Enter Atha Prime
The Epic Continues would’ve introduced a major new antagonist to the galaxy far, far away in the form of Atha Prime. Inspired by concept art from The Return of the Jedi by Nilo Rodis-Jamero for the Emperor’s Royal Guards, Atha Prime was an ancient evil somehow unleashed from exile on the fringes of the galaxy after Palpatine’s death. The actual master behind the Clone War, Atha Prime was meant to launch a new assault on the remnants of the Empire and the Rebel Alliance alike.
Although Prime never made it to Star Wars continuity, his form did, of a sort. The concept made its way into Dark Empire as the design of the returned Emperor’s Imperial Sentinels—and a similar design and even idea for the character was turned into the Separatist genetic terrorist Zeta Magnus, a Clone Wars-era villain who in the eventual Expanded Universe would be responsible for the virus that caused the legendary Katana Fleet to descend into madness and vanish.
