Tenebrae

I see a lot of people on the SWTOR fanbase speculating on just how old the spiritual vestige/imprint of Tenebrae that appeared in the Echoes of Oblivion story and Lingering Darkness story is. After analysing the lore and timeline of the Emperor, and refreshing my mind around Tenebrae by watching video gameplays and playing the game itself, I managed to piece the puzzles together and make a cohesive theory on how old Tenebrae's spiritual imprint/plague is, along with a dark twist that I am about to include at the end of this theory.

Here is what we know so far....

• According to the Revan novel, The Emperor is described as a Sith pureblood with entirely pure pitch black eyes as black as the void itself. Fits his description in EOO.

• According to the SWTOR Encyclopedia, it all but confirms that Vitiate did not start using other bodies, such as Valkorion or the Emperor's Voice, until after the Revan novel, as it says that Revan's near assination attempt on him in the Revan novel scared him so much that he decided to keep his true original black eyed Sith pureblood body from harm, and used his essence to start using host bodies, like Valkorion or the Emperor's Voice.

• The Emperor, sometime before or after the Revan novel, carved an ancient Sith ritual into his real body that acted as a sort of "imprint" or vestige of an outdated version of his essence. It would manifest itself as a plague if the body is destroyed and feed off of the victims's minds and memories to recontruct of what the imrpint believes Tenebrae might have been. Other than the Valkorion and Vitiate form in the hivemind mindscape, who were drawn and manifested from the memories of Satele Shan and her padawans, the Tenebrae form we see in Echoes of Oblivion is the only form the imprint genuienly is familiar with and has experiences with, because that was the form that the plague was made from and carved into. So the Tenebrae form, the way it acts and behaves, is the key to understanding how old the this plague is.

This all but confirms that Tenebrae was still in his OG true Sith body in the Revan book. Now that we know that, we need to know...how old is the spiritual imprint/plague that was carved into Tenebrae's body? When did he create it? Well...here is some evidence I found that supports how old it is.

• If you ask Darth Marr's ghost on how long ago this impression of Tenebrae was made, he guesses but strongly thinks that it must have been long before their time, even before Revan's time he thinks. He admits he is guessing but there are other evidence to support this case.

• The Tenebrae form we see in Echoes of Oblivion, instead of being dressed in modern Sith Empire armor or sith robes like most Sith do, is actually dressed in a very outdated "Egyptian King style" Sith outfit that matches the outfits of great Sith Lords from the original ancient Sith Empire. As we know in the Tales of the Jedi comics, Sith Lords of the original Sith Empire before the Great Hyperspace War dressed in these very fancy, golden and jewelry king outfit armor and dresses, examples include Marka Ragnos, Ludo Kressh, and Naga Sadow. So Tenebrae being dressed like this in EOO implies that this plague and memory of him is reallly, really old, possibly ancient, from a time earlier in Tenebrae's life.

• The Tenebrae form in EOO condemns the original version of himself that we killed back in KOTET to be too complacent, too "distracted by mortal concerns". Such as a family in Valkorion's case, and wars, and also empires. Notices how Tenebrae says wars and empires in plural term instead of singular, implying that the Tenebrae form is not just condemning his original self for being distracted by ruling the Eternal Empire, but also the Sith Empire itself. This implies that the memory of Tenebrae predates the time when Tenebrae became Sith Emperor.

• One thing about Tenebrae/Vitiate that made him different after the Ritual of Nathema that made him immortal was his voice. It has a very damned rebverating demonic echo and resonances to it, "almost as if a great multitude were speaking his words in perfect symphony" according to the Revan novel. However, when we meet the old memory of Tenebrae in Echoes of Oblivion, he has a singular normal dude's voice. No demonic resonance to it, implying that this memory and plague of Tenebrae was made BEFORE the Ritual of Nathema.

• One thing we have to know about Tenebrae/Vitiate is that after he gained immortality after the Ritual of Nathema is that it came with a price. Tenebrae would lose all of his sense of emotions. Taste, smell, and touch would mean nothing to him, as well as sadness, and anger. He would act very calm, cold, and emotionless, and rarely act out of raw anger unless he is really pissed off. In the Revan novel and SWTOR, the Sith Emperor Vitiate is very emotionless, calm, calculating, and ruthless in a very emotionless way. Vitiate even said to Scourge in the Revan novel when he "blessed" Scourge with the same immortality that Scourge would lose all of his emotions and become mentally, physically, and emotionally numb. This is true, Scourge in SWTOR is very emotionless, and doesn't get his emotions back until after he loses his immortality when Vitiate's spirit died. Why am i bringing this up? Well....

• As I said in the previous bullet list, beings who suffer the immortality of Nathema have to sacrifices emotions and the likes of that, even Tenebrae/Vitiate himself went through that. They become cold, ruthless and emotionless and expressionless beings. However, the memory of Tenebrae that we meet in Echoes of Oblivion...is exactly the opposite of that. Instead of the cold, calculating Emperor we know, the Tenebrae memory is very very emotional, and full of expression. He cackles a lot, makes annoyed or angry faces, puts so much rage and emotion into his voice, and he gets easily annoyed and anrgy and expresses it clearly. This further implies that the memory and plague of Tenebrae from EOO predates his immortality ritual in the Ritual of Nathema.

Okay, so, what's my theory? My theory is that the imprint of Tenebrae that we face in Echoes of Oblivion was made several decades before the Great Hyperspace War and the Ritual of Nathema. Given that Tenebrae looks limek a healthy young man in EOO, I suspect it was sometime early in his young adulthood reign as Lord Vitiate of Nathema when he carved this Sith ritual into his body.

Why did he make the imprint plague ritual? I suspect that this was Tenebrae's earliest attempt on trying to achieve immortality, so he made this imprint and memory vestige of himself into his body. However, several decades later, during the Great Hyperspace War when he was old, Tenebrae/Vitiate decied that he wanted to achieve more immortlaity, hence why he did the Ritual of Nathema and became virtually immortal. Even though he carved the plague ritual into his body, he still used his body until after the Revan novel, more than a thousand years later

However, if the memory and imprint of Tenebrae was made early during Tenebrae's reign on Nathema, being made several decades before the Ritual of Nathema and the Great Hyperspace War, why does it have the same powers, if not, more power than the OG version of himself when it should be weaker, given it was from a time when Tenebrae was mortal? My theory is that Tenebrae was still a very powerful Sith Lord even when he was a mortal pureblood, and he spent heavy ammounts of dark side rituals and deep sorcery to make this plague very potent. When he consumed Nathema decades later and became immortal and very potent even more, it also "juiced up" the potency of the imprint carved into his body decades earlier as well. Also, the plague ritual also is know for not only sucking the memories of it's victims, but also it's powers too. Since Satele and her padawans all combined are very powerful, and given that the plague was very potent and feeding off of their combined strenght, it would make sense as to why the memory of Tenebrae in Echoes of Oblivon is super overpowered even though it was made from a time before the Ritual of Nathema.

Alright, to wrap this all up, here is the dark twist at the end of my theory. Given that Vitiate was STILL in his OG body in the Revan novel and didn't use other bodies until after the book, my dark twist theory is that since he was in his original body still, Vitiate still had the plague/imprint ritual inisde of him. Had Revan, T3-M4, Scourge, and Meetra Surik succeeded in killing Vitiate and Scourge didn't step in, things would have been disaterous. Had Vitiate been struck down, his body would have released the plague and wpould infect Revan, Meetra, and Scourge and reconstruct a new Tenebrae.

This is my theory. It took a long time for me to process all of this, but I think it makes sense in the end. Thank you and have a nice day :)

I personally would say Vitiate(Valkorion, Tenebrae, The Emperor) however you know him as.

Intro:

The Immortal Emperor, for me, both succeeds and fails at being an interesting villain or an effective antagonist.

For the longest time, I really did not get why I felt like this, but now I believe I have found the answer as to why I find Valkorion such a mixed bag as an addition to the Sith Emperor’s story and I hope you enjoy reading my subjective take on the Old Republic’s main villain.

The expansion on his character:

It is interesting to see the Sith Emperor on a closer, more personal, level as he was portrayed pretty stereotypically as a generic doomsday villain big bad before the KotFE expansion who just wants to consume everything to become a god.

Pretty standard bad guy stuff right?

Well, actually yes but with some nuance: in the Jedi Knight storyline, the Sith Emperor tells the Hero of Tython why he wants to consume the Galaxy, which he reveals is so that he could travel to other galaxies experienxe everything like the life a “farmer”, “artist” or just that of a “simple man”. In other words, he wants life in it’s full breath at the expense of everyone else’s.

I feel this point is touched on and expanded upon in KotFE: we see that outside of being a tyrannical Sith Lord, he is capable of being a family man and he himself is a ruler that his Eternal Empire considers both good and heroic.

Yet, he ultimately doesn’t care about his family at all and the only reason why he found his Eternal Empire to be more worthy than the Sith is because they literally molded their whole culture around himself (unlike the Sith who, despite their obedience to him, maintained their individualistic roots beyond Vitiate), and I think that’s the point: despite how wise he claims to be and how inferior or shortsighted he deems everyone around him, Tenebrae, at his core, ultimately never grew beyond being a selfish and murderous being.

Fitting, that a man who wanted the ultimate evolution and plurality of states of being for himself, actually never changed anything about himself; remaining a narcissistic, self-absorbed and death-fearing child from beginning to end.

An unfocused goal for the character:

However, I do have some gripes with how he is portrayed and it mostly has to do with consistency and threat level. When we see Vitiate at the end of “The Rise of the Emperor” he is a true menace who is absolutely ready to devour the whole Galaxy just so he can get the power he desires. He brainwashed everyone in Ziost, ruthlessly consumed the whole planet and our character was completely and utterly powerless to stop him.

That whole arc elevated his threat level to a state of horror that Nihilus himself might envy, right?

Yes… for about a minute before promptly being killed in the next expansion and then doing nothing other than try (and fail) to invoke a bad impersonation of Kreia on the main character and sit around as a ghost. To make matters worse, during both KotFE and KotET, nothing is done to reach the same levels of threat he had at Ziost and even downplays them, showing fear at the sight of Vaylin… who is literally killed off the moment before we can face Valkorion.

But the greatest thing that baffles me is how they decided to essentially retcon his motivations by saying that he now just wants to rule the Galaxy as Immortal Emperor. Really? He is an entity of 1,300 years who remained committed to the single goal to kill anything and everything so that he could have the universe now just wants to rule this Galaxy because he… changed his mind? Suddenly? On a whim?

At first I thought he was just manipulating the player but no, when the player reads his mind he explicitly says that he will rule as Immortal Emperor.

After this, coupled with the above, the menace and apocalyptic threat he previously evoked dropped down to zero: by the time I was about to fight him, I have to tragically say that engaging Darth Malak in KotOR felt more tense than this fight. A disappointment, considering the character we are talking about should have been way above Malak in terms of scale.

Additionally, his later appearance in Echoes of Oblivion, while trying to evoke a sense of grandeur and closure by pulling a TROS and invoking all spirits he killed, they ultimately reduce him to a side dungeon boss that is defeated swiftly after his “resurrection”. It only takes so much of those before the novelty of your threat dies off.

Conclusion:

Looking at forums and videos, there is a wide range of people who either think this character is “brilliantly written” or that he is a just a cheap copy of Nihilus and Palpatine molded into one. I think neither is the case: he is a horrifying apocalyptic villain with interesting motivations who was given more complexity later that in some cases, enriched his character and in some others, diminished him.

So what did ‘Valkorion’ as a concept, do for the Emperor?

I myself, personally conclude that the expansion of personality of the Emperor was good in its concept, but it fell short in execution due to not reconciling both aspects of the character as naturally as they could have; ultimately creating too big of a narrative and character inconsistency for his story to land properly. They tried to create a personal antagonist out of a threatening force of nature and we ended up with an unfocused character who could never fully live up to being either of them.

Anyways, now that I’ve written my bible on the subject, what do you guys think?

Whoever made this is a genius!

Legends characters some how make it into canon with no story at all because one person says there name and then everyone forgets about them and they have no story? What is up with that? Take Darth Revan or Exar Kun :hope I spelled his name right: And Tenebrea and etc someone says there NAME once in Canon and now there in canon with no story AT ALL which half of that makes no SENSE take Exur what about the Rakghoul's? He made what about that? Are the Rakghoul's canon along with the Old Republic comics books, Games and etc? and they just have a little story which does not even help because then your hanging with all these other stuff that makes it sound like this also should be canon but its not? Any thoughts about this and I don't mean to come off rude or anything.

The inspiration for today's topic came from a passing glance at the Wook page for the Massassi subspecies and a post made many years ago about the centralistic brutality of the Old Republic... Today, we'll be looking at perhaps one of the darkest events in Republic history: the 5000 BBY counterinvasion of all Sith Worlds following the catastrophic Great Hyperspace War, and comparing it to the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519-1522)- one of the darkest real world examples of colonialism and, possibly, the first real "American Indian War", digging deep to look at the history, culture and legacies of these two horrific conflicts that saw worlds collide and empires fall...

• Dynasties of Evil

Though little reliable information exists about their origins (owing to the repeated destruction of the Aztec codexes), it is widely believed that the first Aztecs came from an island called "Aztlán" (Aztec literally means: "people from Aztlán"). Aztec mythology holds that out of a cave on Aztlán emerged seven tribes: the Xochimilco, the Chalca, the Tepanec, the Colhua, the Tlahuica, the Tlaxcalteca and the Mexica (the predominant tribe). One day, these tribes received a vision from their Sun God, Huītzilōpōchtli, commanding them to seek out new lands in the south (the area of land that would become central Mexico). The ensuing exodus lasted for centuries and resulted in the Aztecs building dams and becoming sedentary farmers. However, it also resulted in them becoming a fierce, warlike people as they were forced to fight off aggressive neighbours in Tizapan and Chapultepec. In 1325, the Mexica came upon the waters of Lake Texcoco and discovered an island: Tenochtitlan. This was where their journey would come to an end, for Huītzilōpōchtli had spoken of an island with a tall rock in the centre, bearing an eagle carrying a rattlesnake in its mouth whilst seated upon a cactus. And what did the Aztecs find when they reached the island? In the centre of the jungle stood a tall rock and upon that rock sat a cactus with an eagle perched atop, still clutching a dead rattlesnake in its beak. This was home...

Located in the Esstran Sector of the Outer Rim Territories, the home world of the Sith was originally colonised by a race of intelligent insectoids known as Killiks. Already fierce warriors after decades of intertribal warfare, the Sith succeeded in defeating the Killiks and reclaiming their planet. However, they would be forced to retake Korriban a second time when the Rakatan Empire set its sights on conquering the red-skinned humanoids. The ensuing conflict would plunge Sith society back into a state of civil war, spawning an entire generation of battle-hardened killers with an insatiable craving for blood...

A race with a natural affinity for the dark side of the Force residing on a barren desert world that was in itself, a planetary wellspring of dark side energy, the Sith were quick to exploit Korriban, using the scavenged technology left behind by the Rakatan invaders (though it should be noted that the Sith mastered space travel independently) to build vast cities and great temples (like the one on Yavin 4- the ruins of an ancient city known as "Tikal", built by the Mayan civilisation- one of the Aztec Empire's main neighbours) that doubled as both superweapons and sacred places of worship. Then, they began to expand their growing empire, enslaving species such as the Herglic and the Mrlssi to serve their ends and becoming experts in the usage of magic and alchemy...

United by King Adas the Sith'ari, Sith society would go on to develop a distinct caste system with three distinct levels: the Massassi (ruthless warriors with a passion for blood sacrifices, fanatically committed to serving their sorcerer overlords- the Sith equivalent of the "Jaguar Knights"), the Zuguruk (skilled engineers who would go on to build the starships that would allow the Sith Empire to conquer such a vast portion of the galaxy) and the Kissai (the highest level, made up of priests, alchemists and sorcerers- basically, your run-of-the-mill Aztec holy man). In years to come, these subspecies would come to be known collectively as "purebloods", though they would not remain pure for very long: the arrival of Dark Jedi (predecessors of what we now call "Sith") on Korriban would lead to interbreeding that would create a new Human/Sith hybrid. And it was these hybrids that would go on to wage war against the Galactic Republic...

Though primarily hunter-gatherers, the Aztecs quickly evolved upon settling in Mexico, for they found themselves surrounded by three highly-developed feudal kingdoms: Tetzcoco, Colhuacan and Azcapotzalco (the most powerful of the three). The King of the Azcapotzalco, Tezozomoc, was something of a racketeer and forced the Aztecs to pay heavy taxes to live on Lake Texcoco. The Aztecs quickly grew weary of their Tepanec overlords but were still too weak to face them in open battle. Biding their time, they began to grow wealthy through trade and eventually decided to elect themselves a king. Acamapichtli was the first Aztec king (or "Tlatoani"), a strong leader and a skilled warrior. When the time eventually came to appoint a successor, he told the people to (democratically) elect a new king from amongst his seven sons...

The next tlatoani would prove to be ineffective, a puppet king of the Tepanec ruling council, and when the rest of the royal family was brutally assassinated, the Aztecs were forced to turn to Acamapichtli's remaining (illegitimate) son: Itzcoatl. Itzcoatl would prove to be the Sith'ari of the Aztecs, forming a powerful triple alliance with neighbouring Tetzcoco and Tlacopan and rising up to destroy the Kingdom of Azcapotzalco. He would build the foundations of what we now know as the Aztec Empire, growing rich through trade and tributes (the Aztecs were quick to adopt Tezozomoc's old system) and powerful through war and conquest. However, this fledgling warrior state had unwittingly set itself a dangerous precedent: the more the empire expanded, the more land and slaves it needed to continue to grow. More war, more conquest, more blood...

By the time Itzcoatl died in 1440, the Aztec Empire controlled one of the largest single bodies of land in Mexico, its domains stretching from Veracruz to Cihuatlán. And the empire would enter something of a "golden age" under its next ruler, King Montezuma I. Under Montezuma's rule, the empire would transform itself from an isolated warrior state into a dominant military superpower. Tenochtitlan would be turned from a small island town in the middle of a lake into a modernised metropolitan capital complete with palaces, temples, markets, aqueducts, causeways and floating gardens. He would introduce a class system not dissimilar to the Sith caste system, with the king at the top, followed by the priests and then the warriors, with lesser nobles and then the commoners coming somewhere near the bottom. He would introduce a universal education system as well as one of the first proper legal systems. There were courts and judges, teachers and astrologers, artists and architects. Montezuma would also begin work on one of the greatest architectural feats of the period: the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, built for Huītzilōpōchtli...

However, the rise of their civilisation unfortunately signalled the fall of their humanity. The Aztecs had built their mighty empire on two things: war and slavery. They ruled through fear and with an army of around 400,000 battle-hardened warriors, very few dared to stand against them. When the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan was completed by King Ahuitzotl in 1486, the occasion was marked with the sacrificing of between 30 and 80,000 people, coating the entire structure in blood. Aztec priests believed that in order to keep the world from lapsing into an "endless night", the Sun God required a steady stream of blood offerings to appease him. And the slaughter didn't stop there: Tlāloc (the Rain God) required that children be beaten until they cried and then drowned, Xōchiquetzal (the Fertility Goddess) required women to be decapitated and Xiuhtecuhtli (the Fire God) required his victims to be drugged, burned and then sacrificed (while still alive). But their reign of terror was drawing to a close...

Their savage practices lead to a growth in internal revolts from neighbouring states like the powerful Purépecha Empire. The Aztec kings had also allowed corruption to thrive amongst their elite classes, who now favoured war over peace because it made them so rich. Possible allies quickly turned into definite enemies. Then, in 1519, something bizarre happened. King Montezuma II, always a superstitious man, looked up to the sky and saw a comet gliding over his blood-drenched city. Was this a sign from the universe of impending doom? The start of the apocalypse? A bad omen? Their barbaric little world was about to come crashing down with an almighty bang. The end was nigh...

• Brave New Worlds

By 5000 BBY, the Sith had never been more powerful. Under the leadership of the legendary Dark Lord, Marka Ragnos, the Empire had experienced a period of unparalleled peace and prosperity known as "The Golden Age of the Sith". When Ragnos died without appointing a successor, it left something of a power vacuum at the Empire's core. Two hybrids, both alike in strength and stature, would arise to stake claims to Ragnos's throne and battle to the death: Ludo Kressh and Naga Sadow. However, their power struggle coincided with an event that (like Montezuma's comet) unintentionally spelled doom for the Sith species: the arrival of a pair of hyperspace explorers (Gav and Jori Daragon) on Korriban. Two things happened: Sadow used their arrival to seize power, stating that this was all part of the Republic's plot to destroy the Sith and that it was time to begin their attack, and Jori Daragon managed to escape, fleeing to the Empress Teta System, just in time to warn the Republic of the Empire's coming...

The rise of the Aztec Empire had not gone unnoticed. After Francisco de Córdoba's 1517 expedition to the Yucatán Peninsula and Juan de Grijalva's 1518 voyage into the Gulf of Mexico, news had reached the governor of Cuba, Diego Velásquez, of a golden city in the depths of the Amazon and of a race of bloodthirsty savages who cut the hearts out of their victims. However, both expeditions had been largely unsuccessful, bringing back only rumours instead of Aztec treasure. One man would succeed where both had failed: his name was Hernando Cortez, an ambitious Castilian nobleman who came to Cuba in 1511 to make his fortune as a conquistador during Spain's own "Golden Age"...

In 1519, Cortez set sail for Yucatán with around 530 European troops (these were not your stereotypical conquistadors with their glittering breastplates and pointy helmets, more like the American filibusters of the early 19th century), 30 crossbowmen, 2 arquebusiers, over 100 Cuban natives/African slaves, 16 horses, several cannons and a pack of war dogs. Trekking up to the city of Potonchán, deep within hostile Mayan territory, he encountered a shipwrecked priest, Gerónimo de Aguilar (the Spanish version of the Daragon twins), who confirmed the rumours of a race of heart-ripping savages that dwelt upon a lake. Allying himself with the Maya through marrying one of their women, Cortez moved up the coast, landing at Veracruz (where he famously burnt all his ships) and hearing further tales of Aztec gold. By now, the Aztecs had heard reports of these strange men who used terrible, alien weapons, and were sorely afraid...

As Cortez moved further into the Aztec heartlands, he encountered fierce resistance from the neighbouring Tlaxcala Confederacy. Already part of an "unsanctioned" expedition that had far exceeded its original purpose, Cortez could not afford to waste time (or men) on the Tlaxcalans. However, on that front, Cortez was in luck, for the only thing the Tlaxcalans hated more than the Spanish was the Aztecs and once the two sides realised that they shared a common enemy, they were quick to put down their weapons and join forces as Cortez finally reached Tenochtitlan on the 8th of November. When the Spanish captain finally met with the Aztec emperor, it really was a case of two worlds colliding. Two worlds which were so similar, and yet so utterly different, both built on two things: war and religion. Communications between the two empires quickly broke down; the Aztecs refused to be embraced by their European visitors and the Spanish accepted gifts but gave none in return. The Aztecs permitted the conquistadors to see the king's treasure trove, gold being quite worthless in Aztec culture and cocoa bean being a priceless commodity. Montezuma hoped that if he gave Cortez the gold he so desperately wanted, then maybe the Spaniard would leave his people in peace. However, the Aztec king didn't understand that by giving Cortez more and more gold, he was only sticking his neck further and further into the open mouth of a tiger...

• The Time of Destruction

Thanks to Jori Daragon's last-minute warning, the Galactic Republic and its Jedi protectors were ready for the Sith Empire when it finally unleashed its devastating onslaught on the galaxy, flooding down the recently-discovered Daragon Trail to strike at all Republic worlds. Moving quickly and taking no prisoners, the Sith were able to reach Coruscant and launched a massive invasion. Though they sustained heavy casualties, the Republic troops were able to rally behind their valiant leader, Jedi Master Memit Nadill, and destroy the Sith armada as it entered the atmosphere, costing Sadow nearly his entire force. With the Jedi victorious, the superior Republic Navy amassing around his flank and internal dissent stoked up by a vengeful Ludo Kressh, Sadow ordered a formal retreat back to the Sith colonies. The Sith had been routed. Though billions had died during the fighting, the Republic remained intact and could now set about putting its endgame into play. It was finally time for the Cortez of Coruscant to emerge from the shadows and play his part. A man whose name would be seared into the Sith psyche as much as the name of Cortez would be burned (quite literally) into the canons of Aztec history: Pultimo.

But the rise of Cortez had not gone unnoticed either. Fearing the amount of power he had seized (a common trait in the family), Governor Velásquez sent Pánfilo de Narváez to remove (and, if necessary, kill) Cortez. When word of this venture reached Cortez, he set off for the coast to capture Narváez, leaving his trusted lieutenant, Pedro de Alvarado, to occupy Tenochtitlan in his stead. However, no sooner had he left, than a massacre broke out at the Great Temple during the sacred feast of Tōxcatl. Anticipating a revolt after a series of riots, Alvarado had taken the decision to strike first, quietly infiltrating the temple while the Aztecs were busy with their merrymaking. Then, the killing began... After capturing Narváez, Cortez had returned to find the great city in a state of total chaos. During the rioting that had followed the massacre at the temple, Alvarado had taken Montezuma captive and ordered him to calm his people. When that had failed and the Aztecs had rallied around Montezuma's warrior brother, Cuitláhuac, the Spaniards had murdered Montezuma, leaving the empire virtually leaderless. On July 1st (1520), Cortez packed up as much gold as he could carry and left the city with all his men. In what became known as "The Night of Sorrows", the Aztecs pursued and attacked their European occupiers, butchering them in the streets or collapsing the great causeways so that the Spaniards were forced to swim, with many of them drowning in their armour. Cortez was forced to flee with his tail between his legs, however, the Aztecs had only kicked a hornet's nest. The Spaniard would have his revenge...

• Apocalypto Now: An Empire's End

Little is known about the Galactic Republic's counterinvasion of all Sith Worlds following the Great Hyperspace War and even less is known about the man who orchestrated it: Supreme Chancellor Pultimo. All that is known is that after the Sith Empire's epic defeat at the Second Battle of Korriban, Pultimo decided that mere defeat wasn't enough. He decided that the only way to protect the galaxy would be to wipe the Sith from existence. What he sought was total annihilation and after the deaths of so many innocent people in the Great Hyperspace War, his plan was swiftly approved up by the entire Galactic Senate. The revenge of Pultimo and the wholesale slaughter of the Sith species could finally begin...

By now, word of the vast wealth and fierce resistance Cortez had encountered in the New World had reached his employers in Cuba, who were quick to promote him to the rank of captain and send reinforcements to help him complete the conquest of Mexico. They would send around 90 horsemen, 120 arquebusiers/crossbowmen, 13 brigantine warships complete with canon and several hundred infantrymen. Cortez's ranks were also supplemented with between 50 and 500,000 native warriors. Emboldened by their recent victory over the Spanish, the Aztecs moved to push the offensive and confronted Cortez on the plains of Otumba on the 7th of July. Despite their superior numbers, the Aztec forces were utterly decimated by the Spanish cavalry, which succeeded in smashing through their ranks, killing their leader and taking their battle standard. Their terrified natives were forced to retreat and it was now that Cortez moved to put his endgame into play: the Fall of Tenochtitlan...

So began one of the greatest sieges in history, as the conquistadors under Cortez surrounded the Aztec capital and set about capturing the three main causeways leading into the city. However, they would have a fight on their hands. Every time the Spanish managed to capture a causeway or break into the city, the Aztecs would come up behind them in their canoes or pepper them with arrows from the city walls, forcing them to retreat back across the lake. And it got worse: as the siege went on, the Aztecs began to surround the city with a series of wooden spikes, meaning that anyone who fell into the water was likely a goner. But the Spanish had brought another weapon with them, other than swords and muskets: disease. One of Cortez's men had contracted smallpox and during a breach in the Aztec defences, he had managed to pass that on to the besieged natives. The disease spread through the Aztec ranks like wildfire, killing indiscriminately, for there was no defence against it. With the Aztecs weakened and the capital's defences sufficiently crippled by his brigantines, Cortez ordered a three-pronged assault on the causeways. Though they fought them every step of the way, the Aztecs could not hold back the conquistadors as they poured over their walls, slaughtering men, women and children as they made their way to Aztecs' core stronghold at the Tlatelolco marketplace. There, they made an epic final stand but were forced to surrender. After 75 days of siege, the mighty Aztec capital had finally fallen. Cortez had done it; toppling a centuries-old empire over the course of just three years...

The fall of the mighty Sith Empire was likewise swift and brutal. Overall, it took the Republic less time to wipe out the Sith than it took Cortez to conquer the Aztecs. Over the course of just two years, the Republic broke apart the Empire's domains, planet-by-planet. After the destruction of its armada at Coruscant, the Sith were utterly helpless as the Republic Navy reduced their magnificent cities to rubble. Though they played no "active" part in the massacres that followed, the Jedi Order did play a role in the destruction of the Sith culture, demolishing all of the great temples and burning the sacred texts...

Though most of the fighting took place in the skies, contemporary sources show that there was a systematic door-to-door cleansing of the Sith species. Under the orders of Chancellor Pultimo, Republic troops were told to show no mercy to the Sith civilians who had taken shelter from the bombings. No quarter had been offered during the Great Hyperspace War and none was returned during the counterinvasion. The sands of Korriban turned a darker shade of red...

As the smoke cleared and blood dried, the Sith people who had survived the massacre looked for a leader. They found one in a young lord called Vitiate, who summoned them to Nathema with the promise of a dark ritual that would grant them victory over their enemies. However, all the survivors were granted was eternal torment, as Vitiate proceeded to suck the planet dry of all life. Thus ended the reign of the mighty Sith Empire- Pultimo had prevailed...

• Conclusion: Savage Civilisation

How the mighty had fallen... A four-day sack of the city would follow the Fall of Tenochtitlan. The royal treasure troves were looted, the codexes were burned, all of the remaining ringleaders were tortured and executed and the capital itself was officially renamed "Mexico City", for it had been the Mexica who had originally discovered it. Cortez would make Texcoco his powerbase, demolishing the Great Temple to replace it with a cathedral. The imperial slavers now found themselves enslaved, forced to work themselves to death in silver mines by their Spanish oppressors. The Tlaxcala celebrated in the suffering of their enemies, integrating into Spanish society to produce a new urban elite. Owing to the piety of the period (the Spanish Inquisition was about to reach its peak), all natives were forced to convert to the Spanish religion: Catholicism. The romantic in me likes to say that the Aztecs were the ancestors of the people we now call "Apaches", but this is pure "head canon". The interbreeding between these two peoples would actually result in the creation of the race we now know as the Mexican people, Aztec history spawning their national flag...

The colonisation of Mexico brought the world fascinating new discoveries: tobacco, tomatoes and... chocolate- thank you, Aztecs! However, the mighty conquistadors wouldn't stop there. Peru would be next (colonised by Francisco Pizarro- oddly enough, a distant cousin of Cortez), followed by Columbia, Venezuela and Paraguay as well as the entire Mayan Empire. When examining the fall of the Aztec Empire, a certain level of detachment is always required. Yes, they suffered unimaginable horrors under Spanish rule, but does a civilisation engaging in such horrific acts of cruelty on such a regular basis really deserve our sympathy? When does a civilisation pass the point of no return, where (as with the many tribes in the Bible who "gave their children to the flames") a swift purging is perhaps the best solution? Cortez himself remains one of those men in real life history who became the very thing he swore to destroy- a bloodthirsty killer with a lust for power and gold. They never found El Dorado (though many tried), but out of the Spanish conquest came the state of New Spain- the jewel in the Spanish Crown. However, by subjugating these nations, the Spanish Empire had set itself up for a fall, doomed to suffer the fate that all empires must... Just as Supreme Chancellor Pultimo had set the Republic up for a fall by allowing Lord Vitiate to retreat into the Unknown Regions with a chosen few, where he would spend centuries planning his revenge...

I hope you've enjoyed this comparison and have hopefully discovered something new about a frequently-misunderstood part of history. Feel free to leave some feedback or checkout my previous analysis posts via my hub. God bless, Aragorn :))

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