What would have happened?

[Alzor]

In KOTOR 2, both Canderous and Kreia imply that Revan was not trying to destroy the Republic, but rather conquer,unify and then protect it against the "true Sith empire", using the star forge of course. Now if we except this as the truth. What would have happened had Malak not betrayed Revan, and Revan had indeed conqured and unified the Republic against the sith forces. When war had broken out between the true sith empire and Revan's Republic who would have won? Consider all the resources both sides would have at their disposal.

[Dan_Loto]

If Revan has the Star Forge and the Foundry I'd say he has the advantage.

[DarthDymond]

Given that Darth Revan's knowledge about the True Sith Empire would have negated their advantage of surprise and that he had access to the Star Forge and Foundry, I'd say he would have been able to blunt the Emperor's initial offensive far more effectively than the Republic did.

 

But even if he was trying to unify and strengthen Republic *space* against the Sith threat, he wasn't bolstering the Republic, he was trying to replace it with his own Sith Empire, with himself as its emperor. We'd probably have seen a much bloodier fight overall, with neither side concerned with casualty numbers, both using the Dark Side freely, and little difference made to the average citizen as to which Sith banner they'd be saluting at the end of the day.

 

Also:

[spoilers for The Old Republic: Revan novel and Maelstrom Prison flashpoint]

 

The Emperor had used his Force powers to imposed his will on Revan and Malak to get them to launch their war against the Republic, making them Sith in the first place (although they were already well on their way down the path to the Dark Side from the Mandalorian Wars).

They had shaken the Emperor's influence a good deal, to the point where, like you said, Darth Revan was trying to execute his war in a way that would oppose rather than support the Emperor, but they were still corrupted both by the Dark Side and the Emperor's mental command to destroy the Republic.

It was only because of the Mind-wipe and subsequent retraining as a Light-Side Jedi that Revan was able to completely overcome the Emperor's influence on his mind. Without that, it's not clear Darth Revan would really have been able to resist the Emperor's mental commands when he marched in, Darth Revan may still have ended up kneeling before the Emperor and handing him the Republic without a fight.

 

And it was Revan being captured and imprisoned by the Emperor that gave him the opportunity to influence the Emperor's mind, getting him to 1) wait several centuries before launching his attack on the Republic, and 2) agree to the Treaty of Coruscant. Without Revan whispering inside the Emperor's head, the attack would have come right around the time Darth Revan had finished conquering the Republic, or worse while he was still in the middle of fighting it. Even with the resources Darth Revan had, his Empire would likely have been in poor condition to start a long fight against the True Sith Empire. And again a Dark-Side vs Dark-Side war would likely have resulted in far more devastation and loss of life.