The Dread Masters Are Horrendously Underappreciated

[dominaura]

I wanted to take the time and say it: The Dread Masters are amazing villains in the Star Wars Universe. The execution of their story is lacking, I must say, but they're incredibly fascinating in the same way that Darth Nihilus is fascinating.

 

For comparison:

Darth Nihilus has no real dialogue, but he is known for one thing: Taking a basic power of the Darkside (Force Drain) and fanatically advancing it to terrifying levels of devastation.

 

Dread Masters: Some dialogue, mostly mad ranting and an obsession with terrorizing the galaxy, but they accomplish one thing: Taking a power of the Force (Battle Meditation) and fanatically advancing it to LITERALLY terrifying levels of devastation.

---

I am sad to say that the way the game is structured, we did not get a full picture of the Dread Masters and you have to really dig to figure out what made them so terrifying... but when you piece it together, it shows a pretty incredible story in itself:

 

Six Sith Lords were tasked with studying the Phobis Devices. In their studies and meditations, they advanced their powers and developed an incredibly powerful bond in the Force. They used their power to serve the Reconstituted Sith Empire as Generals, Advisors, and Prophets. During the Great War, they were captured by Jedi Master Kaden and imprisoned on Belsavis. After that, they were freed by an Imperial strike force... that is when we, the players, first met their unofficial leader: Dread Master Raptus. He had an ego, an eccentric yet commanding presence, and behind his voice you could sense an ocean of madness held together and guided by whatever purpose he deigned worthy of the Masters' time.

 

Between the events of Malgus' uprising and the Rise of the Hutt Cartel, the Dread Masters defected from the Empire to form their own faction; forged in and ruled by fear. Their machinations began with the poaching of Hutt worlds, which Supreme Mogul Karraga the Hutt alluded to before tossing ambassadors from the Republic and Empire into the rancor pit. The Mogul's death due to his own anger was, in my opinion, implied to be a plan of the Masters because it set the stage for Toborro the Hutt to take over and make his bid for Galactic control. I don't believe it to be pure coincidence that Toborro was missing an arm and, as was apparent, completely INSANE. In fact, if you look at his arm, you'll see that it was golden and claw-like. Familiar, isn't it? Reminds you of a certain rancor experimentation performed by Dread Master Brontes, the Sith Sorceress who made herself and the protective tendrils of the Dread Fortress cyberized and electrum-plated.

 

After the Masters set Toborro's inevitable rise (and demise) into motion, they turned their attention to what they needed to overthrow both the Republic AND the Empire: supplies and superweapons. First came the attack on Denova: a world rich in Baradium which is used in high-yield explosions. The purpose they may have had for the Baradium was never explained, but it could no doubt serve as a useful resource... however their main accomplishment there was the recruitment of the Warstalkers, in particular Kephess who seemed to impress the Dreadmasters. In his defeat and the conclusion of the Explosive Conflict, a more interesting power of the Masters was introduced: Their ability to summon spirits or, at the very least, to project the spirits' complete being. We can only speculate on this power, but one thing is certain: Kephess is remade and given a Hulk-like body fitted with powerful blast cannons, rocket pods, and pure brute strength.

 

After the first wave of recruitment and the revealing of their defection, they unleashed their Dread Host, the soldiers under their command and their elite Dread Guard, upon the galaxy. An army of the Dread Host under the command of their Sith Lords was dispatched to Belsavis' Section X to recover the Aurora Cannon and whatever other Rakata technology they found of value. Unfortunately for them, the plan to recover the HK-51 army and the aurora cannon were thwarted. Section X was also used as a testing bed for their prototype corruption machines.

 

Simultaneously, the elite commanders of the Dread Guard and Kephess were dispatched to Asation, the Gree world, in order to recover their technology. Dread Master Calphayus also had other plans to spread chaos throughout the Galaxy by unleashing the mysterious Terror from Beyond. This plan was ultimately thwarted as well.

 

There was also the matter of Lord Tagriss raiding Arcanum and recovering the Seeds of Rage. This is the one area where the Dread Masters had moderate success because despite Lord Tagriss being defeated, he did report his research to the Masters, which allowed Dread Master Bestia to develop the Dread Seeds: the pinnacle of their terrifying corruption technology.

 

After a string of unfortunate defeats as well as the defeat of Toborro on Makeb, the most independent of the Dread Masters, Styrak, went on his own. His plan, apparently, was to salvage what he could of the Hutt Cartel who were now in service to the Republic. He gathered every arms dealer and mercenary possible on the world of Darvannis but was thwarted and defeated, despite surrounding himself with a legion of Dread Guard and his faithful Kell Dragon.

 

The death of Dread Master Styrak marked the beginning of the end of the Dread Masters as their plans changed from creating an Empire of their own to simply devastating, terrorizing, and ultimately destroying the Galaxy through means of alchemical corruption. As six masters, they were able to maintain control over their powers of terror, but as five, that power began to tear them apart.

 

The Masters retreated to their fortress world of Oricon, and it was indeed an impregnable fortress: defended by the Dread Host and the Dread Guard, converted Republic and Imperial soldiers, Corruptor Droids, the Bothorium Beast, other monstrosities scattered across the inhospitable volcanic landscape, and good ol fashioned reinforced castles, they made a maddening last stand against the combined forces of the Empire and Republic.

 

Apparently, the Republic sent an entire fleet, and all but a small holdout of Jedi and troopers were annihilated by the powers of the Masters and their formidable defenses. The Empire sent a similar, though arguably smaller force which was also pushed into a corner.

 

Though the Masters were mad, they still had a plan to recover: Convert one of the Imperial or Republic heroes who they believed would be able to share their power. The only problem is they would have to defeat the plot-armored heroes in order to accomplish this.

 

Even when driven back to the very walls of their Dread Fortress, they put up a hell of a fight. Dread Master Brontes defended the castle to her last breath with devastating mechanical monstrosities, the last of the Dread Guard, and a similar Bothorium Beast (of some sort) combined with cybernetic enhancements. Even when all seemed lost, and they'd gone completely bonkers, the Dread Masters continued to fight and play the game as we the players fought room-by-room their palace guard and the illusions and monstrosities generated by each Master.

 

The final fight in their throne room was, to me, the most climactic battle in SWTOR, in which a satisfying battle where a combination of a more "realistic" version of each Master's power in the Force, strengthened by the summoning of Brontes' and and Styrak's spirits (Or were they illusions?) and their last ditch effort to overwhelm the players with their power (evidenced by their immediate gigantic growth, which was definitely an illusion if we are to analyze the game mechanics and animations) ended in the demise of all but (potentially) one of the Masters.

----

The design of the Dread Guard, particularly their palace guard, is pretty alien for Star Wars. They wore those very gaudy golden masks in addition to their robes. It was a symbol of their rank and power. The Palace Guard wore various full suits of "Dreadforged" armor made right there on Oricon. I found their outfits to be pretty nifty. I also wish they could've done more with their army of Corruptor Droids. Corruptor Zero had a pretty neat voice, and he was like the robotic version of Raptus.

 

The design of the Dread Host was pretty straight forward: mind-controlled Imperial and Republic forces retaining their gear and forming the cannon fodder for their more elite forces.

 

The design of the Dread Masters before the EC update was very dull but.... at the same time... more diverse than when they added the golden masks. I do, however, like their golden masks. They're not terrifying, they're like something out of a dream or surreal art.

 

I think, when you combine every element of the Dread Masters, you realize you were given a powerful and diverse enemy to face story-wise. And I hope more people come to appreciate them. The mechanics of the operations weren't too bad either, but then again my only raid experience is SWTOR and... heroics in SWG, haha. I hope at some point in Star Wars lore they are canonized and elaborated upon. I would love to know what brought the six of them together.

 

TL;DR: the Dread master story, and their forces + strategies + designs, was pretty awesome and I hope people take the time to notice and, eventually, appreciate the hard work that went into them.

[dominaura]

Oh, and one more thing: Dread Master Tyrans, the strategist for the masters, didn't seem to do much. He was more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy, but he had a great voice.

[Excise]

I'd have to respectfully disagree with you. I thought the Dread Masters and their arc was poor. Some of this is due to the issues with the way the story was told, mind you, and not necessarily the characters.

 

- True that Darth Nihilus also had no real dialog, but he wasn't a particularly great villain either. For him, the interesting part was his effect on Visas. The Dread Masters have no such comparison.

 

- They had very little personality beyond "rar I am evil". Prior to Oricon I think it would be a struggle to even tell them apart. I know you mention Raptus was egotistical, eccentric, and commanding, yet surely that describes all of them? The only thing that made him leader was that he stood in front of the others and had more lines than the others.

 

- Their plot doesn't really go anywhere. There was no story arc, per se, to the Dread Masters. They'd just pop up with random episodic scheme #1 (Karagga's Palace), then episodic scheme #2 (EC), random episodic scheme #3 (Section X), etc. None of these actually advanced the plot at all. Imagine if Section X was cut entirely from the story arc. You'd have to change nothing else to still make it work. It had that little of impact. Ditto for Makeb, and same most of the Operations centered around them--you could just change a line here and there and that's it.

 

- This isn't a slam against their characters, per se, but for Pub characters they really came out of no-where. Only Imps got to meet them prior to this.

 

- Again, not really a slam against their characters, but telling the arc almost exclusively through Operations would have made the story pretty unremarkable for non-raiders. You'd get... what, Section X, some vague allusions during Makeb, and 3/4th of Oricon?

 

On the plus side...

 

- Oricon was a big improvement since they finally got some sort of personalities. 90% of what little we know about them individually comes from their boss fights. But by then it was time to kill them so the story was over.

 

- Though it was somewhat retroactive, having Styrak's death make the rest of them crazy (well, crazier) was a cool idea. It was a legitimate plot development that advanced the story, so kudos. But again, by the time we learned about that it was time to kill them.

 

- The Dread Seed mini-arc was fun.

 

- The Dread Masters looked and sounded cool, I agree. But I don't really award points for that since "looking cool" is the easy part of villainy that Star Wars has never had any problems with.

[dominaura]

I'd have to respectfully disagree with you. I thought the Dread Masters and their arc was poor. Some of this is due to the issues with the way the story was told, mind you, and not necessarily the characters.

 

- True that Darth Nihilus also had no real dialog, but he wasn't a particularly great villain either. For him, the interesting part was his effect on Visas. The Dread Masters have no such comparison.

 

- They had very little personality beyond "rar I am evil". Prior to Oricon I think it would be a struggle to even tell them apart. I know you mention Raptus was egotistical, eccentric, and commanding, yet surely that describes all of them? The only thing that made him leader was that he stood in front of the others and had more lines than the others.

 

- Their plot doesn't really go anywhere. There was no story arc, per se, to the Dread Masters. They'd just pop up with random episodic scheme #1 (Karagga's Palace), then episodic scheme #2 (EC), random episodic scheme #3 (Section X), etc. None of these actually advanced the plot at all. Imagine if Section X was cut entirely from the story arc. You'd have to change nothing else to still make it work. It had that little of impact. Ditto for Makeb, and same most of the Operations centered around them--you could just change a line here and there and that's it.

 

- This isn't a slam against their characters, per se, but for Pub characters they really came out of no-where. Only Imps got to meet them prior to this.

 

- Again, not really a slam against their characters, but telling the arc almost exclusively through Operations would have made the story pretty unremarkable for non-raiders. You'd get... what, Section X, some vague allusions during Makeb, and 3/4th of Oricon?

 

On the plus side...

 

- Oricon was a big improvement since they finally got some sort of personalities. 90% of what little we know about them individually comes from their boss fights. But by then it was time to kill them so the story was over.

 

- Though it was somewhat retroactive, having Styrak's death make the rest of them crazy (well, crazier) was a cool idea. It was a legitimate plot development that advanced the story, so kudos. But again, by the time we learned about that it was time to kill them.

 

- The Dread Seed mini-arc was fun.

 

- The Dread Masters looked and sounded cool, I agree. But I don't really award points for that since "looking cool" is the easy part of villainy that Star Wars has never had any problems with.

 

Nihilus being a great villain depends largely on your point of view, as does him being a villain. He was responsible for the near death of the Jedi Order during the Shadow Wars, and the way his origin and story (and purpose) was narrated by Kreia made him a very interesting aspect of KOTOR II. He was more of a force of nature than a person, which is a fine way to write an obstacle in any story (See: Moby Dick). Also, I already said the story had to be pieced together before you actually had something meaningful.

 

No, my description of Raptus does not apply to all of them. He was egotistical but calculated. he was the De Facto leader because of how he was presented to us, but he wasn't the strongest Dread Master (clearly stated) nor were all their personalities alike.

Examples:

-Styrak was arrogant, not egotistical. This may seem like semantics to you, but it's Styrak that went out of his way to Darvannis without the other five. We don't know why, but he clearly went out on a limb where the others did not. This is part of the problem with pre-KOTFE storytelling: You ONLY get the point of view of your characters whereas in later content it plays like a movie and shows the actions of villains (Arcann throne room scenes)

-Calphayus was confident as he was the prophet, he had visions which showed their success, or at the very least everyone's death. Every time he spoke it was ominous and with certainty. If this doesn't give you incite into why his personality differs from the others, I can't help you.

 

They're not all the same and we didn't have enough time with them. That's exactly what I'm getting at: They're under appreciated by the fan base, which is relatively abnormal because a villain without much elaboration is normal for Star Wars (Darth Maul and Jango Fett in preqs, Boba Fett and Jerjerrod in the OT) and they have huge followings, post-mortem elaborations, and even resurrection (Several for Maul) And I'm really hoping that at some point they get canonized and revisited.

 

Also, you can cut out act 2 of every single class story yet you'd still have complete stories, save for the origins of companions you get during act 2 which can be easily mary-sued in.

Example: Agent. Act 2 (arguably the best act 2 of any class) had you be a brainwashed slave turned over to Republic control. End result is you're freed from it... you could cut all that out, start act 3 with the dissolution of Intelligence, and be introduced to the man/lady just as you were with no changes except the removal of prior knowledge of her deceit. That point is invalid. Hell, KOTFE is basically a new game without being a new game, and you could easily discount every decision ever made prior to it. That doesn't mean anything, it's a choice to form it all into one coherent story or not.

[Excise]

-Styrak was arrogant, not egotistical. This may seem like semantics to you, but it's Styrak that went out of his way to Darvannis without the other five. We don't know why, but he clearly went out on a limb where the others did not. This is part of the problem with pre-KOTFE storytelling: You ONLY get the point of view of your characters whereas in later content it plays like a movie and shows the actions of villains (Arcann throne room scenes)

To me it does seem like semantics. Maybe his ego told him he'd be ok to go off to Darvannis by himself. As you mention, we don't know why he went. I agree completely that showing the actions of the villains would have been a good idea. A scene where the Dread Masters discuss their plans among themselves? That would have rocked and I'd have loved to see it. But it didn't happen.

 

-Calphayus was confident as he was the prophet, he had visions which showed their success, or at the very least everyone's death. Every time he spoke it was ominous and with certainty. If this doesn't give you incite into why his personality differs from the others, I can't help you.

This is kind of what I meant when I said that Oricon was an improvement in the story. We learn all this about Caphayus during his boss fight, so it never really plays a part in anything. Did his prophet ability help drive the Dread Masters into realizing that the Emperor wasn't a cool dude? Did Tyrans formulate the "use the Hutts as a proxy" strategy? Was it Brontes that made Kephess into his giganto self? Could be! But we'll never know.

 

They're not all the same and we didn't have enough time with them. That's exactly what I'm getting at: They're under appreciated by the fan base, which is relatively abnormal because a villain without much elaboration is normal for Star Wars (Darth Maul and Jango Fett in preqs, Boba Fett and Jerjerrod in the OT) and they have huge followings, post-mortem elaborations, and even resurrection (Several for Maul) And I'm really hoping that at some point they get canonized and revisited.

Agreed we didn't get enough time seeing them. I am one hundred and ten percent with you on that. But I don't think that's the fanbase's fault for not appreciating them. That's the story's fault. I can't give marks for good characterization if the characterization never actually happens.

 

You'll note that guys like Boba Fett and Jerjerrod are not the main villains. They aren't carrying the movies. At best they're minibosses. Sure they might be popular but they aren't in the same role as the Dread Masters were meant to be.

 

Also, you can cut out act 2 of every single class story yet you'd still have complete stories, save for the origins of companions you get during act 2 which can be easily mary-sued in.

Example: Agent. Act 2 (arguably the best act 2 of any class) had you be a brainwashed slave turned over to Republic control. End result is you're freed from it... you could cut all that out, start act 3 with the dissolution of Intelligence, and be introduced to the man/lady just as you were with no changes except the removal of prior knowledge of her deceit. That point is invalid. Hell, KOTFE is basically a new game without being a new game, and you could easily discount every decision ever made prior to it. That doesn't mean anything, it's a choice to form it all into one coherent story or not.

I'd say that Chapter 2 for the Agent is more important than 90% of the Dread Master episodes.

- The Agent changes. He finds out he's betrayed, which alters his perspective for the rest of the story. His actions in Chapter 3 are (probably) going to be affected by his experiences. You remove that, the tone of Chapter 3 changes entirely.

- The Star Cabal gets introduced in the form of Hunter, and of course Ardun Kothe's potential return.

 

Compare that to the effort of Terror From Beyond, where the events there are never relevant again.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Excise

[Codedrago]

 

 

Also, you can cut out act 2 of every single class story yet you'd still have complete stories, save for the origins of companions you get during act 2 which can be easily mary-sued in.

Example: Agent. Act 2 (arguably the best act 2 of any class) had you be a brainwashed slave turned over to Republic control. End result is you're freed from it... you could cut all that out, start act 3 with the dissolution of Intelligence, and be introduced to the man/lady just as you were with no changes except the removal of prior knowledge of her deceit. That point is invalid. Hell, KOTFE is basically a new game without being a new game, and you could easily discount every decision ever made prior to it. That doesn't mean anything, it's a choice to form it all into one coherent story or not.

 

Agent - Act 2 is what fuels act 3. The Star Cabal, the SIS squad (If you let them live), the disbandment of Imperial Intelligence, the impact of the ending decision to your character.

 

Cousular - Again, act 3 would not make much sense without act 2. The Children of the Emperor, the Rift alliance, the traitor (Who was most utilised in act 2 before you found out he was a traitor). Plus I'm pretty sure the whole forming the Rift alliance situation was a major factor in the decision to elevate you to a member of the Jedi Council.

 

Warrior - Act 2 sets up act 3. It sets up just how much of a threat Baras is for when he takes the role of villain in act 3. It shows you how he works and basically gives you time to hate him, or enjoy him enough to hate him even more when he betrays you. Again, Act three would lose most of it's impact and stake without act 2.

 

Inquisitor - While I hate the Inquisitor story, Act 2 is ESSENTIAL to act 3. Everything about Act 3 revolves around the events of Act 2.

 

Trooper - ....Yeah, act 2 was really just filler for the trooper.

 

Smuggler - While not integral to act 3, act 2 here had a lot of set up for characters and events in act 3.

 

Knight - Like the inquisitor, Act 2 is integral to act 3 for the knight.

 

Bounty Hunter - Meh, Act 2 is kinda needed for act 3, but not as much as for others.

[josephinec]

Holy cow, someone finally said it! /high five

My main disappointment is that the Dread Masters were not given further development by the devs. I kinda wish we could have learned more about them beyond the operations and Oricon. But yes, they are very powerful and awesome.

OP, did you finish Pub side Oricon? I don't want to spoil it for you but I do want to add something to the thread.

[Codedrago]

Holy cow, someone finally said it! /high five

My main disappointment is that the Dread Masters were not given further development by the devs. I kinda wish we could have learned more about them beyond the operations and Oricon. But yes, they are very powerful and awesome.

OP, did you finish Pub side Oricon? I don't want to spoil it for you but I do want to add something to the thread.

 

My problem with them was their threat was all there was too them. Yes, they are rather imtimidating andyes they do the whole 'God-like' threat leauges better then Vitiate. Aside from that, cool designs and cool voices, what are we left with? Villains that lack a memorable personality, who have barley any motivation aside from "Muhahaha, WE'RE EVIL!'' While that can apply to other villains in the game, msot of those villains made up for that with other factors. Though Oricon was simply...awesoem. I wish it was a full planet, amybe that would have opened up a bigger and more involed questlien for the Dread masters. They have a lot of potential that is simply wasted.

[josephinec]

I definitely wish the Masters could have had an actual background. Did they serve Vitiate willingly, or were they forced into it? I kinda have a theory that they might be brainwashed themselves...or Children of the Emperor.

 

 

Pub side finale to Oricon after the two ops: Calphayus, obviously in pain from the Council fight, comes to the Republic camp. He rambles on about remembering not being afraid, how he wasn't scared of his wife, and that the Masters were "enslaved by a higher purpose". Perhaps they weren't into the Dread life, or because they had been around for so many years( after you fight Revan solo on Yavin, he mentions them, and Revan was in prison for 300 years), they forgot how to as normal as they could possibly be. If I remember correctly, their codex entry states they view each other as family, unlike the bickering Dark Council.

 

 

Something else I want to point out:

 

After doing the Fortress as part of the story, Imperial players specifically say that Brontes has fallen back, not that they killed her. And since light side is canon for the Republic, Calphayus was spared...

 

[Codedrago]

Something else I want to point out:

 

After doing the Fortress as part of the story, Imperial players specifically say that Brontes has fallen back, not that they killed her. And since light side is canon for the Republic, Calphayus was spared...

 

There is no canon choices.

[adormitul]

My question is simple who killed them?

Did the Republic and Empire heroes joined together and took them down?

[Excise]

My question is simple who killed them?

Did the Republic and Empire heroes joined together and took them down?

 

I don't think there will ever be a canon answer.

[josephinec]

There is no canon choices.

 

There used to be.

[adormitul]

I don't think there will ever be a canon answer.

 

Yeah I hate this kind of vague situations.

[Codedrago]

There used to be.

 

No, there didn't.

[Cedia]

Yeah, it's a pretty awesome story. Too bad most people won't ever see it because most of it plays out in operations.