Lore Entry #1: The First Legacies

[Ansin Mathias]

TheStarWarsRP.Com
Lore Entry #1: The First Legacies
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Greetings. I am Warden Ansin Mathias, one of the protectors of the secrets my people have sworn to keep firmly away from the hands of the galaxy-at-large. There are truths in this galaxy, hidden from its people to protect them, for if the secrets were revealed then the consequences could be disastrous—just as they were disastrous once before. Nonetheless, we recognize that there may come a time when these secrets will need to come to light. It is for that reason that I have been tasked with compiling the history of this galaxy, one unlike anything historians have ever recorded.

The story is one of secrets lost, found, and then lost again. It spans most of recorded history, all the way from the time of the Infinite Empire of the Rakata until the present day, a millennium after the fateful battle in orbit of Endor and the fall of the evil Emperor Palpatine. It is in the time of the Infinite Empire that my accounting of this history will begin.

Early Research into the Force
The days before the rise of the Old Republic were a dangerous time. The galaxy was ruled by the Infinite Empire of the Rakata, spanning from the northern fires of Korriban to the southern wastes of Tatooine. The Rakata enslaved dozens of races to their own end, but that was not enough to satisfy their lust for power. While much of this time remains shrouded in mystery, records kept by Jedi Master and General Warden Dalharil Baatch from the time of the Great Galactic War tell us that there was a small footnote from this era worth mentioning in the context of the larger galactic destiny.

The ancient Rakata ruled the Infinite Empire, spanning from one end of the galaxy to another, long before the Old Republic's rise.
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A great Rakata master geneticist by the name of Bhikkhu Bo, now imprisoned in an ancient mind trap deep below the Jedi Temple, claimed that while the Infinite Empire swept across the galaxy to wipe out other ancient races—Gree, Taung, Killik, Sith, Esh-Ka, and more—Bhikkhu Bo himself was part of a team who took on a specialized task. They were to capture and study members of the ancient Je’daii of Tython, the precursors of the Jedi, and determine how they differed in the use of the Force than the Rakatans did. If possible, they were to breed and weaponize the strongest, noting that, in some cases, bloodlines had a direct relation to connectivity to the Force.

While undergoing this research, the Rakata developed an advanced recording device known as the darksphere, which allowed near-telepathic connections to information from others in the project. When one withdrew information from the sphere, it downloaded new information from that user. Several members of this test group were later unleashed upon the Killik home world of Alderaan, though they managed to escape their Rakatan handlers. This contradicts the established notion that Alderaan was not settled until 27,500 BBY.

It was further stated that several species were collected and altered into weapons to deploy against the Sith species of Korriban. This project ended in failure, however, when members of the altered species, now called the Danthiri, rose up against their handlers, forcing the Infinite Empire to abandon their research. It was this failure that led to Bhikkhu Bo being sentenced to eternal incarceration within the ancient Rakatan mind trap, and the fall of the Infinite Empire led to the loss of the darksphere.

The Adventures of Calid Baatch
The Je’daii of Tython, meanwhile, were engaged within a conflict of their own. The forces of light within the Order, known as the Je’daii Ashla, fought against the forces of the dark side: the Je’daii Bogan. Together, these groups fought against one another to claim dominance over the Je’daii and ensure that their philosophy would be the dominant one for their people. During these Force Wars, a young Alderaanian named Calid Baatch served the Je’daii Ashla.

Though accounts of his time are less than complete, one particular event of note was the Battle of the Wellspring. Bogan forces had aimed to ambush a vital supply line not far from the main Ashla temple en-route, but that ambush was thwarted. Along with several other instances of heroics carried out by fellow Je’daii, Calid’s actions helped ensure that the Je’daii Bogan were headed for defeat.

The Je'daii Ashla and Je'daii Bogan fought a war for philosophical dominance.
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At the war’s end, the Bogan defeat led to the Je’daii Ashla becoming known as the Jedi Order, beginning over a thousand generations as the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy. In that time, Calid and his long-time companion Xetata, as well as another Jedi named Sohna Sanmuriko, began to travel outwards and explore the galaxy and its people. One event took Calid to the Twi’lek home world of Ryloth. There, the trio thwarted plans to spread an artificial plague through the population, which the terrorists hoped would help them claim the planet’s wealth of resources.

Baatch’s acts of valor became well known on his home planet of Alderaan, leading to House Baatch being elevated in the young aristocratic society. House Baatch saw itself rise to sit with such notable families as Organa, Thul, and Panteer, among others. Calid attempted to settle down, and he married Sohna. Together, they had four children: daughters Mira and Lassia, and sons Conrad and Borrin. Unable to stay settled, though, Calid once again returned to the stars in pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. Somre lore states he briefly settled within a Dai Bendu village on Ando Prime and study the ways of the Dai Bendu monks. His two eldest children, Mira and Conrad, followed in their father’s footsteps. It was Mira who stayed with her father the most, learning from him and the cultures he studied, becoming a Jedi Bard of her time.

Calid Baatch went on many adventures, bringing his family recognition and prestige on Alderaan before the House Wars.
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Eventually, however, Mira was drawn to lead her house in a time of great tension, as a vacancy in the Alderaanian throne opened up. Alderaan’s nobility was plunged into war, and many believed it would be House Baatch that emerged successful. This saw many acts of aggression from House Panteer, and even from agents of the assassin clan of the House Rist. All of these were combined to try and destroy House Baatch’s reputation on the planet.

As it happened, the damage to the Baatch reputation came from within, as Mira fell in love with Khem Kheldrommas, a ward from a lesser house aligned with House Baatch. Making matters worse was the news that Mira had become pregnant out of wedlock. These events forced Calid to return to rule his house and contend with the House Wars, while Mira moved to a small mountain retreat to marry and raise her family. She and Khem had three children: a son named Khevran, and two daughters named Dinara and Adena.

The Fall of House Baatch
While their childhood was one of relative stability, often playing with their cousin Jonathan, Adena and Dinara were eventually whisked away into the Jedi Order after Calid noted their strong affinity for the Force. Calid’s close friend and companion, Master Oolas, became their instructor. In time, both grew in the Force and became close friends with fellow Jedi student Kel-Ma, a bond that Master Oolas believed to be only a good thing for the future.

These students were coming of age in a time when the galaxy was opening up, and, as such, there was more need for Jedi to reach out and try to aid the peace between colonies and new worlds. This process would lead to the formation of the Old Republic, yet it was in this time period that the darksphere was re-located by Kel-Ma, Dinara, and Adena. In a decision that would have stark consequences for millennia to come, the trio kept their discovery a secret.

The darksphere of the Infinite Empire.
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Dinara was killed while attempting to convince settlers on an unstable to world to evacuate, and the situation ended in violence. Shortly thereafter, Kel-Ma became the first to re-activate the sphere and access its information, as his dark-sided pangs of guilt and anger acted as batteries for the device. Kel-Ma used this to try and improve the Order as he saw it, blind to the influences of the dark side of the Force. Adena, in mourning over her sister’s loss and feeling betrayed by Calid and the rest of the Jedi Elders for allowing them to undertake the mission that led to Dinara’s death, was the first to fall prey to Kel-Ma’s words about the need for Jedi reform.

Eventually, Kel-Ma lost control and influence over the sphere. With it, he lost his control over Adena, who quickly slaughtered him in her rage and took the sphere for herself. Her ability to probe deeply into the device was unlike anything Kel-Ma could have managed, as if the sphere was able to speak to her and be aware of her. It was later revealed that her connection was amplified due to her knowledge and understanding of numerous galactic philosophies, taught to her by Calid from his travels. With this, she managed to form her own cult that opposed the teachings of both the Ashla and the Bogan alike.

A disciple of this cult, envious of Adena’s power, betrayed them and shared its details with the Jedi Order and the followers of the Bogan. Both sides saw the immediate threat to their ways, and both set aside their differences to put an end to the group. The Cult of the Sphere was traced to the Outer Rim Territories, where the cultists clashed with the combined forces of the Jedi and Dark Jedi on Tatooine. The battle was firmly stacked against Adena, forcing her to abandon her cult and start anew.

Calid and Mira defeat Adena on Tatooine... but this was not the last stand of Adena Kheldrommas.
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This time, however, she was tracked down and captured by Calid and Mira. While the fate of Adena was being decided, Mira took the sphere and attempted to destroy it for fear that others may one day try to harness its power. The sphere, however, with the memories and thoughts of so many that came before it, had in fact a will of its own. Through images of Adena and Dinara, it convinced Mira to simply hide it away where another could one day find it.

The verdict on Adena’s fate was decided after a rushed hearing by the Dark Jedi. The followers of the dark side believed that they were following an expanded view of the Force, not an evil one, and grew angry that Adena’s actions would undermine their efforts to make the galaxy view them as something other than a destructive force. It was decided by them that Adena be set adrift in a hyperspace stasis chamber for all eternity, aware of time passing but unable to ever awaken.

Mira continued to teach new Jedi and eventually formed a sub-order of individuals called Wardens who studied what she learned from the sphere and swore to protect these secrets from the galaxy, lest they fall into the wrong hands again. Calid, meanwhile, continued to battle long and hard to maintain House Baatch, but the incident with Adena did enough damage that the other houses were able to rip it down further and, eventually, lead it to its fall.

The First Legacies
What happened to Adena Kheldrommas and House Baatch was lost from recorded history, but not from history entirely. The Wardens brought together by Mira passed down their secrets from one generation to the next, lasting for thousands of years and waiting for someone to find their secrets and put them to good use. That time would not come for many millennia, but it would come.

In the centuries that followed, the galaxy began to unify and saw the rise of the Galactic Republic, a sprawling government of peace and justice for all that stretched across the star systems. For a time, it seemed like the galaxy would be at peace, and it would be many centuries before the Republic faced the first true threat to its existence, but the people of the galaxy enjoyed relative harmony.

But fate often had a way of interfering with peace. After all, just because something is lost doesn’t mean it can never be found again.

The Star Wars Saga is Only Just Beginning....

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