I was born after the fall of both the republic and the sith empire. Years passed and it didn’t take long for a new power to rise and conquer the galaxy. The Eternal Empire rose to power from the remains of both and the sith lord Vitiate ruled over the galaxy. However, their reign didn’t last forever, and the Eternal Empire was overthrown years later. Years of peace for the galaxy as the Alliance lasted for a while. However, that peace was not going to last. The Alliance eventually split back into the two factions at its core, the sith empire and the republic. As everyone expected a new chapter of war to reign on the galaxy again, we were surprised to see little to no conflict. The empire fled to the outer rims and left most of the republic space alone. Most of us suspect something could happen at any moment, however from all our intelligence sources, nothing is happening, the empire barely exists.

I was raised in an academy training jedis and sith hybrids during the Eternal Empire era. Since they were the dominant force in the galaxy and having defeated the jedi order and the sith order, the eternal empire decided to train force sensitive children’s in both aspects of the force. However, their end goal was to turn them into siths, the perfect plan set in motion by the sith lord Vitiate. But my training ended abruptly as the Empire collapsed. As the alliance was formed, ancient masters of the jedi saw fit to rebuild the order. They were reluctant to train any of the children that went to the academies in the Eternal Empire, as we trained in the arts of the dark side as well. After deliberation and a couple of months, they had gathered the remaining jedi and with the help of the republic the temple on Coruscant was rebuilt. They found out that at the academy we wouldn’t study the arts of the dark side before we were 13 years old. This meant that if they wanted to play safe, they had to find those of us who were younger and didn’t yet learn the arts of the dark side. They officially announced their intentions, instead of trying to find them, they decided to try to bring the children to them. Being 14 I would have normally been too old for them; I did start my training in the arts of the dark side of the force. I knew that there was more to the force than just the light side and the dark side, that there was supposed to be a balance between them, something the jedi were too afraid to even attempt, with reason, many were corrupted by the dark side of the force.

I decided to give it a chance and try to get recruited anyways. I never finished my lightsaber; I didn’t find a crystal yet. But I decided to bring it with me anyways. I had to lie about my age, I couldn’t get accepted if I told them I was 14, but I thought I could lie about being 12 and a half. I knew that they could find out I was lying. But I went ahead anyways and showed up at the temple on Coruscant, and I told them everything they wanted to hear to take me in. I don’t know if they knew I was lying, but they accepted me anyways. I showed them the lightsaber I built. I had taken inspiration from multiple sources and my own fighting style to create my weapon.

The lightsaber resembled a long handle saber when collapsed. I took inspiration from the training staffs we used and ancient Echani weapons. The lightsaber hilt could extend from both ends to make a longer staff with no lightsaber blade. The staff and hilt are lightsaber resistant, their outer casing built with Mandalorian iron. I was also able to find some Cortosis to line the staff with small strips of the metal, this allowed the staff to distort lightsabers that hit it. At both ends of the staff were the blade emitters, closed the hilt measured 40 cm in length, and was able to project two blades, making it either a traditional lightsaber with a long hilt or a double-bladed saber. When the staff was deployed, it extended the hilt by 50 cm on both sides, making for a 1m40 staff with the possibility to have lightsaber blades come out of both ends. I already started training with it, even if I didn’t have a kyber crystal in it, it could still be used as a staff, that’s how I used it.

I was accepted in the order and was assigned a master to complete my padawan training. Grand master Satele herself decided to train me as she had a somewhat similar fighting style to me and having mastered the forms, I based mine upon she saw fit to train me as she saw some potential in me. We trained for some time, I spent months working on the different forms of lightsaber combat, using training sabers and my unfinished one as well. She opened my eyes to some aspects of the force I wasn’t yet fully in control, that I didn’t train yet. The more we trained, the stronger our bond between master and padawan grew. She talked about her exile, why she left during the times of the eternal empire, and afterwards the alliance. I was surprised but respected her decision to leave. Finally, I reached the point in my training where I had to find a lightsaber crystal. I would have to connect with the force and find my crystal, the one that talked to me.

For me to leave on my pilgrimage, the order gave me a ship, the Endless Midnight, a light freighter that could help me travel around the galaxy. The ship was a model often used by traders and smugglers, it was fast and agile. It was lightly armed if needed but was in no means a warship. Having no other use for it, they gave me the ship to use on my pilgrimage, as well as R4-W1, an astromech droid to help me take care of the ship.

I took some time to familiarize myself with the ship’s controls, learning the basics of how this one worked as I was familiar with piloting spaceships. Having learned that from a young age back when I was at the academy. The ship was rathe easy to fly, it was fast and responsive as I lifted off the landing pad and flew slowly in the hangar corridor leading out of the jedi temple. As I exited the temple, I headed towards Coruscant’s orbit as I started thinking about where to head to start my search. Finding crystals wasn’t an easy task, there was a lot of places where you could encounter them, but finding the right kyber crystal, the one you have a strong connection with through the force was something else entirely. I knew of some caves on Dantooine where some jedis found theirs, but they can form on so many planets, it was like shooting in the dark. I plotted a course for Dantooine in the navigation computer and with the help of R4 and engaged the hyperdrive once the calculations were complete.

After some time in hyperspace, I finally exited at my destination, I was approaching Dantooine’s orbit. I had star charts for the system and all the major space ports around the planet. However, I did not want to land in any of the major cities, I would have to travel out quite a bit in order to maybe find a cave with crystals in it. I knew on the old jedi temple that was near Khoonda, so I thought I could perhaps start there. I plotted a course for the settlement of Khoonda, leaving orbit and heading towards the planet. I tuned in on the frequency of the spaceport there and asked for permission to land. I heard no answer back, which was odd. I stayed on course and headed down near the surface to see what is going on. As I approached the settlement, it became apparent why no one was responding. The landing pads were full of junk and vegetation, the settlement was overrun with vegetation, indicating that it was abandoned for quite some time.

If I were to land, I would have to find another spot. I spotted the ruins of the old jedi temple in the distance and headed towards it. I could perhaps find a suitable landing spot in the fields surrounding it. On the way there I saw one or two farms that seemed in good condition, someone was probably living there by the looks of it. I found a clearing in one of the fields around the ruins of the temple and set down my ship there. There were no signs of anyone living in the surrounding areas, there used to be some camps by the looks of it but nothing recent. I did not know where to start looking for a kyber crystal, but I thought the temple could perhaps hold some information. It had been abandoned since it was bombarded during the jedi civil war era, left to be scavenged by whoever entered. I knew there was not a lot of chances I would find something there; the temple was probably stripped of any relevant information long ago. But I decided to go anyways, I could always meditate there and perhaps find something that could help me.

I found an entrance to the old spaceport through the rubble, the outer wall had collapsed leaving rubble to climb in order to get in. After climbing through all the rubble, I managed to go over the wall. I found the courtyard littered with ship pieces that had been rusting over the decades. The ship had been blown apart when the temple was bombarded. The ship was unrecognizable, the only thing that was easily visible was the size, it was of considerable size since big parts of it were littering the entire courtyard.

Most of the structure of the temple was somewhat still intact, I could see the pathway at the end of the pad that leads to the center of the temple. There was a lot of vegetation growing back on the walls, nature had taken over the temple. I managed to cut through some the vegetation blocking the access to the inner temple and reach the center of the temple. There I found multiple trees which were growing in the center of the enclave, there used to be one before the temple got bombarded, that tree had died and had since been replace by multiple smaller trees. There was still impacts from turbolaser fire visible on the walls, there was a huge chunk of it missing. I found the entrance to the council chambers, the passage to which was collapsed. There was a giant hole in the roof of the chamber, light was shining through and it illuminated the center. I decided to sit down and meditate at that spot. As I started meditating, I could barely connect with the force at the exact spot. The connection to the force was somewhat blocked at that spot, like something left a wound there. As I focussed, I started getting visions, of things that happened in the past. I saw the remaining jedi get killed by Darth Treya, in the council chamber. I saw the temple, before it got destroyed. I saw Revan, who as being retrained by Bastila and the other members of the council. I also had a vision of the ruins near the temple, Revan discussing about the map to the star forge buried within. I saw him rebuild a new lightsaber after having found a kyber crystal from a cave on Dantooine. I then saw the bombardment of the temple by the sith then nothing. That is all the force wanted to show me.

Before leaving the enclave to go see the ruins, I decided to look around the temple for other clues. I could not find a way into the old dormitories, but I managed to find a passage to the lower levels. There I found the library, but it did not contain much, it had been ransacked and salvaged throughout the years, there were no holocrons left, no databanks, only some books were still there. The books left after all this time, were not related at all to the jedi or the sith, just some common items of no value. I climbed back up through the passage, returning to the upper levels and finding a way out of the back of temple. I started my search for the ruins Revan found.

The area outside the temple was completely reclaimed by the local flora. Plants were growing everywhere, the ancient structure barely visible. I tried my best to find the areas I saw in my visions, but it would not be easy, the area didn’t look the same now. A lot of the rock formations had collapsed, and nature was growing back over it. I tried to focus as much as possible on my visions, stopping to meditate and feel where the force was trying to guide me.

I wandered into the plains aimlessly for hours before finally stumbling on something that wasn’t a natural formation. There were large obelisks carved in worn out stone, most of the structure had collapsed and was eroded by the winds.