Akrasia
NETHERWORLD CODEX CONTEST - THE ARCHIVIST'S GATE
"and in her grief and anger, she reached through the Force and poured her energy into the door..."
- Oral Histories of the Jedi Temple Vol I, 1458 BBY
Intent: To create a small Rift to the Oblivion region of the Netherworld that’s accessible from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.
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Rift Name: The Archivist’s Gate
Rift Alignment: Dark. The Gate has a slight Dark Side alignment, a remnant of the raw, emotional use of the Force that was used to first open it sometime around 2550 BBY. However, the Dark Side is difficult to detect around the Rift, and can usually only be felt passing through either side.
Location: The Jedi Temple, Coruscant
Destination: The Archivist’s Gate leads from Realspace to the Netherworld, bringing the traveller to an arched door standing on a carved pedestal in a sunken garden, itself located in a forgotten area of the Oblivion region.
Direction: Two-Way. The Archivist’s Gate, once opened, allows fairly easy travel between Oblivion in the Netherworld and the Jedi Archives on Coruscant.
Size: Small. Doorway is approximately 3m x 2m across on both sides of the Rift.
Accessibility: The entrance to the Archivist’s Gate is a large door in plain sight, though for most of its history, it has been sealed, showing a plain stone wall in the centre of a carved arch. Once opened, the Rift is easily accessible and can be opened by hand. The Rift entrance is located in a restricted section of the First Wing of the Jedi Archives on Coruscant, making it almost impossible for the public to access, and difficult for Jedi who are not Masters to access without permission. The Gate is also unknown and lost to history, though there is reference to it within the Archives.
Description:
The non-fiction account Oral Histories of the Jedi Temple describes the Archivist’s Gate as a “path, cutting through to the mists-beyond, made tangible through love, grief, and The Force”
It is a two-way Rift that connects the Realspace location of the Jedi Archives to the Oblivion region of the Netherworld. On the Realspace side of the Gate is a large arched door in the First Wing of the Archives, and on the other side is a similar door that leads to a sunken garden in Oblivion. The Gate has been lost to history for thousands of years, and was only recently rediscovered by Jedi within the temple. The Rift is mild in its effects and generally considered harmless, allowing safe and relatively easy travel into the Netherworld.
Generally, the effects of the Rift are quite mild, and provide passage to Oblivion at a small tax to the traveller. The Archivist’s Gate works much like an ordinary passage between rooms, though it takes one-to-two extra seconds to pass through the entryway than it would in Realspace, and when looking back through the archway, the other side is hidden in darkness. Additionally, upon passing through, travellers are struck by a sombre feeling and fatigue as they enter the sunken garden, and Force Users travelling through may also feel less in-control of their emotions.
Realspace: The Gate
At first glance, the Archivist's Gate is nothing much. It is a large arch-shaped wooden door with metallic banding and two handles. Around the arch there is rough and jagged stone, where the wall that originally covered the Gate has been recently removed by a Jedi archival team. The door will not open to with physical force, though it can be damaged. Instead, it opens at the touch of a Force User, who channels their desire to enter using the Dark Side of the Force. When swung open, the door reveals a dark void, which leads through to Oblivion.
Oblivion: The Garden
Travelling from the Archives, The Archivist’s Gate opens to a sunken garden sequestered in a forgotten corner of Oblivion, the doorway to the garden is identical in shape to the doorway from Realspace, but is of slightly different design. The gateway stands on a stone pedestal with a couple of steps that lead down to the garden.
The Garden is weedy and sparse, and in its centre there are two black granite stones, which once bore inscriptions, but are now too worn to read. The Garden is small, extending only a few metres from the stone archway, and is ringed by tall, blossoming trees. A wrought metal gate connects the garden to the wider region of Oblivion. Weather, temperature and time in the Garden remain consistent inside the Garden, though travellers will grow hungry and thirsty as normal. The Garden is abandoned, either ignored or forgotten by denizens of Netherworld, and thus it can provide a safe resting place for those venturing out into Oblivion.
The exact history of the creation of The Archivist's Gate remains uncertain, as the Rift has been lost to history almost since its creation. What is known about the Gate is detailed in a historical text in the Jedi Archives entitled Oral Histories of the Jedi Temple, which contains lesser-known stories about the ancient Jedi and the temple on Coruscant.
The Creation of the Gate
In the chapter concerning The Archivist's Gate, an unknown author provides a foreword, explaining that this story has circulated in some form since at least 2550 BBY. By the time of writing, 1458 BBY, numerous versions existed. They also state they believe the Gate is either a myth, or long gone. There had never been an official search for the Gate since it was lost, but nobody in the Archives had ever seen any sign of it to the author's knowledge. For clarity and coherency, the author provided a singular version in Oral Histories of the Jedi Temple.
The story takes place in the years following the rebuilding of the Jedi Archives in 2510 BBY. Much work was needed to populate and categorise the growing collection of data. A Master Jedi Archivist in need of assistance took on a troubled Jedi Knight to work with her in the Archives. The Master helped the Knight focus on her work, overcome her difficulty controlling her anger and find comfort in the Temple walls. The Knight proved adept at navigating the complexities of the Archives, regularly spending hours tracking down annals and texts that had been missing for years.
After some time, the two Jedi became close, and a romance blossomed, with the pair regularly meeting in the Archives after hours or sneaking into the other's quarters at night. When the Council learned of the partnership, they denounced it, criticising the Master for what they saw as endangering the progress made by the Knight in her struggle against her fear and anger.
The Council allowed the Knight to continue in the Archives, believing that she was a valuable asset and her work would be enough to distract her from her attachments. The Master they treated more harshly, sending her off Coruscant and to the Outer Rim, where, on a lonely planet, she would be killed in a raid by Dark Jedi.
When the Master's body was returned to the Temple, and the Knight learned of her death, she was inconsolable. The words of the Council and her teachers were hollow, and her work lost its meaning.
The Knight sat alone in the Archives one night, wracked with grief and wishing only to see her Master again. She stood up and walked over to a nearby wall, placing her hand upon it, and began to open a Rift to the Mists Beyond. It is unknown exactly how she did so, perhaps through some machination of the Force or a lost technique learned in her time in the Archives. What is known is that the Knight poured into the Rift her grief at losing her Master, her anger at the Council, and her fear of a life without her soulmate, forcing open a portal that eventually took the form of a tall wooden door.
Having passed through the gate, the Knight entered the Mists Beyond and saw her Master was waiting for her. The pair greeted each other with open arms, hugging and kissing and sitting together in a circle of trees for ages. Almost every night after, the Knight visited her lover by passing through the gate after dark and returning just before dawn, a task which took a great toll on her body and soul.
It is thought that at some point, the Jedi Council learned of the Gate and sought to close it. They confronted the Knight, and she fled. Fearing that she would lose the Master again, she passed through the Rift for a final time and did not return. The Council sealed the door behind her, hiding it from view and attempting to forget the matter. It is unknown what happened to the Knight, but it is assumed she joined her partner once again, and left with her to roam the wider Netherworld together.
The story of The Archivist's Gate spread quickly through the Temple, but it was just as quickly suppressed by the Council, who did not want the matter discussed.
Discovery of the Gate
Despite the hiding of the Gate and the suppression of the tale by the Jedi Council, the story persisted, passed down throughout the years of the Jedi until it was formally recorded in Oral Histories of the Jedi Temple.
In the years that followed the archives continued to grow and the text Oral Histories of the Jedi Temple gradually became an obscure part of the collection. The tumultuous history that followed ensured the text was lost to history. The Archivists Gate remained undiscovered, hidden behind a wall in the First Hall for years until, in 865 ABY, Oral Histories of the Jedi Temple was rediscovered. An extensive search of the Archives revealed the Gate, which proved real and still very much intact.
Lucidity: On the Netherworld side of the Rift, things remain generally coherent and consistent with realspace, with a few exceptions. First, there is no obvious source for the light that permeates the garden through the tree cover, which is bright and silver like a full moon’s light, and is always consistent no matter how much time passes. Second, the temperature and humidity are always consistent and comfortable within the bounds of the garden.
Hostility: The landscape of the garden is passive and harmless, and it is either unknown or of no interest to most denizens of Oblivion. Travellers entering the garden for the first time can expect to be greeted by a quiet and calm area, devoid of life but for a few weedy plants.
IC Rules:
- Delay: Travellers passing through the Archivist’s Gate will notice a few second’s delay before arriving at the Garden on the other side.
- Fatigue: Upon passing through the Archivist’s Gate, travellers are struck with a feeling of fatigue, and may have to rest in the garden for a few minutes before they can continue. This feeling also applies when passing through the Rift in the other direction, and is made more severe by regular crossings without breaks.
- Emotion: Force Users passing through the Archivist’s gate will feel a sombre feeling as they enter or exit the Rift, and they may have less control over their feelings. Once given a chance to rest, or some time passes, the effect will eventually wear off.
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