Battle of Onderon (Onderon Civil War)

The Onderon Civil War concluded with a final battle in 3951 BBY on the planet Onderon and its moon, Dxun, and was one of the last major events of the First Jedi Purge. The battle concluded the Civil War and paved the way to the end of the purge, by acting as the catalyst that goaded the Sith into revealing themselves so that they could be destroyed by the Meetra Surik, the Jedi Exile.
==Prelude==
Throughout the civil war, Jedi Master Kavar, Queen Talia's advisor, thought they would be able to win the war on their own, since most of the Onderon military remained loyal to the Queen, not her cousin General Vaklu. The Master realized that the true battle was not fought between two representatives of the Onderon royal dynasty, it was fought between the Galactic Republic, which struggled to retain Onderon as its world, and Vaklu's secret allies. He wanted these allies to reveal themselves, but they unexpectedly turned out to be the Sith—a force too powerful for the Onderonians to handle.
Kavar then decided to summon another Jedi, who had recently visited Iziz and met him—Meetra Surik. Having just finished the search for other Jedi Masters, the Exile saw this event as an opportunity to unite the three remaining Masters—Kavar, Vrook Lamar and Zez-Kai Ell—and answered the call to war again.
==The battle==
The Exile's ship, the Ebon Hawk, landed in the jungles of Dxun, the primary moon of Onderon, near Mandalore the Preserver's Mandalorian camp. There, she discovered that the Sith established a base very close to the camp, near the ancient tomb of Sith Lord Freedon Nadd. Realizing she could not deal with the Sith herself, as Kavar and Talia urgently needed help in Iziz, the Exile dispatched three of her companions to aid the Mandalorians against the Sith. Then she set off to Iziz in a Basilisk war droid, modified to hold three people, together with Kreia and one more companion.
The Exile's companions succeeded in their mission. They dealt with the Sith guarding the entrance to the tomb and, inside the tomb itself, interrupted a ritual that four Sith Masters were performing near Freedon Nadd's sarcophagus. After the tomb's master tried to persuade them to join the dark side, Meetra's allies killed the Sith in turn, and took Freedon Nadd's short lightsaber from his sarcophagus.
Meanwhile, as the Basilisk landed in the ruined merchant quarter of Iziz, Vaklu's troops patrolling the sector fled, thinking correctly that the Mandalorians had sided with Talia. With the help of Captain Bostuco and his royalist soldiers, the Exile attacked through Vaklu's defenses on the Sky Ramp, a long bridge that connected the merchant quarter with the royal palace. Although the Exile seemed impossibly outnumbered, Vaklu's troops, the Sith and the beast were no match for two powerful Force users. Eventually, after turning the Sky Ramp into a slaugterhouse, and in the process relieving a beleaguered Royalist force in a pillbox and shooting down Vakluist aircraft in the area, thus giving the sky to the Royalists, she fought her way to the palace.
Inside the palace, the Exile found Vaklu and Colonel Tobin attempting to use a drexl beast to cut through a force field—the last obstacle between them and the throne room. To make things worse, Tobin sealed the exit, and Kiph, a Twi'lek computer slicer hired by Vaklu, activated traps for the Exile and blocked Captain Kadron of the royalists from reopening the door.
Eventually, the Exile found Kiph and blocked him from accessing the security system. Kadron reopened the door, and the Exile reached it just as the drexl cut through the force field. However, the beast attacked Tobin, who the Exile left for dead but in fact barely survived. Vaklu's soldiers ran into the throne room, as the Exile killed the beast.
Inside the throne room, Vaklu dueled Talia. At the critical point of the battle, Master Kavar arrived and fought his way into the throne room. Vaklu's soldiers were quickly dealt with by Kavar and the Exile. Vaklu himself was severely wounded by the Exile.
==Aftermath==
Talia ordered her cousin to be promptly executed. Despite Vaklu’s pleas, he was executed by the Royalist firing squad.
The civil war was over. However, the Sith threat still existed. Kreia developed a plan to deal with the Sith Lord, Darth Nihilus, whom she knew was Vaklu and Tobin's secret ally. Kreia lied to Tobin and told him that the Jedi were hiding in Atris' academy on Telos IV. This ultimately led to the even more dramatic Battle of Telos IV.
Afterward, Kavar left Onderon, seeking to meet two other Jedi Masters on Dantooine. The Exile boarded a shuttle back to Dxun. There she was congratulated by G0-T0 for stabilizing the political situation on the planet, before leaving on the Ebon Hawk.
==Behind the scenes==
===Gameplay alternatives in Iziz===
Alternatively, the player can try to persuade the queen that her killing Vaklu would only make him a martyr and that she should concentrate on rebuilding her planet and win back the support of her people, and so Talia declares Vaklu be imprisoned and await a proper trial. The player can also agree with Kreia that Vaklu is too dangerous to leave alive and personally give soldiers the order to shoot him. If the player chooses to follow the dark side path, it leads to an alternate ending where the Exile sides with Vaklu against Talia and, after reaching the throne room, eventually kills Kavar. The Exile has the option to either kill Talia personally or let Vaklu's soldiers finish the job. Vaklu thanks the Exile for their actions and says that if the Exile ever needs a place to hide, Onderon will be a safe haven.
If the player was skilled in Battle meditation, they could use the power to aid the allies of whichever side the player chose instead of actually engaging enemy soldiers.
===Gameplay alternatives on Dxun===
The Adept is a character in the computer and video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The canon choice is unknown, the Exile may appoint the task to one of the above, even if they had yet to receive training in the ways of the Force at the time before the mission. In any event, he or she would learn of being Force-sensitive from the Sith Master of the final confrontation. Male playing characters get Brianna instead of Mical, and can select her for this mission. However, since the release of Star Wars Miniatures: Knights of the Old Republic, Brianna following the Exile became canon even with the Exile being a woman.
*Atton Rand, a pilot who served in both the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War. He had some Echani training and was part of the elite Sith units that Revan trained as Sith assassins. He caught a glimpse of the Force for the first time thanks to the Jedi who turned him from the Sith. He joined the Exile at the Peragus Mining Facility and traveled with her, and eventually asked to be taught how to use the Force.
*Brianna, the daughter of Arren Kae and Yusanis, and the last of the Handmaiden Sisters who served Jedi Master Atris at the Jedi Academy on Telos IV. She was ordered by Atris to sneak aboard the Ebon Hawk and watch the Exile during her quest to gather the last known Jedi Masters. As her Jedi heritage allowed the Exile to train her as a Jedi Guardian, her Echani training taught the Exile the power of Battle Precognition.
*Mical, a Republic agent under direct command of Admiral Carth Onasi. A former apprentice at the Jedi Enclave of Dantooine, he had always wished for the Exile to be his Jedi Master. Sent on a diplomatic mission to find the Jedi, he met her on Dantooine and joined her, eventually resuming his Jedi training under the Exile's tutelage. He was also an historian and scientist, training in the medical arts under some of the best researchers in the Republic.
*Mira, a bounty hunter with Mandalorian training, and a talent for finding people which stemmed from her sensitivity to the Force. She was hired on Nar Shaddaa by Jedi Master Zez-Kai Ell to find the Exile and keep the other hunters away until he could meet with her. She then traveled with the Exile and became one of her disciples in the Force.
*Visas Marr, the former Sith apprentice of Darth Nihilus, the ruling Dark Lord of the Sith. She was the only survivor of the devastation of Katarr, and she hoped the Exile would be the one to end the slayer of her people. She reached the Exile through the Force with the power of Force sight.
==Appearances==
*Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords 
==Sources==
*Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Prima Official Game Guide
==Notes and references==
Category:Battles of the Onderon Civil War