Empyrean shot him a dangerous glare. For all the Triumvirate was, for all he had held back - he was still the feared titan. For all the pleasantries and niceties he had offered, this was still his home, and on a whim he could make it a grave. The pressure of his gaze, the reminder on his sense within the Force, kept that in mind as he watched him through metal eyes.
"I've given you my approach and explanation, and you threw it in my face. I told you open truths, and you denied them for frivolities and nonsense. If you want a good grade in my 'class', you will shut up and listen, or I'll see your ship turned to scrap and your flesh to feed my forge mongers. Remember who you're talking to, and don't forget I'll lay you low as any other."
He let that hang in the air for a moment before finalizing his words, "Don't forget I treat you with respect because you are a guest. I apologize to you, as a guest. Speak to me as an equal again, and I'll show you how unequal we are."
"Now follow me.", he commanded.
He walked to a further balcony door that led to a private archive decorated with artifacts of unknown origin, and books lining the walls that Nyash could feel were dangerous in presence alone. The markings of human skin scrawled with enchanted ink, enslaved tsil crystals and corrupter kyber repositories - what lay in the room was priceless, but Empyrean moved through it as any other, a collection of oddities of historical significance that he could care little for.
As he did, he began to speak again;
"Public understanding of the Sith is simple, and as you follow it. We are to be opposites of the Jedi forever locked in a back and forth pull of nonsense never seeing its end until one or the other are destroyed. In a very vague sense - this is true. We are at odds with the Jedi, but more realistically what the Jedi serve.", he offered, glancing over one of the artifacts as he passed. A piece of the original text of Sotha Sil, it would seem.
"The original sin comitted by the Jedi Exiles was departing from the will of the Force, from its guidance. The conventional Jedi listened to what the Force said, decided the exiles were heretical, and sent them away for their crimes. However, how does the Force know what is right or wrong? How did it guide the Jedi to this conclusion?"
"If you read Jedi texts, many will offer you something close to the truth. That the Force is a living entity, that its infinite guidance is what the Jedi follow - to be selfless, to allow the Force to guide them. They surrender themselves unto it and do its great acts. Many even witness prophecy, so far that the Force itself must be able to see the future in all its avenues. It then uses this information to spoon feed its agents into what it wants, what it achieves.", he said before stopping before a bust of Darth Bane.
"It is for this reason the Jedi have a strong sense of foresight, prophecy, and scrying.", he said, running a thumb down the statue's cheek before departing once more.
"These are known facts. Those spirits beyond the grave, both Jedi and Sith, have acknowledged these as truths. Darth Traya spoke heavily on the topic, imparting it to Darth Revan in her teachings - that the Force knows all, sees all, but guides the galaxy unto destruction again and again. The cycle you spoke of as endless nonsense is not perpetrated by the Sith and Jedi - but a guiding hand that knows how to keep up here, doing it again and again. The Force knows all, sees all, and acts unto its own interests so that all may continue to suffer."
"Here is what the Jedi do not realize -", Empyrean said as he motioned to a case on the wall. Inside was an ancient thing, older than even the Sith artifacts scattered around the room. It's make up was foreign, antedeluvian, and extremely unsettling. There was dark forces trapped within it.
"- that the Force is but a natural element of reality. Similar to Gravity, Nuclear Forces, or Electromagnetism. It is not God, it is simply... the Force. The question became to the Jedi Exiles how the Force would guide the Jedi if it were just that - a simple 'force' of nature. In their studies, they discovered the truth. This artifact here is from a civilization that disappeared many hundreds of millennia ago. We know of them now as 'the Celestials', but that is simply because we lack a better name."
Empyrean watched the artifact, some shard of a greater piece, closely - but turned to Nyash instead.
"They disappeared at once. All archeological records of their civilization point to this. Towards the end of the Rakata war, that was the end of their existence - thousands of worlds instantly snapped of their people. How would a population spanning the Galaxy have this happen? Darth Valkorian found out how and attempted to recreate it in his wars across the galaxy, but that is outside the scope of what I speak of."
"These Celestials performed a ritual that absorbed all their life, their entire civilization into a few solitary beings. The Father, Son, and Daughter. Together, they form what we now know as the Celestials. There are stories of their travel on many worlds, most considered mere fable and fiction - but they are real. They ascended to a realm outside of real space, and from there see all possible fates. There, in Mortis, they hold sway over the very foundations of reality."
"It is they who now control the galaxy. It is they who created the Dark Side so they might restrict us from following in their path, and it is they who keep the galaxy in this cycle. When I told you we do not strive for empires or galactic dominance, I meant it. These methods are a means to an end, and end that sees us take from the Celestials their iron grip on reality. When you spoke of success in our order, there has been none - but the ever constant fight against these machinations. That which would see us fall - and every century we grow closer to toppling their control."
"An Empire gives us resources, influence, and control. These things can be used as a hammer to an anvil, and help us create new rituals, new strengths, and greater knowledge to ascend to their heights once more. All of this is important for you to understand if you wish to help, as any lax thought in your mind is an avenue for the Force to influence you against the Sith. You must be a bulwark to its nature, ever constant in your vigilance of individualism in the face of its selfless nature."
"If you want to serve, you will serve as a warrior against destiny, as all the Sith do. You asked before why the Eternals are better suited to achieve the goal of the Sith - and I will offer you it simply. Because we have concentrated a millenia of strength in a dyad spanning thousands of Sith. They fight for control of my body, ever constantly seeking to undo my will - absorb my strength into theirs. It is within me lies one of the keys to our ascension, and should I fail - then it will pass onto another stronger than I. I do not say that because I am weak, I say that because our enemy is strong - beyond comprehension."
"If you are offering your hand in subservience, then I will guide you to strength befitting a Sith, but I must trust in you a strength to not be a pawn for powers you do not understand, as so many others have been. Do not ignore what I've said, or you can find another patron - I require intelligence above all things, and will not endure negligence or a rabid dog."
"Do you understand what I've told you?"
Darth Empyrean
