deernet | [Video] username: justanadventurer

[He's barely been here but for a few days, but already everything is overwhelming. He's trying to keep it together, but apparently there are other forces at work.]

[His Omni turns on and there's a fuzzy paw covering the display for a moment. It moves away and reveals Nara'a sitting in a small wooden shack, a needle and thread in hand. He's found some rags somewhere and has clearly ripped them apart to form more serviceable pieces of cloth. He's sewing a little bit, silent for a while, before he looks up at what his Omen is doing.]

Hey, stop playing with that.

[He sets his work down and picks up the Omni, looking into it.]

... Sorry about that. I'm... I was just trying to repurpose a few things that I found.

[He's quiet for a few moments before going on.]

I'm new, so I didn't want to bother anyone, and I thought maybe I could trade these for something else. Does anyone know of a place where I could do that?

I'm not the best at weaving, but I'm a fair hand. They should be serviceable, at least. A few might have patches, though.

[Hm. He nods and fumbles with the Omni for a few moments before the broadcast shuts off.]

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Indeed. They also named their moon 'Moon', which makes me think early humans were sentient morons.

[Maul sounds completely unimpressed with the idea that human beings could think up no better words for their planet and moon.]

Yes, I come from a galaxy far, far away from here. My planet of origin is called Dathomir. It is a far different type of planet than the one we are on right now.

... To be fair we also named it 'moon'. Other than Dalamud, but that was an artificial moon and it's... no longer in the sky.

[He likes the names of places on the moon, but it's not a good name overall.]

What sort of planet is it, then?

Was it destroyed then?

[Maul's never heard of an artificial moon being created before but he supposes it could be possible with the technology in his world.]

There is one sun, a red one, and it tinges the entire landscape the same color. There are four moons in the sky, though all of them being seen at once is a very rare occurrence. We are divided up into tribes of Nightkin, with Nightbrothers and Nightsisters living apart from one another, and each clan has a matriarch that rules it. Dathomirians don't like outsiders but it's not just because we are territorial. The entire planet is seeped in the Dark Side of the Force and those are not born there eventually start to go mad if they spend too long on the planet.

[Despite the grim picture he paints, there's a genuine note of fondness in Maul's voice as he describes his home planet. For others, it might be a nightmarish hellscape, but for him it is home.]

It broke open, and the creature inside of it lay waste to the people fighting below as well as those who had brought it down. The resulting explosion of aether caused the Seventh Umbral Calamity, changing the landscape of several regions and decimating parts of others. Not to mention the loss of life...

[He shakes his head and sighs.]

I wasn't there - it was five years before I started adventuring. I was still growing up in the Wellwick Woods.

[A place seeped in Darkness? That sounds more like the Void to him than anything else, but if he grew up in a place like that maybe that's just 'normal'.]

I see. My subspecies is matriarchal, while the other one is more patriarchal. If you grow up in a way that seems strange to other people, it doesn't seem strange to you, does it? I don't know what the 'Force' is, but if it's anything like the aetherial elements I know... it's amazing that you're even able to live there.

It sounds as if you come from a place where there is never a dull moment.

[Maul says dryly. Given he comes from one of those places himself, he knows that can be both a good and bad thing depending on how one looked at it.]

No, it does not. One can grow up in the strangest of circumstances, but if they are used to it, they simply know nothing else.

[Hence how Maul came to raise being viewed by his monster of a master as being an acceptable state of being.

After being here so long and coming across so many people who didn't know what the Force was, Maul has a general summary he breaks out for moments like this.]

The Force is an energy field generated by all living things. It's in you, me, the plants, animals, everything around us. Those who are sensitive to it can manipulate it for their own ends. There are two sides, Light and Dark, not the same thing as good and evil, you understand. I myself follow the Dark Side and am from a faith known as the Sith.

That's... an understatement, yes.

[Hm. He nods in understanding.]

That sounds very much like my understanding of aether. Light and Dark are simply elements, but it's important to have a balance between them - and they also are neither good nor evil.

[A light-blasted world is just as bad as a darkness-consumed one.]

Aether is everything - from physical material to souls to memories. People manipulating it is what's commonly called 'magic'. I can... go a little overboard when I start talking about it, so you can feel free to tell me to shut it whenever.

[He smiles a little crookedly - he knows he's a nerd.]

Yes, you seem to grasp here what some do not. Light and Dark are all about balance. To have too much Light is just as bad as too much Darkness. Both are needed to keep things the way they should be.

[Maul returns the smile, though his is a touch more disconcerting given the amount of sharp fangs in his mouth.]

No, no, do go on. This sounds fascinating. I'll let you know the moment I become bored.

[He doesn't mind the fangs - while miqo'te don't have a full fangy mouth he's known plenty of species that do. He nods and taps his chin, searching for the words to continue with.]

Manipulating the aether of the soul or memories is generally strictly forbidden - and incredibly difficult to do, besides. Physical aether is much more amenable to being changed - say turning some air aether into fire, for example. Or changing its shape while in the same element - changing a campfire's fire-aspected aether into a small fireball or a stream of fire.

Just because it's easier doesn't mean that it's wise to do it without training, though. My eyebrows found that out the hard way the first time I did it.

That is quite interesting. So is there a finite limit of how much aether can be wielded by a person?

[The Force itself was limitless but the people who wielded it were not.]

Hmmmm, the mental abilities of the Force are much harder to master than the physical aspects. Going into the mind of another and manipulating it takes far more skill and practice than simply moving objects with the mind. And some skills are never mastered. I occasionally have prophetic dreams and cannot control them at all when they come upon me.

In theory, yes. It's generally considered dangerous to manipulate more aether than would be in say... a whole person. Even that takes a lot of skill and training.

There have been cases of large-scale use of aether, but those tend to lead to Calamities - at least from the historical records that are around. Either that or it's tied to Primals, which are creatures made of aether and the belief of their worshipers. They draw aether from crystals or the land itself, disrupting the natural flow... they're very dangerous, as they can manipulate the mind and are very powerful physically and magically.

Prophetic dreams, you say? I... well. I don't have dreams of the future, but sometimes I can glimpse the past of someone. I can't control it, though.

There are legends of Sith that were able to use the Force on a whole planet but sometimes I suspect those are merely tales meant to scare children. If ever that ability was within the grasp of those that followed the Dark, it has not been possible for countless eons.

[Something flickers in his yellow eyes when Nara'a mentions seeing the past of someone. It's like watching the shutters be drawn over a window which was previously open.]

....That doesn't work over this device, does it? [He really doesn't need anyone seeing his past when Maul doesn't know Nara'a and has no idea if he can trust him or not.] I feel such abilities are never meant to be fully understood because the past and future are part of time and time itself is far more powerful than any single individual.

[He shrugs and shakes his head.]

I don't know. I've never had a device like this before. But I always have been in the same physical space as someone involved in the memory before.

There's an explanation of sorts for it, but the long and short of it is that it's the remnants of an ancient race's power. It awakens in certain people under certain circumstances.

[Video] username: justanadventurer

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