Rakghoul pandemic The rakghoul pandemic was a massive outbreak of the rakghoul plague that occurred around a decade after the Treaty of Coruscant ended the Great Galactic War . History . Tatooine Outbreak . The pandemic began after the Republic cruiser known as the " Stardream " crashed on the Outer Rim world of Tatooine . The cruiser carried with it an animal infected with the plague , which ultimately spread to the other passengers and crew . The ship was disabled over the desert planet and crashed into the Dune Sea , from whence the survivors spread across the planet , infecting tribes of Tusken Raiders and native fauna . The deadly disease also spread into highly populated areas , including Mos Ila and Anchorhead , prompting officials from both the Republic and Sith Empire to initiate a quarantine of the planet and implement travel restrictions across the galaxy . Despite these efforts , tenacious adventurers traveled to and from Tatooine , working to stem the spread of the virus but simultaneously carrying it further from the source . This prompted quarantine teams to intercept infected individuals boarding both Republic and Imperial space stations . The Tatooine crisis was notable in the creation of THORN , as the children of its founder Addalar Hyland lost their lives during the incident , motivating the wealthy CEO to invest in battling the disease . Alderaan Rakghoul Resurgence . Some time later , an outbreak of the Rakghoul plague was reported on Alderaan . Initially reported on HoloNet News as unexplained animal attacks , the build up of G . S . I . armaments , THORN operatives and several meetings between Addalar Hyland and Alderaanian officials on the planet indicated otherwise . THORN issued an official level - 2 emergency alert and quarantines was put in place to restrict traffic of the plague off - world . In the context of the Alderaan Civil War , House Organa cited the outbreak ' s epicenter near King ' s Pass as an evidence that House Thul and the Sith Empire conspired to use the plague as a bioweapon , while House Thul claimed House Organa implemented the plague to blame them . Nevertheless , House Ulgo was also suspected in releasing the plague , so as to raise tension between those Houses and weaken them for Ulgo ' s eventual conquest . Given the conflict ' s nature , the true source of the spread of the disease may never come to light . Despite this , THORN recruited qualified volunteer emergency responders to travel to affected areas to combat the spread of the plague in the newly discovered rakghoul tunnels . THORN officials Doctor Aleea Ressel and Tralie Masoon were dispatched to organize Republic and Imperial volunteers in Thul Palace and Castle Organa . The volunteers were first tasked to battle through plague bearer s , who were maddened by the infection and attacked anyone in sight . Getting through the mind - addled citizens , the volunteers then vaccinated infected people still in the early stages of the disease . After which the volunteers were sent into the aforementioned underground tunnels in King ' s Pass , descending with the help the Spike . In order to reduce tensions between Imperial and Republic forces , the volunteers were either assigned to Operations Command Center for Imperials or Crisis Command Center for the Republic . The volunteers would then be given various tasks , namely , capturing rakghouls born within the tunnels rather than through infection called rakling s , investigating artifacts of rakghoul culture , collecting mutagenic samples from recently infected Killik s and Joiner s , reconnecting navigational markers sent out by the Spike to map the tunnels , acquiring tissue samples from newly discovered fungal rakghouls and the primary goal of culling the rakghoul population . After gaining the trust and prestige of THORN , groups of volunteers were recruited to hunt down massive rakghouls called the Eyeless in their lairs . Behind the scenes . The outbreak of the Rakghoul pandemic was an event in the video game " " , which began on April 15 , 2012 . The Alderaan Rakghoul Resurgence Event then started on January 21 until January 28 , 2014 .