The Eos Holocron, also referred to as the Black Holocron, was a holocron created by Justinian Khyron in 15 ABY after the recovery of a suitable crystal to serve as its core matrix in the Second Great Jedi War. It has contained the knowledge and teachings of each Grand Master to walk the halls of the Star Chamber since his time, who continue to serve as the device's protective gatekeepers. While its existence was originally known only to Khyron's successors, the Eos Holocron was unintentionally revealed to the Dark Brotherhood during the plague of 21 ABY; however, since that time, the Star Chamber have used the knowledge of the Eos Holocron's existence to instil fear by deliberately leaking certain recordings in order to remind the Clans who the true lords of the Brotherhood are.
While originally intended only to house the collective knowledge of the Grand Masters, following Lord Firefox's discovery of star-charts hidden deep within the Holocron's matrix, questions arose as to whether the Holocron had unknowingly been handled by others during the time it was misplaced during Zoraan's reign. More recently, however, Darth Ashen has discovered that the Black Adegan crystal on which Khyron constructed the Black Holocron may in fact have been previously used as part of an earlier device, possibly one used by the Dark Lords of the ancient Sith Empire, suggesting the new Holocron is in fact a palimpsest. Research continues by scholars Ashen has deemed trustworthy into reconstructing the recordings that may still be buried deep in the crystal's matrix.
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. Engraved along the electrum cap of the holocron in Aurebesh is the High Galactic phrase “Ipsa scientia potestas est” meaning “Knowledge itself is power” in Basic.
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, due to the neuranium used in its construction. 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 Eos Holocron exudes a palpable aura of darkness to those trained in the Dark Side, due to the intensity of the dark forces used during its creation. It is kept shielded and hidden from regular members of the Brotherhood, and is accessible only by the Grand Masters due to the corruption that this aura exudes; only the Grand Masters are strong enough in the Dark Side to handle the Holocron safely for extended periods.
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 artificial consciousness of that particular Grand Master, who can choose whether to pass on their teachings to the current holder of the Holocron. In some cases, the gatekeepers have even been known to attack unwelcome trespassers, lashing out with the dark side of the Force as if the Holocron was in fact possessed by the true essence of its creators. 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 more 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 purportedly hoped to use it to craft his own holocron in an attempt to rebuild his own influence. 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 rare Adegan crystal inside an electrum and neuranium shell, in which it would serve as the core matrix, Khyron became the first gatekeeper of the new Black 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 play at being equals will always turn on each other."
- ―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 Black 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 more commonly used 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 their 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 ancient lore and knowledge which they had assembled for himself, including 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, hiding in his chambers and drinking deeply of the secrets of the Holocron, 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, however, 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 Holocron remained lost beneath the rubble of the Dark Hall, having been secreted away by Zoraan to an unknown chamber where it would be seen by his eyes alone. As such, 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, while at the same time Grand Admiral Ronin and Clan Alvaak continued to tighten their grip. Nonetheless, rumours and hear-say abounded of the Holocron, and Chi-Long devoted much of his reign to trying to locate it in order to regain the wisdom and power of the Star Chamber.
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 againFor 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 itself 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 scion 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 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
The Tomb of Okemi, where Firefox relocated the Eos Holocron
- "Behold! There shall be no more secrets! All shall know the true power of the Dark Side!"
- ―Jac Cotelin, driven mad by the consciousness, reveals the Eos Holocron to the Brotherhood
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, while Lord Firefox destroyed Okemi’s body and ended the plague, 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, its true nature remaining 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 powers wielded by the Grand Masters.
Abandoned on Antei
- "Sound the retreat. Initiate the Baraata Option."
- ―Darth Sarin during the Battle for Antei.
Omancor Crask during the Reclamation of Antei.
Despite the precautions taken by Lord 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 tomb beneath the ancient Star Chamber 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 chamber 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 rediscovered the old ruins 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, right where it had been left by Lord Sarin years earlier. 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 on New Tython, 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 other 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.
Leaked recordings
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.
Justinian Khyron
"As I laid the last traceries of the Dark Side over the Black Adegan, speaking the final incantation to seal it shut from unwarranted interference and creating the mighty Black Holocron, I felt as though a great weight had been lifted from my heart. The Holocron stood before me, magnificent, resplendent in the Dark Side- a repository for all of my knowledge, kept locked away so that the Grand Masters of the Brotherhood might continue to grow in power and strength as they drink deep of the knowledge of their predecessors and add their own deliberations on the Force to it. In ages yet to come, the Dark Lords of the Brotherhood will hear my voice and know my teachings; their reach shall extend beyond the stars and into the dark heart of the universe. It shall last through the rise and fall of empires and Grand Masters, accumulating and distributing power and wisdom, that a new Golden Age of the Sith might rest over the galaxy!"
— Justinian Arcanious Khyron, The Black Holocron
Jac Cotelin
Jac Cotelin
"In my second term as Grand Master, the Brotherhood suffered one of the more unusual conflicts of its long and illustrious history. The clone that rose against me and brought the Clans under his wing, igniting a civil war in the heart of my Brotherhood, confirmed one thing for me. The Clans wish to think that they are independent; that they might pursue their own goals and desires without the direction and influence of the Star Chamber, that the Star Chamber is merely a relic of a bygone age and has no effect on the day-to-day operation of the Brotherhood. How wrong they are. The Star Chamber orchestrates every action that the Clans make. We guide them, sometimes lovingly and sometimes forcefully, through the motions- towards greater power and the triumph of the Dark Side over the weak-minded fools of this galaxy. Do they honestly believe that the collected power and knowledge of the Grand Masters, beings steeped in the darkest mysteries of the Force, beings to whom the universe is a mere playground... do they believe that we could not accurately predict the course of their decisions? Through the civil war, we turned the Clans against each other to wear them down, to keep them battered enough that they could not challenge the supremacy of the Star Chamber, but could still defend their own space. In the end- the Star Chamber prevailed."
— Jac Cotelin, The Star Chamber
Firefox
"We Sith are not sociable creatures, fundamentally. We find it inordinately hard to trust others, and assume that it is a sign of weakness which will be pounced upon by our enemies. While I do not dispute that misplaced trust has often been the downfall of many powerful beings, allowing others to work with you can often lead to greater power for all involved. During the Exodus and the assembly of the Seven, I placed my trust in six other beings steeped in the Dark Side. All could have refused to work with me, or agreed but then stabbed me in the back amidst the confusion of our departure from the Emperor's Hammer. All could have betrayed me to Ronin for greater power for themselves. None did. They saw the long-term ramifications of the Exodus, and each man accepted that it would lead to greater power and independence for him in the future. We co-operated, and through our efforts freed the Brotherhood and ourselves from tyranny into a new age of darkness. To that end, I do not believe that our Brotherhood goes against the natural desire of the Sith to work alone and for their own goals; we all follow our own agenda, only collaborating when it is of great importance to us all. The Clans pursue their own paths to power and the Dark Jedi within those Clans have their own feuds, grudges and vendettas. We are free from outside interference through our collected power and might; free to squabble and backstab and attack each other, as the Sith always have- and always will."
— Firefox, Solidarity of the Sith
Darth Sarin
Darth Sarin
"Some would argue that displaying your power means that you are insulated against threats. There is a belief that you need to posture and show others that you are a force to be reckoned with. This is not so. If you posture, you may unknowingly expose a weakness which others can then exploit. It is better by far to cloak youself in secrecy. Hiding your abilities, your plans, your motives, means that the only person who can then judge your capabilities accurately is you. The way of the Sith is rife with treachery, as we know. Keeping your own secrets is key to ensuring your survival. The longevity or lack thereof of previous occupants of the Iron Throne will show you the wisdom of these words. If you are alive, you can always strike back. You can always rebuild. Do not be afraid to retreat. Sometimes, in stealth lies the ultimate victory of the Dark Side."
— Darth Sarin, Behind The Shadows
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
Damaged recording of one of the Black Adegan's original gatekeepers
Damaged recording
"The loya- krssh of - krssh -vants is -krrrsssssh -portance. Men -krssh -ight and d- krssh- comm- krssh and do so krrrssh, screaming thy - krrrrssssh - burn, are val- krssh- their es- krrrsh - in the Dark Side -krrrsssh -lack flame. Sacr- krssh- krssh -lingly, kno- krrrsssh- own pow- krssh increas- krrrssh- the death of krrrrsssh, every fanat- krssh Th- krrsssh -stiny of th- krssh -th Empire is conq- krrrsssshhhhhzzt"
[Recording damaged]
— Unknown, believed to be Naga Sadow
Trivia