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LOG ENTRY NO. 1
DATE: 8XX ABY
LOCATION: NAM CHORIOS, OUTER RIM
SOMETIME DURING THE SECOND GREAT HYPERSPACE WAR...
I didn't really know why I had thought my self imposed "exile" was going to one massive extended milk run. It was a little.. weird. Not having him there to guide me, reassure me, let me know that I was on the right track. Everytime I looked to the co-pilot's seat, this distinct emptiness seeemed to fill me. But I had to stay focused on why I had taken this hiatus. It was a Universe away from the war, the death-soaked ruins of every world the Maw touched. A breath of fresh air from battle, from fatigue-filled, never-ending, exertion. I couldn't lie, I had wanted to get away from it all. But now that I was, there was a lack of purpose, lack of meaning. Maybe I would find it wandering the galaxy and searching the Force for its secrets. Maybe I would even find a way to combat the Maw more effecitvely. This was true stuff of the Jedi, I had thought, the real nitty gritty of what we did. Not really what I was used to of course, I considered myself a Jedi of action, inaugurated as a Jedi in one of its most volatile times. A crusader of the light.
In all honesty, I wasn't particularly sure where I was going. Maybe that's the beauty of exploration, you don't always have to know where you're going. In my experience, people who knew where they were going often got lost. Well.. to be fair, my experience isn't really the typical one. I had a name, which was quite a lot of information considering the nature of what I was about to embark on. Nam Chorios. A desolate, albeit inhabited no-where planet in the Meridian Sector. According to a drunken Quarren spacer he'd met on a cantina somewhere in the Core, there was a rumour amongst spacer captains that there were certain Force-sensitive individuals known as the Theran Listeners. I remembered coming across something like that in some obscure part of the Jedi Academy Archive. A technique known as Theran Force Listening.
Needless to say, my curiosity had gotten the better of me, and I attempted to make my way there. It wasn't exactly the smoothest of journeys, but I made it, and that was the most important thing. Approaching the dustball, I noticed the shining of crystalline mountains which I found kinda alluring. I headed towards Hweg Shul, the capital, and landed at what might've been some sort of spaceport. Though it was little underpopulated to say the least. No matter I thought. Leaving the shuttle at the spaceport, I asked some locals to point me in the direction of a cantina. Over my many travels with Traden, I hard learned that almost anywhere in the galaxy, the best place for information was a cantina or diner. Making sure my poncho obscured my face, I traversed the short distance to the aptly named "Blue Berd of Happiness Tavern". But I wasn't one to judge.
It seemed like any cantina. But one thing that set off my senses was the silence, the deafning silence. No cantina I had ever known was ever this quiet, or this underpopulated. Not even a bartender stood at the bar, ready to begrudgingly take my order. It was all a little bit eerie. However, to my shock, a figure sat in the corner, munching on something that I wasn't really sure what to make of. Deciding that this person was my best bet, I made my way over to them, plopping myself down in the chair, and making sure that I was as non-threatning as possible. The person had obscured their face also with a long hood, and I made the important decision to take mine off so that it didn't look too silly. The figure didn't even move.
I asked about the Theran, and the figure seemed to freeze for a moment, spitting out what looked like half a biscuit, and stared through me. Even though they had no eyes, it felt as if they were staring into my soul, judging me and my decisions. I didn't like it, so in defeat, I walked away. However, just as I was about to step through the door, a gravelly voice called out to me, I couldn't resist. They told me their name was Kuras. After offering me a piece of the half eaten biscuit which I gratefully declined, a story began to unravel. I still can't remember the details as Kuras had relayed the information in an incredibly haphazard and disjointed manner. However, they had explained it well enough that I could make out the gist of what was being said.
The Oldtimers, descendants of prisoners who had been sent to a penal colony on the planet, were the first. Then the Newcomers and the Latecomers. These three groups of Nam Chorios society had been less than harmonious in their dealings with each other. This was due to the fact that a section of Oldtimers, who called themselves the Therans were able to speak to crystals that Kuras called Tsil, or Spook-Crystals. These crystals could communicate with "voices" to a prophet named Theras, the namesake of the group. They protected the people of Nam Chorios from insects that could spread a deadly plague. It was a lot to take in, in all honesty. When I asked to be taken to these Theran, I was told that there were not many left. Conflict with the Newcomers and Latecomers also meant that there weren't many left. This also applied to the Tsil, which were becoming dangerously low due to them being sold to off-worlders as trinkets.
The whole situation made my blood boil. But I wasn't here to "liberate" anyone, and I had to fight that notion out of my head. Kuras told me that they could sense something about me, something different to the norm. Was Kuras a Theran? Maybe he had detected my force sensitivity. That'd be something I had told myself. After a while of bargaining that would have made Traden proud, Kuras agreed to take me to the Theran. Walking out of the Blue Herd cantina, we boarded some sort of hovercraft that I was wholly unfamiliar with. One thing that I definitely had noticed about Nam Chorios was the lack of ships. The "spaceport" had been incredibly barren. Of course, we should note that I had arrived somewhat early, and I didn't except too much activity. I had taken into consideration how remote this place was galactically and made the logical leap that it was because of its position. But.. I had seen planets even more barren than this place with some measure of activity, especially taking into account the fact that there was a WAR going on.
Like I mentioned earlier, it was all a little bit spooky.
Kuras and I made our way along the "scenic" route, which admittedly, was not very scenic. Open plain, over open plain. As someone who had grown up mostly in the cities of Fornax, I found it rather boring. Soon enough, we came to the main attraction, the Tsil. Thousands of crystalline structures, jutting out of the landscapes, some like little knives, others long and thin. The light reflecting off of the sheer forest of crystals was blinding, and I found myself blinking a lot to try and counteract the effects. While I did this, I could have sworn I heard a little chuckle from the front. As we travelled through, something strange began to happen. I closed my eyes to blink and I was immeadiately bombarded with an image of something small. An insect perhaps? And it was.. moving. It only lasted for about a second, but every time I blinked, that image recurred, until I could not bear it anymore. As soon as we stopped, I fell off the back of the bike.
Wasn't a very pleasant fall - I still have the scar. I don't remember anythign else after that as I blacked out. Clean out I must say. After an interdeterminate amount of time had passed, I awoke on a soft surface. A human? face, wrinkles etched into it with two piercing blue eyes like mini orbs stared down at me. I heard someone else in the room say something to the effect of, "He's awake". I heard a bit of shuffling, and the sky-eyed person seemed to be pushed away and was replaced by a less-happy face glaring down at me. "How did you find us?!" They asked - I say asked, it was really more like demanded. I sat up to reveal a low-ceiling room with about 4-5 people ogling at me as if I was a new exhibit at a musuem. "Are you the Theran?" I asked tenatively with a hint of excitment. The people in the room seemed to shuffle about uneasily, and the blue-eyed being and another person conferred in the middle of the room.
One of the congregation took to poking me like I was a recently captured animal. I didn't appreciate it very much. Though it did make me feel important. That feeling was immediately shattered when the woman with eyes the colour of water approached me. "Are you a Newcomer or a Latecomer, because you're definitely not an Oldtimer. At least, you don't look like any Oldtimer I've ever seen before, and not with that newfangled gadget you brought in." The same aggravated person seemed to boil over with anger and begin to approach. Likely bent on at the very least maiming me, the being, who clasped a long wooden pike with a wickedly-sharp edge began to march over. For the first time, I actually thanked the crystals for their light, as the glint of my lightsaber sitting on a table would testify. I reached out as I usually did, and the saber flew into my hand. At the same time, I leapt out of bed, the congregation leaping back, some crashing into tables and chairs as I readied to face the person they called Barahs.
I was ready to embarass, Barahs. Thankfully I didn't make that joke out loud. But I did make my intentions clear. The ocean-eyed person who seemed to be the leader of the group raised an eyebrow, more in shock than confusion, though it was a mixture of both. "You're a Jedaii.." They commented. "Jedi." I corrected, but they seemed oblivious. "Your kind have been here before.. have you come to learn?" They asked. "Yes, but I don't think there'll be much learning done if I'm dead." I retorted, very unhappy about the lack of hospitality on display. Someone said something in a tongue incomprehensible to me, and Barahs backed off. At least I could rest easy knowing that I wasn't about to end up on the end of a pike. I disengaged my lightsaber and placed it back on my utility belt. The leader, whom I came to know as Keera, invited me to dinner, and having almost exhausted all the rations on the ship, I eagerly accepted.
While the food was indeed bland, the conversation certainly was not. They asked much a bunch of questions about why I was there, and relayed much of the information that Kuras had told me. Turns out Barahs was actually Kuras, which was not a very important revelation, but an interesting one nonetheless. I ended up staying overnight in the same bed, in the same hut I had woken up in. I didn't sleep well, and continued to dream of the same green insects that I had dreamt up before. After a meagre breakfast and some words of comfort, I was sent out into what they called the Crystal Valley. The sheer amount of crystals and the light they reflected meant that I couldn't even step into the vicinity. Kerra advised that I try again tomorrow.
I couldn't sleep as the dreams of the little green creatures became more intense, more clear, more frequent. The next day, I could walk around a little if I found centre of balance with the Force, a technique even the most inexperienced youngling could master. Another day, another bland breakfast, but I did get an insight into the bugs. On the third day I had decided to tell Kerra of the bug visions. Insensed, they immeadiately told me that I was to return to the Crystal Valley. I laughed at the proposition, having nearly been blinded on multiple occassions, but after some goading and emotional manipulation, I went along with the hair-brained plan and wandered into the field of stones. It seemed as if they shined even more this time, but something was off.. I felt a.. vibration. But the light was too much. I tried to back out, but I thought of Kerra, and then the bugs.. I collapsed, hitting the ground with a thud. But, contrary to my situation, I found some strength to pull myself back up - to sit, to think.. to meditate.
The meditative state is the state all Jedi are most attuned to. Where we can see clearest, percieve things that others would never even dream of. I was momentarily spooked when the bugs came back, crawling everywhere. But the vibrations, they weren't.. malicious, not vindictive, but communicative. I finally understood. The bugs that I had been seeing, that was the key. It was the crystals. A laughable concept really when I thought about it.. but it made sense.. Stupidly, it made sense. The crystals told me it was the droch, something about a plague? Was what I could perceive, even though I did not really hear any voices.
When the light was not too overbearing, I opened my eyes, and watched Kerra and Kuras/Barahs confer. Kerra's soft manner of speaking could be detected, and I could hear a voice like wet gravel conversing also. The funniest thing was they were a good distance away. I could have sworn I saw the beginnings of a smile from Kerra. Later on at dinner, I conversed with the rest of the Therans about the Black Seed. They told me that the threat of it was pernicious, ever encroaching and that there would be severe consequences if they were allowed to continue. With the victory of the Newcomers, the crystals were dissappearing and fast. I felt a great burning, fiery desire to help out. To be the hero. To be the Jedi in this situation. But I couldn't bring myself to it. That wasn't why I had come, and to betray why I had come would mean going back. Would mean facing the Maw once again. And I wasn't ready for that. Not. Yet. So I told them so, and they seemed understand, yet hopeless. I thanked them for dinner and was gone the next day. Regret is such a fickle mistress. It still lurks. The questions still lurk too. What if I had stayed, helped, learned, grown. To put roots down on Nam Chorios would be cardinal sin, the opponent of regret retorted in my mind. This trip was one of transience, one of movement, one of growth through movement.
I don't think I ever wanna come back, or maybe I will.. some day...
Keiran Varn
LOG ENTRY NO. 1
DATE: 8XX ABY
LOCATION: NAM CHORIOS, OUTER RIM
SOMETIME DURING THE SECOND GREAT HYPERSPACE WAR...
I didn't really know why I had thought my self imposed "exile" was going to one massive extended milk run. It was a little.. weird. Not having him there to guide me, reassure me, let me know that I was on the right track. Everytime I looked to the co-pilot's seat, this distinct emptiness seeemed to fill me. But I had to stay focused on why I had taken this hiatus. It was a Universe away from the war, the death-soaked ruins of every world the Maw touched. A breath of fresh air from battle, from fatigue-filled, never-ending, exertion. I couldn't lie, I had wanted to get away from it all. But now that I was, there was a lack of purpose, lack of meaning. Maybe I would find it wandering the galaxy and searching the Force for its secrets. Maybe I would even find a way to combat the Maw more effecitvely. This was true stuff of the Jedi, I had thought, the real nitty gritty of what we did. Not really what I was used to of course, I considered myself a Jedi of action, inaugurated as a Jedi in one of its most volatile times. A crusader of the light.
In all honesty, I wasn't particularly sure where I was going. Maybe that's the beauty of exploration, you don't always have to know where you're going. In my experience, people who knew where they were going often got lost. Well.. to be fair, my experience isn't really the typical one. I had a name, which was quite a lot of information considering the nature of what I was about to embark on. Nam Chorios. A desolate, albeit inhabited no-where planet in the Meridian Sector. According to a drunken Quarren spacer he'd met on a cantina somewhere in the Core, there was a rumour amongst spacer captains that there were certain Force-sensitive individuals known as the Theran Listeners. I remembered coming across something like that in some obscure part of the Jedi Academy Archive. A technique known as Theran Force Listening.
Needless to say, my curiosity had gotten the better of me, and I attempted to make my way there. It wasn't exactly the smoothest of journeys, but I made it, and that was the most important thing. Approaching the dustball, I noticed the shining of crystalline mountains which I found kinda alluring. I headed towards Hweg Shul, the capital, and landed at what might've been some sort of spaceport. Though it was little underpopulated to say the least. No matter I thought. Leaving the shuttle at the spaceport, I asked some locals to point me in the direction of a cantina. Over my many travels with Traden, I hard learned that almost anywhere in the galaxy, the best place for information was a cantina or diner. Making sure my poncho obscured my face, I traversed the short distance to the aptly named "Blue Berd of Happiness Tavern". But I wasn't one to judge.
It seemed like any cantina. But one thing that set off my senses was the silence, the deafning silence. No cantina I had ever known was ever this quiet, or this underpopulated. Not even a bartender stood at the bar, ready to begrudgingly take my order. It was all a little bit eerie. However, to my shock, a figure sat in the corner, munching on something that I wasn't really sure what to make of. Deciding that this person was my best bet, I made my way over to them, plopping myself down in the chair, and making sure that I was as non-threatning as possible. The person had obscured their face also with a long hood, and I made the important decision to take mine off so that it didn't look too silly. The figure didn't even move.
I asked about the Theran, and the figure seemed to freeze for a moment, spitting out what looked like half a biscuit, and stared through me. Even though they had no eyes, it felt as if they were staring into my soul, judging me and my decisions. I didn't like it, so in defeat, I walked away. However, just as I was about to step through the door, a gravelly voice called out to me, I couldn't resist. They told me their name was Kuras. After offering me a piece of the half eaten biscuit which I gratefully declined, a story began to unravel. I still can't remember the details as Kuras had relayed the information in an incredibly haphazard and disjointed manner. However, they had explained it well enough that I could make out the gist of what was being said.
The Oldtimers, descendants of prisoners who had been sent to a penal colony on the planet, were the first. Then the Newcomers and the Latecomers. These three groups of Nam Chorios society had been less than harmonious in their dealings with each other. This was due to the fact that a section of Oldtimers, who called themselves the Therans were able to speak to crystals that Kuras called Tsil, or Spook-Crystals. These crystals could communicate with "voices" to a prophet named Theras, the namesake of the group. They protected the people of Nam Chorios from insects that could spread a deadly plague. It was a lot to take in, in all honesty. When I asked to be taken to these Theran, I was told that there were not many left. Conflict with the Newcomers and Latecomers also meant that there weren't many left. This also applied to the Tsil, which were becoming dangerously low due to them being sold to off-worlders as trinkets.
The whole situation made my blood boil. But I wasn't here to "liberate" anyone, and I had to fight that notion out of my head. Kuras told me that they could sense something about me, something different to the norm. Was Kuras a Theran? Maybe he had detected my force sensitivity. That'd be something I had told myself. After a while of bargaining that would have made Traden proud, Kuras agreed to take me to the Theran. Walking out of the Blue Herd cantina, we boarded some sort of hovercraft that I was wholly unfamiliar with. One thing that I definitely had noticed about Nam Chorios was the lack of ships. The "spaceport" had been incredibly barren. Of course, we should note that I had arrived somewhat early, and I didn't except too much activity. I had taken into consideration how remote this place was galactically and made the logical leap that it was because of its position. But.. I had seen planets even more barren than this place with some measure of activity, especially taking into account the fact that there was a WAR going on.
Like I mentioned earlier, it was all a little bit spooky.
Kuras and I made our way along the "scenic" route, which admittedly, was not very scenic. Open plain, over open plain. As someone who had grown up mostly in the cities of Fornax, I found it rather boring. Soon enough, we came to the main attraction, the Tsil. Thousands of crystalline structures, jutting out of the landscapes, some like little knives, others long and thin. The light reflecting off of the sheer forest of crystals was blinding, and I found myself blinking a lot to try and counteract the effects. While I did this, I could have sworn I heard a little chuckle from the front. As we travelled through, something strange began to happen. I closed my eyes to blink and I was immeadiately bombarded with an image of something small. An insect perhaps? And it was.. moving. It only lasted for about a second, but every time I blinked, that image recurred, until I could not bear it anymore. As soon as we stopped, I fell off the back of the bike.
Wasn't a very pleasant fall - I still have the scar. I don't remember anythign else after that as I blacked out. Clean out I must say. After an interdeterminate amount of time had passed, I awoke on a soft surface. A human? face, wrinkles etched into it with two piercing blue eyes like mini orbs stared down at me. I heard someone else in the room say something to the effect of, "He's awake". I heard a bit of shuffling, and the sky-eyed person seemed to be pushed away and was replaced by a less-happy face glaring down at me. "How did you find us?!" They asked - I say asked, it was really more like demanded. I sat up to reveal a low-ceiling room with about 4-5 people ogling at me as if I was a new exhibit at a musuem. "Are you the Theran?" I asked tenatively with a hint of excitment. The people in the room seemed to shuffle about uneasily, and the blue-eyed being and another person conferred in the middle of the room.
One of the congregation took to poking me like I was a recently captured animal. I didn't appreciate it very much. Though it did make me feel important. That feeling was immediately shattered when the woman with eyes the colour of water approached me. "Are you a Newcomer or a Latecomer, because you're definitely not an Oldtimer. At least, you don't look like any Oldtimer I've ever seen before, and not with that newfangled gadget you brought in." The same aggravated person seemed to boil over with anger and begin to approach. Likely bent on at the very least maiming me, the being, who clasped a long wooden pike with a wickedly-sharp edge began to march over. For the first time, I actually thanked the crystals for their light, as the glint of my lightsaber sitting on a table would testify. I reached out as I usually did, and the saber flew into my hand. At the same time, I leapt out of bed, the congregation leaping back, some crashing into tables and chairs as I readied to face the person they called Barahs.
I was ready to embarass, Barahs. Thankfully I didn't make that joke out loud. But I did make my intentions clear. The ocean-eyed person who seemed to be the leader of the group raised an eyebrow, more in shock than confusion, though it was a mixture of both. "You're a Jedaii.." They commented. "Jedi." I corrected, but they seemed oblivious. "Your kind have been here before.. have you come to learn?" They asked. "Yes, but I don't think there'll be much learning done if I'm dead." I retorted, very unhappy about the lack of hospitality on display. Someone said something in a tongue incomprehensible to me, and Barahs backed off. At least I could rest easy knowing that I wasn't about to end up on the end of a pike. I disengaged my lightsaber and placed it back on my utility belt. The leader, whom I came to know as Keera, invited me to dinner, and having almost exhausted all the rations on the ship, I eagerly accepted.
While the food was indeed bland, the conversation certainly was not. They asked much a bunch of questions about why I was there, and relayed much of the information that Kuras had told me. Turns out Barahs was actually Kuras, which was not a very important revelation, but an interesting one nonetheless. I ended up staying overnight in the same bed, in the same hut I had woken up in. I didn't sleep well, and continued to dream of the same green insects that I had dreamt up before. After a meagre breakfast and some words of comfort, I was sent out into what they called the Crystal Valley. The sheer amount of crystals and the light they reflected meant that I couldn't even step into the vicinity. Kerra advised that I try again tomorrow.
I couldn't sleep as the dreams of the little green creatures became more intense, more clear, more frequent. The next day, I could walk around a little if I found centre of balance with the Force, a technique even the most inexperienced youngling could master. Another day, another bland breakfast, but I did get an insight into the bugs. On the third day I had decided to tell Kerra of the bug visions. Insensed, they immeadiately told me that I was to return to the Crystal Valley. I laughed at the proposition, having nearly been blinded on multiple occassions, but after some goading and emotional manipulation, I went along with the hair-brained plan and wandered into the field of stones. It seemed as if they shined even more this time, but something was off.. I felt a.. vibration. But the light was too much. I tried to back out, but I thought of Kerra, and then the bugs.. I collapsed, hitting the ground with a thud. But, contrary to my situation, I found some strength to pull myself back up - to sit, to think.. to meditate.
The meditative state is the state all Jedi are most attuned to. Where we can see clearest, percieve things that others would never even dream of. I was momentarily spooked when the bugs came back, crawling everywhere. But the vibrations, they weren't.. malicious, not vindictive, but communicative. I finally understood. The bugs that I had been seeing, that was the key. It was the crystals. A laughable concept really when I thought about it.. but it made sense.. Stupidly, it made sense. The crystals told me it was the droch, something about a plague? Was what I could perceive, even though I did not really hear any voices.
When the light was not too overbearing, I opened my eyes, and watched Kerra and Kuras/Barahs confer. Kerra's soft manner of speaking could be detected, and I could hear a voice like wet gravel conversing also. The funniest thing was they were a good distance away. I could have sworn I saw the beginnings of a smile from Kerra. Later on at dinner, I conversed with the rest of the Therans about the Black Seed. They told me that the threat of it was pernicious, ever encroaching and that there would be severe consequences if they were allowed to continue. With the victory of the Newcomers, the crystals were dissappearing and fast. I felt a great burning, fiery desire to help out. To be the hero. To be the Jedi in this situation. But I couldn't bring myself to it. That wasn't why I had come, and to betray why I had come would mean going back. Would mean facing the Maw once again. And I wasn't ready for that. Not. Yet. So I told them so, and they seemed understand, yet hopeless. I thanked them for dinner and was gone the next day. Regret is such a fickle mistress. It still lurks. The questions still lurk too. What if I had stayed, helped, learned, grown. To put roots down on Nam Chorios would be cardinal sin, the opponent of regret retorted in my mind. This trip was one of transience, one of movement, one of growth through movement.
I don't think I ever wanna come back, or maybe I will.. some day...
Keiran Varn
