Ajunta Pall: Specter of the Past
When faced with a difficult moral dilemma, most sentients ignore it and continue on doing something unrelated to take their minds off of the issue at hand. Pall was no different. Upon leaving Dantooine, he was not sure if he could still call himself a Jedi. As a result, he simply continued on his mission to find the Star Maps to take his mind off the issue.
The next planet that he headed to was the wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk, although at the time it had no name and was simply an unidentified forest planet. The archives had no record of the planet's existence, but was able to locate planets nearby. As a result, Pall traveled to these worlds, but in order to make the jump to Kashyyyk, he would have to go off the network of hyperspace relay beacons.
A note on hyperspace beacons:
Hyperspace beacons are stations that use hyperwaves to establish jump points in space. They were mainly used in eras in which the galaxy wasn't as heavily explored and mapped. By 4,000 BBY, they were beginning to be phased out as navicomputers had advanced enough to calculate hyperspace jumps without needing a beacon. Similarly, by then the galaxy was much more explored so a beacon-less jump was less of a risk. Even then, most computers only had a small number of set coordinates. Beacons were still used up to the time of the Empire as they were still useful for certain sectors, plus, not all ships had good navicomputers, so it was better to be safe than sorry. In Pall's day, going off the path of hyperspace beacons was extremely dangerous, and so hyperspace exploration was uncommon.
Now back to the story:
Pall used his ship to make a series of short jumps around the planet, while he used the Force to zero in on its precise location. When he finally found it, he parked in orbit around the planet. He was able to use the Force to find the dark side signature radiating off of the star map. He guided his ship down, but due to the kilometer high trees, he had to land his ship a good distance away. When he landed, he exited his ship and hiked into the woods with ample supplies. In the forest, he was attacked by a species of large insects which he remarked as being very similar to Kinrath which populated Dantooine. He wondered why this was and concluded that perhaps the species that had originally built the star maps had also transported creatures from one world to another. Ironically, much later in life, Pall would use Kashyyyk as a secret base where he would store some of his own alchemically produced pets such as the deadly Terentatek. To feed the creatures, he imported a species of monkey-like creatures from Taris known as Tachs.
Pall fought his way through many native creatures, but he found no signs of sentient life. However, when he had almost reached the location of the map, a figure emerged from the shadows wielding a lightsaber. He pulled out his own, and he and his attacker fought back and forth for a good while until the attacker finally surrendered, and Pall sliced his lightsaber in half. His assailant was described as being an old man with pointy ears and long, savage white hair. He demanded to know his name, and the attacker responded that he was Karness Muur, a former Dark Jedi. Pall was astonished to find the famous rogue Jedi. He contemplated killing him, however Muur did not seem to be a current threat to any other sentient being at the moment. Plus, his aura in the Force did not seem to be dark, at least not like those of previous Dark Jedi that he had fought, instead he seemed to be more grey than anything.
Pall asked why and how he ended up on the uncharted planet of all places. Muur said that after his faction had been defeated decades ago, he had fled into unknown space. He had sensed something unusual on the surface of the planet, but when he had descended to check it out, his ship crashed. Pall assumed that this was why Muur seemed more grey than anything- he had distanced himself from the Jedi heretics before they had become truly dark. Muur then asked what the state of the Galaxy was like without him. Pall described the series of wars and hardships and what had happened to the Jedi and their opponents. Muur then began to lament their losses. He explained that he and the other Jedi heretics had just been trying to reform the Jedi and create a new, better order. He explained how the other faction of Jedi reformers were complete hypocrites when it came to morality, and Pall had to agree with him on that one.
They set up a campfire and Pall made dinner using his rations. Pall asked about what Muur's vision of the Jedi Order was, and Muur said that he had intended to return the Jedi to what the Order was always meant to be. He said that he had studied the ancient histories. Back during the ancient and almost forgotten about Great Schism, (circa. 24,500 BBY) the Order had broken between those who sought to reform the Order and those who had wanted to keep it stagnant. The reformers sought to expand the narrow minded Jedi doctrines to embrace other philosophies from all parts of the ever changing and expanding network of galactic civilization. The Council had originally granted them permission to open their own training academy in the Lettow system, but the Council later forbid their activities. The reformers called themselves the 'Legions of Lettow' as they sought to defend knowledge and freedom by any means necessary. In the end, things did not work out and they went to war. The Legions were defeated and the fate of the Jedi Order was sealed. Muur claimed that he and the other masters who caused the Second Great Schism were simply trying to reverse that decision and reform the Order yet again, and yet the Council had betrayed them yet again. (to see more of the history of the First Great Schism, turn to Appendix C in the back of the book)
Pall was at first skeptical about this tale. He said that it made no sense to say that the Legions of Lettow wanted to 'reform' anything as the Order was only a few hundred years old at the time. What would they reform the Jedi back to? Nonexistence? Muur then said that before the Order was formed on the planet Ossus, another Order existed. This precursor Order existed on the planet Tython and was called the Je'daii Order This Order used both sides of the Force in balance. He then said that they had been successful for ten thousand years and it wasn't until the destruction of the Tython system that the survivors had formed the modern Jedi Order. The Legions of Lettow were just trying to reform the Jedi Order back to the Je'daii Order.
Pall knew this history, of course. He had been taught it when he was a padawan. But he had never realized it's implications. The Jedi Order, the devotion to the light side of the Force, the suppression of all emotions, this was not part of what the Jedi originally were. And these tendencies did not cause the Order to implode, but rather had allowed it to stand for ten thousand years. In many ways, it made sense. After all, Jedi taught compassion, but not love. But what was compassion without love? The Jedi were taught not to kill except when to defend life. But why shouldn't Jedi be allowed to take out dangerous targets that were a threat to other living things?
However Pall retorted that the Je'daii were not perfect as they had fallen as well. The Jedi had lasted almost twice as long. Muur said that this was true, but that the only reason the Je'daii fell was because someone had thought to put restrictions and unreasonable limitations on the Order's knowledge and conduct. This then led to war between those who wanted to conserve the Order and those who wanted to change it. The Legions of Lettow were just trying to reform the Order back to that openness that the Order had previously embodied. Plus, the only reasons the past two efforts at reform failed and led to bloody wars is because the Council had taken actions against the efforts of reform. It was the Council that wanted to keep the Jedi in chains of dogma.
Pall contemplated this, but said nothing. The next day Muur leads him to the Star Map and Pall was able to download the information he sought. When he went to leave, he asked Muur to join him. After all, he said, without a lightsaber Muur would likely die in weeks. Muur reluctantly agreed, and despite their lingering philosophical differences, Pall suspected that this event would be the beginning of a long partnership.
