SithLore

***Uncharted Moon, Gordian Reach, Sith-Occupied Space***

It was ridiculous. At this point Sa’ato was beginning to think he’d been had. He had followed the strange woman and met her betters only to be confronted with religion, not answers. This was no science he knew, nor cared to. And yet, scan after scan had explained none of his strange dreams of late. He was not going mad, not suffering dementia, but still the feverish visions came and went, night after night. Heaving a sigh, the Neti sauntered amidst the tall grasses scattered across the foreign system, and weighed his options. At the very least, he had to try.

He glanced at the bushes, the treetops, and the sun. The academic scowled. The old myths promised prescience beyond any computer. He wanted to glance at that celestial form and know its temperature, its distance from this planetoid, how old it was. The longer he watched the heavenly sphere, the more it sunk toward the horizon, and the more aggravated he became. Fuming and stamping his feet into the damp earth, Sa’ato exhaled shakily, and attempted to settle his nerves. One… two… three… five… seven…

[Begin Force Sensitivity Application]

And then, something curious happened. The sun’s light pierced the canopy of the trees and shone onto the Neti’s torso. A strange heat began to overtake him. Looking down at his hands, it felt as if the very points of his tendrils were numbing. This was not simply the sensation of nourishment: it was something more. Working to steady his breathing, the professor resumed his count: eleven… thirteen… seventeen… nineteen- Sa’ato paused. The heat he felt before had cooled. No, it had migrated. It was as if someone had sewn a powerlamp into his chest. The sensation- the unknowable energy quickly traveled up his limbs, and soon it was as if the light from a moment before was bursting out from the Neti’s bark. Gasping in spite of himself, Sa’ato expanded his arms and tested their locomotion. He could feel warmth, the light, this metaphysical thing encasing him, like a bubble. The Neti pinched his wrist, then clapped both hands over his face. Even with his vision obscured, the feeling remained, the bubble was still intact...

[End Application, 176 Words]

Exhaling enthusiastically, Sa’ato looked up at the forest beyond, and broke off into a sprint. He ran for some time, not giving a care to the fading light, and only stopping when a modest strain overtook his limbs. Finally, looking about, the Neti saw nothing but trees and long shadows falling all around him. He was perfectly lost, just as he intended. Producing a sustained exhale, the cautious academic extended both arms out in an attempt to locate the edge of his unseen energy field. Only with firm concentration did the sense of a boundary return.

[Begin Sense Level One Application]

Maintain the feeling. Travel an inch beyond your fingers. Then two, then three. Sa’ato was not sure if he had willfully closed his eyes, or if they had slid shut of their own accord. His gaze darkened, something like an itch drew him off to the right. The blind walk tested his nerves, but each step was met with solid ground. The itch grew into an excitable tingling. The Neti all but cried out in surprise as some unseen bubble of electrons and other particulates sizzled against his own. Not daring to look at what lay before him, the professor carefully extended a hand, until his fingers brushed against some moist bulbous pod. Retching slightly on the off chance it was some toad or other unclean thing, the wandering teacher sighed with contentment as the familiar texture of flower petals slowly unfolded into the palm of his hand.

Chuckling contentedly, Sa’ato released the bloom and opened his arms wider with emboldened vigor. A new sensation was prickling at the nape of his neck, and the Neti wasted no time in spinning about to seek it out. The aged academic was therefore quite shocked when he walked straight into a nearby tree trunk and nearly fell backward. Snarling as he regained control of his senses, the professor drew his limbs back together and sought to regain his focus. Stepping forward once again, the wandering initiate felt for the edge of his extrasensory bubble and worked to track the oncoming flicker of phenomena.

First a sense of direction. Cardinal. An angle, just above the head. And movement. But what of the shape? Sa’ato clenched his eyelids more tightly in a bid to concentrate further. Its size seemed to alter and bend about at will. Was it a flock of gadflies? Leaves hanging low from a branch? A spiderweb? Finally, the Neti received an answer as a fierce wind shrieked into his ears and buffeted his body. With a contented smile, Sa’ato strove to catch the updraft with his thoughts, as if some fragment of his mind was being willfully tugged into the air. For a precious few moments, it was as if he had become very breeze itself; atmospheric pressure nudging at the Neti like an animal’s pulse, the trees dancing and bending as his captive consciousness soared back toward the sky. And yet the further the gust traveled, the weaker the academic’s bearings became, until at last he could hang on no further.

[End Application, 412 Words]

Opening his eyes, Sa’ato found he was still standing firmly on the ground. Blinking and looking from side to side, the Neti paused and looked down at his hands. In a rare mood, he was bristling and shivering about with excitement. The professor allowed for another slight laugh, before marching briskly onward. The out-of-body awareness was there, but clearly it required nurturing, conscious development. Even then, it would not serve to close one eyes every time to accomplish such deeds. The sun was quickly setting. Sa’ato knew he would have to be on guard for any creatures skulking around in the twilight. But for his purposes, he hoped something would find him soon.

[Begin Life Sense Application]

Dropping his limbs down a few inches out from his waist, Sa’ato extended sinuous fingers and grimaced while attempting to center himself once more. Slowly, the bubble of his own perspective, his ego made manifest, began to inflate and extend out in front and above him. He saw the plants and knew them to be alive, but something like a static charge now prickled his core as he sent his thoughts in their general direction. The Neti glanced down to his feet. Light tremors seemed to vibrate the earth beneath him as he willed his way down one foot, then two. This was no tectonic illusion however. A myriad of energy swelled and pulsed just out of sight, but was illuminated in the professor’s mind. Insects perhaps, or the microscopic craning of roots. He was not certain, though he did wonder if removing his shoes would allow for greater accuracy. Sa’ato was about to move on when he stopped short. Something akin to a whisper slithered past his ear. Had he imagined it? No. A heady heat not unlike his own tickled at the academic’s side. A sphere of rippling energy was sauntering toward him. The professor quickly turned on a dime, poised to strike at whatever it might be, but was struck dumb by the beast that stood before him. A stag, the likes of which he had never seen. Its fur and antlers glistened with some manner of bioluminescence, and it looked upon the Neti with what he guessed might have been intrigue. Yes, curiosity, and caution. The thump-thump of a heartbeat rang in Sa’ato’s head. He had no such organ, and stared in amazement as the creature took a step closer. A tempest of unnamable emotion overcame the academic as he could feel the outer edge of his very essence fizzle and mix with the aura of the stag. It continued to walk forward, and Neti felt he could duplicate the force of each of its proud steps with the flick of a wrist. Soon the two were inches apart, and the professor all but left his own form. His disembodied presence watched the duo stand in unison, and for an indeterminate time he was unsure who was looking in on who. Finally, the shrill cry of a bird spooked the beast and sent it galloping away, leaving Sa’ato alone with his bewildered thoughts.

[End Application, 397 Words]

Night had finally cast its shroud over the landscape, and having recovered from his previous encounter, Sa’ato heaved a sigh at the task laid before him. He would have to find his way back to shelter, and in the encroaching darkness no less. Shrugging his shoulders with palpable annoyance, the Neti sought to find a direction where the canopy of trees were more open, and set out in search of some astral marker to lead his way.

[Begin Sense Force Disturbance Application]

The longer the professor walked, the more a sense of nauseous unease slowed his progress. Though the air had been perfectly dry a moment ago, now it weighed heavy upon the man as if he were in a synthsauna. It was not just the air that was bogged down either. Sa’ato found that lifting one foot after the next was growing tiresome, as if someone had strapped so much duracrete to his shoulders. No, that wasn’t wholly true. The professor’s mind, in cruder terms, his soul was being tugged up and out the top of his head, while his body struggled to compensate. His thoughts began to drift once more, this time toward the heavens. His senses spun round and around, and his body followed suit as a marionette on a string. Now true moisture stuck to him, at least the sensation of a fluid did. Clouds that looked a lifetime away flew rapidly towards the academic’s dissociated gaze. He heard his own cry of surprise, but did not feel it burst free of his lips. He was caught in some great gyre of wind and atmospheric entropy. Round and round Sa’ato went, the very idea of a solid existence shredding away from his being as he neared the center of a building cyclone. Stray, forgotten thoughts plinked down towards the surface of the moon, shards of the Neti’s spirits all but encapsulated in a haze of rain. Then he shrieked so loudly it nearly broke him from the sky's embrace. A fire welled within him. Fire which he feared. Fire that he hated. His cloud-form shuddered and rolled outward with agony and wayward enthusiasm. At last, a relay to his grounded, defunct mind: move. Move now, run. Time slowed as Sa’ato worked to draw his mind back to his idling body, his legs pumping in slow motion until a horrific burst of lightning struck the ground he had stood upon only moments before, and sent him rolling down onto the dirt. Groaning, the Neti sat up from where he lay, and marveled speechless at the small, smoldering crater that hissed before him.

[End Application, 353 Words]

---MORABAND, ORBITAL

The call of the Dark Side of the Force had always been intriguing to the Lord of the Sith. Never had he left a curious measure of its girth unchecked and this was no different. His ship continued to sail through the sea of stars unopposed and in utter silence. Breaking away from the atmosphere of Moraband and cruising through the array of defensive platforms the Specter wasted no time in orienting towards one of Moraband’s seven moons. As the craft soared in closer Tormentous could feel the growing sensations given off by another Force Adept and he knew in this very moment that he was on the right track. Running the business of an Empire often made him miss these exciting moments in time when he would come to find a new Acolyte or even miss entirely one’s training. It was regular occurrence, but today perhaps he would be able to meet this one and seek out the potential in his heart.

The Sith Infiltrator landed in an open field and he scanned the area as he descended the ramp. Sith Eradicator Armor shone in the light of the descending sun whilst his cape waved gently in the wind. Sword at his back, he stood and looked around for a house or outbuilding - anything. Yet he found none. His brow furrowed. Had his senses misled him? Preposterous. The Dark Side did not dare to lie to him lest he punish it. Even the Force feared his wake often times and he would not suffer its games. Not only once before had he torn open the Force itself and rent it harmed - the Thought Bomb was a severe technique and as unnatural as it went to the Sith.

No - his trail was accurate and he was in the right place.

His senses reached out and he started walking in the direction of his interest and it seemed he would walk a mile or more into these woods before coming unto a small glade of meadow grass and blooming flowers. A tree stood in the middle of the glade and once more Tormentous felt frustration at not finding anyone of significance.

Still his senses spoke to him that this tree - even as poorly looking as it was - held a portion of the significance he sought. With a gruff retort he stomped over the grasses and approached the tall looking tree-thing. “So this is what I came all this way for? Perhaps it would make a nice chair or a table.”

With one broad finger he jousted the tree in the middle to test and see if the thing was a hardy oak or something rotten and pitiful.

Sa’ato was enjoying a most pleasant slumber when the voice brought him out of his rejuvenation process. The firm prodding of a sharp finger then dispelled any notion of further rest. Sa’ato stood tall in his reduced state for a few moments, weighing his options as to how to make his appearance. He could increase in height comparative to one of the neighboring trees for a little pomp and circumstance, but quickly scrapped this idea. He had nothing to prove, and everything to gain by avoiding a hostile reaction.

So it was that the Neti slowly expanded and unwound but his grim audience, his head steadily gaining definition as weather branches grew out like strands of hair. All the while, his limbs spiraled down toward the earth as his trunk bisected and raised the academic onto sturdy legs. In the end, the professor stood but a half foot taller than his perceptive visitor, and for that he was grateful. It took only a momentary glance to size up the situation. “I believe”, Sa’ato announced in a gravely tone as he sunk down onto one knee before the armored figure, “This is how one greets his betters in this quadrant of the Galaxy”.

Tormentous, the Dark One himself, was not usually taken off guard. It was the nature of the Sith and his role in them to always be aware and prepared for anything at any time. Yet Tormentous was not so much frightened as it had startled him in utter disbelief. At first his instinct spoke to him that it was Sithspawn. Surely the creatures of the Dark Side could take any shape and size. An item of shrubbery included. Though still there was more as this creature thing arose from naught but a stump and displayed itself in humanoid form. Honestly, Tormentous was surprised in these events. He had never seen such a creature before nor knew of its existence.

It knelt before him after delivering in slow speech a gesture of good faith. Tormentous trolled once around the thing with an inquisitive eye. Marvelous. How such a thing could exist baffled the mind. But here it was before him as such as the dirt was beneath him.

“Arise,” he boomed and so when the tree took a height of over seven standard feet tall he kept his excitement down but only just. The potential this shape shifting form presented was as wide of girth as the imagination could fathom. He wasn’t so arrogant to ask the creature if he knew who he was and so he delivered an introduction. “I am Darth Tormentous, Lord of everything you see before you. You are within my domain which implies you also fall under this commitment. Tell me,” he paused looking for a proper noun or pronoun with which to address his new finding, he failed and so he continued without, “what is it that you are? I can sense a deep connection to the Force within you, are you capable of tapping into it and wielding it as well?”

The questionnaire flowed forth and by the end of it Tormentous would have a grasp of exactly whom and to what this creature was and as well its purpose and talents. He was very much interested. Be the tree a warrior or an academic - the Red Cauldron was in great need of him and the Dark One would see to it that his potential be fulfilled.

The academic did not need to be told to stand a second time. In spite of the height difference, the professor stood over the inquisitive Sith once more, and began to put his queries to rest, “Greetings Exalted One, I am Sa’ato Mors. My species is that of the Neti”. Sa’ato paused for a moment, his hairless brows shifting some as he weighed his next response, “For many years, I was a scholar. This energy field is new to me- this ‘Force’ of yours. Slowly, I am beginning to understand, but I must learn more”.

Scanning the Dark Lord freely up and down, the Neti crossed his arms pensively and tapped tendrils against his elbow. “In five hundred years of life I have read about many of your kind, but never met one in the flesh”, the professor continued, having addressed Tormentous’s immediate concerns, “I cannot say I am disappointed. I’ve encountered much of your doings in the holopapers as of late”. Sa’ato frowned briefly, and inclined his head to better meet the Sith’s gaze, “I am no soldier, but if required, I will fight for you. I will devote all of my skills and expertise to your cause- all I request in return is the host of your knowledge”.

“Neti,” he repeated in wonder.

“I would learn of your species another time. Sooner than later. For now,” he stepped back from the Neti and reached behind him over his shoulder. His gauntlet gripped about the tightly bound silver twine over leather, it creaked to his grip and soon as the physical touch was made the Dark Side of the Force seemed to quiver in delight. The Jidai Maras came free of its’ clasp housing and he drew it with a flourish ending the movement with the blade aimed downwards - with one swift motion he shunted the blade deep into the ground enough that the heavy steel would be supported. He released his hold over the sword and once he did the whispers of the Dark Side’s temptation could likely be heard by those who could hear it

“Allow me then, Neti, to make good on my end.”

“Whatever you may or may not know of the Force. There are elements that are blatant lies, and there are truths alike. Nothing that you have ever heard is entirely false - or true. Listen well and I will give you the knowledge you seek.” He stepped away from his sword and the whispers seemed to grow with intensity. The sword did not like to be left without. “All things are given an energy field. You, me,” he pointed, “the rock, the ground itself,” he did not point at his sword specifically - the Jidai Maras was set there as a trap, a distraction for the Neti to decipher for himself. The pull of the Dark Side of the Force was within that sword and it could do great and terrible things to get its way. Should Sa’ato overcome, then he would learn much this day through a lesson in the act of listening to Tormentous as well as simply surviving the presence of such a dangerous Sith Warblade.

“Our energy fields encompass our influence within the Force. My energy field shall dwarf yours. Yours shall dwarf the rock. Each energy field holds a current - the manner and way in which the Force may flow. You may perceive this differently. Yet the basics are the same. I see the Force’s flow as directional. The majority flows around me naturally in a clockwise fashion, when I call upon it the flow shifts and absorbs or flows into me through conduits,” he opened and closed his hands as a representation. “It is stored deep within you for whatever use that you see fit.”

“This is a lesson in simplicity. We must all learn to stand up before we take our first steps.”

He balled his fists up and planted them on his hips. “There are many ways to connect with the Force. Even for a Sith we must often times take a moment and silence ourselves. This is meditation. You likely know it well. You will silence your thoughts and silence your questions - listen, and see. All that is required of you is that you feel the Force. This is muscle memory, touching the foundations is the basis of harnessing power and knowledge alike. Close your eyes and seek out your energy field, recognize this and even touch upon it as you will. You can not break it or disrupt it so do as you will. Once you’ve identified the energy surrounding you, begin to draw it within you, utilize and concentrate on the conduits, bring the Force within you - find increase. In moments you shall learn your potency has increased itself - the Force shall begin to answer you faster, you need not concentrate on it as much - these things may harken the eve of knowledge without use of a physical library but rather the reality that you’ve always known yet did not realize before until now.”

---BEGIN FORCE LEVEL 2 - 200 WORDS

Though such monastic practices were not in his nature, Sa’ato did as the Dark Lord bid. Sitting down and crossing his legs, the Neti sent oxygen-rich breath out through taut nostrils as he expanded his thoughts and allowed the neighboring fields of energy to travel down through his mind like a funnel. Birds, insects, wheatgrass, the tiniest spark of the Force in these things registered behind the academic’s closed eyes as inscrutable runes of light and jagged edges of color. There was magnetism too. The pulse of energy that put momentum into the wind, the wriggling rays of the sun which danced at the Force’s vibration, only recently revealed to the doubtful professor. And below his earthbound limbs, a stirrance, faint enough to contest the drop of a feather. The phantom twitch of tectonics, Sa’ato supposed. But there was so much more to imbibe within the periphery of his own spark of life. The unique signature of Tormentous was like a tumultuous cloud. The blackness of the Neti's eyelids seemed doubly opaque as he leveled his mind in the Darth’s direction. Worse still was the sword. It hummed- no, it whispered to Sa’ato with a shrill, insectoid cacophony of voices. It was like an implosion happening in real time. The academic was overcome with emotion. Pained memories of fire and flights of despair caused him to grimace and shiver about as his ego was stretched thin, the cruel blade, for all attempts and purposes, seemed to be dragging his soul from Sa’ato’s body bit by bit. Growling with defiance and a flash of fear, the professor willed his eyes open, and stared dumbfounded at his hooded instructor. He was walking into something far more complex than flowers and the local weather.

[End Application Force Level 2, 291 Words]