| “ | Diviner: This asteroid is all you deserve. Do you have any idea what that uniform represents? Gwyn: A commitment to strive for a better future. Diviner: Lies and hypocrisy. Gwyn: You'd know all about that. |
„ |
| ~ The Diviner showing his contempt for Starfleet. |
| “ | Diviner: Solum. As it exists today. The Vau N'Akat are flourishing. Confident in our supremacy, believing it is just us in the universe. We can save it. Gwyn: What happens? Diviner: Computer, show Solum 50 years after the First Contact. [Solum hologram changes to ravaged Solum] Gwyn: Starfleet did this? But they stand for hope and peace. They'd never... Diviner: Starfleet lit the fire and left us to burn. After their mere arrival, civil war splintered our people between those aligned with the Federation and those who would die to preserve our way of life. But history can be rewritten. We can stop First Contact. Gwyn: How? Diviner: By arming a weapon already onboard the "Protostar." We can wipe out all of Starfleet from existence. |
„ |
| ~ The Diviner revealing to his daughter, Gwyndala, his true goal: Destroy the Federation to prevent the Vau N'Akat from disappearing forever. |
| “ | Diviner: Gwyndala... Gwyn: I'm here. Diviner: It wasn't supposed to be like this. I tried to save our world. Your world. I wanted you to see it. Gwyn: I can, Father. I will. Diviner: Maybe you can unify them... do what I never could. Gwyn: I don't know where Solum is. I don't know how to do that. Diviner: There's no barrier we cannot overcome, for you are my daughter, my spirit's song, my Gwyndala. |
„ |
| ~ The Diviner's last words as he dies, reconciling with his daughter and encouraging her to unify the Vau N'Akat. |
Ilthuran, better known as The Diviner, is an old Vau N'Akat. He is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Asencia) in Season 1 and a supporting character in Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy, the tenth TV Series in the Star Trek franchise.
He is the tyrannical leader of the mining colony of Tars Lamora located in the Delta Quadrant, kidnapping many people across the Quadrant for years to dig the mine until they find the USS Protostar, the spaceship that the Diviner searched for for years. It is later revealed that the Diviner is from the future and holds Starfleet responsible for the havoc wreaked on his world after their first contact, his mission being to use the Protostar to reach and destroy the Federation of United Planets by any means possible. He is also the master of Drednok, the "father" of Gwyndala, and the former nemesis of Dal R'El and his friends.
Almost getting his way, the Diviner was incapacitated upon seeing the Medusan Zero's true form, driving him insane. Three weeks later, he was rescued by Vice Admiral Janeway's crew and slowly regained his memories and sanity, while reuniting with his comrade Vau N'Akat also from the future, Asencia. The Diviner initially sought to continue his mission but began to question himself due to the care the crew had shown towards him, to the point of eventually no longer seeing them as those who destroyed his world. He finally redeemed himself by choosing his daughter over destroying Starfleet, at the cost of being mortally wounded by Asencia. In his dying breath, the Diviner reconciled with Gwyn and encouraged her to one day unite their people better than he ever could.
In the second season, a younger version of the Diviner from an alternate timeline appears, still going by his real name of Ilthuran. Unlike the Diviner, Ilthuran acts as an ally against Asencia, recognizing the Federation as friends and allies. As Ilthuran, the Diviner's goal of saving his homeworld would ultimately be accomplished, though through peace rather than the destruction of the Federation. It was suggested that Ilthuran would become the new leader of his people, guiding them to a better future.
He is voiced by John Noble, who also played Denethor in Lord of the Rings, Unicron in Transformers: Prime, Brainiac in Superman: Unbound, Mallus in DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Henry Parish in Sleepy Hollow, Walternate in Fringe, Leland Monroe in L.A. Noire, Scarecrow in Batman: Arkham Knight, Sam Butcher in The Boys and Ivan Yugorsky in Running Scared.
Personality[]
| “ | Time? Every moment that Fugitive Zero stays at large gives the Unwanted hope, and hope has no purpose here. | „ |
| ~ The Diviner. |
Obsessed with his desire to save his kind, Diviner will stop at nothing to achieve his ends, as immoral and cruel as his actions are. The seeming loss of his species left the Diviner with a complete hatred of the Federation and its Starfleet branch, describing their valor as hypocrisy, despite the Vau N'Akat destroying themselves through their own error. For him the one and only option is the destruction of the Federation, no matter that talking to them can change things. His unfailing love for his kind is mostly what drives the Diviner, subsequently creating his offspring/daughter to ensure that the Vau N'Akat will survive if he fails in his mission, even going against the Odre which he claimed to mean nothing without any living Vau N'Akat.
A cruel, determined, cold, hot-tempered, zealous, ruthless, and bigoted individual, the Diviner places no value on the lives of non-Vau N'Akat, calling his slaves Unwanted and making them suffer for the slightest act of rebellion or invoking them. forcing him to work until total exhaustion just to have all of his resources for his plans. He was hesitant to give up his daughter when he had to choose between her and the Protostar but eventually chose to accomplish his mission, albeit reluctantly. Afterwards, the Diviner regretted having broken his daughter's heart and tried to bring her back to his side, showing that he cared about her to some extent but mainly to preserve the Vau N'Akat legacy. When Gwyn eventually turned against him in favor of her friends and the Federation, Diviner was visibly disappointed that she was chosen from the Unwanted instead of her own people.
After the Diviner saw Zero's true form, his spirit was shattered and he was left as just an empty, mentally annihilated shell of his former self. The Diviner slowly regained his sanity while being treated aboard the USS Dauntless, but while his memories came back even more slowly, he had the personality of an insecure person who always wanted his daughter back. Following his encounter with Asencia, the Diviner completely regained his memories and apparently returned to his original self. He has shown to have an honorary side, releasing Janeway (actually Dal in her body at the time) from detention as retribution for saving him. The ambition of the Diviner however began to disappear, privileging the life of his daughter more than his mission, to the point that he no longer seemed to want to go through with it. Before boarding the Protostar, The Diviner reminded his allies that Gwyn was to be spared. Just as he was about to complete his mission and his daughter was subdued by Asencia, the Diviner chose to turn on his old friend to save Gwyn, showing that he never stopped loving her as his daughter.
In his final moments, he said he had always only wanted to save his planet and hoped to show it to Gwyn one day. He was mostly sure that Gwyn could unify their people better than he ever could, also calling her his spirit's song and his Gwyndala before dying appeased.
As revealed in the second season, the Diviner was not always a cruel and tyrannical person. In his younger years, he was the kind-hearted Ilthuran who described himself as "a lonely astronomer on a planet that cares nothing about the stars" and who dreamed of life on other worlds with excitement. Gwyn believed that the Diviner still carried a degree of Ilthuran's love for other worlds in him and that it was why he learned so many different languages and taught them to Gwyn. This shows that the Diviner was greatly changed for the worst by the civil war that destroyed his world. Gwyn told Ilthuran that, depending on who you asked, the Diviner was a monster, a tyrant, and a soldier, but he was always a father last. Unlike his future self, Ilthuran prioritized his daughter and had trouble imagining himself as the person that Gwyn described, showing that ultimately, the Diviner had a tragic aspect to him, falling into bitterness and hatred that transformed the kind-hearted Ilthuran into the cruel Diviner.
History[]
Background[]
The Diviner was originally Ilthuran, a kind-hearted astronomer on a planet that cared nothing for the stars. Unlike the rest of the Vau N'Akat, Ilthuran would look out at the stars and imagine what was out there with excitement.
Set in the future well after 2384, Starfleet made first contact on the planet Solum with the Vau N'Akat species, who until then believed they were the only ones in the universe. The disastrous repercussion of this encounter was a civil war that lasted for 50 years and pitted the Vau N'Akat on the side of the Federation against those who wanted to preserve their culture. With Solum in ruins and the Vau N'Akat on the brink of extinction, a group of them later called The Order encountered the USS Protostar commanded by Captain Chakotay, coming through a temporal anomaly. The Order captured the crew and decided to use the spaceship to travel back in time through the Anomaly and use their last Living Construct, a living weapon that can infect computer systems, to destroy Starfleet in the past. After Chakotay was able to launch the Protostar into the anomaly with no one on board, the Order split into thousands of ships and entered the anomaly, only for the Diviner to be one of the few who succeeded to reach the past.
Arriving in 2363 and settling in the Delta Quadrant, the Diviner and his robotic right-hand man, Drednok, began searching for the USS Protostar. Their quest would eventually lead them to the mines of Tars Lamora where the Protostar ended up being lost following an attack by Drednok on the ship. The Diviner therefore founded a penal colony and sent there several slaves harvested from across the Delta Quadrant to break through every piece of Chimerium until the Protostar was recovered.
In 2366, the continued search for the Protostar physically weakened the Diviner to the point that he began to use a healing tank to sustain himself. At the same time, in fear of not completing his mission, he decided to create offspring that could continue after him. Drednok called this a defiance of The Order, only for his master to assert that if his species becomes extinct, so will The Order. When Drednok then called an offspring an exploitable emotional anti-cloak, the Diviner instead called it luck and even begged his faithful servant to do it for him. Thus by the use of his blood, the Diviner acquired the one he considered his daughter, Gwyndala.
At some point, the Diviner began using the Medusan, Zero, to harm several Unwanted due to the effect of seeing a Medusan's full form.
Tracking the USS Protostar[]
In Lost and Found, during the year 2383, the Diviner observes the young miner Dal R'El's attempted escape aboard a Class D loader from its tank before ending the boy's escapade by remotely deactivating the gravity of the ramp on which Dal was trying to reach the surface. Later, the Diviner summons his daughter to task her with finding an escaped Zero, having first started by interrogating Dal who is potentially working with the escaped Medusan. For him, every moment of Zero's freedom gives the Unwanted hope and hope is not something he tolerates here. He then reminds Gwyn that they are the last Vau N'Akat and then also warns her that if she doesn't get anything out of Dal, Drenok will take care of it. As Gwyn leaves, Drednok asks why Diviner hasn't told his daughter about the mission yet. The master of the colony declares that his offspring are not yet ready and that they must not know anything yet, at the risk of being influenced by the Federation.
When Gwyn gets no results, Diviner charges Drednok with a scheme to get Dal to lead them to Zero despite himself. This ruse not only leads Drednok to Zero but also to the Protostar that Dal's heterocyclic gang had secretly discovered. When the youths rebel and retreat to the ship, the Diviner forbids his forces to damage the Protostar he has been searching for, an order he reminds Drednok before he attempts to fire the exit from the colony. Ultimately, the gang escapes with Gwyn as their hostage.
In Starstruck, the Diviner emerges from his caisson, donning life support armor before requesting riot status. Drednok's response on the minimum loss to contain the Uwanted angers Diviner as he does not consider the loss of his daughter and the Protostar to be a minimum. He then confirms to his henchman that the Unwanted will continue to extract the Chimerium until exhaustion, both so that they no longer rebel and so that his personal ship, the Rev-12, is ready to leave. At the end of the day, the Rev-12 leaves the ground of Tars Lamora, with on board the Diviner and Drednok beginning the pursuit of the fugitives.
In Terror Firma, thanks to coordinates provided by a briefly free Gwyn, the Rev-12 appears in orbit of the planet Murder. As Drednok chases the gang, the Diviner teleports to a summit and facing him is the Protostar. Suddenly his daughter arrives but is caught in the roots of the living planet, so he goes towards her only to stop noticing that the ship is becoming more and more infested with roots. Time was no longer in his favor and after a brief reflection, the Diviner reluctantly resolves to leave Gwyn behind. Unfortunately, the Protostar in front of the Diviner turns out to be just an illusion generated by the planet which then proceeds to bury it under the roots. The sight of the Protostar flying skyward gives the Diviner the rage to break free and learn from Drednok that Gwyn is with the gang.
Going back to the Rev-12, the Diviner and Drednok pursue the Protostar through the distortion. The Diviner contacts the ship and tries to justify his actions to a heartbroken Gwyn then gives her a chance to make the right choice by delivering the Protostar to her but Gwyn ends up disowning her father and activating the Proto-Drive, allowing them to escape and be out of range of the Rev-12.
In Time Amok, The Diviner, and Drednok receive information about the Protostar from the Ferengi DaiMon Nandi who had previously encountered the runaways. Although having the coordinates, Drednok states that the Rev-12 will take months to rejoin the Protostar, so the Diviner opts for another means, downloading Drednok's memory through the Protostar's vehicle synthesizer to make a second Drednok.
The Final Showdown and Defeat[]
In A Moral Star, Part 1, in 2384, Following the defeat and destruction of Drednok II, the Diviner sends a holographic message through the eyes of the inert robot. He gives the teenagers the ultimatum to return the Protostar to Tars Lamora in exchange for which he agrees to release the Unwanted but in the event of a refusal, his slaves will suffer the consequences. Although the gang has no faith in the word of the Diviner, they resign themselves to returning to the horrible mining colony from which they fled.
After the Protostar returns to Tars Lamora and the Rev-12 pulls it by tractor beam to the landing pad, Diviner and Drednok come to meet the fugitives descending from the ship. Drednok recalls the terms of the deal which Dal disputes as it would deprive them of their ship to leave here but Diviner asserts that this gloomy asteroid is all they deserves. He then turns the subject to the meaning of the Starfleet uniform they now wear, to which Gwyn claims it's a pledge for a better future while her father states it's all lies and hypocrisy. Angered by his daughter's remark about his own hypocrisy, Diviner sets about changing the deal to have Gwyn stay with him. Drednok calls this a big mistake but Diviner says the only big mistake was not telling his daughter the whole truth. Gwyn eventually relents, with the condition that in addition to freeing the Unwanted, the Rev-12 be given to her friends. Again, Drednok disagrees, only for his master to care only about having the Protostar and his daughter. Before boarding, Diviner orders Gwyn to hand over his combadge and then crushes it in disgust.
Taking off and the Janeway hologram reprogrammed by Drednok, Diviner orders the Rev-12's generators to be fired to break the atmospheric shields and thus sentence all residents of Tars Lamora to death. Gwyn calls him a monster, to which Diviner replies that she will eventually understand. Soon after, out of Tars Lamora's orbit, Gwyn asks her father to finally tell her the truth, while questioning why he had previously abandoned her in favor of the ship. Diviner replies that at that time he was blinded by his duty but has since realized how important Gwyn is to him. As he is about to explain his plans telepathically to her, Diviner angrily notices that Gwyn is hiding something from him before discovering that the Proto-Core has been removed from the Protostar.
In A Moral Star, Part 2, Gwyn threatens her father with her golden weapon but the Diviner turns it against her as he has full mental control of it. Deducing that Gwyn was buying time so her friends could reactivate the Rev-12's generators, Diviner puts the cape back on Tars Lamora.
Prior to its destruction by confronting the Unwanted, Drednok managed to send the Proto-Core's position to the Diviner to teleport to the Protostar. Unfortunately for him, Gwyn and an ultimately immune to reprogramming Janeway regained control of the bridge. Diviner attempts to stop this, only for Janeway to damage her survival armor. Gwyn is about to lower the shields to allow the resumption of the Protostar but Diviner begs her not to do so by saying that she will doom their species then reveals that the Vau N'Akat are not extinct as he made believe to his daughter from the start.
With Gwyn agreeing to listen to what her father has to say, the two Vau N'Akat go into the Holodeck where the Diviner installs a program showing them the present-day planet Solum. The story of the future fall of the Vau N'Akat completed, Diviner reveals that he installed a program in the Protostar to infect every Starfleet ship so that they destroy each other until Starfleet be destroyed once and for all. Gwyn refuses to trade one massacre for another and tries to convince Diviner that he can just go talk to Starfleet to change Solum's fate, only for it to fall on deaf ears. Dal appears but the Diviner subdues him with his own Vau N'Akat weapon before doing the same with a Gwyn turning against him definitively. Before he can harm Dal, Zero appears in turn and reveals his true Medusan appearance, mentally destroying the Diviner.
His attempt to destroy Starfleet ultimately futile and now insane, the Diviner is left at Tars Lamora where he is now the only Unwanted to live there while the Rev-12 is given to his former slaves and the Protostar crew makes their way to the Federation.
Recovery on the USS Dauntless[]
Three weeks later, the crew of the USS Dauntless led by Vice Admiral Janeway arrived on Tars Lamora, seeking to also find the Protostar and rescued a Diviner in stasis and floating in antigravity. Installed in the infirmary, the Diviner was nursed back to health by Doctor Tellarite Noum, restoring some of his spirit but the memories of his life remained hazy. Janeway briefly interrogated her about Chakotay's status, the Diviner only remembering that he was taken prisoner.
Shortly after chasing the Protostar from Denaxi Depot to the Neutral Zone, the Diviner is approached by ensign Trill Asencia who soon turns out to be a female Vau N'Akat also from the future but who arrived in 2381 instead. She and her own Drednok may have revived the Diviner's memory of what happened on Solum and how much they blamed Starfleet for it. Instantly, Janeway walked in and discovered Asencia's identity, only for the Diviner to knock her out from behind, declaring that he preserved the mission.
The Living Construct temporarily taking control of the Protostar to return it to Federation space, the Diviner encountered Dal R'El again in Janeway's body after an accidental mind-swap with the real Janeway. With Dal's clumsy actions leading to being locked on an operating table in the infirmary, the Diviner who ignores the mind-swap releases "Janeway" as repayment for saving him on Tars Lamora and asks the human to also to take care of his daughter if ever the mission failed.
Redemption and Death[]
The Protostar's crew, subsequently surrounded by dozens of Starfleet ships soon after Dal and Janeway returned to their bodies, tried to escape in vain, shortly before the Diviner, Asencia and Drednok took control of the bridge of the Dauntless and teleport aboard the Protostar. The Diviner finally reunites with his daughter after Asencia confronts and submits her on the Protostar's bridge, then ordering the Diviner to open the communication networks to infect Starfleet ships to destroy each other. At the last moment, the Diviner changes his mind and attacks Asencia with Gwyn's Heirloom, only for Asencia to grab the weapon and label the Diviner the weakest of their kind before impaling him with the Heirloom in the abdomen, mortally wounding him. Dying, the Diviner confessing that he only ever wanted to save their world and show it to Gwyn one day, something Gwyn promises him to do. He especially encourages her to unite their people as he could never have done, firmly believing that she will succeed, and then dies. His body subsequently disintegrates.
Legacy[]
Gwyn later decides to travel to Solum and try to save her planet as the Diviner had wanted, although both she and Dal found it strange to consider the idea that a version of the Diviner was still alive in the present.
While trying to rescue Chakotay from the future, the Protostar crew are unaware that the Diviner is leading the search for them, albeit a version of the Diviner from before he had time traveled.
While on Solum, Gwyn seeks out Ilthuran, the Diviner from the current timeline. Having not gone through the civil war that destroyed his world, Ilthuran is still a kind-hearted astronomer and bears very little resemblance to the cruel tyrant that he would become and is shocked by what Gwyn tells him of the Diviner. Ilthuran firmly allies himself with Gwyn and her friends who are distrusting of him at first as they recognize Ilthuran as the Diviner. However, Ilthuran quickly becomes a friend and ally in the fight against Asencia. Ultimately, with the help of the Federation, Solum's future is changed, resulting in Asencia's defeat and the civil war -- which ended up being against Asencia's tyrannical rule under the leadership of Ilthuran -- ending without destroying Solum and the Vau N'Akat civilization. In the aftermath, the Federation led by Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway offically makes first contact with the Vau N'Akat led by Ilthuran who are aware of the wonders and dangers of the universe and the fate that could befall their planet this time around.
Ultimately, through his younger self Ilthuran, the Diviner's goal of saving his homeworld and people was achieved. Wesley Crusher predicted that the change in time would result in Ilthuran leading his people into a much better future.
Quotes[]
| “ | Diviner: What is the status of the riots? Drednok: We have regained control of The Unwanted with minimal losses. Diviner: Minimal? [Smash a Watcher by frustration] Losing the Protostar and my daughter is not minimal! Drednok: Agreed. Shall The Unwanted continue to extract chimerium? Diviner: Yes. Exhaust them so they're too tired to rise up again. And I'll need every speck of chimerium for trade to get my ship back! Prepare the REV-12! |
„ |
| ~ Diviner begins the pursuit for the fugitives and the Protostar. |
| “ | Diviner: Just as the Federation ignited our civil war, when the Protostar comes into contact with a Starfleet vessel, our weapon will release a signal that will corrupt their systems, turning their ships against each other until the entire alliance is reduced to nothing! Gwyn: Our ship will destroy Starfleet? Diviner: This ship is part of our destiny. Starfleet will welcome its return with open arms. And it will tear itself apart from within! In time, you will understand. Once Starfleet falls to ruin, we can return to Solum where we belong. Gwyn: Our dreams of going to Starfleet. If we go, we... We'll... Diviner: Destroy them, yes. Gwyn: We can't go. We can never go. You can't trade one tragedy for another! You need to talk to Starfleet, not destroy them! Diviner: The time for talk is over. |
„ |
| ~ Diviner reveals his ultimate plan to destroy Starfleet to his daughter who tries unsuccessfully to convince him there is another way to save their people. |
| “ | Diviner: You would help the inferior before your own people? He alone is no match against the Vau N'Akat. Zero: Who said he was alone? I will not let you hurt my friends. Diviner: Zero. Zero: You used me to hurt others. It's time I show you who I truly am so you cannot hurt anyone else! |
„ |
| ~ Diviner before his defeat, when Zero reveals his true form and drives him insane forever. |
| “ | Diviner: Before I had a daughter, this was mine! [Throws the Heirloom at Asencia but she catches it] Asencia: You were always the weak one. |
„ |
| ~ The Diviner betrays Asencia for the safety of his daughter. |
Trivia[]
- His real name, Ilthuran, is revealed in season 2.
- The Diviner is based on Khan Noonien Singh. John Noble also drew inspiration from Khan actor, Ricardo Montalban, for his performance.
- Despite being the main antagonist, Diviner did not directly confront the main characters until the end of Part One. His right-hand man, Drednok, has also been more of a direct threat from the start.
- Medusan telepathy has no effect on the Diviner.
- The Diviner is one of the few Star Trek extremist antagonists to ever redeem himself.
- As seen in the second season, the Diviner wasn't always such an extremist. Before the civil war that destroyed his planet made him vengeful and bitter, Ilthuran was an astronomer, something of a visionary, and a kind man. As Ilthuran, he acted as a friend and ally of the people who were his enemies as the Diviner.
- Ultimately, the events that the Diviner set into motion led to his goal of saving his homeworld succeeding, although without destroying the Federation. While the Diviner himself wasn't there to see the success, his present day counterpart Ilthuran played a major role.
- Although the Diviner dies at the end of season 1, he briefly reappears in season 2 when the Protostar crew travels into the future. The Diviner, from before he traveled back in time, leads the search for the escaped prisoners and witnesses the Infinity's launch into the past.
- Since Ilthuran was already an adult in 2385, traveled in time from 2433, arrived in 2363 and died in 2384, The Diviner lived approximately for almost a century.
- Ilthuran's attitude towards life on other worlds suggests that the Diviner was probably in the pro-Federation faction during the civil war before the destruction of his planet and the Federation's refusal to get involved embittered him towards the Federation.
