Naga Sadow-Week3

I see the contestants are making their way out onto the starting grid. This article was originally created as an entry for a Tenth Great Jedi War competition and is not official DJB canon content. It is preserved here for historical purposes only.

Crozier of the Shaman Elders
Artifact Information
Name:	Crozier of the Shaman Elders
Material:	Petrified wood
Length:	5"
Width:	2'
Constructed:	Unknown, estimated at Pre-Harakoan
Ownership
Creator:	Early Harakoid shaman
Current Location:	Honunom Desert, Owyhyee
[Source]

The Crozier of the Shaman Elders was an artifact unearthed on New Tython when disturbances in the Force during the recent war resulted in severe atmospheric anomalies that alerted the feuding Jedi and Dark Jedi warriors to its existence. The symbolic staff was originally created thousands of years ago by the native population as a sign of office for their religious leaders that was principally carried during their seasonal harvest rituals. Through its continued use, over the centuries the crozier slowly picked up residual traces of Force energy from the more Force-sensitive of the early shamans of the Harakoid tribes, and it eventually became imbued with the very power of the elements that the natives had long believed it had held.

Unfortunately, the frequent conflict between the Harakoid tribes led to the crozier being greatly coveted, for the tribe who controlled the weather would always be guaranteed to flourish, whilst the other tribes struggled during natural disasters such as plague and famine. The knowledge of how to use the crozier was lost when the Harakoan elders who guarded its secrets were killed by younger tribesmen who longed to wield its power for their own tribes. Finding themselves unable to control its power, with the crozier only causing violent storms and fierce gales in their hands, the young pretenders cast the staff aside and it was forgotten.

Description

Physical Appearance

The crozier looks like a long, crooked, wooden staff. It is pockmarked with tiny blue gems, which shimmer when it is used. The wood itself is worn from year after year of use. Strangely, it is only chipped in a few places, indicating that it is made with a strong material.

Function

The crozier has a limited ability to control the weather. When the Force is channeled into it in the correct way, it can cause fluctuations in the local weather system. It was always used by the Harakoids to generate beneficial weather, such as rain during a dry time. Thus when a Force Sensitive touches it, they feel a peaceful warmth emanating from it. However, while the light side may yield positive results, the Jedi feared for what would happen should a darksider get their hands on the artifact and abuse it.

History

One of the earliest shamans to use the crozier.

Creation

Originally simply a sacred staff used by the ancient Harakoids, the predecessors of the modern Harakoans, in rituals to summon rain to feed their tribes' crops, continued use by Force-Sensitive shamans gradually gave the crozier its weather-affecting properties. After over a hundred years of use, it reached its full potency. The crystals were added near this point by a particularly adept shaman. They were carefully inlaid in the wood via the Force, and continued use gradually led to their glimmering whenever the crozier was used for its purpose.

Original Use

The crozier was originally used to summon rain in times of drought. Its first users had no idea of its potential. It began life as a simple wooden staff. After bringing rain three years in a row, the tribe that possessed it began to worship its abilities, and in times of need it was brought out and the chief tribal shaman would preform a ritual that heavily involved the crozier. Almost every single time, rain came each year and the staff was used more and more. As each shaman that used it labored tirelessly day and night to bring their people rain, the staff began to absorb their goodwill and Force residue, gaining its power. It was handed down from shaman to shaman until at last it gained its full power, bringing rain without fail. Shamans who used it spoke of being able to "feel" the weather around them.

At this time, it developed a following. This following developed into a primitive religion surrounding and worshipping the crozier. Only the most powerful shamans were allowed to use it, greatly amplifying its power.

Loss of knowledge and Abandonment

After a few hundred years of the crozier's use, the shamans began to forget their Force abilities, some believing this to be due to the natives increasing Sonance with the native wildlife, others believing the blame lies at the hand of rival tribes who coveted the crozier and slew the elder shamans before first learning how to handle the artifact. Whatever the true reason, in time the crozier was shunned as the Harakoids consequently found it failed to work repeatedly. This was not because the artifact itself had lost any power, but because shamans who were no longer Force-sensitive now attempted to use it. However, the crozier still had a few dedicated followers and these followers sealed the crozier in a remote cave, hoping one day to find another shaman who could use it, but that day never came.

The cave where the abandoned crozier was rediscovered.

Rediscovery

After the Knights of Odan-Urr arrived at New Tython, they heard rumors of the crozier. These rumors were mere stories handed down by the Harakoan population through oral tradition, and the Knights dismissed them as such, nevertheless recording them along with any other stories they heard. As the Jedi began to accept redeemed Dark Jedi into their ranks, including spies, the massive influx of Force presence caused the artifact to stir, causing unnatural snowstorms in the Honunom Desert on New Tython's largest continent of Owyhyee. The Jedi noticed these, and sent a team to investigate. They discovered the artifact deep in a cave there. Deciding it was best not to bring it back to civilization, they briefly studied it, most of what they learned coming from the primitive depictions that had been carved into the stone walls, but they were soon summoned away as tensions began to mount between the Knights of Odan-Urr and the Dark Brotherhood.

Rediscovery by Dark Jedi during invasion of New Tython

During the Invasion of New Tython, Dark Jedi of the Dark Brotherhood sensed the presence of the artifact and a team was dispatched to retrieve it, hoping to curry favor with the Dark Council. It was found, and after a short battle secured by the Dark Jedi, but they were ordered not to bring it back to the ships waiting above. Instead, a camp was established within its cavern and the Dark Jedi began to study it, wondering how they could use its powers for the dark side.

Modern Knowledge

Below is a summary of what the modern Jedi and Dark Jedi have discovered of the artifact. Since it was lost hundreds of years ago and only recently rediscovered, all that is known about it is taken from the Harakoan's oral tradition and what little time the Jedi and Dark Jedi have spent studying it.

Using the crozier for a ritual.

Known Attributes

It is known that the artifact has something to do with the weather. It is most likely designed to control the weather in some way. Whether it is to pacify the weather around it or create new weather is unknown. The gems inlaid in its shaft seem to glimmer at random. It is unknown if they have any specific purpose.

The Journal of Master Balbuda

Our recent expedition to the Honunom Desert was more successful than I could have hoped. Reports of snowstorms in the middle of the desert from travelling Harakoans suggested that some kind of Force artifact was affecting the local climate, but to actually discover that artifact... I only wish our team could have spent more time in that cave with the staff.

Alas, I am getting ahead of myself. To begin: in a cave partially submerged by unnatural snow we located a strange crozier, seemingly carved out of wood, but as hard as stone and studded with thousands upon thousands of miniscule blue gems. Upon entering the chamber in which it stood, I could sense the build-up of Force energy around it, and discerned that the staff was causing the atmospheric changes which had produced snow outside.

We do not yet know exactly how the staff works- it seems to be a native Harakoan artifact which has slowly gained the potential to focus the Force over time- but it seems to respond favourably to our particular talents. With careful application of the Force, we were able to stop the snowstorm and replace the clouded skies above with bright sunshine, as they should be. However, this did not provide a great challenge- it seems likely from the cave paintings scattered around the walls of the chamber that the staff can control and manipulate the weather to produce anything from rain to great winds, but we could not find out (in our short time there) how to create rain with the staff.

If, once these tensions with the off-worlders have eased, we can retrieve the staff and study it in greater depth, think of the potential benefits; we could ensure prosperity for the Harakoan farms all year round with the correct application of sunshine and rain to grow their crops. We could also use the staff to prevent any potential natural disasters that might strike the planet and better safeguard the people from harm.

I am getting excited just writing and thinking about the potential of this artifact... I only hope it will still be there once the current troubles are over.

Balbuda.

Sadowan Field Report

--BEGIN RECORDING--

My lords. We have been studying this staff for several days now, with little progress. It seems almost without doubt that the staff affects the weather in some way- the cave in which it was discovered was surrounded by an almost perpetual snowstorm, which seems to have abated now that we have removed and begun studying the artifact. In addition, the cave paintings which we discovered along with the artifact show clear signs of humanoid figures gathered together for some kind of ritual using the staff, with signs of weather phenomena over their heads. Without more prolonged study and my usual equipment, I cannot form a conclusive theory on how to make use of this device- in the field, I can offer only mere suppositions on how it should be operated.

Without doubt, the staff responds to the Force. We have experimented by funnelling our powers into it, and the sensors outside the cave have picked up wild fluctuations in the local climate in response. On one occasion, my Apprentice got a little too excited and pushed too much energy into the staff- the response was a sudden and very loud thunderstorm, complete with lightning bolts which almost incinerated several of the workers.

Think, my lords, of the potential uses of this weapon. If we can discern how to control it accurately, it could be used to bring devastating thunderstorms down on enemy forces before engage them, or to summon dreadful hurricanes to destroy them without any artillery expenditure. The elemental might of nature, while clearly not as powerful as the Dark Side, gives us an excellent weapon to turn against the Jedi.

I wish to counsel further study in a controlled environment, preferably back on Sepros, before the staff is used in this way- if we do not master every aspect of this device before utilising it, it could work against us.

I will report again in a few days, my lords.

--END RECORDING--

Trivia

The Crozier was created by Clan Naga Sadow for the Week 3 Wikipedia Event in the Tenth Great Jedi War