Even as Timothy Zahn’s stories launched the novels, Tom Veitch helped launched the comics. While they didn’t agree on approach, both stories would introduce foundational elements to the Expanded Universe stretching far into that galaxies future and past.
When Dark Empire burst onto the scene no one expected the comics and books to connect. Set only a year after the Thrawn trilogy, the Republic has already been driven off Coruscant and back on the run. Luke Skywalker sets out to find out who the Mastermind is and finds his worst nightmare. Palpatine discovered the ancient Sith technique of transferring his essence into a new body, clones he prepared just for this purpose. Luke is forced to find a way to stop a man that seems unkillable, even risking the Dark Side. Only his friends can save him from disaster.
We are introduced to marvelous devices called holocrons that store ancient Jedi knowledge. This is a springboard for Leia to discover past tales of Jedi who followed the same risky path as Luke. Tales of the Jedi comics are set millennia before the movies, detailing the trials and dangers of Nomi Sunrider, Uliq Qel Droma, his brother Cay, the Twilek Jedi Tott Doneeta and Exar Kun.
Nomi would go from a the widow of a slain Jedi to a Knight herself. Uliq would fall to the dark side in a vain quest to get revenge for his murdered master at the hands of the evil heirs of the Tetan systems. Exar Kun’s curiousity lures him to temptation and he becomes the new Lord of the Sith, triggering the Sith War.
Unfortunately, there were contract issues. A failure on someone’s part meant they weren’t written up and signed. This forced a hasty ending to Dark Empire’s story arc (Empire’s End had only two issues instead of the previous six.) The book Lightsider was cancelled leaving it a mystery how Kam Solusar was brought to the light after years on the dark side. Meanwhile something about the Sunrider name also caused a kerfuffle and had to be avoided on future stories. Tom Veitch would soon stop riding for the Expanded Universe. (Lightsider was released free online after he died, you can find it at StarWarsTimeline.net.)
This foundation led Kevin J. Anderson to incorporate the spirit of Exar Kun into the Jedi Academy stories, joining the book and comic timeline into one. He also sprang back to the original Sith Empire and revealed the unifications of the Tetan systems by a far wiser and kinder ancestor. The characters and situations were mentioned in Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 as well as Star Wars the Old Republic. They feature prominently as ‘Noetikons’ (interconnected holocrons) in the Jedi Consular story arc. In the Clone Wars X-Box game, Dooku actually finds a Sith weapon of the era and the spirit of Uliq Qel Droma guides Anakin Skywalker in stopping it. And the events in Dark Empire’s attack on Mon Calamari (AKA Dac) are the final playable level in Rogue Squadron 3D.
The Great Sith War also introduced the ancient Mandalorean code and clans. This warrior species would go extinct, but pass on their code to others. This would be a springboard of many tales, from the Mandalorean Wars down onto the Fetts.
The Clone Palpatine’s powers (transfer of essence for instance) are featured in stories like the Bane trilogy. The Sith homeworld of Korriban was featured in many other stories. (While in the Clone Wars it was called Moriband, and online updates to the Essential Atlas try and change it, it’s really impossible. You can use it as a secondary name. But you can hardly rewrite all the media and video games.) It’s mentioned in games (visited in both KOTOR and a starter planet in SWTOR) . Obi-Wan and his padawan Anakin visited it in Jedi Quest, set before the Clone Wars.
Tales of the Jedi, set millennia before the prequels doesn’t contradict them at all. The powers seen here are in some cases seen in the movie and a question/answer checklist was personally gone over by George Lucas on what powers they did and did not have. The point of setting them millennia before the prequels was so they would not interfere. It’s a long time, and even the Jedi and Sith in that time were bound to change and adapt. Hence we see initially the Jedi had no qualms with multiple students, marriage and children. (By Star Wars the Old Republic we also see marriage and children have become frowned on, though not totally unheard of.)
Dark Empire might make one question due the fact that killing Palpatine seemed to be what brought balance to the Force. However no one knew how that worked (even referenced in Revenge of the Sith.) It could be that by killing the original (him claiming it wasn’t his first transfer means little given how often he misled people in the Clone Wars) was enough. It brought hope to the galaxy and confusion to Imperial Forces. Since fear drives the Dark Side and hope counters fear, it’s not hard to imagine how the shift might have been achieved. Coming back he had to try and retake by force what he had previously gained by trickery.
The most interesting prequel connection though is the cloning itself. We know the Sith were obsessed with living beyond death even if it was unnatural. One might wonder why clone a Jedi when you mean to destroy them all. It makes sense in respect of testing the process and making sure it works on a Force User (as well as testing to see if you can control them.) In the novel Darth Plagueis it’s confirmed his Muun master had also sought to create and sustain life, as before him Tenebrae had. Finally we have The Force Unleashed where a multitude of Clones were made of Starkiller, Vader’s not so secret apprentice. Why? To have one assassin. More likely it was another test of cloning Force sensitives.
Tom Veitch’s stories were in some cases controversial (the appearance of Luke going dark for instance.) But they created a rich feast of stories. They made a fine foundation for many other stories to explore.
