Jorus Merrill
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Image Source: The Apple of Eden, Assassin's Creed franchise; the star map, Disney's Treasure Planet
Intent: Jorus Merrill and Chloe Blake's personal holocron
Development Thread:
Numerous threads could be cited for the acquisition of uncharted hyperroutes, and for Jorus' extensive familiarity with holocron technology, as well as Chloe's access to all the enumerated ancient datasets, but there is no development thread for the creation of the holocron. A few relevant threads:
Extragalactic trip
Breach point protection
Mapping expedition
Mapping expedition
Acquisition of Kwa holocron
Acquisition of Gree, Sharu, and Columi data
Manufacturer: Jorus Merrill and [member="Chloe Blake"]
Model: N/A
Affiliation: Personal (the Underground, the Jedi, the Levantine Sanctum, the Order of the Selab)
Modularity: Jorus occasionally updates it with new routes. Otherwise, no.
Production: Unique
Material: Crystalline lattice, bronzium, miniature emergency inertial dampeners (affect only the area inside the sphere, for lattice protection)
Description: Jorus Merrill and Chloe Blake's holocron, also known as the Merrill-Blake Star Map and the Impossible Pebble, is unique in form and function. Rather than teach Force abilities and philosophy, Jorus and Chloe's holocron is primarily concerned with a comprehensive collection of secret and uncharted hyperspace routes. It has no gatekeeper personality, relying instead on a fully interactive star map projection that can display at virtually any scale and degree of magnification. Like most holocrons, it is somewhat capable of discerning the readiness of its questioner, and users may find that a few hours or days in meditation on the light side of the Force will reveal dozens or hundreds of new paths. The holocron's data is gleaned from the tracking navicomputers of the Gypsymoth, Absolution, Baobab, Daragon and Bullet Time -- the primary vessels which Jorus has used for exploration -- as well as from a Force-assisted recollection and clarification of Jorus' long-term memory.
The holocron contains the information that Jorus prizes most: the location of Q-27, the pre-technological Brodo Asogan-engineered archipelago world that his wife and daughter call home. Q-27 is immensely secret, its location known only to Jorus and the highest ranks of the Moross Crusade, who have pledged to keep it sacrosanct. The holocron also contains the very secret locations of a Brodo Asogan extragalactic breach points, allowing a starship with a good navigator to pass outside the hyperspace disturbance that surrounds the galaxy. These breach points, and the months' worth of routes and satellite galaxy cross-connections that stem from them, are all held at the highest level of secrecy the holocron can manage. Thanks to the Absolution expedition and a wealth of other trips, the holocron contains very good charts of Companions Aurek, Esk and Grek. The holocron also contains the core routes used to hide the Jedi Order's most significant holocrons (sensor- and Force-stealthed) in extragalactic space. Naturally, these too are held in the highest secrecy.
Likewise, the holocron contains a wealth of unknown navigational information involving the Unknown Regions, the Centrality, the Omega/Fringe Neutral Zone, Otherspace, the Deep Core, the Chiloon Rift, the Kathol Outback, and the Maw. This information includes uncharted systems and routes, treasures found and forgotten, and bolt-holes suitable for running a hundred revolutions, not to mention every secret and newly-discovered Unknown Regions route bequeathed him in his sister's will. Jorus has been everywhere, and the Merrill Star Map has all of it...but it has no intention of sharing most of it without serious work on the part of the user. Even those loyal to the Underground or the Order of the Selab are not guaranteed improved access. Furthermore, the holocron senses and marks its own current location, meaning that a user must not only spend time meditating to access certain routes, the user must usually also be at or near the starting point of the routes he or she seeks.
Over and above Jorus' navigational information, the Star Map includes a wealth of map data provided by Chloe Blake, a career explorer and fellow Warden of the Sky. Not only did her memory and the navicomputer of the Aurora Hawk yield a great deal of navigational information, Blake was also the custodian of ancient charts from the early days of the Navigators' Guild, as well as a Je'daii holocron with a Kwa gatekeeper, and historical information on the Sharu, Gree, and Columi. Her contribution ensured that the Star Map is not only comprehensive for modernity, but for ancient history as well. Once Rave Merrill's ancient Rakatan star charts and extrapolation models were included, as well as data from a wrecked Pius Dea cathedral ship and assorted other ancient discoveries, the Star Map became capable of projecting -- with reasonable though not pinpoint accuracy -- some degree of map information for any given point in time in the last thirty-five millennia.
Blake's contribution also lent the Star Map another quirk: The inclusion of anecdotes. Blake is a storyteller by trade, and new route access may be accompanied by an audio or visual commentary on, say, the Oswaft or the Sharu. Jorus has included anecdotes as well, though his tend towards the melancholy, taciturn, and esoteric. He's as likely to speculate about subspace travel and Charon biotech as he is to go on a diatribe about the best cantinas in the Rishi Maze.
The holocron also contains interactive instruction on instinctive astrogation, based around the map display. Notably, however, it does not contain information on Jorus' Duinuogwuin-trained knack for manipulating hyperspace directly. Instinctive astrogation is the only Force technique taught by the holocron.
At the time of the holocron's creation, Jorus' daughter Mara was six years old. With Chloe Blake's aid, Jorus has attuned the holocron to her in such a way that it will unlock in proportion to her willing agency, revealing its final secrets when she reaches adulthood.
Primary Source: None
