Gokudera (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
unrelenting_rhapsody) wrote2015-06-16 11:49 pm
unrelenting_rhapsody) wrote2015-06-16 11:49 pm
Entry tags:
Once upon a time...
Who: Shamal, a council, assorted
When: Just after Anakin's arrival
What: A genius gets ignored in favor of a prophecy.
The thing he'd learned about preserving tradition was that...some times the wrong thing changed. He was leaning in a classroom doorway, listening as three and four year olds chattered and listed the stars being shown. That was charming, right? Sure. In a sense. Rote learning bothered him. Not to mention the kids were too young to know exactly what they why these systems were important. Sure, he'd grown up the same, coming up in the same classes and watching the same play of lights...
...but he'd started asking questions at about that same age. More so since he'd traveled with his teacher, meeting all manner of people, from sensitive pilots to skittering, discomfiting insect races that spoke only telepathically. Oh yes he'd learned to question. Questions like...why not these people? Why not the older boys and girls? It was a skill, questioning.
Oh not to get him wrong, they hated half the things he asked about (like historically force users had been bred, viola, how could sex be bad?) but by the time he'd graduated so to speak he'd been fast tracked to the archives. A questioning mind was good in the field, oh certainly and he had his share of field work, but in the incredibly ancient archives? It was priceless. The ability to research, to learn, and to connect ancient bits and pieces together was invaluable to a people who could no longer speak the languages of their earliest predecessors. He could lose days and even weeks in tracing how economic declines led to disfavor among the populaces during a time period, or tinkering with an old piece of tech using nearly obliterated designs.
He learned to listen to the Force, there, better than he had in any class. It swirled and chuckled along tomes and data cubes just as much as it did among breathing things, pooling near things of import, abandoning things he didn't need at the moment. He had a gift for always finding just the passage or tome he needed to solve a problem.
It was uncanny. Even among a people used to letting the Force guide their hands, well, he developed something of a reputation for being a bit too open to it. He could only laugh at that though, after all what did they all expect? He'd never been good at subsuming himself; stepping back in his own head to let a force use him like a puppet. No, he'd always been an active participant. He thought it was creepy to close one's eyes and feel the Force guide arms instead of following the Force's guides; sure it could make him a touch slower in fighting but the other things shown were priceless. Why beat at something with a lightsaber when the Force was whispering about unstable floors after all? Knowledge. He liked it. Far easier to listen and learn than to blindly obey.
The day the Force decided census and ability reports were important was...odd. An interesting read though. They'd been...more able once upon a time. They as in 'the Jedi'. They had more numbers, and more political sway, than they ever had, but their abilities were weakening as a whole. Maybe if the information had been presented differently, if he could accept the presentation of historical powers as fiction, well, it wouldn't have been as disturbing. A cut and dried census report though? Those documents had no reason to lie.
Why today? Well, fuck if he knew. He'd keep the date on the back burner though.
So what did it relate to? Ah, that was a more interesting question.
It took months of research, and touring old, forgotten enclaves, but the best he had? The Jedi were getting too damn good at identifying and scooping up force potentials. Once upon a time a 'large' amount of Jedi would have been ten. That would have included trainees and probably been the largest concentration you'd find in light years of each other. Once upon a time, well, the Jedi had probably dreamed of a universe like today. Casually accepted ability and morality, offers to test children more often accepted than not. It had it's drawbacks though, and he was seeing one now. In essence there were a hell of a lot of Jedi and...well, only so far a power could spread.
Sure, there was no exact explanation of what the Force was and what it's limits were. The Mitichlorian theory was the most popular at the moment, but he'd seen everything from treatise on extrapolating from aetheric beliefs in the past to the marginalized hands-off diety thoughts. The Force was that, a Force. And he was starting to think that like any other force in existence? There were limits. An ocean seemed vast and powerful when only two people had access to it; stick a million people in boats on it and it was suddenly a small, tame place. Too many Jedi meant that Force energy was spread thin now. No one person could do overly much, there just wasn't the resources for it.
That was a less than popular report to give. He didn't have any ready, historical answers to pair with the report now. No, hard to say the wildcards were probably in the best positions out there than the Jedi inside. Kids they missed picking up and left to lie their lives for the most part? Well they used the Force, but instinctively and without the strictures and paths Jedi were trained in. They played in a different Force pool, a more neutral one for lack of a better term. Oddly, outside the enclave as it were they had the potential to be stronger than any Jedi on the inside. Theoretically speaking. He didn't think returning kids from Jedi training to their original homes was an answer though. Oddly it just felt...too late for that.
The Council would discuss it though.
And really who was he to panic? It wasn't like the Jedi were doing bad for themselves...but there was a far more worrisome consequence niggling in the back of his mind. One he only talked about with the elder council. The Jedi were many. The Sith were not. Once upon a time they'd had their own schools, their own dark echo of Jedi training, but that had been so long ago most people thought it was an old and terrible myth from the dark ages.
He knew better. The Sith had been hunted down; he wasn't judging but now? Now it meant that there was only the rumor of Sith. A sith Lord, and an apprentice. There was always a Lord and an Apprentice. Two people with the whole of the dark side available to them. The Jedi had less power per person...the Sith had half an ocean each in theory. Before too long, well, there'd be some display of power unseen since those mythical, dark ages when power made Force users unto heathen gods. He was pretty damn sure that when that day came? The Jedi would fall by the hundreds. It'd be like fighting the tide with stick men; impossible unless they got really, really lucky. And Force users on EITHER side always had luck; it was a happy side effect of touching the Force at all, luck.
Granted, he had no proof that the tales of a Sith pair were anything but stories but...well...the Force would have it's way. It was about balance after all. The fact that there were Jedi alive meant there had to be some dark counterpart. He could feel it in his bones. And the day whispers flew down the halls ahead of a young boy in Qui Gon's care?
Oh that was a terrifying day. The kid was being called special. A prodigy. An answer to the prophecy that had been kicking around forever. A child worth defying the council for because he would solve everything. The boy would bring balance; he'd wipe out the nightmare idea of the Sith once and for all and the Jedi could move forward as a bright and shining example to higher ideals.
Idiots.
Yoda was the only one who would hear him this time. Balance didn't mean 'winning' this long standing war. No, not by far because the Jedi had created an imbalance. Any child meant to repair that imbalance? Was going to have to even the odds. He dearly wanted to sit the whole order down with some basic math lessons so people could see and understand why this prophecy should scare the piss out of them.
"What do you must?" the little green swamp dweller asked, typically.
Ah, yes, what now? "I've reported it," he gritted at last, fingers itching to pull more data, to find some way to divert what he believed was coming. "Math doesn't lie."
"True."
Yeah, he knew that already. "I'll do what I can."
"Tell the rest I must."
"I know," he nodded, slumping his shoulders casually. Yoda would tell the rest of the council and they wouldn't understand. In fact they'd probably decide he needed further watching in case he turned. They were good like that. The emotions roiling in him would be wonderful grounds for Sith ideas after all (and that was another question, if emotion was bad then how could any Jedi be truly righteous?!). He never really even considered what he would be able to do with access to the Sith side of things. He didn't need the Force to be terrifying after all. "I'll be in the archives."
For a while. The thought kept biting at him though; to bring the Force in to balance meant there'd probably be no man left standing in the end. Sure, it was an elegant solution; no good, no bad, everyone dead and no further need to worry about where the power was...but there'd always be Force sensitive children later down the road. The standoff would re-establish itself. Ideally the Force could be removed from the equation. No heroes, no gods, just people.
Nice dreaming.
So...the second option was to ensure both sides were closer to even. "Oh shit." Shit shit shit. He knew about the Sith teachings of course; those that had survived in Jedi care anyway. Most ancient books and the like were destroyed. Probably due to the erroneous idea that information about Sith would sway Jedi if they ever read them. He always thought it was best to know the enemy though, and enough people through the ages had agreed with that thought that the archives had some. Not all.
So how did one become Sith?
More importantly how did one become Sith and stay themselves? Balance one assumed. It was all about balance after all. Hell, he could give it a shot. Anger was...surprisingly easy to find inside himself. It was there just under the surface, hot edged and ready for this moment.
Heh. Maybe he'd always been doomed.
Anger was an emotion and Jedi doctrine advised against it. That made it a good place to start. He was angry his warning was not going to help. His time, his effort, his truly good desire to save lives did not matter.
Fine.
There were old star maps in the archives and he pulled one up in memory for a moment, searching...
...he wouldn't be able to just walk up to a Sith Lord and apprentice himself, no. A lord would be angry that there was another person on hand to divide all that power among. No, he'd have to go somewhere safe from Jedi and Sith alike. He'd have to hold his own...
...and he'd need an apprentice. There was always a Lord and an Apprentice after all. He had just the kid in mind too. The bastard daughter of his wretch of a brother; the mother had declined testing but he'd followed his 'family' out of a detached, morbid curiosity. He'd known when the mother had died (recently) and where the child would be now. Force sensitivity ran in the family bloodline after all, so no reason to hold back. Sure, the kid wasn't a baby, no, but young. She could still learn to think for herself properly, that made her the best candidate in his mind. Not to mention it was a small, selfish desire to have 'family' since he'd be leaving this facsimile behind.
Selfishness. Knowing the Jedi as he did he was quite certain more people ran on that motivation than any would admit. It was selfish to operate the way the Jedi did just like he was pretty certain Qui Gon's desire to keep the boy despite his age was a selfish desire to assuage paternal feelings. He wished he could believe encouraging those mild 'flaws' in those around him could balance things but...as with his earlier solutions, well, it felt too far past the point to make a difference now. Something was in motion, and the Force was just happy to see it continue. Some day maybe the Jedi would realize the Force didn't want good to triumph over evil. The Force was power and power could balance itself through tragedy just as easily as through happy endings.
More so honestly.
The slide of time felt like knives on his skin now; each moment a wasted one as they all trundled down the path to destruction. That meant it was time to go. He'd learned to travel light as a Jedi; he didn't need to pack, and the fire he set in the archives would distract everyone for a while. First order of business? Kidnapping.
Then? Then he'd take his new apprentice and they'd explore an old Sith temple. Perhaps live there awhile. Manaan didn't know it yet but they were going to get their very own Sith Lord, and his silver haired hellion of an apprentice. Who knew? Maybe he'd be able to keep himself from pure corruption. Maybe he could learn to be grey...
...but for now? For now he gave himself up to the darker side, feeling the pull of the Force as it got a feel for his new resolve to balance things. The Jedi brought it on themselves after all, who was he to pity them?
When: Just after Anakin's arrival
What: A genius gets ignored in favor of a prophecy.
The thing he'd learned about preserving tradition was that...some times the wrong thing changed. He was leaning in a classroom doorway, listening as three and four year olds chattered and listed the stars being shown. That was charming, right? Sure. In a sense. Rote learning bothered him. Not to mention the kids were too young to know exactly what they why these systems were important. Sure, he'd grown up the same, coming up in the same classes and watching the same play of lights...
...but he'd started asking questions at about that same age. More so since he'd traveled with his teacher, meeting all manner of people, from sensitive pilots to skittering, discomfiting insect races that spoke only telepathically. Oh yes he'd learned to question. Questions like...why not these people? Why not the older boys and girls? It was a skill, questioning.
Oh not to get him wrong, they hated half the things he asked about (like historically force users had been bred, viola, how could sex be bad?) but by the time he'd graduated so to speak he'd been fast tracked to the archives. A questioning mind was good in the field, oh certainly and he had his share of field work, but in the incredibly ancient archives? It was priceless. The ability to research, to learn, and to connect ancient bits and pieces together was invaluable to a people who could no longer speak the languages of their earliest predecessors. He could lose days and even weeks in tracing how economic declines led to disfavor among the populaces during a time period, or tinkering with an old piece of tech using nearly obliterated designs.
He learned to listen to the Force, there, better than he had in any class. It swirled and chuckled along tomes and data cubes just as much as it did among breathing things, pooling near things of import, abandoning things he didn't need at the moment. He had a gift for always finding just the passage or tome he needed to solve a problem.
It was uncanny. Even among a people used to letting the Force guide their hands, well, he developed something of a reputation for being a bit too open to it. He could only laugh at that though, after all what did they all expect? He'd never been good at subsuming himself; stepping back in his own head to let a force use him like a puppet. No, he'd always been an active participant. He thought it was creepy to close one's eyes and feel the Force guide arms instead of following the Force's guides; sure it could make him a touch slower in fighting but the other things shown were priceless. Why beat at something with a lightsaber when the Force was whispering about unstable floors after all? Knowledge. He liked it. Far easier to listen and learn than to blindly obey.
The day the Force decided census and ability reports were important was...odd. An interesting read though. They'd been...more able once upon a time. They as in 'the Jedi'. They had more numbers, and more political sway, than they ever had, but their abilities were weakening as a whole. Maybe if the information had been presented differently, if he could accept the presentation of historical powers as fiction, well, it wouldn't have been as disturbing. A cut and dried census report though? Those documents had no reason to lie.
Why today? Well, fuck if he knew. He'd keep the date on the back burner though.
So what did it relate to? Ah, that was a more interesting question.
It took months of research, and touring old, forgotten enclaves, but the best he had? The Jedi were getting too damn good at identifying and scooping up force potentials. Once upon a time a 'large' amount of Jedi would have been ten. That would have included trainees and probably been the largest concentration you'd find in light years of each other. Once upon a time, well, the Jedi had probably dreamed of a universe like today. Casually accepted ability and morality, offers to test children more often accepted than not. It had it's drawbacks though, and he was seeing one now. In essence there were a hell of a lot of Jedi and...well, only so far a power could spread.
Sure, there was no exact explanation of what the Force was and what it's limits were. The Mitichlorian theory was the most popular at the moment, but he'd seen everything from treatise on extrapolating from aetheric beliefs in the past to the marginalized hands-off diety thoughts. The Force was that, a Force. And he was starting to think that like any other force in existence? There were limits. An ocean seemed vast and powerful when only two people had access to it; stick a million people in boats on it and it was suddenly a small, tame place. Too many Jedi meant that Force energy was spread thin now. No one person could do overly much, there just wasn't the resources for it.
That was a less than popular report to give. He didn't have any ready, historical answers to pair with the report now. No, hard to say the wildcards were probably in the best positions out there than the Jedi inside. Kids they missed picking up and left to lie their lives for the most part? Well they used the Force, but instinctively and without the strictures and paths Jedi were trained in. They played in a different Force pool, a more neutral one for lack of a better term. Oddly, outside the enclave as it were they had the potential to be stronger than any Jedi on the inside. Theoretically speaking. He didn't think returning kids from Jedi training to their original homes was an answer though. Oddly it just felt...too late for that.
The Council would discuss it though.
And really who was he to panic? It wasn't like the Jedi were doing bad for themselves...but there was a far more worrisome consequence niggling in the back of his mind. One he only talked about with the elder council. The Jedi were many. The Sith were not. Once upon a time they'd had their own schools, their own dark echo of Jedi training, but that had been so long ago most people thought it was an old and terrible myth from the dark ages.
He knew better. The Sith had been hunted down; he wasn't judging but now? Now it meant that there was only the rumor of Sith. A sith Lord, and an apprentice. There was always a Lord and an Apprentice. Two people with the whole of the dark side available to them. The Jedi had less power per person...the Sith had half an ocean each in theory. Before too long, well, there'd be some display of power unseen since those mythical, dark ages when power made Force users unto heathen gods. He was pretty damn sure that when that day came? The Jedi would fall by the hundreds. It'd be like fighting the tide with stick men; impossible unless they got really, really lucky. And Force users on EITHER side always had luck; it was a happy side effect of touching the Force at all, luck.
Granted, he had no proof that the tales of a Sith pair were anything but stories but...well...the Force would have it's way. It was about balance after all. The fact that there were Jedi alive meant there had to be some dark counterpart. He could feel it in his bones. And the day whispers flew down the halls ahead of a young boy in Qui Gon's care?
Oh that was a terrifying day. The kid was being called special. A prodigy. An answer to the prophecy that had been kicking around forever. A child worth defying the council for because he would solve everything. The boy would bring balance; he'd wipe out the nightmare idea of the Sith once and for all and the Jedi could move forward as a bright and shining example to higher ideals.
Idiots.
Yoda was the only one who would hear him this time. Balance didn't mean 'winning' this long standing war. No, not by far because the Jedi had created an imbalance. Any child meant to repair that imbalance? Was going to have to even the odds. He dearly wanted to sit the whole order down with some basic math lessons so people could see and understand why this prophecy should scare the piss out of them.
"What do you must?" the little green swamp dweller asked, typically.
Ah, yes, what now? "I've reported it," he gritted at last, fingers itching to pull more data, to find some way to divert what he believed was coming. "Math doesn't lie."
"True."
Yeah, he knew that already. "I'll do what I can."
"Tell the rest I must."
"I know," he nodded, slumping his shoulders casually. Yoda would tell the rest of the council and they wouldn't understand. In fact they'd probably decide he needed further watching in case he turned. They were good like that. The emotions roiling in him would be wonderful grounds for Sith ideas after all (and that was another question, if emotion was bad then how could any Jedi be truly righteous?!). He never really even considered what he would be able to do with access to the Sith side of things. He didn't need the Force to be terrifying after all. "I'll be in the archives."
For a while. The thought kept biting at him though; to bring the Force in to balance meant there'd probably be no man left standing in the end. Sure, it was an elegant solution; no good, no bad, everyone dead and no further need to worry about where the power was...but there'd always be Force sensitive children later down the road. The standoff would re-establish itself. Ideally the Force could be removed from the equation. No heroes, no gods, just people.
Nice dreaming.
So...the second option was to ensure both sides were closer to even. "Oh shit." Shit shit shit. He knew about the Sith teachings of course; those that had survived in Jedi care anyway. Most ancient books and the like were destroyed. Probably due to the erroneous idea that information about Sith would sway Jedi if they ever read them. He always thought it was best to know the enemy though, and enough people through the ages had agreed with that thought that the archives had some. Not all.
So how did one become Sith?
More importantly how did one become Sith and stay themselves? Balance one assumed. It was all about balance after all. Hell, he could give it a shot. Anger was...surprisingly easy to find inside himself. It was there just under the surface, hot edged and ready for this moment.
Heh. Maybe he'd always been doomed.
Anger was an emotion and Jedi doctrine advised against it. That made it a good place to start. He was angry his warning was not going to help. His time, his effort, his truly good desire to save lives did not matter.
Fine.
There were old star maps in the archives and he pulled one up in memory for a moment, searching...
...he wouldn't be able to just walk up to a Sith Lord and apprentice himself, no. A lord would be angry that there was another person on hand to divide all that power among. No, he'd have to go somewhere safe from Jedi and Sith alike. He'd have to hold his own...
...and he'd need an apprentice. There was always a Lord and an Apprentice after all. He had just the kid in mind too. The bastard daughter of his wretch of a brother; the mother had declined testing but he'd followed his 'family' out of a detached, morbid curiosity. He'd known when the mother had died (recently) and where the child would be now. Force sensitivity ran in the family bloodline after all, so no reason to hold back. Sure, the kid wasn't a baby, no, but young. She could still learn to think for herself properly, that made her the best candidate in his mind. Not to mention it was a small, selfish desire to have 'family' since he'd be leaving this facsimile behind.
Selfishness. Knowing the Jedi as he did he was quite certain more people ran on that motivation than any would admit. It was selfish to operate the way the Jedi did just like he was pretty certain Qui Gon's desire to keep the boy despite his age was a selfish desire to assuage paternal feelings. He wished he could believe encouraging those mild 'flaws' in those around him could balance things but...as with his earlier solutions, well, it felt too far past the point to make a difference now. Something was in motion, and the Force was just happy to see it continue. Some day maybe the Jedi would realize the Force didn't want good to triumph over evil. The Force was power and power could balance itself through tragedy just as easily as through happy endings.
More so honestly.
The slide of time felt like knives on his skin now; each moment a wasted one as they all trundled down the path to destruction. That meant it was time to go. He'd learned to travel light as a Jedi; he didn't need to pack, and the fire he set in the archives would distract everyone for a while. First order of business? Kidnapping.
Then? Then he'd take his new apprentice and they'd explore an old Sith temple. Perhaps live there awhile. Manaan didn't know it yet but they were going to get their very own Sith Lord, and his silver haired hellion of an apprentice. Who knew? Maybe he'd be able to keep himself from pure corruption. Maybe he could learn to be grey...
...but for now? For now he gave himself up to the darker side, feeling the pull of the Force as it got a feel for his new resolve to balance things. The Jedi brought it on themselves after all, who was he to pity them?