#oc: Ekkaia Thome
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Writing the thing about how the Barsen’thor’s promotions are politically motivated compelled me to also blab about how that played out with my characters. Unsurprisingly, the answer is messily.
During the Desolator Crisis, Grandmaster Satele Shan tried to raise Jedi Masters on the relevant planets to provide backup for the response team, only to discover they couldn’t assist because of another immediate crisis. Even though all the Jedi affiliated by Terrak Morrhage’s plague survived, many of them are still recovering. New emergencies are always occurring. At least the Council and the Supreme Chancellor have a chance to defuse the situation with the Rift Alliance before it goes critical.
The threat to cut all ties with the Republic is surely a bluff; Erigorm would lose too many major clients, Manaan and Saleucami too much trade. The real risk is that the Republic planets might secede to form their own smaller republic with the neutral worlds. It’s hard enough to keep the Republic as it is functioning; two Republics on poor terms will become a nightmare that cannot be awoken from. Though it is unfair to the Republic worlds not threatening to secede to extort concessions from the Supreme Chancellor, the Jedi Council cannot ignore the political realities. Someone needs to take up the task of appeasing the Rift Alliance.
Supreme Chancellor Janarus is keen on Ekkaia Thome with the fancy title of Barsen’thor. Syo Bakarn isn’t sure they are the best Jedi for the job though. Ekkaia is competent and courageous, but they aren’t the best at dealing with people outside the Order. Syo sidesteps the Chancellor by privately asking Ekkaia over distance holocom if they would be interested in taking a mission involving placating some political interests, then asking Tomah Awl when Ekkaia says no.
Ekkaia silently resents that Tomah was promoted to Master ahead of her. She isn’t allowed to resent Tomah though; he didn’t ask to be promoted and she was obliquely offered the high-profile mission before he was. Ekkaia isn’t being discriminated against; Knight San-Esi, Hero of Tython, wasn’t promoted to Master either. It would be wrong of her to pass judgment on the Council. It’s not the Jedi Council’s fault for undermining the rank system for political reasons; it’s Supreme Chancellor Janarus and the Rift Alliance’s fault for being shallow.
Ekkaia is certain they will be promoted in due time. It is better to have things done the proper way, so no one can cast aspersions on your reputation. Ekkaia indicates to the Council that they feel ready for the responsibility of training a Padawan.
For her part, Knight San-Esi, Hero of Tython, views it as a relatively minor instance of the long-term problem of the Republic’s government interfering with the internal policies of the Jedi Order through the High Council. There have been nasty incidents in the past, like the Republic encouraging the High Council to exile Tasiele Shan when she petitioned for permission to marry and raise her daughter. Still, Tasiele’s daughter Satele is the Grandmaster. She wouldn’t let what happened to her mother happen to anyone under her authority, right?
So long as she stays away from the Senate it will just be the Order’s internal political mumbo jumbo affecting San-Esi and her promotion prospects.
Unlike Tomah Awl who was born in the Order and Ekkaia Thome who was given over by their family as a young child, San-Esi formally joined the Jedi Order as an adult in her late twenties. After the Great Galactic War and the sacking of the Coruscant Temple, the Order is still desperately short of Jedi. Stumbling across an already trained already powerful free-range scion of a Padawan who left the Order before the start of the Great Galactic War seemed like a gift from the Force. A lot of San-Esi’s training before Tython was her teachers confirming that she had come to them already possessing the skills of a Knight.
Some members of the Jedi Council, including Satele Shan, believe that San-Esi should be fast-tracked for Mastery. Not only is the Order short on Jedi in general, but even as the Grandmaster she sometimes has difficulties persuading them to listen to her. In cases like Master Tol Braga, it’s because he is also on the Council so she couldn’t overrule him when he continued working on his grand plan to redeem the Sith Emperor when two major crises erupted in Act 1. In cases like Nomen Karr, it’s because he cut communication to “avoid endangering a sensitive mission”. In cases like Nomar Organa, it’s because he was from a powerful family whose support the Order wants to maintain. Some Jedi view “Grandmaster” as a symbolic courtesy title and insist they are following the last order they were given by a different member of the Council.
San-Esi and Satele made a good initial impression on each other. They like each other. It’s a relief for Satele to have another Jedi who is eager to help the Council – not just by doing what she is told but by actively trying to identify problems and suggest solutions. That’s the kind of behaviour she wants to encourage.
Some members of the Jedi Council, including Jaric Kaedan, believe that San-Esi should absolutely not be fast-tracked for Mastery. He thinks it’s a bit suspicious that somebody taught by a half-trained Padawan would have developed the full skills of a Knight. The archives record that San-Esi’s mother’s Master was Vala Xuhor, who betrayed the Jedi in the first year of the Great Galactic War. No, he’s not accusing her of being a Dark Jedi or a Sith infiltrator, but it’s been proven there are infiltrators out there and they don’t know what Knight San-Esi got up to during her years as a rogue sentinel. Please don’t make him have this disagreement in public, Satele, he hates having the ultra-conservatives biased against Jedi who joined the Order as adults agree with him.
Tomah is very uncomfortable when they work out just how political their elevation to Master was. The Jedi’s rank system is not meant to be used this way. They do their best to live up to the rank, but the knowledge they shouldn’t have it – that other Jedi know they shouldn’t have it – adds a new layer of uncertainty to their interactions with other members of the Order.
A year passes. Ekkaia Thome and her Padawan are assigned to join Thomah in the hunt for the Children of the Emperor. Ekkaia is promoted to Master to give her the rank that the Jedi Council feels she will need to be taken seriously by the politicians; she had trouble getting the authorities in Act 1 to take her seriously when explaining that the Jedi Masters were possessed, which hopefully being a Master will help with. It also puts her on an even level with Tomah, which is important as they are meant to be co-leading the mission.
The Jedi Council assumed that Tomah would need extra backup to wrangle the Rift Alliance and battle the Children, but it appears that his neutral position between the worlds within the Alliance has made him a powerful leader within it. The Rift Alliance has gone from being a drain on the Order’s resources to actively supporting Jedi missions.
This is incredibly convenient. The Jedi have allies, but in the case of many of them like House Organa, the Jedi have been giving more support than they have been receiving. However, it will be difficult to direct the resources of the Rift Alliance without offending them if the Jedi Council is giving orders to Master Tomah Awl and just expecting the Rift Alliance to pitch in. If Tomah Awl was on the High Council, though, that would be another matter.
The problem with nominating Tomah for the High Council is that the more orthodox Jedi, including some members of the Council, are disquieted by how deeply influenced he has been by his studies with the Voss Mystics. It didn’t worry the Council before, but before they didn’t have reports on what it was the Voss actually believed.
The compromise is that fiercely orthodox Ekkaia also be offered a seat on the Council. Adding two young Masters wildly clashing philosophies does not result in a more harmoniously functional High Council. It does steadily destroy what remains of Tomah and Ekkaia’s friendship.
Ekkaia’s title of Barsen’thor names her as Warden of the Order. It’s her greatest duty to guard the Jedi from Dark influences – from weakness, from selfishness, from moral compromise. Other Jedi Masters made it clear that she was needed to provide a counter-balance against Tomah and she opposes him at every meeting. He represents outside political interference and dangerous Dark Force-traditions that cannot be permitted to affect the Council’s decision making.
San-Esi, when she and her companions return for their time Missing In Action with the Emperor’s Wrath in tow, is changed. Angry, confrontational, talking about hating and killing the Sith Emperor in a way she never talked about anyone before her capture. It’s concerning.
The Jedi Council is extremely sceptical of Lord Scourge’s claim that the Sith Emperor plans to destroy the entire galaxy, for reasons including but not limited to the fact that none of the members of the Council believe that destroying the galaxy is even possible. Still, his defection is convenient and should be capitalised on. Scourge will only follow San-Esi, so she must be assigned to the mission even if some of the Council would normally not be in favour of sending a Jedi displaying a drastic personality shift into the field. Jaric Kaedan says it’s a bad idea to send a Jedi who might be in danger of falling on a mission which could just be a giant trap, but Satele has faith in San-Esi. San-Esi has triumphed against incredible odds before, persevered under incredible stress before.
PTSD and the Force don’t mix well. That was something San-Esi knew, intellectually, before. PTSD affects your ability to regulate your emotions. The Light-Side comes when you are calm; if you cannot be calm, the Force fails you or the Dark-Side grips you to pull you forward instead. Pain, rage, grief, and fear are all parts of life that cannot be avoided. As a Padawan, she was guided through basic techniques drawing on the Dark-Side so that if she ever fell into using it, she would be more in control, less likely to do something she regretted before she came back to herself.
The knowledge of the Sith Emperor that broke Tol Braga burns in her mind. The nightmares about what she did under his control don’t stop. She cannot forget, cannot set it aside. Everyone is in immediate danger as long as the Emperor survives.
She asks Satele for help. Satele refuses her. She contacts Tomah and Ekkaia to ask if they can use the shielding ritual to permanently free Leeha Narezz. They have another mission, but Kira is at least able to tell them what she knows about the Children. People ask if she is alright. She tells them she’s not.
If she falters the mission will fail. If the mission fails everyone will die. If she can’t be calm her anger will have to do instead.
San-Esi knows that she is sliding down, struggling for control. She knows that what she is doing is dangerous. But what choice does she have? Unless the Jedi Council provides enough support to enable her to step away from combat, she must keep fighting.
San-Esi maintains her self-control – more or less – until she reaches Tol Braga. She reaches out with desperate compassion until she realises he is no longer under the Emperor’s control. That he aided the Emperor’s plan willingly. That in his arrogance he led them on that doomed mission and then abandoned them and Warren is dead.
In that moment, San-Esi hates Tol Braga as much as she does the Emperor. He is dead before she makes any conscious decision to kill him.
Satele has faith in San-Esi but that faith is being shaken. San-Esi is increasingly belligerent in her demands for backup for her mission even though she knows that the war has reignited and Jedi are desperately needed everywhere. Bela Kiwiiks tells her that her old Padawan approached her for advice, afraid that her friend was succumbing to the Dark-Side. She receives word that San-Esi executed Warren Sedoru, even though Satele saw with her over the holocom that she was able to subdue him alive. When she tells Satele that she has killed Tol Braga there is only rage and hatred in her words, no regret.
San-Esi really should be recalled to Tython, but Satele and the Council decide to ignore her fall to send her on one more mission. Their intelligence will not remain fresh much longer. It may be years before they have another opportunity to strike directly at the Sith Emperor. San-Esi insists that she will kill the Emperor, even when Satele reminds her it is not the Jedi way.
Some Jedi doubt the truthfulness of her report that Tol Braga, the Conscience of the Order, willingly did the bidding of the Sith Emperor. She ignores Satele’s warnings that the Order knows she’s letting her anger get the better of her, her warnings that she needs to guard herself more vigorously against the influence of the Dark-Side.
Knight San-Esi has stopped listening, stopped trying, stopped caring. Maybe stopped pretending, though it pains Satele to contemplate it.
If San-Esi doesn’t care about her relationship with Satele or her place in the Order anymore, then Satele needs to take drastic measures to force her to acknowledge the problem. Unless Satele can demonstrate to San-Esi her choices have consequences, she will continue down her Dark path until it destroys her.
She stages a confrontation it will be impossible for San-Esi to brush off. Afterwards, Satele realises too late that there had been plenty of bridge still left to burn.
#Meanwhile in a Galaxy Far Far Away#oc: Ekkaia Thome#oc: San-Esi Ouniera-kue#Satele Shan#oc: Tomah Awl#character death cw
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Tsojât is a tank; he is, in his heart of hearts, a distraction. He wears the heavy full-body armour and portable shield of a juggernaut to slowly power forward, presenting a large and obvious threat while the rest of his team takes advantage of that. Flanking manoeuvres, turret slicing, infiltrations to open the blast doors from the inside – he’s enabled them all. Soresu is the obvious choice for a tank drawing fire and Tsojât is a master of it, sometimes mixing in Ataru because a target making unexpected movements better keeps the foe’s attention and going over obstacles is usually faster than going through them or Juyo if he is engaged in a duel with another Force-adept.
Somewhat usually for a Sith, Tsojât was trained to fight in conjunction with Force-blind allies over the course of his childhood; to use his particular abilities to increase their effectiveness and understand what advantages they might have that he does not. To deflect blaster-fire a lightsabre needs to be in the hands of a Force-sensitive and those same extra-sensory gifts make for good scouts; conversely, time spent studying the ways of the Sith is not spent studying slicing, artillery, sensor-nets, slug-throwers, or shield generators and other fortifications. Tsojât is Yjimir’s – Cipher Nine’s – nephew, though only three years younger, so the idea that a Force-blind battle partner could be every bit as deadly as he is far from alien.
Lys’trel has had no formal training in team combat; fortunately, Khem Val has a wealth of experience fighting alongside Sith and takes satisfaction verbally dissecting mistakes she made that Tulak Hord would not have. She started learning the sabre later than learning how to use the Force as a weapon and her first instinct is to reach for lightning rather than her lightsabre. When she does duel her form of preference in Makashi, which uses speed and precision over strength, because most overseers in the Sith Academy tended to be insistent that studying the blade meant studying the blade, Acolyte, and Lys’trel is tiny. Eventually she begins integrating more Niman, even though a hand holding a lightsabre is a hand you can’t shoot lightning at people with.
San-Esi, who spent her formative years outside the Order and the Republic taking care to conceal her status as a Jedi, has an attitude to combat somewhere between that of an unimpressed professional bouncer and peckish ambush predator. Violence is to be avoided if you can; any real fight brings with it real risk of death or permanent injury. On the other hand if you decide that violence is necessary – strike fast, strike hard, strike first. People don’t expect the zabrak in civies with a blaster on her hip to also be carrying a lightsabre. People don’t expect a Jedi to own a modified rapid-fire blaster of dubious legality. You have a better chance of taking an opponent down non-lethally if you catch them off guard. Either way, don’t advertise yourself as the major threat you are.
San-Esi favours aggressive Ataru and Juyo when fighting with a lightsabre but is also an excellent hand-to-hand combatant and superb shot. She’s also a vocal proponent of knowing when to run away. Running away is an excellent method of keeping both yourself and the danger to you alive.
Tomah has a deep fondness for Shii-Cho. There are a lot of glowing memories tied up in studying it as a child – before they really understood what it meant that there was a war, before the temple was sacked. Peace and repetition and the satisfaction of steadily learning each new form and pattern. As a teenager, though, Tomah was guided by their teachers into Niman, as the discipline was a good fit for their growing skills with telekinesis.
Ekkaia is a master of Soresu and Shien who fights like a slowly advancing giant lawnmower. Lightning quick with their double-bladed sabre but measured in the speed they close on their opponents. If enemies don’t take advantage of the ample time Ekkaia’s approach gives them to surrender and gets their limbs cut off, they have no one to blame but themselves. A Jedi must be implacable in the pursuit of their mission, unwavering before adversity. While Ekkaia accepts surrenders as any Jedi worth the title should, they don’t believe in allowing enemies to escape so they might go on to do more damage. As a Shadow Ekkaia is also learned in stealth techniques that make it possible to evade some battles entirely, if it is necessary for the mission.
#Meanwhile in a Galaxy Far Far Away#oc: Tsojât Zihae#oc: Lys'trel Kallig#oc: San-Esi Ouniera-kue#oc: Tomah Awl#oc: Ekkaia Thome
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