Nathema Nathema , originally known as Medriaas , was a fertile agriworld located in the Nathema system of the Outer Rim Territories ' Chorlian sector during the time of the Sith Empire . The planet ' s Sith ruler , Lord Dramath , was deposed in 5103 BBY by his own illegitimate son Tenebrae at the age of ten , and the child received the title of Lord Vitiate and rulership of Medriaas from the reigning Dark Lord of the Sith , Marka Ragnos . Renaming the planet Nathema , Vitiate kept his world isolated from the power plays of his fellow Sith over the next century , and his isolation spared Nathema from the Great Hyperspace War in 5000 BBY . The following year , Vitiate summoned the eight thousand remaining Sith Lords to Nathema in order to save the crumbling Sith Empire , but the powerful Vitiate dominated their minds instead and proceeded to use their strength in a complex ritual of Sith magic that granted him immortality while stripping the Force from the entire planet . With only one exception , every living thing on Nathema other than Vitiate was instantly killed by the Ritual of Nathema , and the planet became a barren wasteland devoid even of droids and technology as Vitiate , now known as the Sith Emperor , hid his past and the hyperspace routes to Nathema from his newly reconstituted Empire . Nathema ' s rediscovery and the revelation of what he had done to the world sparked a plot among the members of the Empire ' s ruling Dark Council to unseat their Emperor and prevent him from repeating the ritual , but the destruction of the conspiracy once again erased knowledge of Nathema from the mind of the Empire . However , the memory of Nathema inspired the Sith Lord Scourge to betray the Emperor over three centuries later , causing him to ally with the Jedi Knight known as the Hero of Tython in order to stop the Emperor from repeating the ritual on a galactic scale . Though he kept the planet a secret from the Sith Empire , Vitiate nonetheless made use of it for his own purposes , sending powerful Force users to the blighted world to be experimented upon by his servants in the Sanitarium . The Sanitarium was maintained by the Nathema Zealot s , strange Force - sensitives that survived the planet ' s Force void through daily rituals and intense meditation that left them utterly dependent upon it for survival . The ritual ' s sole survivors , a species of semi - sentient insects , mutated into the mindless creatures known as voreclaw s , which Vitiate saved from extinction to use as guards for the vaults of dark side artifacts he kept beneath the Sanitarium . Vitiate ' s daughter Vaylin was imprisoned in the Sanitarium as a child to contain her powers , and when she returned to Nathema years later , she had the Sanitarium bombarded into ruin , leaving Nathema once again a barren and lifeless world . Description . A lush and fertile planet located in the Nathema system , a star system on the edges of the Sith Empire in what would later be known as the Outer Rim Territories ' s Chorlian sector , Medriaas served as a productive agriworld for the Empire in the centuries before 5113 BBY . Medriaas orbited a bright orange sun and possessed a Type I atmosphere that was breathable for both Humans and Sith . The terrestrial planet ' s agricultural fields were dotted with dozens of farming villages , though by the time of the Great Hyperspace War in 5000 BBY Medriaas — which , by that point , had been renamed Nathema — had at least one city . Medriaas possessed oceans which separated at least two continents on the planet ' s surface , and the northern continent was considered to be remote in relation to the Sith Lord Dramath ' s seat of power . After the Ritual of Nathema , the planet was completely devoid of all life ; every living thing regardless of size was consumed by the Sith Lord Vitiate ' s ritual , and the planet ' s surface was left a barren wasteland . Even droids and other technology were destroyed by the ritual , and the very fabric of the environment seemed to be leeched of color — leaving everything sickly shades of brown or gray . The atmosphere was warped as well , as Nathema ' s sun appeared a pale brown instead of its actual orange color , and sound waves were twisted to become flat and dull . The surface was dotted with the inanimate remains of Nathema ' s inhabitants , as the ritual had not consumed its victims ' clothing or belongings , and the lack of natural scavengers left everything in exactly the same condition it was on the day of the ritual . Force - sensitive individuals felt the ritual ' s effect most of all , as the complete absence of the Force left those who visited the world nearly physically ill . The Jedi Meetra Surik was forced to fight the void , as those who encountered the phenomenon termed it , to retain her sense of self and prevent it from filling the vacuum with her own energy . In the centuries after the ritual , time gradually wiped away all traces of intelligent life on the planet , to the point where the sole structure that remained was the Sanitarium , a prison for Vitiate ' s enemies . Fashioned out of gray rock , the Sanitarium was home to the Nathema Zealot s and the Keepers , who kept watch over the facility ' s prisoners . The bulk of the structure was located underground , where Vitiate kept vaults of dark artifacts . History . Fertile agriworld . Medriaas had already been discovered and settled by the Sith Empire in the centuries before 5000 BBY , and by the year 5113 BBY , the planet was ruled by the Sith Lord Dramath . Around that time , Dramath had an affair with a farm woman on the northern continent , and he promptly forgot about the woman and the son she bore him when he left the region . In 5107 BBY , the child — who had been named Tenebrae — began to exhibit signs of Force - sensitivity , which meant he was a member of the planet ' s ruling elite . Tenebrae ' s adoptive father confronted his wife over the fact that neither of them were Force - sensitive , but Tenebrae used his father ' s own anger to kill the man when he attacked the six - year - old ' s mother , and Tenebrae tortured his mother for months before killing her in response to her infidelity . He then proceeded to take control of his village , torturing and killing with the Force those who refused to submit to his authority . He then proceeded to conquer the northern continent over the next four years , amassing legions of followers and eliminating thousands during his rise in order to feed his appetite for pain and suffering . Dramath believed the rumors of these events to be beneath him , and it was not until 5103 BBY that the Sith Lord decided to visit Tenebrae and determine whether to kill him or make him into a servant . But to Dramath ' s surprise , the ten - year - old stripped his father of the Force and drove him insane before killing him . Over the next three years , Tenebrae continued his conquest of Medriaas and eliminated every Sith challenger who tried to oppose him . In 5100 BBY , he claimed the throne of Medriaas , while his half - brother Dramath the Second fled in fear of his sibling ' s power . Now the undisputed ruler of the world , Tenebrae presented himself before Dark Lord of the Sith Marka Ragnos , the ruler of the Empire , on the capital of Ziost , and an impressed Ragnos granted him official rule of Medriaas and the title of Lord Vitiate . The teenage Sith Lord returned to his world and renamed it Nathema , building himself a palace on the site of his childhood home and spending the next century studying the depths of the dark side of the Force . Marka Ragnos ' death in 5000 BBY sparked a struggle for succession between the Sith Lords Naga Sadow and his rival Ludo Kressh . Vitiate refrained from involving himself or Nathema in the political infighting , and Nathema continued under his isolationist policy even when Sadow ' s exploits as the Dark Lord of the Sith brought the Empire into contact with the Galactic Republic and their Jedi protectors , beginning the Great Hyperspace War . As the Empire crumbled under a Republic assault after the Sith offensive was turned back , Vitiate remained engrossed in his studies , thereby sparing Nathema from the devastation of war . But in the aftermath of Sadow ' s defeat at Korriban , Vitiate emerged from his seclusion and began to manipulate the Empire ' s fear . Broadcasting speeches from his palace that described how the Republic would pursue them and massacre the people of the Empire , he drove Nathema and the rest of the Empire into a terrified and desperate frenzy before he offered them hope . The Ritual of Nathema . At the same time , Vitiate had a team of historians and researchers search for a long - lost Sith colony world named Dromund Kaas , to where he planned to retreat in order to avoid the Jedi . When the lead researcher finally presented him with their successful findings , Vitiate immediately sent out a call to all of the remaining Sith Lords within the Empire . Nathema ' s ruler promised to lead them in a great ritual of Sith magic that would bring about the Empire ' s salvation , and more than eight thousand Sith Lords answered his call from Korriban . Three days after Vitiate ' s researchers informed him of their success , he publicly announced the commencement of the ritual , and the Sith who had come to Nathema gathered in Vitiate ' s palace . But to their surprise , the scholarly Sith turned on them and dominated their minds , binding all of them to his will and feeding on their strength as he began the ritual . At that point , Nathema ' s entire government came to a halt , as the Jedi Meetra Surik was unable to find any electronic records after Vitiate ' s announcement . The ritual itself took an entire week , but by the end of that week the entire planet was stripped of the Force . Vitiate absorbed the life force of every living organism on the planet , leaving behind piles of dust as Nathema ' s inhabitants , wildlife , and flora simply disintegrated . Cities , villages , vehicles , technology , and all other inanimate objects remained behind , though the ritual destroyed almost all of the planet ' s technology as power was ripped from the circuitry . The ritual transformed Vitiate , making him immortal and granting him immense power in the Force , and he shed his title to become known only as the Emperor . The Emperor blamed the destruction of Nathema on the Jedi , driving the people of the Empire further into a panic while also offering them hope once again . Gathering the remnants of the shattered Empire , especially those of the younger generation , the Emperor boarded a small fleet with them and departed for Dromund Kaas on an exodus . However , the Emperor ensured that the journey took them twenty years to reach the planet — which none but the Emperor knew was their destination — so that the people would come to rely on him as their savior . He also erased all mention of Nathema from history beyond the name of the Ritual of Nathema , which Imperial scholars celebrated as one of the greatest achievements of the old Empire . He also ensured that any data on hyperspace routes back to Nathema were destroyed , ensuring that no one would ever discover the truth of Nathema and how he gained his power . The Void . However , members of the reconstituted Empire ' s ruling Dark Council eventually rediscovered Nathema ' s existence and how to reach it , as the Dark Councilors Darth Nyriss and Darth Xedrix had both been to Nathema at some point before 3954 BBY . Upon learning the truth — that the Emperor wished to start a new war with the Republic in order to perform his ritual again — Nyriss , Xedrix , and several other Councilors formed a conspiracy to unseat the Emperor . The conspirators named the phenomenon of the absence of the Force as " the Void . " In the year 3960 BBY , the Jedi Knights Revan and Malak ended the Mandalorian Wars at the Battle of Malachor V , in which Revan defeated the Mandalorians ' leader Mandalore the Ultimate in personal combat . As Mandalore lay dying , he revealed to Revan that he had been influenced by the Sith to go to war against the Republic , and gave the Jedi information on how to locate the Sith now that his mind was no longer under their influence . After the battle , Revan and Malak followed Mandalore ' s information to the ice world of Rekkiad , where they discovered Dramath the Second ' s tomb , as well as a datacron with the coordinates of Nathema . Leaving the Republic ships that had accompanied them behind , the two traveled to the desolate world and witnessed what the Emperor had done . Learning of Nathema ' s history and the location of Dromund Kaas from what was left of the government ' s archives , the two Jedi journeyed to Dromund Kaas to confront the Emperor , but they were instead turned to the dark side and made into Sith Lords . The two were sent back to conquer the Republic in the Emperor ' s name , though they broke free of his control , and Revan was eventually returned to the light side of the Force after Malak turned on him and tried to kill him . Revan defeated Malak and ended the conflict known as the Jedi Civil War in 3956 BBY , though his amnesia prevented him from pursuing the Sith Empire out in the Unknown Regions . In 3954 BBY , Revan eventually decided to follow his broken memories to Rekkiad and then to Nathema in order to discover the threat which he could not remember , and he took his ship , the " Ebon Hawk " , to the Nathema system . Around the same time , Darth Nyriss inducted the Sith Lord Scourge into the conspiracy after he proved that he was worthy to join their cause , and Nyriss took Scourge to Nathema in order to show him what the Emperor was capable of . Scourge was horrified by the planet , though as the two were leaving , they sensed Revan ' s arrival in the Force and attacked the " Ebon Hawk " with an ion cannon . Losing control of his ship , Revan was unable to stop the " Hawk " from crashing to the surface of Nathema , where he was captured by Scourge and Nyriss . The two Sith missed Revan ' s utility droid T3 - M4 , however , and T3 spent the next three years rebuilding the damaged " Hawk " with the materials he could find on the planet . T3 intended to return to Revan ' s wife Bastila Shan as per his instructions , but he and the " Ebon Hawk " were caught up in the conflict known as the Dark Wars , and the droid became the companion of Revan ' s former ally Meetra Surik . Finally , in 3950 BBY , T3 was able to explain Revan ' s disappearance to Surik and Shan , and Surik decided to follow Revan to Nathema while Shan stayed behind with Revan ' s son Vaner . On Nathema , Surik and T3 were able to activate what was left of the government ' s records and learned what had happened to the planet , and they followed Revan ' s and Malak ' s first journey to Dromund Kaas in order to find Revan . Surik rescued Revan with the help of Scourge , whom Revan had convinced to help defeat the Emperor , and the three attempted to kill the Emperor . However , Scourge ' s Force visions led him to kill Surik and betray Revan , as he realized they would fail in their mission and he needed to stay alive in order to aid the Jedi who could kill the Emperor . Made immortal and appointed as the Emperor ' s Wrath , the Emperor ' s personal executioner , Scourge served the Emperor for three centuries before he betrayed his master to join forces with the Jedi Knight known as the Hero of Tython — the Knight from his vision . Explaining to the Jedi the history of the Emperor and Nathema , Scourge helped the Hero and the Knight ' s crew prevent the Emperor from performing the ritual again on a galactic scale . With Scourge ' s help , the Knight was able to halt the Emperor ' s plans and finally defeat the immortal ruler in battle , though the Sith survived their encounter and went into hiding in order to heal . The Sanitarium . In the centuries following the ritual , Vitiate brought groups of Force - sensitives to the planet , forcing them to brave the Force void in an effort to create an army of incredibly powerful but utterly subservient Force users . However , his efforts were only partially successful ; the final result was the Nathema Zealot s , a group of Force users who survived contact with the void through a daily regime of rituals and meditation that focused their power while also diminishing their free will . The disadvantage of such a process was that the Zealots became actually dependent on the void for their survival , becoming catatonic if they left the planet ' s surface . Nonetheless , Vitiate repurposed the Zealots as guards for the Sanitarium , Around the same time , he sent his daughter Vaylin to Nathema so that she might be controlled , and her power contained . After years , her brother Arcann took her back to Zakuul . The process weakened her and rendered her weak to the phrase " Kneel before the Dragon of Zakuul " , but also had severely traumatic effects on her mind , leaving her mentally unstable . Breaking the Bonds . In 3630 BBY , Vaylin returned to Nathema after becoming Eternal Empress , hoping the scientist Jarak that had created her " conditioning " had found a way to break it . Unbeknownst to Vaylin , she didn ' t know that the Outlander had followed her , hoping to stop her . As the process began , it proved to be highly unstable , resulting in corruption leaking through the sanitarium . The Void Corruption was impossible to contain , and spread like wildfire , draining and killing anything it came into contact with . Even Valkorion , a Force entity , was not immune to its effects . Aided by the scientist , the Outlander and his companion fled the Void Corruption to a vault the Emperor had stored ancient relics in . The presence of powerful dark side imbued items was enough to keep the Void Corruption at bay , but also posed its own threats . While trying to activate the vault ' s backup generator , the Outlander and Lana Beniko discovered a holocron containing the spirit of Lord Dramath . Dramath explained the history of Nathema and his own connection to Valkorion , before revealing that his holocron could help destroy Valkorion once and for all . The Outlander entrusted the holocron to Beniko to ensure that Valkorion remained unaware of their possession of the artifact . Soon after , a trio of voreclaws were thawed from carbonite and attacked the intruders , killing Jarak in the process , but were in turn killed by the Outlander and Beniko . The pair then escaped the Sanitarium as Vaylin overloaded the facility ' s generators with the Force from her flagship . Return to Nathema . Theron Shan decrypted a holomap depicting the location of a superweapon that belonged to the Sith Emperor . It was located on Nathema , the last place Theron hoped to see again . Inhabitants . Before the Ritual of Nathema , the planet was home to millions of Sith , many of whom were farmers . Nathema ' s inhabitants lived in villages and cities across the planet , and they were ruled by an autocratic government headed by a single Sith Lord with many subordinates . The world was also home to a wide variety of creatures , including birds , fish , insects , and land animals , and its agricultural fields supplied a large amount of foodstuffs for the Empire . However , the ritual killed almost every living thing on the entire planet , leaving Nathema barren and lifeless . Only one thing survived other than Vitiate : the voreclaw , a type of semi - sentient , bipedal insect that possessed a rudimentary hive mind . However , their hive mind was obliterated by the ritual , leaving their underground colonies nothing more than groups of mindless individuals . When the voreclaws , driven by hunger , finally emerged onto the surface , radiation from their planet ' s sun ravaged the insects , burning their exposed flesh and their chitinous shells . In the utter absence of any other food , the creatures were forced into cannibalism , attacking and eating each other until only a handful remained . Vitiate captured the few remaining survivors and stored them in carbonite beneath the Sanitarium , using them as guards . In the centuries following the ritual , the only permanent inhabitants of the planet were three groups , all of whom lived within the Sanitarium . The first were the Nathema Zealots , a group of Force - sensitives who survived contact with the Force void through daily rituals and meditation that left them completely subservient to Vitiate , but also caused them to become catatonic if they left the planet . The second were the Keepers , specially - trained Abyssin who maintained day - to - day order in the Sanitarium , and the third were the prisoners : powerful Force users who angered or opposed Vitiate , and were sent to Nathema as punishment . Vitiate ' s own daughter Vaylin was imprisoned in the Sanitarium for a time , as her power was unpredictable and Vitiate felt she was far too strong to be left uncontained . Behind the scenes . Nathema was first introduced in Drew Karpyshyn ' s 2011 novel " " , which revealed much of the backstory of the Sith Emperor and his Empire . The novel set up much of the plot for Act III of the Jedi Knight storyline in the video game " " , which was released by BioWare and LucasArts about a month after the tie - in novel . Nathema is mentioned by Lord Scourge in the beginning of Act III while he is describing the history of the Emperor , though he does not mention the planet by name . " The Journal of Master Gnost - Dural " , an in - universe reference guide released with the Collector ' s Edition of the game , mentions Nathema in the chapter where Gnost - Dural investigates the history of the Emperor . " The Essential Reader ' s Companion " and the " " , both released in 2012 , also mention Nathema , and the regular updates of the to " The Essential Atlas " placed Nathema and the Nathema system in the Chorlian sector of the Outer Rim , in grid square S - 4 . The fifth expansion for " The Old Republic " , " " , includes Nathema as one of the two worlds new to the game that are involved in the expansion ' s storyline . Nathema is the setting of Chapter VII : Into the Void , and is identified as the place where Vaylin was imprisoned as a child . Vaylin ' s imprisonment , and therefore Nathema , was first visually depicted in " Betrayed , " a cinematic trailer that was released in advance of " Knights of the Eternal Throne " .