I have to wonder if Valkorion left some residual power advantages behind after we booted him out of our head, after all, he was hollowing us out so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little bit of accidental power transfer that occurred (if only in fortitude). Not that the game has given any indication of it, but it wouldn't surprise me if they used that as a way to reason the Commander's snowflakeness when it comes to combat.

You don't, you spend your life suffering extreme guilt and make sure you bloody behave yourself for the rest of your life lol. Look at all the hell Revan kicked up and people allowed him to redeem himself, doesn't erase their past but they can at least start pulling their weight to help people instead of being a massive bell-end.

Cos if he does I'll rip his biotic arm off and use it to bat him into a black hole.

You monster, you'll burn down Bowdaar's little dive bar.

Non-force using toons have taken down plenty of force users throughout both their class story arcs and the DLCs/expansions, I don't think Valss was much more powerful than the rest... if anything his sister would've been more of a challenge, did you see the size of that Amazonian woman?!

Ah, but don't forget the Commander is a special snowflake regardless of whether they're a force user or not, plus we had backup and Theron had no idea whether or not we had any air support of hidden assassins ready to take Valss down, he knows how much backup we have. I didn't get the impression that Theron had seduced Valss, if anything he seemed kinda disinterested in anything but getting hold of the map, Valss definitely had a thing for him though. To be fair, my Smuggler toon slept with one of the informants during the bounty hunter event recently (f****** the pain away because she's hurt and feeling destructive after Theron's "betrayal") so even if he did bed Valss for info she can't exactly judge LOL. Valss said in his vision it was his destiny to help Theron accomplish his task by sacrificing himself, so I don't necessarily think it was due to a sense of loyalty to the Order, more likely loyalty to his vision and Theron. I don't think Theron would voice his feelings to the creepy masked guy anyway, we aren't even sure if Valss was definitely part of The Order or just an external contact that had access to the maps he needed, leading him to charm the siblings and gain their support for his cause. Regardless, I think one thing we can bank on is that Valss had no idea what Theron's true intentions are because Theron isn't stupid enough to reveal them to anyone that wasn't already part of the plan from the beginning (for example Lana, who I'm convinced is in on it).

I always thought it was pretty obvious that Valkorion's kids being f'ed up was absolutely a result of Valkorion's awful treatment of them, the story arc makes it very clear that he was slyly pitting them against each other and treating them appallingly, especially poor Vaylin. It's even explicitly explained that Valkorion corrupted them, Arcann couldn't even set foot on Nathema because the corruption of that world (caused by his father) would've taken hold of him again. Kinda blows my mind that people would shift the blame onto anyone but Valkorion. Sure, Arcann, Vaylin and Thexan (before his death) done terrible things and that shouldn't be handwaved away, but it was certainly done under the influence of Valkorion's corruptive hold over them, once Arcann was cleansed of it he's genuinely mortified and regretful of his behaviour, it absolutely shouldn't be blamed on Vaylin though... she has/had her own **** to answer for.

I got the impression that regardless of whether Valss was a member of the Zildrog cult he didn't want to see him get hurt, which is very much in Theron's nature as he'll avoid casualties where possible. I dare say he even liked the kid, crazy cultist or not he seemed kinda naive and easy to manipulate, so he probably would've tried to convince him to leave The Order eventually (if he was indeed part of it). Theron knows the Commander can handle themselves so I don't think he was worried about Valss causing too much damage, his concern was for Valss getting himself needlessly killed against an opponent who is notoriously tough to beat. That's not to say he doesn't worry about the Commander's safety in general, he wouldn't be on this mission if he didn't care, but Theron knew for well that Valss didn't stand a chance.

Absolutely he would've killed her. Hell, I bet he only had kids for the purpose of hollowing one of them out should the need/desire have taken him.

Really? I accidentally arrested him during the Alliance recruitment mission, didn't realise I could recruit both him and Rusk. Now I don't feel so bad about it, guy seemed like a douche anyway.

It's entirely possible that it's a robo-serpent/dragon... the Gravestone might only be a tiny piece of it, like part of it's head or something, the rest could still be on Nathema sitting in one of Valkorion's old storage rooms.

Fancy running into you here, LOL!

I actually got done reading the novel a couple of days ago, it definitely gives you more insight into his personality and habit of going off half-cocked into the thick of it while figuring out a plan as he goes along. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that he's pulled a stunt like this. He certainly strikes me as the extreme loyal type, once he's committed to something (be it a person or mission) he'll see it through to the end and put himself in unnecessary danger to protect everyone else. There's no way in hell his speech about sacrificing millions for the greater good was sincere, especially with how disgusted he was with his father for allowing thousands of people to die to avoid jeopardising the Ascendant Spear mission.

The robot "gods" (Izax etc) were all from Iokath and created to destroy Zakuul over and over again, right? I can only assume that over time the tales of these "gods" got mixed up and became something that Zakuulans worshipped. They say Izax and Zildrog were different versions of the same person/entity, so if Izax is a robot then Zildrog may also be a robot. Then again, maybe the Gravestone is just housing Zildrog's "spirit"... hell, maybe those eggs/pods inside the spinning slab in the creepy room are vessels for Zildrog to transfer itself into.

I actually ran into the NPC you're talking about on Zakuul today, it's a guy selling hats that talks about Zildrog sleeping in the swamp... guess who else we found "sleeping" in the swamp? The Gravestone! Here's the post about the theory, it goes into a lot of detail. I reckon they might be they might be spot on. https://greyias.tumblr.com/post/164300423999/hop-on-the-crazy-train-guys-spoilers-and-rampant

I'll never be as cool as Khomo Fett.

The possible mind control and Satele being kidnapped are actually two thoughts that entered my head too, I'm making a video about it as we speak... I should probably get it done before Tuesday, just in case there's any trace of the Nathem 5.9 flashpoint details in the 5.8 update that'll undoubtedly get datamined.

If anyone is still having trouble beating her, I found a handy oversight in the environment to help you beat her without actively engaging her in combat... yes, it's cheating but it's a useful last resort.

If one of it's combat barks isn't "death to all meatbags" I'll be very disappointed.

I read a theory that the Gravestone could be Zildrog/part of Zildrog/the key to awakening Zildrog. Izax and the other gods were all machines, what's to say that Zildrog itself isn't another huge robot superweapon? Maybe that's what the creepy room in the Gravestone is all about? ... I wouldn't mind finding out what those pods/eggs inside the spinning slab are. Probably something bad.

LOL I'm all for those holy spirits!

I think maybe the only way to do that would be if he'd been brainwashed in a similar manner to the Imperial Agent in their class story. It's possible that The Order of Zildrog may have their own mind control method. As we saw in the IA story he/she still had full control over their thoughts, feelings and emotions but they couldn't verbally relay the Republic's plans back to the Empire or actively sabotage any missions when the mind control code was activated. If they take a similar route with Theron then it can't really be held against him for not telling the Commander about his plans, particularly if they shackled him with the code when he first approached them during the research phase, preventing Theron from letting us in on his plan as he'd perhaps intended. Come to think of it, maybe that's why he's been leaving physical clues and hints for us (leaving the bulk of the crystals behind for us, shooting the window out for Lana and the Commander to escape, allowing us to incept his holo-call etc) he's leaving us a breadcrumb trail because he can't verbally relay information back to us.

But what about those who are romancing Theron but killed Arcann? There would be no replacement romance available for them.

I'm 95% certain Theron is just working undercover and will return to us at the end of the Nathem Conspiracy flashpoint coming out on May 1st. I'm curious to see what reason he'll give for not letting the Commander in on the plan (particularly if you're playing as an Imperial Agent toon). Don't get me wrong, I fully understand that spies generally keep their plans to themselves but I'm still curious to see if he'll give a reason. I also have a feeling that Lana is in on it, the fact that she's being so vocal about wanting to kick his arse has a very "the lady doth protest too much" vibe to it, especially given that she's more of a silent but deadly type, rather than an angry venter. I'm actually hoping that we won't have the option to kill him or kick him out of the Alliance (not yet anyway) mainly because, as another poster pointed out, once they're killable they don't play as big a role in the story going forward and given that Theron is practically one of our advisers (and partly responsible for our protagonist ending up on the Eternal Throne due to the Ziost incident) having him suddenly relegated to the background would feel kinda odd all the time the Alliance is still in operation with ongoing content for it.

I've only played through the expansions with my Smuggler toon so far and I've found (at least for me) that it worked surprisingly well with that particular non-force using class, especially the way I've been roleplaying her. Given how the Smuggler's class story has seen them being dragged into all sorts of drama simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, going forward into the expansions is just an escalation of the ever-increasing trouble they seem to find themselves in, which I find highly comical. All my Smuggler wanted to do was fly around the galaxy engaging in petty crime and the occasional gun for hire gig, but ends up ruling part of the galaxy completely against her will. The best part of it is that you can complain and protest about your new role(s) throughout both expansions. As for the battles feeling unsuited for non-force users, it's worth taking into account that we have Valkorion dwelling inside us so even if you don't make use of his powers directly, he's still giving you an edge in battle and preventing you from dying (for example, when Arcann thrusts his lightsaber into your chest, Valkorion keeps you alive where you would've otherwise died). I also feel that Valkorion's interest in the protagonist (regardless of achievements and class) is largely due to his own over-inflated ego. We interfered and irritated him so much on Ziost that I got the impression that he decided it would be entertaining to toy with us for a while before hollowing us out, partly for revenge and partly for his own amusement like a predator playing with its prey before they kill it.