Rakata, Rakatans, Tomaytos, tomatos - same thing, don't pull me up on it

As a Stellaris player, the idea of a small ancient empire crushing a younger but much bigger empire seems pretty common.

In my head cannon, the 500 planets of the Infinite Empire refers to Crown worlds, planets that serve as hubs of power from which whom the rakatans controls Hundreds of another lesser planets near

I feel like there’s a number of misconceptions. Just because you are advanced in one area doesn’t make you advanced in another. I don’t find it that difficult to believe that they had super advanced technology but have hit a wall when it comes to hyperspace. It’s it pertains to the war with the Esk’a, size really doesn’t matter lol. I think the infinite empire could easily beat them because if we’re honest, the Esk’a aren’t that impressive technologically. Hollowing out a planet and basically weaponizing hyperspace seem pretty achievable considering their mechanical prowess, However hyperspace is very different. In our own world we have really good examples of uneven scientific power. We can go to the moon, but don’t know what’s at the bottom of the ocean. I would also highlight that in lore, the info we get about the infinite empire is called into question in the old republic. The Jedi master you get the eternity vault quest from will speak to you after and basically say “ wow idk if anything we know is right” lol

Sidious had a pre-built Republic to turn into the Empire. Rakatans had to actually go out and build their Empire from nothing. So not really a fair comparison there

The codex says the infinite empire "eventually encompassed more than five hundred known worlds." There's a lot of wiggle room in that. One could say there's been evidence of Rakatan ruins or technology found on over 500 worlds so far. As of the time of SWTOR, the Rakatans have only been known about for like 300 years, and are still a very ancient and pretty obscure archaeological subject, in a big galaxy. It would take a lot of work to map out every single world conquered by an empire 30,000 years ago, an empire that has only been known to exist for the past 300 years, and ended in large part due to a revolution by the enslaved classes. None of their conquered subjects would have any interest in preserving their memory.

The descriptions of them in Kotor seemed to heavily imply that at the height of their power, they controlled the entire galaxy. Why this idea was abandoned, I will never understand.

Rakatan leader: “What do you mean we conquered only 500 planets?! We have to have to be at 500,000, at least!” Rakatan record keeper: “Have you tried to keep track of 500 planets? How well do you actually know these planets?” Leader: “I-…..” Record keeper: “That’s what I thought.”

It's possible that "500 worlds" is a mistranslation and they meant "500 intelligent species" and it's possible that for every intelligent world they controlled they had 100 or 1,000 other worlds that were considered less important and weren't extensively inhabited. This would put their empire at 50,000 to 500,000 total worlds.

With the Dawn of the Jedi series revealing that the Rakata were losing their connection to the force and were essentially consuming the force energy from planets to retain that connection, could they have become the galaxy’s Yuuzhan Vong? Cause enough destruction that they lose their connection to the force and then travel to other galaxies to consume more force energy?

The Rakatan Empire makes perfect sense in KOTOR I and the Dawn of the Jedi comics. It’s the Old Republic MMO that doesn’t make sense. None of it. I don’t consider KOTOR I and II to be in the same timeline as the Old Republic MMO. SW:TOR stands alone, and it is most definitely not what KOTOR III would and should have been.

The Rakatan Empire to me is one of my favorite factions, next to the all Sith Empires in Star Wars' Expanded Universe's history...and hearing this just makes me sad to know this is how they were treated. Though I think the only reason why they were treated the way they were was so there may have been a reason why the Empire fell and why they're just a legend for the Galaxy by the time of Luke and Palpatine. I could also excuse Soa claiming himself conquering double what the Empire had only due to the fact that they were imprisoned and most likely suffering from delusions and lack of communication. But it is hard to believe that such a powerful empire could do so much and at the same time also, supposedly, not do teleportation through reverse engineering...or something akin to that at all.

Yep everything makes sense here. Well the 500 planets you have to remember that only planets that had a really strong connection to the force could be detected by the rakatta. These planets would be like Tattonine before they glassed it, Belsavis. Strong connection to the force like dagobah, odessen, dathomire. Planets that received a strong connection to the force like Dromunnd Kass only happened after force sensitives created it.

I like the rakatans, they are so cool conceptually. I like to think that when it says they controlled 500 planets it means that only 500 planets were directly overseen by Rakatans/ Rakatan controlled ships. By this I mean the Rakatans had one main ship/station orbiting a world while smaller groups would check on the rest of the planets in the system. We saw the star forge produce droids so maybe only 500 planets were overseen directly by Rakatans while the rest would be overseen by their droid forces. Unless it turns out the droids were not used until Revan and I am willing to admit I could be completely wrong.

Lol it gets confusing as soon as The Old Republic MMO gets involved 😄. I always enjoyed and found the Rakatan story complete enough in the original Kotor games by themselves

I love the Rakata. All the things you've mentioned I would take with the grain of salt because 20,000 standard galactic years is a long long time and things might have been lost in translation (and lost in time) no matter how much the Elders attempted to keep the records pristine. As for the tech, no matter how advanced the tech is there are always glitches. So, although we know much about the Rakata, mostly through the records kept by the Elders, the information might likely be false.

I’m not sure I agree. First, in terms of the hyperdrive tech issue, I always understood the problem wasn’t with the drive but with navigation. They didn’t know how to reach new planets without the Force. Keep in mind the Republic found new worlds by sending out scouts on very dangerous long term journeys into the unknown. It’s not incomprehensible to me that a civilization with an alternative wouldn’t want to do that. As for the discrepancy in size with the Esh-Ka, the reason a much bigger empire has an advantage is because of more resources, otherwise it’s a disadvantage forcing military units and supply lines to travel further. And the Star Forge and the Foundry negated the resource advantage. And teleportation on a planet is much, much different than teleporting from one solar system to another

The Rakata were cool and I love how Lehon looks, but I agree with everything you said. With how dominating of a force they were in their prime, how long the Infinite Empire lasted and with the Star Forge, you really have to question how they controlled so little of the galaxy, relatively speaking.

The reason why is simple: different writers, often times stories back down when more wroters give their take on something just look at the Clone Wars and how different each media depicts it.

I feel like these inconsistencies could all be solved by having a Republic archeologist say at some point: "The 500 planets number for the Rakatan Empire is a misconceptian btw. It's just that we know of 500 worlds with Rakatan artifacts. Their could easily have been much larger, but we have no idea how much. Also, we don't know how their hyperdrive technology worked and the hypothesis claiming it was limited due to its link to the dark side of the force is disputed among academics, just like so many things about them." As a student of archeology, I can testify, determining the exact extent of an ancient empire can be very difficult.

The Rakatans are geniunely my favorite Star Wars race. I think all the lore and history that surrounds them is so incredibly fascinating and all of their technology and all the ways its used are super fascinating. Fantastic video, thought it was super interesting and well-made as always!

I had this issue as well. My solution is to just disregard the MMO out of my head canon. They treated a lot of characters terribly such as Revan and Meetra so it wasn't the first . The lore we got in Kotor 1 was enough for me. I am happy with Rakata being more of a mystery at that point.

Arrrhhh, I'm fangirling a bit here XD I some times wonder if the reason for them only conquering 500 planets is due to their arrogance and stubbornness, setting their eyes too firmly on the Kwa's gates that they ignored other ways of travel. It would fit their MO.

I love the Rakata. I always gleefully anticipate the lore dump computer in the Temple of the Ancients basement because I remember how excited I was the first time getting to it and having my questions answered. I would like to point out that simply controlling 500 worlds doesn't necessarily limit the size of the empire. If the worlds are spread out, I can see the Infinite Empire controlling all the space between those worlds on the map but without actually having a presence anywhere within that space. For all the words that the Galactic Empire controlled, there were probably a lot more within its domain that it didn't because they were unsuitable for life and/or unprofitable for exploitation. That still leaves a whole lot of other problems and I have no idea why someone decided that 500 is a good number of worlds for a galaxy-level empire to control.

The writers should have used words like "thousands", "innumerable", or "countless" instead of 500 to describe the scope of the Infinite Empire. In my opinion, dark side-powered hyperdrive isn't a bad idea for them, just make it way over the top and give every Rakatan vessel a 0.1 class hyperdrive to explain the incredible scope. Then turn off their connection to the Force and their entire logistics department dissolves overnight. It works, they just gave a few too many details and accidentally wrote themselves into a pickle by picking hard numbers.

I prefer the KOTOR 2 take on the Rakatans, as evidenced by the description of the Rakatan Band piece of headgear: "This simple device improves the wearer's ability to perceive the reality of their surroundings. The origin behind the item's name is unknown, but rumor has it that these bands were constructed as a defense against an ancient species of alien deceivers, who made absurd claims of dominance concerning their role in the galaxy. It is said this species of lying primitives went so far as to take credit for almost every major event in galactic history since the discovery of the hyperdrive."

Here’s another thing- one of the theories about the disappearance of the Celestials (the Force Gods responsible for manipulating galactic events and causing the Star Wars) is that following the conquest and eradication of the Kwa by the Rakata, the Rakata subsequently pushed the Celestials out of the galaxy. Canonically this might not be the case, but in some of the Legends lore, including what is present in SWTOR, the Rakata were supposedly so powerful at their peak that they caused the most powerful divine forces in the universe to either hide or literally merge with the Force to avoid genocide. On top of that, they had access to the technology required to enhance their Hyperdrives. The Kwa literally tried to befriend them and showed them their Infinity Gate technology, which allowed the Kwa to enter a pocket realm formed by the Force one on end, and exit out a similar Infinity Gate all the way across the galaxy. The Rakata messed up their attack against the Kwa though, and instead of seizing the gates, lost them because the Kwa sealed them off and installed giant worms as their guardians. They then also failed to take similar tech from the Gree, who used Hypergates that acted as direct portals to other gates across their empire- gates that are said to still be active in certain parts of the galaxy. The Rakata had the opportunity to expand their power base and literally failed at every conceivable chance. Then they got bested by the Je’daii and the precursors to the Galactic Republic- rebels who fought against the Rakatan slavers and formed a new alliance of worlds, comprised of races that were literally made by or altered by the Rakata and the Celestials before their disappearance.

On one hand, I like the idea of the Rakatan infinite empire being obscure, and there history muddled due to how ancient they are. But on the other hand, you make a good point if they're confirmed to have '500' planets in the lore and books etc, when compared to their technology it makes absolutely no sense lol

Hey, the Rakata might be embellishing their stories... Making their threats a greater problem compared to themselves... Making them look greater than they were. Edit: plus history is lost so Rakata History could still be muddied... (as you have pointed out)

They make sense! There are so many empires in Star Wars and in our world history, so I think its a good concept. Maybe not making them the beginning of basically everything is a good route to go though.

I missed your videos, glad to finally see a video from you pop up on my notifications

What's important is the friends you make along the way.

Maybe the idea is their population was never that big so the number of actual “Rakatan” planets, as in planets where Rakatans would actually live, where their culture and society was dominant, wasn’t much more than the stated 500, but if we counted planets that were used for slave populations, industry, resources, stuff like that, that's where you find most of the other planets in the galaxy, it’s just that they didn’t count those, despite the fact they functionally ruled them. You might have had a couple Rakatans around running things, but maybe it was no more than a couple hundred to a planet, maybe less if we consider how advanced they were. Not a perfect solution but it would make it slightly more believable. Of course this doesn't address the hyperdrive thing, but maybe in that case is they only had what the modern day star wars galaxy would consider proper hyperdrives, or perhaps mapped out hyperspace lanes between their core 500 planets, other planets were a bit more difficult for them to get to. What would in theory, by modern star wars standards, take a couple days to reach, for them might have taken weeks or even months, which would explain why'd they never really "settled" on worlds outside of the core 500, it would have been too much of a hassle to get between those worlds and the heartland. So when they "conquer" a world, they just leave enough of an impressions/enough of a presence the local remember to have a tithe ready when the taxman comes calling/send a ship with resources their way every couple months, and know to do whatever the Rakatans say.

Maybe some of the discrepancies could be reconciled by defining what "controlling a planet" meant for the Rakata. During the Republic era "control" over a planet meant inhabiting it and steering the political agendas of its inhabitants into a certain direction, either via diplomacy or military action. However, for the Rakata, "control" over a planet might have literally meant that they were able to manipulate weather patterns, continental shifts, core rotation, magnetic field, the planet's position in the solar system or even in larger portions of the galaxy etc. They could have weaponized the planet's energy output, making it into a mobile military platform, somewhat like the Death Stars or Starkiller Base. They accomplished this by manipulating the Dark Side of the Force, to which the planets had a strong connection. So, while the Rakata might have had colonized hundreds of thousands of worlds, they "controlled" 500 planets in the way described above.

The galaxy was young? The ancient capital of Rome at its apex, had the population of Kansas City.

I have a few possible explanations for these inconsistencies… 1. Perhaps the 500 worlds they allegedly controlled at their height was merely the “core” of the empire - with thousands of smaller worlds and planetoids under their control as well. 2. The possibility exists that they didn’t have an even distribution of tech throughout the empire - it’s no secret that they were plagued with rebellions and civil wars, so perhaps different factions of the empire arose over time and these factions developed new tech (jealously keeping it from rivals). This would explain why one Rakatan world had teleportation tech and others didn’t. 3. It could also be that inconsistencies in the history of the Infinite Empire exist because of corrupted data stored in very old machines - remember the Rakatan droid the player character finds on Dantooine in “Knights of the Old Republic?” It was placed there to inform “the builders” about the Star Forge and yet seemed to know nothing about it? Could it be that this information was simply corrupted and thus destroyed or rendered inaccessible over the years? Now imagine this data corruption occurring in Rakatan tech across its empire after their species came to a sudden end! I’m not saying that inconsistencies don’t exist for this species - only that there are plausible explanations as to why they exist.

I mean if their empire really did have just 500 worlds it aint that infinite As an example in the 40k universe the Necrons Infinite Empire had 1 billion worlds My point is that if youre gonna name it the infinite empire make the planet number at least very big

the limitation of their tech requiring the force to use i always thought of as a cultural thing more than anything, like they *could* have developed hyperdrive tech that didn't require the force, but they didn't even make *doors* that didn't require the force (helped deal with all the slave i expect), so when the disease hit they were instantly knocked down to the stone age and collapsed into obscurity. as for beating force gods and half the empire holders...sounds like some mmo writer was trash and didn't bother to make their bosses' lore consistent with previous media.

How is this channel not 100%KOTOR or 100%Revan? LOL love it keep it up

Drinking game: take a shot every time the words "500 planets" is said Great video!

What if the escar had access to the gate technology that the Kwa had? As for why only control 500 planets, why control a planet when you could control a whole solar system? Like the plan was to build more or smaller star forges and then just drop one on every star and let it do the work so they would not have to do a thing as a long term plan. Then the virus hit and boom they are reduced to little to nothing and the plan is done. If I could build a Star Forge that is how I would take over the galaxy.

Yeah, I never bought into the “they only conquered 500 planets”. Never made sense. In KOTOR, it always seemed like it was most of the galaxy.

If I'm being honest I don't actually know how in depth the lore was outside of the original knights of the old republic, and I've never played swtor, but I always assumed the Rakata just controlled the entire galaxy as I believe was referenced in the original knights of the old republic, and always attributed the disconnect between one of the Rakata computers bragging about "over 500 planets" as the writers at the time not really realizing how big the Star Wars universe was at the time the game came out, but I'm pretty sure it is said the Infinite Empire controlled the majority of the galaxy. As for the technology limitations, I'm not sure what kind of lore was created outside of the original Knights of the Old Republic game; so i don't know if any official media ever specified it was a limitation of the hyperdrive technology relying on the dark side, but I always assumed their technology/force melding functioned similarly to how Darth Nihilus was able to effectively fly an entire ship (which had massive damage to all vital systems) using the force in Knights of the Old Republic II, and that it was implied by the geneticist in Knights of the Old Republic 1 that the Rakata losing their force sensitivity is what caused them to lose access to their technology as a whole (not just ship hyperdrives, as even just the barrier for the temple in Knights of the Old Republic 1 couldn't be opened without a force user) which would make sense if the Rakata were controlling/flying their ships in the way Darth Nihilus was in KOTOR II, as if Darth Nihilus were effectively using the force to fly a ship, which was technologically unspaceworthy, and then rapidly lost the ability to interact with the force, the ship would likely have broken apart/went adrift/pulled into a planetary gravity-well. TL;DR I don't actually know if any media outside of KOTOR/KOTOR II expanded on the lore as to ruin my interpretation of the lore, but with my limited knowledge of the lore from KOTOR/KOTOR II, I always thought it was always heavily implied the Rakata controlled the majority of the galaxy, and that the bragging of 500+ planets was an arbitrary number pulled by the writers not fully understanding how large the galaxy was in the extended universe of Star Wars as a whole, and that flying ships purely through will/force was possible due to Darth Nihilus flying a broken wreck of a ship (The Ravager), and that if the Rakata piloted/controlled all their ships/technology in a similar method, then rapid force INsensitivity would likely cause widespread problems for an empire built upon force integration.

To be honest, I think the 500 worlds thing is a result of their history being muddled for thousands of years that they actually don't remember the number. It's also possible that the 500 worlds may be their primary worlds that they were able to properly administrate while the rest of their empire may stretch to thousands or millions of worlds that they controlled but didn't care about too much. Another possibility that someone else mentioned is that the "worlds" they controlled weren't actually planets, but rather 500 species and the usage of "world" may be a mistranslation for the non-Rakatans or their word for it means something different for them. Because you're right, there's no way that a warlike and technologically advanced empire like the Infinite Empire only controlled 500 planets at their height when they have access to these kinds of technologies. So my head canon will be that the 500 worlds are simply primary worlds in their empire and/or a saying for the amount of species they enslaved. I mean, isn't there a bit in Legends lore saying that the reason humans are so dominant in the galaxy is because the Infinite Empire scattered them all over the place when they were enslaved? How does humanity become the largest species in the galaxy by those means if the Infinite Empire controlled only a few hundred planets?

I knew you were gonna dig into SOA but you came with more receipts than i thought. Excellent work and you're right. I enjoy the Rakata as a whole, but the inconsistencies are annoying.

I think it does make some sense, you stated the galactic empire had a million or so worlds, but how many of those worlds actually mattered? Russia has the entirety of siberia, but siberia is kinda useless to them, the majority of those worlds in the galactic empire are probably just some remote settlement, with a couple hundred people living in a small colony, also how many of those million worlds are uninhabitable... Probably a lot, officially theyre part of the empire, unofficially, a dozen to 0 people live there. For example mandalore by the time of TCW influenced hundreds of systems, meaning mandalore alone influenced thousands of planets, but how many of those planets actually mattered? mandalore probably doesnt have a population over a billion, so the systems under their influence probably have even less... If you consider the 500 planets as 500 important planets, then its actually kinda impressive, go google a map of the SW galaxy, and youll see that there are only 200 planets max, so if you assume the infinite empire has 500 important civilized planets, they dont seem as non sensical as before

If memory serves me right, it is stated that the empire "linked 500 force rich worlds", not that it only controlled 500. Also, the fact that they had servitudial races, or slave races, whose planets we visit, should already tell you, that whilest this was not a world inhabited and controlled solely by rakatans, it was one controlled by them. There is also mention of the Rakatan Empire controlling some worlds of what would later be known as Core Worlds. So they did spread through their half of the galaxy, considering their point of origin, before finding and fighting the esk-ka. I always saw it as them linking 500 force rich worlds, but each of those worlds was like the capital city of a country, governing over all the slave worlds within the corresponding slave race system. For the teleportation devises on belsavis: It is literally stated that the databases found during its discovery, state it as "experimental" technology for short range transport, within a node hub. Also, it does say it is a dangerous version, because it picks you apart to the smallest construction brick, and puts you back together at the destination. So while they reached "some form" of teleportation, it might not have been as powerful, or universally usable, as the gates the kwa used.

Rakatans: our goals are beyond your understanding

change your name to 100% KOTOR

I never understood the appeal of the Rakatans... their whole existence is ridiculous to me. Warp drives that use dark forces energy and are limited to planets with dark force power? That's just silly.

Simple answer is the number of worlds they were said to control was only the portion of the empire in which the primary population was Rakata, as opposed to the other planets in the empire that they ruled over but were not populated by Rakata. It makes sense for a dominating empire to consider other worlds lesser and thus not include them in a tally.

Quality not quantity. Glad to see they finally figured out teleportation.

Your unstating the Rakatta's problems the dark side caused so much in fighting caused civil wars, not just the disease by itself. Also the as far as the hyperdrives everyone had the force at the time they needed to make normal hyperdrives it was too late. I think the could have made them given enough time. But I think they felt it wasn't needed and when they needed it they were to busy fighting to make it.

Well I guess you could say that these guys were inconsistent mainly because when the MMO Old Republic came out, they just made everything up as they went on. I mean the main thing I like about the Rakatans was the fact that it was thanks to them that we have mostly everything in the Star Wars universe today. If the Old Republic mainly was going through their history in what KOTOR was talking about, then I think it would have the plot holes you were kind of talking about as much.

"All of the inconsistencies come from SWTOR." It seems most of the time issues come from specific writers or media. Makes it easy to just declare one non-canon or canon in broad strokes. Same issue as Labyrinth of Evil v.s. Genndy Clone Wars v.s. TCW Season 7 concerning Anakins and Obis last adventure.

I use them in my tabletop game. The regenerative technology is "micro-droids," and while I do limit their hyperdrives, I allow them acces to most worlds, just not dead systems.

You totally glossed over the fact, that with their hyperdrive technology they could only hone in on planets that were strong in the force. Which makes total sense overall, because literally ALL their technology depended on the dark side of the force. So I don't quite see the point in this video. Edit: and about Soa: he only ever said that himself. Pretty sure it's just a figure of speech

Some people have said that 500 worlds might have meant 500 intelligent species. But tbh I don’t remember anyone ever saying that the Galactic Empire has over a million inhabited planets. Obviously realism has limited relevancy in a fantasy world, but it’s highly unlikely that a galaxy would have that many potentially habitable planets. Playing Kotor hearing 500 planets, especially for an ancient empire sounded very impressive. Watching the movies I always assumed that the Republic was a few hundred planets just looking at the size of the galactic senate. A million planets in one political entity would be practically impossible to keep together, even in an authoritarian or democratic regime.

The Old Republic changed retconned a bunch of things, one of the things were the Sith and the Great Hyperspace War that was now of huge galactic scale and there was also the change about the genocide of the Sith, now the jedi and the republic wiped them out instead of they wiping out themselves

It isn't impossible that the Eshka Empire both spanned half the known galaxy and didn't have hyperdrives. It could be a scenario like in "All Tomorrows" where the Eshka (Star People analogue) spread throughout the known Galaxy with sleeper ships (like early human colonization) and other non-ftl tech, then got their teeth kicked in when they ran into the super advanced Rakata (Qu analogue). The Rakata might have only colonized the worlds within immediate reach of their hyperdrives (and thereby their supply lines), but look what they could do with just their own star system! The Star Forge gave the *Old Republic* a run for its money, and it was spread throughout the Galaxy like the Eshka supposedly were. It can't be understated just how OP the Star Forge would have been at the time. Thousands of ships, millions of blasters and droids a day would have been *overwhelming* . Combine that with being able to reinforce over 500 planets across the galaxy at any time thanks to hyperdrives and the Rakatans would have been unbeatable. Plus, having hyperdrives did would not preclude the Rakata from having sleeper ships and other non-ftl travel technology. It's possible this war with the Eshka spanned the Galaxy, and took thousands of years to play out.

The thing about the Infinite Empire isn’t that it only conquered a small corner of the galaxy with 500 worlds; it conquered planets all over the galaxy and went after the planets that were particularly strong in the force. The teleportation thing you mentioned on Belsavis just allows for the teleportation of individuals from one gate on Belsavis to another gate on Belsavis; teleporting fleets of starships to other parts of the galaxy is presumably much different. The bit about “only 500 planets” feels to me like that’s probably only counting the ones strong in the force, or that they didn’t bother to conquer the ones that weren’t. It’s also probable that most planets just hadn’t been discovered yet since this was when the galaxy was still pretty young.

The Rakatan Infinit Empire was the mightyest power back than. If they wouldn't have lost their connection to the force, which every Rakata has had, the empire and the republic never would have risen. Because all of the people of the different planets only have been slaves of the Rakatan Empire. So the Starforge was the apex of the might of the Rakatan but also their Doom, because of it they've lost their connection to the force. And without the force they couldn't control their technology. That's the reason of the downfall of the Rakatan Infinit Empire.

One thing that you didn't understand about the hyperdrive technology is that you needed charted hyper lanes in order to use it. So it does have sense, they had to go slow and chart the lanes first. After they encountered the race who had under control half of the galaxy had charted the lanes, so after that they could fast track their expansion. So from what I know, and I do know enough, you need to have charted lanes, that's why the unknown regions even during the Palpatine wasn't charted, some worlds was usually that was strong in the dark side but you still needed a hyperlane map.

Rakata's had a skeleton system that spanned the galaxy. The organizations and empires to come only fleshed out the galaxy. (filled in the blank spots)

From what I recall the hyperdrive they used was able to find only planets that had a lot of life because it worked through the force. Later another of the Rakatan was quoted as ruling over 1000 planets on his own. The time when the infinite empire was around the amount of space faring societies were few if any. Even if the planets not far away had the potential to allow life to survive, they might not be able to be detected with a rakatan hyperdrive. So they may have truly ruled 500 planets if they categorized it as hyperdrive points. Imagine 1 hyperdrive point, in an area that might have many possible worlds to send their labor to. From what I remember the amount of Rakatans was never ridiculously huge, they fought using slave labor. 500 rakatan controlled planets, countless ones used for labor. and resources.

I was under the impression that rakatan hyperdrives were dependent upon force users for navigation, not function. They hyperspace lanes had not been mapped out yet, so they force users operating the drives functioned similarly to the navigators in the Dune universe. The hyperspace lanes that exist in later eras were all mapped out at sublight speeds over the 20+ thousand years between the fall of the infinite empire and the old republic era

Ever since I met them in kotor 1 they have always seemed super interesting to me, i wish they expand their lore in movies series videgames,, but no disney only care about tatooine :(

Holy shit man great video. I was always under the impression the Rakata conquered almost the entire galaxy, turns out I was wayyy off lol

I personally think that in the future their empire will be fleshed out more and it will be explained that since they were so technologically advanced, that the stories, myths, and legends about them all mixed together into a bunch of truths, half truths, and downright lies. Even the Star forge might be fleshed out with an explanation. Especially if they really do reboot kotor.

Still more sensible than the Mickey Skaven trainwreck

I mean the Infinite Empire wiki entry on Wookiepedia explains that they had 500 planets, but they were spread out over the galaxy, hence why a war with another galaxy spanning species would 'engulf the entire galaxy'. Their limitation was that the planets needed a connection to the force for their hyperdrives to work. All of sci-fi is filled with species, including future humans, who go down one technological niche which cuts them off from exploring other possibilities.

Rakatan Historian: bro what if we write down contradicting statements so we can troll future historians Rakatan Historian 2: Yeah bruh let's go troll Rakatan Historian: What if we say we conquered 500 planets and how we invented all the cool stuff

my mind was blown when i first saw these guys playing kotor again. loved the Mythos they introduced and the way it integrated the hyperspace lanes (kinda how bioware used the reapers later with the Relay system). We could look at this like Tolkien approached Lord of the Rings, asking "who gave us this information about 500 worlds?" perhaps it was a jedi historian from a thousand years ago who was just wrong and its been passed through the history books as fact. Or perhaps it's a mistranslation of an ancient text and it was really 500,000 worlds.

"Long ago the Rakata ruled all the known galaxy; all species bowed down to us." - Keeper Orsaa

Darth sidious had knowledge of the Galaxy he conquered, troops that easily betrayed the planets they were on, and access to hyperspace routes and extreme ambition of sidious

I guess there's a big difference between imprisoning a super powerful force being and taking over hundreds of thousands of worlds.

The Rakata were basically just a convenient plot device.

It was said, that the IE only took worlds which are strong in the force, at the end they had controll over near the complete galaxy but the empire was spread a lot with less planets.

My head cannon is that they conquered 500 civilizations instead of just planets

1) History is filled with larger empires losing to smaller nations. And I mean *REALLY* filled. There's several examples of this, from Vietnam (twice) to the Germanic tribes to the Arab dynasties (vs both the Eastern Roman Empire *AND* the Persian Empire at the same time), etc. How much empty land you own doesn't really matter. What matters are the resources, manpower, weapons, logistics, etc. you control. And what you own sometimes does not equal what you control, either. If you conquer a gazillion and a half planets, but they refuse to fight for you and you don't force them because they will rebel otherwise... then you don't have a gazillion and a half planets worth of manpower. And even if they do... none of that matters, if your empire is crumbling already when you encounter the enemy (the Persians above). And you might be the strongest as you've ever been, but that doesn't matter if you use spears and they use rifles... at most you can resist longer than they expected (Shaka Zulu). We don't know the details of those two empire's might, weaponry and conditions at the moment of the war... so saying that it's weird that the larger one lost just on account of it being larger is very, very simplistic and very, very wrong. 2) A historian from the time of the foundation of the Roman Republic would tell you that Rome *at the height of its power* owned half of Latium. A historian from the beginning of the Punic Wars would tell you that Rome *at the height of its power* owned most of modern day Italy. One from the time of the 3rd Punic War would tell you that Rome *at the height of its power* owned half of the Mediterranean. One from the foundation of the Roman Empire would tell you that Rome *at the height of its power* owned all of Gallia and Egypt and most of Anatolia, too. One from the time of Trajan would tell you that Rome *at the height of its power* extended from modern day Scotland to the Persian gulf (modern day Kuwait). Source reliability counts and those sources' relative knowledge and historical moment, too. So keep that into account when you assume what *the height of their power* was, and also what technology they might or might not have had at any given time. 3) Going back to the Romans again (which were kind of the inspiration for the Rakatan empire, btw)... before the Punic wars, they had no idea how to build a warship (or any ship at all). Then they encountered the Carthaginians, found one of their ship wrecked ashore, reverse engineered it, and built a mighty fleet that eventually defeated the Carthaginians at their own game, in a massive naval battle south of Sicily. The same goes for the cataphracts and a bunch of other military technologies the enemies of Rome had... they just learned to copy them. Another (maybe more immediately understandable) example would be Native Americans making a wide use of rifles in North America. This is meant to explain that... if party A encounters party B, and party B has a very useful weapon/tool... if party A survives the initial encounter, then they will do anything in their power to get that useful tool and use it against party B. So, again, what they didn't have at one time... they might have had *after they encountered someone who had it.* 4) All "Dark Ages" tend to destroy most of the progress and most of the written accounts of the previous era, so the later era sees what little they know about it as something mythical. That contemporaries of Luke Skywalker see a lot of ancient technologies as myths... is to be expected, but it doesn't really mean anything. 5) As a general rule... say "I don't understand X and that's my fault, because my knowledge and/or ability to understand are limited", instead of saying "I don't understand X, therefore X is dumb / doesn't make sense, and whoever wrote it is stupid". It's always the safer bet.

Hot take: The old republic isn't cannon.

WOW Great observation! I never really heard all the numbers together like these. I'd love to get an explanation some day on why they only conquered 500 planets. Maybe KoTOR had a typo and they meant to write 500 million. Meanwhile, them being only able to travel to planets which have a dark side nexus on them via their hyperdrives is a very interesting idea which should be focused on more in their appearances.

Also great video, love the channel

I'd love to see a live action series about the infinite empire, made by Filoni and Favreau.

Man i LOVE this channel! After rewatching this video I feel like the Eternal Empire took a page from the Rakataans by building a Star Forge of their own. Otherwise I don’t know how they could’ve built their entire fleet.

Amazing, fascinating and insightful video my friend. Even though I don't know that much about the Rakatans...except they created the Star Forge. My guess is maybe the reason why they didn't conquer many worlds and not because of their limited hyperspace technology...it could be that some of the Rakatan people didn't favor galaxy wide conquest. I know that sounds ridiculous but it could be possible

great video, things i love about star wars, IG 88, Palpatine, Luke, and the Rakatan.

i always thought that record keepers just lost most of the information about their empire when it collapsed and what we see on rakata prime is just scraps left that they could find and put into some kind of order, i just never belived that a small nearly extinct village could amass ALL the infromation about galaxy spamming empire. And from what i seen i think that could explain the 500 planet limit and put rakatan stories in far more logical aproach, but i agree that without some kind of explanation that 500 planet empire fact puts literally everything else we know about them into disarray

I just think some numbers in Star Wars are too exaggerated. 500 planets is really impressive

I love the Rakata conceptually, so I don't mind the plot holes. The way that this huge, galaxy-spanning empire has diminished so much that by the time of Revan their population is too low to continue their species, and by the time of Darth Bane they're all long, long dead, is like Star War's answer to Ozymandias.

I would also blame their short comings based on their very primitive nature. There was nothing about their culture that I've seen that really encouraged outside of the box thinking. So they wouldn't have anyone from their species capable of becoming an Einstein or Musk to revolutionize their technology. And reverting to their primitive ways once they were cut off from the Force is the best example to me. Also I think it was also just a way to create a beginning for The Great War and eventual split between the Jed'aii of Tython. To lead up to The Dark Jedi finding the species known as Sith on Korriban and growing the story from there.

There could be a few different explanations. Maybe they only considered celestial bodies of a certain size as planets, maybe they required a specific level of technology for it and its citizens to be considered a planet. Perhaps they utilized a tiered system, where only the main planet was considered and they would impliment a governor and they held systems

Been hearing about the Rakstans more and more lately. I'm intrigued. I think the 500 controlled planets is quality over quantity. Controlling a planet like Corellia means more than Hoth. And maybe its only 500 because they fed the rest to the Star Forge. Again, Corellia is forced to join while Hoth is "recycled" . BTW, these are just examples.

Head Canon: since the Rakatan Empire happened such a long time ago, they ruled 500 KNOWN planets.

I see what you’re saying, I’ve never looked list them in depth but, it does make SWTOR interesting to play. My work takes up most of my time so I don’t have a lot of time to do the research. However, I’m glad someone does and that someone is you. You explain it we’ll and provide the history, nice job 👍

I always thought the 500 worlds thing was a typo. There should be a lot more zeros in there.

My understanding is due to the lack of records the Imps, Pubs, and so on had on the Rakatans, they believed the Rakatans were limited in hyperdrive technology, believed they didn't have teleportation machines, etc. What my understanding was for all this time was that the Rakatans chose not to invade most planets as they saw these planets as no yielding anything of real value to them. Only what they considered important planets, amounting to around 500, were worth conquering for their recourses or strategic placement in the galaxy. And it's possible that, kind of like how feudalism worked in IRL history, the Rakatan that "conquered a thousand planets of his own" probably directly controlled these planets like a lord or duke, while still being part of the Infinite Empire, which itself only controlled like 500. Look at ancient Chinese empires or the HRE; yeah technically they owned everything in their realm but only directly controlled so much as the rest was controlled by a duke or noble house or vassal state within the empire. You get what I'm saying?

Star Wars and lacking understanding of scale, name a more iconic duo. I’ll be honest I take all the Swtor additions to the lore with a grain of salt.

Actually there is a really good canonical explanation for the "500" planets. Their hyperdrives uses the force to find worlds, but the hyperdrives could only be used to go to "nexus" worlds. So worlds that are extremely strong with the force. Any planet that is not a nexus for the force can not be traveled to with the rakatan hyper drive.

When it said 500 planets I assumed it meant 500 habitable planets, which is quite a lot all things considered if they were the first to use hyperdrive tech