Revan (Star Wars: The Old Republic, #1)

by Drew Karpyshyn

There is no emotion; there is peace.

Revan: Jedi; hero; traitor; conqueror; villain; savior.

“Don’t jump. I don’t want to have to clean up the mess.”

The dark side fed on passion and raw emotion, but it was important to temper it with cold analysis and reason.

PALPATINE

descended from ancestors too weak to save themselves from the Sith invaders.

Inquisitors,

or she chose to flaunt the ravishing effects of the dark side as a symbol of all she had learned and accomplished.

Obviously, the personality he had displayed on their first meeting had been a ruse; a cover he used to hide his true nature from outsiders.

They taught that love begat jealousy, which led to the dark side. But Revan had seen its redemptive powers firsthand.

Denying or attempting to utterly control emotion, Revan felt, was a fool’s game. Jealousy was actually the result of ill-prepared Jedi being overwhelmed by feelings they had never learned to face. Revan believed Jedi could be taught to use positive emotions like love and happiness to strengthen their connection to the Force in the same way that hatred and anger gave power to those who followed the dark side.

The Council was stuck in the old ways. They didn’t understand that the Force was alive. They couldn’t accept that it had evolved beyond their staid teachings.

Council of First Knowledge,

It was often said that if an item did not appear in the Archive records, then it did not exist.

mass-shadow generator—an

“Well, Edric,” Canderous replied, “I could punch you in the face until I straightened out that crooked beak of yours, but we’d probably all freeze to death before I finished.”

Avner,”

Anagram of Revan

They’d also offered up plenty of kri’gee,

“A warrior who doesn’t hope for battle has no hope during battle.”

“The Sith.”

Tenebrae,”

But his parents were simple farmers,

Humble beginnings

When they met face-to-face, Tenebrae proved the stronger. Only ten years old, he stripped his father of his power and his mind. Lord Dramath spent his last moments weeping in terror, gazing up into the black eyes of his son.

He dominated their minds, crushed their resistance. He turned them into slaves to his will,

Every man, woman, and child on Nathema died that day. Every beast, bird, and fish; all the insects and plants; every living being touched by the Force was consumed.

“The strong take from the weak. That is our way.

unnatural.

He wasn’t feeling the Force.

chill of the Void,”

The Emperor had consumed everything. Life, sound, color, even the Force—nothing remained. This wasn’t about conquest or domination or destroying an enemy—all concepts Scourge embraced. Everything on Nathema had simply been snuffed out, extinguished so completely that it ceased to have any meaning or purpose.

The very fabric of the Force had been shredded.

that he wouldn’t still be alive unless he was working for the Emperor.”

Without any way to verify accuracy, information gathered through torture was often unreliable and even worthless.

Scourge had far more important things to worry about than the fate of an insignificant slave.

were literally hundreds of ways he could have killed Sechel, but given their history he wanted their final moments to be up close and personal.

He was putting himself at great risk for the sake of the cause—something he never would have considered before he met Revan.

his eyes were as black as the Void itself.

was it possible all those that had been consumed by the ritual on Nathema still existed in some form within the Emperor himself?

“Gaze upon me and see your doom!” she declared. “I am Darth Nyriss, Lord of the Sith. I am the conqueror of Drezzi, the destroyer of Melldia, and a member of the Dark Council!”

“I am Revan reborn,” he said to Nyriss. “And before me you are nothing.”

“No,” Revan said, shaking his head. “Do not underestimate all you have accomplished.

“Cause and effect are not a simple linear relationship. The Force transcends space and time; it flows through us and around us; it influences our past, present, and future.

“Fear is only an emotion; a trick the mind plays on us. You must learn to set your fear aside.”

I have no intention of dying tomorrow.” “Neither do I. But if death comes, I will face it without fear.