Yaronn

[Annan Rainwalker]

“Truth can strike down the specter of fear.”
―Tomes of the Je'daii Keeper: third tome, section 6, 82nd chant

The raven-and-caramel-haired Jedi Knight stared up at the windy, perpetually cloud-covered skies of Yaronn, brilliant greenish-blue irises reflecting a faraway expression and yet, somehow, simultaneously conveying a sense of constant presence of mind. The winds blew back his silvery Jedi robes, his hair dancing in the winds as his hood bared his head. He was at one side of the mountain where he usually meditated, in a clearing surrounded all around by trees, a small pool of water in the middle.

[Begin Alter 3 Training: Goal 1000 Words]

His chest rose and fell as Jedi Rainwalker, while keeping his eyes open, began to immerse himself deeper and deeper into the vastness of the undulating tides, the ever flowing currents, of the luminosity that was the Force. He felt the life around him, and that within him; but this time he was not here to feel, but rather to effect.

To alter.

Perhaps there was no commoner expression of Altering the galaxy around one with the power of the Force, than the ability to move material immaterially. Yet, while Jedi Rainwalker could perform basic telekinesis with ease now, those who were true masters in the Force could do much more with their powers than simply... lifting rocks.

A palm raised, Jedi Rainwalker stretched out with his feelings and will through the Force and took physical hold of a fallen branch at the edge of the clearing. In mere moments that branch shot through the air, towards Jedi Rainwalker's extended palm.

It stopped in mid-air, floating halfway between the Jedi Knight's outstretched palm and the edge of the clearing from where it had taken flight.

Slowly but surely, more twigs, small branches, fallen tree leaves, small pebbles, and progressively larger stones, debris and rocks as large as a fist, began to rise up from around him. As Jedi Rainwalker extended his feelings and will outwards, more and more objects, in a complete circle around him began to rise up off the ground and float in the air. Soon enough, larger rocks slowly but steadily lifted off the ground. A small trail of sweat trickled down the brow of Han Xin's Apprentice as the even rocks halfway as tall as himself began to levitate into the air.

Then, with him clenching his raised palm into a fist, the entire circular field of objects began to rotate, orbiting around him like the ring system of a planet. And in such 'orbital rings' did the Jedi Knight arrange them, with intense focus and laudable spiritual and mental effort, Jedi Rainwalker willed the smallest of objects such as the pebbles and twigs to arrange themselves in the circumambulating ring nearest to him, the larger branches encircling him in the orbit behind that one, and progressively larger and heavier objects in further and further orbits, until the ultimate ring was formed by the largest of rocks.

Yet, they all orbiting him seamlessly, at the same speed regardless of their size, because he willed through the Force for it to be so. He could feel the mental toll of the exercise within himself, and yet, the Jedi Knight persevered. As each breath took him deeper and deeper into the Force, the speed of the orbiting debris field progressively increased, until nothing but multiple blurred circular rings would be visible to a casual observer.

Jedi Rainwalker began to pant from the effort, yet, he knew that if he were to master Altering the Force, he would have to go beyond simple applications such as this.

Closing his eyes, the Jedi Knight lost himself into the Ocean of the Force, and like every ocean the Force experienced tides and currents, and the Jedi Knight began meditating upon those tides. Then, he began to mentally project the tides of the Force onto the rotating rings of objects around him.

... Push...!

The Force reacted to his will, and the rings suddenly split apart from each other, each ring still rotating at incredible speeds but now with a considerable gap between each ring.

... Pull...!

Jedi Rainwalker clenched his teeth as he felt the headache coming, yet the spinning rings once again became closer together, almost eliminating the gap between them. Thus did Jedi Rainwalker continue: pulling and pushing synchronously with the tides of the Force, the rings reacting to his will by closing the gaps between each other with each pull and pushing far apart from one another with each push.

While he felt the constant effort take its toll on his focus, the Jedi Knight had to push himself further. Once again, this was too simple an application. A Jedi was capable of so much more, the Light was able to affect so much more.

Once again inhaling and then letting out the stream of breathed air, the raven-haired Jedi pulled his arms into his body and then closed his eyes. Relocating his center, the Jedi Knight began to mentally thickened the Force around his right hand, the energy generated by life concentrating at the tip of his clenched fist. He momentarily pictured the Force as gushing water that flowed from a high pressure to a low pressure area; the 'thickened' or 'high pressure' invisible Force bubble forming at the end of his fist should, theoretically, somehow do the same.

The Jedi Knight began to pant as he struggled to keep all that concentrated energy at bay, before pulling his arm back and finally throwing something resembling a right hook. The Jedi Knight performed an extremely rapid Force Push at the concentrated energy at his fist at the same as releasing the mental barriers that kept it bay.

The result was magnificent: the portion of the debris encircling right in front of him, in a straight line from his extended fist, was violently blasted out of the way.

Focusing again, his chest rising and falling more from the effort of exertion now than of meditation, he telekinetically willed the remaining debris to close the gap, and it sluggishly obeyed.

Despite being severely weakened, Jedi Rainwalker somehow felt stronger, as if using Telekinesis in such powerful ways had increased his skill in the power; and no doubt it had, as Annan now felt that he could command the Force to effect the Galaxy at large much more smoothly than he ever could have before.

Practice does in deed make perfect, and now, mustering up the very last of his energy, the Jedi Knight decided to practice one last, extremely powerful environment-altering skill.

With another deep breath, in and out, the young Jedi Knight clasped his hands together and and focused. The spiraling debris responded to his nonverbal command, moving in closer, and the Jedi Knight began to levitate off the ground slightly in an incomplete form of floating meditation. The Jedi Knight's teeth clenched together tight as he put in too much effort on reflex, but he quickly recalled his training.

The Light Side did not empower through might, it empowered through serenity.

Reminded, the Jedi Knight quickly released all his strain and exhaustion into the Force with subsequent breaths, making himself passive, calm, content. The illuminated tendrils of light took away his mental fatigue. As he internally leaned into the Force, the tendrils of invisible light began to envelop him and form a spherical bubble of pure Force energy which surrounded the floating Jedi Knight, separating him from the encircling rings of debris before being shot outwards in a mighty torrent when Annan swiftly and simultaneously thrust both his right and left palms outwards.

The resultant kinetic ripples formed in space expanded rapidly, pushing away from him in a spherical explosion that pulverized every single piece of rotating debris in the rings that were surrounding him, destroying everything from twigs to rocks and leaving behind nothing but particulates...

The trees at the edge of the circular clearing blew back due to the force of the explosion as well, leaves blowing as if affected by a duststorm, but the brunt of the Force Repulse was borne by the once-rings, now-dust, that had been circumambulating closer to the Jedi Knight.

[End Alter 3 Training: 1258/1000 Words]

[Annan Rainwalker]

“He who seeks to control fate shall never find peace.”
―Tomes of the Je'daii Keeper: seventh tome, section 3, 133rd chant

[Begin Force Mask Training: Goal 500 Words]

His chest rose and fell as the young Jedi Knight meditated on the small rock at the edge of the ancient mountain on Yaronn. With eyes contentedly shut he could still see, through the vision of the heart, the ocean of light. The waves of light that rose and fell, signifying power and weakness. The waves of light that fertilized and washed away; signifying life and death. Between all of that lay the Force, the Balance, the Light, the Ashla - the energy field that all living things created.

Today, with deep breaths, the young Jedi Knight reached his calm center in the Force and meditated on one such facet of the Force: the waves of light that came as the high tide, concealing the shore of the Galaxy, before receding and exposing it. It was that aspect of the Light Side that he needed to focus on. He imagined himself standing at the shore of the Galaxy, the physical world, with his arms spread out, and waited for the surge, the high tide, of the Light to come upon him and immerse him.

The key to the Light was passivity, and so the Jedi waited.

In his mind's eye he perceived the Light envelop him and submerge him in the high tide, and in that moment the Jedi Knight focused, trying to perceive the... the frequency, the song, the rhythm, the reverberation, the brightness... of that Tide. In reality, there was no real word to describe it, but the raven haired Jedi simply tried to get a feel of what that aspect of the Force felt like.

Then, he focused on the life, the energy, the light inside him.

With each breath, he felt his own aura increase in radiance in his Senses, and he tried to Alter it, to match the song, for what's what it felt like, of the Tide. Yet, he could not, for the life of him, do so. Somehow, he found a mental barrier that prevented him from changing his own... song, to match that of the Tide. Jedi Rainwalker took in deep breaths, he focused as deeply as he could, and yet, doing so seemed to walled off.

Deciding to go about this another way, the Jedi Knight began to meditate upon the Force. He knew he was utilizing his ability to Control the Force a wrong way, so he delved into the seemingly unending ocean of light that was the Force. He listened, and soon enough, he felt the answer come to him, a voice in the Force, that imparted to him a piece of millennial advice: “He who seeks to control fate shall never find peace.”

Berating himself as it finally clicked in his mind what he had done wrong, the Jedi Knight attempted again. He understood now: he was not supposed to Control the Force inside him to change who he was. Rather, the Control of a Jedi lay in controlling oneself from succumbing to one's own carnal self, and in accepting the light as the light was.

Thus, with each breath, the Jedi Knight waited for the Tide to come upon him again, and once he felt the Light submerge him for those briefest of moments. This time, he did not attempt to change his own natural song to match that of the Tide, and eventually the Tide's song seemed to flow into his own, beginning to resonate within him.

Thus, Jedi Rainwalker, in that moment, the song of Annan Anakin Rainwalker became one with the Song of the Tide, so that only the High Tide - a manifestation of the Light Side of the Force - would be visible to all those who tried to perceive Annan in the Force, as the light had veiled him in its soothing embrace, rendering him invisible, practically nonexistent, from being gazed upon through the Force by anyone else.

[End Force Mask Training: 642/500 Words]

[Annan Rainwalker]

“In order to control myself, I must first accept myself, by going with and not against my nature.”
―Tomes of the Je'daii Keeper: fifth tome, section 2, 75th chant

The overcast sky thundered moments before the pregnant clouds unleashed the storm they were carrying, the drizzle transforming quickly into a full-blown showering. Drenched, robes clinging tightly to his body while billowing in the cold wind, the Jedi Knight floated cross-legged with his eyes closed as he immersed himself into the Force.

[Begin Control 3 Training: Goal 1000 Words]

The raven haired Jedi Knight's chest elevated and fell as he practised breathing in and out, in and out, repeatedly until he found his deepest centre. The Force swirled around him, he felt its vast embrace encompassing the Galaxy, and he felt it as the light, the energy, the life force within his own soul. The energy was his to Control, yet only as much as was necessary, its aid taken out of Need - the Steps of the Light; and not out of Greed - the Depths of the Darkness. The light was his friend, and not his slave. It would allow itself to serve him, but only as much as was necessary for the task at hand to be rendered accomplished, and only if the task was pure in intent, in means and in purpose.

Closing his eyes, the Jedi Knight tuned out the Ocean without, to view his reflection cast on the Ocean within. He felt the Light flowing, breathing, rising and falling - undulating waves of pure energy bathing each cell in his body in health and vitality, in potential and ability. He focused, willing the energy to obey. It probed for intent, and Annan cast back his intention of the pursuit of knowledge, of the acquisition of the power to defend the innocent. Thereupon he saw his reflection within himself, illuminated, whole, void of all tendrils of darkness, and satisfied with the Jedi's intent, the Vitality obeyed, willing bending itself to Annan's will in order to aid him in his selfless goal.

For selflessness was the way of the Light.

The ability to harness the Light granted great power to the Jedi, power that aided many a Jedi in holding one's breath indefinitely. Such Guardians of Peace and Justice could survive in a multitude of unfavourable conditions - til date, Annan Rainwalker was not one of those Jedi. He could survive underwater for perhaps a mere five minutes as he was, but that was an error that was about to be corrected. He was floating in meditation a short distance above the raging tides of the Ocean of Yaronn, the nearest landmass - the continent that contained his cave - was a few miles south of his current position.

And, wordlessly, the Jedi Knight cut off his floating meditation and thus fell into the raging ocean below him.

/*splash*/

The young Knight held his breath, preventing the salty sea water from entering down his throat. Now, he had to maintain himself in this state for as long as he could. Closing his eyes against the water he was submerged in, the obsidian haired Jedi stilled his breathing entirely, willing preventing his chest from expanding and contracting, numbing his natural diving reflex using his adeptness in Controling the Force. With focus, he directed the Ashla into his lungs, and through his hyper-aware state of Jedi clairvoyance, observed the rays and beams of the Light Energy passing through the rapidly diminishing amount of air in his lungs, and connecting with the living cells of his own pleura-ensheathed pulmonary tissues.

As he sunk deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean, the Jedi Knight felt a crushing sensation envelop his body, no doubt the increasing water pressure. He maintained his concentration upon the Force, the Inner and the Outer Light, ignoring the crushing effects, until the sensation was just strong enough to be almost unbearable. At that stage, Jedi Rainwalker, with considerable effort, moved his limbs against the water pressure and assumed a cross-legged, meditative stance in the depth of the ocean.

A 'floating meditation' practiced underwater.

With immense mental effort, the Jedi Knight held on tightly to his connection to the Force. He observed it, perceived it surrounding him. Even with his eyes closed underwater he felt it permeating through, while simultaneously surrounding and going around, the Galaxy at large. He could perceive the Light in the raging tides of the dark ocean he was currently submerged in, and he could feel the same Light within him. Once again conveying to it the purity of his intent - to survive; to preserve life, his own, as well as to become strong enough to preserve the lives of others - the Light Within fell in submission to him.

Jedi Rainwalker perceived the Force in three parts: the Light, the Life, and the Voice - the Voice of the raging tides and the seemingly boundless ocean, and the Voice of his own beating heart and aching body. Having already ensured the submission of the Force, the Jedi willed the Voice to sing, for the Life to sustain, and for the Light to elucidate.

Responding, the Light showed him what to do to succeed in this exercise, and he knew how he should proceed from here. The Life, while numbing the aching in his entire body due to the crushing effects of the underwater pressure, obeyed his wordless command to hold his lungs in absolute stillness, to infuse his pulmonary tissues with enough light, enough natural life energy, for them to persevere against the averse conditions, and to let the trace amount of air remaining in his lungs be sufficient to sustain him. The Voice sang a song which he listened to, the ethereal chanting that spoke not the language of the tongue but that of the heart. A serene melody, one that calmed his beating heart and did away with his fear of certain death if he did not succeed in this exercise, while diverting his focus away from all that could distract him from surviving this exercise.

Thus, Jedi Rainwalker remained in that state - cross-legged, several feet below sea level, exercising his ability to Control the Force to strengthen his body to make it resilient enough to withstand the subterran pressures while at the same time stilling his lungs and his heart, sustaining them with the Force to enable him to last without a single breath.

Time passed, five minutes turned to ten, and then an hour. The Jedi Knight clenched his teeth, as he felt the strain of the exercise, yet he knew he had to finish this, and through raw determination the young Knight remained in that state. Twelve hours passed, and he was almost about to give up, almost losing his calm center in the Force and realising he could not easily attain it again without disrupting the exercise due to his required abstinence from breathing. It was then that he heard the Voice, and the Light showed him the way as the Life held his bodily vitals in its firm, unyielding grasp:

He realised he did not have to rely on breathing through his body to calm himself, for the Light was independent of the bodily organs. The Voice reassured him of that.

And so, it was the Life Within that rose and fell, like the ocean waves above him, and like the lungs he had once been dependent on, but no more. And so, with deep 'breaths' - for lack of better word - the Life helped him reacquire his calm centre, and go yet even further deeper, the Light embracing and enveloping him and the Voice soothing him, informing him and conveying to him what he needed to know.

The night passed, and the remaining twelve hours passed as well, before Bigweld the Droid finally saw his partner, Jedi Rainwalker, emerged from the sea water onto the Yorann shore.

[End Control 3 Training: 1227/1000 Words]

[Annan Rainwalker]

“Peace. Serenity. Harmony. We must master ourselves before ever hoping to master the Force.”
―Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Wisdom of the Old Masters, 7:777

It was time.

[Begin Level-Up: 13 - Goal: 1300 Words]

It had taken years of painstaking effort, disciplined training, and extensive experience before this day, and it shone behind his shamrock eyes as he reached out with his feelings. He had returned to Yaronn, where his journey as a Padawan ended and a Jedi began all those eons before, the ambient Living Force perfusing the planet charging the Firrerreo's soul as he breathed in and out standing at the edge of his cave, the grass and the trees in front of him dancing with his breaths, swaying away when he exhaled and towards him when he inhaled. His power in the Force was already such that his range of telekinesis extended all the way downhill and across the mountain range as far as the eye could see. For the next several hours the Jedi spent in this state, every single piece of flora dancing to and fro with the Jedi's breathing cycle, in a beautiful symphony.

This was just the warm-up.

With minimal mental effort, the Jedi's lightsaber unclipped itself from his belt and floated up into the air beside him before igniting with a snap-hiss and falling into his hand. Immediately the Jedi let the Force direct his movements. The Jedi flowed smoothly, from the raw wildness of the Way of the Sarlacc, to the economy of motion of the Way of the Mynock, then settling on the tempered agility of the Way of the Hawk-Bat, the motions of which he drilled for over an hour as it was ultimately his preferred form. Finally, he twisted his lightsaber around in his hand before catching it in a reverse grip, before flowing through each and every single one of the motions of the Shien variant of the Way of the Krayt Dragon for the next two hours. The elaborate, Force guided dance ultimately ended with the Jedi slicing through one of the rocks near the cave in a single clean motion, sending the cleaved chunk tumbling downhill before he finally broke into a pant.

With a subsequent deep breath, the Jedi closed his eyes and plunged himself deeper into the Force, encouraging a greater current of light to flow through him. He focused within, becoming acutely aware of each and every single part of his own body, from air in his lungs to the beating of his heart to the currents in his nervous system to the blood circulating within his veins. He could feel the toxins in his body, having built up due to hours of standing and meditation. The Jedi proceeded to call upon the healing and revitalizing energies of the Light Side, feeling them practically falling into his fatigued body, the sensation akin to standing under a Naboo waterfall. Guiding the Ethereal Light to wash away all his woes and aches, he expunged all of that exhaustion and fatigue from within him. But a few moments later the Jedi stood, taller and once again at full strength, with these simple steps having exercised his prowess in the Light Side of the Force both within and without.

Looking up, the Jedi reached out towards the obsidian clouds above, aiming to exercise in skill in altering the currents of the Force, the overcast skies of Yaronn eagerly hearkening to his call. Focusing again on his breathing and closing his eyes as he felt the cool breeze gently beat against his face and blow his dual-toned hair out and about, the gold-skinned Jedi's senses helped him acutely visualize each drop of vapour condensed into the clouds, and he almost lost his composure as his mind registered the true weight of the water being held aloft through the laws of the universe. He could feel the tremendous weight carried by the clouds, water in the amount of billions of gallons! Growling as his breathing hitched upon feeling the metaphysical tonnage bearing down on him, the Jedi nonetheless pushed back until he found a passive metaphysical thread through which his reach in the Light Side could encompass the clouds. Like water flowing through the vasculature of a gigantic tree until it extended across the length of it, he soon found himself in control of not just the foliage of Yaronn but also the clouds above. With significant spiritual effort, the Jedi guided the clouds to his will, and soon enough, the began to move, rumbling and crackling with electricity as the breeze around him grew stronger. In this way the Jedi aimed for the achievement of mastery in the Force through the Alteration of its physical and metaphysical currents.

As the overcast skies above rumbled and the first drizzles began to rain down, the Jedi closed his eyes and then extended his senses outwards as far as they could go. The Master in the making could perceive almost the entire planet now. As the Jedi breathed, so did every living thing on, above and beneath the surface of the planet of perpetual clouds and trinary suns, and he could perceive them all. With focus and spiritual effort, he brought his own breathing in sync with that of everything around him, and soon enough, after almost an hour of breathing and perception, he attained it: the spiritual ecstacy borne of the ultimate unity of all living things as they were bound to one another through the Force. He reached out even further, connecting his own inner luminous being with the threads of light emanating from each living thing on the planet. The Jedi traced the connection back, following the threads of light back upwards, through the overcast skies to the trinary suns of Yaronn, hidden behind the thundering cumulonimbi... and thus touching the Unifying Force contained within all shining stars, surrounding and penetrating them and interconnecting the galaxy and the universe beyond.

Closing his eyes and meditating upon this, the Jedi lifted the veils of the truth layer by layer, probing, searching, seeking.

The Jedi frowned, spurred into refining the connection ever more precisely. He pushed further, widening his field of perception to the heights of vastness, feeling the spiritual flood gates burst open as he struggled against his limits, ultimately attaining reach enough to rival that of a true master. The trinary suns, the sector, the system, Wild Space itself…—

He had had this vision before!

He pulled back, awareness returning in a rush of incandescent intensity, incredible synthesis centered on a single spot, a single point of gnosis…

… and he saw.

For a fraction of an instant, everything was clear, everything was lucid, everything remained in focus, from the rejuvenating cry of a newborn infant to the turning of an ancient galaxy…

Then it began to fade, to disappear from his knowledge as it had the last time, yet the Jedi persevered and focused on maintaining the Unveiling, this Vision of Reality. The Unifying Force had revealed its true nature to him, secret knowledge which could not be expressed in words yet which only those who walked the path of Mastery in the Force could lay claim to. Clenching his fanged teeth, the Firrerreon Jedi growled as he struggled to maintain cognizance of the Unveiling. That background screech, that he ever so often perceived at the very edge of his heightened senses; a presence completely familiar yet meticulously concealed, a fraction off the mark, a shade offset. That nebulous feeling of fractured familiarity, like a well-known tune in the wrong key.

He could not let it go, and so, he pushed, struggling against the illuminated tide attempting to push him away, aiming to prove to it that he was worthy of this knowledge, these secrets of the Light. Suddenly, as if deciding to accept his worth, the tide not only receded but he found himself one with it. The Unveiling of the Force was sudden, swift, back-breaking and bone-crushing and the Jedi barely held on. He focused on it; completely, intently, every fraction of power turned to it.

Then suddenly, he was there.

'Light... Darkness... a Balance... The Force...'

He could see without seeing; lights that were too bright to be seen by the eyes of any sentient, and he could hear without hearing; secrets that were too mighty to be discussed upon any tongue. Esoteric gnosis, a gift available only to the Elect - the Masters. The Jedi's shamrock eyes opened, a serene and content smile on his bearded face, feeling his spirit rise to heights he had hitherto thought impossible to reach and his strength in the Force growing to match.

[End Level-Up: 13 - 1391/1300 Words]

'We've passed on all we know. A thousand generations live in you now...' the voice of the fecundating winds and the drizzling rain spoke to the Master, who smiled as he closed the nictitating membranes over his eyes and looked mirthfully up into the heavens, allowing the raindrops to pelt against both his eyes and his body in peace. He had never before this felt so tranquil, so complete, so perfectly in key, as he heard-without-hearing the blessings of the breeze, '... I believe you will bring balance to the Force. That you will face your demons, and save the universe.'

Outro - Epic Force Theme Compilation