Naga Sadow-Week4

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.

Eos Holocron
Production information
Creators	Justinian Khyron Star Chamber
Created	15 ABY
Owners	Dark Brotherhood
Gatekeepers	Various Grand Masters of the Dark Brotherhood
Known locations	Dark Hall, Eos Dark Hall, Antei
Physical and technical specifications
Shape	Pyramidal
Color(s)	Black & Gold
Material(s)	Black Adegan Electrum Neuranium
Width	4.5 inches
Height	6 inches
Protection type	8 Gatekeepers
Usage and history
Contents	The secret knowledge of the Grand Masters
Heritage	Star Chamber
Era(s)	Dark Brotherhood Era
Affiliation	Star Chamber
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Usage instructions

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Source

Adapted from the template found at Wookieepedia -> Holocron Infobox

• Removed Wookieepedia-centric coding, altered to work with Brotherhood Wiki scripture
• Template will be called via {{Holocron}} if the Template is to be used permanently by the Brotherhood

The Eos Holocron, sometimes simply called the Black Holocron, was a master holocron created by Justinian Khyron after the Second Great Jedi War. It has contained the knowledge and teachings of each Dark Lord of the Sith to walk the halls of the Star Chamber since his time. Some Brotherhood Historians believe that Grand Master Khyron found a long lost Sith Holocron, possibly the Dark Holocron, and after studying from it he created a palimpsest that he would later use to make the Eos Holocron. This Lost Holocron’s connection to both Dark Lord Naga Sadow and Jedi Master Odan-Urr along with the coincidences, like House Naga Sadow being founded in the same year Khyron took the Iron Throne or Grand Master Muz Ashen allowing the Acolytes of Odan-Urr to live under the shroud of the Brotherhood, are evidence it may have been the Dark Holocron that Khyron obtained. Unlike most holocrons the Eos Holocron has many Gatekeepers. Each Grand Master that has placed his knowledge or teachings into it has become a Gatekeeper for future Grand Masters to learn from. Engraved along the top of the holocron is the phrase “Ipsa scientia potestas est” meaning “Knowledge itself is power” in Aurebesh.

Physical Appearance

"Let all who gaze upon this Holocron remember our creed... and tremble in fear."

―Justinian Khyron

The Eos Holocron was forged from a rare black Adegan crystal matrix, which was unnaturally treated by Sith alchemy and sorcerous powers and forced to grow far beyond its natural limits. It is pyramidal in shape, resembling other Sith holocrons, and is adorned with a solid cap of electrum, with further strands of electrum worked up the sides of the Holocron to act as a golden framework. The design was intentionally chosen by Justinian Khyron to be a subtle reminder of the true owners of the Holocron; the black and gold trim marks the Eos Holocron as a possession of the Grand Masters of the Brotherhood. The Holocron is unnaturally heavy for its size; it weighs substantially more than a normal human being could possibly lift without the aid of the Force. Stars and galaxies swirl across the smooth surface of the black crystal, moving with a perverse life of their own- an outward sign of the power and knowledge contained within. The overall effect gives the impression that the user is staring into a dark mirror of the galaxy, tainted and twisted by the dark knowledge encapsulated within the Holocron.

When it is being used, the Holocron's appearance changes; the stars swirling across the obsidian surface blaze brightly enough to cast a whitish-blue aura around the user. As they continue to access the Holocron, the stars leap out into the aura to surround the user with slowly drifting holographic galaxies, and the secrets of the Holocron are projected before the user's eyes.

Characteristics

Created by a combination of Krath sorcery, Sith alchemy and the technological knowledge of Justinian Khyron, the Holocron divulges information differently than most other Sith holocrons. Each Grand Master to possess the Holocron after Khyron added the distilled essence of their own knowledge to the Holocron, treating it as a repository for the most sensitive and classified information that the Brotherhood holds. As such the Holocron, unusually, contains more than one Gatekeeper- the knowledge of each Grand Master is guarded by an artifical consciousness of that particular Grand Master, who can choose whether to pass on their teachings to the current holder of the Holocron. One of the first tasks that a new Grand Master, upon assuming the role, must undertake is asserting his dominance over the gatekeepers inside the Holocron, in order to access the secret knowledge of those who came before him and better prepare himself for the challenges of becoming Grand Master.

The teachings vary according to the particular interests and ruling style of each Grand Master; current Grand Master Muz Ashen's contribution to the Eos Holocron details ruling through raw power and his own development of his powers to that end, for example, while the teachings passed down by former Grand Master Aristan Dantes focus on the advantages of stealth and secrecy and the benefits of deception.

History

The Black Adegan

"Our names will live forever in the black heart of this new holocron."

―Justinian Arcanious Khyron

Lord Khyron battles the Consul of Clan Ar'kell to recover the crystal

When the Star Chamber first began to convene in secret in 14 ABY, they realised they needed to find a way to preserve their teachings for future generations. The Grand Masters scoured the archives on Eos, in search of the knowledge of how to distil their essence onto a Holocron, for the ancients Rituals of Invocation had been lost to antiquity. This, however, was only the first half of the problem, for the Grand Masters also realised they needed to acquire the necessary components, many of which required elements rarely found in the galaxy anymore, chief of which was the central crystal that would serve as the vessel for their collective knowledge. To this end, when Justinian Khyron left the Iron Throne in 15 ABY, he travelled the galaxy in search of various artifacts and relics that might be used. In a spark of luck, though possibly dark insight, he located what the Sith Lords had been searching for: a rare crystal, one unnaturally forged of black Adegan.

However, the crystal was very nearly lost when the convoy on which the Grand Master was transporting his new collection back to Eos was raided by a group of pirates from Cordona, forcing Khyron to hurry back to the Minos Cluster and rally the clans to recover the crystal from the pirates. It turned out, however, that the black Adegan had already been stolen by Clan Ar’kell, whose defiance of Khyron’s rule had been goaded by Lord Crona, the former Grand Master who Jac Cotelin had exiled from the Brotherhood years earlier. Having heard about the crystal from his spies, the Other had hoped to use it to craft his own holocron. However, the brave warriors of House Ektrosis managed to board the corvette transporting the crystal and delayed it from jumping to hyperspace for long enough to allow Khyron himself to arrive and take back the crystal from the rogue Consul who had tried to steal it.

With the crystal safely back in his hands, Khyron went about completing the holocron that the Star Chamber had long desired to imbue with their combined memory and knowledge. Installing the black Adegan inside an electrum and neuranium shell, in which it would serve as the core matrix, Khyron became the first gatekeeper of the new Eos Holocron and went about recording his understanding of the dark side and the secrets that might one day aid his successor.

A schism of power

"Power cannot be shared; those who try to be equals will always turn on each other. There can only be one Dark Lord!"

―Lord Zoraan, giving his reason for refusing to work with his predecessors

The Eos Holocron was lost when Zoraan unleashed the storm that destroyed the Dark Hall

With the Eos Holocron now complete, the Star Chamber had ensured the survival of their influence, long after their own lives expired, and the Holocron was stored in a chamber deep beneath the Dark Hall on Eos, for which it gained its name. When Khyron stepped down, he passed on the knowledge of the holocron to Thedek, who in turn became its next gatekeeper, and so did the cycle of the Star Chamber’s continued influence continue, as had been the plan. However, after the unexpected departure of Thedek a year later and the subsequent rise of Warlord Zoraan from Clan Tarentum, the Star Chamber’s carefully lain plans began to unravel. Unwilling to listen to the wisdom of his predecessors, Lord Zoraan all but disbanded the Star Chamber and began to horde the lore and ancient knowledge which they had assembled for himself, amongst these being the Eos Holocron. Unlike the Star Chamber, Zoraan looked more to the teachings of Darth Bane, believing that it was impossible for Sith Lords to work together as "equals". As the Grand Master became more and more reclusive, his private experiments and research into the dark side began to twist his mind and turn him insane, resulting in the uprising that led to his death.

With Zoraan’s downfall, not only was the Dark Hall itself destroyed by the Force Storm that led to his own doom, but the location of the Eos Holocron was never passed to his successor. Consequently, when Chi-Long ascended to the Iron Throne to try and repair the damage that had been done by the recent conflict, the Eos Holocron remained lost, having been secreted away by Zoraan for his eyes alone. In the ensuing power vacuum, Chi-Long found himself unable to call on the wisdom of his forerunners for aid, and the influence of the Star Chamber slowly began to ebb away as Grand Admiral Ronin and Clan Alvaak continued to tighten their grip.

The hidden star-charts

"This map is the answer we have been searching for... did Zoraan find this?"

―Firefox, upon discovering the Star-charts on the Eos Holocron

Firefox revealed the Eos Holocron to the Seven to help prevent it being stolen again

For two years, the Eos Holocron remained missing as the former Grand Masters began to lose faith in their Brotherhood’s relationship with the Emperor's Hammer. Even after Lord Firefox took up the mantle of the throne, rumours of the Holocron’s whereabouts continued to abound, with more than one foolhardy smuggler trying to pass off a counterfeit to the new Grand Master. In the end, Firefox was forced to accept there was no more to be found in the ruins of the old Dark Hall and began making plans for the Brotherhood to leave the Minos Cluster for good. His only problem, however, was that he still did not know their destination. While the Oracle had told him of the lost Antei system, neither of them knew where it was to be found.

It was in a strange stroke of luck that the answer would come when the Brotherhood found under attack from assassins that had been hired from the Bounty Hunter’s Guild. Following the interrogation of one of the denizens of the criminal underworld, the Dark Council learned the Dark Hall had been plundered in the aftermath of the Zoraan Uprising by thieves that had been hired by none other than the sire of Krenn Alvaak himself: Stephan Ronin. If Firefox had not already been convinced their alliance with the Imperial Warlord needed to end, he was now. With the clans still being targeted by assassins, Firefox used the disorder as a cover during which he sent his own agents to Aurora and had the Eos Holocron forcefully recovered from the headquarters of Clan Alvaak.

With the Holocron back in its rightful lord’s hands, Firefox realised that the Star Chamber, as it had previously been constituted, had been too blind by placing their trust only in each other. As Lords Crona and Zoraan had both proven, even a Grand Master could be corrupted by their own greed. As such, Firefox shared the existence of the Eos Holocron with Seven|the Seven]], confident that they were just as, if not more, trustworthy than some of his predecessors. It was then that the unexpected happened: hidden in the Holocron’s crystal matrix, the Grand Master and his shadow council discovered a star-chart; one containing the location of Antei. With Lords Khyron and Thedek presently beyond the reach of the Brotherhood’s contacts, it remained unclear whether they or Zoraan had discovered and added the map to the Holocron, but its origin was of little consequence. Firefox and his peers finally had what they had been searching for and preparations for the Exodus moved into full gear.

Myths can be powerful

File:Okemihead.jpg

Okemi, the original vector of the plague that made Jac Cotelin reveal the Eos Holocron's existence

"Behold! There shall be no more secrets! All shall know the true power of the Dark Side!"

―Jac Cotelin, driven mad by the consciousness

Following the Exodus, the Eos Holocron found a new home in the new Dark Hall on Antei, in what had been the temple of an ancient king. Firefox and the Seven continued to study the Holocron, trying to learn which Grand Master had stored the star-charts on the Black Adegan, but despite their best efforts to invoke the answer, the Holocron’s gatekeepers refused to answer. Nevertheless, two years passed and the Brotherhood flourished, with the Clans securing their own star systems, while the Dark Council began to excavate the lost secrets buried under Antei’s surface. But in 21 ABY, when a team of Krath archaeologists unearthed the ruins of the original Star Chamber, a plague swept through the planet, and the Brotherhood was drawn into war as the ghosts that had driven Antei’s old king mad began to do the same to the Jac Cotelin and others. Half-insane, the Deputy Grand Master revealed the existence of the Eos Holocron to those others on Antei who had been touched by the ancient corruption. In the end, Lord Firefox destroyed Okemi’s body and ended the plague, but the events forced the Grand Master to reassess the role of the Eos Holocron once more, now that its existence was public knowledge. As such, Firefox transferred the Holocron from its vault beneath the Dark Hall to the ancient Star Chamber complex, which none now dared to walk for fear that the ruins might still be haunted. However, while the Eos Holocron’s existence may have been exposed to the Brotherhood at large, Cotelin convinced Firefox that this could in fact work to their advantage, for where the Holocron had previously been nothing but a secret known only by a select few, it could instead now grow into a legend, whose true nature would remain unknown to all but the Grand Masters. As a result, the Star Chamber were able to paint exactly the picture they wanted, spreading rumours about the extent of the Holocron’s knowledge themselves, thereby instilling even more fear about the extent of the powers wielded by the Grand Masters.

Omancor Crask during the Reclamation of Antei.

Lost On Antei

"Sound the retreat. Initiate the Baraata Option."

―Darth Sarin during the Battle for Antei.

Despite the precautions taken by Darth Firefox to ensure that the knowledge contained within the Holocron would not be lost in future, the onset of the Yuuzhan Vong War saw the Holocron snatched from the Brotherhood's grip once again. During the hurried retreat from Antei following Operation Second Darkness and the Yuuzhan Vong Incursion, there was no time for Darth Sarin to recover the Holocron from the vault beneath the Dark Hall in which it rested, and it remained there- locked away, hidden and inaccessible to anyone but members of the Star Chamber. During the Brotherhood's long exile from Antei, the Holocron was largely forgotten by Darth Sarin and the other Grand Masters who had congregated to formulate a battle-plan for the Reclamation of Antei; their focus lay on the more immediate problem of regaining their planet from the alien invaders and erasing the stink of their failure. For their part, the Yuuzhan Vong had little interest in recovering the Holocron; their lack of Force-sensitivity made it useless to them, and during their occupation of Antei they neither knew of the Holocron's existence nor mounted any search for it.

However, the Holocron would soon be targeted by a foe more suited to make use of it. Unbeknownst to the Brotherhood, the Epicanthix Jedi Master Omancor Crask had claimed Antei and fortified it with his army of droids after a biological weapon decimated the Yuuzhan Vong forces. Crask took up residence in the Dark Hall, claiming the Iron Throne as his own. The Jedi Master, due to his former role as a Sith Lord by the name of Darth Carnus, could sense the presence of the Holocron beneath him and devoted much of his time to locating and securing the artifact, but he was unsuccessful; the wards and sanctions placed on the Holocron by the Grand Masters of old were sufficient to keep it hidden from Crask's greed, and the entrance to the Holocron's vault was well-hidden enough to confound Crask's attempts at locating it. Crask's search for the Holocron was interrupted by the return of the Dark Brotherhood, who made planetfall on Antei and began the fight to take back their home. The Holocron forgotten, Crask concentrated his efforts on winning the battle against the Dark Brotherhood.

Rediscovery and Revelations

Muz rediscovers the Eos Holocron beneath the Dark Hall on Antei.

"Worthy of my name? Yes. But you have not yet learnt the true power of the Dark Side, Sithling."

―The Gatekeeper of Naga Sadow, to Darth Ashen

The damage sustained by the temples and great halls of the Brotherhood during the reclamation of Antei was substantial, and following the conclusion of the conflict and the ascension of Muz Ashen to the position of Grand Master with the death of Darth Sarin, a programme of rebuilding was high on the agenda. The Dark Hall itself had taken heavy damage during the fighting, and when the full extent of the damage was surveyed, the workers discovered a sub-chamber beneath the main hall which had been revealed by the explosions from an orbital bombardment. A featureless block of black stone stood at one end of the chamber like an altar, radiating cold and a palpable sense of malice. Upon it stood the Eos Holocron, somehow locked into the stone. Darth Ashen, as the reigning Grand Master of the Brotherhood, was able to free the Holocron from the obsidian monolith and began to study it- the secrecy surrounding the Holocron had hidden it from the most confidential records of the Brotherhood, forcing Darth Ashen to re-discover the knowledge and information catalogued within the Holocron.

During the course of his study Muz, raised and honoured as a Son of Sadow, discovered something new and surprising about the Holocron- it was in fact a palimpsest, a new Holocron created from the remains and basic structure of a pre-existing Holocron from which much of the information had been removed. The Black Adegan had been used for a much earlier holocron created by one of the Sith Lords of the Golden Age of the Sith, a fact that Darth Ashen confirmed after the articial consciousness of Naga Sadow appeared to him as another gatekeeper, recognising his Sadowan lineage even as it belittled his command of the Dark Side. This discovery makes the Holocron into an even more important part of the collected knowledge of the Brotherhood; it contains not only the teachings of many of our most celebrated Grand Masters, but also the fractured and incomplete knowledge of Sith Lords from an age long gone. Prior to the current conflict, Darth Ashen has been working with some of the most distinguished and knowledgeable scholars from the Krath order, trying to rediscover all of the secrets buried within the Holocron and to discern how those secrets might be turned to the advantage of the Brotherhood. Many of their findings are detailed below, although it is indisputable that there are greater depths to the Holocron which have yet to be uncovered.

Contents

The gatekeepers appear after the Eos Holocron is activated by Grand Master Jac Cotelin

As the lords of the Star Chamber found, the creation of a holocron is a difficult process, not least because of the rare resources required in their construction. When Lord Khyron created the Eos Holocron, his sole aim was to build a repository for the knowledge of him and his future successors. At the time, he had no further interest in the Black Adegan other than the fact it was a suitable matrix for the holocron he and his fellow Grand Masters had long been trying to build. While Lord Firefox came close to discovering the truth when he unearthed the Star Map in the Holocron’s memory core, it was not until Darth Ashen awoke the fragmented recordings from Naga Sadow that the full story of the Black Adegan became clear. Ashen realised that the crystal had, in fact, served as the core of a holocron once before, long before it had been reused by Khyron to construct the Eos Holocron. In essence, Khyron had created a palimpsest, on which he and the Grand Masters had “recorded over” the earlier recordings of Sadow, and likely his contemporaries. While the reverse engineering of holocrons has been rare, it has not been without precedent, and Ashen has entrusted his most closest scholars to try and reconstruct the lost recordings.

Contributions by the Grand Masters

While the contents of the Eos Holocron remain closely guarded, even after the Holocron's existence was made public during the events of the Sixth Great Jedi War, it is known that some of the gatekeepers' recordings have been leaked to the wider Brotherhood. Officially, the leaks have always been put down to the Brotherhood's enemies, such as Jac Cotelin's clone being blamed for some of the earliest leaks, or more recently Michael Halcyon of leaking the recordings made by Darth Sarin and Darth Ashen. However, many believe that these explanations are in fact misdirections, and that the Star Chamber themselves are responsible, with the recordings have been deliberately leaked to remind people who the true masters of the Dark Brotherhood are.

Darth Sarin

Justinian Khyron

"Words words words"

— Justinian Arcanious Khyron

Jac Cotelin

"Words words words" — Jac Cotelin

Firefox

"Words words words"

— Firefox

Darth Sarin

"Words words words"

— Darth Sarin

Darth Ashen

Darth Ashen

"A warrior-sage on my homeworld once summed up the philosophy of true power in a few words relating to armed combat; 'The true Way of victory is the craft of defeating the enemy in a fight, and nothing other than this. Whatever weapons, whatever techniques you must use to achieve that goal are justified under the Way.' His words ring true for followers of our creed; to rise to prominence, you must make use of every weapon at your disposal to crush and destroy your enemies. Demoralize their spirits, destroy their will to fight and crush them into the depths, whether by blade, by the Force or by political machinations. Only then can you claim true victory and know that your failure will not come back to haunt you. Present a fearsome face to the world and you will halt many conflicts before they begin; potential enemies will reconsider an attack if they can see the full scale of the repercussions that you will levy against them. You must always cultivate strength in yourself to force obedience in others- signs of weakness will encourage the treacherous, and failing to retain tight control will empower them. In strategy, your spiritual bearing must not be any different from normal- remain calm, and wield your hatred and fury like a blade to cut through your enemies."

— Muz Ashen, On Power

Naga Sadow

Nothing too specific... just like the sort of fuzzy images you used to get when you recorded over a VHS tape too many times?

"Words words words"

— Naga Sadow

Trivia

• Created by Clan Naga Sadow for the Week Four event of the Tenth Great Jedi War