Jedi Archive
Thread: Jedi & The Force
Think about how Luke began his journey. When he went to look for R2-D2 - this was when he found Obi-wan Kenobi. During this time was when his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were brutally murdered by the Empire. Was this coincidence that he happened to not be at his home at that time? Was it coincidence that had he been there, he'd have been killed too, as Obi-wan said? No, because you see, there is no coincidence. Everything happens for a reason.
Listen. Water is one of the softest materials in existence, and is the base of most living things. It can fit in any container. It seems weak, yet it can penetrate rock. Be like the nature of the water. I have given you the keys, you must unlock the doors to the depths of the universe. I cannot do this for you.
With life comes the existance, with existance comes the cause. The cause is the greater thing created by you. We have an amazing gift in life--free will. Use that gift to its highest degree. With exceptions, of course. Don't let greed and anger take control of your life. That would be a waste. You are part of the Force. Become one with it. You have many choices: to continue with the Light--which I hope you will--or to fail me and yourself.
Every Jedi Apprentice goes through a test. A test of strength. Not necesarily in the physical sense, but emotionally, and mentally. Luke failed his test in the cave. He chose to carry his weapons into the cave, and fight the vision of Vader, who turned out to be himself. This test decides which path is to be taken by the Jedi. Expect it during your journey.
Those who follow the light path, will be. Those who do not, will perish in time, and the universe, and will become a dark spot.
When peace is finally attained, and you finally feel free, you will be faced with a challenge. Something will stand in your way, and you will find it difficult to feel the peace that you once felt. You must not let this take control of you. Hold on to your calmness, your patience, and your peacefullness. Remember who you are, and truely feel things once more. Let it flow...
The power of Sith magic was one of the most prominent reasons for the Sith's long reign of terror in the galaxy. The place of magic in Sith society was an ancient one long before the dark Jedi came to Ziost, and combined with the power of the dark side of the Force, many new spells and uses for the magic were created and discovered.
Illusion seems to be the most used Sith magic. Mainly used in battle, it created images of ships, warriors, and warbeasts that were not really there. However, the Sith's enemy could not tell the difference between illusion and the real forces, and thus surrendered thinking itself outnumbered by the Sith troops. Even Jedi could not tell between Sith illusion and reality (as seen in The Fall of the Sith Empire and Dark Lords of the Sith).
These illusions were usally the product of one powerful Sith magician inside a special "meditation chamber." Inside this chamber, the magician would hold an object such as a weapon or a jewel, into which the dark powers would be focused. When ordinary objects were not powerful enough for focusing, the Sith used Sith amulets. The magician then focused on the form of the illusions, which would then appear in the desired place. Illusion required intense concentration. As soon as the magician's concentration was interrupted, if only for a second, the illusion would disappear. Dark Lord of the Sith Naga Sadow was an experienced user of such illusions, as was Krath leader Aleema Keto.
Another lesser used but much more powerful magic was the creation of monsters. Lord Naga Sadow used this technique after his exile to Yavin IV as a way of preserving his empire. The first time, he used alchemy to alter his Sith warriors into the bestial, semi-sentient race of Massassi. He then created monsters to guard his temples and ship in case the Massassi failed. It is unknown whether Sadow altered any form of living being into these monsters, but the creatures he created are so grotesque and nightmarish it is hard to imagine them ever having been living creatures before Sadow's arrival.
Some dark side powers that may have been enhanced with Sith magic include dark side healing (the healing Freedon Nadd performed on Exar Kun), the making of Sith poison, which enhances dark side emotions such as anger and fear, and foretelling. It is speculated that Lord Marka Ragnos forsaw the ascension of Exar Kun to the title of Dark Lord of the Sith and recorded a message in one of the Sith amulets that would be activated thousands of years later by Kun himself.
It is obvious that there are many other kinds of Sith magic, both great and small, but they have unfortunately not been recorded in the historical records of the Sith. In The Fall of the Sith Empire, as Naga Sadow is about to use the power of illusion, he states: "I must concentrate...use the old and forbidden Sith ways." This statement suggests that many uses of Sith magic had been banned in earlier times. Perhaps even the Sith found some powers to be too dangerous and uncontrollable.
In the first part of Tales of the Jedi, the Sith are a red-skinned, bony people from the other side of the galaxy. In the later half of Tales of the Jedi, the Sith are ruled by a human and consist of a tribe of half-civilized red monsters known as the "Massassi." In The Phantom Menace, the Sith are a pair of dark side users - a tatooed, horned alien and his shadowy human master. And in the original trilogy, the Sith were personified by a dark Jedi in a breath mask and wielding a red lightsaber.
Which of these is correct? Are the Sith human or alien?
The answer is both. Especially since the release of Star Wars: Episode I, the Sith have become forever associated with Darth Maul and Darth Sidious, powerful dark Jedi who professed to be of the "Sith order." Those who have only seen the movie and never read the comics will not think to find out otherwise. But yet in the beginning, the Sith were aliens from the Sith system, conquered by human dark Jedi. These alien Sith forged a mighty empire under the rule of Dark Lords of the Sith who were, for the most part, part human and part Sith.
[read the argument about Sith and human interbreeding .]
After the Great Hyperspace War and the devastation of both Sadow's and Kressh's fleets, most of the Sith were wiped out. The Sith still remaining in the empire were without the guidance and protection since Kressh had been killed, Sadow exiled, and most of the lesser Sith lords had chosen to either side with Kressh or Sadow and were destroyed in the battle. One can conclude that the indigineous inhabitants of the systems in the Sith empire wasted no time in hunting down the remaining Sith and reclaiming their territory.
Some Sith did survive, as evidenced by the apprearance of Freedon Nadd. Perhaps the Sith race did manage to populate Ziost and a few other systems after the war. In any case, the Sith eventually became extinct, as no more mention is ever heard of them after The Fall of the Sith Empire. By the time Exar Kun created his "Sith empire," he was merely following old Sith teachings, trying to recreate Sadow's empire of ages past. He was no Sith, and neither were the tribal Massassi, the Mandalorians, the Krath, or Ulic Qel-Droma. After Kun's defeat and his massacre of the Massassi, the last descendents of the Sith, the Sith race as the galaxy had known it was at an end.
Enter a rogue dark Jedi who had somehow gotten ahold of Sith teachings or a Sith holocron. Perhaps he was human, perhaps alien, but he also had dreams of a Sith empire consisting of dark Jedi. One can imagine him eagerly reading ancient Sith lore and planning to resurrect the Sith...but as a dark side organization, a sort of cult. After he failed,Darth Bane replaced the massive cult following with a small shadowy organization. The name "Sith" has been associated with dark Jedi ever since. It is incredibly unlikely that any of the self-proclaimed dark Jedi "Sith" ever wielded power half as great as that of Naga Sadow and Exar Kun.
We must wonder what kind of legacy the Sith left to the galaxy. The holocron Jedi Odan-Urr found on board one of the abandoned Sith ships at the end of the Great Hyperspace War bears testimony to the great amount of Sith lore and magic that has yet to be discovered. Surely a race as great and powerful as the Sith would not let its secrets be lost to future generations.
THE COLOR RED
Note the importance of the color red to the Sith. Symbolizing blood and anger, red has been used to describe both the Sith and dark Jedi. The Sith's and Massassi's red skin coloring, the red Sith holocron, Darth Maul's black and red tattoos, Maul's and Vader's red lightsaber. What is interesting is that while the Sith of the movies dressed all in black, the Sith lords of the comics were very flamboyant with armor design and colorful clothing.
Sith Amulets-
Sith amulets, infused with dark Sith magic, increased the power of the wielder. There were various amulets of various power, but the Sith who owned the most powerful amulets were usually the Lords of the Sith Houses, feared magicians in their own right.
Many times, amulets were constructed or linked together, usually in pairs. This allowed the wielders of the amulets to join the amulets together for greater and more concentrated power than with one amulet alone.
The process of amulet-making was secretive, involved huge amounts of concentrated dark energy and, later, the dark side of the Force.This talent has been lost
Sith Swords-
Never having seen a blaster or a lightsaber, Sith magicians used various weapons which they infused with Sith power. The most popular were swords made out of a hard metal, with dark designs on the hilt and along the blade.
The Sith magic poured into these swords made them as invulnerable to damage as a Jedi lightsaber, and just as deadly. A Sith sword could, reputably, cut through anything and would never break. Most of these weapons were lost in the downfall of Naga Sadow's empire at the end of the Sith Golden Age.
The Republic
THE DARK SIDE
Rogue Dark Jedi
TIME PERIOD
Many millenia before Star Wars
Tales of the Jedi:The Golden Age of the Sith
No one knows exactly what happened in those ancient times before the rise of the Sith Empire. The fledgling Old Republic had established the new order of Jedi Knights as a police force to protect and nourish its growth. The Jedi were the guardians of peace, a beacon of pure flame to the galaxy.
But somehow, things turned. A band of Jedi, discovering the power of the dark side of the Force, forsook the Jedi Code and sought to destroy all the Jedi had worked so hard to build. Seeing its strength crumbling under the teachings of these rogue Jedi, the Republic took action. With the help of the light-side Jedi, it rounded up these renegades and exiled them, giving them a spacecraft and sending them into the unknown. The idea was that out in the vast undiscovered galaxy, with no place to call home, the dark Jedi would die but the Republic would not be held responsible for their deaths.
Except that it didn't happen quite like the Republic wanted it to. The exiled Jedi emerged on the other side of the galaxy to a system previously unknown to the Republic. This system was inhabited by a race called the Sith, aliens with red skin, cranial horns, bony chins, and insectile features. The Sith were black magicians, practicing magic arts but without the aid of the dark side of the Force. Their society was divided into three classes or castes: slaves, warriors, and nobles, and the different nobles of Sith clans often engaged in feuds and wars to show their power. It was a violent society, ripe for conquest.
Here the dark Jedi saw their chance. As they landed in their spacecraft, the Sith saw them as having fallen from the sky and worshipped them as gods. The dark Jedi then proceeded to enslave all the Sith, from nobles on down to slaves. Seeing that the Sith were so powerful in the black arts, the Jedi then interbred with the most powerful of them, forming a new breed of magicians both strong in the Sith arts and in the dark side of the Force.
Out of this new breed of Sith came the Dark Lords of the Sith, men who claimed the right to rule over all of the Sith and dark Jedi. Only one could rule at a time, and this led to more feuds and wars as the Sith lords struggled to gain the high position.
The ruling world of the Sith lords was Ziost, but the world which exerted the most influence over the empire was Korriban. Here, on this barren world, the Sith built temples carved out of the stone of the cliffs and entombed their dead. Vermin and other unnatural beasts populated the crevices and crannies and the essence of the dark side filled the tombs. Thousands of generations of Sith lords were buried here, and, later, the Dark Lords of the Sith were also entombed.
The Sith built a far-flung empire on their side of the galaxy and the Republic became memory, story, and then legend. And, strange as it was, the Republic never knew that the Sith existed.
THE GREAT HYPERSPACE WAR
THE LIGHT SIDE
The Republic
Empress Teta
Jedi Master Memit Nadil
Jedi Knight Odan Urr
Gav and Jori Daragon
THE DARK SIDE
Naga Sadow
Ludo Kressh
Simus
Other Sith lords
TIME PERIOD
Star Wars, Tales of the Jedi:
The Golden Age of the Sith
The Fall of the Sith Empire
Five thousand years before Star Wars: A New Hope
Millenia after the dark Jedi conquered the Sith, the Republic was rising to its full power. Exploration was being conducted into the unknown reaches of the galaxy and hyperspace explorers, men and women who mapped new hyperspace routes, abounded. Hyperspace exploring was dangerous and many times suicidal, as the explorers would spin random coordinates onto the navicomputer and then follow the path, hoping to end up lucky. Most of the time, they wound up dead, flying their ships through a star or planet or black hole. This, however, did not deter the young and adventurous from following the same example, for the luckiest explorers became wealthy.
In that time, two young teenagers, Gav and Jori Daragon, stumbled upon the Sith Empire in an alarming series of coincidences. The seven worlds of the Empress Teta system had just been united in a series of wars, in which the parents of Gav and Jori were killed while smuggling supplies to the soldiers. The two decided to set out on their own and become hyperspace explorers. However, it did not work out quite as they had planned. After selling a disastrous route to a merchant who vowed revenge, Gav and Jori fled from the Teta system. With nowhere to go, they entered random coordinates and came out in the far side of the galaxy, where no Republic ship had flown for millenia: in orbit above Korriban.
Of all the times to arrive in the heart of the Sith empire, this was the worst. Down on the planet's surface, the funeral of the ninth Dark Lord of the Sith, Marka Ragnos, had just ended, and two powerful Sith lords, Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh, were facing off in a duel to the death to decide the next Dark Lord of the Sith. Ragnos' spirit tried to intervene, but nothing caught the lords' attention until Gav and Jori appeared, asking cheerfully if the Sith wanted to establish a trade bargain with them.
Instead, the Sith took Gav and Jori hostage and then called a council of the Sith lords, asking what should be done. Kressh suggested that it was an invasion from the Republic and that the two should be destroyed immediately. But Sadow disagreed, saying it was instead a time of expansion and conquest for the Sith Empire. He was unable to convince Kressh, however, and the Sith lord and his followers left in a rage.
In the days that followed, Sadow carried out his devious plans. Obtaining strange Republic weapons such as a blaster from the Daragon's ship, Starbreaker 12, he staged attacks on the prison where Gav and Jori were being held. In the process, he killed his old ally Simus and hid Gav and Jori in his secret fortress while pretending that it was a Republic attack. The Sith empire erupted into chaos, and, as expected, Sadow's followers elected him tenth Dark Lord of the Sith, pleading with him to protect them from the Republic invasion they thought was coming.
However, Kressh found out about Sadow's deception and launched an attack on the Sith lord's fortress. Little did Kressh know that Sadow had been waiting for this moment, and that the Dark Lord of the Sith actually had two fortresses and the one that Kressh was attacking was a decoy, a fake. Separating Gav and Jori, Sadow convinced Jori to flee back to the Republic before Kressh destroyed them. Jori left in the Starbreaker 12 without knowing that Sadow had attached a homing beacon to it, thus letting him find out the location of the Republic. After she was safely past Kressh's force, Sadow then launched an attack from his real fortress on the dark side of Khar Shian and used his Sith magic to turn the slaves of Kressh's followers against them, thus destroying most of Kressh's reinforcements.
After defeating Kressh's force, Sadow began teaching dark Jedi skills to Gav and made the boy head of his fleet. He then made plans to attack the Republic, using Sith magic to project images of ships to make his fleet seem larger than it really was. The Sith invasion fleet set out for the Republic and met the Republic ships at the world of Primus Goluud.
Sadow's plan would have gone without a hitch if it were not for Gav and Jori Daragon. Jori, escaping back to the Republic, had risked her life to warn the Republic forces about the Sith empire. The Republic navy met the Sith ships in battle, but for a while it seemed the Sith would triumph. But Sadow had underestimated Gav Daragon. Seeing through Sadow's lies, the boy attacked his master and damaged his meditation sphere from which Sadow sent the illusions. With the illusions gone, the Republic forces began crushing the Sith.
Sadow, in an attempt to escape, caused the star of Primus Goluud to explode and fled back to the Sith empire. But more trouble awaited him there. He found that Kressh had declared himself the Dark Lord of the Sith in Sadow's absence and had exiled Sadow from the empire. As the two Sith fleets met in battle, the Republic ships arrived. Jori Daragon, true to her word, had returned to destroy the Sith with the help of Empress Teta and her Jedi advisors. Sadow knew he was beaten, but as a last parting gift, he again made the Sith slaves turn on their masters, killing Kressh and all his followers. He then destroyed pursuing Republic forces by exploding the double star of Denarii Nova.
But Sadow still had other plans in defeat. He and his followers fled to the moon of Yavin IV and there he built a grand civilization, thus ensuring the survival of the Sith throughout the centuries.
All the Sith, including the Sith Lords, were ruled by a Sith known as the Dark Lord of the Sith. Only one supreme Dark Lord could be chosen out of the all the Sith Lords eligible, and this lead to bitter civil wars as opposing factions championed their Lord for the high position. Most Dark Lords of the Sith were chosen by the leading Sith Lords to govern, but usually had to face their rivals in a duel to cement their position. Many times, angry rivals, feeling they should have been chosen, tried to gain the title by trickery and deception. Usually these attempts failed.
This tradition continued unbroken down through the centuries through the end of the old Sith order, the extinction of the Sith race, and the rise of the new Sith order under Darth Bane. In all, there were twelve Dark Lords of the Sith, from the lord who began the tradition and whose name has long been forgotten, to Lord Darth Vader, who carried the Sith tradition through the conflict between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance some ten thousands of years later.