Blackout (RBU)

In the Reborn Universe, "Blackout" is the last of a species known as the "Voids", and leads the Espiritu Santo cult.

Appearance
Though he can take any form he wishes or even no form at all, Blackout usually appears as a human wearing a grey scarf and either black or purple robes. While he can be perceived if he so chooses, the brains of those not used to seeing him will struggle not to write him off as a hallucination.

Personality
Blackout sees himself as a civilised and honourable man, though his actions rather contradict that. Consumed by the desire to avenge his extinct species, he holds what he calls 'the younger races' collectively responsible for this and wishes to punish them by creating chaos in order to undermine the existing great powers of the galaxy. Despite being aware of caches of Void technology, he consciously eschews their use as he considers skulduggery and manipulation more 'interesting'. (This may also relate to his powers, many of which appear to be psychic in nature). He is nevertheless prone to bouts of sentiment - as observed by Shepard, he was quick to trust Vekhta due to the similarity of their life stories.

He has expressed sympathy for the New Order as a concept, but considers it doomed to fail, and due to the destruction of his species, irrelevant to him anyway.

Early Days
Little is known about Blackout's past, other than he escaped the fate of the rest of his species, who were sealed away in a parallel dimension after losing a devastating war, by instead being imprisoned on a desert planet. David Robert Jones has theorised that he was put there as a failsafe in case that outcome befell the Voids, but he was uncertain of this due to the lack of information on the Voids' own history.

Influencing Allman
During the Vrai Wars, the Tanari megacorp Jones Enterprises learned of Blackout's location and convinced the Tanari Confederation's government that whatever they found there could be useful to the war effort. The government was swayed, and sent several genetically-modified soldiers from Unit 709, including Edward Allman and Alfred Ernst von Budberg. While xenoarchaeologists from Jones Enterprises examined Blackout's prison, their position was attacked by a Vrai party using stealth technology. In the ensuing fight, Blackout's prison was struck by Vrai mortar fire, inadvertently freeing him. He immediately began examining the bodies of the fallen Tanari, and upon finding Allman was still, just about, alive, revived him and gave him the power to repel the Vrai attack.

Ever since, he had some sort of alliance with or psychological influence on Allman, the nature of which is still debated, pushing him towards making a deal with Artrix and searching for the Keys to Silence to free the Voids from their imprisonment. This plot, however, failed when, near the end of the Tanari War, Gabriel Ascheron, who was in possession of one of the Keys, accidentally interfered with the process of opening a portal to the Voids' dimension, instead causing their destruction. A grief-stricken Blackout swore revenge.