Jedi Insurgency 206

After finishing dinner with Jax & Madine, Corvus had instructed his student to go have fun without him, as he had something to do. That ‘something’ was meditation. He figured that if any weird phenomena occurred due to honing in on the Shadow Wrath State, it was best not to cause trouble on the Falcon whilst it was in hyperspace. 

Following the call of the Force, he let it direct him towards a spot that felt like it was the ‘most correct’ place to meditate. That feeling had led him to the very top of this city's tallest building, that is, to the top of the Imperial garrison. 

Using his invisibility, [Shadow Hop] & [Mind Trick] he easily bypassed the security personnel, and made it to the top of the tower with ease. Aaand if he just so happened to slice some terminals, and inject malware into a few intranets along the way, who was to say? But those anti-Imperial actions could wait for the day of the Eclipse, he was here for something more important. 

Raising the percentage for his quest. 

[Class Promotion Quest

Master of Shadow: 

-25% All stats & abilities. 

10/10 Defeat mirrored self 

0/1 Witness an Eclipse

0/100% Meditate on the Shadow Wrath State

Rewards: Shadow Wrath State

Jedi Master (mid)] 

Atop the spire, he had the perfect view of this megalopolis. Different compared to the cluttered mess of Nar Shaddaa, or the impossibly compact Coruscant, Gyndine was perfectly gridlike in construction, and based upon the spacing, and angle of the buildings, it was clear that this city was built to withstand a siege. Skybridges created natural chokepoints, and three deep chasms acting as motes separated the city into several distinct parts. Sieging this planet was going to be a major pain in the ass if he ever chose to take this route during his Coreward crusades. 

Clicking his tongue, he took a moment to admire the passing hover cars, and feel the breeze lightly ruffle his robe. The setting sun hovered on the horizon. This molten sphere of amber and crimson that stretched every shadow in the city to impossible lengths. Corvus figured it was this dichotomy between light, and dark that the Force had brought him here. 

Sitting cross-legged upon a narrow duracrete platform that looked like something Spiderman or Batman might brood upon, he opened himself up to the Force, attempting to harmonize with the planet of Gyndine, as well as this combination of sun & shadow. 

He breathed slowly.

In.

Out.

A small amount of shadow-like living flames-coated his exterior. He had unconsciously found himself looking like this many times in the past when threatening others, or expressing a cold emotion. 

During his forced recruitment of Xizor, and Hondo, as well as his death defying duel against the Rakatan in the mind prison. Corvus was not new to this experience, however, little did he know that when his people were in danger, this common sheen of shadow that coated him would erupt into something extraordinary. 

Intense emotions amongst Force Sensitives commonly unlocked hidden potential that remained dormant. Obi-Wan, for example, defeated Darth Maul in the Phantom Menace when his Master, Qui’Gon was defeated. Likewise, Luke unleashed his potential against Vader in Episode VI when the Dark Lord suggested he'd train Leia instead. 

When Corvus had seen the Bad Batch lying there dead, he had snapped. This otherwise innocuous intimidating form had morphed into the Shadow Wrath State, nearly claiming his own life once he took it too far. Like a car running on improper fuel, his body had become wrecked due to overuse. Now that he was in a safe location, he was ready to tease the secrets of the Shadow Wrath State out of the Force, and finally upgrade to a proper Jedi Master. 

The dying sunlight brushed across his mask and shoulders, painting him in warm gold. Behind him the sky deepened into violet and indigo. The first faint stars began to twinkle on the horizon. 

And beneath him, the shadows grew ever longer. Every building in the city cast a dark blade across the streets. They stretched and overlapped, weaving together into an enormous tapestry of darkness. From above, the city looked like a living mosaic of light and shadow.

He allowed the Force to flow through him, not as a current to control, but as an ocean to float within. A true Je'daii was not Sith, and did not seek to dominate. As someone who believed the Force was in everything, and everyone was part of the Force, why try to swim upstream, when he could go with the flow? 

The Light Side brushed against his awareness, a luminous giggle caressed his cheek. It existed in every living thing moving below: the laughter of civilians in the plazas, the quiet determination of workers finishing their shifts, the flicker of hope carried by the Rebellion’s hidden cells scattered through the world. Even Imperial loyalists, and their dedication to make the galaxy a better place entered his awareness. Their hopes and dreams completed one half of the puzzle. It was because of their light-so dazzling, so bright-that the contrast became all that much starker. 

An old lady's fear that she couldn't pay her rent wafted up from the megalopolis like a pungent odor. The punches traded between spouses and bitter resentment that followed was a cold breath to his lungs. Hatred, jealousy, lust & greed taken to the extreme. The totality of unhealthy excess met his senses as he opened himself up to the ugly truth of humanity. His experience on Tatooine had tempered him, and this level of darkness did not sway him, or threaten to take him down whatsoever. Although each of these experiences was inhaled into his psyche as if he had lived them personally, his will had grown too strong to fall to their negativity. 

Like an ancient monk, he let loose with a wordless hymn, mimicking the sound of the kyber crystal caverns on Illum. His own azure kyber crystal hummed along with him, joining him on this adventure. The stars shone brighter and brighter, whilst the noise of the tens of millions that called this city home receded into the background. In his minds eye, the buildings started to lose shape, and became amorphous blobs, just another piece in this grand tapestry known as the universe. That he himself was but a grain of dust compared to the Infinite cosmos of the Force. 

The Force deepened and hummed along with him, showing him visions of what could be or could have been. Past, present, future…time itself seemed to blur into nothingness as he embraced this ephemeral experience. 

His breathing slowed further, until each inhale seemed to stretch across minutes. The wind faded from his perception. The noise of the city dimmed until it was little more than a distant vibration.

Something in him seemed to change, and those roiling shadows coating his form suddenly went completely still. The shadows beneath the buildings then seemed to move, as if they were an extension of his limbs. 

They lengthened further, stretching across the surface of the city like veins spreading through stone. At the same time, the last rays of sunlight struck the glass towers around him, scattering beams of gold in every direction.

Light and shadow touched.

Where they met, something extraordinary occurred.

Corvus felt the currents of the Force twist together in harmony. For a brief, breathtaking instant, the Force seemed to dissolve, and then reforge itself under the melody of Light & Dark. 

His awareness expanded outward, the shadows of the buildings were like his limbs, allowing him to see the everyday lives of the people. He watched a girl grow, marry, have children, and die. 

A man went to college, and Corvus saw three branches of shadows pulling in three directions. One pulled him towards a stable job, another an angry wife, the last was a room full of empty bottles. This vision of the man felt as if it were in the present, that Corvus could follow any one of these branches, and he could predict his future paths. Yet this ephemeral fugue was too difficult to control-as he was going with the flow-and drifted past this man & woman's entire lives in mere seconds before his consciousness had gone elsewhere. 

The city disappeared as his mind wandered outward. Like zooming out in a videogame, he was suddenly observing Gyndine from space. Everything was greyscale, and countless webs of shadow interconnected ships, people, and well everything! 

The planet then disappeared, zooming out to make room for the star system, and then the cosmos at large. Corvus drifted through an endless ocean of starlight. The Force flowed around him like something alive, filling him with distant echoes of the past and future. He sensed threads of destiny stretching across the galaxy, the fates of countless lives intersecting, colliding, and diverging. 

War.

Hope.

Betrayal.

Love.

All of it part of a single living tapestry.

At the center of that vast web, he felt something ancient watching him. Several somethings as a matter of fact. Just at the edge of his periphery:

A dark cloud expanding endlessly. 

A ocean current ebbing & flowing.

A gear ticking like a clock. 

A withered branch. 

A pure black sarcophagus. 

A fading blue light. 

A endless hunger. 

A patient chessboard.

A burning familiar symbol.

A resigned persistence. 

And a red mountain billowing black smoke. 

These ten great presences were not the only powerful thoughts he sensed, but they were the most active. In this grand tapestry, there were even dozens who, like him, had joined this grand game known as fate. The future, past, and present, all could be seen once one entered the current of the Living Force. 

Corvus remained still, pulling upon his Jedi Shadow prestige class to remain hidden from these inquiring gazes. For a moment, one impossibly long moment, it felt as though the Force itself regarded him with quiet curiosity.

Then the sensation faded, and reality rushed back into place. A blast of cool wind returned Corvus to his senses. The distant hum of speeders along with the murmur of the city below entered his ears. The sun had nearly vanished now, leaving only a sliver of burning red along the horizon.

Corvus slowly opened his eyes, and looked up towards the vast void of space feeling both complicated at the situation he found himself in, and awe at this new door he had inadvertently discovered. 

He remained seated atop the tower for a long while, silent and contemplative, watching as day surrendered to night. Corvus exhaled quietly, and continued to brood deep into the late midnight hour. 

Where the sun had once burned on the horizon, only a faint scarlet memory remained. The skyscrapers of Gyndine had become black silhouettes against the stars, their countless windows glowing like constellations scattered across the surface of the world.

Ever since dusk until midnight, Corvus had not moved an inch. And his panel proved this was the correct decision, as part two of the quest currently sat at 50%/100%. Still seated cross-legged atop the tower, he sank deeper into meditation, allowing the Force to carry him further than before. 

He had come to connect with shadows to help boost his understanding of the Shadow Wrath State. The Force had taken him to a place of both light and dark. Corvus had chosen to remain in place, because night time was in fact, when the shadow of the planet was cast! There were seldom any larger shadows than that of an entire planet! As such, he had remained in place. 

At first, the serenity of the moment had remained. The quiet breathing, the endless ocean of life beneath him. All was calm. 

But balance was a delicate thing.

The deeper he reached into the currents of the Force, the more the harmony he had felt at sunset began to shift. The Light that had flowed through the city had dimmed as most people went to sleep. In its absence, something colder stirred.

He felt the hidden fears of the city. The silent resentments. The quiet cruelty that passed between strangers. The simmering anger beneath Imperial rule. All the countless shadows carried inside the hearts of living beings. The Dark Side did not roar like some Sith berserker. 

It whispered.

A slow, coiling pressure pressed against the edges of his awareness as he followed the currents downward. The Force became heavier here, thick like deep water.

Corvus did not recoil or suddenly pull away. He had walked these depths before. His consciousness sank further, exploring the unseen layers beneath the galaxy’s living surface. 

Ancient echoes brushed against him. Of the wars fought here long ago between the Jedi & Sith. For a moment, he witnessed an epic clash between Exar Kun and six Jedi Masters. Their powers were so extraordinary, it made what he had accomplished up until this point appear no more impactful than a toddler trying to push his dad over. Exar Kun's speed, his bladework, it was phenomenal. And the Jedi were not weak either, they brought down Force Judgement in waves, the link they shared in Battle Meditation made them fight as one organism. For a time, he was enraptured, losing himself to this epic duel. 

Then, something shifted. It was subtle, a disturbance so faint that most Jedi would have missed it entirely.

But Corvus did not miss it.

For a moment, he had the unmistakable sensation that he was no longer alone within the current.

Something had noticed him. The feeling was difficult to describe. It was not a presence like another mind. Not a creature, but a spirit. As if the darkness itself had turned its gaze toward him. Corvus’s breathing slowed even further.

He did not panic.

He simply observed.

The sensation grew clearer the deeper he pressed into the mystery. The Dark Side stretched outward like an endless abyss, ancient and patient. Somewhere within that vast depth, something vast and unknowable seemed to acknowledge his presence.

It was the burning symbol from earlier. One he recognized as being the mark of the Dark Lord of the Sith! 

It was watching.

Waiting.

Corvus felt no hostility, but he sensed something much more concerning. 

An invitation. 

If he reached any further, If he pushed even a fraction deeper into that abyss…he might not return. And for the first time in a very long while, Corvus felt something resembling caution. He allowed the current to hold him there for a moment longer, standing on the edge of that immeasurable gulf.

Then, as if drawn in by a tractorbeam, he felt like he was being forced to connect to that invite. That he would have to meet this powerful being for a talk. 

At that moment, light touched his eyelids. Three moons had risen above the horizon of Gyndine. Their silver glow washed across the city like cool water, spilling over rooftops and streets and towers alike. The pale lunar light reached the crown of the tower and settled over Corvus’s still form, breaking him out of this strange meditation, and saving him from an unwanted conversation that he might be unable to escape from. 

Corvus’s breathing returned to normal, and the ancient echoes of Exar Kun faded as the city came back into focus.

For a long time, he said nothing, and stared up at the trio of moons, saying his thanks to both them, and the Force for rescuing him. 

Then he exhaled softly through his mask.

The Force held many mysteries. Some were meant to be explored. Others were meant to be ignored. He, better than anyone else, was aware of what horrors were spread throughout the universe. To pursue the truth, one must be mentally prepared, for the abyss might just take an interest in you. 

[100/100%] Meditate on the Shadow Wrath State. 

~~~~~~~~~~

AN: Man, I love the Force. It's so mystical, but also really scary! Typical saber monkeys will never understand how awesome the universe really is. Fighting over floating rocks & gaseous spheres when the Force is so much more. 

Anyway, those great powers are all the end game power levels awake atm btw. Yoda, Palpatine, and Vader are all up there. Care to guess who the rest could be? Three of them are on Team Good Guys. I think the sarcophagus & branch should be easy to guess. (I won’t be including the Father, Son, or Daughter as participants in this story, fyi so don't bother including them in your list~).