Everything we know about the Dreadful Entity and Hateful Entity in SWTOR: where they come from and what is their origin story.
There aren’t any codex entries specifically about the Dreadful Entity and Hateful Entity, nor proper achievements for defeating them, so we don’t know exactly what happened. Instead of conveying narrative through cutscenes and dialogue, BioWare opted to tell the story of the Dreadful and Hateful Entities through the items these bosses drop and lore about the locations in which they can be found. They expected players to piece the story together as they discovered the existence of the bosses themselves.
While the rest of the Dread Masters were attempting to gain control of the Aurora Cannon on Belsavis at Section X and summon the Terror from Beyond, Dread Master Styrak had other goals. I believe he was attempting to resurrect a long-dead Sith that also mastered the Phobis Devices, becoming a sort of proto-Dread Master.
Dreadtooth in Section X
The Dread Masters’ primary goal in Section X on Belsavis was to secure and use the ancient Rakatan superweapon called the Aurora Cannon. However, they were also conducting a number of biological experiments in the region.
These experiments may have been used to conduct research that led to the eventual terraforming of Oricon. One such experiment focused on Bioforming Nodes designed to mutate and strengthen the local wildlife. These Nodes were installed inside an area teeming with life, including what was probably a regular Drouk.
The Bioforming Nodes exposed the Drouk to the experimental mutagen, which succeeded in enhancing the beast’s power, perhaps rivaling that of Zorn and Toth on Denova.
Dread Master Raptus has a clear affinity for Drouks since they exclusively guard his chambers at the palace on Oricon. He likely ordered this beast to be retrieved from Section X for further study or personal use by a cadre of Dread Guards.
However, it seems that the Dread Guards were unsuccessful in capturing this Drouk and were eaten, including one that possessed a Dreadful Amulet. The Dread Guards’ mask and Dreadful Amulet were the only things made of strong enough materials to resist being digested by the Drouk, and that’s why they can be looted from its corpse.
Consuming the Dreadful Amulet likely imbued the Drouk with its Dreadful Essence, allowing her to become the truly terrifying Dreadtooth. We know Dreadtooth was female because she was with child, a little baby Drouk named Dwedtoof that you can raise as a pet!
The Dreadful Entity on Asation
The Dreadful Amulet looted from Nightmarish Dreadtooth can be used to awaken the Dreadful Entity on the Gree planet Asation, home to one of their Hypergates. We know the Dreadful Entity was asleep because it repeatedly casts Dread Awakening throughout the fight, and doing so makes it stronger.
The Dreadful Entity takes on the physical appearance of Hypergate Irregularities and Anomalies, which are glowing spheres of energy surrounded by Gree technology. This also means that the actual enemy you are meant to fight at the hypergate is the shiny stuff in the middle that the Gree Tetris pieces are orbiting. This Gree tech is likely meant to temporarily contain high-energy concentrations until on-site technicians can diffuse them, allowing travelers to safely pass through the hypergate.
When the Dreadful Entity is defeated, it leaves behind an item called the Dreadful Orb. I believe this orb to be a sort of energy containment unit like those used to contain Hypergate Irregularities and Anomalies. However, the Gree designed this one to house supernatural energy instead of hypergate energy.
What we see as the Dreadful Entity is likely some sort of ancient spirit actively communing with the Orb. By defeating the Dreadful Entity, we send it back to the great beyond, allowing us to reuse the vessel to house another spirit.
The Dreadful Entity slumbers in a cave on the outskirts of the ancient, ruined, and forbidden city called Green Elipse. Given that the cave is unremarkable and the nearby city is forbidden, it’s possible that the Entity broke free from Gree control, terrorized the city, and consumed its inhabitants. With nothing left to feast upon, it found a place to hibernate for the next few eons.
The Hateful Entity on Darvannis
The Hateful Entity is found in a small chamber with an eery green glow atop a set of stairs in a cave on Darvannis, though it’s only a Hateful Presence at first. The cave is filled with ancient Sith ruins reminiscent of those found near the Force Ghosts on Yavin IV, so it’s likely an ancient Sith tomb.
In order to commune with it, we must perform a ritual. The first part of that ritual is meant to rehabilitate its connection to our realm. There are some large beasts roaming around the chamber, though the spirit is no longer strong enough to consume them on its own. They must first be brought to the brink of death so that they are weak enough that the Presence can feed on their life essence.
Once it’s been fed, the Hateful Presence can be felt more strongly, but it requires a vessel, which is where that piece of Ancient Gree tech, the Dreadful Orb, comes in. Activating the Dreadful Orb on the Hateful Presence allows the Hateful Presence to manifest itself physically as the Hateful Entity.
We know the Dread Masters have been around for many centuries, and one of the unifying Sith principles is an obsession with immortality. This ritual and the location where it’s performed strongly suggest that the Hateful Entity is also a Force Ghost. However, it is unlike the other Sith Force Ghosts we encounter, probably because it is significantly older.
The ghost of this proto-Dread Master likely requires the ritual in the first place because it has slowly lost its connection to the mortal world over time.
The Hateful Entity drops the Crest of the Dread Master when defeated, which all but confirms that there once was another member of the Dread Masters, or more likely another Sith that managed to master the Phobis Devices responsible for empowering the Dread Masters.
Styrak’s True Purpose
On Asation, the Dread Guards can only be found in the immediate vicinity of the Dreadful Entity. You don’t actually fight any inside the city of Green Ellipse or at the Hypergate, so they are probably defending the Dreadful Orb rather than Operator IX or Kephess. This idea is bolstered by the fact that the Dread Guard Captains are some of the closest to the cave itself.
Their exclusive proximity to the cave suggests that the Dread Guards you fight on Asation were there for a different purpose than to facilitate the return of the Terror from Beyond and were likely taking orders from Styrak instead of the rest of the Dread Masters.
Styrak’s real goal on Darvannis was likely to use the Dreadful Orb to provide a vessel for the ghost of the supposed original Dread Master we know as the Hateful Entity. His plans were foiled because we found the Dreadful Orb first and then killed him on Darvannis.
This idea is bolstered by Styrak’s specialized knowledge of using the Force to manifest copies of himself and resurrect the dead. The Lightning and Chained Manifestations seem to be copies of him as Force ghosts, and then, at the end of the fight, he resurrects the Kell Dragon, though in a weakened state.
It’s unclear exactly what Styrak planned to do with the spirit of the fallen Dread Master. Given how long the Dreadful Entity inhabited the Orb, it’s likely that the Hateful Entity could remain in the vessel indefinitely.
However, neither Entity speaks to the player, so they might not be able to communicate in that form, in which case Styrak would be stuck with pondering the Dreadful Orb. Perhaps he planned to enlist Brontes to clone a new body like she did for Kephess…
Who is the Lost Dread Master?
We don’t know the identity of the Crest’s owner. It seems unlikely that they were ever part of the Union since the 5 remaining Masters on Oricon began going mad after Styrak perished because the Union was broken.
We also know that the Phobis Devices predate the Sith Emperor, so it seems most likely that the Hateful Entity is a Force Ghost from before his reign. Given the identical design, the Crest of the Dread Master would need to be a product of successfully using, or perhaps creating, the Phobis Devices.
The masks worn by the Dread Guard would then also be produced by exposure to the Phobis Devices and lack the metal tendrils because the wearer couldn’t survive being exposed to the Phobis Devices for an extended period of time.
While you can’t fulfill the Masters’ requirements to join their Union, you can totally look just like one. We lack access to the Phobis Devices, so we obtain our Crest once the Hateful Entity is defeated. You can find out how to obtain the rest of the gear pieces and play as a Dread Master in my full build guide!
