A Light Amidst the Darkness
Written by Liam Torun-Urr, Dossier 7288

A poem written for Clan Odan-Urr, that began as a House on the brink; that welcomed me with open arms, and eager hands; that stuck with me through good times and hard times; that proved to me, any member can be great, should he only join the Odanites. May Light never wane, may hope never fade - may Odan-Urr rise to, and forever remain as, the true First Clan.

- Liam Torun-Urr

My mind, to you, I open,
Mystic field of energies abound,
That penetrate,
And permeate,
To bind and all surround,
The sacred Force I draw upon,
To lift this tale,
Of war and peace,
And raise it high,
And justice do to our protectors,
Brave defenders,
Jedi.

We open now on windswept drifts,
Fields of ice and snow,
Where wampa creeps,
And far beneath,
Long-frozen men forever sleep.
Here witness war and death,
As Vader, Jedi fallen low,
with iron fist and ragged breath,
Sets fire to the snows.
That world where in the blasted cold,
The son and father,
Young and old,
Skywalkers went to war.

Adrift upon the battlefield,
In full rebellion,
Forced to yield,
There held a clutch of Jedi Knights,
Alone,
Afraid,
Cast out among the stars above,
To flee the Purge, 
And wage the ancient fight.
There, cast aground,
As Echo base,
Collapsed into the ancient snow,
They fought the foes,
White helmets hiding eyes and face,
Yet alas,
The day would not be theirs,
To space they had to go.

Rebellion lost, ties severed clean,
Lost in a cosmos cruel and mean,
They wandered long,
Till one fine day,
At light of dawn,
Yhi's majesty shone through
To light their way.
A planet there,
On edge of space once held by ancient Sith,
They found a people,
Strong and noble,
Proud and tested.
On their fields,
By light of mornday sun accord was made,
That Jedi hands,
Could bring to bear,
An abbey,
Hidden from the stars,
Their strength to marshal, that one day
Imperial tapestry they might tear.

Yet even as the stones went up,
The well was dug,
The lands were tilled,
There came from on high,
Freighter ships, 
With women, children, refugee,
Escaping slave and merchant free,
To brim each hull was filled.
Beseech thee, Jedi,
Each would beg,
Protect us.
Save us.
Keep us free,
That happy lives and hopeful futures,
All our sons might see.
They settled down, and built their town,
The settlement Menat,
And soon new lives and new traditions,
By their hands,
Their sweat,
Their toil,
The future they begat.
Yet peace it seemed,
Would not be safe,
For as their numbers grew,
New mouths to feed,
And homes to build,
Roads laid,
Coin paid,
The forests they would hew.

Ancestral lands, these colonists,
All heedless of the law,
Would claim from Harakoan sons,
And in defense,
From bows and tents,
Blood both sides had to draw.
The Jedi soon faced agony,
To keep the peace, their destiny,
But also theirs,
The will,
The means,
The sacred oath to safeguard life,
Their duty, plainly seen.
Peace they would try to spread about,
As tribal men kept pushing out,
As colonists would bend the law,
To favor him,
His sons, his get,
Yet tribal sons would see death's maw,
As Harakoa, Tython new,
Would see the flames of war renewed,
Each second year, even each month,
While Jedi held the pieces few,
Together.

With passing time, the colonies,
Would grow beyond mere families.
O'er decades long, as farmers wept,
For soldier sons the ground now kept,
Strong cities, walls and deep-cut trench,
To keep out those who from their hands,
With fire and blood,
Their lands they'd quickly wrench.
Now tribal and militiaman,
Would meet in jungles,
Mountains,
Sands,
To dance the long-repeated tune,
Stealth in the night,
Assault at noon,
As bolt of blaster sounded out,
To feathered arrow, angry shout,
The songs of war had found the Jedi's home.
Now knew they true,
Their purpose,
Why you, sacred Force, had drawn them down to rest,
To do what Jedi Knights do best,
No longer could they roam.

But even these long, bloody fights,
Would only be prelude to night.
As peace was reached and truce was struck,
Each side with bodies in the muck,
Was left in fear as from the skies,
Dark shadows crept, ships from on high.
For they had come,
Old enemies,
From time before New Order's dawn,
With purpose dark,
Sharp teeth now bared,
And crimson sabers drawn.
For you, o Force, at night I weep,
Your anguished cries rob me of sleep,
Beside the millions,
They've destroyed with,
Your Darkest Side,
The vile Sith.
Dark Brotherhood had come at last,
Long years of quiet spying past,
To end the wait,
Embracing hate,
To finish long-dead Purge.

Yet not without last hope were we,
For Jedi strong,
Our leader long,
A founder true, stood up to you,
Ye Sith, in midnight dark that Gand,
With long arrangement, taken hand,
Called Halcyon, that aging Knight,
Another rebel, long in flight,
Who with smooth words,
Of hefty coin,
And fights agreed that they might join,
Brought allies, iron-skinned elite,
The Sons of Mandalore, their Fleet,
Preserver's Clan would quickly meet,
These Sith, and spill on our behalf,
The blood of foes forgotten long.
Yet mighty force was brought to bear,
A burden all the world would share,
We fought our best,
And to the last,
And in the end, though beaten, would survive,
Perhaps another day,
To thrive.

Yet in the end we knew defeat,
And knelt beneath Arconan feet,
Until the time, we knew would come,
When price to stay,
Soldiers dying,
Became too steep,
For Shadow Clan to always pay.
Their ships would leave,
But still bereaved,
A ruined people would recieve,
The aid of Jedi, but would turn,
For wounds and sadness deeply burned.

While in the night, the trees did shake,
As Pillars of Menat did quake,
A silent menace, hidden deep,
Through night,
In flight,
Toward darkness creeps,
That hidden hermit, driven mad,
A power deep inside he had,
An orator,
Deceiver true,
He tried to steal the life in you,
O founder Ji, the bravest Gand,
Did nearly fall at crooked hand,
Cy Thuron's menace did awaken,
Hatreds long ago forsaken,
Weakening the sacred bonds,
Of trust, before he fled beyond,
Escaping reach, and digging deep,
Beneath the stones,
Amidst the bones,
He found within,
The Bastion of Knowledge Dark,
As fleeting hope could seldom spark,
He secreted himself away,
Past quiet night,
Beyond the day,
To hide amongst the stars.

Meanwhile, the blades of Brotherhood,
Of bone and flesh, of steel and wood,
Their war machines did quake again,
To strike at foes,
Whose war bellows,
Awakened fears within the Sith,
That strikes could come, and menace with,
The cloth and banner of a friend,
Dark Jedi's life their knives would end,
A thousand Sith, yet all as One,
Beneath the Korribani sun,
They gathered there, as Ashen rose,
To strike an unrelenting pose,
And plunge the Clans of Brotherhood,
Against the foe,
Till far below,
The boots of soldiers bones would break,
While Obelisk, Krath, Sith retake,
Ancestral worlds of Ancient Lords,
Their libraries and treasure hordes,
Yet deeper purpose lurked within,
We could not then even begin,
To fathom truth,
Yet in our youth,
We struck,
We fought,
Before they'd brought,
To Galaxy caught by surprise,
The Reaper's favorite exercise,
Galactic War anew.

 Twas several months within this fight,
That back at home,
On side of night,
The hermit mad returned, with sword,
And Force's strength,
With Pirate hordes,
To take from us what once was free,
Relying on us absentee,
First tribe they  smashed,
Then colony,
No one was safe, not you, not me,
A rock of Purity they rose,
And cast into it all of those,
Of pigment blue, and loyal back,
To starve, and torture on the rack,
While madman with,
Powers of Sith,
Rose up to build a Throne.

They came with fire,
Blasters, blades,
They killed in droves,
The bombs like waves.
Not man, nor woman, even child,
Was free,
Was safe,
Could ever leave,
The hateful men went wild.
They ransacked, pillaged,
Murdered,
Raped,
No one could easily escape,
We tried to help,
But how could we?
We Jedi handful, ragged we,
Since after war had taken toll,
Mad Thuron crawled from in his hole,
Unleashing hell,
And killing all,
On whom the Jedi Knights could call,
Our home, the Abbey, It'kla's square,
Were burned and broken,
Stone by stone,
Dashed clean, beyond hope of repair.

We gathered them that still could stand,
We fed them,
Clothed them,
Lent our hand to rally them,
And soon to flee,
The hull of Arthos then would see,
Us all, by will of Force divine,
In living things, all intertwined,
It guided us on hidden path,
No map,
No tool,
No warlord's wrath,
Could ever find the Haven there,
The world of life, of sapients bare,
That held us, kept our force alive,
While we did train,
And harvest grain,
To help our hope survive.

The Brotherhood we then would face,
But not in warfare,
But in race,
To gather up the arms we'd need,
To see our bonded people set loose,
Liberated,
Free.
On Talus, in Corellia,
And on the fields of Khar Delba,
A dozen more we frequented,
We took weapons,
Equipment,
Meds,
To arm the ragged living few,
And one day, to ignite anew,
A flame of old rebellion,
Against new Tyrant,
And his sin,
But soon our hopes appeared to dash,
As Knights of old Allusis crashed,
With last and foremost, pirates true,
Omega and the Alpha, too,
They captured then the Vorsa tree,
And those who fought, that others free,
Could live their lives in harmony,
And peace.

Yet when cast to the vile hole,
The Rock,
Where lives by thousands stole,
The Guards of falsest Monarchy,
And Butcher Blue did oversee,
Tytis, that scoundrel named Vorlem,
Who with the gun,
The lash,
The rod,
Killed native man for fun.
When Jedi Knight arrived in there,
A collar each would have to wear,
Yet as they wept,
And seldom slept,
The people washed away despair,
As Whenua, that Chief of Chiefs,
And good man Varos, their relief,
Did quietly, and with great skill,
Remove their bonds, their collars killed,
So that when Jedi then returned,
To slash,
To break,
The Rock to burn,
Allusis' men could slip their bonds,
And Knight Commander lead beyond,
These wretched walls,
And answer call,
To mountains they would flee.

It was in darkness, dead of night,
When sense, and sober thought took flight,
That Ooroo, that fine Battleteam,
Whose schemes betrayed no single seam,
Attacked the Rock of Purity,
With Baas' Disciples, aimed to free,
The Jedi Knights that dwelled within,
Who could amass,
The tortured caste,
And strike down Thuron's sin.
The fight was short, as from without,
The Guards, with angry curse and shout,
Did lock their way inside their pit,
But had forgotten then that it,
Was full of those,
Slave,
Dredge,
Scum,
Knave,
That might slip into their enclave,
And take their guns,
And all as one,
Strike chain, and flood the plain.

Twas over, quick as it begun,
And then they filtered, all as one,
Into the mountains high and clear,
To weep with grief, and shed a tear.
But Quaestor,
Aedile,
Good Rollmaster,
Rallied them to cause much faster,
Knowing then they had to fight,
Lest Tython New forget the Light.
The Tribal man, and farmer too,
Took up the gun,
The knife,
The bomb,
To learn the ways of battle new,
And all as one,
With morning sun,
They flooded into land of Dac,
The Compound Cy used to attack,
Together there, with Force's might,
The ushered in the year of fright,
And sent the ragged sell-sword out,
To run and cry, to scream and shout,
That Jedi had returned.

Lo, and behold!
By sacred Force,
From Darkness did our Knights divorce,
The land from tyrant's suffering,
And by their hands,
On grass and sands,
Together Jedi force would bring,
The battle to the monster's door,
A might he had not seen before.
Yet even as his mood grew cross,
His men deserted, lands were lost,
And there, upon his tower high,
He met that man,
Who, blades in hand,
Told him, return ye to the Light,
Repent.
Give up this foolish cause,
Let laws embrace you, face your flaws,
Remember that the Dark is quick,
But in its power,
Deepest trick,
It loses every time to Light,
Regardless of the mountain's might,
The river will flow on its course,
You were a fool,
To test your rule,
Against the will of Living Force.

Upon that height, with crimson blade,
The tyrant, final stand he made,
Against cold blue and vibrant green,
His blade took on a bloody sheen.
The stone they rent,
Their bones did crack,
As capital again was sacked,
As Thuron faced down old Torun,
He saw his rule would tumble soon,
And in his fury, lightning threw,
To catch on blades of green and blue,
Until, at last, his will was spent,
Again the Jedi cried, repent!

But Thuron would not yield that day,
And as his mind did break away,
Unearthly howl did escape,
His nostrils flared, his mouth agape,
He dove upon his ancient foe,
But tripped on ankle, fell below,
A hundred feet or more he'd fall,
No scream emerged, as eyes of all,
Saw King, once strong,
Now proven weak,
Did hit the stone without a shriek,
His bones destroyed,
His evil ploys,
Dashed, like his head upon the stone,
By Darkened Knight,
One boot alone.

Yea, though our many enemies,
May rise, time and again with glee,
Know this, ye little Journeyman,
You stand with son,
With father,
Friend,
The Living Force, our ally still,
And powerful it is, our will,
When guided by that gleaming Light,
And lightsabers we do unite,
There is no force, no power grave,
Could ever stop the tidal wave,
And know, in times when yet unsure,
You stand a Knight of Odan-Urr.

Rejoice in thee, o Sacred Force,
As eyes grow dim, and voice grows hoarse,
I know my heart remaineth true,
For as I fight,
With waning might,
And when I die,
I shall return to you.
Hear ye who read or sing this tale,
Our enemies shall always fair,
For know this truth,
Deep within you,
The Knights of Odan-Urr stand true,
Yet he who would delay our course,
Shall never win,
For we, within,
Are here to serve the Living Force.