The Jedi's adversaries, the Sith , coveted strength and power through the dark side of the Force. Their opposing philosophies led to millennia of cyclical conflict between the two orders, and resulted in both the extinction of the Sith and the near annihilation of the Jedi.
All life in the galaxy was connected through a mystical energy field known as the Force. The Force was the energy field that bound the galaxy together. Additionally, it was believed nothing was impossible to the Force, [20] being beyond the power of any man-made technique. Mystics and scholars had long debated the origins of the Force, such as where and when civilizations first became aware of its power, resulting in many answers and none that were considered definitive.
Different species had their own names for the Force as well as their own metaphors for how they perceived it and techniques for learning its powers. Force-sensitive life forms were known to possess more midi-chlorians than beings who were not strong with the Force. The Living Force represented the energies of all lifeforms, and those energies were fed into the Cosmic Force, which bound the galaxy together and communicated the will of the Force through midi-chlorians.
Droids , however, being mechanical creations, and thus possessing no midi-chlorians, could never sense the Force. Thus, if a Force-sensitive was in such a location, the individual did not need to spend time or energy looking for a deep connection to the energy field, as such a connection was all around them. Force-sensitivity generally could be passed from parent to offspring as an inheritable trait, though it was not always the case. The Force was strong with the Skywalker family as well as the Palpatine family.
The Emperor 's son was an artifical strandcast , a byproduct of the Sith Eternal cult's cloning experiment with Sidious' genetic template. However, the Emperor's cloned son sired a natural-born daughter, Rey , who was Force-sensitive as a result of her descent from Sidious, her paternal grandfather.
It was possible for siblings born to normal parents to not share a talent for Force sensitivity. Such was the case with Zare and Dhara Leonis. While Dhara from an early age could always sense her brother's presence, Zare never had this talent, nor any special abilities that could be attributed to the Force.
The study of the Force was a lifelong commitment for a Jedi. Whereas Luke Skywalker devoted his life to the Force, his sister did not complete her Jedi training , having chosen her family and political career instead of the Jedi way of life. Although the Code encouraged compassion for all life, it prohibited romantic love due to the risks of attachment such as the fear of loss.
As such, the Order regarded younglings as the preferred age group for recruitment, although exceptions could be made for older children [28] at the discretion of the Jedi High Council. A Force-bond was a connection between two Force-sensitive individuals; [30] the bond between a Force dyad was exceedingly rare and as powerful as life itself.
Although it was inexact and best for informing each other of locations or sensations, dozens of Jedi could be brought into the network, allowing for greater coordination during the duration of the connection.
Different beings saw the Force in different ways; while Kriss saw it as a song, Jedi Knight Elzar Mann , at least in part because he knew that the Force would never end, saw it as an endless, deep, storm-tossed ocean. The Wookiee Burryaga Agaburry thought of it as a massive tree with deep roots and high branches, while Jedi Douglas Sunvale compared the energy field to an interlocked series of gears made from an endless number of materials.
Master Loden Greatstorm felt that using the Force was like dancing with the wind, while his Padawan , Bell Zettifar , thought of it as dancing with fire. Force-sensitives were capable of various abilities, including the power to see the future. The Force granted a myriad of supernatural powers to Force-sensitives such as the Jedi and the Sith , [8] as well as entities like the Bendu [32] and the Mortis gods.
Fast reflexes were the more immediate effects of a Force-sensitive's precognitive senses; even without formal training, an untrained child was capable of developing Jedi-like traits. Although Rey gained a slight advantage in speed, Ren was physically stronger than her. While some Force techniques were practiced by those on either the dark side or the light, such as telekinesis, telepathy , and augmenting one's own physical abilities, certain powers could only be harnessed depending on the user's stance in the Force.
Force-sensitives who retained their identities after death were capable of communing with the living. Yet whereas the Jedi harnessed the light side's abilities through a mental state of peace and calmness, [8] the Sith relied on their passion for strength, granting them access to many abilities, some considered to be unnatural. Those who gained this power could become Force spirits —beings who achieved immortality by retaining their identities after becoming one with the Force.
The Force existed as a recorded concept in the galaxy for well over twenty-five thousand years prior to the era of the Galactic Civil War , with disparate schools of study evolving in parallel on countless planets. Over time, the Jedi Order became the most well-known organization that practiced the ways of the Force, although the galaxy hosted many other religions, orthodoxies, and observances even among those who did not exhibit control or manipulation of the energy field—such as the Guardians of the Whills, [43] who held the Jedi in high esteem.
The Jedi Order was divided by a schism that resulted in the creation of the Sith, adherents to the dark side of the Force. Thousands of years before the Clone Wars , [46] the unity of the Jedi Order was fractured by a rogue Jedi who came to believe that the true power of the Force could only be reached through passion rather than the calmness of the Jedi way.
The Jedi High Council at the time balked at this new direction, and the fallen Jedi was banished from the Order. Nevertheless, a group of renegade Jedi followed the rogue into exile, [47] resulting in a schism that gave way to the Hundred-Year Darkness and the rise of the Sith Order. As a result of the schism between the Jedi and the Sith, the Force came to be seen as divided between their two philosophies: the Jedi's selfless commitment to serving and defending others came to be regarded as the light side of the Force , whereas the Sith's use of emotion and violence became known as the dark side of the Force.
The ancient Jedi and Sith warred against one another over the course of many millennia. As the schism between the Jedi and Sith grew, their open hostility eventually turned to open war both for control of the galaxy and to impose their own philosophy with regards to the Force. During the era of the Old Republic , the Sith and Jedi fought countless wars to destroy one another. Great battles were fought between the two warring orders, and various ways of using the Force were discovered but later lost.
The Sith also took to sacrificing Jedi in ancient chambers on their homeworld of Moraband , places which would remain forever tainted with the darkness of the events that happened in there.
The Sith also used these arts to create monsters, such as Sith snakes , which remained on Moraband until the days of the Clone Wars. The wars between the Sith and the Jedi raged for centuries , [28] and several worlds of the galaxy were broken by their conflict, such as Moraband, which the Sith were eventually forced to abandon, [49] and Malachor , the site of an enormous battle [50] that left the planet scorched with no survivors on either side.
The lightsaber was a weapon used by both Jedi and Sith during their conflicts with each other. Both the Jedi and the Sith used lightsabers as their main weapons. These devices were powered by kyber crystals , special crystals with a strong connection to the Force. They would sometimes use giant kyber crystals to power these weapons. The Jedi Knights served as guardians of peace and justice after millennia of war with the Sith Lords.
Eventually, in the waning days of the Old Republic, the Sith had practically destroyed themselves through infighting, and the Jedi finally emerged victorious. A modern Galactic Republic, emerged from the ruins of the previous Republic and, with the Jedi as their guardians and advisors , expanded throughout the galaxy while beginning an age of peace and prosperity which would last for a thousand years.
The Sith Order secretly survived for generations through the reforms of Darth Bane. Despite the Jedi's victory over their rival order, the Sith survived through Darth Bane. It was traditional for the apprentice to kill the master in order to ascend within the dark side of the Force. The Order was overseen from the Jedi Temple on the galactic capital world of Coruscant.
The Sith were believed extinct, but they had survived. To prevent infighting and preserve the order, the Sith Lord Darth Bane introduced the Rule of Two, limiting the Sith ranks to a master and an apprentice.
For nearly a millennium the Sith remained in hiding as corruption and complacence ate away at the Republic and the Jedi. Seeing the balance of the Force tipping toward the dark side, Darth Sidious plotted to resurrect the Sith. In his guise as Senator Palpatine, he rose to become chancellor of the Republic, engineered the Separatist movement and the Clone Wars, and convinced the Jedi to abandon their traditional roles and become generals of a vast clone army — which had been secretly created to bring about their downfall.
When his identity was finally discovered, he issued Order 66 to his clones, who obediently turned their guns on the Jedi. Sidious had also seduced Anakin Skywalker , thought to be the Chosen One destined to bring balance to the Force. Anakin fell to the dark side and became Darth Vader , helping his new master vanquish the Jedi.
A triumphant Palpatine then declared himself emperor of a new galactic order — an Empire ruled in secret by the Sith. Very few knew Emperor Palpatine was a Force wielder, let alone a Sith Lord — that aspect of the Empire was a closely guarded secret.
Vader had been maimed and horribly burned in a lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi. He survived by being encased in black armor that helped him breathe, but was left more machine than man.
A new generation of Imperial technocrats feared Vader, but also dismissed him as a pitiful vestige of a bygone era and an obsolete religion. Most assumed the fires of the Force tradition had burned out and would never be reignited. Some concealed their powers to escape the Inquisitors, while others fled to commune with the Force as hermits.
With the dark side ascendant, these scattered refugees waited for a day when the balance of the Force would tip towards the light once again. Though barely trained, Luke showed immense potential. Betrayal was second nature to the Sith, with master and apprentice always struggling for dominance. After training on Dagobah with Yoda, Luke unwisely chose to confront Vader.
And he made Luke a fateful offer: join him, and together they would overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy as father and son. Luke refused, just as he refused to believe Yoda and Obi-Wan when they said Vader could never return to the light.
He stubbornly believed that the man Vader once was, Anakin, could still be redeemed, and it was this simple faith in family — not Jedi doctrine — that would save the galaxy. But Luke refused to kill his father and awakened the good slumbering in him.
They believed that the future's instabilities caused uncertainty, and that the present held the answers to near-future events. The idea of a Unifying Force reflects that aspect of the Force which requires a significantly greater amount of understanding than the Living Force, for it manifests the Force as a single cosmic power that can reveal visions of the future that are of particular significance.
The idea of a Cosmic Force reflects that aspect of the Force which connects the Living Force to a unifying gestalt, allowing users to merge with, or to become "one" with the Force, but also manifest themselves as Force ghosts. The idea of a Physical Force reflects that aspect of the Force which allows one to manipulate objects within his or her surroundings.
The light side of the Force was concerned with the ideals of good, benevolence, and healing. Followers of the light side strove to live in harmony with the world around them, acting out of wisdom and logic rather than anger and hasty judgment.
In order to achieve harmony with the light side of the Force, its practitioners would often meditate to clear themselves of emotion—particularly negative emotions such as aggression, fear, anger, and hatred, since these were thought to lead to, or entice one to an acceptance of, the dark side of the Force.
The largest group of proponents and teachers of the light side was the Jedi Order , who strove to maintain peace and justice throughout the galaxy. The values of the light side were encapsulated in the Jedi Code. The Jedi accepted the view of there being two sides to the Force: the dark side and the light side. A follower of the light side tried to live selflessly, in harmony with those around him, and in harmony with "the will of the Force" itself. In contrast, a follower of the dark side typically used the dark side of the Force out of selfish motives.
As such, use of the dark side of the Force was mostly forbidden within the Jedi Order, though exceptions for certain particularly useful techniques were made. Traditional Jedi were keen to keep the Force "in balance. This involved the purging of negative emotions such as aggression, anger, and hatred, since they could easily bring on acceptance of the dark side. In contrast, positive emotions such as compassion and courage nurtured the light side of the Force. The Jedi Code compared such feelings and provided insight into the ethical use of the Force.
Passion was considered dangerous, as it could lead to strong emotions that could unbalance the Jedi and lead them to the dark side. Love, curiously, was regarded by both the Jedi and Sith Orders in most eras as something to be avoided. While the Jedi espoused compassion , a broad, all-encompassing, self-sacrificing love for all beings, love for another being—romance, a possessive love by nature—was shunned in the post— Ruusan Reformation era Jedi Order. Possession of all types was shunned in the post-Ruusan order, the only exceptions being a Jedi's lightsaber and personal raiment.
The Jedi viewed love as a danger best left untouched. With a few minor exceptions, the original Jedi Order lasted largely unchanged in structure and philosophy for twenty-five thousand years, despite many detrimental conflicts with various Sith Empires and an attempted purge by the Sith Triumvirate. When the Order was reconstructed by Luke Skywalker after the deaths of Sidious and Vader, it underwent a substantial change in both philosophy and policies, as Luke possessed little information regarding the structure of the Old Jedi Order and disagreed with some of its practices and as such permitted marriage for Jedi and was at times more open to Jedi using dark side powers than most of his forebears.
The dark side of the Force was considered by the Jedi to be the element aligned with selfishness, fear, hatred, aggression, and malice toward all living things. Such emotions seemed to increase the strength and abilities of a user of the dark side, providing a path towards personal power and the destruction or control of all opposition. It was generally accepted that use of the dark side of the Force was extremely addictive.
Dark-side Jedi were known as Dark Jedi. Force lightning , one of the most powerful and iconic dark-side powers. The earliest incarnations of the Sith Order were similar to the Jedi Order in structure. Many Sith of various ranks and abilities comprised the Order, which was often under the control of a single Dark Lord who wielded absolute authority. Over the centuries, numerous Sith Empires utilizing this power structure rose to challenge the Republic for control over the galaxy.
Though several Sith Empires brought the Republic to the brink of defeat, they were all plagued by infighting amongst the power-hungry Sith overlords who controlled them, and ultimately the Jedi and the Republic triumphed against all of them.
Bane considered the Force to be finite and thus ideally for exclusive use by the Dark Lord. He eliminated the practice of having vast numbers of Sith at the same time, thereby aiming to concentrate the dark side of the Force into two individuals: a Sith Master and his or her apprentice. In addition, he hoped to eliminate the infighting that had plagued previous Sith Orders. This reformed Order went on to achieve that the Sith Empires of old never could; the annihilation of the Jedi Order and the defeat of the Republic.
Trained by Vader and having had significant exposure to both him and Sidious, she had come to view the Order under Sidious and Vader as having been selfish and ineffective. Given this, she resolved to change the core philosophy of the Banite Sith. While she still viewed the light side as inferior due to the Jedi's history of being unable to affect change, she believed that a proper Sith Lord should rule selflessly, making decisions that would benefit the greatest number of people no matter how personally painful those decisions might be.
In theory, negative emotions like hate would be crucial in maintaining the power of the dark side within such a Sith, but would not be allowed to influence their decisions. Such a Sith would theoretically be able to ruthlessly maintain order, yet govern with compassion. Her philosophy culminated in the creation of Darth Caedus , the grandson of Darth Vader. In a manner somewhat similar to Palpatine, Caedus gained control over the primary galactic government and sought to impose his idea of order on it's people.
However, his reign was cut short by the Jedi, and Lumiya's school of thought died with him. Superficially, this reincarnation of the Order was no different from the ancient variations of the Sith Empires. However, Darth Krayt believed that his philosophy gave the Sith and their power a purpose, unlike Darth Bane, who believed that power was its own purpose. Unlike previous Sith Orders, the Rule of One called for cooperation and even some level of loyalty between the Sith.
Most importantly however, the Rule of One called for complete and utter loyalty to the Dread Lord. These two rules of Krayt's Order were designed to prevent the infighting of past Sith Orders while still retaining the ability to field large numbers of Sith, the lack of which had been a notable shortcoming of Bane's Order.
However, the Rule of One did not represent the Sith as a whole, and Krayt was even labeled a heretic by the holocrons of Darth Bane, Darth Nihilus and Darth Andeddu , all of whom believed that Krayt's Order would ultimately turn on itself as so many similarly structured Sith Orders had. In Sidious's case however, the "One" referred simply to himself, as he believed that, with him, the Sith had reached their absolute peak in terms of power and ability.
As such, he discarded Bane's idea of training a more powerful replacement and intended to reign forever as the galaxy's sole leader. Adherents of the Potentium were less discriminating about the friends they chose because they believed the actions of all would inevitably lead to good.
The Potentium view of the Force, not to be confused with the Unifying Force, was strictly disapproved by the old Jedi Order. While similar to the Unifying Force, which suggested that there was only one Force that did not take sides, the Potentium view stated that the Force and the galaxy in general were inherently good.
According to this belief, the so-called dark side was not made up of specific "parts" or "abilities" of the Force: as espoused by the Light Side, it existed inside the life form which used it, made from their emotions. By that standard, and unlike the Light Side, all Potentium followers could perform any action and use the Force in any way they saw fit, as long as the intention behind it was good.
In contrast, the Old Jedi Order acknowledged the existence of Potentium, but made it clear that it was subverting of the Jedi teaching and a way to misguide people to the dark side, or a means to serve it. The Way of the Dark , or simply the Dark, was a view of the Force taken up by Cronal and those that taught him. It was effectively the polar opposite of the Potentium, but taken a step further. This Way of the Dark belief did not just deny the existence of the Light side of the Force; it stated that the Force itself was simply a small extension of the Dark.
This system stated that destruction was the universal constant that all things worked towards, going so far as to call it the "will of the universe. As a prime example of this, Cronal cited that Palpatine was able to achieve success against the Jedi and the Republic because his primary motive was the destruction of both parties.
However, once he had achieved these goals and set about consolidating his rule and building the Empire, his focus shifted from destruction to creation, in total opposition to universal processes. Thus when before he could not fail, now he could never succeed. Kreia , an exiled Jedi and former Sith living during the Old Sith Wars , believed the Force to be akin to a deceptively sinister, indifferent god.
She pointed to the numerous wars fought by countless sentients that formed a symbiotic relationship with everything else, that depended on the Force; the dichotomy of the light and dark with its constantly re-occurring conflicts, as evidence that the Force cared nothing for the lives it consumed, so long as balance was achieved. This philosophy emphasized individualism, believing that if individuals were to be truly free, the will of the Force had to be severed from sentients through their individual will.
This viewpoint was condemned by the Jedi and Sith, both organizations dependent on the Force, though Kreia's teachings passed on to Meetra Surik. However, after the defeat of the dark-side entity Abeloth , Grand Master Luke Skywalker came to a similar conclusion regarding the nature of the Force.
While he ascribed no intentions or emotions to the Force, he believed that the Force being out of balance was the cause of the horrific amount of death and chaos that had occurred in the time since the death of the Ones. Instead of believing that the Force should be destroyed, however, Luke instead took the approach that, to keep the galaxy at peace, Force-adepts had to actively maintain the balance of the Force.
Instead of the dark and the light sides of the Force, they viewed it as having many colors, much like a rainbow. They believed that the Force could manifest itself in different ways, which allowed a being to develop unique abilities, unknown to most of the Jedi and the Sith. They believed the Force was much too complicated to be just light or dark.
According to their beliefs, Force-users were not strictly good or evil, but instead had their place in a larger spectrum. The Fallanassi called the Force the White Current and saw it like the river flowing through the galaxy and all living beings. A single person could not alter the current any more than a being could divert a river with one hand. Thus, the Fallanassi immersed themselves in the Current, letting it flow through them.
This way they managed to shape its flow without imposing their will on it, which also opened them a way for unique Force abilities. The Sorcerers of Tund shared most of the Sith beliefs, which was not surprising, given the fact that their order was founded by Sith mages. However, they viewed the Force as a magical power and manipulated it mostly by arcane symbols and spells. The Jedi viewed the sorcerers as merely another Force sect, but would often try to "convert" the Sorcerers, attempting to convince them to use the Force without any of their trappings of magic and mysticism.
However, they were unsuccessful, and eventually the Jedi contented themselves with making sure the Sorcerers did not descend into the dark side. The Killiks believed that The Ones represented the Force. They believed that the Daughter represented the light side of the Force while the Son represented the dark side of the Force.
Their Father tried to maintain the balance between them on the planet they called home. Incredibly powerful, their fighting was destructive until another came to bring peace to the family, though this brought about the creation of Abeloth.
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