Ptolemaeus:
Knowledge of All Things Bound: Rolled 1d20+44 : 1 + 44, total 45
Besides being the lowest you could go, it’s a fair to middling roll, not a 50 but enough to get at least some good info about the broad picture. No inner, deep secrets, though.
And the d100: Rolled 1d100 : 80, total 80. +2 from Janis makes 82.
A very good roll! So the broad picture is pretty complete, no 00, but still a lot of info.
Sable:
Knowledge, Local: Rolled 1d20+31 : 8 + 31, total 39
Also a middling roll, some info but no deep details about this particular situation.
And the d100: Rolled 1d100+2 : 75 + 2, total 77
Just about the same as Ptolemaeus; Sable’s broad picture is quite complete, but the innermost secrets, no.
Ptolemaeus and Sable see the attack on group2 in gory detail on the Link through Sheerak2’s ring-side seat, and both have a glimmer of recognition about the Lightswordsman. Comparing recollections, they find they have similar background inforomation; Ptolemaeus’ is more exact, since he recalls specific
conversations with individuals, histories that he read, and files from the Guardians Archives, while for Sable… whoever this really is just walked out of a Story.
As they quickly exchange information they remember more and more…
For some, the Story is long, long ago and far, far away.
For others, it’s last week’s news, and they are cleaning up the aftermath. Personally.
For Ptolemaeus, while having dinner at Milliways, *everything* is long, long ago and far, far, away except dinner.
So all Stories are equally inaccessible, or accessible... and this Story is well known in Meridian City; almost everyone has heard at least something about it.
The Order of the Sith Lords, also known as Bane's Sith Order, Banite Sith, or simply Sith, was an ancient organization of Force practitioners skilled in the ways of the Sith and the power of the Dark side. The Sith Lord Darth Bane engineered the destruction of the Brotherhood of Darkness in order to institute a rebirth of the Sith.
The Force was a metaphysical, binding, and ubiquitous power that held enormous importance for both the Jedi and Sith monastic orders. Known as the Way in even older times, the Force was viewed in many different aspects: the Light side, the Dark side, the Unifying Force, and the Living Force.
The first two aspects were concerned with the moral compass of the Force, as manifested by the conduct and emotions of living creatures who were themselves part of the fabric of the Force. The Light side of the Force was the facet aligned with compassion, selflessness, self-knowledge and enlightenment, healing, mercy and benevolence, while the Dark side of the Force was the element aligned with hatred, fear, covetousness, anger, aggression, jealousy and malevolence.
The latter two aspects were defined by prominent Jedi philosophies: The Unifying Force essentially embraced space and Time in its entirety while the Living Force dealt with the energy of living things. Though the Force was categorized in this way, there were no specific abilities or powers that were only usable by a follower of a different path of the Force; the Force partially existed inside the life forms that used it, and drew energy from their emotions.
Some beings, particularly the Sith, believed that the dark side of the Force was more powerful than the light, though it was possible that the dark side was just more tempting to those who used it (or desired to use it). Others thought of the Force as an entity capable of intelligent thought, almost as a sort of deity. Anakin Skywalker, who was believed to have been conceived by the Force itself, may have shared this belief; if this was indeed the case, it would add credence towards the view of the Force as a sentient entity.
Though the Force was thought to flow through every living thing, its power could only be harnessed by beings described as "Force-sensitive." This Force-sensitivity was correlated with, and sometimes attributed to, a high count of internal microorganisms called midi-chlorians that were found in a Force-sensitive's blood: the higher the count, the greater the being's potential Force ability, though there were some exceptions to this rule. Force-sensitive beings were able to tap into the Force to perform acts of great skill and agility as well as control and shape the world around them. Sometimes this ability was described as having a strong Force "aura".
Ptolemaeus knows that the Force was only partially understood by both the Sith and the Jedi, because their knowledge of Time and the Planes was so limited; most only knew of, and believed in, their own Prime Material Plane. When those aligned to the Light side found that their Spirits could exist in many places and Times, a phenomenon quite powerful and remarkable to them, they did not realize that they were simply traversing Time in accordance with their needs and wishes, driven by and protected by their own strong beliefs about the reality around them and the impact of their Wisdom upon those beliefs… the way all practitioners navigate the Timestream.
From their state of knowledge, what both the Jedi and the Sith could not see was this: the Force is the Pattern of the Timestream itself, the intersection of Time and Positive Energy imbuing all living creatures, for the Light side, and the intersection of Time and Negative Energy imbuing all Undeath, for the Dark side. Where the two meet, there is Time, Positive Energy, and Negative Energy all together; those do not cancel but instead form Shadow… Time and Shadow, the components of the many Shadows of the Pattern. The belief of the Jedi and Sith practitioners that the Force was an entity with direction had some reality in that respect; Ptolemaeus knows that some believe the Pattern has its own direction; “The Pattern Weaves as the Pattern Wills” is a phrase he has heard before, said by practitioners who have some ability in Weaves of their own making... or so the rumors say, that Ptolemaeus has heard. Others identify a creature with the Pattern: A Unicorn.
There are many answers but the questions are as much of a tangle as the Pattern itself.
Ptolemaeus knows there is more, but has not found answers beyond this point in his knowledge… yet. He knows that there are creatures who are very powerful in Shadow, that Shadow can be crafted into many things by Magic, and Shadow Conjurations can be quite real… but he also knows that this information is still only on the surface of something much deeper, from hints and scraps he has found. He is still searching for these connections, as answers to his own situation, and Star has already hinted that she knows. Who better to ask than the last… and Royal… Time Elemental?
Bane developed the Rule of Two. Under this new tenet, only two Sith Lords were allowed to exist at any given time; a master and an apprentice; one embodied power while the other craved it. Hence, the Rule of Two was designed to cull the weak from the ranks of the Sith, thereby ensuring that only the strong remained. Bane's expectations of the new Order were met with his death at the hands of his own apprentice, Darth Zannah. The tradition was carried on over the next millennium, even though many Sith who followed in Bane's lineage were appalled at the thought of being slain by their own apprentices. After centuries of operating in secrecy, the Grand Plan for revenge was initiated by the Sith Lords Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious. Sidious, who usurped his Master's position, ultimately fulfilled Darth Bane's dream: the return of Sith dominance throughout their galaxy. With the betrayal and near destruction of the Jedi Order, Sidious dissolved the Galactic Republic and replaced it with the Galactic Empire. Ruling as emperor in his public guise as "Palpatine", Sidious' reign was prophetically ended by his own apprentice—the Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker. Though he returned in the form of several clones, each inhabited in turn by the Emperor's dark spirit, Sidious' final demise in 11 ABY ended the line of Bane and Zannah.
Sable has seen visuals from Stories, and in a flash of recognition that leaves him feeling very strange, he realizes that the Lightswordsman looks exactly like the Lord Bane of Story.
And perhaps even stranger, as the flood of related visuals surfaces in Sable’s memory, he realizes that our own Tanatou is a very dead ringer for… Darth Sidious, the Sith Lord at the end of Bane’s Story. In Sheerak2’s close view of the fight, Sable realizes on reflection that the look of recognition and shock that passed across Bane’s face when he saw fully the creature he was about to strike down means this: Sable knows that Bane may even think a Sith Lord is on Sable’s side of the conflict.
Pooling their knowledge on the Link, Sable and Ptolemaeus find that they have a few answers, but even more questions.
