A Land Before Time | The Je'daii Order

[Lief]

Tython​

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Since before there was such a thing as Hyperspace Travel, the Nine Tho Yor of the Je'daii Temple have stood upon the temperate lands of Tython deep within the Core. A volatile world, legend tells of its affinity for balance and unpredictable temper when it is met with forces of extreme alignments. Though the planet these days is settled and quiet, despite its recent history regarding the Jedi Order, scars and reminders lay dotted throughout the lands, remnants of Force Storms and battles once waged.

It is time for the Je'daii to come home, if only for a time, to discover what these lands have in store for them, and to unearth secrets of their past previously unknown to them.

Objectives:

1. Visit Qigong Kesh, the Temple of Force Skills, in the Silent Desert
Explore the Silent Desert and find out what gives it its name...

2. Visit Mahara Kesh, the Temple of Healing, in the Deep Ocean
Unearth medical techniques and plants from days gone by...

3. Visit Stav Kesh, the Temple of Martial Arts, in the Ice Giant Range
Discover archaic weapons from millennia ago...

It had been quite some time since Asha had been spotted among the Je'daii.

A random trip to Nar Shaddaa had left her incapacitated for quite some time, left to travel in the presence of strangers who were responsible for her current vitality. No word had been spoken to Caedyn in that time, nor Cotan, or even Jericho, there had been naught but static silence from the newly knighted Ranger - until now. A signal had been sent out, to those within the Order who cared to listen, a message which urged them to travel to the ancient homeworld of their people in search of answers.

She owed some of them an explanation, she knew, but for now she merely hoped that they might enjoy an adventure or two together before things turned to more serious topics. There was so much of Tython they had not discovered, after all, things which had lay for millennium in areas so far removed that most had remained undisturbed. There were a few, of course, such as Kaleth, which had been found by the Jedi, but that did not mean they did not retain secrets of their own.

As much as she wanted to delve into each of the Temples, all nine of them, she knew that such was folly. There was no rush, they were not going anywhere, and as such she had selected three specifically - each in relatively close proximity to one another. Something to entice each member, she hoped, into participating in this little project of hers.

She could only sit and hope that some would come, up within the glacial mountains where Stav Kesh awaited the arrival of many. From there the Silent Desert and Deep Ocean awaited.

 

[Lothar Lundgren]

Lothar Lundgren had been mostly absent from the Je'daii aswell. He spent his time practicing his medicine alone, albeit not getting too far. Lothar was bound by a trait of his race - being sociable. Truth be told, he liked to deviate from this path once in a while, spend some time alone and try to advance himself as a man. These stints never lasted too long, and his head peaked back out into the world of the Je'daii after a bit.

When the signal from Asha Hex came through, Lothar decided it was better than ever to peak his head out. A journey out to Tython, the ancestral home of the Je'daii Order. Almost immediately the Journeyer planned out his travel. Soon enough he was aboard a ship and making good time for Tython.

A short time after, his pilot gave the signal that they had arrived. The man knew where to go, the mountains that housed Stav Kesh. Lothar was glad the pilot knew, because this was the Journeyer's virgin voyage to Tython, and truth be told he did not know the geography rather well. In the blink of an eye, Lothar was walking in the mountains. A smile was born upon his face as he recognized Asha Hex, sitting and waiting for fellow Je'daii to arrive. From what he could tell, he was the first to do so. Still grinning, he approached the Ranger. "Hello, Miss Hex. I've arrived at last."

[member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Northwood Galaxy]

Jade nearly laughed at the dark comedy the universe was throwing at her. More transport troubles, again?! The damned pilot tried to trick her and not let her on or bring her to her location. Good thing he was told by his boss whom she was; well, more so what group she was with.

She could almost smell the man's fear and horror as he thought of all the consequences and such he would have received. Needless to say, he was rather quick to bring her to Tython. As she stepped off, the man muttered "witch" under his breath. Abner growled, but Jade gently and firmly pulled on the harness.

"No, he is not worth it. Not everyone likes me. Then again...…. this whole family thing is not turning out well. Perhaps here will be better? I am tired of running and searching...." Sadness and loneness flickers on her grey, cloudy eyes.

"I want to go home."

The Temple of force abilities struck her interest. Having been out of practice for so long, she wanted to once again use the training from her past once more. Was such training dangerous? Yes.

Yet... it needed to be tuned.

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"Tython?" Cotan asked his droid incredulously. "Who's the message even from, anyways?" He finished tightening a bolt into place, clenching his jaw at the pain from his bruised and burned arm. His little K1 astromech burbled out some more information, and Cotan raised his eyes in surprise. "Alright, guess that means we have to go. Go set up the navcomputer and warm up the ship, I'll be in the cockpit in a moment." He packed up the tools he had, following after his droid into the ship. He rather quickly ducked down a side corridor, stepping into the medbay with a sigh. "Time to change out the bacta patches."

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It wasn't a particularly long trip to Tython from where he'd been—he'd dropped any of his Jedi passengers off at the entrance to the Kathol rift, rather than delving deep into it. So it wasn't without much surprise that he was one of the first to arrive. "Alright, Kiss, drop me off down below and hang out up in orbit. I don't want to take any risks that a Force storm will start and tear this ship apart." The droid chirped out an affirmative, bringing the ship into its descent while Cotan walked to the loading ramp. Thankfully, the astromech droid was a better pilot than Cotan was, and it managed to bring the ship low enough that Cotan could step off rather than have to jump.

Overall, compared to Lothar, he'd present a bit of a roughed-up sight. Both of his arms were noticeably bruised, and there were bandages, noticeable under his shirt here-and-there, that were covering up lightsaber burns he'd received on Coruscant. Alongside that, he'd smell noticeably of bacta, due to the patches under the bandages. It wasn't a particularly pleasant smell to anybody, himself included, and he wasn't much fond of the inability to get rid of it. Still, his good cheer was still present as he walked up to the pair.

"Muscles, you're looking as good as ever," he complimented Lothar, before his eyes fell back on Asha; up close, he could notice marks from the trouble she'd seen recently. One eyebrow raised itself questioningly, though Cotan's next words still came out as a joke. "Well, it looks like I'm not the only one who's been having fun recently, eh?" He raised his right arm slightly, showing one of the bandages on his forearm. "We'll have to trade tales soon."

[member="Lothar Lundgren"] [member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Lief]

Each day since arriving at the Ice Giant Range Asha had ventured out from the archaic Temple for several hours to watch the horizon. Each day she had been disappointed to find a distinct lack of starships. In the end she did not know how many days she had waited, how many weeks she had been waiting, training within the stark and frigid landscape, huddled up within the large structure at night, living off rations she'd managed to bring with her. A large mountain goat had strayed too far up the incline and had all but frozen to death, so she had some small measure of fresh meat to contend with.

Without her ship, though, she was not so certain how much longer she could hold out. The next transmission she sent out might have to be to the Alliance, in hopes that she could be picked up, after all she had been dropped off here by random transit and had no control over her future path. Not until she had the Prophet once again.

She could only hope that [member="Caedyn Arenais"] was taking good care of her. And Azrael.

So it was that when Asha sat out in the cold that day, meditating with open eyes, she was more than surprised to watch a couple of ships duck through the planet's atmosphere. Though they neared her location, the ships themselves did not land exactly where she was. Lothar was the first to approach, no doubt he liked the cold environment she had found herself within.

"Snowborn!" she exclaimed, as she slowly came out of the meditative state and rose from the ground with a broad grin on her scarred face, "It's so good to see you." It had been too long, after all. Even without her disappearance. Stepping closer she embraced him in a quick hug before stepping back and glancing behind him to the sound of crunching snow.

The man who stood there looked worse for wear, and the elated expression almost immediately dropped to one of concern.

"Cotan? What happened?"

Stepping around the Valkyri she hurried over to where he was, in all his bandaged glory, and shook her head.

"And who set these bandages? Honestly, I'm gone for a time and you get yourself into trouble?"

Throughout her reprimanding tone, however, there was a soft undertone of care held within her voice. Lifting one hand up she slowly touched one of the bruises on his arm, before frowning. The small signs of lightsaber burns peeking out from the edges of the bandages gave her pause.

"I wish I had my Prophet with me, you look as though you could use some Dreamul'er..." Ever since visiting the Shadow Port of Nadir she'd been growing the miraculous plant for moments such as this. How ironic it was that she no longer had it with her when the need arose.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"] [member="Jade The Rogue"] [member="Lothar Lundgren"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

The speed with which Asha's attention shifted from Lothar over to Cotan—and with which she instantly came over to check on him—was rather impressive.

He didn't have time to respond to her initial question, however, before she started looking at him more closely, more questions and comments coming out of her mouth before Cotan had time to say anything. When she tugged on the bandages, though, and commented on how poor they were, he looked almost hurt. "You know, I didn't have anybody other than my astromech to help tie those on me," he said somewhat defensively, wincing while she prodded at one of his bruises from when Darth Carnifex had slammed him into the floor. "I thought I managed rather well, all things considered."

Asha poked at something again—something rather ginger—and Cotan put out a hand to stop her. "Please, you can berate me for how bad I am at tying bandages later," he joked, some amusement twinkling back in his eyes. "I've got a nice, long story to tell you later about how all this happened, don't fret. I'd just rather do it someplace private where I don't have to have the rest of the order worrying about me." He shrugged at Lothar, frowning at the way it twisted his broken rib. "Sorry, Muscles. Can't run the risk that you start spreading my stories everywhere—after all, I know you look up to me so much."

The cold air swirling around the temple, at least, helped a bit with all the pain and swelling from the fight on Coruscant. So far as Cotan viewed it, it was better to be cold and numb than warm and in agony. "There wouldn't happen to be a bench anywhere nearby I could sit on, would there? I pushed myself a bit to do some last-minute repairs before I flew out here, and half my muscles still don't want to work properly."

[member="Asha Hex"] [member="Lothar Lundgren"]

 

[Northwood Galaxy]

Jade smiled slightly as she heard the voices of fellow force users. With Abner's help she slowly made her way, drawing a slightly pained breath. Her "disease" was affecting her again, however, it should not prevent her from going to the silent desert.

Once she was near the small crowd, Jade attempted to speak. "Hello..... how is everyone?" She coughed a bit after speaking in a slightly raspy voice. Jade found a large boulder and sat down, attempting to hide and block out the pain. Abner whimpered and nudged her. "I'll be fine, Boy, it will pass. I just need to be somewhere in which I can use the force to my full extent. I am a bit under the weather because of the stagent energy the refuses to leave."

All this was spoken in a slight whisper, pain making her draw in breath. She needed to relax, don't focus on the pain. Focus on the people around you... She commanded herself sternly in her mind.

 

[Lothar Lundgren]

It had been quite a while since he had seen Asha, and just about as long since anybody had called him Snowborn. He grinned at the nickname, and almost immediately regretted his vacation of solitude he had taken. Seeing his friend brought warmth to his heart on this cold mountain. He embraced Asha back and replied "It's good to see you too, it's been too long." Then as they stepped back from each other, another one of the Valkryi's not so common nicknames was called out to him. Quickly, his grin returned and he spun around to face Cotan.

The sight was not one that he had expected. Cotan was bruised and bandaged everywhere. Before Lothar could step forward to investigate the wounds, Asha bound past him and began messing with his bandages. He followed behind her, examining the extent of the man's injuries. Cotan said something about speaking in private with Asha, and Lothar waved it off. "No worries, I'll do whatever my hero asks of me." He smirked and winked at Cotan, then resumed "After storytime, I can re-wrap those bandages for you, if you wish."

It was then that Lothar heard another voice speak up, and he turned his head to view its origin. There, a girl that the Valkryi did not recognize stood. She coughed after she spoke, then found a seat nearby. Curious, and also finding a good excuse to give Cotan and Asha privacy, Lothar began to make his way toward the girl. Upon reaching her, he gave her a warm smile. "Hello there," He bowed inbetween his words. "I don't believe we've met before. I am Lothar Lundgren, Steward of Mahara Kesh."

[member="Asha Hex"] | [member="Cotan Sar'andor"] | [member="Jade The Rogue"]

 

[Northwood Galaxy]

"Jade The..... well, not so much a rouge anymore. So I guess it's just Jade." She spoke in a somewhat quiet voice as to not stress her throat. Abner glanced at the man, but did not react other than blinking.

"Heard there were some temples to visit. Figured I could go to the Silent Desert to the Temple there. Perhaps forcing all this stagent energy out in a safe place will ease this damned force cancer." She growled the last part. "Sorry, I did not mean to frighten you, nearly frustrated is all."

She blinked her grey eyes, "So.... cough, cough what brings you here?" Jade burst into another coughing fit that lasted for a good few minutes. Once it was out of her system, the force user gulped down a small amount of water from her flask.

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

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Starship: The Prophet | Appearance: Spacer Attire.​

En-route to Tython, The Silent Desert of Thyr.​

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Sitting with Ashla nestled into him upon his lap, Caedyn found himself wandering in thought while the Prophet surged through Hyperspace guided by her Nav-Computer, the coordinates for Tython keyed in prior to his leave of Svivren and making for a smooth and relaxing trip if all things were to go to plan (they rarely did). The little Yorshi being to Caedyn, what Azrael was to [member="Asha Hex"]; the two often seen playing and teasing one another across the Freighter that was typically shared between them.

This time however, and in fact for a few weeks now by his count, Caedyn had been hearing very little from his Master and had started to worry about her. She'd always been nice to him, catered to his having family on the world of Commenor and never kept him from visiting them when and where he wished, yet they had always maintained contact until late. It was difficult not to jump to conclusions, she was a free spirit and often journeyed across the galaxy herself and had done much more before she had taken him under her wing. Perhaps she had just wanted some space to resume old habits, Caedyn had tried not to put too much stock in his concerns knowing that she'd find a way to reach out to him if she truly needed to.

Despite his Master's youth, only older than Caedyn by several years, her capabilities in the Force were far above what he had expected and thus learned early on never to judge a holo-novel by it's title. Such was why she was the Steward of Qigong Kesh, he had concluded to himself and thus, taken on the path as his primary out of respect and honoring his Master's path in the Force.

Tython was, on the subject, the origin of the Je'daii from what he had been able to tell from the Archives, they having migrated there using the Tho Yor, though from where he hadn't quite figured out as of yet. Regardless, the nine great temples of the Je'daii had been built upon the resting sites of where the Tho Yor had delivered there people. There somewhere upon that world hidden away were countless secrets of their Order, detailed teachings or abilities unheard of, at-least that's what Caedyn imagined.

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[member="Asha Hex"] | [member="Jade The Rogue"] | [member="Lothar Lundgren"] | [member="Cotan Sar'andor"]​

 

[Lief]

Asha was quick to stop her poking and prodding, tentatively returning her hand back to her side and looking to Cotan straight on with a very soft frown of concern. She had seen him fight, so for someone to have done quite so much damage must have meant he had battled quite the foe, or crashed his ship... She didn't know which was the worst outcome.

"Okay, okay, no more berating, though I'll show you how to wrap a bandage properly later. If Snowborn here doesn't first."

As Lothar ventured off to greet the stranger among them, someone Asha thought she had seen before but wasn't entirely certain, she reached out to half-hug him in an attempt to avoid hurting him further before nodding to his request of having some place to sit.

"We can head into the Temple... I have a feeling you're going to like it here."

Over the week or so that she had been here the young Hex had taken to exploring almost every nook and cranny she could, the secret tunnels which burrowed through the mountains were the only things she hadn't completely walked through but for all she knew they wound their way down for hours.

"Stav Kesh," she muttered, "The original Stav Kesh. Isn't it wonderful?"

Sat there as it was, nestled into the mountainside, it was hard not to look upon the structure with awe.

[member="Caedyn Arenais"] [member="Jade The Rogue"] [member="Lothar Lundgren"] [member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Raising his arm, Cotan returned the half-hug; partially out of sheer stubbornness at refusing to accept the full extent of some of his injuries, and partially out of actual affection for the person next to him. Hopefully she didn't see him wince while doing so, struggling against the pain of the somewhat-larger lightsaber burn on his upper arm. "Looks like he'll be a bit distracted to do that," he said about Lothar, his eyes watching the man go off towards the other visitor. "Also, I do know how to wrap a bandage properly; it's just a bit difficult to do it on myself with only my astromech to help."

He turned obediently, looking at the temple that was next to them. "Very impressive," he replied somewhat noncommittally. His eyes quickly found the entrance, which he was becoming somewhat eager to get to. "I'm sure I'll enjoy it quite a bit once we're inside and I'm able to sit down. Then I'll let you poke and prod me to your heart's content, deal?" Without much waiting for a response, he started to walk over to where the entrance was, hoping to spy benches of some sort just inside. Thankfully, it wasn't a difficult walk—the altitude managed to blow most of the snow away, so that Cotan didn't have to try and force his tired muscles to trudge through it.

Once inside, he did manage to quickly find a bench to sit on, lowering himself into it with a rather irritable sort of grumble. Cotan never dealt well with actually getting hurt. "So, how'd you get out here, anyways? Or even send out a message?" he asked Asha, one eyebrow raised somewhat quizzically. "None of my scans showed your ship around here, and I'd be surprised if the old tech here was still nice and functional. Last I knew, the Jedi never really bothered to do anything with the old temples recently." His eyes quickly looked over her face, noticing again some marks that hadn't been there before. "Just what all have you been up to, anyways? It seems like I haven't seen you in ages."

[member="Asha Hex"]