The questions and the answers

[greyerrant]

[ A video post to the COMP network ]

[ Garviel stares into the screen for a moment his helm removed, his expression... pensive. ]

What defines humanity? At what point is someone so altered they are no longer human, and what emotions can we lose before are are not even remotely humane? I am curious.

Comments

[echo_of_a_jedi]

That's as good a compliment as I could have asked for, then.

[greyerrant]

I miss him.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

I noticed. You two fought side-by-side for quite a while, huh?

[greyerrant]

Over a century.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

That is quite a while.

He...fell in that place you mentioned before, right? Istvaan?

[greyerrant]

Yes. My friend Aximand killed him.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

I take it you're not friends with Aximand anymore.

[greyerrant]

No. But I think I still pity him. Abaddon was always a butcher, Aximand was a thinker. I believe events may have conspired to force him into acts he had no real desire to commit. I saw the grief in his face as he slew Torgaddon.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

There are people I wish I could say for certain even that much about...

[greyerrant]

Betrayal is always cruel to us. That is why it is considered the greatest crime of all, by me and mine.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

The most dangerous person I ever met called herself the Lord of Betrayal.

She was...well, she betrayed me, obviously. She betrayed everyone, and everyone betrayed her. I like to think I was the only one who didn't, but then again I'm the one who rejected her teachings and killed her. I'm just not sure if that's what she wanted in the first place.

She was an extremely confusing person.

[greyerrant]

That sounds like.... stories I have read. Of beings who scheme, and scheme, and betray everyone, in the end, they even betray themselves. The question is more if you survived without... being tainted by the experience.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

Every experience changes who we are. But if you mean falling to the Dark Side, I'm not showing any of the typical signs or attitude changes, as far as I can tell, nor am I as likely as Kreia was to up and murder people for a philosophical point.

Still, it's not like one can really trust a self-assessment of their own mental state. If I had fallen to the Dark Side, I wouldn't likely be able to even tell until I looked back on my actions objectively.

[greyerrant]

Tell me more of this... dark side.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

Well, let's see if I can sum up in a way that's not misleading...

The Force is the energy that connects and binds all living things. Everyone and everything is connected, to some degree or another, to everything else. This isn't just a metaphor; with the right potential and training, it's possible to see and feel and use this connection.

Those people with a strong connection to the Force can use it to gain insight or influence toward something else, or even over themselves. When I fight, or when I try to get a feel for someone else's emotions or a glimpse of the future, I'm listening to the Force, or using the Force to push my body to things it wouldn't normally be able to do. Are you with me so far?

[greyerrant]

[ Loken nods his head, face hard, and showing very little, though there is something almost like disgust in his eyes.]

Go on.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

The Force is connected deeply to the mind and personality of anyone who tries to use it. In general, the Force...seems to want to be used for the good of the Universe in general. Lightly, unobtrusively, and for the sake of the continuation of life. To do this, the Jedi traditionally cultivate a balanced and detached emotional state, especially whenever we're actively using the Force. Peace and serenity rather than emotion and passion.

There are, however, other ways to use the Force. Strong, violent emotions, selfish desires, the desire for death and destruction are common to almost all living things. When someone uses the Force in tandem with strong emotions like anger, fear, or aggression, they can be much more powerful, but it comes at a cost. Twisting the Force, a universal entity, for your own personal feelings or selfish needs is a corruption of it, and people who do so become corrupt in turn.

This is the Dark Side of the Force - power and strength at the cost of corrupting your mind and even body into something hateful toward life and peace. It's like spice - an addiction. Sacrifice your morals for the sake of yourself and you gain a little power, and next time it becomes much easier to do the same thing, and then again, until - if you don't check your advance down this path - you're left with nothing but your basest instincts and petty needs, and a massive power you can only use to destroy.

[She pauses.]

Of course, sometimes it's more complicated than that, but that's the general idea of what happens. It's why I try not to act out of selfishness or commit violence out of anger, and if I do, I never drag the Force along with me. It's a dangerous road that's lured too many people I once cared about.

[greyerrant]

It sounds disturbingly like the warp, the base emotions and impulses that spring from death and the loss of loyalty.

All in all though, it sounds very close to warp, with the dark side being the emanations of chaos. There is a reason the Emperor decreed only sanctioned psykers would use it, after Nikaea, and bound the Librarians of the legion to not use their gifts. For their corruption was far too dangerous.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

The Jedi Order tried imposing strict rules on the use of the Force, our lives, and everything we did in an effort to eliminate the use of the Dark Side. Still, members of the Order defied it and fell to the Dark Side's lure. Sometimes they were defeated and recovered their sanity, sometimes they weren't. The toll taken by the people who assumed the name of "Sith" has more or less destroyed the Order itself by now, although the Sith destroyed themselves in turn.

Well, the Sith and myself, but I'm not too proud of it.

[greyerrant]

Why not? My undertaking to slay my traitorous brothers is all that I have left to have pride in.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

Of the three "Sith Lords" who were running roughshod over what was left of the Order when I returned from Exile, one had fallen so deep into the twisted mess we made of the Force at Malachor he was barely even sapient, and the other two...

...well, Sion and Kreia both loved me, in their own bizarre and obsessive ways. If I could have spared them, I would have, but in both their cases, it was more like putting them out of their misery. And, like I said, Kreia may have wanted it that way the entire time.

The Dark Side doesn't just make you dangerous, it warps you. Makes you miserable, cuts you off from everything that may have given you joy or comfort except yourself. It is...suffering. I can't feel anything but sadness for people caught in its cycle.

[greyerrant]

I cannot find it in my hearts to show mercy to traitors. The wounds are too deep. Loyalty is everything for the Legions, and that is what they broke. I will spare the lost and the mad, as I was once spared.... but those who have broken oaths, those who are truly corrupt, there is only one kind of mercy I can give them. A swift death.

[ He thinks about Kreia, and for a moment, considers Aximand as well, though in Truth Kreia's attempt to destroy the force was somewhat similar, though he doesn't know it, to the Emperor's plan to weaken the Chaos Gods themselves. ]

My brothers and I loved each other as well but Istvaan broke everything, everything except the justice that I must now find a way to bring to them.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

I guess that's still braver than what I did after Malachor.

I just went back. Let the Order exile me. Got told it was no longer any of my business. I knew exactly what would happen, and I let it.

Then Revan happened, then Traya, Nihilus, and Sion. After all that happened, there weren't a whole lot of Jedi or Sith left.

......

And it occurs to me now that I have no idea why I'm telling you all this.

[greyerrant]

I'm not sure that rampaging mad in a world of corpses and daemons for 6 months was particularly brave. I spent all my time mourning the lost or slaying the foul undead things that surrounded me.

[ He shrugs his shoulders. Loken doesn't realize, or often acknowledge it, but he's got some charisma to him as well, a leader himself with both empathy and the ability to lead from the front. ]

It could be we both need confessors. Not so much for our sins, but rather, for our secrets. I have always hated secrets and lies, but that is the life I have been forced to live. Perhaps you are burdened as well.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

Heh. That could be it. Secrecy isn't exactly the path to the Dark Side, but do it too much and you'll start deceiving yourself, too.

Plus it's not like there are probably many other people here who've killed a planet.