The Sith Order: Planning Thread

Alright, this is definitly overdue. In this thread, we'll discuss the way we think the first story should end, the bare structure of the second story, and keep it going for the remainder of the Sith Order as a general discussion thread.

We'll also discuss any questions anyone has, but remember, since things are basically being made up as they go along, no one has the real answers.

That is part of the fun.

Rogue said:

"Part of the nature of round-robins (the part that makes them fun) is the many ways the plot can twist and turn, often unexpectedly, sometimes inconveniently. With different authors writing their own parts, the story options are nearly unlimited.

It would be good to have some sort of skeletal structure on which to base the general plot (just to make sure the story doesn't spiral off into oblivion)..."

I agree with her here. I don't want to make this a totally planned story, I've done some of those before, and it ends up becoming somewhat an annoyance to write. Half the fun is not knowing yourself what is going to happen, so it seems like you are actually reading a story, as well as participating in it.

This is the great part about an interactive, round robin story such as this one.

Now, a few people have said we need to have one or two characters that will act as the focal point in our stories. Main characters so to speak.

This is an excellent idea, but the problem is, I'm sure everyone wants their character to be a major one.

We can use this idea to a certain extent, but we have to make sure that all the characters still play vital roles, otherwise some people will feel left out.

What are everyone elses thoughts on this?

I was thinking if people want to go ahead with this, an idea to be considered is we could have a character focused on in each story. For example, TPM, though supposedly Anakin's story, was dominated by Qui-Gon. We could do something like that, where eventually these characters, in this case Drey and Zemai, eventually come into the major spotlight, but other characters also have their own highlights.

For instance, we might have a story based on the relationship between Coris and his sister, Akira, and so on.

Onto Jedi Galadriel's questions:

1. How long is the story going to be in the end?

What we want to ultimatly get through is the entire war between the Jedi and the Sith. I have basically based this entire story on a few short paragraphs from Terry Brooks' adaptation of TPM. Here they are:

"The Sith had come into being almost two thousand years ago. They were a cult given over to the dark side of the Force, embracing fully the concept that power denied was power wasted. A rogue Jedi had founded the Sith, a singular dissident in an order of harmonious followers, a rebel who understood from the beginning that the real power of the darkside lay not in the light, but in the dark. Failing to gain approval for his beliefs from the Council, he had broken with the order, departing with his knowledge and skills, swearing in secret that he could bring down those who had dismissed him.

He was alone at first, but others from the Jedi Order who believed as he did and who had followed him in his study of the darkside soon came over. Others were recruited, and soon the ranks of the Sith swelled to more then fifty in number. Disdaining the concepts of cooperation and consensus, relying on the belief that aquisition of power in any form lends strength and yields control, the Sith began to build their cult in opposition to the Jedi. Theirs was not an order created to serve; theirs was an order created to dominate.

Their war with the Jedi was vengeful and furious and ultimately doomed. The rogue Jedi who had founded the Sith order was its nominal leader, but his ambition excluded any sharing of power. His disciples began to conspire against him and each other almost from the beginning, so that the war they instigated was as much with each other as with the Jedi.

In the end, the Sith destroyed themselves. They destroyed their leader first, then each

 

Hmm. What should I say..

Well, first, I don't mind my characters being slightly in the background.. I have a plan for em, I guess, but I defnitely doubt
they'd make good main characters!! Uhm, Me, at this point, I'm vouching for Coris and Zemai to be the main characters on the
Jedi team, and as for the Sith.. I dunno. I'm actually kind of afraid to handle other people's characters right now for fear of
messing up their personalities, or doing something wrong. (maybe this discussion thread will help out)


So far, I'd say that this story is going great. Uhm.. as for the ending to the first story, uh, maybe a battle or such to scatter out
the Jedi and make a few loose endings that will help to start out in the next story..

I know that's very little input on my part but my sister's bugging me for the computer, it's getting late and I think this guitar polish
is starting to get to me..

 

This is the Rover a.k.a. you know who,

Lord Sith, I agree whole heartedly with your views on how we should do this series. It is true that maybe everyone wants their character to be the focal main point of the story arc, but we need to still look at it in the scope of the whole series. Knowing that Drey is to be the future Darth Bane and that he will die of natural causes, then its safe to assume that he should be one of the focal points. This is after all the Sith Order, and the jedi, even though they're good guys, they shouldnt be the main point in our writing when it comes to bringing this arc to a head.

If you could understand what i'm tryin to get at, In my mind I can only see Drey and Zemai as the ones that the story should ultimately revolve around with all of the characters from this first story ( Coris, Akira, Karik, Jai'ana-Din, Seth, Zalferix, General Rikkan, Kai, Nieem, )kinda filling in the pot holes of the subplots we create. For instance, if you agree with this;( Especially you JediGalandriel because you would have to write this at some point )The story proceeds to cover the rise and fall of Seth Shadel but at the same time, it also cover the entire life of Zemai,a beautiful child born of religious leaders on a small planet who grows up as a student of the jedi temple, becomes the padawan of Coris Hakim. She grows up to become a powerful jedi Knight but ultimately becomes one of the greatest of the earlier Sith Master, who lives out the rest of her days either training others apprentices, spreading the philosphies of the dark side and taking revenge for the things that she has lost following the jedi.

Throughout all of this, it is kinda poetic that she should be the main character because of the way we structured everything so far with the forshadowing. General Rikkan already knows that Zemai is to become part of the Sith. That was the reason why he planned her kidnapping back on Bastion, but he also knew that time will prove him to be the ultimate victor in all things as he would become a shadowy presence to assist the future Sith masters in preserving the legacy of Seth Shadel .

But in any case before I get too carried away. Other character will be spotlighted also because they are just as important. and If you notice, ( Lord Sith, this goes out to you especially ) I have spent the better part of the two months on this thread not only handling both of my characters ( General Rikkan and Jai'ana-Din Ronin )but that of Seth and Drey as well, I am fortunate for the character profiles that Lord Sith gave out before, but now I have an intimate knowledge of both of theses guys and i can work with Sith to bring Drey out to the eventuall fore front.

Hey Sith, I would love to be a part of planning Seth untimely demise if you wish to have me in on it.

The romance of Coris and Jai'ana-Din Ronin is extremely specially to me, because as I told Rogue in our e-mail corespondances, that I want these two to have true love even through the war but lets spice it up a bit as to test the trials that Loving couples must go through to keep the passion and fire alive. As I was thinking for awhile, Their deep feelings for each will have some impact on Zemai's development as a young beautiful woman also who admires her master Coris but from the beginning, couldnt understand or accept totally Jai'ana-Din being in his life.

Jai'ana-Din Ronin will allways love Coris Hakim and hopefully if Rogue agrees with it , Both of their lives should be a bane( no pun intended hahaha ) of Drey jalex existance as the Sith Master Darth Bane, with Zemai coming up in the ranks as his Sith apprentice.

and lastly to General Rikkan ( hahahaha ) He is alas a character I made up to be the one who as an immortal looks and silently helps the Sith Order grow and forever florish. One of the things a friend of mine asked me as he was ready the story is that what is general Rikkans's true plans The sad thing is that, the answer as i told him was....Nothing. he has no true plans. throughout the series of stories even though I have something s

 

I really, REALLY, didn't want to tell you all, but this story is Karik's last. He will be gone, whether he dies, or goes on to strengthen his own ties with the lightside. Anyway, I have already written up a post for Karik leaving, and he tells Coris that he has a son, living on Tatooine who he wants brought back to the Jedi Council. I had really planned that he would befriend Zemai, as he would probably be of the same age. On Tatooine, he is being looked after by an old friend of Karik's that used to be a Jedi, but perhaps younger than Karik himself. He watches after the boy, and for some reason doesn't want him to join the council. I just thought it would be better for Karik to leave the first story, perhaps appearing now and again. Anyway, I hope I didn't spoil too much from what I wrote, but I felt you should know if we want to continue this series.

 

Oh wow. I didnt know that, Loka. That would have been a bombshell, Karik Otonna is a character that has a lot of curiousity wrapped around him. his history and his future once he lets the council know that he is back from the dark side. Its a shame that hes not coming back. I'm quite sure that his son should be very interesting in the future tales.

Well, that was a rush to the senses. I came back to say that we should end the story with the major Lightsaber battle. We should allow that Seth and Drey escape with maybe four of their disciples or something in the orbiting ships that belongs to the Rimar. Now when we last left off, Loka set up Akira to go after her brother Coris as the heroes start off to find Seth and co. I only want to have Jai'ana-Din seperated soon after some of the villins catch up with them and as they fight someone would lead our heroes to the Sith temple. I had an idea and I hope Loka will be able to roll with me on this;

Lets set up round two of the Lightsaber fight with Zalferix and Jai'ana-Din and in the mist of it. Karik can jump in to fight Zalferix while General Rikkan's chief henchman from Bastion, Maxian comes in to fight with jai'ana-din. The reason I wanted this to go down like this is that i want maxian to lead Jai'ana-Din to the temple to face General Rikkan, where I will set up the subplot between them from there. ...At least that my idea. if possible ill try to get things started in a little bit. Hey Loka how does it sound to you. If i set it up, you write some of the fighting between Jai'ana-Din and Zalferix ( hes in his element now )

Hey Galandriel, whats the status on Zemai ? do you want to have her remain in the thick of things or placed somewhere safe.

I already know what Rogue is planning with Coris

respond if you can

 

That sounds good to me rover. Just aslong as I can get Karik up to Seth at the top of the Sith Temple fight him.

[This message has been edited by Loka Hask (edited 01-11-2000).]

 

As far as Zemai goes, the thought that she might end up Drey's apprentice was on my mind from the start, but I'd planned to keep her relatively quiet -- the only thing I'd say is, I think she's already got her frequent flyer plans on Kidnapped Padawan Airlines... she's not great with a lightsaber, but if it comes to a fight, she could probably handle someone who'd had no training. I don't mind staying in the thick of things (if I can figure out where "things" are, of course, which has been my problem for awhile -- I'm scared of making a move because I feel like everyone else has a master plan and I don't want to mess it up, so when I do post, it's introspective and doesn't move the plot foreward, for fear of moving it against the grain). Zemai wouldn't have it otherwise. She's taken a liking to Coris (mainly because no one has ever saved her life before, and she has no idea how to react to it), but she isn't an exceptionally affectionate child. What she is, is curious and stubborn. She'll be in the thick of things... but watching and waiting, like as not, unless she believes that someone she's loyal to is out of his depth.

Her arc, as I see it, goes from her opening, where she sees herself as a free agent and resists becoming a padawan to any single Master because she wants to learn from everyone, to the strong attachment to Coris (which will interact somehow, I'm guessing, with his sister the Sith, though I don't know how R11 is planning to deal with that). At some point in the course of the five stories, the two go on divurgent paths, and Zemai is resentful of that (she doesn't have a crush on him, but she's kind of proprietary), but doesn't say anything. Eventually, after the Wars, (how long in story time are we talking, Lord Sith? Five years? Ten? Twenty?), she's a respected Jedi knight, but still bothered by the same curiosity and quest for knowledge that she had as a pre-padawan. She believes that any knowledge the Sith had died with them, and that doesn't seem right to her. And one thing leads to another.

(At some point in her adult life, she has a family -- a descendent of hers appears briefly in "Outer Rim" and is coming into "The Penitent" -- but I suspect that's long after the end of the story.)

 

I think that everyone, should leave atleast one little thing about their character that can be investigated in later stories. (Like the romance between Coris and Jai'ana Din or Karik's son on Tatooine.) This will give us a great place to start off on later stories, if we all leave something for us to think about. Just like the original Star Wars trilogy, I think that this series should have some focal characters, but also manage to include the rest to a point where they are pretty much a main character themselves. Just like how in the trilogy it used smaller, more detailed stories to tell a bigger tail of good versus evil, using every character and thing in the story. (Luke vs. Emperor, Ben vs. Vader, Leia & Rebels vs. Empire, Han vs. Jabba, and so on.)

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
-Loka Hask

 

Okay, since everyone's sharing thoughts on their characters, I'll take my turn.

It's kind of strange. I originally intended Coris to be kind of a background character, and planned to center most of my writing around his sister Akira. But somehow the spot-light shifted. Hmm, oh well. Things worked out just fine anyway.

In this story arc, I plan to have Coris face off with Akira before the end. I suppose Akira's going to tell him about her duel with Karik, and how he was the one that helped her along on her path to the Dark Side. This, of course, will complicate matters between Karik and Coris. Loka Hask, have any ideas about that? There's the matter of Karik's son, and also the thing mentioned pretty early on in the story, about that power to jump into people's minds. Supposedly Coris and Akira both have the ability, and so does Zemai - are we going to further develop that idea at all?

As for defining more of the Hakim's past, I'd love to do that. Basically they're children of destiny - they've had some sort of prophecy made of them early on in life. I'd like to introduce parts of the prophecy in flashbacks through Coris and Akira. And once again Karik could play a part, since he was their teacher for a little while - it's really up to Loka Hask, though.

On to Zemai. I'm not clear on this point - is she going to become Coris's apprentice in the future? Right now he's not looking for a Padawan - just like she's not looking for a Master, but are events going to throw them together? He's taken a liking to her, but it's more of a protective sense right now - he still thinks it's his responsibility to take care of her and make sure she makes it back to Coruscant in one piece. I suppose Akira can later use this affection for her own advantage - I have yet to decide that, though.

Okay. Jai'ana-Din. General Rikkan aka The Rover have already discussed the relationship between those two. I understand that the relationship will have some negative effects on Zemai. And, as all relationships must, - for the course of true love never did run smooth - theirs will suffer some hard-times and trials throughout the war. Though I think General Rikkan and I will discuss that more in detail as opportunities present themselves.

How Akira factors into the grand scheme of the Sith, I don't know. She's scheming against the others, just as they will eventually begin to plot against one another. It is eventually through this complicated network of betrayls and double-crosses that the Sith destroy themselves, or so the story goes. She seems to be closest to Zalferix, who has been kind of coaching her along, farther into the Dark Side. She'll probably have some grudge against Jai'ana, and most likely Zemai too. We'll have to see about that.

And that's all I can think of right now. To be frank, for everyone's information, I have no "master plan" for any of my characters; I just play them off everyone else and see where the plot takes me. This has been a really great story because it affords so many different situations to do just that.

BTW, concering the ending of this first installment, any ideas on how we're going to finish it? Is it going to be a sort of cliff-hanger, like the ending of ESB? Does anyone have any idea how we're going to wrap this part up?

 

Mm. All these suggestions sound good. Characters getting set up, the plot's starting up. Uh..

On my characters, well, I figure that Kai's going to have a very large Darkside-Lightside conflict coming on. How that's gonna happen I'm not sure yet.
Naeem.. How am I supposed to get him back. I'll have to ponder this for a few hours.
As for Ariane, well, I was wondering if we could possibly write in some tension between her and a few of the knights in the group, b/c of her past.

That's all the input I have right now. Good night.

 

I think that it's a good idea, with flahback about the Hakim twins, with Karik playing the newly appointed master, stuck teaching two rambunctious kids. (He probably would only be about as old as Coris is now, as he is probably about 49 right now. And I imagine that Coris is either in his late twenties or very early thirties. And yes, I do believe that Zalferix has some sort of greater plans for Akira. We'll have to wait and see about that, eh? As for Karik's son, I'm sure they may feel some tension, as Coris would not have had a chance to tell Karik off before he is gone from the story. Whether he shows it outright to the child is unknown. There is one thing that I want to know. How much farther will the next story take place?
Will Zemai be much older, like in her early twenties? This would provide a different point of view for the story, as now she would be able to fight alonside the other knights. She could, of course just be in her late teens instead, still a padawan. (Perhaps she'll have an orange saber, hmm? )
I'm still trying to figure out names for Karik's son and his protective guardian that was friends with the Jedi Master so long ago. (He's the guy Karik was talking about when he told Zemai that he got the jewels from a person he knew a long time ago.)

 

Alright, first of all, Loka, did you want to write that battle between Seth and Karik? I was going to add it in my last post at the story, but you said you already had it written up or something, so I left if alone for now. If you don't have anything planned, I'm ready to write it.

Next, we are all wondering how we should end this story. The General's idea is basically that the Sith escape the planet with the help of the orbiting ships.

A good idea, but I would rather see things happening the other way around, with the Jedi having to flee. After all, this is the Sith's home planet. Perhaps a daring rescue mission by the Republic to save the Jedi, so we can get some orbital and deep space ship battles going at the end of this story as well.

This way, the Sith seem like they are winning, repulsing the Jedi from their planet. Since they eventually do ultimatly loose the war, it can't seem like they are going to loose right from the beginning.

Opinions?

Next thing, Galadrial asked the question, how long are the wars going to take in story time.

Now before I directly answer that, originally, I planned for the stories to take place simultaniously after one another, with no time elapsed between. However, when Loka brought up the idea, I began to think it might be a good idea to see a period of time between some of the stories. Not necessarily all of them though.

What are everyones thoughts on this? Should we have a period of time between the first and second story?

So to answer Galadrial's question, I'm not certain how long the war should ultimatly take because its really based on how we write. If we have time elapsed between our stories, its obviously going to take longer.

I think that's about it. Anything I've missed?

If not, let the war continue!

~Lord Sith~

 

Yes, Sith, if you don't mind I'll write about the battle, as I have already written it out, and its rather important.

 

In answer to Rogue11's question about Zemai and padawan status, I guess I figured that she was sort of an "accidental" padawan, or perhaps "de facto" would be a better word, possibly authorized by the Council later.

Fifty Sith probably wouldn't take all that long to destroy each other, but ten years might be liveable. Lots of damage can be done in ten years over the course of all the stories.

 

The plan for the jedi knight to be rescured is a good idea too Sith. I wanted Ular-Grimm Errar to live ( to me, he is sort of a Wedge type character ) to he can serves as a buffer untill the war is over.

Secondly the continue of time elapse is a gret idea. I hope no too much will ellapse because I planned for jai'ana-Din to be defeated in battle and kidnapped by general Rikkan ( hey, Galandriel, now i get to come aboard the Padawan kidnapping airlines,huh )This is all due to the subplot between them which will ultimate be resoveled at the end of the war. So it will make for interesting stories to tell in which myself and Rogue need to get together and discuss.

 

I like the idea of the Sith driving away the Jedi, instead of the other way around. They're supposed to be a formidable force - if they're defeated in their first battle, that doesn't do much credit to their abilities. Concerning the issue of time between stories, I think it would be good to put in time-lapses only where circumstances allow. Maybe after this part of the story, we can let quite a bit of time pass. It'll be interesting to watch the characters - especially some of the younger ones - develop and mature. But with other arcs, we should refrain from jumping time-periods if the story is better off staying where it is. Just my 2 credits on that.

BTW, Loka Hask, Coris is 23-24, not much more than a kid. But being a Jedi makes you grow up real fast, doesn't it? Especially in a story like this. Just to make sure I don't totally screw your character's personality up in the flashbacks, what was he like back then? Patient? Quiet? Intimidating?

 

Yeah, the time should pass between the stories (makes it feel more like SW anyway!). I just had Zemai start a fire in the woods, btw.

There are so many characters in this! Do you think we could do a brief post here in planning, with all of the characters listed as they're related to each other, eg:

Anakin Skywalker: fallen Jedi
Amidala: his wife
Luke Skywalker: their son
Leia Organa: their daughter
Han Solo: Leia's SO

Etc, etc.

 

Yes, Karik wasa fair bit intimidating, but never interacted much with his students. He would prefer to allow them to learn their own lessons, and always let them get thereselves out of their own trouble. He was young though, but wise farther than his years, the reason he became a master in his late twenties.

 

At this moment in time, Rogue, we both have to find a way for Coris to be both involved in going to war with his muched improved Lightsaber skills. while at the same time grieving over the fact that his Love, Jai'ana-Din has been kidnapped by General Rikkan and wont appear but so much in the second story. The elder classmats of her master Odar Velisa will take the spotlight in an attempt to hunt down General Rikkan and rescue her. but we'll talk more about when i have a more detailed view on how I want this to go down.

in response to Jedi Galandriel suggestion, at this point I only have three Characters to work with unitll I bring in the others for the second story.

General Rikkan: He is the main character for me. He is a mysterious ally for Seth Shadel and Drey Jalex and he will help them train other jedis to jointhe sith. He has a deep history with the Jedi Order, particularly with Odar Velisa, I will expond more on it as I go along but I started it last night in my post

Jai'ana-Din Ronin : She is the second main character for me and a personal favorite because of her make up. firce Loyal, and couragoeus but very feminite at the same time. She loves Coris Hakim for his noble soul and wants to create a life bond with him. unfortunately she will be captured by The General because of an Old grude with her master Odar Velisa. She is part of a Lengendary squard of Jedi's who practices ancient magicks to make them even better in battle. courtasy of her master.

Odar Velisa: The late master of Jai'ana-Din and a historical presence in the Jedi Order. his philosphies and combat techniques are required reading in the temple by inspiring padawans. more on him as the story progress I think. im still working on it.

Ular-Grimm Errar : at first I just made him as a punk backgroud character to fill up some space and be killed in the ennd of the first story, but as the story progressed, he sort of took a nice personality of his own that want to explore futher in the second story, especially If I fit him into an arc of something..something for me to think about as I go along.


I come back for more later....lets get back to war

 

Coris Hakim

My main character, obviously. Twin brother to Akira Hakim and future master to Zemai (?). Loves Jai'ana-Din. A young Knight who has - previous to this - the majority of his Jedi hours logged on diplomatic missions. He would prefer to talk his way out of a situation rather than resort to fighting, but as a war is soon coming on, that particular trait will have to be remedied. However, it is not common knowledge that he is adept in hand-to-hand combat, which he began learning when discovering his saber skills were less-than-adequate.

Akira Hakim

My secondary character - Sister to Coris. I've kind of been neglecting her before this. *guilty look* She's an impulsive former Jedi that has joined the Sith using Karik's attack on her brother as an excuse. She's taken to their ideals and has decided that after she exterminates them all (at least, that's what she keeps telling herself), she will start her own anti-Jedi order. Akira thinks she's still in control of her own life and is quick to anger with those who disagree with her. She seems to be an informal pupil of Zalferix.

Both the Hakim Twins are former students of Karik. They are also friends with Brendtan the Wookie, who often serves as a mediator between them when times get rough. They share a mental bond of siblings, and unknowingly are also subjects of an ancient prophecy, which only seems to reveal itself bit by bit in dreams or visions.

 

JediGaladriel: Uh, I don't know how to say this, uhm, in your post, is Ariane still alive? I kind of need her right now, so before I post again I thought I'd ask.

 

No. In Lord Sith's post about the fight, he sliced her in half in front of Zemai, and also killed Bhasvan. Zemai is doing funeral rites in my scene. I wasn't expecting her to, but, well, she does her own thing.

Or did I misread Lord Sith? If so, ignore...

[This message has been edited by JediGaladriel (edited 01-14-2000).]

 

JediGaladriel Oh.. okay.. thanks..

Now what do I do?.. I needed her for the next few posts, but, guess that's not possible right now.. anyone have a suggestion?

 

Depends... what were you planning on doing with her? Zemai's still wandering in the woods, if you want to do a scene.

 

Black Jedi, listen i left off Kai in his fight with Scott Lenobi. so i was hoping you would post something to continue that particula r battle so you can start there

if that is any help to you.

Galandriel, let me know if you want master yolin and Ular-grimm errar to find Zemai and have her travel with them. I hope you can respond before i post a scene with them again