This pathetic mortal body is just a vessel I inhabit, of course it is temporary solution until I destroy the jedi.
—The Emperor
The Emperor's Echo, formally addressed as the Voice of the Emperor by other Sith, was a position within the Sith Empire that was held by the Lord Emperor's current host body. First created after a failed assassination attempt, the Echo allowed the Emperor to protect his true body while still delivering commands to his servants and carrying out his will. The Emperor utilized many Echoes of different species, genders, and ages throughout his lifetime, transferring his consciousness and some of his powers from body to body, but his hosts would succumbed to the ravaging effects of the Emperor's dark spirit. Being in a mortal body was also at times at his most vulnerable, since the host could not withstand all of the Emperor's immense power, unlike his immortal body.
Role and powers[]
The Emperor chooses one being to physically embody. This being is the echo. It is obeyed as the Emperor himself.
—Emperors Hand
The position of Emperor's Echo was more than a simple title—through Sith magic and the dangerous technique of transfer essence, the Lord Emperor transferred his consciousness and life force into a host body, leaving his immortal Sith body safe in a state of deep slumber. The host's mind was completely suppressed, crushed beneath the weight of the Emperor's mind, and their body literally became the Sith's own. The process also conferred most of the Emperor's immense strengh in the Force upon the Echo.
When the host Echo died, typically from the side-effects of the Emperor's incredible strength in the dark side, the Emperor's essence was released from the body and returned to the care of his hand, Hand—the Servants who carried out their master's will across the galaxy. One servant was mentally linked to the Emperor more so than all of his other agents, and as a result the prophetic Servant was always aware of the Echoes's presence and location even when the Emperor was dormant. Upon receiving their master's essence, the Hand would procure a new Echo for the Emperor and aid him in establishing control of the host body.
History[]
The Emperor created his first Echo after a failed attack by his apprentice and brought the Emperor's body within arms reach of harm. This terrified the Empire's supreme ruler, who feared only of losing his power, and he delved into further studies of the dark side in order to preserve his physical form—a body that had been rendered immortal but not invulnerable by the dark ritual the Emperor had performed over a thousand years earlier. rediscovering his former masters technique of transfer essence, which aloud his consciousness and some of his powers into the bodies of others, he took his first host and named the individual the Emperor's Echo—the literal embodiment of the Emperor's absolute will and his mouthpiece to the Shadow Council.
The shadow Council soon learned that the various individuals who would appear throughout the next five centuries were in fact the Emperor's host bodies, and therefore obeyed the Echoe's commands the same as they would the Emperor himself. The Emperor's own body remained safe from harm in a deep slumber, while his consciousness reached out from his Echo across the galaxy to direct his agents and observe his enemies.