How did Tenebrae acquire Iokath technology?

[HollyUSEC]

I've been wondering about this since the Nathema Conspiracy back in KOTFE.

When the GEMINI droid activates the Zildrogg superweapon (aka the Gravestone), the Zildrogg mind says that it was responsible for consuming Maddrias, Tenebraze's home planet, turning it into Nathema. This would insinuate that even before he took on the personage of Valkorion, Tenebrae had access to Iokath technology.

How did he acquire it? 

And it was never even hinted at, how he gained control of The Eternal Fleet, was it? 

It sounds like the bulk of Zakuul's "ascendance," if you will, into so advanced a planet that it was able to conquer the rest of the galaxy, was due to Iokath technology. The whole of Zakuul society learned how to use a fair amount of it, well before chapter 1 of KOTFE where the rest of the galaxy encounters them.

Was it ever discussed how Tenebrae first acquired Iokath tech?

Ever since that FP that ended KOTFE, I've been wondering this, but never got around to asking the community at large.

 

 

[Whykara]

I think he just stumbled upon it. If you live long enough, you will inevitably come across some strange stuff.

12 hours ago, HollyUSEC said:

When the GEMINI droid activates the Zildrogg superweapon (aka the Gravestone), the Zildrogg mind says that it was responsible for consuming Maddrias, Tenebraze's home planet, turning it into Nathema.

Really? I don't remember that, I thought Tenebrae consumed the world like he did Ziost?

[HollyUSEC]

>>Really? I don't remember that, I thought Tenebrae consumed the world like he did Ziost?<<

In the solo-story mode, as Zildrogg activates, it says, "Not since I consumed this world have I felt such hunger."

I looked through Youtube and couldn't find a video that only shows the whole Gemini 16 Encounter. And you only are shown that background story once per character,

Was this a slipup on Bioware's part? I suppose it's possible. But even if it is, exactly how Tenebrae was able to bring Iokath tech to Zakuul remains an unanswered question.

 

[ThanderSnB]

I don't think there is any official explanation of when and how he acquired Iokath technology. We only know he used Zildrog to destroy all life on Medriass/Nathema. It may have already been on Medriass and he just lucked out finding it. I think it's natural to assume that after discovering and using Zildrog, he went in search of other Iokath creations. This led him to discover Iokath itself (where the superweapons were engineered/built), Zakuul (one of the testing grounds for Iokath superweapons), the Gravestone (buried in Zakuul swamps), and the Eternal Fleet (discovered by Scions visionaries at the direction of Valkorian). It's also possible that he discovered Iokath first, which led him to Zildrog. Then he moved it to Nathema for his Sith ritual. This could make sense because his discovery of Iokath would have led him to Zakuul. I think the specifics are a mystery unless Broadsword clarifies.

Edited October 19, 2023 by ThanderSnB

[Shayddow]

I think to conquer Zakuul he first managed to take control of the throne. That controls the Eternal Fleet, as is repeatable hinted at.

(Scorpio takes control for a little while yet yields it to Vaylin.  That is the one time where she is incredibly stupid.)

I think Vitiate first takes control of Valkorian, hollowing out his mind the way he intended to do to our character (Outlander), then discovers some of the old legends of Zakuul from him and hunts them down & takes advantage of them. Including Zildrog.

[Cocacolemacgrath]

It is possible that Zildrog was always in Medriaas, and it was placed there by the species that created Iokath, eventually, after the Iokath natives destroy themselves and leave Zildrog abandoned on the distant planet, the old Sith Empire colonizes Medriaas, and the Sith Lords govern it without realizing of the presence of the superweapon, after Tenebrae kills Dramath, we know he spent 100 years as content ruler of the planet, removed from larger Sith politics, in this time period is when he dives deep into Dark Side lore and designs his plot to do the ritual to become immortal, so i think it's reasonable to say that in those 100 years of study he found Zildrog, which he used to enact the ritual (hence why Zildrog speaks about "consuming the world").

Once he became immortal and able to force-drain entire planets on his own (like what we saw in Ziost) he didin't need Zildrog anymore for that purpose, but he still further investigated where it came from, which uncovered the history of the creators of Zildrog and the Gravestone, so he started looking for it to complete the set, to be able to use Zildrog to it's full potential, while he seems to have been unsuccessful in finding it, he definetly discovered Zakuul in the 300 years that followed his fight with Revan, which tells us that he did find out in which planet it was and likely more about the history of Iokath and it's creators, which is why, after creating the new society of the Eternal Empire, he used the Scions to find the other lost Iokath superweapon: the Eternal Fleet.

I am unsure if he actually found the planet itself, as the Zakuulans seem unaware of Iokath prior to KOTET, but he definetly knew about the history of the superweapons, and in fact that Zildrog was in Medriaas makes perfect sense as to why he would find Zakuul, following the trail of the "other half" of the weapon, this theory lines up perfectly with Tenebrae's periods of inactivity from the Sith Empire.

[Aedales]

These things are being mixed up at different times in the history.  In the actual timeline:

After his conquest of Medriaas was complete in 5100 BBY, Tenebrae traveled to the Sith Empire’s throneworld of Ziost and came before Marka Ragnos, the Dark Lord of the Sith and ruler of the Sith Council. Acknowledging the thirteen-year-old’s power, Ragnos granted Tenebrae the right to rule Medriaas as his own and elevated him to the rank of Sith Lord, bestowing the title of Lord Vitiate upon him.

He kept to himself and stayed out of the war between Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh. He also refrained from participating in the crusade upon which the victorious Sadow embarked against the Galactic Republic, instead watching from Nathema as the Sith Empire battled the Republic and their Jedi protectors in the Great Hyperspace War.

Broadcasting speeches across the Empire in 4999 BBY describing how the Jedi Order would destroy the Empire and massacre its people once they discovered the rest of the Sith, Vitiate stoked the Empire’s fears and carefully drove the people into a panic, a sensation that only increased when the Republic invaded the Empire and destroyed any Sith sacred sites and artifacts it could find on the orders of Supreme Chancellor Pultimo.

Assuming a leadership role, Vitiate called all remaining Sith Lords to Nathema in order to aid him in performing a ritual, promising them that it would unleash the full power of the dark side beyond anything they could imagine. At the same time, Vitiate’s historians and scientists searched for the location of Dromund Kaas, one of the Empire’s original colonies. Just before the other Sith Lords arrived, the researchers finally theorized a new hyperspace route that led back to Dromund Kaas but also prevented the Jedi from following. Three days after the lead researcher presented the team’s findings, Vitiate announced the commencement of his ritual. But when the eight thousand Sith who answered Vitiate’s call arrived at his palace, he dominated their minds and bound their wills to his, forcing the Sith to participate in the ritual.

The ritual took ten days to perform, with the entire planet frozen in the grip of the dark-side sorcery, and upon its completion all life on the surface of Nathema was annihilated save for Vitiate. The man absorbed the life force of the entire world, stripping the Force from the very fabric of reality on Nathema and gaining both unimaginable power and immortality as a result. At that moment, the man shed his identity as Vitiate and became simply the Emperor, a figure of immense power and wisdom in the eyes of his fellow Sith.

Around 3760 BBY, the Emperor decided that he was tired of the galaxy as it existed, and of the limits that Sith teachings and his empire placed upon him. Resolving to free himself of such restraints, Vitiate heard rumors of an ancient and unstoppable fleet of warships operated by sentient droids that had nearly wiped out all of Wild Space. A powerful ship known as the Gravestone purportedly stopped the entire “Eternal Fleet” at a backwater planet called Zakuul, and so Vitiate chose Zakuul as the world upon which he would build a new empire, a truly Eternal Empire. Vitiate took on a Human male body as a new Voice that went by the name “Valkorion,” though he split his mind and energy between the Valkorion body and the numerous Voices that oversaw the Sith Empire’s march to war. Zakuul’s native Humans were a superstitious and nihilistic people who worshipped the ruthless Old Gods, and so “Valkorion” claimed to be the Demon Savior of Zakuulan prophecy, an immortal god of gods who would topple Izax the Ultimate Devourer and the rest of the Old Gods, and thus usher in a new age.

A subgroup of the Knights, the Scions of Zakuul, specialized in seeing the future and were obsessed with the idea of fate. Valkorion used this to his advantage, using the Scions’ Force visions to find the dormant fleet. To control the fleet, he gathered Zakuul’s greatest minds and set them to work building the Eternal Throne: a throne in the starscraper that topped the Spire whose technology gave the Immortal Emperor control over the GEMINI units that operated the fleet. The throne took generations to complete, finishing around two centuries after the Jedi Civil War, but for some reason Valkorion kept the Eternal Fleet within the Unknown Regions for the centuries that followed.

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by Aedales

[Shayddow]

"For some reason Valkorion kept the Eternal Fleet within the Unknown regions for the centuries that followed" - I believe it was during this time that he had Revan Imprisoned, and Revan was in turn having some influence on him besides Force visions.

[wursta]

1> How does Zildrog end up on Nathema?

I would assume that, given the Iokath peoples use to test weapons on planets and their inhabitants, Zildrog was dropped on Nathema and after the civil war happened was lost and forgotten until discovered.  There's a codex entry, I think from one of the Iokath nodes, that mentions a vast underground cavern almost like the one where Zildrog is found.  Nothing confirmed, but there are little hints.

 

2> How does Zakuul have the fleet, etc.?

This one we have an official codex answer for.  Vitiate hollows out Zakuulan champion Valkorian to best the Old world and gain favor with the Zakuullans (We learn this in KOTENT chpter 2).  Why?  Because he has learned of the Scions infallible prophecies and wants to use them.  He builds this grand society and THEN uses the scions to search for the fleet.  Finds it, retrieves it, and uses it (Codex entry).  Truthfully, in all my searching through codexes, playing the story on several characters and exhausting every dialogue I can it seems evident Valkorian has little to no clue Iokath even exists before the MC arrives there.  Just hears of the legends told, and uses people and seeks methods to obtain what he can. 

 

Much of Iokathian tech was left behind outside the planet.  SCORPIO, the Gravestone, Eternal Fleet as well and most likely Zildrog.  The answers are there it's just ambiguous enough to have a little imagination.