Warning, this is a long post...
So in the Echoes of Oblivion storyline in the Onslaught expansion, we see the Emperor's original body, Tenebrae, for the first (and only) time on screen. The Emperor appears in three forms, Valkorion, some Voice that Vitiate had, and finally, his true, original body. This storyline was very cool, but it left me with some questions. The first question is, how old is the imprint? From what we know, Tenebrae carved a ritual into his original body, and if it were ever to be destroyed, it would unleash a plague. The plague will feed off of the collective minds of it's infected hosts, slowly making itself into a duplicate of the Emperor.
Lord Scourge describes the Emperor's "plague" or imprint, as ancient. Usually ancient means at least over a thousand years old. From what I have seen in Echoes of Oblivion, the duplicate of Tenebrae doesn't seem to recognize his Sith Emperor persona, that is when he was ruler of the modern day Sith Empire, only knowing of that identity from feeding off of the memories of Satele Shan and her students. Darth Marr says that this imprint is older, even predating Revan's time. That and the original form of the Emperor, Tenebrae, is dressed in an outfit that looks like an ancient Sith king from prior to the Great Hyperspace War. This all points to the imprint of Tenebrae being at least 1,300 years old.
But here is the problem, the Emperor was still in his original body in the Revan novel, set 300 years before the events of the main game here. How do I know that? Well, in the Revan novel, Lord Scourge addresses Vitiate as a Sith Pureblood when meeting him in the throne room, and that he had eyes as black as the void itself, matching the description of his original body. Another thing to support this statement is the official TOR encyclopedia book says that the Emperor created his first Voice, (host body), after Revan attacked him on Dromund Kaas. This further supports that Vitiate was indeed still in his true, original body during the Revan novel 's time. This implies at the same time that the imprint is only 300 years old.
So, I am confused. When did the Emperor create his failsafe imprint? Before or after the Revan novel? I heard from someone that it is possible that Tenebrae created the imprint before the Ritual of Nathema even, before he became immortal. Others saying that he created the imprint after the Revan novel. So, when was it made? Is it possible that the Emperor carved the imprint into himself when he was king of Nathema but still used his body until after the Revan novel?