There Exist Another Dimension Called The Empty World. It's Very Much Like Ours, In Fact It Seems To Have

There exist another dimension called The Empty World. It's very much like ours, in fact it seems to have been identical up until a few weeks ago, but it always seems that way. If you go there today, it was identical in late february, and if you go there this october, it'll have been identical until september.

It's empty, as you might guess. There's no humans, and no animals bigger than a cockroach. The sky is grey, and it slowly rains ash. It's colder than our world by a bit, enough to require a jacket even in summer. The streets are empty, the cars parked neatly in their garages or in lots, but they're all empty and abandoned, their doors locked like they expect their owners to return any minute now.

The newspapers left on stands don't mention any oncoming disaster. We have no idea what the TV or internet would have said: the power is out. The power is very, very out. Not just the grid, but batteries are drained. The cars won't start, the emergency lights are out, and anything with solar panels seems to be getting less energy than you'd expect, even with the perpetually overcast sky.

It's a very silent world, like the calm after a snowstorm. Sounds don't seem to echo as much as they should, nor does sound seem to travel as far. The radio spectrum is empty except for static, there's no one transmitting on any frequency.

There's fewer fires than you'd expect. Even places you'd expect to soon catch fire without human intervention are still standing, undamaged. Campfires can be lit but with difficulty: something is keeping them from burning as they should. Even if you pour kerosene on a campfire it'll barely grow, it's like something sucked the energy out of everything.

All the locked buildings are still locked. Alarms don't sound if you break in (understandable, given the power situation), and of course no one comes to investigate. So The Empty World is your oyster: you can break in wherever you want (provided you can physically do it: some doors are pretty hard to pry open even with tools), take whatever you want, and bring it back here.

Everything resets when you leave. You always enter The Empty World like it's your first time there, like this just happened and you're late to the party... but the party keeps getting rescheduled. You can even take something multiple times if you want.

When you enter The Empty World you get there at the same relative position as you are on this world. If you're in New York, you show up in the empty New York. If you're in Topeka, you show up in empty Topeka. So you have to travel around this world to get to where you want, and you can't just appear in the middle of a bank vault... unless you break into the vault from this world. (So it's great if you work at a bank and want to steal from your employer without repercussions, but not so useful otherwise).

You don't just have to take things, you know. You can take computers and files and books and diaries. You will have to deal with recharging laptops and breaking through any security when you get back, but it's doable.

So, imagine you've just gotten access to The Empty World. What are you going to do with it? What will you take, and where will you go?

Rambles in Star Wars History: The extreme shenanigans that changed an Empire

Bioware games can absolutely fascinate me, in part because of their worldbuilding, and in part because of where the worldbuilding ends. I mean, I did a whole long series of posts on the grammar of Qunlat and I have at least a dozen essays worth of material of exegetical analysis of religion in Dragon Age kicking around in my brain, which I keep threatening to actually manifest.

The primary loading screen for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The cityscape of Coruscant acts as the backdrop for some random bits of Star Wars stuff: Spaceships! Jedi! People with blasters! An adorable droid! The scowling head of a sith looming in the background! From left to right, these are Darth Malgus, Jace Malcom, T7-O1, Ven Zallow, Shae Vizla, and Satele Shan.

Fun fact: You can tell that all these characters are pictured from at least ten years before the game proper, for a number of reasons. First, Satele isn't going gray yet. Second, Jace doesn't have his Supreme Commander rank plaque yet. Third, Shae spends most of the game proper in retirement at her private volcano lair. Fourth, Ven isn't dead. And Fifth, the Jedi Temple exists. Also, I know precisely which cinematic they pulled Malgus' glare from, and it's set on the day that #4 and #5 ran into a wee bit of trouble.

But since I'm here with my worldbuilding hat on, I'm going to ramble about Star Wars: The Old Republic, focusing on some of the sometimes-hilarious drama that's implied by the plot, and the implications for how these shenanigans remade a major galactic society in the process. Involved will be a man who faked his death to get out of going to meetings, a wine uncle who might become emperor, a living scowl with dangerous shoulders, and other assorted animals.

Expect a lot of bonus rambles in the image alt-texts, which is where I store commentary and jokes that I can't fit into the flow of the main post.

———

Before I dig into the topic at hand, I have to set the scene for those who don't know the game, or have forgotten in the fourteen years since the game launched.

Spoilers in the post below for Act 1-3 of the Imperial Agent, Sith Warrior, and Inquisitor storylines, Act 1 of the Jedi Knight storyline, the post-Act 3 Battle of Ilum flashpoint, and for various expansions including Rise of the Emperor, Knights of the Fallen Empire, Onslaught, and Legacy of the Sith. Assume that all reference links to Wookieepedia contain major spoilers.

SWTOR is an MMO set 3600 years before the Skywalkers crashed through the ceiling tiles of the galaxy, though it's not to say anything was less chaotic back then, just different chaos.

A gif of security camera footage from an empty lobby. Several meters worth of ceiling tiles and light fixtures suddenly give way, those still attached to cords and strips bouncing comically while the rest splat onto the faux marble floor. The culprit behind the collapse—a small black cat—lands on its feet free and clear of the destruction, spins around in confusion, and then flees out of sight, seemingly unharmed by the experience.

(Pictured: Anakin Skywalker, circa 32 BBY-4 ABY)

In this time, the titular Old Republic is opposed by a Sith Empire, which is precisely as functional as one might expect. After a decades-long conflict that ended with a Sith victory but left both sides exhausted, a state of cold war began. The Jedi, their Grand Temple destroyed, left Republic space to settle on an ancestral world. The Republic, battered and reeling, tried to recover its stride through use of its superior size and resources, and producing a truly unhinged number of superweapons.

A screenshot of Coruscant, wreathed in smoke, including several plumes rising from the Jedi Grand Temple as an Imperial fleet arrives overhead. Revenge for the destruction of the Jedi Temple is the stated impetus for why one General Var Suthra commissions, and I repeat, a truly unhinged number of superweapons, each of which he introduces to the Jedi Knight player character like "look, it seemed like a good idea at the time".

Fun fact, the voice actor for the male Knight is David Hayter, best known for playing Solid Snake. It is funny to hear him try to diplomatically explain that vengeance isn't really a thing the Jedi approve of, and VERY funny to send Jedi Snake off on his umpteenth mission to destroy a rogue superweapon. In Snake's honor, I'm using a stealth build and wearing the most booty-enhancing robe possible.

The Sith Empire, in some ways, tried to pretend everything was fine for quite a while. They had successfully forced the Republic into a favorable treaty to end the war. They'd gained territory, they had a lot of work to do there.

Art from the Galactic History featurettes, an in-universe post mortem assembled by Jedi Master Gnost-Dural in the wake of the invasion of Coruscant, his voice provided by the ever-awesome Lance Henriksen. In this image, a Republic representative in a uniform and sash shakes hands with just the most evil looking Sith the Empire could possibly send out on a diplomatic mission. He's got the Palpatine robe and Skin Stuff going on, and a mask to hide whatever might be even more wrong with the bottom half of his face. I've always found this image hysterical. It looks like these guys names are Ambassador John Smithington and Lord Evil Slaughterman.

…But as things started to look more and more like war again, they were left with the uncomfortable realization that they had sorta kinda killed most of the Sith in the last war, and Imperial citizens in good standing weren't producing enough Force-sensitive kids fast enough to rebuild the losses. Might've had something to do with most of them being dead.

SWTOR promotional art, depicting a chaotic melee between Jedi and Sith forces. My favorite is the Jedi who, not content with having two lightsabers, is also kicking a Sith in the neck. Damn, dude.

The Empire, of course, is an absolute clusterfuck of a society. Slaves toil to maintain its power. Children of a slave and a citizen will be citizens themselves—unless they're "aliens", a category that includes everyone that isn't a human or a Sith pureblood, the original Sith species.

Art from the Galactic History featurettes, showing an officer addressing a loose assembly of soldiers on just the wettest day possible. Everybody is standing out in the rain because of this guy, when they could be standing out in the rain for guard duty instead. This particular image is supposed to represent the military at the start of the Empire, 1300 years ago, but one can be certain that somewhere in SWTOR, this is still happening to somebody because someone really wanted to make a dramatic speech and didn't check the forecast.

Being a citizen isn't great either: The Force-blind face mandatory conscription into the military, and can never rise to the highest echelons of society. Above them, the Sith act as a semi-hereditary aristocracy of evil space-wizards that serve an immortal, eldritch Emperor, their living god who has also kiiiind of gone AWOL for reasons only a few of them understand. He's torn between doing his job or staring at a living paperweight, and the paperweight has been winning. He also recently got trapped by an evil hole in the ground, it's complicated.

A screenshot of one of the Emperor's Voices seen in SWTOR, the body of a blue-skinned Voss mystic possessed by the Emperor's will. There's others that feature in SWTOR, but frankly this one was the most impactful for me, despite the very odd evil hole-related circumstances you encounter him under.

Regarding the living paperweight--do NOT read the tie-in book that gives the backstory to that comment. I have only read excerpts and the plot summary, and my god is it dire. It's technically a sequel to the original Knights of the Old Republic games, and it keeps up a trend in tie-in books to Bioware games that take the player character and just make them into the most insufferable dude possible. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 got this treatment with the books' invention of grand high douchecanoe Abdel Adrian, who Larian Studios wisely made no mention of in Baldur's Gate 3.

SWTOR, on the other hand, did not take the wise path, and so you have to deal with their Revan. This is, shall we say, not a popular choice with the fanbase. The KOTOR nerds couldn't connect with the guy, and the people who had never heard of him before SWTOR were just confused and mildly irritated. He is a narrative speedbump of a character and I cannot suspend my disbelief hard enough to believe the Emperor had a good reason to keep this guy alive for three hundred years.

With the Emperor incommunicado, the duties of the state fall to the Dark Council, a ruling body of up to twelve Dark Lords of the Sith. Each have their own sphere of governmental influence, which are, one can only assume, very dark as well.

SWTOR concept art, intended to represent the Dark Council listening to a holographic message from the Emperor. A really big one, so everybody has to look waaaay up to see his face. …If they're one of the few that are actually able to see it, because the hologram is in the center of the room. Maybe standing in the back is a privilege reserved for more powerful Councilors who don't feel like getting a neck ache.

Presumably, the Dark Council had something to do with the inevitable yet still surprising solution to their space wizard deficit: over a thousand years of laws were suddenly overturned. Slaves, aliens, and prisoners were not only permitted to become Sith, it was now mandatory that they report for induction into training programs if they possessed any hint of Force-sensitivity.

This is how one of the eight protagonists of the MMO gets their start: if you play the Sith Inquisitor plotline, you begin as a former slave who has survived basic training and made it to the Sith Academy, where your teacher dearly wants to kill you. Your first mission: survive school.

Concept art of the Sith Academy on Korriban, its main pyramid visible at the end of a carved canyon of ancient Sith structures. It's funny, the only thing that feels out of place is the statues in the middle—the ones staring so aggressively at their shoes that they've bent their necks at a dramatic right angle. Those are supposed to be down the valley, and absolutely massive. Like, you look out and think "those things are a hazard to low-flying aircraft", and then you look at the anti-air batteries they have protecting the academy and think "those guns are perfectly placed to be able to not hit a goddamn thing because those gigantic fuck-off statues are in the way". You look through other people's screenshots of Korriban for illustrations and think "yep there's the crotch of a giant statue in the distance again". Really matches the Extra vibe of the sith.

I'm sure this is very relatable to quite a lot of you.

Now that I've got my PhD with only a few gray hairs, I'm looking back at this premise and thinking: This would completely upend the social framework of the Empire. You'd have every established Sith Lord in the Empire scrambling to kill these threats to their power, or harness them against their enemies, or both.

This is actually canon, but canon never touches on the broader, systemic implications of what the new Sith would do, and who they were before—Sure, the overseers of the training programs seem to be doing their damnedest to kill and undermine the newbies while maintaining plausible deniability, but enough of them survive to reshape the Empire. We know that. You play as one of them.

How in the fuck did the Dark Council ever manage to get this policy implemented in the first place? Obviously they did somehow, but the specifics are never mentioned.

But the specifics have the possibility to be hilarious.

a screenshot of the Dark Council chambers on Korriban. There's ominous robed and hooded statues lining the walls, there's twelve thrones with really, REALLY tall backs, set up on platforms so everyone gets to loom properly. This appears to have been taken from the end of the Inquisitor plot, and the player character can be seen near the entrance. They're backed up by Talos Drellik, an absolutely delightful archaeologist who is COMPLETELY out of his depth here. Whoever took the shot seemed determined to end the game wearing the silliest hat possible, a decision for which I commend them.

The Dark Council itself is composed of Sith who either killed their way to the top, or inherited their seat from their Sith master—who they probably murdered. Turnover on most Council seats is incredibly high. The Spheres of Ancient Knowledge, Technology, and Military Offense each have three different Councilors within a single year, for example.

SWTOR concept art of two Sith squaring off somewhere on Korriban. This is like tuesday for the Dark Council. They are constantly on this. Always and forever. It's very funny when a guy I'll mention in a minute laments that 'the waste is unimaginable', and then immediately pivots back to talking about how he plans to level their homes with his techno-organic death satellites.

This also means that whoever ends up in charge of a Sphere might be entirely unsuited for it. Who heads up the Sphere of Expansion and Diplomacy? The least diplomatic guy on the Council, naturally. He goes by Darth Ravage, which fits in well enough with the three different Darths whose names mean 'death' (Thanaton, Mortis, and Rictus). The player can even end up as Darth Nox--'Darth Night'. You get the title by killing one of the Darth Deaths.

Art from the Galactic History featurettes of six sith, faceless in their dark hoods, sitting together in what I can only describe as either an evil semicircular sofa or a mildly uncomfortable park bench. It's manifestly too short for some of them, that's bad ergonomics.

This is actually art intended to depict the Dread Masters, which are a completely different group of Sith with edgy names. They're a psychic hive mind that formed after thinking way too hard about some ancient Sith artifacts! They can drive entire Republic fleets mad just by being nearby! You fight them in a storyline I've never gotten around to, because it requires actually doing multiplayer in a multiplayer online game! I have done the lead-up to it as my Imperial Agent though, it is very funny that they basically contact you to say 'since you've been in the vicinity of Darth Jadus before, we accept your application to be our minion', to which the Agent can only say 'I definitely did not apply for that'

So, which of these barely-domesticated evil goths probably voted to allow 'inferior' beings to become Sith, overturning a fundamental tenet of imperial sith philosophy? Probably not the guy in charge of Sith Philosophy! We never see him, but he seems to have been a traditionalist. On the other hand, Darth "Murder has no rules" Ravage might not be huge on tradition, so we can mark him down as a "maybe". But he doesn't seem to be an instigator for something like this.

But on the subject of instigators: Darth Jadus.

A screenshot of Darth Jadus from a Battlefront II mod, because it's all shiny and higher resolution. Jadus is absolutely goddamn gigantic for such a weird nerd of a Sith. He's built like a brick wall and a fridge had a kid. He's also the most impressively faceless character in the game, with a helmet that's so devoid of face-like features that the only thing you really have to latch onto is the red mark down the middle. When he talks, he gives off serious Cenobite vibes. He'd probably have a better time as a Cenobite, honestly. Someone get this man a puzzle box.

Darth Jadus is an experience. While many of the other Council members make it quite clear they're angry enough to chew on the furniture, Jadus unnerves all of them by being utterly calm and composed, as long as you don't count how intensely fervent and irrational he sounds when he starts talking about the Dark Side. He's unhinged in a distressingly hinged-seeming way.

Heading up the Sphere of Intelligence, Jadus is a noted iconoclast on the Dark Council, using his authority to open Imperial Intelligence positions to aliens. He chooses slaves and Force-blind citizens to be his advisors and agents, ignoring the traditional power structures of the Sith. He prefers his literal cult following of fanatical adherents instead, who see him as a visionary savior, a terrifying inevitability, or both.

Another shot from the Battlefront II mod of Jadus in medium-wide, with wreckage in the background. Presumably that's his fault. Quite a lot of things are his fault. And fun fact, he's canonically gotten away with them. No matter what you choose in the Agent plot, he survives and is still out there somewhere, and continues to be a prime suspect people in-the-know put on the list of suspects when something goes wrong on a galactic scale.

This means he seems to have basically no interest in elevating other Sith. In fact, he hates the way the rest of them run the Empire. Making more of them might potentially be against his interests.

Or at least it would be, if he didn't have some long-running secret plans that he wants to keep the other Dark Council members from catching wind of. Advocating for slaves, aliens and convicts to become Sith would superficially fall in line with his philosophy, and just raising the idea in public could cause such social chaos that his true plans would benefit from it. Jadus is also the most genre-savvy sith in the entire game: he seems to almost be aware at points that he's neither the protagonist nor main antagonist, and thus his evil plans involve not messing with either of them. When he jostles up against the main plot and realizes he has no plausible means to derail it, he responds by leaving the plot entirely.

Given the tactical chaos and uncomfortably fourth wall-touching strategies Jadus makes use of, let's mark him down as a "yes".

Another screenshot from the Battlefront II mod, showing Jadus in reverse, a bunch of out-of-focus sparks flying from something in front of him. Once again, I'm guessing his fault. And I'm not kidding on how meta Jadus gets. If your Imperial Agent character asks him why he messed with you, he says he didn't realize you were important before, and he intends to correct for that—by offering you a promotion and benefits. If you say the Emperor's going to stop him, he reveals he doesn't actually plan to challenge the Emperor, or mess with any of the Emperor's stuff—he's only going to mess with other secondary antagonists. If you chose to side with him, he keeps his word… and then leaves in Act 3. Basically, he notices that Act 3 has started and the Emperor is actively getting up to shit. That's bad news for Jadus, so he just. Leaves. Game can't kill him if he's not on screen. I love this absolutely horrific weird dude. I want to study him like a bug.

But Jadus is an unpopular one on the Council. He's creepy. Sith HATE feeling creeped out. That's supposed to happen to other people, dammit, not them! And with his disinterest in politics and his deep interest in foisting his manifesto on everyone, he's not the most effective Dark Councilor.

(credit: ChaosEmperor971 on DeviantArt) A screenshot of Darth Decimus, who has the unfortunate combination of the Dark Side "corpse paint with bonus varicose veins" complexion, tattoos, cyborg thingies on his face, and this weird-ass form-fitting hood thingy fitted with… I don't know, forward-facing antennae? New advancements in orthodonture? I never know what's up with these helmets, man, I always hide them under cosmetics if I've got one equipped. The rest of his outfit isn't terrible though, but looking at him reminds me the time I once had a cutscene glitch where my dude climbed up onto Decimus' desk mid-conversation, before getting yanked back out of the personal space bubble.

He might be able to pull in a few—Darth Decimus, head of Military Strategy, seems to have been quite willing to exploit any advantage he might be able to squeeze out of a situation. Fun side note, his voice actor also played the First Order officer who was just so done with Hux at the beginning of The Last Jedi.

[Video Description: A compilation of Mark Lewis Jones as Captain Moden Canady from The Last Jedi, with the video quality partially encrunchified by YouTube. This includes all of his shots from the film, from arrival of the Seige Dreadnought Fulminatrix, to the extremely annoyed look he gives the fireball that kills him. Sound supervisor Matt Wood was apparently pretty sure "FIRE ON THE BASE!" was going to be used as an EDM drop, and I can confirm, I've heard it out in the wild.]

Who else have we got rattling around in this Council, who might have extremely ridiculous reasons to vote yes? Well, we have Darth Vengean, head of Military Offense, was all about the Offense. Who needs defense? That nerd Darth Marr? HA! No, Vengean wanted to restart the war with the Republic. More bodies for the war machine would probably be fine with him.

Speaking of that nerd Darth Marr, Darth Marr.

A screenshot of Darth Marr, and I cannot emphasize enough how spiky his shoulders are. The only thing stopping from impaling himself with a shrug is the fact that the spikes are too long to permit that. He'd just doink them off the sides of his head. I really like the texture though, it's like electronics and machinery actively trying to become muscle fibers.

Apparently he designed this armor himself. Solid effort, my man.

Marr is in his sixties by the time the game happens. He's one of the longest-surviving Dark Councilors, and he sounds so tired of his coworkers in every scene he's in. Heading up the Defense of the Empire, Marr also is the de facto leader of the Dark Council, by dint of being the only adult in the room.

A screenshot of Marr seated on his Council throne, probably having a very annoying day. His coworkers refuse to take this shit seriously. He put together an agenda and everything so they could be out of here in under an hour and now look what you've all done

Much like Jadus, he distances himself from the backstabbery and rivalries among the Council members. Unlike Jadus, he 100% means it, and has been focused on not making the Empire explode. He eventually ends up as the unofficial leader of the Empire until he gets one-shotted so hard it makes his ghost chill out a bit. He keeps the spikes, though.

A screenshot from the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion. Marr is technically in this image, but he is in ground zero for just an EXCESSIVE amount of Force lightning, so you can't actually see him. This is a portrait of a man getting obliterated.

So, if there's anyone on the Council who might vote for this on purely practical grounds, and has the power to push others into agreeing with him, because so help him if they don't stop holding duels in the conference room he's going to turn this Empire around—

A screenshot from another Battlefront II mod, this time of Marr. Bless him, he was generally a more competent politician than Jadus, but he was not so genre-savvy. I mean, look at the image above. When he was brought within whacking distance of a main antagonist, he took a swing at the guy, and just got instantly ghosted. Please, dude, read the room! It's got someone else's theme music playing!

Nobody listens to him on that, by the way. Both the Sith main plots involve duels in the conference room.

In fact, one of those duels is egged on by our last suspect. Marr might be a contender for longest-running Dark Councilor, but there is another candidate: Darth Vowrawn, who seems to be having a much better time being on the Council than Marr. I suspect the only reason why he doesn't have a bucket of popcorn with him in the Council chambers is because somebody made a rule that he had to stop doing that.

A screenshot of Darth Vowrawn, an older Pureblood sith with the characteristic red skin, eyes, and hair, brow spikes, and tendril beard. This is the least sour-looking shot I could find, because Vowrawn has a very deceptive case of resting sith face. Screenshots do not prepare you for how much this guy sounds like an old English grandpa who's gleefully watching the family Christmas dinner dissolve into chaos.

Vowrawn is a surprisingly cheerful old bastard who seems to have turned his hobby into his job. He shows up 'fashionably late' to someone else's attempted coup, after lamenting he can't sell tickets to the clusterfuck that's about to commence. In the expansions to the game, he can outmaneuver and outlive all of the competition and end up becoming the Emperor, at the age of 87.

The "good for her" meme, edited to "good for Vowrawn"

Vowrawn is also indifferent to against the Empire's policies--he supports the ascension of a Zabrak to the Dark Council, and takes one as an apprentice as well. Beyond that, Vowrawn would have to support this move, because he's instrumental in any large project like this, both politically and practically. While the others I've mentioned all have roles explicitly to do with the aggressive expansion or protection of the Empire, Vowrawn heads the Sphere of Production and Logistics. In essence, he's the one who can decide whether all these other bozos get to eat or not.

A screenshot of Vowrawn in one of the expansions, once he's managed to survive all the improbable, galaxy-shaking shit that wiped out every other current or former Council member not named Jadus. Vowrawn has basically won at being Sith. Sure, there's ANOTHER war with the Republic starting AGAIN, but honestly, that's just enrichment for any sith not named Jadus. I cannot tell you how much of a shit Jadus didn't give about the Republic or Jedi, and honestly, Vowrawn doesn't super seem to care either beyond inflicting his shenanigans on a different government for a change. Shenanigans are a motivation unto themself. Vowrawn IS shenanigans.

If Vowrawn didn't accept this change, then it would have failed. So, he's a definite "yes" by default.

Speaking of bastards who are still active well into their eighties, we have one last major figure who isn't on the Council that likely advocated for this: Darth Malgus.

[Video Description: The "Deceived" trailer, set ten years before the game. God, I love this thing. This was the first trailer I saw for the game, and it got me, it really did. The Sith are just as ridiculous as they should be, combined with choreography that feels a lot more crunchy than lightsaber combat had been before, with distinct combat styles for the two main fighters. It's quick, it's impactful, and it's got a memorable conclusion. Love it.]

Malgus is as anti-racist and anti-classist as Jadus is, but without the insane transcendental Dark Side philosophy. Instead, he has an insane philosophy of bettering the Empire through eternal war, which he believes everyone should have an equal ability to participate in. He is what would happen if a Warhammer 40k character had an inside voice.

[Video Description: The "Disorder" cinematic trailer, set before the Legacy of the Sith expansion. Malgus is 75 here. Man's held together by spite and screws and whatever nutrients you can absorb by being thrown through walls. He's fully given up on the Sith Order at this point and is trying to do his own thing, and he makes it look rad. The choreography has only gotten better, goddamn. Why did it take me three goddamn years to watch this. IT'S REALLY GOOD.]

Malgus is a big deal in the military, with a lot of support from both the Force-blind soldiers and earning the loyalty of a surprising cross-section of Sith. We know this, because he nearly hijacks the Empire at one point in the early expansions. He'd be into this idea, and he probably advocated for it. While he'd have the most direct interaction with the military-related Councilors we already have in the "yes" column, he also has a history of annoying the bejeezus out of other Sith on "his" turf, so who knows! He may have been more persuasive to the others we haven't dug into.

A screenshot of another Dark Council meeting chamber, this time on Vaiken Spacedock, mostly empty. This is in part because Empress Acina, who I haven't mentioned here, reorganizes the Council into a smaller body to consolidate power after she takes over the Empire. I think you can actually see her as a smidgen of pixels up on the throne in the back, but I'm not entirely sure! If you side with the Empire at a key point, Vowrawn doesn't become Emperor, and she's present throughout the current expansions. However, siding with the Republic is the current canon, so she's killed and Darth Shenanigans takes her place.

Also I don't recall this scene well enough to explain why there appears to be a ghost in the room. Wookieepedia does not explain the meeting room ghost.

One final bonus tangent: I had a whole thing in here about Darth Thanaton and his notable place in all this as an ex-slave and arch-traditionalist, but I'd forgotten he's not actually on the Council until Act 3 of the Inquisitor plot. He's there for a few months at most, and then he gets killed by the player character. Dude, at least Darth Baras over in the Warrior plotline was on the Council for two years before becoming a final boss!

And we can't really dig into all of them at the depth we have with some. Despite how bogglingly huge SWTOR is and the two thousand four hundred and ninety-five named characters and "Additional Voices" credits in IMDb, we never meet some of the Dark Councilors. If you don't play all the eight main storylines, you won't see all of them in the game. I'll admit, I've never seen Darth Hadra, because I've never gotten that far in a Republic-aligned storyline! The Sith you encounter in their stories can often be more one-note, because they're purely there as antagonists rather than people you are legally required to hang out with, and thus have more opportunity to pester mercilessly.

[Video Description: A clip from my own Warrior run-through, featuring my big lad Rejalgar, his coolest friend Vette, and his boss, Darth Baras, who is presently having a screaming tantrum, which Rejalgar makes worse with the most delightfully straight-faced "Is there a problem here?". The Warrior plotline lets you play things sincerely evil, sincerely noble, or sincerely hilarious. Do you want to see Jedi bluescreen when a Sith just straight-up refuses to be violent? Do you want to sidestep a boss fight by offering a family a government pension, something your boss commends as being very devious and evil? Do you want to break up a fight between gangs by threatening to eat them? Come play the Sith Warrior storyline, and be the chaos you want to see in the galaxy!]

[Video Description, from a clip I uploaded to YT specifically for this post after I found out you can only upload one video per tumblr post wtf: A clip from my Inquisitor run-through, featuring my extremely shirtless lad, Sericus, playing coy and a little airheaded when called up by his Sith master, Darth Zash. Back in the day, Purebloods weren't supposed to be played as canon for this storyline, but there were tweaks later made to dialog that provided a canon explanation for how someone with visible Sith ancestry could end up in this situation. The storyline, however, unfortunately does not fully account for a character whose ideal job description is 'villain's beautiful and deceptively intelligent consort, the true power behind the throne'. It assumes you're playing a character who wants to go conquer and/or do mad wizard-science. Bonus points for eventually letting you marry your eight foot tall razor-faced cannibal thrall though, that's very fun.]

Why don't we see all of the Dark Council? Well, because they're ultimately not important to the story as a group. Events keep you locked tightly under the purview of just one or two of them on the Sith side of things, before the post-game and expansion plots launch you into the experience of being a major player in Imperial affairs, and Imperial affairs launch themselves at you in return.

a gif of someone with a head-mounted GoPro fishing from a boat at night, in stormy weather. Suddenly, a flying fish launches itself from the water, rises up and loses ground against the headwind, and arcs like a drifting racecar directly into the viewpoint's face. Every time this loops I get a hit of the the Deja Vu meme song rattling through my brain, it's absolutely fantastic

Everyone realizes the Emperor wants to eat them. Then he dies, except he doesn't. Malgus takes over the Empire for a few weeks. Marr takes over, but half the Council is dead and the rest are still in orientation and are probably also dead, because their would-be successors assassinated them. The Emperor, only mildly inconvenienced by also being dead, eats a planet. Then things go completely off the deep end, and the Dark Council is no longer your concern at all.

A screenshot from SWTOR update 3.2, Rise of the Emperor. The ice blue planet Ziost is being consumed by a spreading wave of dull grey, as the Emperor consumes it in a new Ritual of Nathema. The expansions after this point get weird, but this was an effective demonstration of why the Sith Emperor was so feared, even before anyone knew he could do that. He'd essentially gone past being a sith and straight into being a true cosmic horror. Because of the storylines I've completed, I never truly saw him in the base game. All I saw was one of the multiple bodies he possessed at any one time. And because that one was voiced by Hellraiser's own Doug Bradley, even that much was an effective look at him.

It's economical storytelling to not belabor the rest of the Councilors, and playing through as an ex-slave Inquisitor, you continue to face enough challenges directly linked to your background that the resistance feels systemic, even if you don't actually see all that many others who are facing the same issues.

But I think there's a lot of potential for some really wild storytelling in there. Your character receives some level of basic training before they reach the Sith Academy, along with a whole batch of ex-slaves. What did that entail? How was it organized? What happens when folks from abolitionist movements start being trained as sith, gaining all the attendant legal authority over the life and death of others?

And what about the prisoners who were released for training? While one canon option is to play a character who was facing immediate execution for participation in violent anti-Imperial resistance, at least a fair chunk of Force-sensitive prisoners were probably serving longer sentences. What happens when prison gangs start gaining a foothold in the Sith Academy, where they're too dysfunctional to even form Mean Girl cliques? What happens when some of their members become full Sith? How many of them might have Hutt backing, or even funding from the Republic Secret Intelligence Service?

These are the sorts of things the Sith themselves are terrified of. This earns a very sarcastic thoughts and prayers to them, of course. Yet it truly is wild to think about the decision-making process that went into this massive societal shift that the game treats as simply a piece of inciting incident for two plotlines out of eight: Twelve unhinged people sat down in some extremely high-backed chairs one day and voted to give everyone equal access to lightning.

A screenshot of my lad Sericus, and just SO much lightning. SO much.

I love Star Wars, it's just the funniest shit imaginable sometimes.

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vesperlf

1 year ago

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vesperlf

2 months ago

oh no , the dog is drinking the wave equation

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vesperlf

1 year ago

TRY NOT TO CUM FIND YOUR DESTINY WHILE PLAYING THIS GAME!!!

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vesperlf

1 year ago

she's right.

even with the subjective element, there are important notes that it will tend to feel wrong when the player doesn't have anything to hit, and unimportant notes that will tend to clutter a chart.

making a given song hit all ranges of charted note density is going to end up with most of them not fitting well with the song.

taking the time to figure out which difficulty is best, per song, is very tedious for the player. better for the developer to save time, only release one chart for each song, and avoid each player having to individually repeat the work.

rhythm game charts shouldnt have multiple difficulties, why do i need to feel out which level will have the chart adequately represent the music without adding shit in or leaving awkward empty space?

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vesperlf

3 months ago

although it got delisted from steam, it can still be played on pc through BLRevive.

ok this is gonna be unrelated to anything i usually post and im tagging #gaming and #blacklight retribution and #fps even if they doesnt have an actual fanbase. anyway

blacklight retribution is the game of all time. its a blatant cod bo3 copy, alright, but it has built in wallhack (with a cooldown, obviously), the controls are retro (aka they suck) and all the players also suck. which puts me exactly on top because i know how to take advantage of all of that

the game, like original cod games, has like a "spendable credit score" system or something. you trade your score for goods and services basically. and one of those goods is the Fucking Hardsuit, costing 1300.

and holy shit it sucks.

i actually buy the hardsuit every match im in, not because i like it – no, no, i hate it, it doesnt allow you to use the built-in wallhack, it has slow movement, and he gets stuck a lot. but, without fail, i still buy it. and, also without fail, i give it to the shittiest player on my team. this hollow shell of a person that cant even play one of the most basic fps games ever.

and i always feel like a father, the father i wish i always had (i have one but i dont like him), a father giving his son a shitty toy. but this toy means so much to the child they isnt just gonna give up. no, no, theys gonna cling on to it, they will spend so much time with it. and they will like it. a lot.

so yeah the game is free on ps4 idk on steam (adding the tags #ps4 and #steam rn)

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vesperlf

2 months ago

Source

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vesperlf

2 years ago

one thing you need to know about me is that i am constantly having insane galaxy genius ancient greek philosopher level thoughts about everything ever all the time but before leaving my mouth they get filtered through seven layers of autism and come out sounding like a youtube comment made by a nine year old

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vesperlf

1 year ago

i’m evolved i think pda is actually a good and fine thing even when straight people do it but especially when gay people do. it’s nice to see love in public don’t be a hater grab a loved one and smooch them in line for your pretzel bites or something

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