Prologue
Another time, another Galaxy. A Galaxy of a billion suns, a billion star systems each with its own wonders and dangers to explore. You live in a Galaxy of dire peril where freedom fights desperately against the eternal night of tyranny and oppression. You will be faced with overwhelming odds, hard choices and impossible challenges, but if you are brave and true, you may triumph. The Force is with you, always.
Contents
The Distant Past
Skywalker’s Discovery of the Force
The Old Republic (or Republic Galactica) was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. It was founded in the distant past by a holy man named Skywalker. He discovered the Force, an energy field influencing the destiny of all living creatures. The Force flows through all living things, unifying them, binding them together and sustaining life. All living matter is linked to the Force.
The Force is composed of two halves, the good one called the “Ashla” and the evil one or Paraforce called the “Bogan”. The Ashla communicated with the Skywalker and made him powerful, but he realised that weaker beings could be seduced by the Dark Side of the Force, the Bogan. The Skywalker therefore passed on his knowledge to his twelve children only. They in turn taught their children, who became known as the “Jedi Bendu of the Ashla” (Servants of the Ashla).
Jedi Bendu of the Ashla
The Jedi Bendu of the Ashla were unusually sensitive to the Force. Through years of training the Jedi Bendu came to know and use the power of the Force. Their minds could control the ebb and flow of Force energy. By meditating and building up their inner strength the Jedi Bendu formed a bond between their own Force (life) energy and the larger Force energy of the Galaxy.
By expanding their individual Force energy and merging it with the Force energy of the Galaxy, the Jedi Bendu gained immense power. After the Jedi Bendu cut off all conscious thought, stopped the “inner dialogue” and let their spirits soar to join the Galaxy anything was possible. These highly Force sensitive beings became all things and controlled all things. They did not need eyes or ears or any of the physical senses, only intuition or instinct. They did not need to see anything because they were one with everything.
The power gained by the Jedi Bendu allowed them to wield a lightsaber with total accuracy, even with obstructed vision. The Jedi Bendu’s awareness of their opponents energy fields was total, an extension of themselves.
The Jedi Bendu had many great and mysterious powers far beyond the ken of modern life. They understood the nature of the Force and this gave them mastery over life, thought and matter. They manipulated the very structure of the universe, summoned awesome strength from the frame of reality itself, lived beyond death and guided the path of intelligent beings toward righteousness. The plans they laid are now coming to fruition through the continuation of the “Circle of the Ashla”.
The Circle of the Ashla
The twelve most powerful of the Jedi Bendu, all direct descendants of the Skywalker, formed the Circle of the Ashla, a brotherhood dedicated to the protection of the Galaxy. Only they knew the mind and purpose of the Ashla, the good half of the Force, the entity of light and cosmic intelligence that communicated with the Skywalker.
The Ashla continues to communicate with the active Circle members, members who have lived on and will possibly live on forever. The work of the Circle continues and the plans laid by the Circle come slowly to fruition. Jedi Bendu adepts who die “in the light” join with the Ashla, the good half of the Force.
Boddi’s Atonement
Boddi was a student of the Skywalker (his grandchild). She was not happy with the progress she was making with the Skywalker and so pursued her own path, quick and easy and with spectacular results. This path led her to the Dark Side of the Force, the Bogan and its promise of power without years spent in training. Her power grew and she enslaved planets, then sectors. Millions suffered and died under her rule.
However, the death of one of her slaves finally reached her. A boy child from her court displeased her and she slew him. Holding his broken body in her arms she realised what she had become. The power of the Dark Side within her was consuming her own Light as surely as it was destroying her body. Boddi vowed never to use her Force powers again and left her court to wander in the wilderness beyond her city. After some years the slaves tracked her down and killed her.
Some 500 years later she reappeared to the Circle as a powerful Jedi and claimed she could communicate with the Ashla, just as the Skywalker did centuries before. Boddi was invited to become a member of the Circle. It is Boddi’s horrifying vision of the future which drives the remaining Jedi Bendu to do all they can to ensure that vision will never become a reality.
The Circle Sleeps
The Circle, through Boddi, foresaw a terrible end to the Galaxy. A powerful and hostile entity materializes from another plane of existence and destroys the Galaxy.
The Circle also foresaw the hunting down and extermination of the Jedi, thus leaving none strong enough to fight the entity. They decide to “sleep” through the millennia until they are needed. Only three remain to watch over the Galaxy; Boddi, Palpatine and Karan.
Palpatine’s Conversion
Death of a Jedi Bendu
Karan dies protecting Boddi from Palpatine. Karan joins the Light and is now a luminous being of the Force who appears to Boddi when she needs guidance and companionship.
The Recent Past
The Clone Wars
General “Obi-Wan” Ben Kenobi served Bail Organa in the Clone Wars.
Fall of the Republic Galactica
For 100,000 years the legendary Jedi Knights were the protectors of the Republic. Under the wise rule of its governing body, the Great Senate, and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic thrived and grew. The Jedi Knights were wise and good, using the Force only to advance freedom, harmony and the survival of life.
However, although the Republic was able to withstand any external attack, it rotted from within. When opportunities for wealth and power passed beyond the admirable and attained the awesome, there appeared evil ones with greed to match. As the Republic grew, the Senate fell under the influence of the Power and Transport Guilds. The Guilds influenced restless, power-hungry individuals within the Senate, the Republic government and the massive organs of commerce to boost civil disorder, hinder justice and help terrorists.
These same individuals within the Senate aided and abetted the ambitious Senator Palpatine in his quest for the Presidency of the Republic. By promising to reunite the disaffected among the people and restore the remembered glory of the Republic, Senator Palpatine was elected President. The Guilds, the now-corrupt Senate and the new President had manipulated the people into welcoming a police state. Once secure in office President Palpatine declared himself Emperor and shut himself away from the populace. The cries of the people for justice did not reach his ears. Thus the Empire was born.
Black Knights of the Sith
At the same time, but elsewhere in the Galaxy, a young Padawan-Jedi named Darklighter was seduced by the Bogan and taught its ways to a clan of Sith pirates. These pirates became the Black Knights of the Sith. Foremost of these Dark Jedi were Prince Espaa Vallorum, Master of the Bogan, and Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Emperor Palpatine’s first step in securing his Empire was to destroy the Jedi Knights, the guardians of justice in the Galaxy. He called on the Black Knights of the Sith to hunt down and exterminate the Jedi Knights through treachery and deception. Those few Jedi who survived fled to the Outer Rim systems. Since the Jedi all but disappeared from the Galaxy, the methods they knew and the disciplines they used have been lost.
The Empire’s Reign of Terror
The next step in securing the Empire was taken by the Imperial governors and bureaucrats. They instituted a reign of terror over the disheartened worlds of the Galaxy. Many used the imperial forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor to further their own political ambitions.
A small number of systems rebelled at these new outrages. Declaring themselves opposed to the New Order they began the great battle to restore the Old Republic. From the beginning they were vastly outnumbered by the systems held in thrall by the Emperor. In those first dark days it seemed certain the bright flame of resistance would be extinguished before it could cast the light of new truth across a Galaxy of oppressed and beaten peoples.
Together Again
Rescue on Mantooine
The crew of the Red Storm Rising rescue Varth (badly wounded) and Carplin from Mantooine after their Y-wing was shot down by Imperial forces. Jess is not going to let Varth forget that she saved his life.