Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties

Or Lumiya also has a lightsaber but prefers the whip......

 

Hmmm.... Chaos eh? I've never noticed that before. Adds a real fantasy element to the galaxy... I like it

 

Not necessarily "fantasy" as much as another plane of existance, another dimension (which we've had for some time now)

 

Not baad, not baad!

Closer to 4,400.

I don't know if it lasted nearly that long. I'd say it's between the Great Sith War and the Jedi Civil War.

Circa 1250 BBY. The Dark Underlord is around 1250 BBY.

Definitely post-Nagai/Tof invasion, and probably after cutting Carnor Jax loose, tentatively 8 ABY I'd say.

This was a terrific dissection, T-Mac! I really enjoy language, and it was fun coming up with Sith words and trying to keep everything more or less consistent.

Good guess.

Both.

I think you did a great job of making as much sense of it as I wanted to be able to be inferred. "Ambiguity is part of the design."

True, though I was going for short hand there. I think Mike Stackpole really makes an effort to emphasize Ysanne is Empress "in all but name." The fact that I can even remember that quote on the fly implies how often it's iterated... i.e. she's still empress de facto.

Take care,
Abel

 

So that means "Jidai" is probably the Sith Version of "Jedi" from hearing them introduce themeselves to the Sith (Counterpart to the Vong "Jeedai").

So those were essentially "Dark Jedi". Jen appears to be Dark in every case only if followed by an appostrophe or is the second word....

Would that mean a "Dark Follower" or "Shadow Hand" is a "JenJen"???

And a "Dark Lord of the Sith" would be "Jen'arisith"??

 

I notice you don't actually say anything here...

... or here...

Or here!

Very impressive wordplay...

One further thought... which i suspect is entirely overreading, but which may prove entertaining...

If a Sith'ari is "Lord of the Sith", and a "Shadow Hand" is semantically a follower...

... but "Shadow Hand" also contains the same element used in Jen'ari...

... then could it be argued that Jen'ari, "Dark Lord", is a technically inferior title, indicating a rank that isn't quite Sith'ari...?

Of course, as time goes on, it's possible that the distinction becomes blurred, and Jen'ari could call themselves Sith'ari again, although the title of Jen'ari distinguishes them from the "pure" Sith'ari of pre-Jedi times...

As to what the difference might mean: well, if I'm understanding Abel right, the idea of the Dark Side only came into Sith terminology with the arrival of the Jen'jidai...

I presumed it was something like that. I suspect that Isard's (programmed-in?) Palpatine fetish makes her essentially incapable of overtly taking the throne. She'll coopt all the power Palpatine wielded and even more if she can (doing away with almost all the top levels and central bodies of the Imperial administration) but she'll do it all as Director of Intelligence...

Still, de facto, she is in charge, and "Empress Ysanne Isard" has a nice ring about it.

It's especially appropriate if you square it with the musings in the previous half of this post...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Thrawn McEwok: I posted a little linguistic spec after Abel's post, just in case you didn't see it. But anyways, that's my smallish theory

 

Kam's gotten the shaft in the EU, IMO. Such an interesting character. My kingdom for Lightsider...

I was pretty young when I first proposed it, and seems to me one of those instances when my ambition exceeded my ability. It had Brakiss as the lead character as he tries to find redemption in a sort of everlasting moment just prior to his death aboard the Shadow Academy. I may revisit the concept in a different form.

There's a few. It all depends on whether or not it's in theme for that issue's Insider. At the same time, my own upcoming Insider projects will often continue to have an accompanying Hyperspace supplement, a la The Story of Grievous.

I update them haphazardly when a cool idea strikes me or when I come across something that throws a serious monkey wrench into the continuity I'd established in the piece. I do a major overhaul when I know for sure it's going to be published.

 

8 Big Mac combos.

That book is one of my favorites, so naturally.

I didn't quite understand this realignment of the origins of the Sith either, but at least for now it is what it is.

Both are referenced in passing.

There's a large focus on one of Kun's followers, Larad Noon.

Nope, didn't intend it, but you see a similar thing happen with many cultures. Taco Bell, anyone?

This almost never proves untrue.

I don't know if it's as bad, but I completely agree that an overinformed writer needs to know when to pull his punches. This is something I learned coming off of my first official piece, The Emperor's Pawns. My writing naturally gravitates toward a claustrophobic quality, but when I go back to Emperor's Pawns, the continuity-to-clarity ration can be downright suffocating.

The absence of the Sorcerers of Tund, Andeddu, and Vongerella, not naming every peripheral figure mentioned (Jax's and Flint's fathers, specific Exiles, the Emperor's physician, etc.), and not retreading the content of Heritage of the Sith was a conscious effort. Quality comes first.

Take care,
Abel

 

Interesting.... do you have any clue for us on the future of Andeddu?

 

There's more on that subject floating around the Net, though it's related more to Qui-Gon rather than the Jensaarai. Can't remember the site, but here's a bit of insight:

The name [Qui-Gon] appears to be derived from the Chinese "qi gong," (chee goong) a phrase which refers to the ancient Chinese art of Chi, or life force, manipulation. This is as much as saying that Master Qui-Gon is by definition a master of the living Force. The meaning of the name "Jinn" is less clear. In Muslim mythology, the Jinn (singular: jinni or genie) are (sometimes malevolent) supernatural beings. "Jinn" (jin) also apparently means "person" or "a man" in Japanese.
George Lucas also may have gotten the name Jinn via a passage in Joseph Campbell's classic work on mythology, The Hero With A Thousand Faces (explored in depth in an article on this site):
(in the "unsuspected Aladdin caves" of our subconscious) not only jewels but dangerous jinn abide: the inconvenient or resisted psychological powers that we have not thought or dared to integrate into our lives.... These are dangerous because they threaten the fabric of security into which we have built ourselves and our family. But they are fiendishly fascinating too, for they carry keys that open the whole realm of the desired and feared adventure of the discovery of the self. Destruction of the world we have built and in which we live, and of ourselves within it; but then a wonderful reconstruction, of the bolder, cleaner, more spacious, and fully human life...

 

There are prolly tons of similar little nods to real language and myth - especially religious langauge when dealing with Jedi and Sith.

For example Star Trek used to use Indian stuff a lot - Jem'hadar (Jemadar - a type of soldier), Ferengi (Firangi - a word for foreigner), etc...

I dunno if their numbers are intentionally decreasing in steps - some might say Kaan's Sith were as numerous as Revans - but I am inclined to believe in cycles/rebirth/balance thing.

 

You raise some interesting thoughts, on all three points... my answer is, I'm not sure!

I'm waiting for Abel's reply before I throw in any comments of my own...

For what it's worth, I think you're being too hard on yourself. The Emperor's Pawns was pretty lucid. Lots of useful backstory stuff, but if you're not looking to crunch out continuity information, it just gives "mood" and mystery...

And I assume you know that Sigit Ranth already has a name?

- The Imperial Ewok

 

[REMOVING REDUNDANT AND ANSWERED QUESTION]

 

I didn't give it too much thought. It's a reference to a cool throwaway quotation from an article on the Anzati from Star Wars Gamer #1: "We remember the very first Sith."

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Nuke.

Soon.

Assuming nothing wonky happens, I'll likely have a couple more Hyperspace features before the year's up.

Oh God... those, those eyes!!

Nihilus also has one of the coolest sounding names ever.

Many thanks, Darth_Krayt!

I don't have anything planned for Nihilus at the moment, but just like you, I'm very intrigued by the character. We'll see.

That's what I'm thinking.

Certainly possible.

 

Well, thanks. I don't think it's bad, I just learned a few things about the balance I like to strike.

So I'd heard.

A bit of trivia: when I wrote the Emperor's Pawns, I'd given the physician a Tuckerized name based on Joe Corroney in an Adventure Seed that was ultimately cut.

Take care,
Abel

 

So King Adas was actually a True Sith? And after many years his race devolved into the primitive Massassi? I hope we're going to get more info about this True Sith characters, maybe in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3? I think they were much more powerfull than the Ludo Kressh Sith?

 

It made me think of "Operation Shadow Hand," the military campaign from Dark Empire 2. Basically, Palpatine established Operation Shadow Hand as a military contingency plan to be carried out in the event of his death. Dark-side Executor Sedriss is the guy who carried it out, so could Sedriss be considered a literal "shadow hand"?

Dan

 

Abel, you are awesome!

 

Yeah, it's been out for a couple of weeks now. Incidentally, I haven't gotten my copy either and haven't been for like the past several issues. I need to send an e-mail off to Insider about that.

 

Another good example.

Exactamundo. You'll notice when they're referred to as Emperor's hands there, the word isn't capitalized. That's the out. More on this further down.

I remember how upset I was when that comic came out since it was right in the middle of me writing The Emperor's Pawns and all of the sudden there are a slew of new hands.

Oh, that. Yeah well, you'll just have to be patient a little longer.

That was my intention.

Probably not. Hand is probably more literal and not a variation on Follower.

More probable, though it might be Sith'jen'ari. I wasn't trying to develop strict rules of word composition. Just gist.

But in saying nothing, haven't I at least implied something, however vague, even if it's in fact... nothing?

 

Well when Jedi die they normally loose their identities and become part of the force, if Sidious died, and wasn't completely prepared, he might have lost some of his identity, and not just become mad, but become an amalgamation of the wobbly mass of dark side spirits, becoming a raw incarnation of the Dark Side, with all it's qualities, as well as all it's flaws.