The Sith Empire was supposed to be long dead at this point prior to the existence of Kotor 2. TOR and Kotor 2 (and maybe Kotor 1? It's hard to say) The fact that they exist at all this far into the timeline is new information. The reason there is no fate detailed for them in the rest of the EU is because they weren't a part of it anymore until now. All we know is that they were supposed to be gone by 2000 years Before the movies. Darth Ruin's fall to the dark side and new Sith Empire was starting from scratch, unless they retcon that as well.

That's because Palpatine wasn't the Sith Empire. He was a single individual. He didn't have an entire culture inexplicably change. Even the centuries after him, the reborn Empire still feels aesthetically more similar to the Galactic Empire than the Republic. There's no reason the Sith would just abandon everything that made them unique just to be more like their most hated enemy. I believe Palpatine's quote was believed to be a reference to the New Sith Wars. I suppose it doesn't really matter, though. The very existence of the Sith Empire in TOR is a pretty big, pretty recent retcon and it's resemblance to The Galactic Empire this far back in the timeline makes no sense. The writers could literally have anything happen and that's what the canon would be. There would be little need to justify it.

The Sith Empire is nothing like the Republic. They wouldn't change their entire culture to exactly mimic the very nation that was their mortal enemies for thousands of years. Even without the Sith influence. And we kind of know that "for a thousand generations the Jedi were the guardians of peace and justice in the old republic."

I suspect it might be something of an indirect homage. All the Clone Troopers were clones of Jango and the Trooper class was sort of inspired by Clones troopers so perhaps some elements crept into designing the "poster boy" for the class.

I remember seeing an interview one of the devs did before the launch of the game talking about moral choices in flashpoints. I forget who it was but they mentioned that they had decided that those choices were going to be governered by majority rules rather than just the roles, because that would be fairer to most people. Today I went and did the Settling Debts quest on Balmora and when it came time to decide the fate of the generator at the end 3 of us chose to spare it and a the one who chose to destroy it ha the highest roll so he blew it up. What's the deal here? did they change their minds? Is that a glitch? Does it only apply to larger flashpoints and not planetary heroic quests?

I suspect it's actually intentional rather than them just being unoriginal. The only thing that strikes me as a little unimaginative was Malgus' visual design. He looks almost exactly like Darth Vader when Luke took his helmet off, but his voice and personality don't remeind me of Vader at all. Although he could very well be part of the trend too. Kotor I had a little too many callbacks to the movies itself but even that had a much more independent feeling and design of it's own. I believe the devs once said their aim was to create "the ultimate star wars game" with TOR so presumably the way to do that was to add in as much familiar star wars stuff as possible so as to appeal to the masses and casual fans even more. They obviously aren't going to recognize much of the EU or probably even Kotor. The Manadalorians' aesthetics come across way more like Boba Fett than the Kotor era Mandalorians. I don't think it's a coincidence that the "Empire" is fighting "rebels" on Balmora and the "Republic" is fighting "separatists" on Ord Mantell. So I would imagine that if they know about any continuity problems, they don't care.

Strictly from a designing point of view, Doesn't 2a seem a little impractical? And wouldn't all players have to redo the conversations anyway? Although honestly my only main concern is about Kaliyo. I don't care if they make her open to same sex relationships or not. I just don't want to miss out if they do.

Given what the Inquisitor finds in the Dark Temple, doesn't it almost make more sense to be a Sith Pureblood?

I don't think it was added in for any reason other than to pretend to tie to the movies more. Just like the entire aesthetic design of the Empire. It doesn't really make sense for the Ancient Sith Empire because the rulers of the Ancient Sith were all essentially hybrids, so they it really doesn't make sense that they'd care about the race of their subjects. There's so many things in the Kotor games and this one in particular that are written to be reminiscent of the more familiar star wars settings, regardless of the lore errors they create. I don't believe there was any record of similar racism in the Ancient Sith Empire before this game.

Sometimes, yes. I'm generally a lightside type of guy. Back in the days of playing KOTOR it took me a lot of practice to be able to maintain a darkside character. Still, I tihnk I've gotten the hang of it now and go with what I think the character would do.

I'm fairly sure that the rules against Jedi having Romance did not appear in Star Wars prior to the PT. So EU depictions of the Old Republic (including the original comics upon which the series was inspired from) showed Jedi romance many times. After the Prequel Trilogy, the EU explained this away by saying those rules were instituted after the Battle of Ruusan. This worked perfectly until KOTOR ruined it by wanting to be too similar to the movies regardless of lore. So now they just go with the Jedi forbidding attachment all the time, I guess. And considering I have at least one Jedi that I want to remain pure, I'm actually quite concerned she'll run into the same problem considering I've seen this complaint before. So I'm interested in seeing an answer too.

I'm fairly certain they first appeared in KOTOR 1 but I believe that the idea that they are Sith creations is a recent retcon that came with TOR.

I can appreciate then trying to maybe add some cultural distinctiveness between Republic and Sith Empire, but it really doesn't hold up when thinking about it. Jorgen instantly recognizes the Sergent on Taris with a British Accent as being from an Imperial World, which implies that only Sith Empire citizens speak that way. But British accents are hardly new in the Star Wars expanded universe (in this or any era), and the Sith Empire only reappeared relatively recently. Are they trying to suggest Bastila Shan (and all the other British sounding people ever) was secretly part of the Ancient Sith Empire too? Or was Bastila rectoned to having an American accent now?

Are they adding dialogue for old characters or adding characters? Because I feel like I'd have concerns for either answer from either side of the issue. Mainly, I'm curious if any characters who who wanted to have one would be able or would have to start over? What about existing low level ones?