The Force Always Says Yes [Star Wars]

[torac]

I really like your explanations. It's great to learn more of the thought process and themes behind the story, and it is enjoyable to see you so invested in this.

 

[Hyenanon]

I really want a conversation between her and Nerim. Well, her and an bunch of your people! With Chey-Linn, about darkness, and falling, and perhaps, the things that make them different, with Nerim, and him offering her a willing ear to help her become more than she is, with Jianno about how the Mandalorian Way helps her, and how she lost everything it could help her with.....


I can just see "Kiseti" hiring Jianno with some stash of stuff, to go and get some info about her past, and save or kill, based on what was found.


There's something about a interesting bad guy who dies with so much left to say.

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In an alternate timeline where things were just a little bit different, Darth Carrion could have perhaps been captured. To return her to a verbal state, even turn her to the Light, would be a titanic undertaking. It would be something interesting to explore.

I really like your explanations. It's great to learn more of the thought process and themes behind the story, and it is enjoyable to see you so invested in this.

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Thank you! TFASY has been one of the most fun pieces of fiction I've ever worked on, for a lot of reasons, ranging from the genre to the upload schedule and venue to the simple fact that I just really like these characters. One of the biggest reasons is just that I've learned a fair few new things from writing the story, and I've come across old challenges I've struggled with for a long time and felt progress in how I deal with them now. In a way it's kinda like going back to the starting area of Dark Souls after you've leveled up and become proficient at all the mechanics. It's just kind of a joy for things that were once very difficult to become easy.

I don't think I've ever publicly admitted this, but several years ago I went through a somewhat angsty period where I felt as though my chosen form of art, narrative fiction in the written word, was kind of the least of all the arts. Not just least appreciated but also least impressive in a more objective sense. It's easy to see sculpting or guitar playing as an art because you can see the artist performing feats of manual dexterity and intuitively know that you don't have that. But anyone can look at what I do and see that fundamentally I'm just using written language, which is something just about everyone can do, and so people don't understand that I've cultivated skills in a comperable way to other artists. This combined with general shrinking of the book reading population lead me to a morose state where I felt as though it was rather pointless to continue writing narrative fiction. I even took up 3D modeling for a time, less out of interest for the process and more just as a sort of venting.

It was around the time that I was recovering from that moroseness that I began work on TFASY, since, having been adequately humbled, I was then willing to work on "lesser" forms of art like fanfiction, which I never before had viewed pejoratively myself, but I understood that I would never be seen as a "real" author working on fanfiction, so I never attempted it, since I felt the need to continue producing original novels in order to become a "real" author. Having been somewhat knocked away from the idea of "real" authorship or general recognition in the first place, it seemed harmless to give it a shot. I'm really glad I did. There's a great deal to learn from it, and a unique sort of joy in working collaboratively with other authors across time.

 

[Simonbob]

"lesser" forms of art like fanfiction,

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In a sense, Fanfiction is easier than something original, because so much is already created for you.

In a sense, Fanfiction is harder, because you have to match what is already created, or why call it Fanfiction at all?



I've heard Fanfiction called "Lesser", and always though they didn't understand what they were talking about.

 

[TroubleFait]

Aren't the Illiad and Odyssey a form of fanfiction, along with every piece of mythological fiction? In the end, fanfiction will be as ambitious as the author wants it to be. It being a lesser art form is due to the easier barrier of entry attracting many people who don't aim for more. It's a statistical fact, not a fundamental one.

 

[Hyenanon]

Chapter 78: Not So Easily Broken​

"I'm not going in there without Arwain," Nerim said, his arms crossed defiantly.

The Jedi Knight in front of him looked with pleading eyes, trying to understand. "But you—you must. It's an order by Grand Master Yoda himself."

"You see that?" Nerim said, pointing to the elevator that lead to the High Council chamber. Aesha and Chey-Linn shared a confused look with each other, and then looked to Tetha, who held up a hand in an expression of I know.

"Yes?" The Knight answered warily.

"That thing is demonic. I'm not going in there without Master Arwain."

"You're—" The Knight placed his hands together in front of his mouth and breathed deeply. "You're keeping the entire High Council waiting."

"Besides, if Arwain gets to skip out on the fight, she at least needs to show up for getting chewed out by the Council."

"Padawan!" They heard Arwain's voice as she jogged through the hallway.

"There she is," Nerim sighed in relief.

"H-how did she get in here...?" The Knight's shoulders tensed.

Arwain ignored the Knight. "I felt you were in great danger, but everywhere I went, you had just left, and—" Nerim grabbed her hand and led her into the elevator, and the other three followed. "—Oh no." The door slid shut behind them, and the four young Jedi each breathed out a shaky sigh. Arwain looked between them, and then knelt down and placed her hands on Nerim's shoulders. "What happened?" She asked, softly. He struggled to think of how to explain.

Aesha paced in the elevator as it slowly ascended. "It can't have been Kiseti. That thing had to have been some sort of shapeshifter that took her place this morning, a Clawdite or something."

"How do you know?" Chey-Linn asked, arms raised out. "You could have been walking around with that thing this entire time."

"Did you see it?" Aesha asked rhetorically. "It was a monster! How could it look and feel like a convincing person all that time?"

Tetha leaned against the glass wall and crossed her arms. "Whatever it was, it was trained in the Force. Darth Machina spoke of that one technique, the Force-imbued weapon, which can deflect lightsabers."

"Darth Ma—..." Chey-Linn repeated, brow furrowed. "Could this be another being who studied under a Sith holocron?"

Tetha shook her head and shrugged in bewilderment. "I didn't recognize a single other thing it did."

Arwain looked intently between the speakers, and then back to Nerim. The doors opened, and she stood, the five entering the High Council chamber. Seven of the Masters were there in person, five others in hologram, none missing. They were in the midst of speaking when the doors opened, and Yoda pointed at them with his walking stick. "Delayed, your journey was?"

"Yeah," Nerim confirmed, without offering explanation.

Gendi's wrinkled face wrinkled further in confusion. "Arwain? You were not summoned here."

Arwain nervously shrugged. "My student summoned me here. I know near as little as you, I imagine."

Master Vocta gestured with his arm. "We need an explanation for this battle that broke out. A wrecked diner, electrical burns on half of the customers, a Jedi Serviceman found unconscious, dead bodies...Reports of lightsabers drawn in anger."

Everyone looked to Nerim. He took a breath, and Chey-Linn stepped forward and spoke before he could. "We discovered the source of Darkness that haunted the trial. Kiseti Kara, part of Aesha's legal team, was the culprit."

"Or something that looked like her!" Aesha cut in.

"Excuse me," Kaad-Ro, a Human Master, raised his hand. "First thing's first. Discovered? How?"

Gendi joined in. "Why were you together with the Cathar group in the same place?"

Aesha crossed her arms. "She had come seeking a settlement for the case."

"What?" Gendi's eyes narrowed. Several members of the Council looked between each other. "Who gave the order for that?"

Chey-Linn's lips tightened, and Nerim took the moment to actually speak. "That was my idea," he said. The eyes returned to him. "Chey-Linn, Tetha, and I hatched a plan to expose the Dark presence, by utilizing its fascination with her and my connection to it. Chey-Linn would arrive under false pretenses and then pretend to become embroiled in an argument with Tetha that came to blows, and then I would use the resulting passionate emotions of the presence to tug it into the open."

Several of the Masters tried to speak at once, and Aesha was just as shocked. Chey-Linn lowered her head and balled her hands into fists beneath her sleeves, prepared for the worst. Yoda brought down his walking stick on the floor several times, clearing the noise. "Asked you to do this, we did not! Specifically ordered you to tell no one, I did!"

Nerim's expression became stern. "I do not take orders from you anymore, Yoda, you exiled me."

"Cost lives, this recklessness did!"

Tetha stepped beside Nerim. "And what were we to do, sit back and let it have its way until you decide to swoop in and save us?"

Gendi spoke. "We wished of you to remain calm, patient, to draw it out in a controlled environment where no one would get hurt!"

Aesha flared with anger in the Force, gesturing broadly and shouting "This is your planet! When will the environment become controlled enough for you?!"

Kaad-Ro shook his head. "Until just a moment ago, you did not even know of this plan, yet you refuse to acknowledge its recklessness? Do you not even pause to consider their actions?"

"I have trust that if Nerim and Tetha are to act without my knowledge, they have a good reason! They have earned such trust, and in this case they have a dead shapeshifting monster to show for it!"

The Sluissi Master in the back corner of the room raised his voice. "Masters! Do you sssseek a repeat of their last appearance before the Council?"

There was silence.

"Then leave the arguing for later. Firsssst, let's actually hear their report."

Nerim sighed. "The plan worked. The Dark presence revealed itself to be Kiseti, and she called upon the Dark Side and let loose a burst of lightning that knocked us all over. She killed Pappino and then leapt out the window and ran away. She hitched a ride on a passing airspeeder, and Chey-Linn took us to hers. We pursued, until entering the recycling plant, at which point we did battle with her. Or it."

"It, you say?"

"It was well trained in the Force, in a way that I have never seen before. Her control was precise, her survivability unparalleled—we broke several of her bones, punctured her jugular, pelted her with shrapnel, she threw herself in a vat of acid, nothing but severing bodyparts whole could impede her mobility—and when Chey-Linn did cut her in half, she still retained mobility in her upper half and the capacity to attack with the Force. Any three of us alone would have lost against her, I am sure of it."

Chey-Linn nodded. "It was as if her anatomy had no discernible purpose, nothing...nothing worked right."

"That explains the sai tok," the Nautolan Master muttered lowly. Chey-Linn swallowed nervously. To cut an opponent in half, a sai tok, was considered arguably worse than even the mou kei forbidden strike, allowable only on droids.

"Masters," Nerim said, before anyone else could butt in. "I don't say this lightly. I truly hope you take me seriously when I say this. The presence, it had always felt familiar to me, in a way I could not place. During battle, however, to me it seemed similar to...to the feeling I had on that lost space station, near Saarkane. When Fae died." The room was silent for a moment. Nerim glanced to Arwain, whose brow was furrowed in thought as she listened to him intently. Then, he clarified. "I believe it was a Sith."

Unlike when Arwain had made that accusation a year and some time ago, the Council did not react strongly to that information. Yoda took a deep breath and turned to the Lost Master. "Arwain, expertise you have, in Sith matters. How do you interpret this?"

Arwain looked down in thought, and slowly shook her head. "I'm not sure. Whatever it was, it must have been a strong Force User, trained in a strong organization for quite some time. The vast majority of Dark Side organizations can't achieve that level of strength. But this description, and the behavior since meeting Kiseti...it doesn't match anything I know of from the Brotherhood. Or the New Sith Wars. If you go back four thousand years, there were scattered reports during the Jedi Civil War and its aftermath of Sith who could operate their own body with no biological basis. It's the only precedent I know for these powers. But they were incapable, like all Sith, of hiding their nature for long under close scrutiny. If this being had been Kiseti the entire time...that would be without precedent."

Yoda nodded solemnly. "Troubling indeed, the possibility of the Sith. But there is another."

Nerim raised an eyebrow. "You already have some idea?"

Gendi took over. "Thanks to your delay, our Temple had the chance to autopsy the body before your arrival. The results were...bizarre. The body contained the genetic material of a half dozen different species, all corresponding to no known biometrics for any individual in our records. Genetic markers conclude that most of the genes belonged to individuals who died several centuries ago, mixed to the point of being unable to attribute to anyone in particular. But in the brain matter, there was the genetic material of a specific individual."

This time, Vocta spoke. "We do not know the name of this individual, but it was a perfect match to the forensic evidence discovered on Boonta, after your ill-advised stunt, which we studied in response to rumors of these so-called Syaniids. It belonged to a Kaleesh woman, whose body we never found."

Nerim felt the bottom fall out of his soul, and he opened his mouth, unable to form words.

"Recognize her, do you, hmm?"

"This," Kaad-Ro said, "Explains the sense of deja vu. The motivation in attacking you. The training this Dark Sider had, with the Syaniids. It even explains the nature of the creature. Nearby, an obscure monastic Order known as the An'omarr has strange technology capable of such bodily transformations."

"Also," the Nautolan rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, "This explains why you connect it to the death of Fae Coven. The Syaniids, we now know, were indeed on Saarkane."

"But they—" Nerim shook his head, reeling. "The Syaniids weren't on the rogue station where she died."

"How sure are you?"

"I know what I felt," Nerim said. He turned to Arwain. "Right, Master?"

Arwain looked distant, deep in thought. "I've interacted with Sith holocrons from across several millennia. The Syaniids did not appear much like any of them...But also, the Syaniids displayed no similar abilities when we encountered them..."

"The Syaniids, too, were users of deception," Yoda said. "Hidden in plain sight when you met them on Saarkane, hmm? If their method, this was, so too does it explain Kiseti's closeness in secrecy."

Gendi nodded. "And it's important to note that they did not need to use these advanced techniques when you found them on Saarkane's surface. One was detonated with a slave bomb before they could fight extensively, the other you let retreat."

Nerim crossed his arms. "We fought them on Boonta, and none were remotely like that."

"Evidently, one was," Gendi shrugged.

"But I...I know what I felt," Nerim repeated, suddenly unsure if he did. He turned to his companions. Chey-Linn looked at him sadly.

"Regardless, of great concern, this is. Alone, it seemed. But any further trace of Syaniids must be purged."

Kaad-Ro sighed through his nose. "That will be harder, now that you scattered them from their home and killed all but one new trainee."

"It was not possible to take that thing prisoner!" Aesha argued.

"Regardless, you brought that thing here, to the heart of the Republic, and the results have been costly. More than you know."

"Such irresponsibility from the lot of you," an older Human woman shook her head disapprovingly.

Aesha exploded at that. "How can you say we have no right to defend ourselves from such creatures, and also the responsibility not to let them in our midst?! Do you hear yourselves? Are you not ashamed?"

"Silence! The na—"

"You cannot silence me, I am a sovereign!" Aesha roared, the Force flaring up around her. "You are not my Masters!"

A deep quiet fell upon the room, and Arwain broke from her train of thought, looking back up at the other Jedi. "You forget yourselves, Councilors. It is true that Fae ruled everything she saw, but she did not do so by merely claiming she was in charge, and you cannot fill her shoes by such means. Perhaps you cannot at all."

The Trandoshan Master spoke. "I find myself agreeing with Arwain. This Council has been highly averse to collaboration with outside authorities."

"We are the authorities in these matters!" Kaad-Ro argued.

"Apparently not!" The Trandoshan shot back. "Or had you not noticed the Court's decision, the public's support for these rogue Jedi, our complete absence during the confrontation with the Syaniids? Both times!"

"Not complete," Vocta pointed out, looking to Chey-Linn, who still stood rigidly in the center.

Another Master, a Duros, shook his head. "Masters, I know it is taboo to argue before outsiders, and so I have held my tongue, but it is untenable to continue further down this path. The danger posed by the heresies espoused by these individuals is manifestly lesser than the danger posed by a continued state of conflict with them. We have existed in a low-information environment for too long, given our lack of communication, and it has resulted in several conflicts with Dark Jedi that we were unaware of until well after the fact."

"Not exactly," Kaad-Ro argued, "It has more precisely resulted in our lack of awareness, but the conflict always arises from their choices."

"Complaining does not solve the situation, Kaad-Ro."

"Enough," Gendi said, raising a hand. "We must not descend into argument. And regardless, I believe we have gathered the pertinent information," he said, nodding towards the Cathar group. "You may leave."

Without argument, the group turned to exit. Then Aesha, stopped, and approached the center again. Yoda spoke. "Princess Aesha. More to say, have you?"

"What about Sunrider?"

"That is an internal Jedi matter," Gendi said firmly. It was obvious that no one was happy with her. She fully expected to be cast out from the Knighthood, either into the Service Corps or full exile. In a way, she had expected that ever since the first ruling in court.

Aesha looked down in thought for a moment, and then back up to the Council. "I am willing to make a settlement."

The Masters were quiet for a moment. Chey-Linn looked up with surprise. Reactions around the Council were varied, some with interest, others with wariness—others with wariness not for Aesha, but for those Councilors that expressed interest. Then Yoda leaned forward. "Let's hear it."

"It seems with this informal and pejorative relationship, we simply cannot trust one another, and it has and will continue to lead to problems. So long as you think of Nerim and Arwain as exiles who yet still belong to you, you will be unable to properly communicate with them. And so long as I and Tetha are rogue Force Users taught by Rogue Jedi, you will not view us as equals. But the tide is turning. With the Courts already siding with us, and public sentiment ensuring the Senate will soon also, I doubt very much that you will be able to maintain this illusion of ownership. The rights that the Coruscant Order enjoys at the behest of the Republic are not necessarily immutable, and it is our right within the Senate to seek change."

Gendi's eyes narrowed. "Are you threatening us, Princess Aesha?"

"I am warning you that we on Cathar intend to fully enjoy our rights and freedoms regardless of your endless ill-informed suspicions, and that if this Council does not plan to allow us these freedoms, we will take it to the Republic. And the fight will be long, and drawn out, and you may lose, and if you do, the Order will lose many of the policing powers it currently possesses."

"And which of these freedoms do you feel are under threat?"

"Bodily autonomy, for one," she said ruefully, lifting her leg with a mechanical whirring. Then she turned to Chey-Linn. "No offense."

Chey-Linn looked confused at her consideration.

"Territorial integrity, for another. And freedom of religion. Both compromised by the indefinite occupation of our world by so-called Jedi 'research' teams."

Gendi shook his head. "The Revanchist Temple is a site of historical and spiritual importance to the Jedi."

"Oh, so now it's a Jedi Temple?" Aesha grinned. Then her grin fell. "Well, it's too late for that! It belongs to us, and as for the Jedi's claim, that site is of at least equal importance to the Mandalorians, and they haven't descended upon it with swords and demanded our exclusion. There are only two ways out of this. Either we fight this out in court, convict your Order of wrongful arrest and maiming Cathar royalty under false pretenses, and take it to the media and the Senate until this Order loses the unilateral powers it is abusing against us. Or you agree to the two conditions of my settlement offer."

"On these conditions, please, elucidate us," Yoda said evenly.

"First, I demand the Cathar Knighthood be recognized as a legitimate allied domestic Force User organization, with all the rights of the others, such as the Ithorian Nature Priests or Baran-Do Sages. That means complete autonomy over our own religious sites, protection against harassment and inquisition by your Council, and refraining from Jedi infant recruitment in our space, along with all other rights conferred by the designation."

There was a ripple of thoughts and subtle emotions throughout the Council at that. Some seemed distinctly aghast, others strongly relieved.

"And the second?" Yoda asked, hand to his chin.

Aesha turned to Nerim, and he knew what she meant. He walked forward, hands behind his back, head held high, and said "I want my lightsaber back."

That sent an uproar of emotions through the Council. Thoughts and exclamations ran through them, some vocalized, some not. The relief largely faded away.

"Impossible!" Kaad-Ro spoke for a Council that was not-altogether happy for him to do so. "The possession of lightsabers has been controlled for a thousand years within Republic space. They belong only to the Jedi!"

"Then it's a good thing we're Jedi," Nerim replied simply.

Yoda's eyes narrowed. "A splinter faction, you wish to be recognized as?"

"Several exist already. Teepo's Paladins, the Gray Paladins which are a splinter of a splinter, the Corellian Temple...Okay, that's all I can think of," he shrugged. "But the Jal Shey also have special dispensation to wield lightsabers, and they're not even Jedi."

"The Jal Shey do not wield lightsabers, they possess them, ceremonially," Kaad-Ro argued.

Gendi placed his hands together, trying to maintain calm. "These exceptions which you speak of are for ancient splinter factions, all predating the Ruusan Reformations. It simply cannot be done in the modern era."

Arwain stepped forward. "Forgive me for butting in, but I feel I must underline that the modern era you speak of is Fae Coven's era. She is the one who made all of these exceptions in the first place, because it was her Republic and her Order that emerged from the New Sith Wars and began enforcing these laws. You overestimate the degree to which she would approve of your rigidness."

"Many of us here knew Fae longer than you did," Kaad-Ro responded.

"Kaad-Ro," Arwain raised her hand, "I need you to shut your mouth. For five minutes."

Yoda tapped his walking stick before the arguing could continue. "And so sure, you are, that this case, you will win?"

Nerim sensed the resolve among the Council strengthen then. Those who were willing to concede on the first demand felt this to be an overreach. But Arwain had taught him about bargaining; never start with the lowest offer you'd be happy with. He didn't want to give up on his lightsaber. To be honest, he felt he was not done dealing with Dark Jedi in the Coruscant Order's absence, and if he were expected to continue doing so—and he would not accept the contradictory claims that he wasn't—he deserved a lightsaber. His lightsaber, which was taken from him unjustly. But the matter was beyond him; it concerned Cathar as a whole, and the fate of the Jedi Order. So he resolved to bargain. He'd give it up if only to secure the first demand.

"If—"

"They will win," Chey-Linn cut him off. "If you do not accept this settlement, I will plead guilty."

"What?!" Kaad-Ro reared back. "Why?!"

"Because I am!" Chey-Linn's voice cracked. "And because I am tired of being used as a pawn by you against the very people I wronged. I know you will reassign or exile me as soon as this passes—and perhaps you would be right to. But this? Contesting my innocence, telling me to my face that what I did was right, just to maintain a front against them? It is ill-fitting of a Jedi. You have until our next court date to come to a decision, because I will plead guilty the moment I see those Justices enter the room. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to retire to a meditation chamber."

Chey-Linn turned and walked into the elevator, and distinctly surprised, Nerim and the rest followed. The elevator doors closed, and they began that long, uncomfortable descent. Chey-Linn kept her back to them, watching outside the window with arms crossed. She clearly did not want to be spoken to, and they respected her wish. They were escorted out of the Temple and into the Coruscant afternoon air. The rain had stopped again.

 

[numlore]

Chun is so fuckin based rn Holy shit

 

[TroubleFait]

So frustrating, to know they will come to a wrong conclusion, and still hope against hope that they'll see the Sith plot behind all this.

The fact that Nerim and Arwain got tied to all those Dark Side plots which the Order at large seemed unaware of and uninterested in, is an indictment against them. No wonder they waited until Palpatine shoved a pawn right under their nose who killed one of their Masters before they even considered the Sith were back. The Jedi seem more enamoured with Coruscant and with their Temple than with the rest of the Galaxy.

Sorry, I know I am biased. But maybe they shouldn't have let the Banite Sith boil them like a frog for a millennium, hmm?

 

[Tinkerware]

This story just keeps getting better and better. It's so tightly written, with exceptional pacing and great characterization. It has become the first story in a long while that makes me dive immediately into a new post as soon as the notification raises its head.

Thank you, Hyenanon, for sharing your writing.

 

[GranterZ]

Will they have any actual change? Or will Palpatine and the war still happen

 

[Hyenanon]

Chun is so fuckin based rn Holy shit

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I can't resist a good petty-villain redemption arc.

So frustrating, to know they will come to a wrong conclusion, and still hope against hope that they'll see the Sith plot behind all this.

The fact that Nerim and Arwain got tied to all those Dark Side plots which the Order at large seemed unaware of and uninterested in, is an indictment against them. No wonder they waited until Palpatine shoved a pawn right under their nose who killed one of their Masters before they even considered the Sith were back. The Jedi seem more enamoured with Coruscant and with their Temple than with the rest of the Galaxy.

Sorry, I know I am biased. But maybe they shouldn't have let the Banite Sith boil them like a frog for a millennium, hmm?

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To be fair to the Jedi, I did as the omnipotent author very deliberately construct the story in such a way that it's very easy to believe that Carrion was not a Sith specifically, by giving her a backstory that adequately explains everything without the need to invoke the S-word beyond a lingering sense of doubt as to how she could have become so powerful, and the fact that she had a fixation on Chey-Linn in particular.

To be less fair to the Jedi, this is like instance #400 of "Jedi literally get in a face-to-face fight with a Banite Sith Lord and don't realize it's a Sith," if you count all the EU books and comics. Whuff...not a good look.

This story just keeps getting better and better. It's so tightly written, with exceptional pacing and great characterization. It has become the first story in a long while that makes me dive immediately into a new post as soon as the notification raises its head.

Thank you, Hyenanon, for sharing your writing.

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Thank you very much for the kind words! That's really so gratifying to hear.

Will they have any actual change? Or will Palpatine and the war still happen

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I wrote this with the intent that it can easily slot into EU canon without breaking anything, but the story is going to end well before any of that, so by then you can come up with your own headcanon as to how this story's events change things. I do have a crackhead AU of Star Wars that I've been developing over time for fun, which this could also slot into. Long story short, it started with me saying the phrase "Sheev has been found dead in Miami" and spiraled out from there. If you'd like to imagine this is that timeline, that would also be valid.

 

[SirRolandTheFrank]

"Sheev has been found dead in Miami"

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What would be the SW equivalent of Miami, hmm....

HoloNet: "Senator of Naboo Sheev Palpatine was found dead on Zeltros, having overdosed on spice whilst mid-coitus with a local woman..."

To be less fair to the Jedi, this is like instance #400 of "Jedi literally get in a face-to-face fight with a Banite Sith Lord and don't realize it's a Sith," if you count all the EU books and comics. Whuff...not a good look.

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It's also implied that Rule of Two never really was followed all that thoroughly, and that every once in a while there'd be deserters from the Order - like, second/third generation after Bane you have Darth Millennial, who just bailed on the Sith and decided to form a religion, and his own Order of Force Users lol - on the planet that was once the capital of the Sith Empire at that. I can only assume that Jedi never heard of "once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action", or that maybe they should have someone permanently stationed in what was Sith Space, given that Galactic-level threats seem to spring out of it suspiciously often.

 

[Selias]

Finally living up to the Sunrider name

 

[Hyenanon]

Finally living up to the Sunrider name

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Hah! I was wondering if anyone caught that.

Long ago when I was trying to settle on Chey-Linn's surname, I decided I wanted to do one of the fun on-the-nose compound surnames like Darklighter or Skywalker. I tried through a few of them until I (thought I) invented Sunrider, and wrote that down, although I eventually got a weird feeling that it might already be in use. In retrospect I probably realized I was drawing from one of the conversations with Jolee Bindo in KOTOR, or perhaps I was remembering Nomi Sunrider from my research into the timeline of Grand Masters in the Order. Either way, I decided to keep it, because what is Star Wars if not a series of opportunities for characters to share surnames?

 

[Selias]

Hah! I was wondering if anyone caught that.

Long ago when I was trying to settle on Chey-Linn's surname, I decided I wanted to do one of the fun on-the-nose compound surnames like Darklighter or Skywalker. I tried through a few of them until I (thought I) invented Sunrider, and wrote that down, although I eventually got a weird feeling that it might already be in use. In retrospect I probably realized I was drawing from one of the conversations with Jolee Bindo in KOTOR, or perhaps I was remembering Nomi Sunrider from my research into the timeline of Grand Masters in the Order. Either way, I decided to keep it, because what is Star Wars if not a series of opportunities for characters to share surnames?

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Wait, has nobody else commented on her being a Sunrider?

Speaking of which, is she actually descended from them? Is it like real life last names where a bunch of people can have the same one without being related? Maybe the Jedi Order has a number of surnames that they give any younglings that don't have one?

 

[Hyenanon]

Wait, has nobody else commented on her being a Sunrider?

Speaking of which, is she actually descended from them? Is it like real life last names where a bunch of people can have the same one without being related? Maybe the Jedi Order has a number of surnames that they give any younglings that don't have one?

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Given the fact that the Sunrider family persists as a line of descent all the way to the post-OT era, I think it's probable that she could be a direct descendant from Nomi. The extra weird thing is that everyone in the family seems to be a woman yet they always pass down their last name. Girlboss lineage?

The Order does typically name orphans who they can't find any official name for, I recall from HoloNet News they found a baby in some wreckage once and gave her a name and raised her as a Jedi, which became quite controversial when her parents were found alive and wanted her back. Honestly it does sound like a neat bit of worldbuilding that they would use names from ancient Grand Masters and such. You could also interpret Chey-Linn as one of those, certainly.

As for my thoughts as the author, I imagined Chey-Linn to be an actual Sunrider, stressed out trying to live up to her family name while holding the contradictory idea that she should be entirely unattached to it.

 

[TroubleFait]

I can only assume that Jedi never heard of "once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action", or that maybe they should have someone permanently stationed in what was Sith Space, given that Galactic-level threats seem to spring out of it suspiciously often.

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To be fair, thrice across centuries could really be a coincidence.

recall from HoloNet News they found a baby in some wreckage once and gave her a name and raised her as a Jedi, which became quite controversial when her parents were found alive and wanted her back.

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Wasn't this a Sith plot to increase suspicion against Jedi recruiting?

 

[Hyenanon]

Wasn't this a Sith plot to increase suspicion against Jedi recruiting?

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Nonsense. The Sith have been extinct for a millennium.