Mara D'Lessio Merrill
The Lesser D'Lessio
Intent: A nice old book, suitable for instruction in an underrepresented Force tradition of sorts. This submission is not intended as a personal record/canon item.
Development Thread: None
Manufacturer: Lost to history. The purported author is one Hajinaa Wryn, a wandering Bereth-Aku who lived at Maz Kanata's castle on Takodana for some decades before its destruction.
Model: N/A
Affiliation: Personal. The five copies of the Book of Takodana are scattered through the galaxy; anyone can encounter them, but copying them or keeping them is something else. They’re most often encountered in and around the Kathol Outback, generally in the keeping of various Bereth-Aku wanderers.
Modularity: No, apart from handwritten notes and annotations.
Production: Semi-unique (5)
Material: Leather and paper
Strengths: The book contains the purported teachings of Maz Kanata and her associates. For unknown reasons, the book is very difficult to copy in any length.
Weaknesses: The book is only made of leather and paper.
Description: The old Bereth-Aku finds you on Pergitor, in a dome-city shadowport overlooking a barren black plain. He’s about as grungy and run-down as the port, and his book even more so. “Friends tell me you want to see the book,” he says. Reverently and hesitantly, he places the book on the cantina’s corner table and opens it with his long dull claws. The book is handwritten, and not by human hands. You know there are pens that Bereth-Aku can use, even if it just means wrapping a stylus in a good bit of cloth. This book was written by such implements.
Inside, you find a baffling collection of anecdotes, annotations, and stains. This book clearly spent a good deal of time in a cantina not unlike this one. Flattened between the pages, you find eight-century-old bits of the Takodana jungle.
“Hajinaa Wryn was my great-uncle,” the Bereth-Aku says over your shoulder. “He greatly admired Maz Kanata. She found balance between the spiritual and the pragmatic. Unlike you Jedi, she lived in the galaxy, among the people, as one of them. She saw no distinction between serving their spirits and serving their daily needs, hm? For every soul who needs inspiration or freedom or guidance, there’s another who needs the compassion of a hot meal and the warmth of good company. Maz Kanata understood that pursuing spiritual truth should bring you closer to everyone else, not set you apart. A lesson you Jedi have never known, but we, the Bereth-Aku -- we remember. My great-uncle saw in Maz Kanata much worth emulating.”
He reaches past you and turns to a well-worn page. “Look here,” he says. “She collected so many things which resonated in the Force, but so differently from the way you Jedi hoard things to yourselves. She gave freely when the Force indicated that a thing should go a certain way, to a certain person. She was once a pirate, but she turned from selfish acquisition to community, to a simple life, to generosity when it suited her. A thousand years she lived: she could have made herself wealthy beyond kings and emperors. Instead she owned a cantina, and that was what made her happy. They say the Sith swear to overcome every obstacle in pursuit of whatever it is they want most. Perhaps there’s a ring of truth to that -- oh, this makes you uncomfortable? That the Sith could have a thread of true principle woven into their tapestry? My friend, consider this.”
He taps the opened page with one claw and blinks up at you. “This book is one of ethical ambiguities, of difficult choices in day-to-day life. If you wish to wear pious burlap and carry a symbolic sword of authority and light as you flit from world to world on a crusade, read another book. If you wish to bend the essence of the universe to your will and whim, read another book. This one is about patience and cheerful humility without ostentation. Yes, humility can be ostentatious; we know this. When you are ready to live in this ‘verse as one of its people, rather than setting yourself apart -- then, my friend, this is the book for you.”
Primary Source: Not influenced by any Chaos submissions.
Development Thread: None
Manufacturer: Lost to history. The purported author is one Hajinaa Wryn, a wandering Bereth-Aku who lived at Maz Kanata's castle on Takodana for some decades before its destruction.
Model: N/A
Affiliation: Personal. The five copies of the Book of Takodana are scattered through the galaxy; anyone can encounter them, but copying them or keeping them is something else. They’re most often encountered in and around the Kathol Outback, generally in the keeping of various Bereth-Aku wanderers.
Modularity: No, apart from handwritten notes and annotations.
Production: Semi-unique (5)
Material: Leather and paper
Strengths: The book contains the purported teachings of Maz Kanata and her associates. For unknown reasons, the book is very difficult to copy in any length.
Weaknesses: The book is only made of leather and paper.
Description: The old Bereth-Aku finds you on Pergitor, in a dome-city shadowport overlooking a barren black plain. He’s about as grungy and run-down as the port, and his book even more so. “Friends tell me you want to see the book,” he says. Reverently and hesitantly, he places the book on the cantina’s corner table and opens it with his long dull claws. The book is handwritten, and not by human hands. You know there are pens that Bereth-Aku can use, even if it just means wrapping a stylus in a good bit of cloth. This book was written by such implements.
Inside, you find a baffling collection of anecdotes, annotations, and stains. This book clearly spent a good deal of time in a cantina not unlike this one. Flattened between the pages, you find eight-century-old bits of the Takodana jungle.
“Hajinaa Wryn was my great-uncle,” the Bereth-Aku says over your shoulder. “He greatly admired Maz Kanata. She found balance between the spiritual and the pragmatic. Unlike you Jedi, she lived in the galaxy, among the people, as one of them. She saw no distinction between serving their spirits and serving their daily needs, hm? For every soul who needs inspiration or freedom or guidance, there’s another who needs the compassion of a hot meal and the warmth of good company. Maz Kanata understood that pursuing spiritual truth should bring you closer to everyone else, not set you apart. A lesson you Jedi have never known, but we, the Bereth-Aku -- we remember. My great-uncle saw in Maz Kanata much worth emulating.”
He reaches past you and turns to a well-worn page. “Look here,” he says. “She collected so many things which resonated in the Force, but so differently from the way you Jedi hoard things to yourselves. She gave freely when the Force indicated that a thing should go a certain way, to a certain person. She was once a pirate, but she turned from selfish acquisition to community, to a simple life, to generosity when it suited her. A thousand years she lived: she could have made herself wealthy beyond kings and emperors. Instead she owned a cantina, and that was what made her happy. They say the Sith swear to overcome every obstacle in pursuit of whatever it is they want most. Perhaps there’s a ring of truth to that -- oh, this makes you uncomfortable? That the Sith could have a thread of true principle woven into their tapestry? My friend, consider this.”
He taps the opened page with one claw and blinks up at you. “This book is one of ethical ambiguities, of difficult choices in day-to-day life. If you wish to wear pious burlap and carry a symbolic sword of authority and light as you flit from world to world on a crusade, read another book. If you wish to bend the essence of the universe to your will and whim, read another book. This one is about patience and cheerful humility without ostentation. Yes, humility can be ostentatious; we know this. When you are ready to live in this ‘verse as one of its people, rather than setting yourself apart -- then, my friend, this is the book for you.”
Primary Source: Not influenced by any Chaos submissions.
