Fermata Cage


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You know what the Fermata Cage can do—freeze individual moments, use the dark side to suspend people and places in time forever.Qi'ra, to Darth Sidious

The Fermata Cage was a weapon of the dark side of the Force[1] that was ancient in the Imperial Era. Designed by the Sith Lord Darth Momin,[2] it could use the dark side to freeze individual moments and suspend people and places in time.[1] The individual or place could then be recalled to the present as if no time had passed.[6]

The Fermata Cage was a pre-Ascendant artifact[6] designed by the Sith Lord Darth Momin.[2] It was considered ancient by the Imperial Era. The cage resembled an hourglass, with its mechanism containing miniature black holes held in place by a dark-side matrix surrounding the glass surface of the cylinder. This gave it the ability to warp and trap time,[6] freezing individual people and places inside[1] which could then be recalled to the present by use of concentrated dark-side energy applied directly to it, as if no time had passed.[6] To open, the Cage required an immense amount of dark-side energy, either applied directly by a powerful Force user,[1] or, in their absence, collected by the life energy of organic lifeforms in its immediate vicinity.[6]

Pre-Empire

The Fermata Cage was designed and constructed long before the Imperial Era by the dark-side artist[6] Darth Momin.[2] The Cage was never used lightly. It was used to lock away a disc-like[7] droid being.[8] The Cage was eventually stored inside a temple in a dark side hellscape[5] Momin knew of,[9] leaving the Cage lost to the greater galaxy.[5]

Imperial Era

Qi'ra's planning to lure in Vader and the Emperor with rumors of this false Sith—so she can trap them with the Fermata Cage. If that fails? With the Spark Eternal's help, she'll kill whoever's left standing.Kho Phon Farrus on Qi'ra's plans for the Fermata Cage

Between 3 ABY and 4 ABY,[4] Lady Qi'ra, the leader of Crimson Dawn, plotted to destroy the Sith Lords Darth Sidious and Darth Vader by having them trapped inside the Fermata Cage.[10] In order to achieve this, she had the Cage recovered by "the Archivist" and the Knights of Ren, who had also stolen the Screaming Key from Fortress Vader.[1] To lure Vader and Sidious into a confrontation and then trap them in the Cage, Qi'ra created a rumor that a Sith Lord had been trapped inside the Cage.[10]

The Archivist was then tasked with unlocking the Cage. The task proved to be extremely difficult, and the Archivist called in Kho Phon Farrus, an archaeologist knowledgeable in the ways of the sect of the Ascendant to assist her.[1] The duo tried a variety of methods to unlock the cage, to no avail. The result of their experiments was a complex machine which included at least four dissected humanoids, a cyborg and two GNK-series power droids as part of its mechanism, with the Fermata Cage on its core.[1]

War against the Crimson Dawn

Qi'ra believes she can use this ancient Sith artifact, the Fermata Cage, to destroy Palpatine. It's one of the most wizard things I've ever seen, and I'm pretty sure it's going to kill us all. You'd love it. When we turned it on, it caused this…ripple in the Force. I couldn't feel it myself, but it spooked the Knights of Ren so badly they left. […] I think the Fermata Cage holds the secret to harnessing the Spark Eternal. I just need to figure it out and not die in the process.Kho Phon Farrus contacts Detta Yao

During a battle against Crimson Dawn, Qi'ra told Sidious her[1] rumor[10] about the Sith Lord being trapped in the Feramata Cage, and her intent to release it to hunt Sidious and his apprentice Vader. Qi'ra had Farrus and the Archivist activate their machine, which they accomplished by strapping the Knights of Ren to and having them use their dark-side powers to their fullest extent. With the machine at full power, the Knights were lifted to the air by their necks, and the Cage's containment unit exploded, creating a massive disturbance in the Force which was felt across the galaxy all the way to the Imperial Palace on Coruscant and Fortress Vader on Mustafar. Its power was so great that it caused Palpatine to jump from his throne in fear, demanding to know Qi'ra's secret. Nevertheless, the disturbance was temporary, and with the Archivist and Farrus' machine destroyed the Cage was once again inert.[1]

Despite the success in identifying the Cage's dormant potential, the Knights of Ren abandoned the Dawn, frustrated by the Archivist and Farrus' using them as test subjects[1] and scared of the ripple in the Force the test had set out.[11] Despite the setback in losing their Force-sensitive test subjects, the duo confirmed that Farrus' Ascendant tech replicated the Knights' Force power and acted as a viable replacement to prime the Cage.[1] Following the Knights' departure, while setting up a new test, Farrus took a break to contact Detta Yao after their frustrations and fears about the project and Palpatine's inevitable response began to boil over. Contacting Yao, Kho revealed their theory that the Cage was the key to unlocking the Ascendant's artificial intelligence known as the Spark Eternal before returning to work.[11]

As Palpatine pinpointed where they had conducted their experiment, they packed their gear and left for another location, where they built yet another machine with the Cage at its center. This one was designed to collect dark-side energy from its surroundings, as it, like the light side, existed in abundance in a natural state, and then focus it on the Cage like a lens. After installing it, Farrus activated it, but they, like the Knights, were swapped in the Vortex, their life powers sucked in by the Cage through the device. At the same time, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Palpatine sensed the disturbance caused by the priming from different sides of the galaxy, with Palpatine also pinpointing Farrus and the Archivist through the dark-side energy unleashed there.[6]

Farrus and the Archivist were forced to disable the machine before it could collect enough energy to unlock the Cage, as they later reported to a distressed Qi'ra, who prompted them to try again. Just as the Archivist objected, warning Qi'ra of the danger the Cage posed, Vader arrived in orbit aboard his flagship, the Star Dreadnought Executor. Upon reaching the surface aboard a shuttle, Vader found the exhausted Archivist hiding with Farrus underneath parts of their device, having barely had any time to even disconnect the Cage from it.[6] However, Chanath Cha's Orphans intervened, engaging Vader and buying the Archivist and Farrus the time they needed to escape with the Cage, perishing in the process.[12]

Final chance

With yet another test failed, the Archivist, abandoned by a terrified Farrus, decided that the best course of action would be to take the Cage to a place that would be both full of dark side energy and rich in life. She concluded that the Amaxine space station would be the best candidate, being rich in Drengir plants that could channel the dark side and would make for the perfect "nourishment" for the cage. After she arrived and set up her equipment, she activated the matrix, resulting in the cage immediately consuming most of the plants in its vicinity and beginning to open. Galactic Emperor Sidious immediately sensed it and arrived to crush her once and for all aboard the Executor along with Darth Vader. This time, however, they were met with Qi'ra's full Crimson fleet who disabled their long range turbolasers, forcing them to land to the planet themselves accompanied by royal guards and death troopers, slaughtering the Dawn fighters and making their way towards the Cage.[12]

Farrus feared Qi'ra's latest plan would end in disaster. Aboard the space station, Qi'ra met with the Spark Eternal–possessed Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra near the Cage[13] before she rejoined her fleet. After Vader defeated the Spark and removed it from Aphra's body through a Force push,[7] with Farrus leading Aphra's allies to the station to free her from the Spark's attempts to bond with her once more,[14] Vader and Sidious faced down the Cage as the Archivist remotely opened it. The small disc-like droid fell from the Cage,[7] marking it as finally being released.[8] Unaware of its true nature, the disc only confirmed to Sidious Qi'ra had been lying about the supposed Sith Lord since he felt no connection between the object and the Force. With both Sith in its range, Qi'ra ordered the Archivist to seal the Sith within the Cage so they could throw them into a sun.[7]

However, the Fermata Cage was destroyed, which resulted in a Force Wave being sent out across the galaxy,[15] when the Knights of Ren arrived in the battle and fired on it. Believing Sidious would escape whatever became of him and hoping that, by saving the Sith, they would save themselves from their wrath, the Knights' intervention spared both Sith Lords from being trapped in the Cage, leaving Crimson Dawn's efforts to crumble around them as the Empire overwhelmed their fleet. Vader collected[7] the destroyed[15] but still intact Cage and departed with Sidious, who tortured the Knights with Force lightning but promised they would be put to use. The Spark Eternal, meanwhile, fled into the disc-droid dropped by the Cage[7] and merged with it, becoming the Scourge.[8]

The Fermata Cage was first indirectly mentioned in Crimson Reign 4.[16] It made its first appearance in Crimson Reign 5,[5] and was later identified in Hidden Empire 1.[1]

In the real world, a fermata is a musical direction to hold a note longer than its usual length, and a Faraday cage is an enclosure to shield objects from electromagnetic fields.

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  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 Hidden Empire 1
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Hidden Empire 2 establishes that the Fermata Cage was created by the same individual who designed Fortress Vader, which Darth Vader (2017) 21 established was Momin.
  3. ↑ The events of Bounty Hunters 32 take place after the Escape from Cloud City and before the Rescue of Han Solo, which are dated to 3 ABY and 4 ABY, respectively, by Star Wars: Galactic Atlas.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The events of Crimson Reign 5 take place after the Escape from Cloud City and before the Rescue of Han Solo, which are dated to 3 ABY and 4 ABY, respectively, by Star Wars: Galactic Atlas.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Crimson Reign 5
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 Hidden Empire 2
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Hidden Empire 5
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Dark Droids 1
  9. ↑ Darth Vader (2017) 22
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Doctor Aphra (2020) 29
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Doctor Aphra (2020) 27
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Hidden Empire 4
  13. ↑ Doctor Aphra (2020) 28
  14. ↑ Doctor Aphra (2020) 30
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Bounty Hunters 32
  16. ↑ Crimson Reign 4

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