[Adumbral]

I have to agree, unfortunately, that although I would love for KOTORIII to feature Revan, it just won't happen...for a lot of reasons (too complicated, too expensive to write all the possibilities. I would really like to find out what did happen to Revan, and I would be very disappointed if the "closure" turns out to be Revan's death. And, I dislike the idea that Revan is definitively "LS male". Differing appearance, that I can overlook. But gender/alignment switch? Negates the character I've built up (and enjoyed) before. For people new to the story, maybe a quick prologue ID'ing Revan, the Exile, Bastila, Carth, and other important people?) I don't get the feeling that people felt so strongly about the Exile, though.

I like the aforementioned idea that you start out as a young Jedi. So, maybe as a young apprentice/Padawan, you resume your training now that the fighting is over. One of the few remaining Jedi, your Master, (someone from KotORII?), says to you that Revan, who is mentioned as a great strategist by Canderous in KotORI, is one of the few people who could bring stability out of the current chaos. Then you get the option to reply with Revan's alignment/gender (and incidentally determining whether Carth is alive/dead). Then you discuss finding Revan, mentioning the Exile hasn't succeeded, and then...you are to go find him/her. At that point, to solve the Bastila question, you could talk about Bastila's bond with Revan, and point out that she might have some ideas where to start looking, or alternatively, mention that it's too bad Revan killed her as she might have had some ideas.

So, assuming they are not dead, you get a side-"quest" where you speak with Bastila, who mentions that the bond doesn't quite work like a GPS system, that she knows Revan is alive, but not much else. (I can just hear her saying, particularly if you declared Revan to be male, "If it was so easy, don't you think I would have found him already?!" Since you will be looking for Revan, though, a physical description might be helpful... "dark hair, medium complexion...", or, if you wanted to get fancy, Bastila (or Carth, if Revan is female), might have a picture...if you won the swoop race on Tatooine, someone did ask for an autoprint. Or, put Revan back in the robes that s/he wore in the vision on Dantooine. And if Carth and/or Bastila are alive, they offer to keep in touch with you and pass along any information that they might have, although their other obligations do not allow them to join you.

Now, you start going to Outer Rim worlds (Malachor may/may not be destroyed, so it is out), where you start asking if anyone has seen Revan. After all, if Revan doesn't have the Ebon Hawk, s/he must be travelling on someone's ship. So start asking around- anyone given passage to someone carrying a lightsaber recently? You can pick up party members who will join you, and you may have to do things (quests) for other people in exchange for information. There is the DS way- take what you want- and the LS way to solve these problems. And since it [i]is[i] a time of chaos, and you are on the Outer Rim, there should be plenty of Exchange members and other types to fight. Not to mention there must be a few force-sensitives with dark-side leanings still out there.

Anyway, at the end, you find Revan, and now try to convince Revan to return, to rebuild either a Jedi or a Sith order depending on alignment, and possibly also to take you as his/her apprentice. (I am assuming that people who like to play DS will play both Revan and the newcomer as DS, and vice versa...is that too much of an assumption?) If Revan was LS, then s/he probably feels some guilt about corrupting then killing his/her best friend, and doesn't want to put Carth/Bastila in the same kind of danger. If DS, well, the (second) last apprentice s/he took didn't work out so well, did he? So maybe Revan would prefer to play a lone hand, esp. as s/he is so powerful now. At any rate, if Revan is LS, Bastila/Carth helps you convince Revan. (In KotORI, Carth talks about Revan's strength and courage. So maybe they would say something about Revan's running away from everyone is cowardly, and not like the Revan they know/love). Whether Revan is LS or DS, though, you convince him/her that with the Republic in such disarray, s/he is needed to rebuild (Sith or Jedi Order).

One possibility is the need to rebuild in order to face the challenge of the True Sith threat (which Revan has found out more about, and is not immediate, but will need to be dealt with). Perhaps as part of his/her "atonement" if LS, or if DS, just as a practical matter- the Sith do have a tendency to kill each other off when they don't have a strong leader to keep them in check, and even the uber-powerful Revan will need help against the True Sith. The other possibility is that Revan himself/herself, by turning so many Jedi to the dark side, brought about/was the True Sith threat; now the Order must be rebuilt, fixing the weaknesses that allowed Malak, Revan, Atris, and so many others to start down the DS path...

That seems to bring Revan's story full circle, from destruction to rebuilding. Of course, it doesn't make for a very exciting ending- guess I'd better stick to my day job!