Elias
SWRP Writer
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2017
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 1
"The wind is rising," he noted. Gusts blew, sweeping across the knolls, addressing the heat of summer with a cooling breeze. Elias's clothes swayed with the wind, and Banta's hair-like tendrils blew back. For a moment, tranquility dominated the plains, and rolling hills. His eyes closed, his mind focused. He pictured himself dancing in the wind, twirling his saber in one hand, stance expanding, palm pointing with the breeze. The sky sung for him, and all was right.
When his eyes opened, he felt it; inspiration. The sort he hadn't felt in a long time, not since discovering the Force, not since climbing the great hills of Alderaan, not since first reading the great theories of the darksiders who had left the Jedi, and formed the Exiles after them. This art, this dance, was his to master. He had never felt so perfectly at harmony as right now, in this moment. In all other places, thoughts ran across his mind, and pelleted him with worry. Not here.
"Raise your saber," Banta commanded, and he obeyed. Holding his long-handle saber with both hands, he listened, hardly able to stand still with the falling of the wind, but too determined to move.
"Last time, I taught you of the saber-stinger," the man stated. "This day, the footfall sweep. Each day, we will focus on one or two techniques. Within no time, you will be a master of them all. You... have the talent. I see it, clear as the sky," said Banta. Raising his practice saber as well, he paced back and forth across the ancient, stony platform on which they stood, thinking of the words to explain the ability.
"You know that this art is one of Djem So, yes? A technical term -- particularly used within Form V, and alongside Shien -- to describe the art of defense, wholly dedicated to lightsaber dueling. After a successful evasion, especially one leading into their blindside, the footfall sweep is a horizontal sweep, swing or vertical strike directly leading into the foe's calves, hamstring, tailbone, shoulders, biceps, triceps or even possibly the elbows and knees, if striking from the front. It is an attempt to lessen the amount of limbs one has to work with," he stated.
"The body is all about balance. For a Djem So, the goal is to disrupt the enemy's balance, whilst maintaining your own. Not only balance in the literal sense - like standing up - but in the rhythm at which they move. For most warriors, if they lose even one muscle in the engagement, they are finished. Even the greatest are severely marred," he explained. Then, dancing quickly to Elias' blindside, he pressed the side of his "saber" into the Padawans's calve.
It did not pierce - he wielded a blunt weapon. It was merely a demonstration.
"You try. Fight for it."
And he did, back then. Banta was a Nautolan man, and Elias was an aristocrat straight from the faux castles of Alderaan. Yet, in those times, they were unified. Banta was a great master of Shien and Djem So, and it was with his expertise that Elias had grown so capable in the art of saber dueling. It was Shien that he utilized throughout all of his conflicts in Hutt Space, in the Outer Rim, and Djem So in his early brawls with the Exiles - back when he still held some uncertain level of loyalty to the Jedi.
Like all manner of anchors to the Jedi, though, Banta passed in time. He died horrifically, choked and... imploded by the darksiders of the Exiles, on a mission appropriately labeled as 'suicide' after its failure had already been made known. In Banta's place was allegedly his legacy, which was allegedly Elias - a man who would eventually catch up to the Master in skill.
Or so they imagined. In truth, Elias did not expect to be able to reach Banta's throne of talent. Not now, anyway. He didn't have enough to fight for, and he never had. His whole ideology was essentially the belief in nothing - raw desires, at best. An empty life of mismatched whims. No loyalties, no structure, and not even a culture to lead his thoughts. He knew that, in a way, Anarsynthesism was loneliness quantified.
So by coming here, maybe, he could expand onto it. Add more, learn more. Perhaps the Jedi had some beliefs worth integrating - something to unify the Anarsynthetics, and make the ideology more popular, and feasible. If he could walk within their walls - if there were any walls worth walking in - he could find out.
When his eyes opened, he felt it; inspiration. The sort he hadn't felt in a long time, not since discovering the Force, not since climbing the great hills of Alderaan, not since first reading the great theories of the darksiders who had left the Jedi, and formed the Exiles after them. This art, this dance, was his to master. He had never felt so perfectly at harmony as right now, in this moment. In all other places, thoughts ran across his mind, and pelleted him with worry. Not here.
"Raise your saber," Banta commanded, and he obeyed. Holding his long-handle saber with both hands, he listened, hardly able to stand still with the falling of the wind, but too determined to move.
"Last time, I taught you of the saber-stinger," the man stated. "This day, the footfall sweep. Each day, we will focus on one or two techniques. Within no time, you will be a master of them all. You... have the talent. I see it, clear as the sky," said Banta. Raising his practice saber as well, he paced back and forth across the ancient, stony platform on which they stood, thinking of the words to explain the ability.
"You know that this art is one of Djem So, yes? A technical term -- particularly used within Form V, and alongside Shien -- to describe the art of defense, wholly dedicated to lightsaber dueling. After a successful evasion, especially one leading into their blindside, the footfall sweep is a horizontal sweep, swing or vertical strike directly leading into the foe's calves, hamstring, tailbone, shoulders, biceps, triceps or even possibly the elbows and knees, if striking from the front. It is an attempt to lessen the amount of limbs one has to work with," he stated.
"The body is all about balance. For a Djem So, the goal is to disrupt the enemy's balance, whilst maintaining your own. Not only balance in the literal sense - like standing up - but in the rhythm at which they move. For most warriors, if they lose even one muscle in the engagement, they are finished. Even the greatest are severely marred," he explained. Then, dancing quickly to Elias' blindside, he pressed the side of his "saber" into the Padawans's calve.
It did not pierce - he wielded a blunt weapon. It was merely a demonstration.
"You try. Fight for it."
And he did, back then. Banta was a Nautolan man, and Elias was an aristocrat straight from the faux castles of Alderaan. Yet, in those times, they were unified. Banta was a great master of Shien and Djem So, and it was with his expertise that Elias had grown so capable in the art of saber dueling. It was Shien that he utilized throughout all of his conflicts in Hutt Space, in the Outer Rim, and Djem So in his early brawls with the Exiles - back when he still held some uncertain level of loyalty to the Jedi.
Like all manner of anchors to the Jedi, though, Banta passed in time. He died horrifically, choked and... imploded by the darksiders of the Exiles, on a mission appropriately labeled as 'suicide' after its failure had already been made known. In Banta's place was allegedly his legacy, which was allegedly Elias - a man who would eventually catch up to the Master in skill.
Or so they imagined. In truth, Elias did not expect to be able to reach Banta's throne of talent. Not now, anyway. He didn't have enough to fight for, and he never had. His whole ideology was essentially the belief in nothing - raw desires, at best. An empty life of mismatched whims. No loyalties, no structure, and not even a culture to lead his thoughts. He knew that, in a way, Anarsynthesism was loneliness quantified.
So by coming here, maybe, he could expand onto it. Add more, learn more. Perhaps the Jedi had some beliefs worth integrating - something to unify the Anarsynthetics, and make the ideology more popular, and feasible. If he could walk within their walls - if there were any walls worth walking in - he could find out.