Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:20 pm by Templus Cro
*It would suffice to say that the existence of Avei Arlah, Lo Cro, and Doma Iirax lasted a good many years. Adumar had become a very hospitable place to their needs, and not one of them found any reason for leaving. The planet was backrocket enough to keep Avei's obvious Jedi pursuers at bay. At the same time, it offered culture, power, and stability for the three off worlders drawn together by necessity and nostalgia.
In fact, such had they become a facet of life an Adumar that Force sensitive children were being lorded towards Avei...and so the story goes, that after 20 years of living on the planet, many things had gone on the lives of the three intertwined individuals. This can only serve to sum up their various lives in those two decades:
Under the dual tutelage of the Jedi Battlemaster Ray M'long and Avei, Lo Cro continued to grow with his prowess in the Force, where even as a spry youth, he found the Force opening up his destiny far quicker than many. His spacial abilities grew even much for Avei, as seasoned as he was, to properly conduct teaching. And very soon, it seemed, Lo would ascend into his own period of self-discovery and growth, where he would leave the apprenticeship he had so luckily required. Under Master M'long, his skills flourished as well, and it was found that he possessed strength and determination, a key factor in lining the apprentice up with Form V, and the strength that went with it. However, Lo held certain duality with his skill and mindset, and one day, in practicing dual-bladed combat for the special cases where such a situation became necessary, the apprentice had managed to bets the unwary Battlemaster in the double-bladed style. Hence it became that Lo became proficient and beyond with two blades as well as one in the Form of V.
And Lo continued growing. But, while the boy turned into a young man, and soon gained power he had never even considered during his previous life in the underworld of Coruscant, Avei was aging, now well past his prime and growing ever older. It would soon be the end of things for him, but for the Force...
Whenever Lo was off and away from the comfortable but sparse abode that Avei called his home, the Torguta Jedi would find himself tuning into the Force, trying to learn its mysteries, and discern why he was so at odds with it after his 18 years sabbatical. It had been almost four decades since that fateful day when he had pursued the keys to the True Force into a rift in the dimension this galaxy called its own, where he had discovered the tragic history of the True Force. And all the while, Jev Sunrider was with him. Nurturing his understanding, assisting where he could, and guiding Avei down a path to mastership over not only the Force, but even more so everything that pertained to the Force; its philosophies and its vectors. It's every tie and binding.
In the process, Avei had let his edge for combat slide away into oblivion, but he did not mourn the loss of such an asset. He found that his skill with the Force had returned to him, albeit in a different way than he had known in years prior. Indeed, the Flow of the Force became the very tune to which Avei's very heart beat, it was in fact the goal had been seeking all along: total communion with the Force, without losing his corporeal form. In fact...with such communion came great wisdom, or had it been that the wisdom begat the result?
But either way the story is told, the ending is the same. Avei found, that in order to become one with the Force, one had to become like the Force, in every conceivable fashion. One could not hope to manipulate the Force, only join with it. This was why Avei had been unable to snatch the goal when he was much younger. With age came the patience and virtue to realize that the Force was a passive, but completely universal and necessary tenant of existence in the universe. Avei had lost his combative and manipulative ways, and with their passing, came the actual communion with the great power around him. He was eternally serene and understanding, and eternally powerful, even more so than Yoda.
Yet, unlike the great Luke Skywalker, Avei could not use his power for his own defense. It was a thing of beauty. He had become, as he believed, a Force Sage, one skilled through and through with the wiles and ways of the Force, but unable to act drastically on their principal. But all the while, he intended on passing on all he knew to everyone who came before him, so that they could forge their own path within the Force. For he did not believe that his way was the only way. No: he was in little place to stop open conflict. There were those needed who could keep aggressors from succeeding, and they could still use the Force to further their ventures. And so, interestingly enough, Avei and Ray were able to coach not only Lo, but other Force sensitives popping up within the population, and without actually creating an academy, many Force adepts were made of those in Cartann, and even surrounding districts. The old, wrinkled Togruta and his lean and strong fighting partner were raising a generation of Force users, despite a small number of them, all on their own. The whole concept was magical.
Of course, on the cusp of Lo's 25th birthday, Avei had seen in him a spark not present at any earlier time. It must be now noted that the old Togruta Sage had been able to read into anyone with considerable ease, even that of Battelmaster M'long, who had prowess with the Force rivalling a true Jedi Master as was befitting his station. No one's inner workings were safe from Avei. This spark was of yearning, of a sense that something greater had to be achieved. Avei understood completely, and sent Lo away from the familiar trappings of Adumar's capital and into the wilds of the opposite side of the planet. It was here that Lo was to overtake a pilgrimage with the Force at his side so as to discern his destiny better. It was not the goal to understand, but accept. And so Lo went without a clue.
On this journey, taken with only a lightsaber for technology, Lo found himself better than ever before. Between the dangers of an uncivilized locale, to the various peoples he met along the way, Lo eventually found his tune with the Force, and began to feel things unknown to him. In fact, his ability to discern parts of his past that were not even memories began to astonish him. He was worried, but at the same time completely fascinated by the energy and clarity within his very being. It was through his ability to discern pieces of the past, his own mind you, that Lo understood that, from a very young age, the name Lo was but a nickname. It seemed to be as much. However, despite his best glances backwards in time itself, thanks to his new and clear sense of identity, that Lo found himself a new name: Templus. It was upon this a stark understanding came over the now man, and he returned to Cartann feeling changed and prepared.
Templus then underwent the Jedi Trials, kept in many ways unaltered from those used by the ancient Jedi Order, and related to Avei and Ray through Jev Sunrider, in his spectral form. All of the various Padawans under the duo's tutelage at the time, looking up to Templus as their senior and most trusted confidant, supported him with awe and pride. They too, hoped one day, to take on the trials and pass.
It was then that Templus found the very mettle of his being put to the limit. And his success:
...did not allude him. Templus found himself whole when he accomplished the Trials, and he found that, even after his soul-searching journey across the Eastern Hemisphere, more about his identity, his ability, and his destiny was revealed to him. It was with great pride that Avei pronounced him a full-fledged Jedi Knight. The Togruta, not only excited that another soul had joined the Order and showed great promise, had his own personal reasons. This was, indeed, the first Padawan that had managed to achieve independence of his own ability. All those before Avei had either fallen in inability, or lost their way when the Togruta had suitably lost his.
From that moment on, Templus became a model for those at Avei and Ray's small Academy at Adumar, and, despite not taking on one of the promising children as Avei had brought to his attention as an option, helped them all along on their journeys.
AS the years passed, each of the growing Padawans had reached the age where group instruction was far past them. The Battlemaster and the Sage pulled their connections throughout the galaxy together and sent the young ones off to be given Masters for which to conclude their study. They were to never forget their initial training with the Sage and the Battlemaster, though.
It was after the last of the original class of Padawan was sent off into the galaxy at large that Templus found it was time to bid his master farewell. And so it would be. Avei only nodded with understanding when Templus had made the request to leave Adumar behind so that the Jedi Knight could find his place in the galaxy. Instead of the expected longing and protest, Templus was met with complete acceptance of his decision. Avei felt obligated to explain: "You are out of my hands, Templus. I know that you will totally eclipse me one day in strength and knowledge, because I sensed it in you from the moment I met you."
Templus left, feeling the warmth of Avei's tearful, but proud good-bye embrace, and joined the galactic concourse as a whole. Avei however, stayed behind: his destiny assured until his dying breath on the temperate climate of Adumar, training new Jedi from the ground up. As a parting gift, Avei rewarded Templus with his lightsaber, the one bearing Master Sunrider's crystal. The ancient Master had confided with the Sage that it was probably Templus' destiny, and not his own, that the True Force be sought out, and so Avei agreed and left it at that.
And so ended the notable Chronicles of the Life of Dyvius, to be known at death as Avei. His part in the story ends here, and so begins that of his former Apprentice, Templus Cro.*
