Utúlie'n aurë/Auta i lómë

background wise, this Revan is soldier/guardian DS male(ish, he/they), married to DS Bastila with 2 kids (more on that later). they were captured for 4 years by Vitiate but eventually killed him with the help of Bastila, Tanis, and Canderous (Tanis died in order to kill Vitiate permanently via wound in the force weirdness), but their empire did a lot more damage in the process as compared to canon. after the True Sith were eradicated, they turned their focus towards the Vong.

Vitiate had them captured for 4 years before they escaped (thanks to Tanis and Canderous mostly). once they launched the proper invasion of the True Sith, they realized they'd need a much stronger fleet, and (inspired by Vitiate's setup), they voluntarily did the force battery thing to themself with the Star Forge. star forge production skyrocketed and their super boosted army plus battle meditation = a pretty much unstoppable army.

back to the kids, they have 2 sons, Vaner and Alek. neither is force sensitive, and they trained Vaner to govern the empire from their capital on Korriban, and Alek as an assassin. the kids started something of an internal rebellion against the empire (possibly with the help of yuthura ban?) and Vaner ran away at age 15; Alek (then 13) helped but wasn't able to escape himself, and Vaner promised to return for Alek once in a position to do so. unfortunately, Revan found out shortly after and killed Alek for betraying them/the empire. Vaner managed to reach the republic and crash-landed an escape pod into a Coruscant apartment building- specifically into the living room window of "Mr. and Mrs. Camper".

Vaner was fostered by the "Campers" (and worked as a dishwasher/waiter at Little Bivoli) for a year while he figured things out, and eventually decided to join the Republic army under the name "Ren Camper". he managed to survive four years of deployment, moved to Alderaan and studied poli sci, and eventually was elected Alderaan's junior Senator (mentored by senior Senator Ulgo). at some point Ulgo died and Vaner became the senior Alderaanian senator, and he was elected chancellor after Tol Cressa's retirement.

after becoming chancellor, he wanted to stop running from his past and changed his name to Vaner Camper Shan (still goes by Ren casually). however he did not think this entirely through, and of course Revan immediately put everything together and realized that their son was 1) the Chancellor of the Republic 2) fostered by *Zayne and Jarael* of all people and 3) mentored by Trask's dad. which. well.

Revan, who at that point had just defeated the True Sith and was currently steamrolling the Republic for dealing-with-Vong-reasons, immediately launched the fleet for Coruscant with the help of Bastila's battle meditation, meaning that Vaner's very first year as Chancellor consisted of a war against his parents (poor guy).

eventually, when Revan was 73 (to give a sense of how long the revan empire 2.0 lasted), they had to stop the Star Forge battery thing after a while bc it was draining them unexpectedly fast - they were halfway to being a ghost and their visions intensified to the point they couldn't differentiate between reality and visions; they were basically living halfway in their visions while also losing control of the Star Forge. shortly afterwards, while weakened from what was essentially Star Forge withdrawal, Vaner managed to capture and stasis them.

Bastila took over the empire for the remainder of the war; after the final Republic victory, Vaner led the reconstruction effort (aka rebuilding all the planets Revan spent about 40 years of their life leading various armies across).

the swtor Vitiate stuff never happened, since Revan did actually kill him this time, though the Mandalorians were probably a lot more antagonistic to the Republic by virtue of Canderous upholding the Mandalorian-Sith alliance w revan's empire. either way, this means that nobody had a reason to unfreeze Revan, and they stayed in stasis for 4000 years.

some years pre-prequels, Palpatine finds their stasis box and unfreezes them.

they both agree it's in both of their best interests to not reveal Revan's identity, but Revan of course insists on getting Involved in everything (whether or not that conflicts with palps plans). so Palpatine has 2 options: 1) leave Revan to their own devices and hope they don't break the Sith plan, or 2) take Revan to work with him

he of course elects to bring Revan along. but now he has to explain why this random old guy is following him around all day, which is how they end up passing Revan off as Palpatine's Elderly Grandfather (Revan finds it hilarious. Palpatine does not want to admit it but he also finds it hilarious)

mostly Revan just hangs out Meddling and Scheming and also being a good role model (as far as sith lords go) for Palpatine. and ok they're actually a good influence (sith-wise). they give good advice and have a lot of experience with this whole manipulation/war/jedi extermination/sith empire thing!

(meanwhile the rest of the Senate has to deal with the Chancellor's Uncannily Perceptive Elderly Grandfather. both Revan and Palpatine are *very* good at the whole false identity thing, and nobody really registers the Chancellor's grandpa as a threat, which means Revan pretty much spends their time spying around the Senate)

crucially, pre-kotor Darth Revan had been a sith for like. 2 years max. by the point of the prequels, this Revan has been a sith emperor for nearly 50 years, and is remembered by modern sith as the grandfather of the Baneite Sith. they're probably the only living person Palpatine actually respects, and their advice really does help, and also he really is lonely and eventually he's kind of dependent on emotional support from his favorite Sith Grandpa

Revan, of course, is Plotting. they start planting visions of the Vong for Palpatine, encouraging him to attack (because they still have not forgotten their whole "exterminate any possible threat to the galaxy" crusade). obviously, Palpatine checks that the visions aren't artificial like the ones he's currently implanting in Anakin's dreams. they aren't, so he figures they really are his own visions, when in truth they're Revan's Plus One Visions shared via the galaxy's most heavily shielded force bond. (Revan just naturally attaches to every force sensitive in a mile radius, even as a sith)

weirdly enough, Palpatine secretly craves Sith Grandpa validation - he's never had anyone who genuinely cared about him, even including his birth family, and for a sith lord Revan is an unusually gentle master. so now Palpatine has a Sith Grandpa who gives him actually useful advice and keeps him company and listens to him complain about his day and calls him sonny. and maybe it's foolish of him, but Revan just seems like someone he can trust. and he's never felt that so sincerely from a sith (it's the Revan Charisma).

so he starts to confide in them, and they talk him through his visions of the void consuming all (that they planted) , and offer to help troubleshoot parts of the Sith Plan he's stressing over, and reassure him when Panaka doesn't answer his texts for a week. and sometimes when a particular senator is being particularly aggravating, he'll arrive at his office and find an email about that senator's tragic death. it's always officially a heart attack or sudden aneurysm or spice overdose or misadventure turned freak accident, and Revan doesn't say anything to acknowledge it, but it does make his day just a bit easier. and he doesn't even have to worry about them demanding something in exchange later down the line, because the day after he gets the death notice, Revan will turn up and quietly ask that he support a certain bill around outer rim politics or something of the sort, and it's always something that works in favor of the Plan, so why not?

technically they're competition, and maybe he's supposed to kill them. but he doesn't care much for the rule of two in the first place, and Darth Bane wasn't accounting for *miraculously alive Darth Revan* anyways. besides, Palpatine's never had a mentor who claps him on the shoulder and says "well kiddo, it's not perfect but you sure made a solid attempt. don't worry, i'm sure we can fix it" when he screws up (Revan is not quite as calm internally as they show. but all prior evidence suggests that stabbing apprentices for mistakes just motivates them to kill you so gentle parenting it is). nobody prepared Palps for "Darth Revan is lounging on my couch stalking senators on spacebook and giving life advice", and in absence of any specific Revan-related instructions from Bane, he's decided to essentially keep them around unless they openly attack him

and Palps actually really likes hanging out w Sith Grandpa Revan. he doesn't have to mask around them (in either sense), they both know they're manipulating each other and someone will eventually betray the other, and it's just such a refreshingly direct relationship for Palps (in contrast to him having to construct the chancellor persona literally everywhere else). also at one point Revan tells him "i'm proud of you, son" after he successfully maneuvers the Trade Federation blockade into catalyzing the eventual war, and Palpatine almost cries. he's getting a good grade in being a sith, which is definitely something normal to want and possible to achieve

now, Revan is very VERY good at manipulating people. and the thing is, Palps is also good at manipulating. he recognizes what they're doing. he *knows* he's being manipulated.

except he can't really bring himself to care? like sure, Revan clearly wants something out of him, except it seems to be basically what he was going to do anyways with the whole Sith Plan, they're just kind of lurking nearby and supervising, so does it really matter? and anyways they're nicer to him than anyone's ever been, and he's not actually lying when he tells Anakin that he's lonely, and Revan doesn't even make it weird or anything. he likes having them around! so what if they're pushing him in a direction he was already going? and yeah maybe they're using him and are planning on killing him later, but he can deal with that when the time comes. he really does like them as a person and also as a sith, and well they've been assumed dead like four times in history, so who knows if Palps could even kill them properly? best to just let them hang around so he can keep an eye on them. any Sith Grandpa bonding time he gets out of it is entirely incidental. yeah sure, they're manipulating him but it doesn't affect anything, they're just pushing him where he was already going, it's just faster this way. and okay, maybe the whole Vong war wasn't part of the Sith Plan, but he does secretly like the idea of inflicting an external threat on the galaxy so that he goes down in history as the savior of his newfound empire, and it'll make him look so good, really, and anyways he should probably deal with the Vong so they don't attack him, and wow his cards all lined up perfectly!

so Palps convinces himself that it's totally fine, he didn't really care about the rule of two anyways, and besides Revan predates it so they're literally grandfathered into the rule of two, it's fine, he can totally deal with it if they ever become a problem, they're manipulating him but it's secretly the same thing he was going to do anyways so really he's just gaming the system here!

(meanwhile Revan is in the corner silently laughing as Palps falls for it. Revan is good at many things, but what they truly excel at is making people believe so wholeheartedly in their ideas that it seems like the objectively best, and only, option)

at this point, it's around the point between TPM and AOTC, so Palps gets back from a long day of manipulating Anakin via the grandfatherly mentor act to get reassurance from Sith Grandpa Revan.

Revan's a lot calmer than their initial sith phase. they rely on cold anger/detachment rather than the typical sith rage, and though they still have all the violent sith emotions they keep those pretty well locked down. externally they act pretty much like the archetypal Wise Old Jedi Master (though dispensing sith wisdom instead of jedi), if a bit more dramatic than is typical (until provoked)

they recovered a bit from the Star Forge situation while in stasis, and are actively recovering now. still, they appear a tad bit senile (and therefore not an active threat to palpatine) on occasion bc of the visions and the whole almost-exar-kun'ed-themself thing = getting disoriented more often than they'd like. sometimes they catch themself trying to walk down a senate hallway that hasn't been built yet, or trying to call people who haven't even been born yet. their Plot Visions are also taking the opportunity to catch them up on the past 4000 years worth of plot so they have a lot of those too, and about 80% of the reason they're doing this whole thing with Palps instead of just taking the Republic wheel themself is because they're still secretly recovering from Traumatic Force Injury #4 (self inflicted this time, yay for variety) and don't want to get too actively involved yet

meanwhile, Palps feels Some Kind of Way about this whole thing. he doesn't love them, exactly, but he's certainly attached- it's so rare for him to meet someone who validates him unprompted where their validation actually means something, let alone someone who actually likes his cartoonishly evil sith self and not just the kindly old chancellor persona. he's not letting go of them until either they backstab him or they become an active threat that he needs to eliminate him. either way he's not letting anyone else touch them either because That's His Sith Grandpa