattered hulk, barely able to support life.

Following the Mandalorian's defeat and the end of the war, Revan and Malak led a Republic fleet to search the Unknown Regions for the Sith threat that Mandalore had spoken of before his death. There, they encountered the Sith Emperor on Dromund Kaas; their minds were dominated by the ancient Sith Emperor, their wills twisted to his own. Revan and Malak became Dark Lords of the Sith, and ordered to take their fleet back to Republic and crush resistance prior to the Emperor's own invasion force.

To do so, the Emperor told Revan and Malak of an ancient space station known as the Star Forge. Using the Star Forge, the fallen Jedi produced a vast armada of warships and (having broken free of the Emperor's will by this point) declared themselves leaders of a new Sith Empire and began invading the Republic for themselves. Around this time Revan came to build the assassin droid HK-47, and later begin construction on a line of HK-50s.

Eventually Malak grew to resent his master and former friend, until the two came to blows and Revan's blade removed Malak's lower jaw. From then on Malak was forced to wear a prosthetic, as well as a vocabulator for the remainder of his life.

That same year, Bastila's strike team boarded Revan's ship and captured him, with Malak believing he'd killed his master and taking command of Revan's empire.

After being retrained as a Jedi Knight, the then-amnesiac Revan and his companions searched for Star Maps leading to the Star Forge. During the mission, Revan was captured, imprisoned, and tortured aboard the Leviathan, until Darth Malak himself arrived and informed Revan of his true identity. Revan escaped, but not before Bastila allowed herself to be captured to buy time for the Jedi to leave.

Arriving at the system of the Star Forge, Revan found a massive Sith fleet as well as a disruptor field that brought his ship crashing to the surface of Lehon, the homeworld of the Rakata and the once great Infinite Empire.

It was there, in the Temple of the Ancients, that Revan faced a twisted Bastila. The two duelled, though Bastila escaped to the Star Forge and Revan managed to lower the disruptor field.

With the Republic fleet in the system, Revan and his companions boarded the Star Forge, redeeming Bastila and defeating Darth Malak in single combat. Revan and Bastila were soon married (to disapproval from the Jedi Council), and lived permanently in an apartment on Coruscant.

Two years later in 3,954 BBY Revan, now a Jedi Master, became plagued by nightmares, showing him images of the planet Dromund Kaas (though he still could not recall any details on this part of his life). Deciding to leave with T3-M4 as his sole companion, he went first in search of Canderous Ordo (a companion from the Star Forge mission), then proceeded to the Sith world of Nathema where he was captured by the Sith Lords Darth Nyriss and Scourge. There he remained as a prisoner for the next three years.

Eventually, having escaped aboard the Ebon Hawk, T3 arrived to rescue Revan with fellow Jedi Meetra Surik. Together with Scourge (who had come to respect Revan's philosophy and strength in the Force) they travelled to Kaas City and faced the Sith Emperor.

T3, distracting the Emperor with his flamethrower, was destroyed, while Surik was literally stabbed in the back by Scourge, before Revan himself was hit by Force Lightning from the Emperor. Still unconscious, Revan was taken to a space station at the heart of the Maelstrom Nebula, and remained there for the next 300 hundred years.

-- Honourable Mentions --

Darth Plagueis

Darth Plagueis, though mentioned in 2005's Revenge of the Sith, wasn't fleshed out until 2012 with the self-titled novel Darth Plagueis. Plagueis was a Muun Dark Lord of the Sith, and master to Darth Sidious after encountering the young Palpatine on Naboo. Throughout his life as a Sith Lord, Plagueis was determined to learn the secret to eternal life, eventually learning to manipulate the very midi-chlorians that sustained the Living Force.

Following his election as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, Palpatine murdered his master, plying the Muun with wine until he fell asleep and proceeded to torture the Sith Lord to death with Force Lightning.

Admiral Natasi Daala

Natasi Daala first appeared in the 1994 novel Jedi Search, an Imperial officer and lover of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. One of the few women to attain high rank in the Imperial Navy, Daala set about uniting the various Imperial forces following the death of Grand Admiral Thrawn. After decades of obscurity, Daala would later serve as Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, before being ousted by a joint coup involving Admiral Sallinor Parova and Acting Jedi Grand Master Saba Sebatyne among others.

-- And finally... --

So... are there any characters you would've added to this list? Any you would remove? I had a hard time just narrowing it down to these characters, owing to the hundreds - if not thousands - of beings created over nearly 4 decades.

If you enjoyed (and managed to make it down this far!), please feel free to like, and any and all tips are honestly appreciated! May the Force be with you all :)