Lit Why did Ardus Kaine fund Jerec’s Valley of the Jedi search?

What the hell did Kaine think he could get out of this?

Sure, Jerec was “aligned” with the PA, the same way a leech is aligned to a limb. How was Jerec able to convince the leader of the young rump state to go along with this search?

To what extent did Kaine even know about the supposed Valley (if it even existed)? If he did know the extent of it, he is an intelligent man, and would surely know the unambiguously ambitious Jerec wouldn’t share any of its power.

Did Jerec use the dark side to receive this funding? Did he promise to remove some political rivals before/after the hunt in return for the funding? Or something else entirely?

 

What source does the Kaine-Jerec connection come from?

 

Desperation I suppose. Kaine has to know on some level any chance of defeating the New Republic in a conventional military conflict is slim to none, and Jerec is promising something that could tip the scales. No matter how far-fetched the offer may have seemed, it must have looked a like a better chance than just doing nothing and watching the Republic grow stronger.

 

WOTC's 2005 Dark Forces Saga online article certainly mentions it:

https://web.archive.org/web/2010031...om/default.asp?x=starwars/article/sw20050616a

Besides gathering a number of quasi-loyal Dark Jedi over the years, Jerec also became a billionaire by attracting wealthy silent backers. One of them was Grand Moff Ardus Kaine, using his right to grant exemptions from Inquisitorius audits. After the second Death Star's destruction, Jerec and several other Inquisitors joined Grand Moff Kaine's Imperial faction under the title Great InQuestors of Judgment.

Approximately a year after the Battle of Endor, however, Jerec was contacted by the former Prophet Blackhole, who revealed that Emperor Palpatine was in fact alive and watching galactic events from the Deep Core at the center of the galaxy. Blackhole charged Jerec with finding the fabled Valley of the Jedi for the glory of the Emperor, and Jerec pledged his submission to the reincarnated dictator, giving Blackhole the Vengeance II to take back to the planet Byss as a sign of his commitment.

What Blackhole couldn't have known, however, was that Jerec was already searching for the valley on behalf of not only the Pentastar Alignment but also his old mentors, the true Prophets of the Dark Side. Resembling a Divoran holochess grandmaster, Jerec pulled resources from all three parties while playing each side against the middle, intending to be the only true victor.

 

The Dark Forces Saga was the original source, I think.

It seems like Jerec traded favours for non-specific financial backing from Kaine, among others, so he may not have really known what he was funding the search for.

 

IIRC the Dark Forces:Jedi Knight novella was the first to mention Jerec's (then unnamed) backers, who were also interested in the more mundane results of his pursuit of the Valley of the Jedi: ancient alien tech, even food preservative devices, etc. Kaine might not have even particularly cared about mystical powers as long as Jerec delivered on long forgotten but commercially exploitable technology.

 

https://boards.theforce.net/threads...-mmo-to-the-nsw.50056095/page-2#post-57471528

 

Probably died on Byss

 

A mix of all three, but I figure some survived long enough to become Imperial Knights.

 

I’m not so sure Inquisitors could “mellow” enough to become an IK.
Maybe an Emperor’s Hand could, but not an Inquisitor. They wielded considerable power and wouldn’t be keen to relinquish it in service of another (unless it’s Papa Palps)

 

Thinking about it, the Dark Empire as quickly as it rose and was forgotten again giving way to the Second Imperium in secret before it outed itself later with Hethir and YJK, this entire Dark Empire seems to be designed for a blitzkrieg and failing that a built in second dark Empire to go back into hiding unnoticed.

Imagine the same scenario for canon in Mandoverse or such. The Empire reuniting post Endor, naming a new Emperor and blitzing the NR out of the UR before folding back into the First Order in hiding.

It showed the Darksiders need an Empire to sustain them and their Dark Empire. As well as the Empire needs its darksiders to work and not eat itself up in greed and nepotism. They tried separate for a while, before reuniting.

PS: The Dark Empire fell not just because of the Skysolos, but because of Lumiya and her allies sabotaging it. Sith infighting so to speak. Like the first Empire. But one of her allies might have been none other than Nom Anor instigating her to take the reigns and sabotage Palpatine. Given how prominent he tried in Crimson Empire again... what did Nom Anor do during the Dark Empire? or before it?

 

Lumiya had no hand in Palpatine’s sabotage IIRC. That was just Jax on his own plus Sarcev Quest.

As a matter of fact, what was the Dark Lady up to during 10 ABY? Why didn’t Palpatine try to contact her? Her existence should have been well known since Isard interacted with her for some time.

 

Fact: Jax was her apprentice and she had a hand in Jax sabotaging him as well as corrupting the Emperors physician and others to their side.

 

The physician was bribed by the Ruling Council.

While yes, Jax was her apprentice (a weird, basically tacked on lore tidbit), he had basically free agency to run amok. There’s zero evidence to my knowledge that Lumiya ordered Jax to carry out the sabotage.

 

Lumiya was behind the plot against Palpatine, at least broadly: "... Lumiya ordered Jax to infiltrate the Empire's upper echelons and prepare, by whatever means necessary, for the ultimate threat to the Sith legacy. Jax pursued this agenda, collecting political and military allies and incriminating secrets within the Imperial Ruling Council and using Dark Side Adepts like Sarcev Quest to learn new Force powers. Jax soon had the Empire eating out of his palm.

Then came the unthinkable. Emperor Palpatine, dead for six years, miraculously returned. Suddenly, Jax realized what threat his master Lumiya had been referring to, and was not prepared to give up the power he'd accumulated. As a Force-sensitive Royal Guard, Jax easily became part of the Reborn Emperor's elite and trusted Sovereign Protectors. With Quest's help and particular relish, Jax convinced the Imperial Ruling Council to bribe Palpatine's physician into poisoning the clones the Emperor was using to stay alive. Palpatine died his last death as a result, and Jax set himself up as Imperial ruler. Afterward, he attempted to reestablish communication with Lumiya -- not to rejoin her but to lure her into a trap. That's when one of Palpatine's loyal former Royal Guardsmen killed him.

Lumiya was nonetheless thankful, for not only had Jax permanently eliminated Palpatine, but before his attempted betrayal, he'd passed on word to her of a mysterious stranger called Nom Anor who was interested in a possible alliance with the Dark Lady." (Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties)

 

Ehhh I don’t know. It kind of sounds like Jax just interpreted this as what Lumiya would have wanted him to do. Which as it turns out *is* true.

But as this quote reveals is that Lumiya did not inform Jax that Palpatine was Reborn, and she did not explicitly order the sabotage plot.

 

Basically, Kaine is the Nazis in an Indiana Jones movie?

But one of the important little details of the narrative texture of the Alignment is that its backers in turn were the New Republic versions of Sienar and KDY, which is why the New Republic never did anything about its nest of dystopian New Order tropes, and it was left to Pellaeon to clean house...

Of course, I didn't mean this to tie in with the co-authorial intent in WARFARE that the people behind the Ruusan reforms were partially the same people behind Lord Kaan, but it fits...

EDIT: And, wait, I'd forgotten that in the baroque plot to sabotage the Palpatine clones, Jax was teaming with Sarcev Quest, who's simultaneously sharing Roganda Ismaren with Leia's unsuitable ex-boyfriend Drost Elegin (who's technically the warlord of the week in Children of the Jedi, which is cracked and subversive all at once)...

... and hang on just a minute, doesn't that mean that Nom Anor was tag-teaming with Lumiya all along? Oh, prak..

Great thread, though. I've missed this place...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Wait wait wait WAIT! Nom Anor in cahoots with Lumiya before the NJO while Shimrra and others are looking for Sith to ally with against the Jedi? I like where this is going and how disloyal to Shimrra Nom was ever since then, cooking his own soup with Lumiya (Lomi Plo and Welk too then I guess) and trying to figure out if Vergere is a third wheel to his plans against Shimrra or rather an ally or enemy.

I wish we'd have gotten a Nom Anor tale set during Rogue Planet with him and Vergere's first meetup. And from that sprung a lot of subliminal stories all through the movie saga eras till NJO.

 

I know... I'm amazed I didn't think this through fifteen years ago... I knew I was missing something, but I never made the connection - almost as if there was some Sith obfuscation going on?!

But yes - to quote Abel (who else!) in Sith Dynasties: "not only had Jax permanently eliminated Palpatine, but before his attempted betrayal, he'd passed on word to her of a mysterious stranger called Nom Anor who was interested in a possible alliance with the Dark Lady."

So there we have it - Carnor Jax and Nom Anor were tag-teaming to overthrow Palpatine, and thereby the rule-of-two Sith were in cahoots with Nom Anor from Dark Empire onwards...

Now okay, the in Emperor's Pawns, the "Sinister Alliance" adventure seed says that Jax being taken down by Kanos ends "all connections to Anor" before Lumiya can make direct contact, but those adventure-seeds are non-canon (the Arden Lyn one most obviously), and even then the text doesn't actually say directly that contact between them wasn't restored... and Nom Anor's odd habit of using his own name would mean that the Dark Lady would know where he was as soon as he showed up in the pre-Vector Prime shenanigans, if not earlier than that...

... and if that was the case, I'd imagine this would mean that Vergere only thought she was running rings around the Executor, and they were, in fact, manipulating her and Jacen all through Traitor...

Or, to quote Niathal quoting Ackbar quoting himself, "As a famous Admiral once said, it appears to be a trap..."

And... worse...

Nom Anor and Lomi Plo were tag-teaming at Myrkr...



But, to flip this all the other way up... that means that Nom Anor, who I always thought had an exit plan at the end of the NJO, is basically choreographing the entire... Caedus... thing...



That weird feeling when you realise the characters have been running rings around the entire story group all this time...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I wonder what Anor was up too if he survived the end of NJO with the Vong defeated.

 

Well, take another look at the whole Caedus-Niathal-Omas-Rodan-Phennir clusterkriff, and ask yourself whose work it looks like...?

And it would be hillariously in-character for Nom Anor if he was actually running a shenanigans side project on Mon Cal in Destiny's Way, as well...

I'm still puzzled by what was really going on with Lumiya and that hallucinatory asteroid, too... I feel like we only saw a surface illusion there...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Well Lumiya, Vongerella, Nom Anor, Vectivus and...

Wait...

Are you suggesting the Asteroid was a Vong vessel?
A part of me wants it to be a Vong scout craft captured during the KOTOR era and kept by the Sith ever since. With Vectivus its latest owner loving its antiquity.

And given it is like a fact that Vectivus was abused by Lumiya in some way, I do wonder if we saw who really was behind Vectivus there. A true master of illusions! Remember when Vectivus transformed into Palpatine briefly to bait Nelani Dinn into striking him down? What if that was actually not an illusion?
Maybe our beloved Emperor knew he needed another Sith to manipulate Lumiya and Vectivus fit the bill? So through Vectivus spirit/illusion he could use her Emperor's Hand style again. And did he want Nelani to get to Jacen... or was she just a test?

And the entire attaching illusions to real people so if you kill one, the connected life ends as well, is very Horcrux-y. As well as that screams Palpatine given the power to send phantoms across the galaxy in "far reaching Force use" was either done by him, or Luke paying a heavy price so far only and no other known characters with that ability farrreaching as it was here.

Given Vong can live for 300 years... what if we are not to await Nom Anors return but look at how far back he operated already? Could he have been alive during the time of Darth Vectivus himself and tried to contact the Sith then already? Or did the Vong fear the Sith ever since KOTOR/TOR for repelling their scouts back then and having knowledge of them even if not much.

Vectivus illusions also are very Abeloth-esque to the point that he uses phantoms and manipulates his attached bodies perception and all that in any way he wants. Just like Abeloth did to the Jedi Younglings!


So Vongerella is a Vong Sith allied with Lumiya. The last experiment after Tahiriina Kwaadveils and Jacen Solo to bridge cultures. Vong and Sith both finally united after the Fall of Onimi etc. the entire NJO having been a power play against the Surpreme Overlord and his pet by Nom Anor in league with the Sith, reducing the Jedi and Republic between both. Now post NJO the Sith and Vong will somehow loose their alliance as by the time of the Ossus Project, the Sith worked against the Vong who had moved closer to the Jedi in alliance!
But as of LOTF, the alliance was still in effect probably. Did it break when the Sith briefly allied with the Jedi against Abeloth? Or when the Vong did refuse to turn on the Jedi? Did the Sith demand Vergere from the Vong but not get her? Thus they wanted her heir, Jacen Solo?

Jacen's White Eyes vision, Palpatine (TROS look), it all comes together now, and with an additional layer of Nom Anor out and about, what else is going on behind the scenes? All the fun references to Anakin Solos rebirth or mockery of that and the Kemp clone shenangians speak of another layer active paralell to the known story. Behind the scenes the Chiss prepared and already moved closer together preparing for threarts others were still oblivious about. The Sith united as well, and Lumiya's faction vs. Krayts faction may actually be a concerted reunification of the Sith despite differences, with pieces of Palpatine spread amongst all... the Sith.

PS: Crazy as it may be... I could even construct an overarching subplot from Palpatines youth with a certain criminal underworld woman straight up until Abeloth. As if all was working towards her release ever since Palpatines birth, and the magick in the GFFA step by step falling in line with her plans. Whose to say the Jedi children were the first to be corrupted by her during the NJO? We know from Sinkhole Station and Mindwalkers that she had many visitors over the past centuries, not only in the Maw Cluster.