Darth Deceptious/Abilities and powers

## Abilities and powers

### Force powers

> You cannot win. The Emperor’s powers are limitless, Jedi. There is no end to his hunger. We all serve his game, whether we want to or not.
>
> ━Darth Canus to the Grand Jedi Master

Darth Deceptious possessed immense strength and an unnaturally high affinity to manipulate the Force, as seen when his abilities began to manifest subconsciously as an infant in response to emotional distress. At the age of six, he was able to perform incredible feats of power, and it was evident he was mysteriously━yet naturally━pulled toward the dark side. Eleven years old, he became twisted and used his powers to trap his family and physically and psychologically torture them, learning he could empower himself by feeding off their fear and despair. He had kept them alive for months until he allowed them to die from shock. As his powers grew, so did his twisted nature. By the time the Sith had discovered him, his power had grown to the point that the Sith Lord who was sent to take him to the academy was stripped of his sanity, his connection to the Force, and even his very life. Only when he willingly attended the academy, did the Dark Council acknowledge the teenager's strength, hoping to use him as a living weapon, and noting whoever took him as an apprentice would possess an immensely powerful weapon to use against their rivals. He was a prodigy and passed his trials following the deaths of his fellow acolytes in the tombs who had ganged up on him, where he responded to their threats by effortlessly crushing their organs with the Force. Even after becoming a Sith apprentice, his own apprenticeship did not last long as only two years later did he kill his own master in front of the Dark Council, taking his place, and naming himself Darth Deceptious.

For the following decade, he gained a reputation as a scholar known to delve obsessively into the secrets of the dark side and Sith sorcery, becoming a powerful user of Sith magic and alchemy, devising complex rituals to warp reality and life itself. His power continued to grow unchecked and eventually led to him challenging and destroying the Sith Emperor Darth Vitiate, using his powers to destroy his very soul and strip his mind of all the knowledge he possessed for his own use. Claiming the mantle of the most powerful Sith Lord in history, he declared himself the next Dark Lord and ruler of the Empire. One of his specialties was in the domination of his opponent’s and victims’ minds, as he was able to dominate the minds of thousands of living beings, including accomplished Jedi Masters and powerful Sith Lords, and bind them to his will. Using the knowledge he obtained from Vitiate, he performed the most complex ritual of Sith magic once performed by Vitiate himself, absorbing the combined life force of every living thing on the surface, effectively making his consciousness and soul immortal.  An immortal being like his predecessor, Darth Deceptious declared himself the true Immortal Emperor of the Sith. Over the course of centuries, he continued to experiment even further with the dark side, discovering many more lost techniques and increasing his already immense power. He discovered the technique of transferring his essence, allowing him to move his consciousness, which had been made immortal by the ritual, between bodies and sustain his life indefinitely, and to further his own survival to avoid the same fate as Vitiate, succeeded in creating a way to replicate his very consciousness, which in turn ensured that even if his original soul was destroyed, there would always be another version of himself.

By combining various techniques, the Emperor was able to imbue portions of his consciousness into other individuals, transforming them into extensions of his will, going as far as to even increase their power exponentially as a side effect. He could suppress their personas and even their Force-sensitivity, making them the ultimate covert operatives, and even possess them like puppets. By this time, his mind control powers were strong enough to completely overwhelm the most powerful Dark Lords and Jedi Masters to exist and turn them into his undying puppets, and he was even strong enough to overwhelm his own subordinates who were incredibly skilled in their own rights. The Emperor became vastly skilled in multiple other techniques, able to conjure powerful red Force lightning, strong defensive abilities, and even great telekinetic feats. He could conjure Force barriers easily strong enough to block projectiles and even strong lightsaber blows from even the likes of Quinn Maru and Darth Abyss, and was strong enough to momentarily shield against a full orbital strike. He could also effortlessly use the Force without so much as using hand gestures as commonly needed and was more than experienced to cast highly complex sorceries and abilities with his mind or simple, less conventional bodily movements. A master of Force lightning, he was able to use it in many unconventional ways, capable of using small bolts of lightning to entire storms. Among his talent with Force lightning, he had succeeded in channeling lightning into his lower body, specifically his feet which allowed him to unexpectedly launch a bolt of lightning (such as during a mid-backflip). He could also arc his lightning, allowing him to launch it from multiple directions, even in his blind spots. In addition, he could also use it defensively, such as by producing a lightning barrier. He could also utilize Tutaminus to absorb blaster bolts and other harmful attacks. He was also able to resurrect the dead completely, yet was known to only use it to create undead puppets to bend to his will, save for his complete resurrection of his deceased former servants.

It is speculated that the Emperor’s full power has yet to be brought to bear, however even so, even with the powers he demonstrated, the Sith viewed his immense strength as nothing less than godlike, while the Jedi viewed his singular existence as a great threat.

### Lightsaber abilities

> If you can’t even break my guard, you won’t last more than a minute against the Emperor. You’d be a lifeless corpse before he could exert more than a breath.
>
> ━Darth Abyss to the Grand Jedi Master

Darth Deceptious utilized a unique red-black lightsaber when necessary in combat. Despite his incredible strength in the Force, he did not allow his swordsmanship to dull in response to his liberal use of the Force and was actually one of the better duelists among the Sith. He studied all the forms of lightsaber combatant but was particularly skilled in the use of Niman, the fourth form. This form allowed him to rely on a “specialized in none, but the master of all” approach. As a user of Niman, he fluently switched between the various forms he knew, incorporating his own unique style into his combat. This style allowed him to switch forms such as the defensive power of Soresu, to the precise strikes of Makashi, and the frequent counters and strong attacks of Djem So, thereby allowing him to follow a “rapid switch” pattern to maintain unpredictability. In addition, he also demonstrated the ability to utilize Jar’Kai, dual-wielding lightsabers, on several occasions. From a pure ability standpoint, he was on equal footing and rivaled by Darth Abyss and the Jedi Master Quinn Maru. By combining his liberal use of the Force with his lightsaber abilities, he could increase his speed and strength, then was he more than able to overwhelm especially skilled duelists.

However even as a duelist, he lacked honor and made frequent use of deceptive actions and cheap tricks whenever he found the chance to do so.

He was capable of deflecting blaster fire with ease, but also shots from freights. In addition, he also employed acrobatics albeit rarely as his style was dominantly and visually more direct than most. A pragmatic combatant, he had the skill to throw an activated lightsaber, guiding it with the Force without even needing eye contact. His most notable trait was his preference to infuse his lightsaber with Force-based powers, such as coating the blade itself in lightning.

## Other skills

### **Sith alchemy**

> Most Sith view alchemy itself as a dangerous venture, with great reward should one succeed. The Emperor sees alchemy like children see a playground.
>
> ━Varek the Usurper