4985 BBY: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon

In this post I'm going to be talking about the Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon.  I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this series.  One thing that I don't like about the series however is how it all begins.  It seems like the reader is just thrown into what is happening with the Omen without anything to tell them what's going on. If you have read Crosscurrent like I have, you would know what's going on.  But for the readers who haven't read Crosscurrent and have no prior knowledge of these events, you will have trouble understanding what's going on.  Let me know if you see it the same way.

So enough of my ranting, let's get to this piece.  The story starts 15 years after the Omen crash landed on the planet Kesh.  The Sith survivors have managed to trick the people of Kesh into thinking that they are the Skyborn but some of the Sith are getting tired of living on Kesh.  They have been trying to find different ways of getting off the planet or alerting a ship if they pass by.  But the Sith leader, Yaru Korsin, doesn't see them leaving the planet anytime soon.  Groups start to form based on who thinks there is hope to leave the planet and who thinks that there is no hope of leaving.

Ravilan (nicknamed the red man by the Keshiri people) was one of the few remaining pure blood Sith (red skin and tentacle beard).  He was sent to the Keshiri city's to look at a new kind of algae that may be able to provide light to the Sith buildings.  While visiting these cities, he purposely let loose a deadly plague that wiped out the city's entire population.  Among the dead was a human and Ravilan used this to promote his cause of finding a way off of the planet (because the humans thought that they were immune to any disease that may plague the land).  But Korsin managed to find out what really happened and he had Ravilan killed along with the people who were following him.  In the final pages of this story, a Keshiri rebellion starts to form.        

It looks like the Sith have managed to overestimate the power they think they hold over people again.  Some of the Keshiri have seen through the lies of the Sith and looked at who they really are.  I'm hoping that there is some kind of confrontation between these Keshiri rebels and the Sith.  If the Sith continue to fight with each other and kill themselves, the Keshiri may have a chance of winning.  I've read the Fate of the Jedi series and in the second book they take us back to Kesh.  Even though that story is very far away from this story, it looks like Keshiri blood is within the Sith ranks.  I don't know if this means that the rebels I was talking about actually did rise up and won, or the human Sith population started to fall and they were forced to mate with the Keshiri in order to save the Sith tribe.  I look forward to finding this out.

For my next post I will be reading another Lost Tribe story.  It's called Savior.  I look forward to finding out what happens next.  But until then, may the Force be with you.......

5000 – 4999 BBY:Galactic Timeline: Record 012: The Great Hyperspace War

In this short post I'm going to be talking about Galactic Timeline: Record 012: The Great Hyperspace War. This is a 5min video in which Master Gnost-Dural recites the events of the war according to Republic history (here is the link to the video, it's the very last video at the bottom of the page).

Master Gnost-Dural starts the recording by talking about the impact the war had on the Republic.  He says that the conflict the Republic is in today is in many ways "an extension of the War".  He goes on to talk about the role Naga Sadow played in the events of this War.  He made me realize even more how much Naga Sadow was able to fool people into thinking that he was right about the looming threat of a Republic invasion even though the Republic did not yet know of the Sith existence.  He was able to use Gav and Jori to his advantage this way.

According to Gnost-Dural, the Republic made a huge mistake when the war had concluded.  They sent a fleet to all of the planets the Sith were in control of before the war and started to wipe out the populations.  The Republic did this for fear of the Sith secretly rebuilding and eventually launching another attack.  Even though the Sith lost The Great Hyperspace War, I think in a way they won.  The Sith managed to shake the Republic.  Before the Republic thought that they were invincible and that their enemy's no longer existed or were too scared to face them.  They were given false security,  and when the Sith attacked that sense of security was taken away.  By going to the Sith planetes, they showed that the events of the war troubled them deeply.  And in an effort to renew their sense of security, they killed their enemy's people and tried to destroy the Sith empire.  At the end of the video, Master Gnost-Dural wonders what may have happened if the Republic handled the end of the war differently.  Who knows?  many things may have happened.  In the final seconds of the video, Gnost-Dural speaks of a new Sith lord that has replaced Naga Sadow.  I'm looking forward to finding out who this is.

In my next post I will be looking at the Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon.  Until then, may the Force be with you......

  

5000 – 4999 BBY: The Great Hyperspace War and Sith Alchemy

In this post I'm going to be looking at two sections from The Essential Guide to the Force by Ryder Windham.   I have always said and will continue to say that this book is incredibly well done and the information inside is extensive.  I'm going to try and include my thoughts in the paragraphs about the topics instead of having a completely different paragraph.  Now, lets get started.

First, I will be talking about the Great Hyperspace War.  The author of this article is Odan-Urr.  He recounts the events of the Great Hyperspace War and the role that he played in it.  This article is pretty much a summary of what I have read and talked about in my previous posts with regard to The Great Hyperspace War.  He talks about the nightmare he had of the Sith launching an attack on the Republic.  But his dream was dismissed by most people.  He also talks about the Daragon's (Gav and Jori) and how they managed to get caught up in the conflict (read my posts on the rise and fall of the Sith Empire if you don't know what I'm talking about).  He recounts how the Senators in Coruscant refused to believe him, and then the attack started.  The detail used to describe the attack was incredible.  I felt as though I was also fighting the battle.  I can imagine the helplessness the Republic felt as wave after wave of the enemy attacked.  But then came the realization that the Sith were using illusions to make themselves seem stronger.  At the end of the article, Odan-Urr talks briefly about the Sith Holocron he found.  In this holocron are the forgotten histories and lore of the Sith.  The holocron also kept an up to date record of the attack, including the escape of Naga Sadow.

Next is Sith Alchemy.  This is what Naga Sadow used to conjure up the illusions of the massive beasts and warriors they used in the war.  Naga Sadow tells the reader how to perform Sith alchemy through three blood sacrifices.  He says that "Sith alchemy gives one the power to alter the molecular composition of living beings and reshape inanimate objects." (pg 174).  This is exactly what Naga Sadow did.  He made up illusions that tricked the enemy into thinking they had very little hope of winning the war.  Even though Sith alchemy is very dark, I find it very interesting that someone who has the ability to perform these acts can have such a huge impact on the battle.  But, both the light side of the Force also has a technique that can be used on enemies.  In the Golden Age of the Sith, Odan-Urr uses a Force technique to help end the Civil war between Empress Teta's people.  This technique makes the enemy think that all hope of them winning is lost which is very much like what Naga Sadow did when he performed Sith alchemy during the war.  It truly is very interesting that one person can have a tremendous impact on a major conflict like the Great Hyperspace War.

For my next post I will be reading the Galactic Timeline: Record 012: The Great Hyperspace War which is featured on swtor.com.  I will try to post more regularly but until next time, may the Force be with you....

5000 – 4999 BBY: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn

Hello again!  In this post I'm going to be looking at Skyborn which is the second book in the Lost Tribe of the Sith series.  I found the content in this story to be very good.  I will give a brief summary of this story and then go into my thoughts about it.

This story starts out before Omen crashed on the planet Kesh and then picks up from when Korsin see's somebody riding on the back of a uvak.  The story follows Adari Vaal and here first encounter with the Sith crew of the Omen.  Before she finds the burning wreckage,  Adari is being blamed for going against the religion of the Kesh people.  In most cases, the person would suffer big consequences but since she is the widowed wife of a uvak rider, her status has protected her from being harmed.  During one of the hearings she is attending, a large plume of smoke erupts from the mountain along with large fires.  Not believing that the mountain is a volcano, Adari decides to investigate.  She takes Nink (her deceased husbands uvak) and flies to this mountain.  This is when Korsin see's her flying on the uvak in the first short story of this series.  She witnesses Korsin kill his brother and flees the mountain.  But later she returns and makes contact with the crew of the Omen.  She informs the people of Kesh of the Sith arrival but they mistake them for being the Skyborn (gods that the people of Kesh believe in)  and the Sith take advantage of this.  With Adari being the ambassador for the Kesh people the Sith enlist the labourers of Kesh to help them stabilize their ship on the mountain and to help them find the right metals to repair it.  But that will never happen.  

Like I said before, I found the content of these stories to be very good.  John Jackson Miller has done a wonderful job of illustrating the rich Star Wars history in each of these story's so far.  Before I started this blog, I was reading the Fate of the Jedi series.  The planet of Kesh played a major role in the story line.  But I wish I had of read this series before the Fate of the Jedi series so I would have had better idea Kesh and its people.  It will take a very long time for the Sith to actually get of Kesh because of the time between this Lost Tribe series and Fate of the Jedi (with Luke Skywalker).

I look forward to reading more of the Lost Tribe of the Sith series.  If you have any suggestions on how I can improve my posts, leave a comment below.  My next post will be from Jedi vs Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force part one The Great Hyperspace War, and part four Sith Alchemy.  Until the next time, may the Force be with you.......

5000 – 4999 BBY: Fall of the Sith Empire #4 and #5

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post.  I've been extremely busy lately. In this post I will be looking at the final issues of the Fall of the Sith Empire.  I will give a brief summary of both issues then I want to talk about what may have happened if Naga Sadow had of received the Lignan ore before the battle of Kirrek.

In issue #4, Dogs of War, Gav flies to the location of Naga Sadow to confront him.  He fires at the meditation sphere that Sadow is in.  And because of this, the illusions that Sadow conjured up for the battle begin to fade away.  This gives the Republic a new sense of hope.  Sadow lures Gav into the meditation sphere.  But Sadow isn't there.  He set a trap for Gav and the Republic fleet that followed Jori.  He activates his weapon that creates solar flares on the nearby sun.  Both fleets escape but Sadows meditation sphere is too damaged to fly, so it explodes with Gav inside of it.

In issue #5, End of an Empire, Sadow returns to the Sith Empire.  As he arrives in the system, the presumed dead Ludo Kressh appears.  He states that he is the new Dark Lord of the Sith.  They engage in a brief battle.  Sadow, not wanting to lose his title, orders one of his ships to ram the ship Ludo Kressh is in.  Soon after, the fleet of Empress Teta enters SIth space and engages the already damaged ships of Naga Sadow.  The Republic fleet obliterates Sadow's fleet, but Sadow still manages to escape.  He escapes to the planet of Yavin IV where he begins his plan to return to the galaxy and exact revenge on the Republic.

I wonder what would have happened if Naga Sadow received the Lignan ore for the battle of Kirrek.  I would assume that the Sith would have won.  If things had of ended up differently, Star Wars as we know it would cease to exist.  Instead, we would be reading more about the actions of the Sith and their effort to rid the Galaxy of the Jedi instead of the other way around (the Jedi riding the galaxy of the Sith).  I'm glad that its the other way around.  I look forward to reading what happens to Naga Sadow after he arrives on Yavin IV (if anything actually does happen to him).

For my next post, I will be reading The Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn it may take me some time to track down a copy that I don't have to pay for.  Until then may the Force be with you.......      

5000 – 4999 BBY: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice

In this short post, I'm going to be looking at Precipice which is the first story in the Lost Tribe of the Sith series.  I'm deeply regretting not downloading all of the books to my tablet sooner because now I'm not able to get the free versions.  Instead, I will most likely have to buy the collected works.  I will cross that bridge when I need to.  Let's get started.

This story takes place after the Omen and the Harbinger collide as they both try to jump into hyperspace.  In the story, we follow the Omen as its crew fights to keep the ship from being destroyed by itself.  Omens captian, Yaru Korsin, is determined to return to Naga Sadow with his load of Lignan ore.  They come out of hyperspace and crash on an unknown planet.  Without any way to contact the Sith fleets, the survivors of the Omen are forced to wait until someone comes to their rescue.  But tensions begin to rise as some of the survivors start to fight with each other.

I really liked this story.  I really admire how the author is able to pick up right were the last story left of (after Crosscurrent when the two ships collided).  It continues to amaze me when I read one story for this blog written by one author and then go onto another story that's written by a completely different author and the story picks up right where I left off.  The people who write these story's are true Star Wars geniuses.  I look forward to reading more of the story's from this series.

For my next post I will be looking at The Fall of the Sith Empire issues #4 and #5.  I also look forward to reading the rest of those story's.  Until then, may the Force be with you......

5000 – 4999 BBY: Crosscurrent (Chapters 1-4, 8)

In this brief post, I will be talking about Crosscurrent by Paul S. Kemp.  More specifically, I will be talking about chapters 1-4 and 8.  Paul S. Kemp is a terrific author.  He is able to grip the reader from the start of the novel to the very end without the reader being aware of the time passing.  Its really a page turner.

For those of you who don't know, this book is set 5000 years before the battle of Yavin and 41.5 years after the battle.  The story follows Jaden Korr but unfortunately I won't be talking about him for a while.  Instead I will be talking about Relin, a ancient Jedi who lived 5000 years before Jaden and his struggle to disrupt Naga Sadows attack on Kirrek.  Relin is chasing after his former apprentice, Saes, who has recently turned to the dark side and decided to join Sadows forces.  Saes is searching for an ore that has the ability to enhance any dark side users powers so that they are nearly impossible to beat.  In order to dot this, Saes completely destroys a moon that has an abundance of the ore.

 Relin and his apprentice arrive to see Saes ships mining the ore from the ruins of the destroyed moon.  They quickly decide that if Sadows forces were to be in possession of this ore during the battle of Kirrek, there would be little hope for the Republic.  So they set a plan in motion to destroy the Sith cruiser before they have a chance to leave the system.  Relin manages to get on board of the cruiser.  He sets charges to the ship's hyperdrive, but is confronted by Saes and the two duel.  Relin loses his arm but manages to escape the cruiser on an escape pod after the explosion.  His apprentice dies in an attempt to try and stop the ship from jumping but it doesn't work.  The ship jumps, dragging Relin behind it.  They begin their travel through time.  

When I read the back cover of the book, I got really excited to start.  That's because it includes Jedi from the past and the present.  Jaden Korr is one of my favorite Jedi and I was happy that I could read a book with him in it so soon into my project.  But unfortunately I'm not going to be talking about him for a while. 

The idea of a damaged ship trying to make it through hyperspace without being torn apart only to find out that they are travelling through time is also extremely cool.  It's like on of those old (or new) Sci-Fi shows that have people from the past going to the future without having a clue what happened.  Another thing that I found cool and interesting (because I have talked about it before) was the way the Force directed all of the people involved in the story together.  Whether it being a Force vision or accidentally coming across a distress beacon, the Force managed to bring everyone together.  The Force keeps bringing these long time enemies (the Jedi and Sith) together in very strange ways.   I'm not going to get into it too much right now, but I found it interesting.

I look forward to reading more about the events of the Great Hyperspace war.  The next thing I will be reading is The Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice.  I am assuming that this story will be about what happened to the Omen after it was damaged by Saes cruiser before jumping to Hyperspace.  Until my next post, may the Force be with you.....