Deep blackness, and bone chilling cold. That is all that he could see and feel as he sat aboard the transport ship. The dark recesses of space were not unusual, nor unfamiliar. The only truly warm sensation that he could feel was the pulsing energy throughout his body. The connection to the stars, the air, life itself. He felt the Force’s dominance in his very core. It’s possession of him, was both welcoming, and terrifying, as if his very being was taken into its custody. Even so, he willingly gave himself to the warm embrace of the Force, fearing how lost he’d be without it.
Outside his windows he could see the approaching planet. Vast blue oceans could be seen even from space. It was here where the next step of his life would begin. The planet Karufr, fourth orbit of Kr’Tal, and the only inhabitable planet of the Kr’Tal system. He had to admit the sapphire blue oceans had a certain beauty that he admired. It had a certain similarity to his own home world, though the oceans here were definitely larger. He would miss the forests he used to explore, and the sands he would lay out in, relaxing from his training. Just thinking about his home caused him to remember his life before this moment.
…….
As a newborn, he was abandoned to die, jettisoned in an escape pod into deep space. Luck happened to be on his side as he was found by a Mandalorian ship piloted by a Mandalorian named Zerimar Deshra. Zerimar took pity on the baby, bringing him back to Mandalore, and raising him as a son. He named him Jyvora, and as his son, he taught him everything that he could. Zerimar and his wife Mirta grew to love their new son, which made things all the more difficult when they discovered his powerful connection to the Force.
Unable to destroy their boy, as they were told to do by Mandalorian leadership, Zerimar and Mirta continued to raise him in secret. Zerimar taught him effective ways to use a blaster, and though he found the weapons deplorable, and uncivilized, Jyvora quickly learned how to be an effective killer with a DL-18 Blaster. He continued to improve himself with this weapon as a way of honoring the teachings of his father. The man he had respected more than any other person in the galaxy.
Mirta, wanting Jyvora to be more adept in defending himself taught his how to use a weapon she herself was familiar with. She taught him to fight with vibrorapiers. Soon it became evident that he would be a formidable fighter with a dual wielding sword style. Finding training manuals, and records of fighter who could use it, Jyvora was taught the Jar’Kai style of dual sword fighting. Eventually, once he was familiar enough with the style, Mirta had commissioned for a set of new weapons to be constructed. She had a pair of vibrorapiers created out of the rare Mandalorian metal known as Beskar, which was said to be strong enough to even withstand a lightsabers blade.
Though Zerimar and Mirta held no love for the Jedi Order of the past, they also despised the Sith and their empire. Knowing this they chose to attempt to keep Jyvora away from any dark side influence. But because they had no real experience with using the force, it became increasingly difficult to teach their son to use the Force properly. In trying to locate better methods of teaching him, it became apparent to the rest of the Mandalorians that they did not kill the force sensitive boy as they were told too.
In the middle of the night, three days after Jyvora’s 14th birthday, an assassin slipped in to his family’s home. Jyvora awoke afraid, as he had sensed he intruder’s presence through the force. A scream was heard from Mirta as she was impaled by the assassin’s blade. Zerimar burst into his son’s room and grabbed him, pulling him towards a nearby wall. After imputing a code into a code pad on the wall, a small opening appeared. Zerimar put Jyvora into the opening and spoke to his son for the last time before it closed.
“Jyvora, I am sorry for leaving you like this, but you must survive. Never forget how much your mother and I love you.”
Before Jyvora could respond the wall closed and a blade could be heard clashing against the wall. Beneath him, a tunnel opened up and he fell. As he slid down the tunnel he was released into what looked like a small hidden hanger bay. In front of him was one of his father’s ships. Having been taught how to pilot his father’s ships, Jyvora got on board and the hanger doors opened allowing for him to make his escape.
Not knowing where to go, he activated the ships cloaking device, and just remained flying though the recesses of space. After a few hours, Jyvora felt increasingly more tired, so he turned on the ships auto pilot and slept. He remained sleeping while the ship brought him through space. He dreamt of his home on Mandalore, and his parents. He didn’t know how to handle their loss, but in his dream his father told him to stay strong, and to make them proud of him. He didn’t want to let them down.
Jyvora was awakened by the sound of an alarm blaring in the ships cockpit. He was running out of fuel. Checking his scanners he saw that there was an inhabitable system on his radar within a nearby distance. He began to fly the ship towards this world. The scanners showed that this world was somewhat similar to his own.
“Computer, what is this planets name?”
“Tython.”
Jyvora had never heard of this world, but he decided it had to be better than running out of fuel in space. Setting the navigational systems to locate a safe landing zone, he descended onto the planet. As he flew through the planet’s atmosphere, he found himself surrounded by gray clouds obstructing his view. Finally able to break through the clouds, Jyvora found himself flying over a large field littered with the remains of bodies, and machinery. Finding a landing strip, he set down onto the surface of Tython.
After exiting the ship and looking around the field Jyvora could see that these were ancient bodies from a great battle years ago. There were small rusted cylinders next to many of the bodies, and when he tried to pick one up in broke apart revealing a colorless crystal. From what he could remember of what his parents taught him, Jyvora could tell that this planet seemed to hold the remains of an ancient Jedi, and Sith war. Jyvora could also feel that the Force seemed heavier here, as if this graveyard was heavy with the invisible essence.
“The Force is quite strong here.”
Jyvora began to walk away from the battlefield trying you further explore this world that was unfamiliar to him. The plant life seemed normal, to an extent, as he had only seen the flora from his world. Eventually during his searching of the woods, Jyvora found an old and decrepit temple. He pulled out a small light flare from his backpack, and lit it as he stepped into the temples entrance. Along the walls of this temple were the faded names of past Jedi, and torn paintings that looked destroyed beyond recognition.
Finding his way through the temple, Jyvora found what looked to be a library consol. Searching through the open drawers, he was able to find a short series of disks that were labelled with a Jedi symbol. Figuring he needed the help, Jyvora watched every tape. He found the information to be useful and the disks gave him pointers on how to better when using the Force. After discovering a water, and food source, Jyvora stayed in the temple using the next several years to train in the light side of the Force. As this was an old Jedi institution Jyvora felt that learning the Light side would be easier to handle with the help of the left behind tools. It took four years of self-tutoring to learn how to effectively use the Force. Telekinetic like Force powers came easy to him, as did the gift of premonition.
A few days before his eighteenth birthday Jyvora was meditating, when a blinding light filled the room he was in. What happened next, felt like an out of body experience. Jyvora was experiencing a very powerful vision.
He could see an older version of himself glowing in white light with a glowing blue blade in his right hand. Voices began to plague the inner depths of his mind.
“Peace, Knowledge, Serenity, Harmony, The Force’s Light….Too much though leads to an unbalanced blight.”
The vision began to shift, and Jyvora began to see himself surrounded by darkness, with a red glowing blade in his left hand. The voices returned to his mind.
“Passion, Strength, Power, Victory, The Force’s Dark……Too much in your heart leads to evils spark.”
Again the vision changed, this time Jyvora witnessed himself surrounded by both the light and dark, blending together around him like a spiraling cloud, a glowing blue blade in his right hand, and a glowing red blade in his left. The voices again spoke to him.
“Only when both in your heart are known and found, can true natures balance truly be sound.”
The blinding light left the room, and Jyvora was on the ground still trying to understand what had just happened. Everything continued to flash inside his head. Dark, Light, Balance, he didn’t know what to think about it. His parents had always told him the evils of the Dark Side of the Force, but whatever this vision was wanted him to embrace the darkness. He was left confused. He was also quite tired, and he passed out from exhaustion.
The following morning Jyvora woke up to the sound of the loud humming engine of a star ship. His first thought was that somehow the Mandalorians had found him, so he set up defensive measure just in case. He drew his blaster and prepared to be attacked. As he hid, Jyvora could hear the sound of footsteps heading his way.’
“There is no use in hiding, I can sense your presence.”
Jyvora heard the voice as they spoke. He didn’t recognize it as one of the Mandalorians that he knew of. Relaxing and stretching out with his feelings, Jyvora tried to sense the newcomer better.
“Oh you are strong with the Force. I was lucky to find you. Come on out, I am not here to kill you.”
Unable to tell if this was a lie or not, Jyvora decided that he would be unable to hide from this person, so he came out of hiding to face the newcomer. The individuals face was hidden behind a mask and the black cloak they were wearing.
“Who are you?”
“My name is of no importance, what is important is that I have come to extend to you an invitation.”
“An invitation to what?”
“A brotherhood of who will train you to control you strong abilities over the Force.”
………………………
Jyvora had accepted the invitation, which had led him to being on this ship heading to Karufr. After a short time of waiting the ship had landed and Jyvora followed the map he was given. It led him to another transport where he was given a black robe. When he walked onto the transport he could see around twenty others, some younger, some older, and from all different species in the same hood as himself. Jyvora walked down the aisle and was stopped by another human.
“Hey, you could sit here.”
He seemed to be around Jyvora’s age and not wanting to be unnecessarily rude, Jyvora sat down. The transport took off towards their destination and Jyvora sat in silence. When the transport finally stopped, they found themselves in front of a large tower like building with a strange symbol on it’s from. The hooded group was led off the bus and a slightly older Human man stepped forward to address them.
“Welcome to Clan Taldryan of the Dark Brotherhood. I am Prophet Keirdagh Taldrya Cantor, Consul of Clan Taldryan. You have all been selected due to your levels of determined ability, and connection the Force. Taldryan is a clan that accepts al force users regardless of their affinity to the Light, or Dark. This is a new start for you. You can be whoever you so choose. Now I will call you forward and you shall step forward and state your name your preferred affinity.”
Jyvora waited his turn, but he remembered a name that his parents had told him was with him, when we had been abandoned, and for some reason it felt like it resonated inside his head. This was a new start for him and he planned to take advantage of it. Jyvora would always be his parents name for him, but now they were gone. He was in control of his own destiny. HE was finally called forward, and so he walked his way in front of the group. He took off his hood.
“Initiate, who are you?”
“My name is Aiden Lee Deshra, and I choose to follow the Path of the Gray.”