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"Why do we serve it?" A Manuscript from the Temple


Xar

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The following text is transcribed from the holorecording of a madman found in the insane asylum on Empress Tet. While the man’s claims are dubious at best, including that of being a member of House Ahalya, it seems a third party has been distributing this recording over and over across the galaxy. Great care should be taken when dealing with those who somehow acquired the recordings. 

 

“Why do we serve it? That has been my question ever since I arrived here in this untouchable void. While my reasons for finding it and studying it are easy to understand, the question of why I serve it continues to haunt my thoughts, and only my dreams have provided answers to this damnable question. 

 

Ever since my apparent death on Nar Shaddaa when the Sith attacked, I rededicated myself to the pursuit of knowledge instead of conflict. It was why I went into hiding after Nar Shaddaa. The house and the Jedi had become too encased in the battles against the Sith, and I needed space from the fighting. I had not become a Knight to deal death, no matter how justified and necessary it was. I became a Knight for Knowledge and Defense against the Darkness. And in my susceptible state, I gave into the belief that I needed to go into hiding.  

 

It was during this time I began to hear whispers of some unimaginable knowledge, found only in the void between the stars. My training instantly taught me to suspect the Dark Side at work, but the whispers could not be ignored. .The promise of untold knowledge lured my interests more than my concerns, and in that, I began to dig around the galaxy for more information. 

This ‘Temple’ as the spacefarers had called it, was an elusive target, but eventually my investigations bore fruit. On Mon Cal, I was approached by a man who named me a ‘fellow disciple’ and said that my efforts had attracted his attention. He led me to the place known as the Temple, and introduced me to the cult that worshiped the entity known as the Spider.

 

My first footsteps gave me enough indication that something malevolent was at work, but my thirst for knowledge overcame my fears. Slowly, but surely, I went through the trials they set before me. I studied the scriptures they presented me, and made my own notes about their contrary teachings. I meditated in their chambers that held no air and no light. And I subjected myself to the visions.  

 

The visions were confusing at first, but enlightening as time went on. Visions of a thing gazing down over the galaxy, pulling at threads of fate like a professional Dejarik player.  Visions of flesh sprouting from walls, wires coiling around my feet, and eyes staring from the darkness. Remains of Knights, lost to the eons of time, squirming as their very marrow sampled upon by the miniscule creatures. Nerfs being fed, only to have their stomachs pumped out in grotesque fashion. Rancors fleeing womp rats, and dragons swimming amongst the nebulae. And though these visions weakened me, they did not break me.

 

The other Disciples I spoke with were not what I expected. Where I expected fools and half-sane simpletons, I found scholars who desired to push the boundaries of knowledge. I was in a circle of not only my peers, but my superiors as well. Musicians, scientists, engineers, and even xenobiologists walked the halls of the Temple. And while I only spoke with them occasionally, what little i gleaned proved enlightening and further enticing. 

 

The leader of the whole organization was a suave, sophisticated man of higher science and lore, and his talks about the boundaries of the Force intrigued me further and further. My first several meetings with him I cannot remember, for in his mastery of the Madness, he has learned to erase even the best of memories. But eventually, I gained his trust, and he allowed me to remember. The greatest of cult leaders do not measure up to his charisma, and the scientists of kamino do not fully understand his intellect. 

 

Of course, my fear of the Dark side prevented me from going all the way at first, but I came to understand the nature of the universe in the Temple soon enough. Ideas like the pointless dichotomy of the Force were given up in exchange for higher truths. It was here, when I was finally broken out of the lies that I had been taught. It was here when I finally unlearned what I had learned. I had become a true disciple, and my name had changed to Disciple Cralaus. Disciple of the Crawling Chaos. 

 

I learned how the Force was not a benevolent being like my house foolishly believes. The Force is not caring, but insidious beyond measure. Like Ants farming aphids, so does the Force farm us: We breed, grow, expand, die and repeat. We are born of it, and will return to it. With each birth, we give it hope. With time, we pupate and grow, becoming a more nourishing meal.  With each death, we give it sustenance.  There is no light and dark, only those that believe such illusions exist to justify destruction. And with destruction, it feeds on what is lost, and then breeds more life, so that its food source does not dry up. 

 

This is what I believe to be the Force. And in time, I began to view the Force as the Spider, the thing the Temple both worships and despises.  We know the true darkness that haunts the universe. We know the Madness we draw from it, and in turn, learn of it.

 

But why do we worship that which harvests us like nerfs at slaughter? 

 

The answer, my friends, is to know how to defeat it.

 

The Spider creates destruction. It feeds the galaxy lies to keep it from fully unifying. It is the cosmic thing that fears order and justice, much like how a predator fears a band of coordinated hunters. It gives the gifted few powers beyond reason not to help fly under one banner, but to create numerous banners for the galaxy to fight over. It sows chaos with each life form it breeds, and it feeds on each life the chaos destroys. 

 

We are chained to this great hideousness. But if we hope to break free from it, we must be under one banner. The sith, for all their draws towards chaos, understand the nature of breaking free from chains and slavery. But they lack stability and now, after Nar Shaddaa, they lack cohesion and strength. However, the Jedi are no better. For though they have the stability to unity the galaxy, and the backings of the governments, they are incapable of seeing themselves separate from the whole. Only madmen can see what must be seen. 

 

The Spider has both Sith and Jedi in its web; The  Sith cannot fight it, and the Jedi cannot see it. 

 

So that is why we, the Temple, worship the Spider. We will come to know it better, and in time, discern a weakness to break it. And should that weakness take the form of eliminating all life, or by several all life from the Force, then we shall do it. If madness must be made flesh to study the Spider better, then we shall do it. If we must break a thousand minds to manifest its tendrils, then we shall do so. We shall save the galaxy from what the galaxy cannot perceive. 
 

Edited by Xar
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