Taking Off on a Star Tour Episode 2: Light Side of the Force

[Dunames Lopez]

"Welcome to The Scream, brought to you by Taking Off on a Star Tour! Today's host is our beloved corporation head, Dunames Lopez! Our first guest for today is a Jedi, Jakkor Kess, best known for being a Clone Wars Veteran!" Merrily said, as the backstage announcer.

The Star Tours Guide to Force Specialties. A week after the edition of The Scream shot aboard Chaos Incarnate, came another occasion for Dunames to get to the bottom of the matter as it pertained to Jedi. To the eyes of all too many NFUs, Jedi and Sith are simply space wizards that fight each other and fight wars with the Force as the main driver behind a casus belli. Hence their first encounter with Jedi will, more often than not, be with Guardians of any subclass. At least as defined by the STGFS, soon to be published by Taking Off on a Star Tour. Back in the Old Sith Wars and even at the time of the Ruusan reformations, Jedi were most often divided into Consulars, Sentinels and Guardians; since that day Guardians are under the spotlight, have immense pressure and they are expected to fight the dark side at every turn. In a sense Dunames was lucky not to be a Force-user - or else she would be an Ace, almost certain of it.

"Hello, Jakkor. My first question is as follows: How are today's Jedi different from the Jedi in your youth?"

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

Jakkor sat in his chair in front of his host. He happily accepted an offer for an interview from Star Tours to give his own view of how the Jedi were 800 years ago during his time. The Tusken heard her ask the question. He looked at her through his red lenses,and thought that there was many changes between the jedi of old.and the jedi of today much like the Sith. he replied in a friendly tone.

"Well to answer your question Dunames. There are many changes that took place in the last 800 years. In my time we trained Jedi as younglings,and took them when they were kids. They were also only one Jedi temple on Coruscant. Today you have many different variations of the Jedi Order wether it be the Silver Jedi,or The GA's Jedi Order. Back than their was only one,and unlike today Jedi couldn't be allowed to form emotional attachments or even have a Family. We also had many Traditions as well in the Order that aren't practiced very often as it was back than Such as the Gathering which was a rite of passage for padawans to construct there lightsabers by going to Ilum to get their crystals."

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"I know that several people, especially among the Alliance, called for Jedi screening as part of the conditions of receipt of unemployment benefits. That said, were Guardians more common back then or today?"

Most Jedi with any sense of adventure would rather be a Guardian or, on occasion, a Sentinel, pending their subclass. If the first draft was correct, Guardians were further subdivided into Peacekeepers (by far the closest to a prototypical image of a Guardian that hunts Sith around in an eternal game of cat-and-mouse) Aces, Brutes and Snipers. Brutes were exotic weapons masters or dual-wielders, sometimes even both. Ugohr was a Brute but was also becoming more of a Jedi Diplomat as well as a Brute. Yet Ugohr was one of the greatest tank commanders of the Alliance before his fall from grace on Chandrila, and its top minesweeping dog. Later she would inquire about the role of Jedi in business, and what Jedi specialties would be best suited for the running and ownership of corporations. To Dunames it was no secret that Jedi-owned corporations formed the bulk of Silver Jedi funding, and that IGR funded substantial portions of the Alliance's, back in the day when IGR was still Alliance property.

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

Jakkor was a bit stumped with the question he knew a wide range of jedi from the Sentinels,to the Consular,and even the Guardian as well. He placed his fingers below the chin of his mask to think for a moment,before replying. "They were not that many guardians till at least the Clone Wars,and that was because the Dark Side wasn't as big of a threat during the Golden age of the Republic. I knew quite a few such as Anakin Skywalker,or Obi-Wan Kenobi. Mostly there were either Sentinels or Consular classes,and when The Clone Wars broke out their was a mass build up of the Guardians for the War,even myself but it was only temporary because after the war i was going to be a Lorekeeper with the rest of the Consulars and work in the Archives. That all changed when Order 66 arrived."

He said the last sentence grimly remembering the horrible memories of that dark day,and they still haunted him to this day in the form of PTSD.

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"That suggest great fluidity between specializations within a Jedi's career"

Probably some comment to add on to a joint preface written by Cathul and Jessica, even though Jessica was known to Taking Off on a Star Tour while Cathul previously was not, she thought. He personally knew several of the heroes of the Clone Wars, who are today names people would read on about in the history books. And Order 66 had to do with the horrible hunting of Jedi. Obi-Wan was a Peacekeeper, Anakin an Ace, with Kazdan Paratus a Technician, much like Jessica is poised to become. Cathul was brought in for the preface and the first draft of Witch specialties, Chapter 7. Hopefully the Star Tours Guide to Force Specialties would be comprehensive enough, yet kept at a level where NFUs could still get the main point across. Because there were advanced notions of Force specialties that only Force-users could understand. Using such advanced notions would defeat the purpose of the book to Dunames' eyes.

"Are there personalities that would make a Jedi a better fit for a Consular role vs. Sentinel vs. Guardian?"

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

He thought for a moment what personalities would be needed for such age old classes in the Old jedi Order as well as the ones of today. He than replied with this after he was finished with thinking,and spoke with a calm voice. ​"Well for the Consular class one must be willing to study the larger mysteries of the force,and genuinely focus more on the Force,than battle,and Lightsaber combat. These were true peace keepers and focused more on knowledge and harmony than anything else. From this particular class we have Ambassadors,Archaeologists,Diplomat's,and Lore keepers. As for the Guardian they are always ones to fight the dark side,and people who flock to this Class want to protect the galaxy from such evil,and mainly train themselves as Warriors for the Order,and with those you have your Aces,Generals,and Regular Warriors. With the Sentinel is basically a mix of the two where you could not have to choose between one or the other of the two classes. Basically learning traits from both sides as well as focusing on other set's of skills. With those you had your Technicians,and even Temple guards."

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"I know some specialization names I regularly hear about are Jedi Brutes, Snipers, Healers. Are they actually recognized as such or not? One would think the first two are Guardian stuff and Healers are Consulars under that scheme"

Ugohr was still more Brute than Diplomat when he was arrested on Chandrila. He cleared the minefields for the Alliance, and was one of its tank commanders, but he was becoming more of a Diplomat thanks to his operation of business. Yet his command of the Force is much more limited than Cathul, and Jessica had greater breadth than Ugohr did but Ugohr had her beat at Force-sense or Force-push/pull. That is, if what Cathul and Jessica said were accurate - Cathul has more breadth than Jessica had but the former was much more experienced than the latter. Dunames had a few light-sided passengers as well as dark-sided ones onboard flights she personally piloted, mostly around First Order space. But to her Force-user passengers are mooks not worth her attention unless they can somehow expand her business. Even though Darth Veles and a few others systematically spent all their frequent flyer miles into Star Tours stocks, most FUs had poor grasp of financial markets.

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

He thought for a moment,and then thought of the Jedi Snipers and Brutes both belonged to the Guardian class as well as Temple Security back during Jakkor's days in the Coruscant Jedi Temple. Healers were also Consulars. So after refreshing his memory of his days before the Clone Wars. He responded to her question. "The first two Snipers and Brutes were Temple security forces next to the Regular Sentinel class Temple Guards. They did indeed fall into the category of the Guardian class as they were mostly Warriors. The Healer also fell into the Consular class. So yes they were recognized in there specific classes."

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

Snipers and Brutes were Temple Security Forces next to the Regular Sentinel class Temple Guards? Yet one more area in which Dunames was unsure the first draft of the guide would be requiring edits in or not. Except that Ugohr was one Brute that wasn't a Temple Security Guard on Sullust, let alone Yutan or Voss, yet he was described on many reports as a Brute, especially the pre-Chandrila ones. He might be more accurately be designated as an exotic weapons specialist - since tanks and crossguard lightsabers were exotic weapons. Dunames expected Jedi specializing in ranged combat (defined here as blasters and slugthrowers) to be Jedi Snipers, whereas weapons such as grenades, tank/artillery fire, flamethrowers to be exotic to Jedi, in addition to lightsaber pikes, flails, plasma bows and whatnot. But some would think that, and Dunames the first, alchemy would also be conducted by light-siders in addition to dark-siders. Was that actually the case?

"And is there a reason why Jedi didn't embrace alchemy?"

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

He was surprised to hear her next question,and pondered it. His knowledge of the Order was rather limited so he could only offer the best information he could,and he himself didn't know much about such a thing except it was used by dark side practitioners most notably the Sith. After giving it some thought he replied. "Well The Jedi didn't interfere with alchemy because in a way it was tampering with the force. Not only that,It had gained a very bad reputation as a dark side power mostly used by Dark Jedi or even Sith. If the Jedi could even try to use alchemy it would be no easy task since the jedi mostly rely on the light side of the force,and The Dark side is what alchemy was mostly associated with."

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"Thank you for your time, we hope that you enjoyed your stay on air"

That was, well, informative to say the least. Dunames was completely clueless about FUs, unlike Cathul or Jessica, who were known quantities to Taking Off on a Star Tour. It was as obscure as trying to figure out how do dark-siders became Darths but usually people became Darths when they were knighted, or were otherwise sufficiently advanced in the ways of the Force to be on the cusp of knighthood. Or such was the case post-Banite, that is, after 137 ABY or so.

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

He nodded. He had no idea if this information will be of any good use,and he didn't know if he was correct he only told what he did knew. But he did enjoy the interview,and so he was happy he could help her. Thank you for having me. I hoped that i provided some useful information,and perhaps come back again."

[member="Dunames Lopez"]