erdanwright Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 (edited) 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? Edited March 5 by erdanwright Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wursta Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 The truth is, we do not know. Sith emperors are like that, extremely secretive and we only learn what we learn and as fans fill in the gaps with fan theories and ideas. Makes it more fun that way. My thoughts on this are simply that what we saw is his original body. What Scourge talks about is that same body. That's how he knows about the ancient ritual and why it does look the same. If this is true, that means his original body was "immortal" like Scourge was (able to live much longer than normal). However, he still needed to do his spirit transfer as we see him do with the Vitiate form from the Vanilla game (and see again in Echoes of Oblivion) and Valk at some point because that extension of his life was fleeting. Remember Tenebrae knew and was taught by the spirit of Marko Ragnos and lived before the Great Hyperspace War. He's been around almost as long as the "start" of Star Wars Legends. Only being predated by the invention of hyperspace travel and the formation of the Galactic Republic, Jedi Order, and start to the Sith Empire. He older than the dirt we run on. I think that fills in the gaps you are concerned about but again we have not seen or read every detail of Tenebraes life. That's okay. Not a plot hole, not a gap in story. Just a secretive and mysteriously evil man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaddleTwo Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 I might have an answer but it's not a direct a=b=c answer... Ok We know Tanebrae/Vitiate/Valkorian's spirit has been sitting on the Sith Empire's throne for near a thousands years (pretty sure i remember that from a class quest somewhere), however, we also know that he can be in two bodies, if you will, at once like he was able to be Vitiate and Valkorian simultaneously for a while but as the Sith councle people would say he would go quiet, to them, for a long time, which he was focused on building Zakuul so his attention can only be focused on one place at once, but he can still wear both shoes... So to me that says he could very well have still been body hopping 300 years prior to swtor era, When Lord Scourge and Revan were dealing with the jerk. However... Tenebrea/Vitiate/Valkorian knew about and was using Iokath tech mostly after Iokath sent out those "tests" of the weapons that decimated whole planets, one of which was Zakuul, a thousand or so years prior to our swtor game time. Tl:dr I just believe the guy was working more then one meatbag at once is all and that Tenebrae is at leas a thousand years old. beyond that i don't know, i do not believe he is old enough to have witnessed the Rakata Empire though so there's that bookend at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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