Dalek Emperor in the Last Great Time War

A Dalek Emperor led the Dalek Empire during the Last Great Time War against the Time Lords. There were contradictory accounts as to the precise identity of the Emperor.

Appearance
The nine-metre tall Emperor's casing had the appearance of his Kaled mutant revealed floating in a transparent tank of liquid, topped by a giant-sized Dalek dome, complete with eyestalk, flanked by panels of armour dotted by Dalek "bumps" with a ring-shaped "throne" on the bottom. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

Identity
According to one account, the original Emperor was resurrected by the Time Strategist to lead the Dalek Empire throughout the Time War. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks) However another account claimed that the Dalek Emperor in the Time War was the Emperor of the Restoration, who had taken over the Imperial Daleks at the end of the Imperial-Renegade Dalek civil war, who continued with Davros's plan for the Imperial Daleks to move against the High Council of the Time Lords, thus leading his armies into the Time War. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) In addition, one account suggested that this Emperor’s advisor, the Dalek Prime Strategist, intended to become the Emperor in time for the Daleks' war against the Time Lords to begin. (PROSE: Exit Strategy)

As recorded in the Dalek Combat Training Manual, the Time Lords identified the Emperor who oversaw Operation Human Factor as "The Emperor Type I". Whilst acknowledging Davros' stint as Emperor of the Imperial Daleks, as well as the anomalous Emperor of the Restoration, it was the Emperor of the Time War who the Time Lords marked as "The Emperor Type II". Though the "Type I" was thought destroyed in the Dalek Civil War, the Time Lords acknowledged the possibility that, given the Daleks' extraordinarily long lifespan, the organic part was retrieved and eventually "formed the basis" of the Emperor that took the Daleks into the Time War. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)

Build up to war
The Dalek Emperor resided in his throne room within the Dalek City on Skaro, protected by the Imperial Guard Daleks. The Daleks' strategy computers and assessment engines predicted an incoming war, that would rage throughout all time and space, against an "ancient enemy" that was potentially a match for the Daleks. Believing that the coming conflict would take every resource and stratagem just to survive, the Emperor sought to ensure victory by employing new methods, daring to even question what it was to be a Dalek. As such, the Emperor gave an order with his unique ident codes to summon four high-ranking bronze Daleks to meet with him. Explaining their new purpose as a weapon, the Emperor announced that that they were to be reconditioned to enable them to think and become like the enemy, daring to plan and act in ways that no other Dalek, even himself, would countenance. Designating them as the Cult of Skaro, the Emperor chose to name the four Daleks Thay, Caan, Jast and Sec, the latter being the leader of the Cult. On the Emperor's order, the Cult were escorted to the Weapons Factory to be fitted with the latest armour and weaponry, while a unique black casing composed of Metalert was prepared for Dalek Sec. (PROSE: Birth of a Legend)

Early efforts
The Emperor deployed (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) the full power of the Deathsmiths of Goth. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor)

During the early part of the Time War, the Emperor was informed by the Dalek Time Strategist about Project Revenant and he agreed his plan to attack it. During this time Romana II, Coordinator of the Celestial Intervention Agency, secretly opened negotiations and tried to convince him to stop the war as it would involve both sides being destroyed as a result. He refused, believing the Daleks would prevail. After the failure of the assault on Project Revenant, with the loss of a Supreme Dalek in the process, he ordered the Strategist to appoint a new Supreme. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures)

Because of 's activation of the Heavenly Paradigm, (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm) the Emperor took control of the Cruciform. (TV: The Sound of Drums) The Time Lords believed that this enabled the Daleks to take the fight to Gallifrey. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)

In exchange for creating the Nightmare Child, the Emperor claimed Davros would receive acceptance and his own legion from the Daleks. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man) After Davros was lost to the Child at the Gates of Elysium, the Emperor continued to lead the war-effort. The Emperor was aided by the Eternity Circle. (PROSE: The Whoniverse)

Death and resurrection
After the Valeyard temporarily succeeded in wiping out all Daleks in N-Space save for the Dalek Time Strategist, (AUDIO: The War Valeyard) the Strategist used dimensional engineering to restore the Empire. However, believing the Daleks needed "a god" rather than the replacement Davros to lead them, the Strategist "scoured every dimension", looking for the original Dalek Emperor. Although initially unsuccessful, he was eventually able to resurrect the Emperor using the temporal power of the multiverse itself.

The Emperor began to make himself heard as he was coalescing, roaring "I am returning!". The process accelerated past this point until the Emperor had materialised completely, descending over the planet Koska inside his ship and making a broadcast during which he announced his "resurrection" to the universe. When the Emperor wanted Davros to publicly submit before him, Davros took the opportunity to speak to the Daleks, convincing many to side with him. This led to a brief civil war between the Emperor's Daleks and those now loyal to Davros which the Emperor's forces prevailed in. The Emperor subsequently decided to keep Davros alive on Falkus, believing he might be of use in the renewed Time War. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks)

Later battles
Seeking the Emperor's attention so it might replace the Time Strategist as it's aide, the Commander of the Red Fleet attempted to lure the secret Thal vessel Temmosus to Dalek space. The Strategist discovered the scheme and brought the Commander before the Emperor, branding it a traitor for secretly talking to Thals. Incensed, the Emperor had the Commander destroyed and praised the Strategist for exposing it. The Emperor then ordered the Strategist to destroy the Temmosus. (AUDIO: Temmosus)

The Emperor ordered the capture of Romana's associates after she was caught on Unity and was furious when a Hunter Dalek failed to capture Narvin. The Time Strategist subsequently approached him with a new plan. (AUDIO: Dissolution) The Emperor personally led a saucer equipped with null zone technology to Gallifrey, using Romana as a spokesperson to the Time Lords after she’d been captured. He was convinced his own godhood by this point, deriding President 's insults to the Daleks, and had a Supreme exterminated for blasphemy when it questioned the plan. When Narvin and the Livia detonated the null zone power source, the Time Strategist arranged the Emperor’s evacuation. (AUDIO: Homecoming)

Towards the end of the War, the Emperor oversaw the creation of the Eternity Circle, and was present when they created the Temporal Cannon to use against the Time Lords. The Emperor witnessed the other temporal weapons used against human prisoners, like the former governor to Moldox, Jocelyn Harris who had betrayed her people to work for the Daleks as their puppet. The Emperor watched as Jocelyn was removed from history as a demonstration. (PROSE: Engines of War) When Skaro was devastated, the Emperor was thought to have been killed. (GAME: City of the Daleks)

The Emperor briefed his bronze commanders on his plans to assault Gallifrey. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) The day before the end of the War, the War Doctor destroyed the Emperor's fleet and burned the message "NO MORE" into the Dalek City. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) The Dalek Emperor was aboard his saucer flagship when all thirteen incarnations of the Doctor moved Gallifrey to a pocket universe on the last day of the Time War. The assembled Dalek Fleet ended up firing on itself through the space Gallifrey once occupied, an event which was presumed to have been the activation of the Moment; (TV: The Day of the Doctor) as such, the Emperor was believed to have died with the rest of his species. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

After the Time War
The Emperor's lone ship barely survived the Time War, falling through time (TV: The Parting of the Ways) and the Void, (PROSE: The Whoniverse) in a heavily damaged state. He went into seclusion at the edge of the solar system "damaged but rebuilding" during the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire while he used any humans that stumbled upon him to create a new army of Daleks, and he steadily rebuilt his fleet.

Circa 199,909, he secretly installed the Jagrafess aboard Satellite Five to play the "long game" of slowly manipulating humans and re-establishing the Dalek species and fleet. A hundred years after the Jagrafess was killed, in the year 200,100, the Emperor was still using Satellite Five, now renamed the "Game Station" to manipulate humanity and conceal a Dalek fleet. (TV: Bad Wolf) The Emperor secretly used transmat technology aboard the space station to kidnap humans for nearly two hundred years. The kidnapped humans were harvested for their genetic material, and "one cell in a billion" was used to rebuild a new race of Daleks (TV: The Parting of the Ways) numbering roughly half a million aboard a fleet of 200 ships in just a century. (TV: Bad Wolf) Because the Emperor had recreated the Dalek race, he saw himself as a god and immortal and so was worshipped by these new Daleks. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

The Emperor's pawn aboard Satellite Five, the Controller, hated her masters and transmatted the Ninth Doctor aboard the Game Station to help defeat them. (TV: Bad Wolf) When he encountered the Emperor and his new religiously fanatical Daleks, the Doctor surmised that they were driven insane both because they had isolated themselves for so long, but also because they were in denial of the fact that they were part human. The Daleks killed almost everyone aboard Satellite Five, and they attacked Earth, bombing millions of people, to transform it into the Emperor's "temple". Shortly afterwards, the Doctor turned down his chance to use an uncalibrated delta wave to destroy all nearby life, human and Dalek alike. The Emperor thought he was victorious, but he and his entire fleet were atomised by Rose Tyler after she had absorbed the energies of the time vortex and became the Bad Wolf temporal paradox; (TV: The Parting of the Ways) she later described what she did to the Emperor as "pouring the Time Vortex into his head and turning him into dust". (TV: Doomsday)

Behind the scenes

 * The 2005 releases of The Parting of the Ways and the audio story Terror Firma, in which Davros' original personality gave way to "the Emperor", gave rise to a theory which suggested that Davros was destined to become the Emperor seen in The Parting of the Ways. This was acknowledged by AHistory, which noted that this theory was officially denied by Big Finish. Davros's return in The Stolen Earth and subsequent stories firmly established that Davros and the War Emperor were separate individuals and that Davros had returned to his original personality by the Last Great Time War.