Why did Tenebrae's original voice (Anthony Skordi) change into Vitiate's voice (Doug Bradley)?

[erdanwright]

In Star Wars: The Old Republic, the ancient immortal Sith Emperor, Tenebrae/Vitiate/Valkorion has three voice actors. His original true Sith pureblood body is voiced by Anthony Skordi, his Vitiate persona is voiced by Doug Bradley, and his Valkorion body is voiced by Darin De Paul. All of them, in their own unique way, did a good job voicing the Emperor. Anyways, let's get to the speculative theory/discussion.

We all know what the true, original voice of Tenebrae sounds like, it sounds like a raspy, hoarse Palpatine-like voice, and that voice is Anthony Skordi's voice in SWTOR: Echoes of Oblivion. However, his audible voice would change later on. Tenebrae/Vitiate took many host bodies throughout the centuries, called the "Emperor's Voice." You would assume that he has millions of different voices because he has numerous host bodies, but that is not true.

Regardless of the age, gender, and species of the host body Vitiate/Tenebrae is possessing, they all have the same, audible voice. That voice is Doug Bradley's voice, a deep, menacing old man's voice that has a semi-demonic resonance to it. Throughout the game, the Voss host body, the Darth Sidious looking dude host body, and much more all have the same menacing Doug Bradley/Vitiate voice. However, the Doug Bradley/Vitiate voice, which is consistent regardless of the host body he possesses, is not the true voice of the Emperor, the Tenebrae voice is the true voice of the Emperor.

So where did the Doug Bradley/Vitiate voice come from? When Vitiate possesses a host body, they have the same menacing old man's voice, implying that that is the Sith Emperor's real voice. However, that is not true as of Echoes of Oblivion, the Anthony Skordi Tenebrae voice is his original and real one.

I heard a pretty neat theory somewhere that the Anthony Skordi Tenebrae voice is the voice he had before the Ritual of Nathema, while the Doug Bradley Vitiate voice is the one he had post-Ritual of Nathema. Maybe the Ritual changed his voice into the deep, demonic old man's voice. However, that leads me to a few questions.

First of all, why WOULD Tenebrae's voice change into the Vitiate voice as a result of the Ritual of Nathema? Is there some symbolism or secret behind it or what?

Second of all, why does the Vitiate voice sound different in the later expansions of SWTOR such as Shadow of Revan, Rise of the Emperor, and Echoes of Oblivion? His voice is still Doug Bradley, but it is less demonic, less deep, less resonance than in the original vanilla SWTOR, more high pitched and sounds like an average old man. They could have retconned his voice to sound more human in the later expansions. And, if his voice sounds more human, then why would Tenebrae's voice change to some totally different sounding old joe?

Any in-universe theories/ideas/speculation on this? I am genuinely curious on this matter

Edited August 29 by erdanwright

[wursta]

So, I think its a mixture of the original hosts voice and his.

 

Tenebrae: has a voice actor

Vititate: (from Vanilla game): has a different va

Valkorian: yet another.

 

Spoiler

The only other voice we see is the Voss in the SW story.  Maybe due to the barrier placed by Barris or the Voss was easier to hollow out or its similar to Harbinger in ME2 where the host has a voice but when control is assumed its harbingers voice.  Still possessed in bother cases.

 

The soul, will, spirit, whatever you want to call it of Tenebrae mixes with the host to form a new one?  There is no concrete answer and truth be told I've never really delved deep or even thought about it as hes possessing others and we all have different voices but the same body part: vocal coords.  So IDK but an awesome thought!!