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Tenebrae, the Emperor, Vitiate, Valkorion: Explained


Kataret

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Greetings fellow SWTOR enthusiasts. Over the past few months, I've seen various people raise questions and speculate on answers regarding the character of Valkorion. Admittedly, since the launch of Fallen Empire, his character has been twisted several times over and it isn't exactly straightforward on how all the elements of his lore come together. So today I'm going to try and streamline the story of Valkorion from beginning to end so that there is a common train of thought among the community. Feel free to offer corrections or feedback as you see fit.

 

I’ll start with my interpretation of the overall story of the Emperor, and then break down the more elaborate aspects. I hope this solves some of the community’s confusion on the character.

 

 

Tenebrae: Originally known as Tenebrae, the world-devouring entity we all know and love was born to one Lord Dramath on the planet Medriaas. Delving into Sith alchemy, Tenebrae mastered a ritual in which he could instantly eradicate all life on a planet and use the life essence to significantly empower his spirit to immortality. However, to cast this ritual, Tenebrae first required a large sacrifice of life by other means--enter Zildrog. The ancient Iokathi weapon was left in the depths of Medriaas, and Tenebrae, after becoming ruler of the planet, discovered the war machine and plotted to use it. Taking the name Vitiate and renaming the planet to Nathema, the would-be emperor summoned a large collection of scattered Sith Lords who were lost after the defeat of Naga Sadow. When they gathered, Zildrog was unleashed, causing enough death that Vitiate was able to conjure his life-siphoning ritual and desolate the planet. Emboldened and without rivals, Vitiate declared himself the Sith Emperor and took command of the remnant of Sadow’s empire, leading them into unknown space and settling on Dromund Kaas.

 

Centuries passed with Vitiate fostering the growth of a new Sith Empire in secret, managed by his personally selected Dark Council. But in spite of his stature as ruler of the Sith, Vitiate was plotted against by the members of his council in a conspiracy led by Darth Lokess. Although he did purge his traitorous council, Vitiate became disillusioned by how easily the Sith turned against their leader. Finding flaw in the Sith philosophy, Vitiate left his empire to grow while he departed into Wild Space, drawn to the primitive world of Zakuul. Seeing how the Zakuulans worshipped their gods (The Machine Pantheon) without reservation, Vitiate viewed them as a perfect society, as they might worship him as a god and never betray him as the Sith sought to do. In his observation of the Zakuulan people, Vitiate took note of Valkorion, a champion among the primitive people and one of their strongest warriors. Fascinated by the man’s stature, Vitiate used his mastery of Sith alchemy to hollow out the hero, before possessing Valkorion and making him the first of his many voices. While Vitiate’s original pureblood body returned to the Sith on Dromund Kaas, the Emperor began spending most of his time inhabiting Valkorion, using his far-reaching knowledge to accelerate the growth of Zakuul, all while establishing himself as a god figure in the society.

 

On Zakuul, the primitive tribes were united under the banner of Valkorion, before beginning their growth into a galactic civilization. As they rapidly evolved, Valkorion singled out the Force-users in the society, eventually dividing them into Knights and Scions. The two sects were installed to see Force as an instrument and weapon to use in service of their Emperor, rather than exclusively labeling it as “Dark Side” or “Light Side”. Zakuulan civilization prospered, and as it did, Valkorion became aware of the massive war armada known as the Eternal Fleet, likely from his original days dealing with Zildrog. Using the Scions and their Force visions, Zakuul discovered the inactive Fleet in a corner of Wild Space, eventually assuming control over it and linking it to Zakuul with the construction of the Eternal Throne. With his “perfect” society on the rise and protected by the Fleet, Valkorion’s spirit returned to his pureblood body on Dromund Kaas.

 

Although the Sith Empire had similarly grown in his time away, Valkorion recognized the same self-serving nature dispersed throughout the society, finally deeming the Sith a failed project. Still, he recognized their potential as tools as he had another problem in need of solving: his immortality. Although he had once been nourished by the ritual on Nathema, Valkorion realized that he required another flux of death to maintain his immortality. Seeking to keep Zakuul hidden away and untainted by the rest of the Galaxy, Valkorion chose not to use the Eternal Fleet, instead electing to use the Mandalorians. Manipulating Mandalore the Ultimate, Valkorion sent the warrior culture to wage war with the Republic so that the death might satiate him. However, the conflict was cut short when Jedi Knights Revan and Alek returned and broke the Mandalorian offensive. Seeing new potential in these two warriors, Valkorion lured them to Dromund Kaas, where he corrupted them and dubbed them Darth Revan and Darth Malak. Valkorion unleashed the two Sith Lords unto the Republic so that they might continue waging war feed into the Emperor’s hunger for immortality. Although his Valkorion’s plot was largely successful, Revan ultimately freed himself of the Emperor’s control and returned to Dromund Kaas, though he was stopped by one Lord Scourge. Valkorion, for once seeing loyalty within a Sith Lord, gifted Scourge with immortality and the title of Wrath, whilst locking Revan away in a prison.

 

Ultimately, Valkorion was fulfilled by the wars of Mandalore and Revan, but Revan’s attack showed the Emperor that his original pureblood body was vulnerable. Sensing some sort of sentimentality, Valkorion transferred part of his consciousness into a human body who would serve as Sith Emperor, while the newly formed Emperor’s Hand would protect his original body. Afterwards, his spirit returned to Zakuul, and though some Sith would note that the Emperor seemed “distracted”, they dared not to oppose him lest they end up like the conspiring lords of the Dark Council. Three centuries later, Valkorion once more hungered for death to maintain his immortality, so he launched the Great Galactic War in sending his Sith Empire to attack the Republic. In his time overseeing the Sith, Valkorion revisited the imprisoned Revan, fascinated by the Jedi’s resolve in the same way he was fascinated by the original Valkorion. The Emperor began to pick apart Revan’s mind (perhaps with the intent to make him a host), though the redeemed Jedi’s resolve was strong. Although Revan’s mind did gradually deteriorate from decades of torment, the mental struggle ultimately had a reverse effect and ended up influencing Valkorion. Through Revan, the Emperor was prompted to sign the Treaty of Coruscant, ending the Great Galactic War and giving the Republic time to recover.

 

In addition, Revan’s emotions of love and compassion for his wife Bastila were elements that Valkorion had never considered, eventually prompting the Emperor to start his own family on Zakuul with Senya Tirall. Despite truly feeling love for Senya, Valkorion held no interest in his sons Arcann and Thexan. His daughter Vaylin did manage to catch his attention, though only because of her immense power. To negate the threat she posed, Valkorion sent her to the Sanitarium on Nathema where he had her conditioned, so that he might control her if she ever rallied against him.

 

As the truce between Republic and Empire trudged on, Valkorion once more left Zakuul under advice from the Hand, who informed him of the recently discovered world of Voss. Intrigued by the Force-user species, the Emperor ordered an invasion, but the assault was only a distraction so that the Hand could seize one of the Voss mystics. Indoctrinating the mystic as his third concurrent Voice, Valkorion used the Voss to explore the strange planet, hoping to understand the dark entity known as Sel-Makor that resided there. In his time on the world, Valkorion also became aware of a ritual that would desolate the planet should he need to satiate his immortality in the future. Despite his growing knowledge of the planet, Valkorion was ultimately undermined by one Darth Baras, who led the Emperor’s Voss vessel into a chamber on the planet that made escape impossible. This was merely the first step in Baras’ plan to subdue the Emperor and name himself the Voice, so that he might claim full authority over the entirety of the Sith.

 

Around this time, the Emperor’s human Voice was attacked by a Jedi strike team aboard his space station. Though Valkorion emerged victorious and ended up corrupting many of the defeated Jedi, one resisted his influence--the Hero of Tython. Aided by Lord Scourge, who betrayed the Emperor, the Hero escaped. At the lost of his supposedly loyal Wrath, the Emperor sent the Hand to select a new champion: the apprentice of the traitorous Darth Baras. With the Apprentice inducted as Wrath, the Hand sent the Sith Lord to undermine Baras’ plots, including a mission that saw had the Wrath destroy the Emperor’s Voice on Voss to free the Emperor’s consciousness. However, with the loss of one of his Voices, Valkorion’s spirit suffered considerably, forcing him to launch plots to restore his immortality. He sent agents to three worlds--Belsavis, Voss, and Corellia--where they would cause enough sacrificial death that the Emperor might launch planet-devouring rituals as he did on Nathema. However, on each world, the Emperor’s agents were halted by the Hero of Tython, who learned the location of the Emperor’s human Voice on Dromund Kaas. Still weakened from the loss of his Voss Voice, the human Voice was defeated by the Jedi Knight and subsequently cut down. With another Voice dead, Valkorion’s spirit retreated to Yavin Four, severely weakened and believed dead by much of the Galaxy.

 

In hiding and without much power, Valkorion was unable to commune with his Zakuulan Voice, nor could he siphon off the deaths of the renewed second Great Galactic War. However, Revan, who the Emperor had tormented for decades, was freed into the emerging chaos of the war, and, his mind having decayed at the hands of the torture, now hungered for vengeance. Discovering the Emperor’s continued survival on Yavin Four, Revan intended to draw Valkorion back into a physical form to destroy him once more, this time for good. A Republic-Imperial coalition arrived on the moon to stop Revan, believing his efforts would only restore the Emperor to power and enable his devastation of more worlds. Despite the fact that Revan’s main plans were undone, the conflict between the coalition and Revanites on the moon caused considerable death, allowing the Emperor to feed and escape the moon in incorporeal form. As a spirit, he traveled to the Imperial ancestral home of Ziost, where he influenced the planet’s inhabitants to slaughter each other. Although his plans were considerably delayed by the persistent efforts of the Hero of Tython, the Emperor eventually induced enough sacrifice that he could launch his planet-devouring ritual, restoring his immortality and allowing him to return to his Voice on Zakuul.

 

Though Valkorion had once more avoided death, his actions did not go unnoticed by the rest of the galaxy. The Sith realized the Emperor no longer cared for them and understood the threat he posed in the aftermath of Ziost’s destruction. Allying with sects of the Republic and the Hero of Tython, Darth Marr pursued the Emperor to Wild Space. Although Valkorion once sought to keep Zakuul untainted by the rest of the Galaxy, the persistence of the Hero of Tython fascinated him, much like Revan’s resolve did, so he finally allowed the Jedi champion a taste of the truth. Luring the Republic-Imperial coalition into Wild Space, Valkorion ambushed them with the Eternal Fleet, capturing Marr and the Hero and bringing them to Zakuul. Marr was quickly executed, but the Hero, as one of Valkorion’s most capable enemies, was offered the chance to kneel and embrace the “perfect” society that was Zakuul. Nevertheless, Valkorion’s son, Arcann, sabotaged the meeting and orchestrated death of the Valkorion Voice, leading the spirit to survive by inhabiting the mind of the Hero of Tython, who was now labeled as an “Outlander” by the people of Zakuul.

 

While his death seemed to be a misstep on the Emperor’s part, everything transpired of Valkorion expected, as his inhabitation of the Outlander’s mind allowed him to interact with one that he considered his equal in willpower. He wanted to test his fascination with the Outlander by placing the hero in what seemed to be insurmountable odds: a bold resistance fighter against the full might of Arcann and the Eternal Fleet. Stringing the Outlander along, Valkorion ultimately intended to claim the Outlander as his next Voice once the hero had toppled Arcann and seized the Eternal Throne. The moniker of Galactic Liberator and Alliance Commander were identities still unknown to Valkorion, and something he expected to experience once his manipulations of the Outlander were finished. Although Valkorion had time to prepare to overtake the Outlander’s mind, he did not expect the Outlander to possess the holocron of his father, an artifact that had the potential to wound Valkorion and render him vulnerable. When the final showdown did take place, Valkorion’s strength was not enough to stand against the combined willpower of the Outlander, Arcann, Vaylin, and Senya. His spirit was wiped out for a final time, leaving the galaxy free of his influence.

 

The Outlander: The Outlander is a bit of a controversial figure in the game, seeing as he/she can technically be any of the eight classes, including the four non-Force-sensitives. For the purpose of my explanation above, I regarded the Outlander as the Jedi Knight class, as it fit best with the fact that Valkorion was “fascinated” with the Outlander as he was with Revan, and thus elected to keep the Outlander alive to indulge that fascination. Truth be told, if the Emperor’s Hand were keeping him up to date on the state of the Galaxy, every class did manage incredible things and could easily catch the Emperor’s interest, with their actions on Ziost being what really sells them as a capable opponent for Vitiate. At the end of KOTET, Valkorion implies that he was being entertained by the Outlander’s war with Arcann and had no intention to seize control until the conflict had ended. Though it could also be implied to Valkorion was too weak to take control immediately after his physical death on Zakuul, and actually needed the war between Eternal Empire and Alliance to cause enough death to restore his power. Nevertheless, Valkorion apparently showed his hand too soon, as the Outlander was more than prepared to challenge his willpower in the mindscape.

 

Revan: As I see it, Revan first only comes to the Emperor as a tool, a Jedi already tainted by ambition and easily turned to the Dark Side to wage an immortality-feeding war for Valkorion. Of course, Revan breaks that control and is later “redeemed” by defeating Malak and saving the Republic. Despite this, I don’t think Revan ever fully rids himself of the Dark Side, as he is still clearly obsessed with taking down the Emperor, even willing to neglect the love he has for Bastila to murder Vitiate. It isn’t until Revan returns to Dromund Kaas that the Emperor viewed him as more than a tool, as Vitiate decided to keep the Jedi alive for three-hundred years, likely to test how strong Revan’s resolve truly is. Inevitably, even though it appears Revan survives the torture, his mind is heavily damaged from the struggle and torn apart when he is defeated in the Foundry, so it would seem the Emperor succeeded in breaking Revan a second time. Yet even if the Emperor succeeded, that doesn’t negate that Revan did have his own impact on Valkorion. We’re told in-game that Revan influenced the Treaty of Coruscant, and I remember writer Charles Boyd saying that Valkorion’s interest in starting a family with Senya may have very well been a by-product of his exploration of Revan’s memories, including his love for Bastila.

 

Planet-Consuming Rituals: The thing I’ve seen a lot of debate over since the release of the Nathema Conspiracy is exactly how the Emperor’s planet-consuming rituals work, especially after the introduction of Zildrog complicated all that. As I see it, there seems to be a pattern with all of the Emperor’s rituals (or attempted rituals) that we can see with Nathema, Ziost, Belsavis, Voss, and Corellia. There are two stages to the ritual. The first is large-scale sacrifice by some conventional means. On Nathema, Vitiate used the superweapon that is Zildrog to kill thousands of people. On Ziost, Vitiate influenced people to slaughter each other by the thousands. And on the three worlds that the Jedi Knight saves, Vitiate has plans in place for his agents to set off a chain of destructions that kills thousands of people. In each case, it’s only “thousands of people” perishing, but it’s these sacrifices that gateway into the second stage. Once enough people have died to conventional means, the Emperor can launch a full-scale Force ritual, killing everyone on the planet and corrupting the presence of the Force on the world. We saw this only twice on Nathema and Ziost. However, even with the untold destruction caused by these rituals, it seems the planets are set to recover. Nathema has already spurred to life with plants, and though we aren’t going to see anything in-game with Ziost, Charles Boyd offered the settlement of Ziost in later Legends lore as proof that it is similarly recovering.

 

Zildrog: Zildrog was the beginning of Tenebrae’s rise to power. As described above, the “planet-consuming rituals” seem to be a creation of the Emperor himself in his studies of Sith alchemy, so the introduction of Zildrog doesn’t really take away from his character in that respect. Valkorion still launched a Force ritual that devastated the planet, Zildrog was simply the beginning of that ritual and in fact lines up with everything else we’ve seen in game. Valkorion was not able to just snap his fingers and destroy everything on Ziost. He needed the mass slaughter first, which he accomplished by influencing various Sith and soldiers on the planet. So it shouldn’t be so difficult to believe that he needed something to kick-start his ritual on Nathema. As players, we’ve seen the Gravestone’s combat capabilities on multiple occasions, so it’s very easy to believe that it had the firepower to kill those thousands needed for the ritual to begin. As for how Zildrog came to be on Nathema, it’s likely that the planet once belonged to the Iokath Sovereignty at the peak of their empire. When Iokath descended into chaos, Zildrog was likely locked away on Nathema just as the Eternal Fleet and SCORPIO were locked elsewhere in Wild Space.

 

Zakuul: As I touched on above, Zakuul likely appeared “perfect” to Vitiate because it offered to him true and undying loyalty. As witnessed with the Sith, in their conspiracies and back-stabbing ways, they primarily only sought self-preservation and the accumulation of power. Although the Emperor himself is a paragon of these traits, he was not seeking servants that were like him. He wanted subjects that viewed him as a god, subjects that would never betray him or seek to undermine his authority. Vitiate likely saw that in the Old Ways of Zakuul, with the tribal people in their undying respect and worship for the legendary six gods (even if they did just turn out to be machines, the Zakuulans never knew that and instead worshipped them as laudable entities). This worship is something Vitiate sought, so, establishing himself as a champion of Zakuul and a god figure, he achieved this, with no one questioning his reign until the betrayal of Arcann. As for how the Emperor first discovered Zakuul, that much is up for debate. Some suggest the Zildrog’s technology pointed Vitiate to the other “machine gods”, which led him to Zakuul. Others claim that Zakuul, being “perfectly balanced in Light and Dark” as Satele tells us, also could have attracted him. We can’t say for sure.

 

Lord Scourge: Perhaps the most controversy in the characterization of Valkorion is Lord Scourge and his visions. The elephant in the room is this: Scourge claimed that the Emperor’s goal is to consume all life in the Galaxy, which would suggest Zakuul and its people are including in that ritual. Vitiate himself even plays along with this idea at the end of the Jedi Knight story, talking about how he wants to see the last living thing in the Galaxy die. While some may view this as an error in continuity, it is 100% plausible to say that Vitiate was deceiving us. After all, 99% of KOTFE and KOTET is him whispering into our ear that he’s on our side… which is all a big fat lie. As for Scourge’s vision… we really can’t trust what he sees. After all, Scourge did definitively see the Jedi Knight strike down Vitiate…. and as we now know, it may in fact be any of seven other characters that ultimately take him down. Point in case, Force visions aren’t always 100% correct, so for Scourge and other characters to say that Vitiate wants to wipe out all life in the Galaxy… well, we can’t trust what they say.

 

The Emperor’s Voices: The Emperor’s Voices are definitely one of the more confusing aspects of the Emperor. In the base game, every encounter we have with the Voices implies that there is only one, when that simply isn’t true. The Emperor has both his human Voice from the Jedi Knight story AND his Voss Voice from the Sith Warrior story at the same time, not to mention maintaining a hold on Valkorion throughout all of that. So three Voices at once… how does that work? From what we can tell, it appears that Valkorion controlled all three simultaneously, but could only focus on one at a time. As we hear from Senya, Valkorion became increasingly “distant” and “cold”. The Emperor likely maintained a connection to Valkorion, but was probably focusing on his other Voices as their dealings with the Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior. As for the Voices themselves, they seem to be a double-edged sword. While they ensure Vitiate maintains anchored to the physical realm and prevent him from fully dying, they seem to limit his power as his consciousness is split into three different hosts. On top of that, losing a Voice seems to come at a great cost to the Emperor’s power. Losing the Voss Voice made him weak enough that his human Voice wouldn’t even go one-on-one with the Jedi Knight, and then losing a second Voice so soon weakened him that he couldn’t even transfer his consciousness back to Valkorion on Zakuul, instead forcing him to take refuge on Yavin Four.

 

Dramath’s Holocron: So Dramath’s holocron is essentially the deus ex machina of Valkorion. A being that seemed invulnerable to everything as this artifact stored away that can take him down. Personally, I think the story would have been better if this holocron was removed altogether, and that Valkorion’s willpower simply wasn’t strong enough to compete with the Outlander, Arcann, Vaylin, and Senya. But as it stands, the Holocron exists, and it is definitely one of the least explained elements of Vitiate’s lore, despite being so instrumental in his final death. According to the in-game codex, Vitiate himself modified the holocron so that it could interface directly with Force spirits. He did this to use against his father, Dramath, so that once his father was dead, his spirit could be captured and confined to lonesome existence within the holocron forever. Apparently, however, the modified holocron’s hold on spirits made it a weapon that could be used on Valkorion, who had survived for so long as an immortal spirit. So, ironically, the very person that Valkorion mentored and trained--the Outlander--allied with the very people that Valkorion sired--Arcann and Vaylin--and used the very artifact Valkorion had created--the modified holocron--to destroy him for good. Talk about sowing your own defeat, am I right?

 

Edited by Kataret
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This is a pretty good comprehensive post. I agree with most of your points about how the story progress. As for Dramath's Holocron I think perhaps we could explain it this way: Given it's unique ability to fully hold a force ghost as opposed to just a Keeper like the other Holocrons, perhaps the Holocron "weakned" Valkorion's force ghost enough that it could be banished to the chaos AKA the dark sider afterlife. It's just a personal headcanon of mine but I do think if it could possibly be used to hold a spirit it could be used to banish, or at least weaken one. Usually with monsters like Tenebrae you always need some kind of plot device like that, a dream-world in your mind wasn't a bad idea albeit I think they could've been more clearer with it. At the end of the day however from what we've seen in the chapter it's clear that due to being our mind and we regaining control of it we were able to withstand the Emperor, and I would wager the rest of his family would play a role in this battle of wills as well.
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As for how Zildrog came to be on Nathema, it’s likely that the planet once belonged to the Iokath Sovereignty at the peak of their empire. When Iokath descended into chaos, Zildrog was likely locked away on Nathema just as the Eternal Fleet and SCORPIO were locked elsewhere in Wild Space.

 

So, I really appreciated your essay. It covers most of the points of contention and offers plausible explanations. I do take exception with is the quoted paragraph. As I mentioned in the other thread, Zildrog represents an anomaly. We don't know a ton about the Iokath Builders. Codex entries indicate that the construction of the Dyson sphere known as Iokath inaugurated a new era for their species. They collected the raw materials from the other planetary and satellite bodies in the star system to make the sphere. This represented the peak of their empire and the start of the design phases that would eventually include the Fleet, the Gravestone, and the Six Gods. They used it as a base of operations, I guess, but I don't get the sense they ventured out in conquest other than for weapons testing. Koth's retelling of the myth never mentions the Machine Gods as being contemporaneous with the Fleet, but he clearly implies the Gravestone is. The Scions imply that the Six Machine Gods attacked Zakuul, but never mention the role of the Fleet. So were these separate events in Zakuul's history? We know that the Gravestone can do a lot independently to neutralize the Fleet, without Zildrog's control. Furthermore, Zildrog is nothing without the Gravestone. The GOTM operation shows us that Izax is capable of neutralizing the Fleet as well. So, there are all sorts of counters that exist to the Fleet. But we are certainly led to believe that the six gods are THE superweapon that one side in the Iokath Civil War used against the other … the Fleet and SCORPIO were left leaderless and memory-less after the events, but their role in the civil war relative to the six gods is less clear. We are also led to believe that the Civil War happened shortly after the Six Gods superweapon was completed. Finally, the Gravestone is "scuttled" on Zakuul while the Fleet scatters without any memory of their creators. Only ARIES maintains any sort of memory of the Iokath Builders - and, ironically, a sense of custodial duty over what they created. The Six Gods just think of themselves as deities, not as creations from organics, and Zildrog just thinks of himself as a world-devourer … again, not as a machine built by organics. So, there isn't a whole lot of time, from a cosmic sense, that passes between the inauguration of the golden age of Iokath, the design of the superweapons, and the civil war. Hence, everything I read in the game codex seems to imply that Nathema was anything but Iokathi-intended.

 

As I said in the other thread, there are at least some, if not a lot, of Sith purebloods on Medriaas, with no apparent legends or anything to indicate a cataclysm prior to Tenebrae/Vitiate's actions. Zildrog being on that planet just makes no sense, since the builders were too smart to leave their technology in the hands of "primitive" but Force sensitive indigenous peoples. It wouldn't have been left there on purpose, and it doesn't appear to have been a test, and I don't see how you concluded that the planet was part of their Empire when it was on the exact opposite side of the galaxy. It is possible it wandered there, just like the fleet wandered, and the Gravestone wandered. But Zildrog doesn't seem to have a way of traveling on its own. It is also possible it was the first piece of Iokath tech Tenebrae/Vitiate found and he brought it there. Did Vitiate send the Gravestone to stop the Fleet from destroying Zakuul? I suspect not … he says to the Outlander during KOTFE chapter 5 that the Gravestone "is not entirely what [he] suspected." Although he lies to us most of the time, this is probably the truth. He may have never known precisely what it was that Zildrog called into orbit to kill those people on Nathema prior to his ritual.

 

Maybe the only "official" weapons test on Zakuul was in fact the Six Gods. The Fleet attacking Zakuul, and being neutralized by the Gravestone, was never part of the test. Perhaps it happened after the droids had all gone rogue after the civil war occurred and their memories lost. Maybe the Gemini droids had a vague memory of Zakuul in their databanks from testing data and attacked it out of primal instinct rather than being part of a specifically directed test by the Iokathi when they were still alive. The Gravestone reacted, as it had been designed to do, as a failsafe for the Fleet, leaving Nathema's vicinity and engaging the Eternal Fleet. They scattered, and it subsequently scuttled itself in the Endless Swamp, waiting to be called upon by Zildrog when the time was right.

 

However, with the way that both Izax and Zildrog/Gravestone appear to have an inherent design to counter the Fleet makes me think they were all developed concurrently. I mean, if the Fleet was their penultimate design, why would they make it counter-able by older weapons? I.e. they would have created a contemporaneous failsafe, rather than rely on outdated technology and obsolete designs to supply that failsafe. This seems, to me, to make the most design sense: the Fleet for naval superiority, the Six Gods for ground invasions, and the Gravestone/Zildrog as both a failsafe against a rogue Fleet or rogue ground Droid-Gods, and the weapon you use when all else fails to subjugate a planet.

 

Vitiate-Valkorion would certainly know how to construct the hyperwave relay station if he had studied the design of Zildrog. Still with all his ability to find the Fleet in the vastness of space, he couldn't find the other end of Zildrog in his backyard? I doubt that, which means he probably didn't care if he found the Gravestone. He either assumed he could revive the Gravestone using Zildrog in the future, or that with the Fleet, he decided he didn't need Zildrog at full readiness anymore.

 

So my best guess is that he found Zildrog first, probably long before he had even heard of Zakuul. He is the one who brought it to and used it on Nathema. Then he located Zakuul, heard the legends, put two-and-two together, and realized that Zildrog was the same technology as the Six Gods and the Fleet. He started looking for the Fleet, found it, and was either satisfied with its capabilities, or decided to defer his search for the Machine Gods while he attended to other matters. For him, it was probably better that the Gravestone stayed hidden, since he didn't need anyone having ready access to a direct Fleet counter, and the Nathema Zealots were pretty much incapable of any independent thought, so Zildrog was safe with them … that is, until his son betrayed him and he had to possess the Outlander.

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It covers most of the points of contention and offers plausible explanations. I do take exception with is the quoted paragraph. As I mentioned in the other thread, Zildrog represents an anomaly.... Finally, the Gravestone is "scuttled" on Zakuul while the Fleet scatters without any memory of their creators.

 

All right, I appreciate the long response. Everything you said seems pretty legit and reasonable. Quite frankly, I think Iokath as a whole is the anomaly. Although its inclusion did solve "where" Scorpio, Gemini, the Fleet, and the Gravestone all came from, its history is a bit convoluted in how it's presented to us, and that confusion only increased with the introduction of the machine gods and zildrog.

 

As far as my thinking that Zildrog/Gravestone was originally on Nathema, that was just my interpretation based on the Nathema Conspiracy Flashpoint. We definitely see that Zildrog's command console is buried deep under the planet's surface, and it was my assumption that the actual starship would have been stored with it. I mean, just looking at the size of the cavern beyond the console, it's huge. More than sizable to fit the Gravestone in it. So my speculation was that Tenebrae, in searching his homeworld for Sith secrets or so, stumbled upon the underground chamber that contained both the Zildrog command console and the Gravestone ship.

 

So the presence of the Zildrog command console on Nathema definitely seems to indicate that the Iokathi did have a presence on the world. It is, however, possible that they only left the console on the planet, while the starship was elsewhere in Wild Space. And upon finding the console, Tenebrae was able to call the ship to Nathema and then proceed to use it for his world-consuming ritual.

Edited by Kataret
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As far as my thinking that Zildrog/Gravestone was originally on Nathema, that was just my interpretation based on the Nathema Conspiracy Flashpoint. We definitely see that Zildrog's command console is buried deep under the planet's surface, and it was my assumption that the actual starship would have been stored with it. I mean, just looking at the size of the cavern beyond the console, it's huge. More than sizable to fit the Gravestone in it. So my speculation was that Tenebrae, in searching his homeworld for Sith secrets or so, stumbled upon the underground chamber that contained both the Zildrog command console and the Gravestone ship.

Well, there's obviously a lot of unanswered questions, but I don't think if Tenebrae-Vitiate had direct control over the Gravestone, he would have allowed it to rust in the swamp of a planet he had yet to explore. If the SWTOR galactic map is to be believed, Nathema is hundreds of thousands of parsecs away from Odessen or Zakuul, suggesting that Zildrog's comms range is galaxy-wide.

The whole structure is filled with Sith-related stuff. He could have built the temple around the console, but if there is any chance a space-faring Force-sensitive species could have found it, I doubt the Iokathi would have left it there on purpose, so I think he probably built the temple FOR the console, not around it. But, I don't think we'll ever get a full answer, especially now that the only person who was alive for most of those centuries is gone.

It does make me think of another question, though. Vinn Attrus was all too eager to be "enhanced" by Zildrog, whatever that enhancement actually is: infusion of Force power harvested from the beings sacrificed in the Crypts of Lifeforce, cybernetic enhancements rapidly installed, or something else. Did T-V-V decline those enhancements, perhaps because he knew he would have to possess new bodies every so often?

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It does make me think of another question, though. Vinn Attrus was all too eager to be "enhanced" by Zildrog, whatever that enhancement actually is: infusion of Force power harvested from the beings sacrificed in the Crypts of Lifeforce, cybernetic enhancements rapidly installed, or something else. Did T-V-V decline those enhancements, perhaps because he knew he would have to possess new bodies every so often?

It's definitely a good question on how Zildrog enhanced Vinn Atrius. Perhaps it is similar to whatever the Sith Inquisitor's SOR mission works, a boost to his celular work.

Edited by FlameYOL
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  • 2 weeks later...
It's definitely a good question on how Zildrog enhanced Vinn Atrius. Perhaps it is similar to whatever the Sith Inquisitor's SOR mission works, a boost to his celular work.

 

The enhancement part was a strange element to include in the story. It's possible that Zildrog actually enhanced Tenebrae in their first encounter, before Tenebrae learned how to absorb life essences on his own.

 

Or perhaps it was just done as justification for Vinn Atrius being able to hold his own against the Outlander and Lana, even after he was wounded by Theron's blaster shot.

 

Guess we'll never know for sure.

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The enhancement part was a strange element to include in the story. It's possible that Zildrog actually enhanced Tenebrae in their first encounter, before Tenebrae learned how to absorb life essences on his own.

 

Or perhaps it was just done as justification for Vinn Atrius being able to hold his own against the Outlander and Lana, even after he was wounded by Theron's blaster shot.

 

Guess we'll never know for sure.

 

I suppose it always possible, but from what I remember it is likely the latter. Zildrog says "Consume our enemies, servant of the dragon".

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  • 2 years later...
Ultimately, Valkorion was fulfilled by the wars of Mandalore and Revan, but Revan’s attack showed the Emperor that his original pureblood body was vulnerable. Sensing some sort of sentimentality, Valkorion transferred part of his consciousness into a human body who would serve as Sith Emperor, while the newly formed Emperor’s Hand would protect his original body. Afterwards, his spirit returned to Zakuul, and though some Sith would note that the Emperor seemed “distracted”, they dared not to oppose him lest they end up like the conspiring lords of the Dark Council. Three centuries later, Valkorion once more hungered for death to maintain his immortality, so he launched the Great Galactic War in sending his Sith Empire to attack the Republic. In his time overseeing the Sith, Valkorion revisited the imprisoned Revan, fascinated by the Jedi’s resolve in the same way he was fascinated by the original Valkorion. The Emperor began to pick apart Revan’s mind (perhaps with the intent to make him a host), though the redeemed Jedi’s resolve was strong. Although Revan’s mind did gradually deteriorate from decades of torment, the mental struggle ultimately had a reverse effect and ended up influencing Valkorion. Through Revan, the Emperor was prompted to sign the Treaty of Coruscant, ending the Great Galactic War and giving the Republic time to recover.

 

Around this time, the Emperor’s human Voice was attacked by a Jedi strike team aboard his space station. Though Valkorion emerged victorious and ended up corrupting many of the defeated Jedi, one resisted his influence--the Hero of Tython. Aided by Lord Scourge, who betrayed the Emperor, the Hero escaped. At the lost of his supposedly loyal Wrath, the Emperor sent the Hand to select a new champion: the apprentice of the traitorous Darth Baras. With the Apprentice inducted as Wrath, the Hand sent the Sith Lord to undermine Baras’ plots, including a mission that saw had the Wrath destroy the Emperor’s Voice on Voss to free the Emperor’s consciousness. However, with the loss of one of his Voices, Valkorion’s spirit suffered considerably, forcing him to launch plots to restore his immortality. He sent agents to three worlds--Belsavis, Voss, and Corellia--where they would cause enough sacrificial death that the Emperor might launch planet-devouring rituals as he did on Nathema. However, on each world, the Emperor’s agents were halted by the Hero of Tython, who learned the location of the Emperor’s human Voice on Dromund Kaas. Still weakened from the loss of his Voss Voice, the human Voice was defeated by the Jedi Knight and subsequently cut down. With another Voice dead, Valkorion’s spirit retreated to Yavin Four, severely weakened and believed dead by much of the Galaxy.

 

The Emperor’s Voices: The Emperor’s Voices are definitely one of the more confusing aspects of the Emperor. In the base game, every encounter we have with the Voices implies that there is only one, when that simply isn’t true. The Emperor has both his human Voice from the Jedi Knight story AND his Voss Voice from the Sith Warrior story at the same time, not to mention maintaining a hold on Valkorion throughout all of that. So three Voices at once… how does that work? From what we can tell, it appears that Valkorion controlled all three simultaneously, but could only focus on one at a time. As we hear from Senya, Valkorion became increasingly “distant” and “cold”. The Emperor likely maintained a connection to Valkorion, but was probably focusing on his other Voices as their dealings with the Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior. As for the Voices themselves, they seem to be a double-edged sword. While they ensure Vitiate maintains anchored to the physical realm and prevent him from fully dying, they seem to limit his power as his consciousness is split into three different hosts. On top of that, losing a Voice seems to come at a great cost to the Emperor’s power. Losing the Voss Voice made him weak enough that his human Voice wouldn’t even go one-on-one with the Jedi Knight, and then losing a second Voice so soon weakened him that he couldn’t even transfer his consciousness back to Valkorion on Zakuul, instead forcing him to take refuge on Yavin Four.

 

And now with finally playing 6.2's "Echoes of Oblivion" I find myself here to figure out why Tenebrae and Vitiate were two different races/species. And i'm perfectly happy with these explanations.

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  • 2 months later...

Revan was tortured for centuries as opposed to simply decades. Not to potentially become a future host, but rather to become Darth Revan again (specifically prior to when Revan and Malak broke free of Vitiate's control after the two discovered the Star Forge)

 

And it was also only after his fight with Revan on DK that Vitiate started possessing people (such as Valkorion) because he realized that he was vulnerable with just one body.

 

Also, the Empire realized Vitiate didn't care about them prior to Ziost being wiped out.

 

It was also hinted by Charles Boyd that Vitiate became influenced by Revan's love for Bastila and decided to form a family with Senya prior to the treaty: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9347029#edit9347029

 

I have to say that Tenebrae never had multiple Voices at the same time. It was mentioned by Servant One that after the Voss Voice was killed after Sel-Makor was pushed back by the SW, they had to prepare a new body for Vitiate to possess. There's no mention of a piece of Vitiate dying: One said it as if the entirety of Vitiate's spirit possessed the Voss. It was also mentioned in the SW's story on Voss that Vitiate kept the Voss Mystic captive ever since the Empire attacked Voss, so he could use the Mystic to see the future: Not that he possessed the poor guy. Vitiate simply ditched his Human voice after he enslaved the JK and went to Voss after being tricked by Baras to go to the Dark Heart.

 

If Vitiate had his Human Voice at the same time as his Voss Voice, that Voice hunt Baras down. You might say that Baras would have had a chance at defeating the Human Voice if he confronted Baras in the Dark Council Chambers on Korriban because of the Voss Voice having been killed, but Darth Marr once met with the Emperor's Voice during the first Great War and would recognize what Tenebrae's spirit sounds like under the Vitiate persona, at which point Marr would confirm that the hodded Human is in fact the Emperor before the entire Council destroys Baras.

 

Another thing I have to bring up is that Charles Boyd mentioned that the ritual he planned for Chapter 3 of vanilla SWTOR was set up to make sure he would become properly immortal and so that Zakuul would survive for eternity. It didn't have anything to do with his immortality being at risk: His spirit wasn't properly immortal after Nathema after all. What he did on Nathema was trap all life in his body, and he would feed on them to stay young for X amount of time. However, his fight with Revan caused Vitiate to realize "Oh that's right, my body is gonna stay young forever but I can still die."

 

He thought his spirit became truly immortal after Ziost, but well we find out in KOTET that he was wrong.

 

So Tenebrae only ever possessed one person at a time after his fight with Revan. Valkorion>different hosts over the course of centuries>Valkorion>Human Voice who enslaved the JK>Voss after Baras informed him about Sel-Makor>Human again>Master Surro>Valkorion>Outlander.

 

On Ziost, Tenebrae controlled everyone there like puppets. By the time we reach Ziost, he has yet to place his spirit inside anyone there before he eventually picks Master Surro.

Edited by Enskojare
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