"
I have been around a while, yes, but most of that time was spent on ice." Laphisto gave a low, restrained chuckle at that, shaking his head faintly as if the understatement amused him more than it should. The sound carried no bitterness, only the quiet acceptance of someone long accustomed to time slipping through his grasp in unnatural ways. When the next request came an inquiry into his culture his expression shifted subtly. One brow rose, not in offense, but in mild surprise.
"
My culture?" he repeated, leaning back into his chair. The movement was slow and thoughtful, the wood and metal of the seat creaking faintly under his size as he folded one arm across his torso and rested the other along the armrest. His heterochromatic gaze drifted briefly toward the far wall, unfocused, as memory rather than paperwork occupied his attention.
"
I know very little of it, truthfully At least… I knew very little for most of my life." He exhaled slowly through his nose before continuing. "
I was raised in the Jedi Temple on Ossus. My father before me was as well. And his father before him. The Temple was my foundation. Discipline, doctrine, meditation, study. I learned the Force before I learned the history of my own blood. Whatever Kiev'arian heritage existed within me was something distant, almost abstract. Stories more than identity."
His gaze returned to the boy across from him, steady and reflective rather than distant now. "
There were tales told to me growing up. Legends of dragons. Of a world rich in the Force. Of gods who shaped a people in their image and demanded strength from them in return. But they were presented as myth, as cautionary allegory. Not as lineage." His jaw shifted slightly as he considered the weight of that realization.
"
It was not until we discovered Kiev'ara that those stories stopped being stories. When I stood upon its surface when I saw the petrified remains of my people, frozen in the final moments of their extinction I understood that I had not been raised within my culture. I had been raised apart from it. The Jedi taught me balance in their way. Kiev'ara… taught me what balance meant to my own kind."
His voice lowered slightly, though it did not waver. "
Kiev'arians were not mystics in robes. We were warriors. Elemental by nature. Fire, Earth, Water, Air each lineage shaped not only physiology, but philosophy. Strength was not merely physical. It was endurance. It was loyalty to kin. It was the understanding that power and responsibility were inseparable." He leaned forward slightly now, forearms resting on the desk, posture less distant and more engaged.
"
Our gods Dra'ko and Saurav'ix were not distant abstractions. They were present forces. Creation and destruction, life and death, bound together in a single cosmic tension. My people did not divide those aspects as the Jedi divide Light and Dark. They understood them as parts of a whole. That understanding… aligns more closely with how I have come to see the Force than anything I was taught as a child." he paused for a moment before shaking his head. "
thats just about all i know, truthfully. based on the historical texts that were found on kiev'ara"
Aknoby
Laphisto
