[OOC] You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

[The Elvenqueen]

That all sounds like a good course of action, I'm all for speeding them over to the Academy and following the events you suggested! :)

As for what happens when they get there, I did have a couple possible ideas to pop down on the table :

- I imagine them finding a lot of Force-draining Rakata technology on a stop off once they arrive in unknown space, which they would later discover were weapons that the Rakata were developing to use against the peoples of the known galaxy because of course, they're power hungry, unstable buggers that would like to squash everyone under their boots ;) Whether they find these things before or after finding Revan and Meetra is totally up for discussion. Either way I'm sure the older two would be able to offer some insight on the topic. I don't know how far into the 'newer' SWTOR content you ever got, but something along the lines of the Eternal Fleet perhaps, but instead of ships they'd essentially be new and improved versions of the Star Forge and in en masse style numbers?

- following from that, I was thinking to myself the other day that if Revan and Meetra were alive this whole time and watching the chaos unfold in the known galaxy, they would have to be very very preoccupied with something just as important to stop them from packing up for a few years to return to save the day? So what if, Meetra and Revan have been chasing the creators of these super weapons around unknown space (in the Ebon Hawk too, perhaps? :3) and trying to stop them from returning to known space, destroying as many of the weapons as they can. (but of course, this is the Rakata...and I imagine that as many as they destroy, the more they make? Hahaha)

- Further inspired by Knights of the Fallen Empire/Eternal Throne, there's the possibility for Valkorion/Vitiate to have somehow been involved in the whole matter? Perhaps he awoke the first Rakata from cryosleep and struck a deal with them, and so forth... So that after Voldon killed his body at the end of the Knight Storyline (?) his spirit remained alive and was pulled back into unknown space where he remained, plotting to overthrow everyone and so forth, remaining sustained by the Force-draining tech, which would suck the life out of any planet, being etc that they send it at, and then pour that life energy into Valkorion and the Rakata masterminds instead to keep them alive.
Naturally, they would have to destroy all of the objects to be able to be rid of them, as an ultimate end goal? :D

- Further reason for Revan to want to remain there, if he desperately wanted to help Renso and the True Sith stop Valkorion he wouldnt want to give it up that easily. (But Y'know, with less of the ridiculous bat shit crazy Shadow of Revan version of him because that was just totally ridiculous XD)

Thaaaats what I got so far! Obviously we can add to it and flesh it out more haha XD

[freedomliveson]

Wow. That's some straight up brilliance right there XD.

So, I really don't have much to add to those points except for a few things here:

-The Rakata certainly seemed like(for the most part) a people consumed with attempting to establish dominance over anything(or one) that they come into contact with. Naturally then whatever survivors from the Infinite Empire were left on Lehon would be po'ed that Revan kinda tanked their whole Star Forge operation because of their desire to exhibit power over the galaxy. This desire stems from Valkorian...

-...who ran the Eternal Empire out in the deep fathoms of Unknown Space(KOTFE never explained that very well, did they? At least, I haven't received an explanation up to where I'm at now, which is chapter 12? I think?) and utilized many of the same techniques Renso became aware of in his little corner of space thanks to the teachings of the True Sith. I'd like to think that Valkorian discovered how to manipulate the Force to preserve himself from Sith who he then killed(that sounds like him, doesn't it? xD) to try and preserve the secrecy of his powers, which of course didn't work thanks to the True Sith establishing themselves far enough away from Valkorian to escape his notice. Right, so back to Val.

-Val builds up the Eternal Empire, which naturally catches the attention of the Rakata, who attempt to wage war with their own Infinite Empire. Naturally Val is intrigued by how the Rakatan can exploit the Force for their own galactic domination, so he allows for skirmishes to occur while intelligence is gathered about their new opponents. After sufficient recon, Val "surrenders" and allows the Rakatan leaders to unbridled access to the capital city. With the Rakatan's guard down, Val's military forces seize the various weaponry the Rakatan have along with their leaders, who Val promptly tortures in order to extract information(because, again, it's Valkorian). The torture doesn't last for very long, however, seeing as the Rakatan leaders aren't morons and know when they have been defeated, so Valkorian's Eternal Empire and the Rakatan's Infinite Empire strike a deal. The Rakatan fork over their knowledge and blueprints to the Eternal Empire while being given the support of the Eternal Empire to go out and subdue the unknown regions of space. This then sparks the Rakatan invading known space and establishing their hold over known space until infighting(of course) broke their empire down and so on.

-Fully aware that the Rakatan would eventually consume themselves, Valkorian bides his time, constructing more Star Forge type machinery and consuming more and more of his sector of the galaxy until all of it can be claimed as a part of the Eternal Empire. From there, he launches a campaign into known space and establishes the Empire, disguising himself as the Emperor and eventually is killed by our boy Voldon. Although his body is gone, his spirit remains painfully alive and is currently guiding his son, Arcan, to amass enough of a force to finish what he started. The Eternal Empire's potential dominance over all sentient life is the threat Revan sensed all those years ago and recruited Meetra to help him with.

Wphew! How does all that sound?

[The Elvenqueen]

Why thank you XD I always felt there were some glaring plot holes in parts of the expansions, the whole SoR arc made no sense with Revan being supposedly light sided for starters, and then there always seemed to be a lot said of WHAT and HOW Val did things but never much of a WHY. XD the ideas were brilliant, theres some crazy dark stuff that happens with Arcann and Vaylin and your Outlander character as well (including Val possessing you which was just AWFUL) and a ton of bad stuff which Val did that I won't mention on the off chance that its from later chapters cause I don't remember what happened where and its been a while LOL but it's definitely similar to the concept we had for Act I :)

So I think we could certainly do it justice by filling in some of the gaps between us ;) it'd loop back nicely into the initial ideas we had haha love love this plan XD In fact, I'm going to copy both of these brainfarts into the characters tab so that we don't lose them in our other chatter and we can easily get back to them to remind us of the plot flow later =P

As to my next post, I shall cover them entering the Academy and some of the accompanying visions, then perhaps you can finish them up and have them head to the meditation chamber? :')

[freedomliveson]

Yeah, fair points on that front. I don't know if the writers were a little too pressured to come up wit something "as epic" as KOTOR or what, but there were massive plot holes that bothered me. I left off at chapter 12 because I just couldn't make myself finish it xD

Sounds good on both points :)
I'll add anything to the characters tab as I remember it/come up with stuff

[The Elvenqueen]

Yah dah! I had some fun with this one! Tried not to rush TOO much but I did want to move them forward somewhat speedily as, like you say, it feels like they've been on Malachor forever XD

The pair in the last set of visions of course is intended to be Revan and Meetra, I don't imagine it would've been pleasant for her to revisit the site where she had to kill her mentor after all D: (And also Atton dying there too, unless you had different plans for him of course!)

As always, feel free to add to or elaborate on the visions further before they move on :)

[freedomliveson]

Yeeahhh, that would be tough for her. I'll have to explore that more in the big vision where they see Lehon.

Post coming tomorrow :)

[The Elvenqueen]

Awesome, look forward to it! :3

[The Elvenqueen]

Ohhhh maaaaaannnn I got CHILLS from those visions (and Lysa being there hurt my heart a little aaahh D:) Working on a post now so should have something up by tomorrow at the latest!

One thing I wanted to clear up though, in terms of getting them OFF Malachor, did we need to discuss how they were going to do that or are you alright if I just jump them back over to Neta's ship/arriving back on Zinuthra at the end of my post?

[freedomliveson]

Oh yay! I was having fun bouncing around SUPER personal encounters, hence Revan and Bastila along with Lysa popping up. Boy, if we decide Revan survives all of this and we bring him back to the known galaxy, he's going to be very sad that his great-granddaughter died...right? We did kill Satele, right? I don't remember now. We've killed a lot of canon characters xD

Yeahhhhh, I don't remember that, BUT why don't we pull a KOTOR 2 and just skip the whole mess of writing out their escape? We can discuss it as the thread goes on, but let's get onto Lehon.

Wait, did we decide to go to Zinuthra first or just have them talk to the Council on their ship before heading to Lehon?

[The Elvenqueen]

Oh man, he is... I feel for the poor guy, he's already a bitter old man by now (he might not be crazy but I'll be damned if abandoning his family and never watching his son grow up didn't have some kind of effect on his psyche XD), he's going to be pretty upset I'm sure. Might even be kinder to have him die heroically and put him out of his misery LOL but we can explore that closer to the time for sure! ;)

Sounds like a plan, batman XD ooohh, actually you have a GOOD point there. Why didn't I think of that *facepalms* them holocalling the Elders while en route would be far more expedient indeed, let's go with that XD

[The Elvenqueen]

Okay, I KNOW I said tomorrow, but I started writing and I couldn't stop hahaha XD

Since you mentioned mixing personal revelations in there, I threw in one of Aria's and also a possible reason behind said relatives/loved ones making an appearance. After all, Revan is a tactical genius and I think he would want to make sure anyone who DID follow them would be strong enough to face Val and the Dark Ones ;)
Context for Ari's vision: "You always have a choice" were the last words her mother said to Ari before she killed her so, yep that was below the belt a little Revan XD

Had fun with all the KOTOR references too *squees* ONWARD, to Lehon and more references still! XD

[freedomliveson]

So not only is Yerbol exhausted, but he's getting kinda sick of the whole being in danger thing, hence the style of the post. I'm ALSO setting him up for something character-altering down the line. I can't tell you what it is yet because I want it to be a COMPLETE surprise, but needless to say, you're going to be in shock xD

[The Elvenqueen]

AAAAHHH, I was slightly concerned for him before but now I'm REALLY worried and so is poor Ari D: (but also excited to find out later dhfhg *flails*)

So, Aria proposed two options, I figure if they go with the first one it'd give them a little bit of time to try and process things before diving right into the complete unknown? Either way they'd have to take some time to decipher the coordinates and give our duo some time to talk before all the crap hits the fan? XD

We alsoooooo need to figure out some of the other places they're going to go to. I'm going to assume that eventually they'd end up on Ziost, and perhaps Zakuul? But between that, there'd be some other Rakata worlds they'd have to go to that we'd have to make up? XD

[The Elvenqueen]

ALSO THE APEIRON DEVS RELEASED A PLANET TEASER/REVEAL AND HOLY CRAP IT LOOKS AMAZING LOOK

[freedomliveson]

Haha! Well, the change is going to be drastic, but it'll all work out :)

Oi vey, yeah. that's something to talk about, isn't it? I'm about ready to head out for the day, so let me get back to you tomorrow with the star wars wiki open in another window to plot our course?

[The Elvenqueen]

Okay, that's at least soothing XD I look forward to the big reveal in the meantime!

Indeed, haha! Sounds like a plan, it's getting late over here so I'm probably going to disappear for the night too so no worries :)

[freedomliveson]

Alright, so here we go:

-After poking around a bit on the interwebs, I think it might be good to have Odessen as the place where Revan and Meetra first go. According to the Wiki and the storyline of KOTFE, Odessen is a "balanced" planet. Why that is...no source can explain, BUT I would assume that the True Sith would have wanted a place to build their very first academy. A "balanced" planet would fall in line quite perfectly with their goals and be a good place for Revan and Meetra to not only visit first, but set up camp.

-Zakuul would be the next obvious destination, but I would think the party would need a way to get there. I THINK what might be cool would be for Val to capture the Commodore(a la KOTFE?) and have the party imprisoned. From there...well, how do you want to handle Revan and the Exile? We could go at it from the standpoint of the duo being alive, but advanced in years and commanding a sort of secret rebel order behind and around Val's back in an attempt to overthrow him.

OR

Revan is alive, but Meetra was captured/killed by Val(or other way around)

OR

They're both dead, but they managed to reach Odessen and Zakuul, gather together Force sensitives and train up a secretive sect of True Sith whose main job is to bring balance to the Force by overthrowing Val. Obviously they haven't been doing very well and the order is hanging on by a thread, but the Qyaari might be able to inject some new life into their order to finally topple Val's empire.

What say you so far?

Edit: I DIDN'T EVEN SEE THE TRAILER UNTIL JUST NOW AND I NEED TO WATCH IT SO EXCUSE ME FOR A SECOND WHILE I...

SECOND EDIT: WOW THAT LOOKS SO GOOD

[The Elvenqueen]

Ayeeeeee, those are some good ideas there my friend o.o yes to both of those first points, Odessen would be perfect for them to set up a 'secret' base and all the yes to being captured by Val later on the way to Zakuul.

As for Revan and Meetra, eeek. So many good options there, PERHAPS (since it would be a shame to not include them both somehow?) Revan is alive and present on Odessen, but Meetra has been captured and tortured by Val, and Revan has been trying to free her... But since they're both old by now it's more difficult for him to match up to Val and Arcan so he has to enlist the Qyaari's help?

And perhaps said attempted rescue mission could result in their capture? And they have to escape down onto Zakuul to find Val and Meetra in the room with the Eternal throne?

And then... I envision a big confrontation of some sort (a la KOTFE minus the getting frozen in carbonite part? XD) where either Revan or Meetra (OR as you say, perhaps both? They're old and tired as hell by now I imagine and I know my Revan would rather go be with Bastila in the end XD) attempt to face Val and fall, but the Qyaari escape back to Revan's Academy on Odessen to reconvene with what's left of the True Sith they had trained? (:
With possibility to have one or two (one each, twins perhaps?) actual Sith Purebloods to be among them, descendents of Renso's sisters perhaps, who have been hiding out with Revan due to knowing of Val's influence over the Empire and blah blah?

.... Okay, brainfart over for now I think lol hopefully at least some of that made sense XD

I KNOW ISN'T IT. I'M SO EXCITED. and I'm not ashamed to admit I legitimately cried when they showed the crystal caves because HOT DAMN THEY'RE SO BEAUTIFUL ;w; they're everything the crystal caves SHOULD have been o:

[freedomliveson]

So, based on your ideas, I've constructed the timeline in my head for you to review:

-The Qyaari on Lehon get into the Temple by way of Yerbol and Aria channeling the Force through the strength of their bond, seeing as Revan AND Meetra would know a thing or two about bonds and would want to lock whatever secrets are still in the temple from Force users who don't understand how powerful a tool the Force can be(more on that I suppose when they meet Revan and Meetra).

-All other doors are locked, however, except for a singular path that leads them up to the roof of the temple where Revan and Bastila fought each other AND, if I remember correctly, has a terminal that can broadcast communication signals (right? That was up there? I'm pretty sure there was a terminal up there and I remember thinking to myself how did the Rakata install such a fancy looking piece of equipment on their ancient temple back in the Infinite empire days?)

-There they update Neta and the Council as well as upload the star map data to Vano, who needs time to crack the maps(obviously). This would be a good point for a Bioware-esque "interlude" where characters get to talk to each other. The interlude can happen on Alderaan and considering that our characters really haven't had a true interlude like in the past acts, I think they'll need one here. I mean, Voldon died, what, a week ago in our current timeline? Ari and Yerbol barely had time to talk then and now I think these two need to have some serious discussion before venturing out into the unknown. I've also got some scenes ready for Neta and Ethan. If you want Ari to participate in either of their sequences, let me know :)

-From there...well, back into the unknown. Goodness, doesn't this feel like we're almost starting a new thread entirely? I mean, this'll be an entirely new universe. We've only really dealt with the fringes of wild space, but this...this is going to be crazy stuff.

Edit: Do you think Kira coming would be too much? I'm struggling with the idea of bringing her or not, but I feel like it would be a very Kira-like thing to do to show up and force her way onto the expedition because she feels like she needs to leave the known galaxy for a long time(for obvious reasons)

[The Elvenqueen]

- All sounds good on the first two points to me! Pretty sure there was some sort of terminal thing there too XD though heavens knows how/why the Rakata built it up there...

- Love the idea of the door being locked to everyone except those who have/had a Force bond too. Seems like something they would engineer for sure XD

- an interlude sounds VERY appropriate, as you say they never really got a chance for one between last act and this one, and they've got a LOT to process and deal with. Poor Bol especially seems like he needs one D: (Awww Ethan, Buddy, she's waaaaayy too old for you XD I'm not sure on Ari there, I think she'd be too worried about Yerbol to leave him on his own for very long in all honesty XD she can tell something is off and the fact that he doesn't know/can't even tell her what it is either is understandably very concerning for her haha XD)

- Well, we completely turned all the Lore on its head for Act I, so I'm super looking forward to seeing where we go from here with this act. Does almost feel like a separate "Chapter" (or series, even, if we're thinking in terms of TV shows and so forth lol) to the other three acts *excited flailing*

Ooohh Kira! Nah, why not, I say let's have her tag along, poor girl Dx might give her the closure she needs too? (plus, and I do stand corrected but I'm sure she hasn't?) no one has seen her since she ran off after Voldon died, so it would be SO Kira, as you say, to pop up out of the blue again with some kind of crazy scheme.

Sounds like a good outline so far! What do you think? :')