The next source for my Star Wars Chronology Project brings me back to a familiar text: Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force. In this mine of Jedi information we once again engage with the Tedryn holocron, but this time with the words of Jedi Master Vodo-Siosk Bass, and addendum’s by Tionne Solusar.
Master Bass succinctly summates the events of the Sith War, and recounts his own interaction and involvement in it. He comments that his former student, Exar Kun, formed his own version of the Jedi Code, and distorted what the Jedi knew to be true and right.
As I was reading this, it made me think of the Council of Trent after the Protestant reformation, and it made of think of Master Bass in the same way as one of the Cardinal defenders of the Catholic Church. In the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church clarified their doctrinal teachings after Martin Luther called into question some of their practices (and rightfully so). Here, Master Bass says (speaking of Exar Kun): “He imitated the ways of the long-fallen Sith and used then to form his own philosophy of the Jedi Code, a distortion of all we know to be true and right”. It’s his use of the words “true and right” which rang out to me here, and I almost got the sense that Master Bass felt the need to reiterate some of the Jedi teachings in light of Exar Kun’s doctrinal damage, and promises of “ancient secrets revealed”.
From a purely textual point of view, Exar Kun’s new philosophy or interpretation of the Jedi Code is never laid out. As a matter of fact, in the SWCP I have yet to come across a textual etching of the Jedi Code at all. I’m sure it has been reference in the source material I’ve looked at thus far, but an actual textual codification is still absent. It’s my hope that I come across such a thing in my travels along the road of Star Wars history.
Bass asserts that Kun claimed for himself the title of the first Dark Lords of the Sith, but we now know that the first Dark Lord of the Sith on record was Marka Ragnos, (the Master of Naga Sadow) or arguably even before that Ajunta Pall – the first “Dark Jedi” to lead and take command of the Sith people. Exar Kun was obviously not the first ‘Dark Lords of the Sith’, but he was the first to appropriate the title after the Great Hyperspace War.
Though Vodo Siosk Bass was slain by his former apprentice, (and Bass makes reference to his “failure” here in the holocron’s recordings) it seems his consciousness was contained within the Tedryn holocron, similar in fashion to the way that Exar Kun infused his spirit within the frame of the temples he erected on Yavin 4.
In the holocron, Bass makes note of two significant events to occur during the Sith War, and events I myself glossed over in my last post. I’ll address these events now.
The first was Kun’s ability to use his Sith powers to recruit Jedi apprentices to the darkside (which I made reference to), and then dispatch them to assassinate their former Masters (which I did not). Kun was mostly successful in this plot, but failed in killing Master Thon using the hands of Oss Wilum.
The second significant event was using Naga Sadow's former Sith flagship, and using the darkside witch Aleema to initiate its powers, to destroy the ten suns of the Cron cluster, thus creating a massive shockwave to ripple through the universe, destroying many worlds, including Ossus, and leaving in ruin the home of the Jedi and the seat of Jedi knowledge.
At the end of this source we are left with Tionne Solusar’s addenda to Master Bass’. She commented on the Jedi chasing Kun to Yavin 4, and Kun placing his disembodied consciousness within his temple. She also commented on Nomi Sunrider’s “most unusual” Force ability to strip a Jedi of his powers. This makes me think that I may not come across another such incident of this again if in 40 ABY a Jedi historian is referring to this as “most unusual” ability. It also makes me appreciate even more how powerful a Jedi Nomi Sunrider was, as well as the Master she learned the ability from, Odan-Urr.
I am nearly at the end of this particular time frame in Star Wars chronology, as I have only one more source to examine. Joe Bongiomo, in his chronology, makes reference again to Knights of the Old Republic #33, but it’s a flash-back, and I’m going to deal with that text when I get to it.
For my next post I’ll be going to Star Wars Galaxy Magazine, issue #13, and a story called Jedi Protector. Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment