OOC Reference The Epitaph Saga, or: The obligatory list of things the Black-Coat has done to you

Call audible?

 

I assumed I was unaware of some young whippersnapper lingo!

 

Oh lord.

I love it.

 

Alllll the spoilerz.

 

I’ll catch up this afternoon but I did an aside in the meantime because I’m apparently insane.

Spoiler

IC: Darth Sidious the Eternal
Dwartii, the Thirteen Thrones

They were all stones, standing akin to a giant hand reaching for the skies.

Thirteen grasping fingers.

Two hands and more besides.

Darth Wyyrlok - formerly Mas Amedda, found himself staring at the three fingered hand of his mangled master.

The Emperor.

Palpatine.

Darth Sidious.

And, more recently, White Eyes.

The great architect of the collapse of the galaxy, not once, but twice, with a third and final act planned.

Not a Galactic Empire, beholden to a corrupted Republic, nor a Dark Empire, broken upon by treacherous Advisors, but a true Final Order - the Sith Eternal. The seed of the first Sith Emperor, left in the care of the Rhandites of Red Space; the so-called Nihil Retreat, the Twilight Void, the Gunninga Gap, the Perann Nebula.

Today they stood, only three of them truly present, the other ten illusionary Black Coats. Wyyrlok shifted uneasily in his, though Ren seemed nonchalant within his own. Protection from the Darknesses was a prerequisite of acting in the dark side. To seize the Force one must oppose the madness of the Old Ones, for they merely burn, and Palpatine?

He sculpted with destruction.

The Chagrian winced.

Ren was here, slightly behind him on the stone pillar, signifying his lower position in the Grand Design. But Wyyrlok was more interested in the three pillars between he and his Master. Others had stood between him and Palpatine before; Maul, Tyranus, Vader. Others had stood besides him; Thrawn, Tarkin, Rax - favoured servants. And others still had stood behind him; Sly Moore, Oochi of Bestoon, Mara Jade.

But even then, most had not had a glimpse of the Design.

Wyyrlok, as Mas Amedda, always had, back when Palpatine had himself been the apprentice to Darth Plagueis, the Muun who had led the shadow economy that would birth the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Wyyrlok sniffed.

“Let us begin,” Sidious hissed.

It was in the months after the Yuuzhan Vong War that they had rhymed that there would be no danger in them meeting outside the Unknowns, or beyond the shadows of the Cloister of XoXaan, the hovel the One Sith concealed themselves within on Korriban.

He gestured to the illusionary Black Coats behind Wyyrlok; he and Ren turned slightly to regard the secondary cast. “The Yuuzhan Vong War changed much of the galactic dynamic. This required us to adapt to the formation of the Galactic Alliance between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant.” He spat the latter word. Wyyrlok knew how much he despised Pellaeon’s egalitarian regime, which sought to turn away from the Sith.

Three Black-Coats withdrew their hoods. “Senators Ormes Apollin and Cerise Sindian have served us well within the New Republic Senate, nurturing the Centrist Party into a force for stalemate.” Indeed they had, reasoned Wyyrlok; after all he had recruited them, as the former, doting Grand Vizier of the defeated Galactic Empire, which had ‘dissolved’ so as to join the Senate as a single political bloc. The third was man cutting a distinctive Imperial jawline, and Wyyrlok recognised him, too. “Moff Quillan has long served as our agent within the Moff Council, having provided us with access to the Remnant executive boards and diverting materiel to the Unknowns.” Quillan’s position as one of the surviving eight Imperial Moffs had allowed them to turn portions of Pellaeon’s regime to their use, especially with companies relocating to the Remnant, setting up spin-offs like Kuat-Entralla Engineering or Jaemus-Seinar Systems - groups responsible for the Resurgent-class Star Destroyers and plethora of advanced TIE designs that served the First Order.

A flex of a mottled hand and two more Black-Coats were unmasked. “Added to our Design are Senators Haydnat Treen and Fost Bramsin, both serving in the Galactic Alliance Senate. They serve via intermediaries…” Wyyrlok heard Palpatine’s grave voice falter, clearly a second thought unspoken, which the Chagrian knew would be something along the lines of. ”… for as long as Bramsin is cognisant. The man was the Old Republic Senator for Coruscant, and so a natural choice for the Alliance Senate, a much smaller organisation made of those who wished direct membership to take advantage of the relaxed military regulations of the Galactic Alliance. The Corellians, Bothans and Kuati were among several groups that had sought dual-membership, and of course the Alliance Senate also welcomed representatives from the Hutts, Hapans, Remnant and other powers outside the traditional sphere of New Republic territory, which had been reduced by the recent Yuuzhan Vong War.

No surprises there.

Two more Black-Coats were unmasked, one standing at the same level as Ren. Wyyrlok eyed them both. “Brendol Hux rebuilds our Stormtrooper Corps, and Ennic Pryde our fleet strength.” The latter was eyed up by Ren, but Wyyrlok knew that Pryde was elevated because he knew of Palpatine, and not just Snoke. For a time other naval officers had stood in for Hux; Rae Sloane, Gilad Pellaeon, Natasi Daala - but they had been mere pawns rather than true contributors.

That was seven.

Wyyrlok eyed the position opposite him.

The Black-Coat was unmasked as Darth Krayt, fourth in the pecking. An unconscious ache resonated within his decapitated lethorn, having been removed by the fallen Jedi in their first meeting. “Lord Krayt will command the One Sith, with your supervision, as his Voice when he is in stasis.” Wyyrlok looked to the milk-coloured eyes of his master. Krayt was suffering from a virulent Yuuzhan Vong infection which the Force could not defeat. As such he was often required to freeze his body to prevent its progression, but that simply allowed them access to his Visions, for his former ties as a Lightsider availed him access to the future that they did not have otherwise, especially not since the Prophets of the Dark Side were long gone, and the Rhandite’s mad frothing was merely good for apocalyptic foresight. “And I shall attend Korriban when you are needed elsewhere.” Wyyrlok in his guise of Mas Amedda had long walked a narrow line among the politicians of the Empire, New Republic and Remnant, advising the likes of Fyor Rodan, Borsk Fey’lya and Moff Gideon, and the Centrist infection within the New Republic Senate require oft-tweaking.

But he knew that Palpatine would not be long able to leave Exegol. His time in the Ommin Cage, a life-support casket designed originally by an ancient Sith King, was becoming more and more necessary, especially as the body he now inhabited - and had for some two decades - suffered. But Palpatine’s clone laboratories had not been fully set up on Exegol when Byss was destroyed, and so the transference from Onderon had seen the great Emperor trapped, unable to leap into a new form unless perfectly compatible. Many efforts had failed, or had succeeded in the worst way - the only successful creation had been a Force-mute son, and his escapades and subsequent death had distracted Palpatine from his plots and plans involving the Second Imperium.

The grandchild had been lost.

But the surviving Dark Jedi of the Imperium’s Shadow Academy had withdrawn to Korriban, and became the nucleus of a New Sith Order. Palpatine had long aspired to be the One Sith - the Dark Lord whose power was so ascendant that no cabal of darksiders could oppose him - and so it naturally flowed that Krayt’s vision of a One Sith Order would become. He reinvigorated the defeated Dark Jedi, and the One Sith would be poised to strike at the Jedi in short order, having already been useful in discovering the location of various Thrawn-era cloning facilities and troves of abandoned Rakatan technology. With his affliction, Krayt was no threat to the Emperor, and Wyyrlok rarely had to intervene between them, and their compact was undoubtedly sealed by Krayt’s belief that the Emperor would not overcome his own physical difficulties, and when said clone succumbed the great Palpatine would be dragged into the netherworld with it.

Wyyrlok’s heart skipped a beat at that thought. Utter fear gripped him. Not for him, nor even for his daughter, who would undoubtedly one day bear his Sith name, but for his Emperor, the dark light of his universe. The Chagrian dismissed the heretical notion that his master could cease to be.

Not even death could stop the great Darth Sidious.

But there were two more left.

One, closest to Palpatine, unmasked, and Wyyrlok relaxed somewhat; it was merely Snoke, the malformed clone of the Emperor that had proven useful as a proxy, the Supreme Leader of the First Order. Rax’s folly, they had needed to take control of the nascent regime from Sloane, an unplanned part of the Contingency that had been originally designed to head to Exegol and prepare for the eventual regime based from there. But it had been easy enough to seize - the Attendants, gifted hyperspace navigators that had served the Grysk in their efforts against the Chiss, they had been offered to the young First Order by Snoke, who reinforced the former Imperials and subtly positioned himself as its ultimate Supreme Leader.

All at the behest of Palpatine, of course.

Where the Supreme Leader ended and the Emperor began, Wyyrlok could not say, but the Snoke template, as monstrous and malformed as it was, had proven capable of duplication, and so on Exegol there were plenty spare for when Snoke inevitably broke down. Cloning science had long been limited when it came to cloning Force users. Geniuses such as Vader and Thrawn had all dedicated energies to the problem, but the fundamental issue remained that copying a powerful Force user was nigh-impossible. It was easier to brainwash someone into believing that they were clone than creating one!

The Emperor explained how Snoke would be the ruler of the First Order, as a vanguard for the Sith Eternal. All that was of note there was that Starkiller Base would be assigned to Snoke to cultivate, but that was logical being as Ilum fell within his ostensible territory. With the Empire of the Hand having been smashed by First Order forces at the height of the Yuuzhan Vong War, the heart of the Unknowns had been cleared, and what remnants of Thrawn’s loyalists had fled into Chiss space. The Killiks were advancing on their territory anyway, and Palpatine expected the Chiss to be more focused there than investigating the mysterious enemy that had battered the Empire of the Hand. But subtlety would be needed, and the Supremacy - the mobile capital-shipyard - would remain out of sight even inside the Unknowns, nestled by stars and working on the next wave of Star Destroyers. “Snoke will remain there unless he was needed in the Knowns to complete a task for me.”

“I guess this has to do with the last guy,” Ren sarcastically opined, pointing at the relatively short and slim final Black-Coat. “He’s gotta be important if you put him above Fang-Face and Tats-Boy.” He indicated Wyyrlok and Krayt respectively. The Chagrian bared said fangs in response. Ren shrugged, nonchalant to the end.

“Yes,” crowed Palpatine. “Ben Solo shall be my ultimate instrument.” The teen, the youngest of Solo brats, was revealed, and Wyyrlok felt the selfsame twinge within him when he ever heard the Emperor speak of Maul, Tyranus, or any of the Skywalker’s.

His intended apprentice.

It wasn’t jealousy; Wyyrlok had long passed beyond such things. But it was certainly envy.

A slight sigh, and he swung to regard the illusions of the others.

Twelve men and women, unified in ultimate service to the Emperor.

And Darth Wyyrlok stood as fifth.

It wasn’t a bad place to stand.

His lowest point had been as Acting Emperor, kept on Coruscant and forced to act the fool to Gallius Rax. Forbidden to use his Force powers by his master, the then-Mas Amedda had been subjected to all manner of humiliation, and forced to sign the Galactic Concordance. Exposed to all kinds of ridicule, the surviving Moffs in the Core and Inner Rim, as well as a cabal of Lords, had caused him no end of grief before he was allowed to depart for Korriban. So he was content to be lower down the pecking order for now.

When the Emperor took back direct rule in malevolent fashion, occupying young Solo’s body, Snoke would not be needed and Wyyrlok would stand where he was used to; as the third most powerful individual in the galaxy. He’d outlasted his fellow Grand Vizier Pestage; the worming Xizor, and irritating Sedriss.

Let the Galactic Alliance grow more powerful. Let the Jedi rebuild and replenish their numbers. Let the Hapans and Remnant integrate with the galaxy and expose themselves to the twists and turns of galactic rule.

In a decade, Starkiller Base would be finished.

A year after that, the Sith Fleet would be complete.

Ren nodded to it all. “Gotcha. I guess I’d best get my Knights ready to test the kid.” He sketched a disrespectful salute.

Palpatine stared at him, and through him, and the illusions of the Great Design faded, leaving the three of them once more. “My apprentice needs merely seasoning for the time when he takes my spirit. The dark side must surge through his veins to make him the perfect vessel. Snoke will be his taskmaster; the forger of the sword, and my proxy in the great dynamic of Master and Apprentice.” A monstrous grease of a smirk touched his ruins lips. “I shall be a shadow hand upon him, and nothing more. My involvement will remain unknown to most of my Design until it is too late.”

Ren bowed his head, and Wyyrlok followed.

“To the Grand Design,” the Chagrian solemnly intoned.

To the ultimate Sith Victory.

 

Whoa.