Vitiate

"My life spans millennia. Legions have risen to test me. [&hellip;] My ascendance is inevitable. A day, a year, a millennium&mdash;it matters not. I hold the patience of stone and the will of stars. Your striving is insignificant. Let your death be the same."

- The Sith Emperor, to a lone Jedi sent to kill him

The Sith Emperor was a Dark Lord of the Sith who reconstituted the Sith Empire after the Great Hyperspace War and went on to rule it for more than a millennium. Born in 5,113 BBY as Tenebrae, the illegitimate Sith pureblood son of Lord Dramath of Meridraas and a poor farm woman, the child who would become the Emperor killed his own father at the age of ten and was granted the title of Lord Vitiate by the current Dark Lord Marka Ragnos three years later. Ruling his world&mdash;now named Nathema&mdash;for the next hundred years, Vitiate witnessed the destruction of the Sith Empire at the hands of the Galactic Republic in the Great Hyperspace War, and summoned the remaining Sith Lords to Nathema to cast a powerful ritual in order to save themselves from the Republic.

The ritual worked, but only as Vitiate had planned&mdash;consuming the life force of every living thing on Nathema, the man conferred immortality upon himself and ceased to exist as Lord Vitiate, becoming simply the Emperor. Gathering the few Sith to survive the Republic's onslaught, the Emperor led his people on a wandering journey for the next twenty years until they arrived at the lost world of Dromund Kaas. There, the Sith rebuilt their Empire and spent the next millennia planning their revenge upon the Republic, while the Emperor continued his studies of the dark side's secrets, his life prolonged through the transference of his conscious from body to body. Intending to wage war upon the Republic so that he could complete his ritual again on a galactic scale, the Emperor influenced the leader of the Mandalorian culture into attacking the Republic, and made the powerful Jedi Knights Revan and Malak into his agents when the pair attempted to confront the Sith leader.

When a redeemed Revan joined forces with his ally Meetra Surik and the Sith Lord Scourge, the trio attacked the Emperor in an effort to destroy him, but Scourge turned on his allies and allowed the Emperor to take Revan captive. The Emperor would feed off of the imprisoned Revan's knowledge for the next three centuries, his desire to attack the Republic tempered by Revan's mental influence, until the Sith Empire returned to the known galaxy in 3,681 BBY and began the Great Galactic War. During the course of the conflict, the Emperor's apprentice Exal Kressh betrayed the Empire when she learned that her master intending to make her the first of his Children, and the Emperor soon perfected the process to create the Children of the Emperor&mdash;the perfect extensions of his will.

However, in 3,653 BBY, the Emperor unexpectedly sued for peace with the Republic, resulting in the Sacking of the Republic capital Coruscant and the Treaty of Coruscant. Retreating into seclusion and handing control of the Empire to the Dark Council, the Emperor began preparations to perform the dark side ritual after taking a member of the Voss species as his Voice. Upon learning that the former Child Kira Carsen was the apprentice of a powerful Jedi Knight, he attempted to capture her before using her body to battle the Knight, but Carsen was able to break the Emperor's control. The Emperor would keep a close eye on Carsen's master, who was later known as the Hero of Tython, and watched as the Jedi joined a strike team intending to capture the Emperor. He easily crushed the strike team's wills and turned the Jedi to the dark side when they confronted him, making them his servants.

Though the Hero escaped the Emperor's control many months later with the help of the the immortal Emperor's Wrath Lord Scourge, the Emperor was already setting his plans to in motion across the galaxy. The Sith Lord Darth Baras attempted to trap the Emperor's Voice on the planet Voss, but the Emperor escaped with the aid of his newest Wrath and prepared for a final confrontation with the Hero after his servants failed to start his ritual on Belsavis, Voss, and Corellia. While a Republic fleet invaded Dromund Kaas, the Emperor fought the Hero and the astromech droid T7-O1 in a climactic battle that ended with the Emperor's defeat. The loss of the Emperor's Voice drove the Sith into a deep slumber while the galaxy escalated further into war, causing the Sith Lord Darth Malgus to try and seize the throne of the Empire. The Emperor would eventually die a final death, though his powers and accomplishments would be remembered millennia later.

Childhood on Medriaas
"Have you ever heard tales of the Emperor's childhood?''" "I don't even know what planet he's from." "''Few people do. He's hidden his past, because if the truth came to light none would follow him."

- Darth Nyriss and Lord Scourge

The Sith Pureblood named Tenebrae was born in 5,113 BBY on the planet Meridraas, the illegitimate son of Meridraas' ruler Lord Dramath and a poor farm woman. Tenebrae's eyes were said to be as black as the void of space, and even as an infant the boy showed no emotion&mdash;he never cried. Animals would avoid him, and his voice seemed to carry power and weight beyond his years. Around the age of six, Tenebrae began manifesting signs of strength in the Force, and this caused his mother's husband to be suspicious&mdash;neither he nor his wife were Force-sensitive.

The man confronted Tenebrae's mother, who admitted to having committed adultery with Lord Dramath, and the farmer attacked his wife in anger. However, the six-year-old Tenebrae fed off the man's anger to fuel his own strength in the dark side, and used his newfound powers to telekinetically break the farmer's neck. Tenebrae then tortured his mother for months with the Force before killing her for betraying their family, and then subjugated the other members of his village his powers. Over the course of the next four years, Tenebrae's influence and reputation grew as he conquered other neighboring villages and raised legions of followers. Some followed the child out of fear of his immense power, while others served out of fanatical loyalty. Tenebrae massacred thousands during his rise to power, torturing people for days in public executions and feeding off of their suffering.

Lord Dramath heard rumors of his son's activities, but as they had happened in a remote region of his world and he had forgotten about the farm woman with whom he had had an affair, the Sith Lord believed the events were of no concern to him. Finally, when Tenebrae was around the age of ten, Dramath decided to investigate and see whether Tenebrae should be killed or become one of his servants. However, the Sith Lord immensely underestimated his son's power&mdash;at only ten years of age, Tenebrae stripped Dramath of his power in the Force and drove the man insane before killing his father.

Tenebrae then embarked on a campaign to conquer the rest of Meridraas while his elder half-brother, Dramath the Second, fled the planet. It took the child three years to subjugate the world, and any of Lord Dramath's subordinate Sith Lords who attempted to seize the throne fell quickly before Tenebrae's power.

Sith Lord of Nathema
"At thirteen he presented himself to Marka Ragnos, the Lord of all Sith and the ruler of the Sith Council. Impressed by the teenager's ambition and power, Marka Ragnos granted him the title of Lord Vitiate."

- Darth Nyriss

After his conquest of Meridraas was complete in 5,100 BBY, Tenebrae was summoned 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 Meridraas to rule as his own and elevated him to the rank of Sith Lord, bestowing the title of Lord Vitiate upon him. Returning to Meridraas, which he renamed Nathema, Vitiate proceeded to build a palace upon the site of his childhood home and ruled the planet for a hundred years, spending much of that time studying the secrets of the dark side.

When Ragnos died in 5,000 BBY, prompting a struggle to determine who would succeed him, Vitiate chose not to involve himself or his world in the battle between the competing Sith Lords Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh. Vitiate also refrained from participating in the crusade against the Galactic Republic that the victorious Sadow embarked upon, and he instead watched from Nathema as the Sith Empire battled the Republic and their protectors from the Jedi Order in the Great Hyperspace War. Vitiate had never participated in any battles or conquests during his reign, and had a reputation of a reclusive scholar. But when the Empire met its ultimate defeat in battle above the holy tomb world of Korriban, Vitiate put his plans into action.

Broadcasting speeches across the Empire describing how the Jedi would destroy the Empire and massacre its people once they discovered the rest of the Sith, Vitiate stoked the Empire's fear and carefully drove the people into a panic. 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 possibly imagine. At the same time, Vitiate's historians and scientists had been searching for the location of Dromund Kaas, one of the Empire's original colonies.

Just before the other Sith Lords arrived, the researchers finally succeeded in theorizing a hyperspace route that would lead back to Dromund Kaas and prevent the Jedi from following, and three days after being informed by the lead researcher 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 itself took weeks to perform, 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 Lord Vitiate and became simply the Emperor, a figure of immense power and wisdom in the eyes of his fellow Sith.

Rebuilding an empire on Dromund Kaas
"If the Jedi know we exist, they will come for us. They will try to finish the extermination of our species that began in the Great Hyperspace War!"

- Lord Scourge, expressing the fear that the Emperor had imbued in his people even a thousand years after the war

Blaming the destruction of Nathema on the Jedi and declaring himself Emperor, Vitiate drove the people of the Empire further into a panic while simultaneously offering them hope. Traveling to Korriban, the Emperor promised his people to lead them to salvation and safety from the Jedi, and he soon led a great exodus from the Sith Worlds into the unknown parts of the galaxy. Despite knowing the location of Dromund Kaas, the Emperor led his people in a series of blind hyperspace jumps, causing the exodus to last for twenty years while the Sith people became more and more dependent on Vitiate's guidance. Finally, in 4,980 BBY, a scout vessel under orders of the Emperor located Dromund Kaas. When the vessel returned to the Sith fleet, the Emperor led his people to the long-lost world, and upon reaching the surface he addressed the Sith. Amidst the wild jungles of Dromund Kaas, the Emperor declared a new Empire that would rise from the ashes of the old, and offered both the Sith people and their non-Sith servants the chance to build an orderly and powerful society&mdash;an Empire that would one day return and gain their revenge upon the Republic.

The people, who had come to see the Emperor as a kind of god, fervently agreed and set to work building their new Empire. At first, the Emperor appeared in public often, and would dictate much of the Empire's policies and actions; but over time he began to appear less and less. Not long after arriving on Dromund Kaas, the Emperor created the Dark Council&mdash;a group of twelve Sith Lords that served as the primary ruling body of the Empire&mdash;and the council soon began to take over much of the day-to-day running of the Empire. The Emperor himself retreated into seclusion in the newly constructed Imperial Citadel situated in the heart of Kaas City.

The Emperor spent this time studying even further into the mysteries of the Force, unlocking powerful secrets of the dark side. In his studies, the Emperor discovered the rare technique of transfer essence, which allowed him to prolong his life even further. Using the technique to transfer his life force between bodies, the Emperor created the position of Emperor's Voice&mdash;the host of the Emperor's consciousness and the ultimate extension of his will. Throughout the centuries, the Emperor would utilize many Voices as the ravaging effects of the dark side took their toll upon the host bodies. These hosts varied widely, as some of the bodies included those of a young Human female and an elderly Sith Pureblood, and they always possessed the same emotionless, cold male voice.

Early into his reign, the Emperor ordered the construction of the edifice known as the Dark Temple on the outskirts of Kaas City. Originally intended as a burial place for his enemies, the Emperor performed powerful dark side rituals in the structure's depths and soon transformed the area into a nexus of dark Force energy. These rituals soon also affected Dromund Kaas' atmosphere, causing the skies to be filled with perpetual rain storms and lightning, and one of the Sithspawn created during the rituals escaped deep underground, becoming known as Akure, the Ghost in the Darkness. The Emperor also maintained chambers within the Sith Sanctum, the headquarters of the Sith Order in the Imperial Citadel, though only the Dark Council and the Emperor's personal guard were allowed into the lower levels of the Sanctum.

The Imperial Guard, as these elite warriors were called, were a group of non-Force-sensitives who served the Emperor with fanatic loyalty and unmatched combat prowess. The Guard wore crimson robes and armor, and served for life&mdash;those who survived long enough to retire from active duty became instructors, training and initiating new recruits through the deadly trials and traditions that all Guards underwent when chosen. Each member of the Guard were brought before the Emperor himself and bound to their master's will, making their loyalty absolute, and the Guard answered only to the Emperor&mdash;the Dark Council had no control over the group's activities, despite the Guard's roles as protectors of the Sith Academy on Korriban and the Sith Sanctum.

The Sith Lord Koval Renge served as the Emperor's personal enforcer during his lifetime, utilizing his ceremonial executioner's blade to dispatch hundreds of his master's enemies. Renge, who was granted the title of Sith Executioner, eventually became fearful of his master's continually increasing power, and his attempt at betrayal was foiled&mdash;the Sith Lord's own blade was turned on Renge, striking him in the chest and breaking off. A splinter of the blade was left in Renge's body after the Emperor ordered the healing of his wounds, and the former Executioner was then cast into the Dark Temple as the ultimate punishment. Another Sith Lord named Vodal Kressh attempted to challenge the Emperor's rule in the centuries after the Great Hyperspace War, breeding a race of slaves to serve as an army on the planet Athiss. However, Kressh's plans never advanced beyond Athiss, and when the Sith died the Emperor declared Athiss forbidden.

At some point during his reign, the Emperor also discovered the three Phobis devices&mdash;powerful Sith artifacts that allowed their users to command fear itself. The devices' mere presence was enough to instill crippling fear in the minds of many Sith, and it was not until six Sith Lords meditated together on the Phobis devices that their powers were harnessed. Those six&mdash;Raptus, Bestia, Brontes, Calphayus, Styrak, and Tyrans&mdash;earned the title of Dread Masters as a result, and they went on to serve the Emperor for centuries as prophets, advisers, and generals. However, the Emperor acknowledged their power as a potential threat, and locked one of three Phobis devices&mdash;the Phobis Core&mdash;away in the depths of the Dark Temple as a way of limiting the six's powers.

The Phobis Core would have the unintentional effect of driving thousands of slaves mad during the expansion of Kaas City's power grid into the tunnels beneath the Temple, but the Dark Temple itself would remain sealed during much of the Emperor's reign. Another one of the Emperor's experiments in the Dark Temple led to the creation of the Ravager, a device that consumed its victims' minds and forced them to reveal their greatest secrets as they died. Not even members of the Dark Council could withstand the Ravager, but the Emperor eventually locked it away in the Dark Temple with the Phobis Core and other experiments&mdash;both failed and successful.

Testing the forces of the Republic
"They tricked me. We were never meant to win this war. They used me and my people to test the Republic's strength.''" "Who used you?" "''The Sith."

- Mandalore the Ultimate tells Revan of the Empire with his dying words

At the founding of his Empire, the Emperor had promised to return and destroy the Republic, but over time this goal lost importance to the people of the Empire. However, the Emperor still planned to invade&mdash;but for reasons beyond revenge. In his studies, the Emperor had discovered a way to magnify the ritual he had performed on Nathema so that it would affect the entire galaxy, and he intended to use war with the Republic as a way to fuel that ritual. But around a thousand years after the Great Hyperspace War, several members of the Dark Council discovered the planet Nathema and learned what the Emperor was truly planning. These Dark Councillors, among them Darth Nyriss and Darth Xedrix, began a conspiracy to unseat the Emperor and save their Empire and the galaxy from annihilation.

Around the year 3,978 BBY, the Emperor sent a Sith Pureblood emissary to Mandalore the Ultimate, the leader of the Mandalorian culture of warriors. The emissary explained to Mandalore that his master had driven a Sith Lord named Dramath the Second into exile, and convinced the warrior to help him search for Dramath's tomb on the snowy world of Rekkiad. Breaking into Dramath's crypt and recovering the Sith Lord's remains for his master, the Sith also told Mandalore of a vision that the Emperor had recieved&mdash;one of the Mandalorians crushing the Republic in a glorious victory. However, the Emperor's emissary was also manipulating Mandalore with the power of the dark side, binding the warrior and manipulating him into launching a war against the Republic to test its strength.

This conflict, which would become known as the Mandalorian Wars, began two years later and raged for a total of sixteen years. The Mandalorians initially had the upper hand until a young Jedi Knight known as Revan took command of the Republic military with his friend and unofficial apprentice Malak in 3,962 BBY. Under Revan's leadership, the Republic gained more and more ground until the Battle of Malachor V. Revan challenged Mandalore the Ultimate to single combat and won, striking down the warrior just as his lieutenant Meetra Surik activated a superweapon known as the Mass Shadow Generator. As Mandalore lay dying, the Emperor's spell was finally broken, and the fallen Mandalorian told his victorious opponent of how he had been manipulated. Revan, who had already encountered Sith ruins on Korriban and Malachor V before the battle, drew the Emperor's attention unknowingly, and the Emperor reached out to Revan and Malak. Subtly manipulating them, the Emperor watched as the pair retraced Mandalore's steps to Rekkiad and discovered the existence of his Empire.

Examining a datacron belonging to the Emperor's half-brother within Dramath's tomb, Revan and Malak discovered the location of Nathema and traveled to the barren world, where they learned the location of Dromund Kaas itself and witnessed the Emperor's power. Leaving the Republic fleet they had brought with them, the pair traveled to Dromund Kaas in secret and spent months infiltrating the Imperial Citadel with aid from one of the Imperial Guard&mdash;but what they did not suspect was that each member of the Guard was bound to the Emperor's will and would never betray their master. And so when Revan and Malak finally infiltrated the Emperor's throne room in an attempt to kill him, the Sith dominated their minds just as he had done so many years ago to the Sith Lords on Nathema.

Breaking their wills, the Emperor forcibly converted the pair to the dark side and declared them Darth Revan and his apprentice, Darth Malak. After prying information on the Republic from their minds, the Emperor sent his new disciples to recover the Star Forge&mdash;a space station of unimaginable power constructed by the ancient Rakata&mdash;to use in a new war against the Republic. However, the new Sith were stronger than he expected, and they broke free of the Emperor's conditioning. Revan decided to declare his own Sith Empire, determined to conquer the Republic and protect it from the Emperor, and proceeded to battle the Republic in what came to be called the Jedi Civil War.

Revan and his allies gain time
"The Emperor used me as his link to the light side of the Force&mdash;the Jedi Order. Through me, he saw visions. But that same link also gave me influence. I convinced the Emperor peace was in his best interest. Tempered his hate."

- Revan explains how he manipulated the Emperor

Revan was eventually betrayed by his apprentice during a Jedi attempt to capture him, and Malak seized control of their Empire while Revan's mind was wiped clean by the Jedi Council. Revan would go on to destroy the very Empire he had created and defeat Malak aboard the Star Forge, but in the years after the war he began to be plagued by memories of Dromund Kaas. At the same time, the conspiracy against the Emperor began to suspect they were on the verge of being discovered. Therefore, Darth Nyriss arranged for several assassination attempts against herself in 3,955 BBY as a way of framing the aged Human Darth Xedrix. However, the Emperor interfered with her plans by "suggesting" that she bring in outside assistance in the form of the Sith Lord Scourge.

Nyriss led Scourge through a series of elaborate tests and deceptions as part of his investigations, culminating with Scourge's killing of Darth Xedrix. At this point, Nyriss revealed the conspiracy to Scourge, and in order to convince him to join their cause she took him to the planet Nathema. However, at the same time Revan had been retracing his steps with the help of his ally Canderous Ordo on Rekkiad. Discovering the existence of the Empire and the location of Nathema, Revan traveled there with his droid companion T3-M4 aboard their ship the Ebon Hawk. Both Sith and Jedi arrived at the same time, though Revan did not detect Nyriss' ship at first. The Dark Councillor and Scourge, now entirely believing in the conspiracy's cause, shot down the Ebon Hawk and captured the Jedi Master, who Nyriss identified as Revan. The Emperor had publicly claimed that Revan and Malak were executed, but Nyriss realized that he had instead sent the pair back as an advance force.

Revan was held in captivity by Nyriss for four years, tortured under the direction of Lord Scourge, until Revan's former lieutenant Meetra Surik&mdash;better known as the Jedi Exile&mdash;followed her friend's trail to Dromund Kaas with T3-M4. Scourge, who had come to trust Revan during the last four years, decided to join forces with Surik and Revan to destroy the Emperor. As part of their plan, Scourge approached the Emperor and exposed Nyriss' conspiracy&mdash;careful to exclude his role in the plot&mdash;so that the Emperor would take action against the Dark Councillor. However, the Emperor did not act as Scourge expected: instead of simply eliminating the conspirators, the Emperor decided to purge the entire Dark Council.

The Emperor summoned the nine loyal members of the Council to his chambers in the Citadel, where he killed them and dispatched the Imperial Guard to destroy the estates of the three traitorous Councillors with the full force of the Imperial Military. The other three members of the Dark Council were caught entirely by surprise, and the Guard decimated their entire power base and all who were loyal to the conspirators. Fortunately, Revan was freed by Scourge and Surik during the chaos, and the trio prepared to end the threat the Emperor posed once and for all. Revan, Scourge, Surik, and T3-M4 infiltrated the Imperial Citadel and then fought their way past the Imperial Guard, facing the Emperor himself in his throne room. Revan and his astromech droid charged their enemy, causing the Emperor to blast the Jedi Master with the Force. Advancing on his opponent, the Sith attempted to dominate Revan's mind once again, but the Jedi opened himself to both the light and dark sides to unleash the Force in its purest form&mdash;an attack that sent the Emperor flying backwards.

When Revan attempted to charge the distracted Emperor, the Sith unleashed a blast of Force lightning that sent the Jedi Master screaming to the floor, and blasted T3-M4 into shrapnel when the astromech attacked with its flamethrower. Picking up his fallen foe's lightsaber, the Emperor attempted to kill Revan with the weapon but was stopped when Surik knocked it out of the Sith's hands with her own weapon. Faced by Surik, Revan, and Scourge, the Emperor expressed his disappointment with the Sith Lord&mdash;who was suddenly overcome with visions of the future. Realizing that it was not their destiny to defeat the Emperor, Scourge chose to betray his allies by stabbing Surik in the back and distracting Revan enough for the Emperor to blast the Jedi Master with more lightning.

Testing Scourge's loyalty, the Emperor ordered the Sith to kill Revan, but stopped him just before the lightsaber reached its mark. The Emperor decided to imprison Revan, prolonging his life indefinitely through a combination of Sith alchemy and technology and placing the Jedi Master in a specially constructed prison in the heart of the impossible-to-navigate Maelstrom Nebula. Scourge, who claimed to have deceived the two Jedi in order to bring them before the Emperor, was rewarded with the position of Emperor's Wrath and the same immortality Revan received.

Surik's spirit survived the death of her body, however, and would remain faithfully at her friend's side while the Emperor fed off of Revan's strength and knowledge. With the strength Surik lent him, Revan was able to fight the Emperor's control and even influence the Emperor in return, tempering the Sith leader's desire to restart war and postponing the renewal of conflict with the Republic for almost three centuries.

Great Galactic War
"The Emperor has manipulated events for centuries toward one goal: performing an even greater ritual that will destroy this galaxy."

- Lord Scourge

However, the Emperor's will could not be stopped, only slowed&mdash;and in 3,681 BBY, the Empire returned to the known galaxy. Beginning with an encounter in the Tingel Arm and the subsequent conquest of the Aparo sector the Empire waged a successful war on the Republic in what came to be called the Great Galactic War. Under the direction of the Dark Council and the Empire's greatest military leaders, the Empire quickly gained the upper hand during the twenty-eight-year conflict, though the Republic gained some ground with occasional victories.

In the years before the war, the Emperor had also taken on an apprentice in Exal Kressh&mdash;a hybrid Human-Sith descendant of Ludo Kressh. He had also begun to experimented with combining different Force techniques, and through a successful combination of mental domination and transference of his consciousness he intended to make Kressh the first of his "children". When Kressh realized that the Emperor intended to hollow out her mind and possess her, she fled her duties in the Kathol Rift into Republic space, where she began feeding the Republic information. The Emperor ordered the Dark Council to retrieve her, and the Council summoned the Sith apprentice Teneb Kel to Dromund Kaas. There, Kel was brought before the Emperor&mdash;whose current Voice was a young Human male&mdash;and ordered to find Kressh in the Lenico system.

Kel would chase Kressh across the galaxy, encountering her several times and failing to capture her until he finally succeeded in killing her in the depths of the Sith Academy on Korriban. Learning why Kressh had fled the Emperor, Kel returned to the Council and demanded a place on the Dark Council in exchange for the information. The Council accepted, granting Kel the title of Darth Thanaton, and learned of the Children of the Emperor&mdash;the Emperor intended to repeat the process he had attempted with Kressh, transforming young children into extensions of his will.

At the orders of the Emperor, Force-sensitive children of many species were taken from their families and entered into a special group at the Sith Academy. These children came from many different places and backgrounds: Syo Bakarn was a member of a Corellian noble house on Corellia, Augin Blaesus was from the Core World of Erigorm, and Kira Carsen was born on Dromund Kaas itself. At different points during their training, each of the children were brought before the Emperor, where they were infused with the Emperor's strength and bound to his mind and will. Syo Bakarn became Emperor's First Son, shielding the other Children from detection, and the Children were sent out into the galaxy as the ultimate undercover agents.

Unless the Emperor willed it, his Children knew nothing of their connection to the Sith or even their Force-sensitivity, and they became high-ranking individuals with influence across the galaxy. Some were planetary representatives, others members of the Republic Military, and some even became members of the Jedi Order itself. Kira Carsen managed to escape Imperial space when she realized what the Emperor was doing to her, though she would eventually draw the Emperor's attention during her time as a member of the Jedi Order.

As the war neared the end of its third decade, Revan's influence on the Emperor resulted in something that many Sith found surprising&mdash;plans for peace. After many years of planning, the Sith Lord Darth Baras led a delegation to approach the Republic with an offer of peace in 3,653 BBY. But while peace negotiations were underway on the planet Alderaan, an armada under Darth Angral attacked the Republic capital of Coruscant and help it captive. Using Coruscant as a bargaining chip, the Empire forced the Republic to sign the Treaty of Coruscant and end the Great Galactic War. However, after the Treaty's completion, the Emperor retreated back into seclusion and left the Empire under the control of the Dark Council.

Cold War
"I see futures in you. Futures I will not allow. Your future ends here."

- The Emperor, to the Jedi Knight later known as the Hero of Tython

The signing of the Treaty began a period that soon came to be called the Cold War. Not long after the Treaty, a new world named Voss was discovered by the Empire, and reports delivered by Darth Baras on the Force-sensitive Voss species intrigued the Emperor. The species were ruled by a group of Mystics whose prophecies were always accurate, and the Emperor desired to have one of them as his Voice. As a result, an Imperial force attacked the planet while the agents of the Emperor's Hand kidnapped a Mystic from the surface. The Hand, a group of shadowy individuals who served as the agents of the Emperor's will, were successful in capturing the Mystic, although the Voss annihilated the attacking force. The Emperor would study his captive's abilities throughout the Cold War, utilizing the Voss' prophetic powers to see visions of the future.

About a decade after the Treaty of Coruscant, a young Jedi Knight drew the ire of Darth Angral when the Jedi killed the Sith's son Tarnis on Coruscant. Driven mad with grief, Angral began to wage war against the Republic using stolen superweapons&mdash;something that caused the Emperor to take an interest in the subject of Angral's wrath. When Angral encountered the Knight's apprentice Kira Carsen on Ord Mantell, the Sith Lord was surprised to learn that the Padawan was a former Child&mdash;and he informed the Emperor almost immediately. Desiring to control Carsen once again, the Emperor sent the Child Valis to retrieve her.

On the Emperor's orders, Valis lured Carsen and her master to an abandoned mining facility and battled the pair in an attempt to recapture Carsen. When Carsen and the Knight finally faced Darth Angral aboard his flagship Oppressor, the Emperor chose that moment to take control of her. At the Emperor's orders, Angral battled the Knight to the death, and the Emperor took full control of Carsen when Angral fell to the Jedi's blade. However, with help from her master, Carsen was able to summon a wall of light to permanently sever her connection to the Emperor. The loss of Carsen angered the Emperor, but he soon became suspicious of the Knight&mdash;who became known as the Hero of Tython after the battle with Angral &mdash;and grew wary of the Jedi's power.

The Jedi threat
"You are mine. Servants. Slaves. Weapons. And you will obey&hellip;"

- The Emperor takes control of the Jedi strike team

Around 3,642 BBY,, the tenuous peace brought by the Treaty of Coruscant began to collapse. The Emperor's hold on Revan was threatened when the ghost of Meetra Surik enlisted the aid of the Jedi Master Oteg and an elite strike team composed of Republic soldiers and Jedi to free the imprisoned Jedi from the heart of the Maelstrom. Without Revan's influence, the Emperor began to accelerate his plans for galactic annihilation and fueled the flames of war across the galaxy. When the Emperor learned that the former Dark Councillor Sajar&mdash;now the Padawan of Jedi Master Tol Braga&mdash;was on the planet Quesh, the Emperor dispatched his Wrath to capture Sajar.

Lord Scourge failed, however, when he encountered the Hero of Tython and recognized the Jedi as the one he had seen in his visions three hundred years ago. Knowing of the Emperor's interest in the Hero, Scourge returned empty-handed to his master and delivered the news that the Knight had joined a strike team that Tol Braga was assembling&mdash;a strike team with the purpose of capturing and redeeming the Emperor. The Emperor sent a detachment of the Imperial Guard, under the command of a Guardsman Lassicar, to follow the Jedi to the planet Hoth, and Lassicar soon reported that the strike team intended to infiltrate the Emperor's personal space station. On Balmorra, the Hero and Jedi Master Warren Sedoru recovered the prototype of the cloaking device shielding the fortress, and Lassicar's men failed in their attempts to capture the Hero and prevent the acquisition of the fortress' schematics.

When the strike team landed aboard the Emperor's fortress, they were forced to fight through the Imperial Guard and Sithspawn known as Harrowers to reach the Emperor, and the first Jedi to enter the Emperor's throne room were the Hero and Kira Carsen. While the Emperor watched from his throne, Lord Scourge battled the pair in a fierce duel, but the Wrath was ultimately defeated by the two Jedi. At that moment, Master Braga, Master Sedoru, and the Jedi Knight Leeha Narezz arrived in the throne room, and Braga approached the Emperor's throne to request that he accompany the Jedi back to Tython. Leaping down from his throne, the Emperor mocked the Kel Dor for his pride and self-righteousness, surprising the strike team with his knowledge of their identities.

Raising his hands, the Emperor let loose a blazing storm of violet lightning that sent Narezz and Sedoru crashing to the floor while Braga, Carsen and the Hero struggled to deflect it. It was not long before Braga and then Carsen succumbed to the Emperor's attack as well, leaving only the Knight to advance slowly against the storm. The Emperor then summoned a ball of pure dark side energy in his hands and unleashed his full power against the Hero, throwing the Jedi to the floor as the Emperor began to dominate the minds of his fallen enemies. Informing them that they were now his slaves and weapons, he unleashed another blast of lightning that sent them all into unconsciousness.

True to his word, the Emperor bound the Jedi to his will and turned them to the dark side. His servants spent several months retraining them as Sith, transforming the fallen Jedi into the Emperor's loyal agents, and the Hero was placed under the tutelage of Overseer Chaskar. However, the Knight was finally freed from the Emperor's control by the spirit of Orgus Din, and the Hero escaped back to Tython with the help of Lord Scourge. The former Emperor's Wrath revealed to the Jedi Council that the Emperor intended to complete the life-consuming ritual again on a galactic scale, but the ritual required a sacrifice of billions of simultaneous deaths to start.<ref name=" To that end, the Emperor sent the high-ranking Executor Krannus and his death cult to the recently discovered Republic prison world of Belsavis. Knowing that the fanatically loyal cult would gladly sacrifice their lives for him, the Emperor orchestrated an Imperial attack to serve as a distraction so that Krannus could detonate the planet's power core; an explosion that would ripple through hyperspace and consume all of the neighboring systems.

Baras' machinations and the ritual
"These petty conflicts mean nothing. The concerns of this galaxy are meaningless. Once I ascend, all will be tranquil in this galaxy. It is my promise to you. Now, strike!"

- The Emperor orders his Wrath to kill the Voice and free his essence

While the Hero and Lord Scourge rushed to Belsavis, the Emperor was baited into traveling to the planet Voss by Darth Baras. Baras had alerted his leader to the presence of a dark side entity known as Sel-Makor on the planet Voss, and the Emperor had traveled there to see if Sel-Makor's secrets could aid him in completing the ritual. However, Baras was manipulating the Emperor&mdash;when the Voss body that the Emperor was occupying entered Sel-Makor's resting place in the Dark Heart, the Emperor discovered that he could not leave. Sel-Makor began to fight the Emperor for control of the Voice, silencing the Emperor and cutting him off from the Hand.

The Emperor's last instruction was for the Hand to recruit the apprentice of Darth Baras as his new Wrath. Baras' apprentice had been betrayed by the Sith Lord on the planet Quesh, and the Hand sent the new Wrath to eliminate Baras' sister Darth Ekkage before she could escape her prison on Belsavis. In a moment of strength, the Emperor was able to send a message to the Hand that explained his predicament. As a result, the Emperor's Wrath was able to locate the Emperor in the Dark Heart, and after driving Sel-Makor from the Emperor's host the Wrath fulfilled the Emperor's request and killed the Voice. This allowed the essence of the Emperor to return to his Hand, who aided their master in inhabiting the body of a human male.

One of the Emperor's first actions was to send the Sith Lord Fulminiss, a renowned Sith sorcerer who excelled at mass extinction through Sith magic, to Voss so that he could start the ritual. On the Emperor's orders, the fallen Narezz set a trap for the Hero of Tython using her lover Jomar Chul on the Korriban's Flame space station, but the Hero was able to defeat the Nautolan Jedi and break the Emperor's control over her.

Final confrontation
"I will not be contained. I cannot be redeemed. Death is all that remains, and you will not kill me. [...] I will not be your trophy. If I must die, I choose how&mdash;and everything dies with me."

- The Emperor's last words to the Hero

The Hero also succeeded in halting Fulminiss' plans on Voss, preventing the Sith from using Sel-Makor to unleash a plague of madness across the planet, and freed Warren Sedoru from the Emperor's control after the fallen Jedi Master captured the Republic flagship Valiant. Unconcerned at the recent losses, the Emperor dispatched Tol Braga to the embattled world of Corellia, where the Kel Dor Dark Jedi began to aid the Imperial military in their battle for control of the planet. However, Braga's true assignment was to cause massive civilian casualties in order to start the Emperor's ritual, and the Jedi Order soon marshaled all available Jedi and placed them under the Hero's command on Corellia to combat Braga's plans.

After the Hero's forces foiled several of Braga's attempts to massacre civilians, the Emperor ordered the Kel Dor to detonate the Imperial battle cruiser Eclipse above the Government District of Corellia's Coronet City. The corrupted Jedi Master&mdash;who had long ago accepted his fate and now served the Emperor willingly&mdash;complied with his master's instructions, but the Hero of Tython boarded the cruiser and managed to disable the ship's engines before detonation. In the process, the Knight also defeated Braga and managed to draw him back to the light side after refusing to end the Jedi Master's suffering.

After learning of the Emperor's location on Dromund Kaas from Braga, the Hero embarked on a mission to confront the Sith in the Dark Temple while an invasion force under the command of Grand Master Satele Shan attacked the Imperial capital. Well aware of his enemy's presence and intention, the Emperor waited in the depths of the Dark Temple as the Hero and the astromech droid T7-O1 fought their way through the Imperial military and the temple's defenses. As a droid, T7-O1 was the only one of the Jedi's companions that could safely confront the Emperor without falling under the Sith's control, but the Hero and T7-O1 were forced to rescue one of the other members of their crew when the companion was pinned down by Imperial forces.

When his enemies arrived in the Dark Temple's throne room, the Emperor arose from his throne and mocked the Jedi for sacrificing strength to rescue an ally before unleashing a bolt of violet lightning. The Hero intercepted the attack with a lightsaber, and the Emperor summoned three mindform duplicates of himself to attack the Knight as he slowly descended the steps from his throne. The Jedi and T7-O1 made quick work of the phantoms by the time he reached the bottom, and the Emperor remained unfazed when his opponent's weapon was raised in a guard stance. The Hero questioned the Sith's desire to consume the galaxy, but the Emperor informed the Knight that his mind and abilities were beyond the comprehension of mortals&mdash;he would have the power to accomplish anything he desired once the ritual was complete, and he would do as he wish while waiting for the cycle of life to begin again.

Claiming that he would outlast everything and that his will could not be stopped, the Emperor summoned more duplicates of himself and drew his own lightsaber. Both the Emperor and his phantoms utilized Sith magic and lightning as they battled the Hero and T7-O1, vanishing and reappearing within the dimly lit chamber to toy with his opponent's senses. But to the Emperor's surprise, the Jedi slowly but surely gained the upper hand in their battle, cutting down the Sith's duplicates one by one and battering away at the Emperor's defenses. Finally, the phantom Emperors dissolved into swirls of dark side energy and the Hero's true opponent fell to his knees before the steps. However, when the Knight approached the seemingly injured Emperor, the Sith unleashed an explosive blast of Force lightning that sent his opponent sliding back across the floor.

The Emperor acknowledged his enemy's immense power, but mocked the Jedi's limiting adherence to the light side of the Force before unleashing a second, more powerful blast of lightning. The Hero managed to catch the attack on the blade of a lightsaber, and the two opponents advanced across the room towards each other as the Emperor continued to blast the Jedi with lightning, but as they reached each other the Knight spun to the side and delivered a devastating strike to the Emperor's side. The Sith fell to the floor, but lightning continued to crackle around him as the he tried and failed to rise, and he defiantly declared that he would never be redeemed or contained. Brushing off the Hero's claims that he would face justice, the Emperor tried again to rise but fell to the floor.

Believing the Emperor was dead, the Jedi contacted Lord Scourge to report success, and the former Emperor's Wrath informed his ally that the Emperor was not yet defeated. The Emperor's essence left his fallen Voice and warned the Hero that he would take the Jedi with him if he had to die, releasing a massive amount of dark side energy from the body of the Voice. The energy rippled through the Dark Temple and began to collapse the structure, so the Jedi and T7-O1 fled the structure and returned to their ship. The Emperor's essence returned to his true body and entered a deep slumber in order to recuperate, as the battle with the Hero had grievously wounded the Sith, but the rest of the Empire believed that their leader had fallen. While his Hand tended to and guarded his body, the Emperor slowly recovered from the devastating injury that the Hero had dealt him by killing the Voice.

Legacy
The Emperor ruled the Empire for over thirteen hundred years, and during that time he exerted an enormous psychological influence on his people. In the Empire, he was viewed as both a god and king&mdash;almost every citizen of the Empire were more than willing to sacrifice their life in the service of their Emperor. He was the source of many common phrases and utterances in Imperial culture, such as "Glory to the Emperor", "Long Live the Emperor", and "It's enough to wake the Emperor".

Eventually, Vitiate passed away, and thousands of years later, Darth Plagueis–himself obsessed with achieving immortality–mused that Vitiate was the only Sith Lord in existence who had come close to achieving the secret.

Personality and traits
"If you kill everyone in the galaxy, you'll be Emperor of nothing. What's the point of all this?''" "''You discern a fraction of reality. Beyond these stars exist other galaxies, other worlds, other beings. I will experience or ignore them as I wish. I will spend eternity becoming everything: a farmer, an artist, a simple man. When the last living thing in the universe finally dies, I will enjoy peace and wait for the cycle to begin again."

- The Hero of Tython and the Emperor

Even as a child, the Emperor was unusual in that he seemed to lack emotion and empathy &mdash;something that would remain constant throughout his life, regardless of the host body he would use. Tenebrae felt no affection for his mother, father, or birth father, as he killed each of them without mercy, and it was not long after his powers manifested that the child discovered how to feed off of the fear and suffering of those around him. As Lord Vitiate, he gained a reputation as a scholar more than a warrior, and his hunger for power soon outstripped all other desires.

The ritual performed on Nathema affected the Emperor beyond just his strength in the Force&mdash;the price of immortality meant that the Emperor no longer experienced any of the senses that normal people possessed. Taste, touch, smell, color, and even emotion meant nothing to the Emperor, as he lacked the capacity to experience any of them. The only thing the Emperor did feel was fear&mdash;fear of death. While the Emperor hid it well, his fear of death motivated every action and plan the Emperor ever made, and it drove him to try and repeat the life-consuming ritual on a galactic scale. The Emperor was completely devoid of all empathy, and cared nothing for the hopes and desires of other living beings. To him, all others were like ants, and his will was utter and absolute.

Powers and Abilities
"There is no death; there is only the Force&mdash;and I am its master."

- The Sith Emperor

Even as a child, the Sith Emperor possessed immense strength in the Force, and his abilities began to manifest themselves at the age of six. He used his newfound powers to snap his adoptive father's neck with a thought, and tortured his mother with the Force for months while feeding on her fear and pain. As his powers grew, Tenebrae continued to gorge himself on the fear and suffering of those who he tortured in public execution, and at the age of thirteen he confronted his real father&mdash;the Sith Lord Dramath&mdash;he was able to strip the man of both his sanity and his power in the Force.

Tenebrae's power at the age of thirteen was great enough for Marka Ragnos, the current Dark Lord of the Sith, to acknowledge the teenager's strength and grant him the title of Lord Vitiate. Vitiate soon gained a reputation as a scholar, spending much of the next century studying the secrets of the dark side. He soon gained an immense knowledge of Sith sorcery, becoming one of the most powerful practitioners of both Sith magic and Sith alchemy throughout history, and devised complex rituals to warp reality and life itself. Another one of Vitiate's specialties was in the domination of his opponent's minds, as he was able to dominate the minds of eight thousand Sith Lords and bind them to his will. He then used their combined power to perform the most complex ritual of Sith magic ever performed, ripping the Force from the entire planet of Nathema and absorbing the combined life-force of every living thing on the surface.

As Emperor, he spent much of his rule experimenting even further with the dark side, discovering many lost techniques and increasing his immense power even more. While his body was harmed by the ravaging effects of the dark side, the technique of transfer essence allowed the Emperor to move his consciousness&mdash;which had been made immortal as a result of the ritual on Nathema&mdash;between bodies and sustain his life indefinitely. By combining various Force techniques, the Emperor was also able to imbue portions of his consciousness into infants, transforming these Children of the Emperor into extensions of his will. The Emperor could suppress his Children's personas and even their Force-sensitivity, making them the ultimate covert operatives, and even possess them like puppets.

The Emperor's rituals on Dromund Kaas warped the planet's very atmosphere, creating perpetual lightning storms, and he became a master of manipulating objects and the environment with the Force. He was easily able to block T3-M4's flamethrower by wrapping the Force around himself, and could send Revan flying across his throne room with barely an effort. The Emperor could conjure storms of Force lightning, and he disintegrated T3-M4 with just a thought by blasting the astromech droid into shrapnel. Sith magic also enabled the Emperor to create physical duplicates of himself while battling the Hero of Tython. When necessary, the Emperor would utilize his red-bladed lightsaber

Behind the scenes
"You harness immense power&mdash;but you lack the purity of will to direct it. I will not be contained. I cannot be redeemed. Death is all that remains, and you will not kill me."

- The Emperor in a vision to Jedi Knight players, during the mission "The Trials"

The Sith Emperor and his Empire were first mentioned, albeit indirectly, in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords as the mysterious threat that Revan had left to confront after the end of the previous game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. His first true appearance was in the Star Wars: The Old Republic series of comics, which served as backstory for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The 2011 novel Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan shed light on the Emperor's backstory, revealing that he had been born Tenebrae on the planet Meridraas. Tenebrae's rise to power as Lord Vitiate was also explained, as well as the origins of Vitiate's Empire itself. While he is mentioned throughout The Old Republic, the Emperor only appears in person in the Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight class storylines. He appears in "Descent", the final mission of Act II for the Jedi Knight, where the Knight boards the Emperor's space station. The attempt to capture him fails, and the Emperor turns the player to the dark side in a cutscene. His next true appearance is in the Sith Warrior mission "The Voice of Darkness" on Voss, where the player is forced to battle the Emperor's Voice&mdash;which had been possessed by Sel-Makor&mdash;before killing the Voice and freeing the Emperor's essence. The Emperor can also appear in a vision to Jedi Knight players if they choose to complete the mission "The Trials" on Voss, while players of other classes will receive visions of their enemies taken from their respective finales.

The Act III finale of the Jedi Knight storyline features a final confrontation with the Emperor on Dromund Kaas, where the Knight fights through the Dark Temple to reach him. When one of the player's companions is under attack, the player can choose to rescue their companion for light side points at the cost of giving the Emperor time to "increase" his strength. Alternatively, they can choose to leave their companion to die for dark side points, but the Emperor remains the same in terms of game mechanics either way. After the Emperor is defeated, the player is presented with two light side options and a dark side option: tell the Emperor that he will face justice, promise the Sith that he will be redeemed, or simply kill the Emperor. The first two options give light side points, but the Emperor still collapses and seemingly dies before exploding into dark side energy after the player speaks with Lord Scourge. The Emperor's Voice dies as a result of the collapsing building and wounds inflicted by the Knight, but it is revealed in a message to Sith Warrior players that the Emperor's essence survived and returned to another body, where he entered a deep sleep under the care of his Hand to recover his strength.

The name "Tenebrae" is Latin for darkness, gloom or obscurity, signifying the fact that Tenebrae was born from a peasant woman and eventually became a powerful Sith Lord. His Sith title of Vitiate, bestowed upon him by Marka Ragnos, is also Latin: in this case, it means "having been corrupted, defiled, or voided". The English word vitiate means to spoil, impair, weaken, or corrupt, referencing the Emperor's ability to corrupt even the most noble of Jedi&mdash;including Revan, Tol Braga, and the Hero of Tython. The Emperor was voiced by Doug Bradley.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire Act 1: Shades of the Sith
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire Act 2: The Broken World
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire Act 3: Burn the Future
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic, Threat of Peace Act 1: Treaty of Coruscant
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived
 * Timeline 1: Treaty of Coruscant
 * Timeline 4: The Empire Changes Strategy
 * Timeline 5: The Battle of Bothawui
 * Timeline 6: Onslaught of the Sith Empire
 * Timeline 7: Peace for the Republic?
 * Timeline 8: The Jedi Civil War
 * Timeline 9: The Mandalorian Wars
 * Timeline 10: The Exar Kun War
 * Timeline 11: Rebirth of the Sith Empire
 * Timeline 12: The Great Hyperspace War
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation
 * Star Wars: Darth Plagueis