Hyperspace Beacon: Eight quests you should play before SWTOR's Revan expansion

The next expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming in December, and any BioWare fan already knows the primary antagonist: Revan.

Revan has been BioWare's focal Star Wars character since its first Star Wars game, Knights of the Old Republic. SWTOR even features Revan in multiple questlines. I could recommend that you read Drew Karpyshyn's book Revan, but there are plenty of ways to get Revan's story in-game. In fact, there are eight different questlines that you should run if you want to get caught up, and more importantly, if you want to prepare yourself for the next expansion. If you have been living under a rock for the last three years, be forewarned that this article will contain spoilers for you.

The first time I saw Revan in the game, I squeed a little. On Dromund Kaas, there is a secret cult that is undermining the very structure of the Imperial government. These Revanites believe that when Revan returned to Imperial space at the end of Knights of the Old Republic, he defeated the Emperor and took his place. They believe that the Dark Council found this out and have imprisoned him.

The quest starts in Dromund Kaas. At the bottom of the ramp leading to the taxi to the Sith citadel stands Sandor, an apprentice to Darth Charnus. He explains that he and his master are looking for the Revanites and would like your help in destroying them.

Fun fact: Imperial players run into Darth Charnus on Corellia. He is overseeing the attack on CEC, but there is no mention of the Revenites nor his apprentice Sandor. Was Charnus actually a Revanite conspirator, did he eventually weed that sect out, or did nothing ever actually happen? The world may never know.

When you hit level 29 on the Republic side, you'll be able to speak to MP-77, a droid who is standing near the east turbolift on Carrick station. The droid will give you a message from Master Oteg, a Jedi who is the same species as Yoda. Oteg wants to meet with you concerning a Jedi prisoner who is trapped in a prison inside a nebula called the Maelstrom. The mission requires that you travel to the Imperial planet of Taral V to retrieve a Gree computer. As it turns out, this computer is the only way to penetrate the nebula to get the prison.

The quest to gain the Gree computer is not half as important as one key character: the Jedi Entity. BioWare did its best to hide who this character was. In fact, I know many players who ran this instance and still didn't recognize this character. The Force ghost was Revan's trusted General Meetra Surik, the Jedi Exile.

When you speak to Revan after having completed Taral V and Maelstrom, he explains who she is, but it might not click with everyone. "She was a great Jedi. My most trusted ally. History remembers her as the Exile. To me, she was... more."

The Maelstrom Prison continues the adventure of Taral V. Players now lead a strike team into the Imperial base itself to rescue the Jedi prisoner, who we later find out is Revan.

If you're on the Imperial side and never player Republic, I suggest playing through this one not only to find out about Revan but to learn what happened to Grand Moff Kilran.

An interesting thing to note is what Revan says just after he's rescued. He says that he can no longer feel the Emperor and that he was the only thing keeping the Emperor in check. In the same vein, Meetra Surik also says that Revan is weakening, and he would have to be separated.

I would also like to mention that Surik actually arranged the whole rescue. Oteg didn't even know whom they were rescuing. That might might be a clue for what happens later.

The Imperial flashpoint called Boarding Party takes place immediately after the Maelstrom Prison flashpoint. In fact, I bet that right after the holocall to Kilran in the Republic flashpoint, Darth Malgus calls up the Imperial player asking for assistance.

At the west-side turbolift on Vaiken Station, you'll see a droid named X1-02. He has an urgent message for you. Malgus wants the player to steal a Republic ship for him so that he and his crew can sneak into the Foundry to capture it for himself.

The Foundry is a direct continuation of Boarding Party. Malgus has the player sneak into the Foundry to capture it for the Empire.

Of course, we run into Revan inside the Foundry and fight him at the end so that we can seize the station from him. An interesting thing to note is that Revan is the main boss of this flashpoint but not actually the objective; he is more of a distraction. One of the dialogue choices with Revan pretty much states just that.

As a side note, Malgus forgets about Revan and takes the Foundry for himself, but that's a completely different story.

We've heard about the Forged Alliance series of flashpoints for the whole summer, so I won't rehash a lot of that. But it should be noted that both Lana Beniko and Theron Shan both recognized Revan. I'm hoping that it was just exposition, but somehow the fact that these two know who he is doesn't sit right. Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to dive deeper into Beniko and Shan's connection to the former Jedi Knight, but hopefully, we'll find more out about that in the expansion.

The last two I want to talk about don't deal with Revan directly, but they do deal with the Emperor. The Jedi Knight runs into Scourge, a Sith Pureblood who served as the Emperor's Wrath for about 300 years. And the Sith Warrior replaces Scourge as the Wrath when Scourge leaves the Emperor's service.

The Knight first runs into Scourge on Quesh. He mentions that the Jedi Knight player is the person he saw in a vision who would kill the Emperor. Of course, we know that the Knight is the person who eventually leads the charge against the Emperor on Dromund Kaas and faces the Dark Lord in a one-on-one duel.

The Sith Warrior sees a similar story but from a different perspective. The Sith Warrior finds out that the Emperor is actually trapped in a vessel called The Voice on Voss. When he is freed, he can move from vessel to vessel as he pleases. However, the Hand, a group of the Emperor's direct servants, say that the Emperor is safe. When the Jedi Knight kills the Emperor, the Hand sends a message to the Warrior explaining that the Emperor is alive but recovering.

Lore buffs speculate that because of the Emperor and Revan's connection, the Revan we see at the end of Forged Alliance is actually the Emperor using Revan as a vessel. However, we aren't exactly sure of the motivation because he doesn't seem to recognize the Wrath, nor is he open to new allies.

Play those adventures in SWTOR. You can do all of them for free if you want. Then tell me what you think. Am I crazy thinking that Revan might be the Emperor, or does my theory have merit? Let me know in the comments.

The Hyperspace Beacon by Larry Everett is your biweekly guide to the vast galaxy of BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic. If you have comments or suggestions for the column, send a transmission to larry@massively.com. Now strap yourself in, kid -- we gotta make the jump to hyperspace!