The Force Cold War covered a period leading from 95 ABY clear to 100 ABY, and involved four Force factions. The recenly established Imperial Knights and Jedi Order were forced to engage the Dominion of Darkness, a new Sith group created from the ashes of the Shattered Galaxy Crisis. The Twilight Templars became involved, the crisis culminating in the Bothan-Hutt War.
The Force Cold War had its beginnings in the aftermath of the Second Galactic Civil War, where Jedi enforced a solution upon the warring states of the Galactic Alliance, Imperial Remnant and Confederation, killing a great many soldiers on all three sides in the course of the conflict. Admiral Daala took the reins of the GA thereafter, and, in an agreement with the Mandalorians, proceeded to push the anti-Jedi sentiment into a full grown crisis.
This culiminated in a project by the GA to create their own Force Users, Blue Sun assisting the Alliance in doing so. When one of their test subjects named River escaped in 48 ABY, it eventually set off a wave of events that ended with the Miranda Crisis, greatly weakening the GA. The Jedi eventually recovered their position with the GA, but the concept of artificial Force users was out of the Pandora's proverbial box - no matter how hard the Jedi sought to keep the information under wraps. The revelation that Luke Skywalker himself might be artificial severely weakened the Jedi, resulting in the Jedi's diminished stature. Governments began amassing Force users secretly - or not so secretly - some governments simply cajoling or forcing Force users to come to their aid. The danger grew daily.
The Jedi Order grew more diffuse, however, especially as its relationship with the Alliance waned. The Jedi Civil War, Secret Invasion and Dark Reign weakened the central authority of the Alliance enough that governments found themselves with small squads of loyal, patriotic Force users - or the freedom to dabble in science to achieve the same. The Alliance lost control of its members, and the Empire began to grow more powerful for it - it appeared that a crisis was at hand, as secret rearmament threatened to destroy the fragile peace.
The War Is DeclaredEdit
In 99 ABY the Jedi Order was still in schism, into a group styling itself as the New Jedi Trials, and another claiming to be the Order of Light. One was based on Coruscant, and the other, Ossus. Simultaneous to this, the Tapani Sector announced it was accepting the protection of the Sith group known as the Dominion of Darkness, the Dominion extending their 'protection' to the Senex sector - in reality they had been attached to the latter all along.
The Empire sealed its borders, and cut off relations with the two Orders and the Alliance. Other governments began gathering their own Force users, despite Alliance decrees to stop this. The Alliance made efforts to reconcile the Jedi schism, trying to enforce blockades and sanctions on worlds breaking the rules, many of which retained Senatorial seats - enabling them to gather support to block such motions. A government fell, and the Alliance struggled to maintain cohesion. The worlds which would form the Confederacy began to found political links with the assistance of the One Sith, still secretly making events more complicated - though confused as to who was making these grand moves. The Confederacy began to come together when it became clear they would never raise as many Force users as the Empire or Dominion without allying.
The Bothans continued training Force users on Krant, while the remnants of Blue Sun worked towards the same with the Hutts on Toydaria. The same was repeated with Kuat and Arkania, allying their efforts to create artificial Force users. All sides began gathering war fleets and fighter armadas, preparing for a full war.
After three years of stand-off, the end of the crisis came into sight. So to came into view the possibility for outright war.
A major breakthrough followed in 100 ABY. The Jedi reunified, and moved to Corellia, preparing for an outright return to the galaxy. The Emperor pre-empted the Jedi, dispatching his Imperial Knights to take out Force academies in Hutt space, and making efforts to sabotage the slave trade under the Dominion. Darth Insipid authorised missions to instigate war between the Hutts and Bothans, and to imbalance the Jedi and Galactic Alliance - releasing Darth Lolarus on Coruscant.
Simultaneous to this Vincent Mikaru I escaped the clutches of Darth Insipid and returned to Zonama Sekot to report to the Twilight Templars, having been trapped for almost half a century in stasis by the madman. The Templars began to mobilise, considering Insipid a great threat to galactic balance. The Jedi began to pick out the threats, mobilising their Knights and Masters to strike out at the Sith and prevent outright warfare.
Darth Insipid quickly stepped up his plans, heading to Dathomir and slaughtering several Witches there. Giving out his identity as 'Darth Mikaru' he then began using the name to facilitate alliances between the Sith and Bothans, these events painting Mikaru Shipwrights as possible Sith allies. The Jedi mobilised against the Mikaru shipyards, as much against the Sith, the situation becoming tangled enough that Vincent had to travel to Coruscant to deal with the situation.
Insipid, for his part, was simply spinning plots out to distract and put his opponents at cross-purposes. The Empire, having a contract with Mikaru Shipwrights, had a legitimiate grievance with the GA, and issues began to spiral out of control while the second Emperor was undercover at Karfeddion. The situation shifted, many of the factions acting against each other.
Darth Lolarus was captured, but Darth Avarice was free to continue his insane schemes, diverting Jedi and Imperial attention with terrorist strikes on Coruscant, Corellia, Kuat, Yaga Minor and Bastion - attacks which would have killed the Emperor if he hadn't been elsewhere. However, the crisis allowed Darth Insipid to dispatch the Dragon to promote Matthias Kya II as Emperor, resulting in a sputtering Imperial Civil Conflict, Kya held hostage by the Dragon to continue the strike.
Though it was clear that Insipid was no Mikaru, the situation nonetheless got underway, resulting in the Tapani-Mikaru Arms Race, making it clear that the Sith were to blame. The Empire, GA, Jedi and Templars nominally allied, and Insipid was their primary opponent. The Dominion of Darkness was beset on all sides.