Competition: (CNS) Ghosts of Sithmas Past

Finished
(CNS) Ghosts of Sithmas Past

Sitrep :

This competition dares you to step into your character’s boots and imagine what happens when they are visited by three unexpected spirits from their past. One comes as a friend, reminding them of loyalty and camaraderie. Another arrives as family, stirring emotions of belonging or regret. And the final apparition? An enemy, a face your character would rather forget, yet one that refuses to let go.

How do these specters appear? Are they eerie Force visions, nightmarish dreams, or something stranger still? Do they offer guidance, warnings, or simply mock your character for the choices they’ve made? Most importantly, how do your character(s) react when confronted by these echoes of their past and what discoveries will linger once the spirits fade?

Rules:

  • Minimum 500 words.
  • You may use your main or alt character(s).
  • Entries must be submitted in .doc, .pdf, or .txt format or by using the submission box on the Brotherhood website.
  • No GoogleDoc links, please download as a .pdf using "File" -> "Download as" "PDF Document (.pdf)" and submit through the website
  • You can use either your Main/Alt character(s)
  • If your entry is not PG-13, please make sure to hide your entry by unchecking the “Allow people to view your submission after the competition has been judged” box
  • Grading will be based on the Fiction Grading Rubric

So light the glow-lanterns, pour yourself a Corellian brandy, and prepare to be haunted…

Competition Information
Organized by
Adept DarkHawk Sadow
Running time
2025-12-20 until 2025-12-31 (12 days)
Target Unit
Clan Naga Sadow
Competition Type
Fiction
Awards
Third Level Crescents and Clusters of Ice as per VOICE guidelines
Participants
2 subscribers, of which 1 has participated.
Results
1st place
Creon Neverse
Member
Creon Neverse
Textual submission

Spirits unbound, wisps of time, bleed through into our reality. I saw all what came before and what is to come. The wisdom of history was brought by the past, and a depth of understanding on our nature. It gave to me the voices of the dead in waves through a sea of pages. Phantoms of all who came before my birth since time immemorial innumerably immeasurable. They invite me to join a doom inevitable to come. Then they formed into one, a familiar friend I left behind.

That’s when tomorrow whispered, “It will always be.”

I jolted at the sudden chill that followed. Tomorrow looked like the one I feared. But I knew... Ever since the calendar we have had a linear perspective on the progression of time. It was based off motion; solely defined as a measure of displacement. Not some phenomenon or form of energy in nature. That would then explain how the Jedi learned to time travel. To go to the past, there would need to be an akashic record of information archiving observation and record of all motion that has ever transpired in order to perfectly reverse it to the intended destination. Night Omnipotence, as ever growing as freedom flies between the balance of order and chaos as present becomes past motioning into the future.

Was it the Force?

It’s mind-boggling enough to try and explain how organelles transfer energy from a separate dimension that twists reality to the will of one’s mere intent of applied attention, let alone see a new dimension where the past can be traveled to by taking the hall on the left. The World Between Worlds was home to these spirits, and they sensed in my heart qualities they tried to magnify and reflect. The bonds between good friends, romance, family, and something compassionately egalitarian in a more radical and existential sense. Those connections made during the course of one’s life. Yet the past distracts me from the now, which was where I prefer to maintain my focus.

It wasn’t looking to the future, though divination gave guidance on what to expect. This is always a useful tool, like a compass and a map, but never to distract from the environment you can sense. What tethers you to the present is something neither apparition could inflict Terror upon my mind in the Force. That’s when the illusion shattered, for it fell apart the more one thought about it.

They were vulnerable and afraid, offering me qualities in exchange for mercy. The past offered wisdom, but also propaganda with opinionated adjectives. The future just didn’t make sense to me at all. So I killed them both and kept walking.

“Stay steady,” the present said, which was the Sadowan that led me through the winding ways of the World Between Worlds.

“I almost lost you again,” I told him “I thought there was only one way in and one way out.

“That doesn’t mean you’re alone here. Not at all.” Which filled me with both wonder and terror.

“I want to belong here.” I said.

He then told me: “break my fall.”

Placement
1st place