Mato Kejak
Service and Sacrifice.
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide a basis behind a group of Jedi warriors I'm building, with a massive over-emphasis on vigilance, skill in battle, honour, and death in the service of others and the Light Side being the ultimate goal for a "true Jedi."
- Image Credit: Link
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: The insanity inspiring this creation.
- Holocron Name: The Servant's Record; The Holocron of Jocho Netomo.
- Alignment: Light Side
- Origin: Finished by a Jedi Master named Jocho Netomo, approximately 500 years before the modern day.
- Affiliation: Mato Kejak
- Gatekeeper: The gatekeeper of the holocron is an imprint of Jocho Netomo himself; therefore, it appears as a small, translucent Gand in armour, with the ubiquitious large breath mask that most Gand required when leaving the ammonia-suffused atmosphere of their planet. It is quite solemn, and not particularly loquacious, preferring to deliver its wisdom and teachings with the minimum amount of words required; one noticeable quirk, however, is how it always finishes a session of teaching, always uttering the same phrase: "Service and sacrifice." Accordingly, this has become something of a motto among those who follow in Master Netomo's footsteps.
- Description: The holocron itself was not actually constructed by Jocho Netomo; in his duties as a Jedi, he had come to blows multiple times with a Sith Lord that he refused to name as anything other than "The Unclean." The holocron's physical body was actually built by this Sith Lord, though it was left unfinished; claimed by Jocho after he defeated this Sith, he purified the holocron, converting it into a tool for the light side, and recorded his views and teachings within it in the years before his own death. Regardless, it still outwardly looks like a fairly standard Sith Holocron, if not darker than average, for the use of a deep black crystal as the heart of the holocron, and Jedi openly carrying this holocron have been challenged by their fellows in the past for carrying such a seemingly-dark artifact.
- Accessibility: The holocron will only activate if focused and meditated upon by a Force Sensitive.
- Security: Barring the gatekeeper's simple refusal to reveal its teachings to anybody not aligned to the Light Side of the Force, the holocron has no actual defenses to prevent a sufficiently powerful Force Sensitive from simply ripping the information out of it with the Force.
CONTENT INFORMATION
- Section One: The Force
- "Spread the truth. Purify the taint. There is no other way; any who seek to straddle the line between light and dark are fools doomed to the latter, who must be stopped like any who do not follow the path of purity. Its Will guides you. Service and sacrifice."
- Jocho Netomo's views on the Force, as espoused in the holocron's teachings, are extremely simple. The Light Side is the truth of the Force, and the Dark Side is a great taint that must be purified—or purged. Alongside that, he stresses that the Will of the Force is what should guide a Jedi, and they should always seek to follow it, living in the moment and moving where it takes them, rather than retreating to a temple and focusing heavily on the future and concepts such as destiny or fate. As such, though he never used the term himself, it's been suggested that Master Netomo was a proponent of the philosophy of the Living Force.
- Section Two: The Code
- "Emotion, yet Peace; to deny your feelings is to lose vigilance of the self, which leads one to lose their way from the Light—however, you should never allow your feelings to control you. Ignorance, yet Knowledge; always be aware that there is more you do not know than that you know. Passion, yet Serenity; execute your duties as Jedi with zeal, yet never lose your control or your center. Chaos, yet Harmony; a Jedi's life is chaos, constantly moving, imposing order on the turmoil of the galaxy, and making stability and a guiding path for those innocents that have no power to change it. Death, yet the Force; a Jedi's way is found in death, serving the Will of the Force till their last breath, and returning to it as it calls to them. There is no other way. The denial espoused in the revised code breeds weakness and complacency among those who follow it, both towards others and towards themselves, and leaves them unprepared to do what they must to ensure the safety of the galaxy. Service and sacrifice."
- Another one of Master Netomo's practices that got him labelled as a radical—among even the most forgiving of his fellow Jedi—was his denial of the revised code put forth by Master Odan-urr millennia past, choosing instead to return to the older form of the code, as he felt it set forth clearer guidelines and better understood what a Jedi should be like. While he does include more detailed discussion of the philosophy of each tenet within the code, his views—and the views of those who follow in his footsteps—are best summed up in the first lesson within this section, quoted above.
- Section Three: On Combat
- "Strike first, and strike well; failing that, strike that your enemy shall fall with you. You are the first and last defense; your life is the wall behind which others may yet survive. Service and sacrifice."
- Notably, the combat techniques that Master Netomo supports in this section of his teachings are focused around many traditional martial arts forms found throughout the galaxy; the only lightsaber forms to be found in detail are Shii-cho and Soresu, as Master Netomo considered all others to be too rooted in the corruption of the Dark Side and too focused on the usage of lightsabers (which he was notably opposed to) to be worthy of actual use, though he does include some information on them, to allow those who utilize the holocron to more adeptly combat them. As well, he espouses the view that a Jedi should always strike to kill, something quite different from mainstream Jedi; for in his view, if events have degenerated to the point that a weapon must be drawn, then there is no other option of recourse to follow, as even maiming an opponent, should they survive, only engenders in them thoughts of vengeance that will cause further problems in the future.
- Section Four: On Equipment
- "Your weapon is their shield; their shield is a blade. Crystal married to steel, steeped within the Light of the Force, used only when no other paths remain to tread. Not descended from the tools of darkness, unlike the lightsaber; yet more deadly, as a wound made by this weapon will continue to bleed beyond your action. Their shield is a blade. The blade is your test. Use it wisely, or not at all."
- Master Netomo was incredibly opposed to lightsabers; from their roots in the Forcesabers utilized by the Rakata and their Force Hounds, empowered by the Dark Side, to the creation of modern lightsabers by exiles who became the first Lords of the Sith, he considered them a corrupt weapon, and ultimately a tool of the Dark Side. As such, he espouses in the holocron the creation of Force-imbued blades instead, and encourages students to utilize great prudence when wielding them, as they lack the more immediately non-lethal capabilities of a lightsaber; however, he does still recommend students to seek out and bond with Kyber crystals, even if they are not bonded into a blade, as he considers them powerful manifestations of the Light. As well, he recommends the use of hand-made, personalized heavy armour, rather than the lighter robes and such utilized by other Jedi; owing to their lack of lightsaber usage, this has proven to be a prudent recommendation time and time again when those who follow his teachings to any great extent are faced with battlefield duties.
- Section Five: On Techniques
- "Your body is a tool for the Force; let the Force, then, improve it and use it as it will. Always remember: Its Will, not your will. The Force shall strengthen you and guide you, until at last you are called to rejoin it. Service and sacrifice."
- Netomo considered outright offensive abilities, such as many telekinetic powers, to be near-blasphemy for the Force, a sign of a Jedi attempting to exert their will on the Force, rather than following what it intended for them instead. While his holocron does still contain teachings on them, and other such more active abilities in general, they are recommended against for the most part, unless a Jedi should feel the Force calling on them to act in such a manner. Instead, the majority of abilities expounded upon and recommended relate to increasing a Jedi's senses or physical capabilities, rather than outright manipulating the world around them.
- Section Six: Between Master and Apprentice
- "The apprentice serves their master; the master serves their apprentice. The bond is lifelong, for even after one passes their trials and takes apprentices of their own, they should be ready to learn from and come to aid the one who first raised them up. When the master calls, the apprentices should come, and each with their own apprentices, for this is the family of the Jedi."
- Curiously, Master Netomo's views on the relationship between master and apprentice extend deeper than that of most Jedi. While the clear hierarchy of master and apprentice remains, and the ideal that it should be a life-long relationship rather than merely for the short term of teaching is still present, it is emphasised more than is orthodox; indeed, Netomo proposes that a Master and all of their apprentices (and their apprentices, and so on and so forth) should essentially each form into their own miniature order, or family, or clan, and when the master dies, the most senior living apprentice should take their place leading the group—of course, as seen with Master Netomo's own apprentices and followers, once enough time has passed that none remember the original master the group coalesced around, it is likely to split and form multiple such groups anew, though with a core group of descent connected to the first master. In relation to this, however, Jocho Netomo rejects the centralization of the Jedi; while he agrees that having a standard level of training and teaching is important, he feels that the governance of higher councils stymies the ability of the Jedi to properly serve the Will of the Force, and instead advocates for his structure that is based more around familial descent and ties of obligation.
- Section Seven: To Serve and Guide
- "A Jedi should never want for power, to hold it and lord it over others; they should instead serve to defend and guide the denizens of the galaxy into a better way. However, at times, when faced with great instability, a Jedi should not shy away from the responsibility of establishing a government and leading a people, though they should also recognize the peril within this course."
- Jedi should not rule. A maxim that Master Netomo agreed with, for the most part, though in his view there were times where it was necessary for Jedi to step in and run the government of a planetary system of group of such systems, in order to better serve and protect the citizens of those spaces; however, he is also quite clear that any Jedi who does so should be vigilant for signs of corruption within themselves, and should have allies nearby who can step in if they seem near to falling. As well, he is quite clear that this should only last until either the threat to these systems is itself removed, or until the system(s) in question can coalesce its forces and government (preferably in alliance to other systems, to maximize the capabilities of each small group involved) to such an extent that the Jedi can return to a role of guardianship, rather than leadership.
- Section Eight: The Duty of a Jedi
- "You are the shield, the guide, the prophet, and so much more. You are the last bastion that the people of the galaxy can reside within and look to for protection; you are the last wall between them and the darkness that always strives to poison and consume all existence. There is nothing greater that you can give for this, and for the Will of the Force, than your bodily life. Your life is one commited to service and sacrifice, to honour the work of all those that have come before you, and to pave the way for all who come after. So do not fear death, young Jedi, for it will come to you regardless of any effort to avoid it; if it should come to you in the service of the Force, then welcome it with open arms, and spend your life to achieve the Will, to help create a lasting peace for all others. This is the heart of all my words, and the truth of what it is to be a Jedi, for our way is found in Death. Service and sacrifice."
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Originally crafted as the tool for a Sith Lord's preservation of his teachings and soul, the Servant's Record, as it has come to be known, is a holocron that was purified by the Gand Jedi Master Jocho Netomo in the year 350 ABY, after his defeat of the Sith who had originally set out to construct the artifact. Long since having been branded a renegade by his fellow Jedi, even to the point of having been expelled from the Jedi Order due to his unconventional teachings, and knowing of his own oncoming demise, Jocho thought it prudent to record his views and teachings for his apprentices and other followers who had joined him on his path of service and redemption to have after his death. A personal project of his for multiple years, he managed to finish it on his deathbed, before succumbing to wounds he had sustained a day before in a duel against a former friend who had fallen to the Dark Side.
He bequeathed the artifact to his most senior apprentice, the one he had chosen to lead the followers and apprentices who had chosen to follow his teachings and interpretation of a Jedi's place in the Galaxy and the Force; unfortunately, within a few decades time, the fellowship fell apart into multiple smaller groups, each going their own way. Many stayed true to the wandering path of service that Jocho himself had set out on so long before, attempting to prove to the greater Jedi Order that they were all true Jedi and worthy of being re-accepted into their ranks; some abandoned his teachings, returning to the path of orthodoxy, and some others split along more minor faults, such as choosing to construct and use lightsabers rather than simply focusing on Force-imbued blades. As the centuries passed, various of these groups died away, or grew and split again; in the current age, it is known that a direct successor of Jocho yet lives, a Rattataki Jedi Master named Mato Kejak, who is the current holder of the holocron. It is unknown if any of the other groups yet remain, still wandering through the galaxy on their own; however, while each will band with the other in the face of an immediate greater threat, rivalries run deep between these rival sects, and they are oftentimes just as likely to fall to blows between each other as they are to simply turn and avoid each other, which may be the cause for their seeming disappearance.
However, when he isn't throwing himself into warzones and conflicts to protect the innocents that are always caught in the crossfire, when he isn't focused on proving to the fragmented Jedi Orders of the modern day that he and his own are worthy of acceptance within their ranks, master Kejak searches for any signs of those lost brethren descended from the original group of followers that Jocho had, as part of his own grand goal of reuniting them all under a common cause, to more effectively engage in the protection of the galaxy. Whether this will be successful, or if it is a fool's errand likely to get him killed, none yet can say.
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