Author's Notes
Hi, my name is Snarky Portal, and this is the first time that I've written a fanfic. I've been on this site for several years now, but I've finally decided to start writing my own stories. Anyways, this is a self-insert into the Star Wars the Old Republic videogame, specifically the Sith Warrior storyline with the MC being the third son of Valkorian who managed to escape Zakuul with Senya when offered the chance and eventually found himself on Korriban. A prequel story will probably be created to flesh out the details.
There will be some OCs that make an appearance, and some minor characters may show up more than they did in game, but they shouldn't affect the overall plot too much. As for alignments, it'll be a neutral Sith Warrior with dark side tendencies.
And of course, there's the typical disclaimer of I do not own Star Wars or the old republic. They belong to Lucasfilm and Bioware.
Chapter 1: Strange Beginnings
"You killed me."
"Because you lost a bet."
"Well, us omnipotent beings have to find some way to keep ourselves entertained" came the rather casual reply.
I was currently standing in what appeared to be the stereotypical depiction of Heaven. White fluffy clouds all around, and a large black iron gate that led directly to the silver city itself. As for who was currently sitting in front of me, that was none other than the big man himself.
He even looked like Morgan Freeman.
Apparently, the gods of every religion (along with some other beings powerful enough to claim the title) were real. Not only were they real, they kept themselves entertained by pitting us mere mortals into a variety of odd situations. One of which, but not limited to, was placing them in a fictional universe and betting on what they would do and how far they would go.
Turns out that when they plucked the last helpless soul to go through this, God's bet didn't quite end up going to plan and he didn't want this next one to be quite as disastrous.
"So, what does this have to do with me?" I asked. There wasn't anything in particular that made me special. I was just your average college student. Sure, I would read and write a few fanfics in my free time and knew quite a few franchises like the back of my hand, but I didn't really think that would set me apart from the rest of the geeks and nerds in existence.
A self-amused smirk began to grow across the face of the deity before me as he said "Because I know that even before you found out about this little competition of ours, you were working on a self-insert of your own. How'd you like to live it?"
The Self insert in question was an Old Republic SI that I had thought about writing but had never got out of development hell. The SI in question was one of Valkorian's children but would leave Zakuul and would live life on the run that would eventually culminate in him acting out the Sith Warrior storyline from said MMO. I had been thinking about the story for months. Hell, I had even considered possibilities for when the main story and the expansions were completed. Even still, despite of what I knew was going to be on hell of an adventure (and in one of my favorite franchises no less), there was still one thing that was holding me back.
"You still killed me."
Was I being stubborn?
Absolutely.
But in my defense, I was just barely into my twenties, was almost finished with college, to say nothing of the rest of the very long life I planned to live.
God responded to my, admittedly petty response, "Which would you prefer? The life you have now? Going to class day in and day out with the only break you get being the weekend where you're all but overwhelmed with work? Is that that truly the life you want to go back to?"
"Jeez. You already killed me once. There's no need to go for a second try!"
God continued on as if he didn't even notice my interjection. "Or you could accept my offer. Live a new life of adventure in a universe that you know like the back of your hand with powers far greater than you could possibly imagine".
Despite the blunt nature of his little monologue, he was right.
My life as it stood right now, wasn't anything particularly noteworthy. I was just your average college student trying not to crumple under the combined weight of the insurmountable pile of work the professors were pilling on me. Don't even get me started on my complete lack of a social life.
God damn it. Why did this Morgan Freeman look alike have to be so convincing?!
I couldn't help but let out a sigh.
"I take it you've decided to accept my little proposal?" God asked.
"You're supposed to be omnipotent. Don't you already know my answer?" came my sarcastically reply. Probably not the best move but death tends to bring out one's inner sarcasm.
"Fair enough" was the only response he offered as he raised his hand. When he snapped his fingers, the world around us began to quickly fade away in a blinding flash of light.
As it washed over me, I there was nothing I could do but watch as my vision faded to black.
When I woke up, I found myself on a cold metal floor and a soft buzzing noise in the background. I reached my right arm out to try and reach out to the nearest wall to try and get a better view on my surroundings only got a shock of electricity for my efforts. As the pain shot back up my arm, I jerked my arm back only for it to hit another electric field.
What sort of fucked up futuristic basement was this?!
As I cradled my now numb arm, I began to closely examine the room I was trapped in. The cage that I was in appeared to only be large enough to hold a single humanoid figure. As for the walls of said cage, they seemed to be made out of a sort of yellow orangish energy and connected the metal plate I was standing on to a similar one that was a few feet above me.
Guess I found where that humming noise was coming from.
As I looked around, there was not a single soul to be found. No humans. No aliens. Hell, if this truly was Star Wars, there wasn't even a droid to confirm it! The pain that I had felt when I had first woken up had confirmed that this was very real and not some dream or hallucination. As for the universe, I was still in the dark in terms of which one I currently found myself in.
With no way to confirm where I was, I began to take stock of what I had on me.
I looked down and saw that my new outfit consisted of a grey button-down shirt, black pants, black boots, and a navy-blue jacket similar to Luke Skywalker's at the end of A New Hope. A quick check of what little pockets I had revealed nothing in them. No ID, no phone or any other communications device, no wallet. Nothing.
Surely God wouldn't pull a fast one on me at the last second.
Right?
Right?!
At around the same time panic began to make itself known, I realized that there was one way to determine if this truly was the galaxy far far away. Keeping in mind the shockingly painful walls of the prison cell, I carefully sat down with my legs folded underneath me and began to meditate.
In my past live I might not have practiced meditation regularly or put much stock into it but I had tried it out once or twice. It helped a little bit but not much.
But when I tried it in that prison?
It was like a whole new world had just opened itself up to me.
There were truly no words to accurately describe what it felt like to feel the force for the first time. If I had to, the best way that I could describe it was like feeling nothing after a lifetime of pain or seeing again after an eternity of darkness. Regardless of whatever cliché you're thinking of, take that feeling of indescribable joy and amplify it by a thousand.
My eyes shot back open. I really was in Star Wars. And that thing I had just experienced was me experiencing everything that the force had to offer.
Desperate to get back to that indescribable feeling, I resumed my meditations but this time I was going to try something a little different. In KOTOR 2, Kreia had taught the exile to feel the heartbeat of Nar Shadaa and how the planet felt like in the force. I had personally never played the game (heresy I know) but I had watched videos that people had posted online. Perhaps I could try and replicate the technique. Maybe I could do the same thing here to get some kind of reading as to where I had ended up.
At the very least, I could try and see if there were any other sentient beings on this rock.
Getting back into position, I once again began to meditate.
Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
Once I had established a pattern, I began to reach back out towards the force. I quickly found it again but rather than let it go, I held on to that feeling and tried to expand my senses. It took a while, but I was able to expand my senses out and was able to feel what this new world was like.
That was where things began to go wrong.
The world seemed to be one utterly consumed by darkness. I don't know what I had been expecting, but it wasn't this. The world felt wrong. It was surrounded in a never-ending source of darkness that quickly snuffed out any light that tried to shine. What little life existed here felt no different. I couldn't tell there were animals or sentient beings as everything here was consumed with nothing but hate, greed, selfishness, and a willingness to do whatever it took to survive.
"Just what kind of world was this?" I asked out to the empty room before me, testing out my voice for the first time. It wasn't too different from my voice in my previous life and was only a little deeper than what I was used to.
If this was Star Wars, then there were two choices I could see. The first was Korriban, the ancient home world of the Sith. The other was Dromund Kaas, the capital used by the Sith Empire after Vitiate and his followers fled into the unknown regions. Sure, there were other Sith bastions such as Ziost but there was this lingering feeling in the back of my head telling me that it wasn't one of those worlds.
Shaking my head, I returned back to my meditations. The person whose body that I was now inhabiting had, through some means or another, found himself in the Star Wars equivalent of solitary confinement on a world where everything was consumed in never ending darkness. Regardless, I had no way to know how long until someone visited me, and I needed to do something during the time in between. For the third time, I tried to reach out to the force.
Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
I continued that pattern and soon found the force only to find that there was an ever-present darkness to it rather than the illuminating experience that first been. It made the meditation difficult as I would also need to focus on not falling to it. As I continued to meditate, it became easier and easier to not only focus on the Force as a whole while also fending off the darkness that this world seemed to be radiating. I would have been able to hold that position for several hou-
"It appears that our uninvited guest is finally awake."
Not expecting anyone to come by, I was startled out of my meditations as a voice rang out with a cold, almost sinister tone to it. As I looked up to who I assumed was my jailor, there were a few things that I couldn't help but notice as I gave the same look over that he was giving me.
The first and most obvious thing about him was the dark red skin along with the full set of tendrils that ran down his face. This automatically marked him as a member of the Sith species and given the power that I felt radiating from him in the force along with the two lightsabers on his hips, meant that he was most likely a lord as well. It also meant that we were either in or close to the time period of the Old Republic MMO from Bioware as the ancient Sith from Marka Ragnos or Naga Sadow's time were depicted as using alchemically enhanced swords instead of lightsabers.
As for his outfit, he seemed to be wearing a black robe with a simple silver-grey chest plate to provide some basic protection rather than the more elaborate armors worn by some of the NPCs encountered by the player. He also didn't seem to have any cybernetics that would help further narrow down who this particular lord was. Yet despite this particular Sith not being featured in any of the games or tie in comics that I knew of, he still felt familiar. Sort of like when you pass a guy in the hallway once or twice on the way to class but you never stopped to learn his name.
The unknown Sith tilted his head and in a slightly amused tone asked, "You don't remember me, do you?" I stayed silent, not willing to risk this guy's wrath but doing so only seemed to give him confirmation as he let out a rather unnerving chuckle.
My confusion must have slipped onto my face, as the chuckle soon turned into a full-blown laugh.
"You sneak past our fleet, past our guards on the ground, and even manage to get into the inner chambers of one our most sacred tombs to steal priceless knowledge and you don't even recognize the one who prevented your escape?!"
After finishing his little rant. the unknown Sith took one of his lightsabers and ignited it causing the room to be filled with a brilliant yellow. My captor held up the hilt and inspected it, making it a point to turn the blade as close towards me as the energy barriers between us would allow.
"This is lightsaber truly is a work of art. Knowing that I alone was able to claim it after you cut down a dozen acolytes will make its spot in my collection all the more precious".
Something in my captor's little monologue seemed to spark something as a lifetime of memories began to flood my brain.
My rebirth on Zakuul as Valkorian's third child, my pitiful early attempts at experimenting with the force, Vaylin's birth a few years after mine, trying to teach her to control over her powers, growing up with the twins with the Knights watching over us, the various attempts I made to steal the twins' lightsabers.
Then the dark times where I joined Arcaan and Thexan in the brutal training sessions, watching as the divide between the twins began to grow, watching helplessly as Vaylin was shipped off to Nathema. Escaping with Senya to the outer boarders of the Eternal Empire only to ditch her and disappear to the outer rim.
Finding my way to Nar Shadaa and travelling across said world until I came across a refugee shelter. Meeting Kira Carsen from the Jedi Knight storyline and becoming friends with her. I saw the memories of how that friendship became a relationship only for it to end when she joined the Jedi Order and how my host took various mercenary jobs that were taken to keep busy.
The never-ending hunts of old Jedi and Sith ruins to loot their artifacts as a way to continue learning the ways of the Force. Hearing rumors about Sith artifacts on Korriban and sneaking past the Sith's blockade. The infiltration of Tulak Hord's tomb, reaching the chamber where the Red Engine was only to be cornered by a team of Sith lords. Fighting my way through them with the same ease that my captor just described only to be stopped by -
"You" I growled out as everything began to fall into place. "You were the one who reached out to me. You laid the trap at the tomb and were the one who locked me in this prison".
A toothy grin snaked its way across my captor's face as he basked in my growing anger. Yet despite the growing rage from being tricked so easily, there was one thing that continued to bug me.
"Why did you spare my life?" I hesitantly asked the red-skinned Sith. The Sith were well known for their reputation for never sparing a life and even if they did, it was only to suite their own ends.
The grin was wiped off my red-skinned captor's face as he extinguished what used to be my lightsaber and looked at anything but my face. "Our recent war with the Jedi" he said, sneering that last word out as if it were a curse, "despite being over for a decade has decreased our ranks quite considerably. We are now at the point to where any force sensitive with significant power, such as yourself, is to be offered the chance to train regardless of where or how we find them".
He turned his face back towards mine, his dark red eyes boring into mine with anger visible on his face. "The offer I now extend to you to learn the ways of Sith is done solely at the command of the Dark Council. Whether the offer is accepted or declined, is left up to you".
Despite the words he spoke, I realized that if I wanted to get out of this situation alive, there was only one option for me to pick.
With deep sigh, I look my jailor dead in the eye and said two simple words that would change my life forever.
"I accept"