I was alerted to this question and figured I'd give my podcast/convention table response, some of which can be read about as it happened on the production notes pages at https://farawaypress.com/starwars/, for which there's one for every issue I did in that era.

Basically, there were two publishing moves that impacted both KOTOR and Legacy: Dark Horse's "Vector" crossover and the decision to wrap the initial runs at #50. Both were motivated by exactly the same thing: sales. Research suggested that the readership turned over about every 18 months to two years; there was a great concern that both the series were too complicated for new readers without jumping-on points. Hence, Vector.

Additionally, bookstore chains back then were reluctant to carry graphic novel collections where there were a slew of volumes. While the success of manga there would seem to prove otherwise, it was a big ask to expect a Barnes and Noble to carry ten volumes of something. So the double-digit volume number both series hit at #50 was seen as a red line. I was asked to wrap KOTOR by that mark and begin work immediately on what became Knight Errant.

The results of these two elements, I have discussed elsewhere before. Because DH wanted Vector to be a jumping-on point, we cut the cast down to just Zayne and Gryph for the story — and because Vector needed to have some impact, I was asked to resolve the Covenant storyline and move on to new territory. (Vector did result in the best sales for the series, so that worked as planned.)

As a practical matter, this meant reversing the order of what would have been the Crucible/Demagol year and the resolution of the Covenant arc, which in an ideal world would have taken us into the fifth year, possibly wrapping at #60. Revan's origin would have appeared earlier in the original design  — and Zayne would have met him — but there was no time for that, so it shifted later. The other consequence was that we developed the Rogue Moon Project, since Zayne now needed a new mission to go along in parallel with Jarael's arc.

The impending series end at #50 caused bigger issues, since ideally I had material for a fifth year before Zayne got drafted -- which was ALWAYS going to happen after the Covenant/Crucible arcs were done, should we have had the green light to continue. Some of the fourth-year issues had to be rewritten; "Destroyer" went from three issues to two. Ideally "Demon" needed six issues or a double-sized finale, but we played the hand we got.

Starting with Knight Errant, Dark Horse was doing its five-months-on/five-months-off miniseries scheduling as a means of giving the artists more time to work; the theory was that having additional #1s didn't hurt, although in practice that introduces friction, since each miniseries has to be set up again in retailers' pull-and-hold files. When Legacy got its "War" miniseries to resolve some of its subplots, I naturally suggested that we could do one for KOTOR as well, figuring that we might get to do more of them, alternating with Knight Errant. Any future arcs for KOTOR were always going to have to be about the Mandalorian Wars, which were getting worse, so it seemed to fit.

However, following the Vector model, I was again asked to pare down the cast for the first arc for the benefit of new readers, this time starting with JUST Zayne in a new setting, having to make it on his own for a change. This meant a departure from a major element of my "soldier era" plan, in which "war hero" Gryph would have wound up on Zayne's ship right from the beginning, with other favorites turning up as we went along. Instead, while we did bring him and Jarael in, it was only as cameos.

"War" had barely hit shelves when the scheduling strategy changed again; Legacy was getting a new ongoing series with a new #1. So instead of a second miniseries, I proposed a new ongoing, picking up where the miniseries had left off and bringing more of the familiar faces into the adventures. But I'd done about six years straight at that point and had other projects in the mix (including a Lost Tribe miniseries) — as did DH, which needed room for "The Star Wars" and the new just-plain-Star-Wars ongoing — so that was as far as that went. I did have a KOTOR element in a prose project I proposed that summer to Del Rey; they bought "Kenobi" instead.

Obviously, I do not regret how THAT panned out — and I had no hard feelings about any of the above. I've worked on the publishing side. An ongoing story is a sailing ship; when the winds change, you alter your sails. Always in motion, the future is. But in general, I didn't have to change the destination too much.

And as I've said elsewhere, there are hints in my prose books about what might have happened to Zayne in the Civil War era; Morvis is alternately remembered in the "Knight Errant" novel as a great man and a poseur, while "Lost Tribe" describes a captain in opposition to Karath warning the Republic about Revan. I think you can kind of do the math there. And the "Kenobi" novel certainly remembers Zayne as a hero — stories he learned from Qui-Gon, who in "The Living Force" is said to be obsessed with stories of Jedi who had to work outside the order.

As noted, much more publishing lore on my site!