My name is Vyri Deoma. I am currently thirty-nine years old. I am also currently writing this from what you living people call, "beyond the grave." I am not completely dead. My consciousness has survived death, and I am accompanied by such Jedi as Anakin Skywalker (who apparently was Darth Vader? I don't know what to think), Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn, and a few others whose names you may not recognize.
My life, as I'm sure is the same with yours, was full of conflict, pain, and past hurts. It is also full of comfort, joy, and love. I was a rebellious child, who grew up into a rebellious adult. What? You thought Jedi couldn't rebel without falling to the dark side? Well, you are wrong.
I survived. I survived the Jedi Purges, I survived the Clone Wars, and I survived multiple encounters with the Empire. A lot of craziness has happened to me, yet I survived, well most of it. I am dead now, after all. And my family survived. My mother and my little brother survived, though I haven't seen her in a long time. My father and my love both survived.
They all miss me. It causes me pain to see how much they miss me, but I know I cannot come back. My Thomas especially, we were going to have a baby. My baby is also dead. I shall never know him or her.
Be warned, in this retelling of my life, there will be pain. I may stop to cry. I also lost much – my master and mentor, almost all my friends, my home, my security – all of it has been lost over the years. If you have do not want to cry as I have many times, this is not your story. Please move on.
I came to the Temple when I was one month old. Most came when they were around that age. There were a few who come when they are older, but these were rare and few between. Exceptions include my friend Yuno, who was born on a planet that was outside of Republic territory. She came to Coruscant when she was six months old, but she was seven when she was found by a Jedi Knight and was taken as his Padawan. Another notable exception is Anakin Skywalker, who came when he was ten.
About 40 years ago, they used to bring babies when they were only a few days old. Medical care has gotten better on the poorer planets of the galaxy, so babies have been brought when they were a few weeks old, or a month old, or even a few months old. I was born on Coruscant, so there was no urgency to bring me to the Temple. My parents' names are Oyuna and Karl Deoma. I had no siblings at the time, but my mother ended up giving birth to my little brother Sorin after the rise of the Empire.
My first memory was of pain. I remember being a baby and hitting my head hard enough I saw stars.
I was playing with my fellow initiates, supervised of course by one of the Knights. I want to say he was Knight Selano, but I am not sure. He was one of the primary caretakers of my age mates, so probably. We were messing around, and I climbed up on one of the structures in the Temple. Well, I lost my balance. I was ok, but they took me to the Halls of Healing just in case something more serious had happened.
I was a very rambunctious baby and toddler, so much so that the Jedi had to stop me several times from playing with my fellow younglings because I kept getting hurt. There was no way to keep me under supervision all the time, but I apparently needed it because I was so overly energetic! Those were the good old days.
There would be many, many times when I would sneak out of bed when I was supposed to be taking a nap, because I just had too much energy! No one quite knew what to do with me. I remember throwing at least one temper tantrum if anyone tried to put me back to bed. They ended up despairing and giving me something quiet to do.
I loved reading in the Archives and the Jedi library even before I could read. The Archivists would read stories to the younglings who couldn't read for themselves. I taught myself to read when I was two, because I wanted to be just like the grown-ups.
I got the flu when I was about one year old. If the advanced medical care of the Jedi Temple weren't available to me, I could have died right there. It took me a month to recover the way it was.
As you can see, my early childhood in the Jedi Temple was marked by security and happiness. I designated a couple of Knights and one Padawan to be my parents. The masters tried to stop me, because of the Jedi rules against attachment, but I did not understand the Jedi Code one bit when I was that young. I continued to openly consider them my adoptive parents all the way to the time I was chosen as a Padawan, even as they tried to separate themselves from me. They loved me too, even though they technically weren't allowed to.
A/N: Hello! This is my first Star Wars story. This is the biographical story of a Jedi named Vyri. The next chapter will be more about what early childhood in the Temple looks like, then we will march on to the interesting stuff. I think a lot about what it must be like to grow up in the Jedi Temple, since we don't really see that stuff for the most part.
This story is somewhat, but not really, based off Heretic Pride, by Fialleril. It can be found on A03. If you like this story, then you might like this one.