SWTOR's Legacy System has remained a mystery to most The Old Republic players. Even those who have completed Act 1. After a player completes their class quest they are prompted to choose a surname. This unique surname will be attached to the character you're playing, and every character you make on that server, effectively making a family tree. If you're on The Harbinger, sorry, Vortigaunt has been taken, by me. From that moment on you'll notice a Legacy bar under your XP bar. As this purple bar fills up you'll earn Legacy levels. But what are these levels earning players? We went to the source to find out. SWTOR game director James Ohlen was happy to answer our many questions on Star Wars: The Old Republic's Legacy system.

Legacy was intended to expand the aspects of the game MMO players thrive on. It's meant to add an extra level of gameplay to leveling up, perusing your class story and rolling another character. If you're a player who wants to focus on only one character, you won't reap the same rewards a player with multiple characters will get. In fact, Legacy System was designed for the players who have more than one character. Each of SWTOR's classes has a unique story and if you're a MMO fan, a Star Wars fan or a BioWare fan, chances are you'll want to explore more than one of these stories.

If you do decide to roll another character, he or she will be added your Legacy family tree. The idea of family was important to BioWare. Game director James Ohlen explained why Legacy is important to the entire Star Wars universe.

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"The Legacy tree is basically a family. So think of Star Wars, it does have a lot of family elements in it. The most famous family relationship in cinema almost is Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. So with the Legacy system, you can make your characters the sons, daughters, brothers, friends of your main character. All of the characters you have within the family tree that you've created, they all gain experience."

Legacy experience is gained the same way you gain actual experience points, through battles. Rolling new characters will increase the amount of Legacy XP you gain but it's not the only way to gain it. Operations and Flashpoints will increase your Legacy XP too.

Your different family members may even, one day, meet each other in game for a massive Skywalker-esque showdown. Ohlen and his team have talked about adding that to the game. "Obviously that's kind of the dream. If we do something like that, it will definitely be in the future."

You might be wondering how your Twi'lek character is related to your human. The relationships in your family tree do follow a set of rules. "We do restrict the relationships according to what's actually possible," Ohlen said. If your Twi'lek is joining your family tree, she'll have to be an adopted daughter or a wife. This puts a damper on all the fan fiction I've already written about my Twi'lek and her Togruta companion.

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Legacy experience points span multiple characters. They accumulate to help you earn Legacy levels which in turn unlock abilities, perks and "bind on Legacy" items. Legacy perks can range from attacks to the ability to customize your next toon's experience.

Oden gave an example "You create a Jedi Knight, you level him up to level 40 and then you decide you want to try out the Smuggler. Because you've already got the Legacy open, you've got some Legacy levels, you've got some Legacy points... you can actually buy some perks for your Smuggler character, so he might, for example, be able to buy a speeder bike at a much earlier level than your first character, allowing you to travel through the world faster."

The way your character earns XP can even be altered, "[The Smuggler] might be able to customize how he gets experience points, so he gets more experience points from playing the PvP game. You're able to essentially focus on the activities that you want to focus on in your next playthrough," Ohlen concluded.

For now, Legacy will be restricted to one account. The idea of having a family tree span multiple accounts has been considered but it's not something they figured out at the time of launch. Ohlen did mention there are teams in place who are focusing on expanding the Legacy system. We can definitely expect more announcements on the Legacy front over the coming months.

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If you've gotten this far in this article I imagine you now have a solid understanding of what Legacy is all about. But if you're a player, who like me, currently only has one character to focus on, you may be wondering how Legacy can benefit you. Single-toon players fret not! The easiest way to earn Legacy points is by rolling a new character but there are still ways to earn points if that's not the path you want to take.

Ohlen explained "We're being careful, because we don't want to make it a requirement for you to have certain Legacy abilities to finish a high-level Operation, but there will definitely be perks for players who just keep with their single character." Every time I kill an enemy I notice I'm earning Legacy points as I earn XP points.

SWTOR's Legacy system will continue to be fleshed out as more updates are added to the game and we'll definitely update you as information is available. In the meantime, I suggest playing an unhealthy amount of SWTOR to level up your Legacy bar. Trust me, I'm a doctor Sorcerer.

Have you unlocked your Legacy system yet? What questions do you still have?

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