Who or What Were the Rakata?
Image Source: Dark Horse Comics
When Luthen Rael gave Cassian Andor a necklace as a kind of down payment in the fourth episode of Andor, he said:
"It's a Kuati Signet. Blue kyber. Sky stone. The ancient world. Celebrates the uprising against the Rakatan invaders."
This sentence is more than just a throwaway line as it seemingly brings one of the most powerful and mysterious races from the former Expanded Universe back into Star Wars canon: The Rakata.
But, strictly speaking, it didn't.
Technically, the first mention of the Rakata in current Star Wars lore occurred in den 47th issue of DeAgostini's Star Wars: Build the Millenium Falcon magazine in November 2015. Furthermore, the sourcebook Nexus of Power, published in March 2016, mentioned the Rakata Empire and the crime lord Dryden Vos had at least two boxes with engravings on his flagship "First Light" which were later identified as Rakatan Wraith Boxes. All three sources draw on the Rakatan lore from the former Expanded Universe.
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The Rakata first appeared in Bioware's 2003 video game Knights of the Old Republic and later became the main antagonists of the Je'daiI in John Ostrander's and Jan Duursema's comic series Dawn of the Jedi. As a bipedal, humanoid, and amphibian race with eyes that protruded from both sides of their big coned heads, the Rakata bore some similarities with the Mon Calamari and even the Gungans, but this is where the mutuality ended.
During the height of their power, the Rakata, known for their cruelty and arrogance, brutally destroyed and enslaved their enemies, eating the bodies of their dead foes as well as members of their race. 10,000 years before the creation of the Republic, the Force-sensitive, reptilian Kwa species visited the Rakata homeworld Lehon deep in the Unknown Regions through one of their Infinity Gates, a portal allowing immediate travel between worlds. As they had done with many other species before, they taught the Rakata about the Force and offered them technology. When the Kwa found out that the Rakata were only interested in the Dark Side, it was already too late; the Rakata brutally killed their benefactors and drove them from Lehon.
Having learned what they needed to know, they started to expand from their homeworld, wiping out or enslaving the populations of the surrounding star systems. Using the technology they had gained from the Kwa, they created a massive space station called the Star Forge, which was able to produce spaceships and weapons powered by the Dark Side.
Image Source: Wookieepedia
Their massive fleet moved deeper and deeper towards the center of the galaxy, conquering world after world and creating their so-called “Infinite Empire.” Despite spanning nearly the whole galaxy, it consisted of only about 500 planets that were deeply connected to the Force. The vast distances between these beacons where the Rakata could recharge their war machines would later contribute to their downfall.
They also used massive terraforming technology, which created the giant wroshyr trees on Kashyyyk and turned the once ocean-rich Tatooine into a barren wasteland.
The Infinite Empire had been standing for several thousand years when around 25,200 BBY a mysterious virus broke out among the Rakata. Though its origin had never been fully revealed, it was believed that the virus was created by one of their enslaved species. It spread quickly and killed millions of Rakata. When the news about the virus broke, many enslaved planets started to revolt and turn against their slavers, killing even more Rakata. Things worsened when, sometime later, the virus mutated, ripping the Rakata of their ability to use the Force, leaving them with Force-based technology they could no longer use. Those not killed by the virus or their underlings fled to their homeworld, where the Rakatan society completely collapsed into endless civil wars.
By the time Darth Revan arrived at Lehon, around 4000 BBY, only a few Rakatan clans were still alive. Believing in Revan's claim that he would help them reconnect with the Force again, they granted him access to the Star Forge, only to find out that Revan had betrayed them.
In the following centuries, the Rakata vanished completely and most of the data about them were lost or erased.
Of course, Luthen mentioning the Rakata doesn't suddenly bring all these stories back into the current canon, and we may never see a member of this ancient race in current Star Wars lore; but at the same time, it shows that the former Expanded Universe is still a rich treasure trove of stories, events, and species that the creators of modern Star Wars content can choose from.
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Sources: Daniel Wallace: Star Wars - The New Essential Chronology, The Star Wars Encyclopedia