Private Finding Your Place

[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

The Coruscant sun hung low against the skyline, its golden light spilling through the wide transparisteel windows of the Council Chambers. The vast city stretched endlessly beyond, a constant hum of speeders weaving through towering spires. But within the chamber itself, there was quiet. A peaceful stillness. Valery stood near the center of the room, her hands loosely clasped behind her back as she gazed out over the skyline. This place had seen generations of Jedi come and go — leaders, warriors, scholars. Some had built legacies. Others had faded into history. And now, another young Jedi was stepping into its halls, taking her first steps into something greater.

A soft chime at the entrance signaled the arrival of her guest.

Valery turned, her fiery gaze warm but sharp, studying the young woman as she entered. Ilaria.

She had read the reports. A transfer from another Enclave, now part of the New Jedi Order. The adjustment wouldn't be easy — shifting from one way of life to another never was — but that was why she had called her here today. To meet. To understand. To make sure Ilaria knew that, no matter how unfamiliar these halls might feel, she wasn't alone.

"Come in," Valery said, offering a small smile as she gestured toward the open chamber. "I'm glad you came. I just wanted to meet you properly."

Ilaria Morvayne ​

 

[Ilaria Morvayne]

Opening Post – "Finding Your Place"

Chapter One - A Return to the Temple
Valery Noble

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Jedi Temple, Coruscant
Grandmaster's Office

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The soft chime echoed through the chamber as Ilaria stepped forward, her movements controlled, deliberate. The Coruscant sun bathed the grand chamber in golden light, reflecting off the smooth, polished floor in a way that made the entire room feel… sterile. Polished. Too perfect.

She had walked into a place steeped in history, yet it felt strangely hollow to her.

This was not the Enclave.

Her emerald gaze flickered briefly across the chamber, taking in its grandeur before settling on the woman before her. Grandmaster Valery Noble.

A Jedi whose name carried weight.

Ilaria had read about her, as much as the archives and spoken accounts would allow. A warrior, a leader, one who had helped shape the New Jedi Order into what it was now. To many, she was the embodiment of what a Jedi should be.

But that was exactly the problem.

Valery smiled, a gesture meant to disarm, to offer warmth, but Ilaria did not immediately return it. She stepped forward with measured grace, hands clasped behind her back, her posture flawless in its discipline.

"Grandmaster."

The word was spoken with perfect formality, her tone even, respectful—yet absent of warmth.

She let the silence linger just a moment longer before continuing.

"I appreciate the opportunity to meet you." A pause. "It is important to understand who we place our trust in."

Another pause. This one slightly longer.

"And who we do not."

It was not an outright challenge. Not yet. But there was something behind her words, something precise, something intentional.

Her expression remained unreadable, though her gaze was unwavering.

"You called me here to ensure I know I am not alone," she continued, her tone quiet, measured. "But I was not under the impression that solitude was a weakness."

She tilted her head ever so slightly.

"I have heard much of you, Grandmaster. The Order speaks of you with reverence. They say you have helped shape it into what it is today."

A beat of silence.

"And what is the New Jedi Order, truly?"

​

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery studied Ilaria carefully.

The way she held herself. The way her voice carried respect but little warmth. The way each word she spoke was deliberate, careful, a thread in some larger weave of meaning. She had seen many Jedi like this before, and they always had a certain appeal, if one could look beyond the lack of warmth.

She let the silence stretch between them, let the weight of Ilaria’s question settle. Her gaze briefly flickered toward the vast skyline beyond the chamber’s windows — toward the heart of the Alliance, the endless layers of the city.

“At our very core, I believe all Jedi envision the ideal Galaxy the same way. We strife for something similar but as I'm sure you know, the Jedi have been organized very differently throughout the many years of its existence," she said, her voice steady as her attention shifted back to the other woman.

"When I joined, the New Jedi Order was small. Its Jedi unhappy with decisions made in the past by other Orders, so they began something new. Something different. But they were very young and the Order was quite chaotic - it lacked focus and true leadership." Valery paused and chuckled, "I wouldn't say I reshaped it - a lot of Jedi contributed to it together - but we built an Order that offered direction during a time of war."

Another pause, a faint smile. The Second Great Hyperspace War had been an immense test for the NJO, and one that had help shape it to what it is today.

"We built the New Jedi Order to be what the Jedi always wanted be to. Protectors of the people, and a constant shield against the Dark Side. But unlike Orders in the past, we believe it's better to do this without being overly integrated in politics or military structure."

"We are our own entity. We work with the Alliance, we can offer advice and we can also be swayed by their input if we believe it just. It's a relationship we've built over the last decade or so, and it has worked out quite well. We're at constant threat, now with three aggressors at our borders, but we've been standing strong."

"As a shield and blade for peace."

Ilaria Morvayne ​

 

[Ilaria Morvayne]

Post #2 – "Finding Your Place"

Chapter One - A Return to the Temple
Valery Noble

---

Jedi Temple, Coruscant
Grandmaster's Office

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Ilaria stood unmoving as Valery spoke, absorbing every word with the same measured patience she applied to everything else. There was no shift in her posture, no flicker of visible reaction—only the unwavering presence of her emerald gaze.

She did not interrupt.

She simply listened.

To the explanation. To the justification. To the conviction behind the words.

And when the Grandmaster finished, Ilaria let the silence linger between them once more, as if weighing the response against something unseen. The vast city beyond the chamber's windows pulsed with life, its golden light stretching across the polished floor, a world in constant motion—endless, chaotic, alive.

Ilaria needed to figure out what a Jedi was.

A stark contrast to the stillness between them.

She exhaled softly, controlled. Not quite a sigh, but something close.

"A shield and a blade." She repeated the words, testing their weight.

A beat passed. Then another.

"The Order has endured," she acknowledged. "It has survived wars, schisms, betrayals. It has been burned down, only to rise again—changed, but never truly gone." Her tone remained neutral, but there was something deeper beneath it. A current not yet fully revealed.

"But survival is not the same as purpose."

She turned then, shifting slightly so that she was not just looking at Valery, but studying her. Not just the Grandmaster's words, but the woman behind them.

"You speak of being protectors. Of standing against the Dark Side." A pause. "But that is reactionary."

Another step forward, slow and deliberate.

"A shield does not act unless it is struck. A blade does not move unless it is wielded. It is defense. Resistance. A countermeasure to something external."

Her voice was quiet, but sharp enough to cut through the chamber's stillness.

"That is what the Order is now, isn't it?" Her head tilted slightly. "Something that exists in response to what threatens it."

She clasped her hands behind her back once more.

"But tell me, Grandmaster, when the darkness fades and the sun rises, when the day of shields and blades has finally passed..."

A moment of quiet tension.

"What becomes of us?"

​

 

[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery studied Ilaria as she spoke, watching the measured way she delivered her words, the sharp precision behind each one. She could appreciate that kind of careful thought, the way she dissected and examined things as though she were holding them up to the light, searching for flaws, contradictions, truths yet unseen.

And she wasn't wrong. Not entirely.

"Yes," Valery admitted, tilting her head slightly. "Much of what we do is reactionary, and sometimes, it should be. Aggression is not our way — if we act without cause, without restraint, then we are no better than those we stand against." There was no hesitation in her voice, no uncertainty. The Jedi existed to protect. To shield. To stand in the breach when darkness pressed in.

But sometimes, action was

"We have lasted as long as we have not just by reacting, but by acting when it was necessary," she continued, amber eyes steady. "The Brotherhood of the Maw were not defeated by waiting for them to come to us. We waged an active campaign against them, striking at their war machine, dismantling their empire piece by piece until we cleansed Exegol with a Wall of Light" She shifted slightly, glancing toward the vast skyline stretching beyond the windows. "And we have done the same against the Sith Order, fighting them across the old Sith Worlds, cutting into their power before they could consolidate it. The same against the Mandalorian Enclave, when they threatened the peace."

Her gaze returned to Ilaria, unwavering. "We are not just shields waiting to be struck, nor are we mindless blades swinging at shadows." A brief pause. "We are Jedi, and that means we must always be careful of the line between action and aggression."

Then, her expression shifted — just slightly. A faint, knowing smirk tugged at the corner of her lips. "As for your last question…"

She exhaled softly, gaze flickering with something deeper, something old.

"I was born over four thousand years ago." There was no boast in her tone, just quiet certainty. "I have seen the sun rise before. I have seen peace take root, civilizations flourish, the Dark pushed into the abyss." A small, almost bitter chuckle escaped her lips. "And yet here we are."

She let that settle, then took a step forward, her voice calm but edged with the weight of experience.

"When the sun rises, we do not fade." Her gaze sharpened, and for a moment, she seemed almost impossibly steady, as though she had stood in the exact same place across countless ages, countless wars. "When the sun rises, we enjoy its peace, but we always prepare for nightfall."

Ilaria Morvayne ​

 

[Ilaria Morvayne]

Post #3 – "Finding Your Place"

Chapter One - A Return to the Temple
Valery Noble

---

Jedi Temple, Coruscant
Grandmaster's Office

​

Silence.

It stretched between them, vast and deliberate, as Ilaria absorbed Valery's words. Not just the meaning behind them, but the weight they carried—the years, the battles, the victories and failures etched into every syllable.

She did not speak immediately.

Instead, she studied the Grandmaster.

Not the Jedi. Not the legend.

The woman who had stood in the light of countless dawns, only to watch the darkness creep back in.

A Jedi of four thousand years.

It explained much.

It explained the certainty in her voice. The quiet inevitability of her words. The understanding that peace was not a destination, only a fleeting moment between battles.

It explained why Valery Noble still stood here, unwavering, even as history repeated itself.

Ilaria had no such certainty.

Her fingers curled slightly behind her back, an almost imperceptible shift in her posture. She had spent her life being told what a Jedi was meant to be. What the Code demanded. What the Order needed.

But Valery had lived it. Again and again. And she still believed in it.

Ilaria was not sure if that made her wise—or tragic.

Her emerald gaze flickered, just slightly.

"Then we are guardians of a cycle." Her voice was quiet, but it lacked the edge from before. Not softened, not yet, but thoughtful. "We do not shape the future. We only brace for its return."

A pause.

"And you are content with that?"

The question was not a challenge. Not this time. It was something else. A test, perhaps—not of Valery's authority, but of the conviction behind it.

She turned slightly, her gaze drifting toward the skyline, where the golden light of Coruscant stretched endlessly over the city.

"To fight. To endure. To hold the line until the inevitable fall of the next empire, the next war, the next nightfall. And then to do it all again." Her voice remained even. "That is what it means to be a Jedi."

A beat passed. Then another.

“To learnt that peace is a lofty illusion, to be forced to sit there and allow the night to come upon us, to be helpless to the whims of the Force.”

She inhaled softly, controlled. She thought to every conversation before, how each Jedi spoke of surrender in some way.

Surrender was a weakness, in this case, surrender to fate itself.

"I do not know if I am meant to be that."

For the first time, she admitted it aloud.

She then reminded herself of a question that had lingered in the back of her mind.

“Tell me, was Woostri inevitable?”

​

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery let the silence stretch again, considering Ilaria's words with a measured gaze. The younger Jedi was sharp, perceptive—pushing, questioning, pulling apart the foundation upon which the Jedi Order had stood for thousands of years. But that was not a bad thing. It was necessary.

Still, her question lingered in the air, heavier than the ones before it.

"And you are content with that?"

Valery exhaled softly. "Content?" she echoed, tilting her head slightly. "Perhaps not." There was no hesitation in her voice, no false certainty to mask the truth. "A Jedi should always strive for lasting peace, should hope that one day it might truly hold. But the galaxy's life is long, and if you zoom out far enough, everything looks like a cycle. Empires rise and fall. Wars burn across the stars, only to fade into memory. If you watch long enough, you'll see history repeat itself. The Galaxy's life is vast, beyond anything we can even begin to imagine."

Her amber gaze flickered toward the skyline, where the golden light stretched endlessly over Coruscant. "But those cycles of peace can also be long. Peace can last for thousands of years — longer than a single lifetime, longer than many lifetimes. And isn't that worth something?"

She turned back, her expression steady, but with a glint of something deeper behind her eyes. "Our actions, the things we fight for, they don't vanish into the abyss. They build. They matter. For every Jedi that has stood against the darkness, how many lives have been spared suffering? How many worlds have been saved from ruin? How many children have grown up never knowing the weight of war because of the sacrifices of others?"

Her voice didn't rise, but the conviction within it burned, unwavering.

"Thousands of years of peace have been permitted by the actions of singular people." She let that settle, then offered a small, knowing smirk. "Isn't that inspiring?" Then, her expression shifted slightly — still composed, still calm, but with a hint of something more thoughtful.

"Tell me, was Woostri inevitable?"

"In some way," she admitted, "Yes. War never has just one battle, and Woostri was one piece of a much larger puzzle." She exhaled, folding her arms loosely.

"But inevitable does not mean pointless. It does not mean that we stop fighting, or that the next battle will end the same way. Every moment shapes what comes next. Every victory, every loss — every choice we make tilts the scale one way or another." Valery held her gaze, steady and certain.

Ilaria Morvayne ​