Data Log 11247 — Journal 0001
ZDC-01-Lor San Tekka
Dr Mary Au'Rona

I was very close to omitting "The Extinction of Basilisk" from this journal. As I collated my records, I found that the Basilisk had lodged themselves in the back of my mind. After the tragedy of Typho and Merellde, perhaps it would be too much to tell of the desperate fate of Jedi Master Sidrona Diath, and the world he meant to save.

But this Journal demands a full view of the Jedi Order, their slavish devotion to prophecy, and impact on the societies they swore to protect.

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"The Extinction of Basilisk"

The story begins over 4000 years BSI in the Outer Rim system of Mandalore. The Mandalorians were once a violent and warlike tribe that only participated in civilization when it suited them. There, an antagonist of apocryphal proportions assumed control of the warrior race and launched an assault upon the Republic. He called himself the Indomitable; he was larger, stronger, more cunning and bold than any Mandalorian before or since, which is saying a lot. The Indomitable was the very worst of them, and so, naturally, he led as a paragon of society.

With the unified clans of Mandalore at his back, the Indomitable began to spread chaos through a region we now know as the New Territories. He amassed vast resources and enslaved many species that could not withstand the Mandalorian blitz. Before long, he stripped the region of its assets, then disappeared like a ghost.

A Standard year later, he and his horde returned, this time targeting the expansive Outer Rim worlds. These territories were in a state of panic while The Republic remained isolated in the Core, paying little attention to the plight of the backwater systems.

It was during this time that Jedi Master Sidrona Diath worked to spread word about the Indomitable to every corner of the galaxy. He was warden of over a thousand worlds in the Outer Rim and raising a son to one day take his place. As more worlds fell and the Indomitable grew bolder, Master Diath sent word to the Jedi Temples on Yavin IV and Dantooine that war was coming to the Republic. The Mandalorians must be stopped; the Indomitable was too great a threat to ignore, but he received no aid.

His brethren urged patience; that intervention would lead to imbalance and that was not the Jedi way. The Order told him to meditate on these things and trust in the Force.

Master Diath did not accept this answer for, as he put it: 'How could I tell my son that the Jedi are guardians of light and life, if they refuse to defend it?'

The Jedi Master left his home behind and began to assemble a makeshift army. Though the Jedi Order would not fight, the Outer Rim would not be defeated so easily. Retired soldiers, mercenaries, and more than a few disreputable characters joined Master Diath's cause. The warden of the territory united them all in a single worthy purpose: survival.

It was understood in the early days of the conflict, that the Mandalorians were most dangerous because of the anonymity of their home system. At this time in history, the Galaxy had many lost corridors and unmapped systems. The Republic had yet to discover the Mandalorian Empire nestled in the Northern Hydian. The Indomitable could take what he wanted, and when he was finished with a system, he and his battle fleet would return to the safety of unknown space.

Sidrona Diath came to the conclusion that the Indomitable was committing nearly all, if not indeed all, of his forces to the blitzkrieg. It was the only way the Mandalorian fleet could strike and retreat so quickly. So, Master Diath committed his best hyperspace jockeys to probing for the Mandalorian world while amassing his forces in secret.

Diath preferred simple battle plans, and that is precisely what he devised to handle Mandalore. Find the world, wipe out the war machine, rescue the galaxy system by system till the Mandalorians had nothing left. Simple.

Each time Mandalore struck down another system, the resistance grew closer to finding the secret world, and Master Diath's army swelled. The people of the Outer Rim resisted the Indomitable, while the Republic remained willfully ignorant.

In time, Master Diath's pilots uncovered the route his forces would need. The Jedi's patience paid off and soon thereafter, the Mandalorian Armada was spotted blockading the Core world of Basilisk. It was the Indomitable's first foray into the Core, but the Mandalorians were careful not to attack the Republic outright. Basilisk was inhabited by a non-sentient, eponymous race, which could not participate in Republic politics.

Nevertheless, Sidrona and his resistance had the opening they needed. They were ready to attack. But the Jedi Order received word of Master Diath's military plans and sent representatives to collect him. There would be no counterattack on the Indomitable or Mandalore. Diath was betrayed by his own brethren.

Jedi Sentinels disbanded the resistance forces by threatening to arrest them, then brought Sidrona before the High Council on Coruscant. The Council argued that Basilisk was an uninhabitable system—that the Basilisk race was not sentient enough to warrant Republic intervention, and if they were in need of aid, why had they not called for it? An invasion of an inferior race was too complicated a subject for a democracy, so it would appear.

Master Diath would not be reasonable with such a verdict, fighting and insulting them at every turn. The Supreme Chancellor was not spared the indignities either. Diath decried their "politics as usual" approach as complicity in genocide.

'To abandon even one planet to the zealots of Mandalore the Indomitable, is a failure of the entire Republic and Order,' Diath bravely argued to no avail.

In a moment of legendary disgust, the Jedi Master disrobed and cast his effects before the Chancellor and Council. He stood naked in the center of the council chambers, ignited his lightsaber, and burnt his robes for all to see. Before the fire burned out he issued the infamous Tusken Raider valediction of his homeworld: "¡Koroght gaghgt Takt!"

Roughly translated into Basic, it sounds something like, "Blessed be your going out from us forever," but the translation loses the implied finality and disgust.

Sidrona caused such an uproar that they demoted him and removed him from his station as warden. He was instructed to return home and to renounce his crusade. But the stubborn Jedi would not be swayed. He changed after that day in the Council Chambers; he became of single mind and heart, for better or worse.

One Jedi Knight, whose name was either redacted or omitted from the story, observed Sidrona Diath and was moved by the plight of the Basilisk. This nameless Jedi followed Master Diath from the temple and joined his cause. Sidrona did not hesitate to welcome the help and together the two sought out assistance.

It would be dangerous landing on Basilisk and retrieval would be nigh-on impossible; it seemed that the two Jedi would have to win a war if they hoped to return. They would require competent and experienced help, that did not mean Republic forces. Sidrona and the nameless Jedi delved into the underworld in search of a mercenary that went by the moniker "Scar."

Scar and his crew were about as expensive as chartering a Star Destroyer, but Sidrona had a lifetime of resources to call upon. The nameless Jedi claims that the contract bankrupted the old warden, but Sidrona never haggled, nor showed signs of second thoughts.

As soon as the payment was received, the two Jedi found themselves disembarking on a besieged world. Basilisk was unruly and home to some of the foulest stenches in the universe. The jungle planet was inherently Force-rich, both Jedi agreed, yet strange to their concept of life. Its liquid life source "lagar" was putrid and toxic to off-worlders, but flowed like water to feed the ecosystem. The nameless Jedi found it disturbing and sickening, but Sidrona remained stoic in his resolve.

Before departing, Scar and his crew promised to remain in orbit till the war ended, or Sidrona called.

The two Jedi followed a large river deep into the wilds. Tree trunks in shades of purple, blue, and orange, grew tall and bowed to cover the ground in a blanket of kaleidoscopic shade. Anywhere the hot sun shone, another branch reached up to soak in the rays.

The river bubbled and swirled in green and yellow shades that evoked vomit or some other result of illness. Everything appeared inhospitable on the surface, but that perspective changed with time. After some days of travel they happened upon the first signs of civilization and found it in ruins. The nameless Jedi was confused by the sight of buildings and roads, bridges and walls: Basilisk was supposed to be uninhabited. Their race was supposed to be savage and incapable of civilization such as this.

Sidrona Diath was pleased, but unsurprised. They trudged on, climbing over the wreckage of a world under siege to follow an elusive trail through the frontier. Soon thereafter the Basilisk revealed themselves, hesitant at first around the Jedi who appeared to be Mandalorians in odd dress. But the lizard-beasts spoke in a soft, clicking dialect that Sidrona was quickly able to decipher.

They took the Jedi to their tunnel homes, hidden just beneath the earth's crust, and gave them a warm welcome. The Basilisk were not only sentient, but hospitable and noble to a fault. The young of the tribe played with the nameless Jedi, who laughed along at their games. Sidrona was at peace amongst the beings and it made the nameless Jedi feel the same. There was an unnatural calm about their ways: that even though the world was burning and their race was under threat of extinction, all was well.

It did not take long to learn that Basilisk society was founded upon warfare. They lived for fighting to the death and the Indomitable had offered that in great abundance. As pockets of resistance fell across the globe, there was no growing social anxiety that their tribe might be next. It was mad, but there was nothing that seemed to faze these people.

The nameless Jedi grew to sense the same attitude in Master Diath and worry overcame him. Perhaps the Basilisk were unafraid of extinction, but Sidrona should know better. How could he so quickly abandon reason?

Since the Basilisk would not be moved, the nameless Jedi asked that they make him understand. The reptilian beings took the Jedi deep into their caves, Sidrona followed as well, down into an expansive chamber that could have once been a mine. Hewn into the heart of the cavern was a basilica, with black stone cathedral doors and a steepled roof. It was terrific, and reminded the nameless Jedi of the old temples on Ilum he trained in as a padawan, before he earned his kyber.

Their procession hustled inside silently, and closed the large doors behind them. It was cavernous and black save for a solitary light source in the back of the great chamber. They all moved toward the pulsating, rippling, blue and white glow. It emitted from an ice-blue kyber formation at the center of a pond of crystal clear water. Not the lagar native on Basilisk, but a pool of fresh water that looked impossibly azure under the illumination.

The nameless Jedi had to fight an urge to leap face-first into the refreshment.

The Basilisk told him a story, through Sidrona as translator, about the history and future of their world. From a scientific standpoint, this story becomes a little murky here. It's important to note that historical records corroborate this tale to the point that the Jedi actually interacted with the Basilisk, but not throughout. So, this part reads more like a fireside tale than anything else. But the narrator has nothing before or after this that can be discredited, so I present an edited version of the prophecy of the Perfect One.

The Basilisk believed that the blue kyber formation was the heart of the world, and that it would one day purify their land. That the lagar would turn to fresh water, the atmosphere would lose its foulness, and the toxic world would turn radiant and renewed. They needed only find a way to implant the magical crystal in their planet's core, then the Basilisk and anyone they warred against would be cleansed.

Only those with faith would survive, the chosen few, and a new, perfect Basilisk would arise. A full species committed to a doomsday cult. Suddenly their calm in the face of annihilation made a lot of sense.

The nameless Jedi was horrified, not inspired as Sidrona appeared. He felt the walls closing in around him, overwhelmed by panic and doubt. Basilisk was a jungle trap that he had entered willfully, gleefully even. He was going to die here, they all were, and he was not ready.

The Basilisk continued to tell of the wonders of their purified world. Sidrona stopped translating their prophesying, but it made no difference.

'Such a sacrifice is unthinkable,' the nameless pleaded with Sidrona before the end. 'An entire world, put to the sword on what? A hope? A dream?'

'What sort of a Jedi has no hope?' Sidrona replied, hauntingly. His eyes looked hollow, and it broke the nameless Jedi's heart.

'They are talking about a kyber bomb, Sidrona. Please, you must see reason.'

'I have a son,' Sidrona said. 'He's on my home world. His name is Dace. Tell him, everything.'

The nameless Jedi sobbed as he received his Master's final command. He left the village in the night, but was found quickly by the enraged Basilisk. To abandon them after learning their deepest secrets and earning their trust was a betrayal of the highest order. They prescribed a very public and extended execution process for the Jedi, but Sidrona Diath would have none of it. He told the villagers that he would be unable to assist them if any harm came to his friend.

Sidrona Diath escorted the nameless Jedi all the way back to Scar's ship. Before they parted ways for the last time, Sidrona expressed how sad it was that the Republic would never see their blame in all this. The Basilisk would destroy themselves, and the Republic would celebrate their wisdom at remaining neutral.

Sidrona Diath handed the nameless Jedi his lightsaber and a Zaetech dual-selenium core datachip which stored coordinates to his home and a journal of all the master Jedi had done and seen.

The nameless Jedi never seemed to recover from his time with Sidrona Diath. He abandoned the Order, and when the stories of Basilisk's planet-wide extinction finally reached his hearing, he abandoned his faith entirely.

Basilisk's kyber weapon went off and wiped out more than 95% of all life on the system in a matter of minutes. The Indomitable's progress was slowed for a time, but his forces recovered. The surviving Basilisk were enslaved and bred for war by the victorious Mandalorian warlord. The world was left lifeless and abandoned.

Master Diath's remains were never found, but a grave was constructed thousands of years later in the depressed remains of Basilisk's ruins. Pilgrims of the Church of the Force visit the memorial to this very day.

The Republic was shamed into action by the Extinction of Basilisk. Their passivity resulted in the decimation of a Core world and the enslavement of a sentient race. The Jedi Order charged into the fray and launched the Republic's first full-scale war effort to counter the Mandalorian Empire. History shows that the Galactic Republic would never see a time of enduring peace ever again.

When the Mandalorian wars were over and the nameless Jedi was finished doing his duty to Master Diath's memory, he took a final trip out to the Outer Rim. Tatooine was not the sort of place he expected a master like Sidrona to call home, but on second thought, it was exactly the sort of place. Hard, natural and unyielding, yet peaceful and strikingly serene.

The nameless Jedi found a young man named Dace with adventure in his eyes and the stoic bearing of his Jedi father. The lad accepted his father's lightsaber and legacy and found both to be weighty. Dace Diath would go on to earn an impressive name of his own during the Great Sith Wars that followed, but would never shake the ghost of his father's demise.

Dace came to believe, as the nameless Jedi, that conflict was a direct result of the Order's inaction. Balance and tolerance were not the same thing, and the Jedi Order had lost the ability to see the difference. There could be no neutrality in matters of life and death; the Jedi would have to accept that reality or fight a losing battle forever.

Before his own heroic death on Onderon—ironically, foiling a zealous uprising—Dace would echo his father's lament for the future of the Republic. He too saw no end to the conflict so long as the Republic refused to learn from its mistakes. He famously declared before his untimely end: 'As long as the Jedi wield the Force, so too shall the Sith!'

There are many conflicting implications of those words, but history does support his claim. In resolution, one final note amongst the large archive chronicling the life and death of Sidrona Diath requires addressing:

The nameless Jedi spent some time after Basilisk agonizing his interactions with Sidrona and came to an unsettling conclusion that I had ignored until compiling this journal. He said, 'It was some while before it occurred to me that Sidrona was the Perfect One that the Basilisk spoke of. I just believed that they meant the surviving Basilisk would be perfect, because that was what they wanted to believe. But without Sidrona, they never would have manipulated the pure kyber, never could have weaponized their planet's core and atmosphere, and never gotten their story told throughout the Galaxy. Yes, Sidrona was the Perfect One for the Basilisk, and it appears that was their doom.'

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