Sermon 002 | Video

[jadus]

It is evident that a significant portion of us are from a shared history. Certain key points in time have been especially active. Certain groups are disproportionately represented.

This warrants further study, and preparation. I believe it may be possible to predict who will arrive. Who might be vulnerable to permanent loss. Perhaps these incidents can be prevented. But more information needs to be compiled.

I have seen mention and fragmentary evidence of attempts to construct a timeline, but no current and complete examples. I am willing to take up this task.

I require information from those who recognize the Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance, Jedi, Sith, the Force.

Provide dates under any system you are aware of. Tell me your final day before arrival. Give references to major events. Tell me if you died. Tell me of any others that have since left this planet. Tell me if anyone here was known to you before, and why.

My colleague Darth Marr and I are the first I am aware of. We are from a point 32,823 after the Tho Yor Arrival, 21,423 years after the founding of the Republic, and 1,350 years after the restoration of the new Sith Empire. For five years, both Republic and Empire have suffered under an invasion from the Unknown Regions, which we learned was orchestrated by our former Emperor, Darth Vitiate. On the day of my arrival, I sensed his death.

Others will have many uses for this data. My primary concern is the possibility of his arrival on Earth. His presence inevitably brings cataclysm. I want to calculate the probability of this event, and prepare accordingly.

[He has attached a link to his timeline in progress]

Comments

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[kanyounot]

[ Before turning on the feed, Kanan lets out a large sigh. And then he sends a quick attachment, as well: Ashla.timeline.editable.

And then he turns on the feed. ]

"LY" is the Lothal standard calendar. From what I've been told, "BBY/ABY" are "Before the Battle of Yavin" and "After the Battle of Yavin", a dating system that will be put in place... after the Battle of Yavin.

Good luck calculating probabilities. The Porter is at least semi-sentient and seems to choose us based as much on whim as anything else.

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[jadus]

If it is sentient, then it does not act randomly. It follows an internal logic, whether it is clear to other beings or not. It can be predicted.

Will you answer my requests for information?

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[kanyounot]

Uh, then you don't know people very well. It's not acting based on algorithms. I know you Sith like to think you can order everything to your will, but that's just not how it works.

[ Kanan snorts. People do all kinds of unpredictable things, all the time. For any reason, or no reason at all. ]

As for me, personally, I arrived here shortly after the battle of Atollon. And people I knew back home before I showed up? Uh. Hera, Ahsoka, Leia, Rex, Thrawn. I think that's it. All for some variation of "knew".

[jadus]

You are more likely to take an action you prefer, rather than one you loathe, are you not? The mind is not unknowable chaos. Certain actions are highly predictable.

[Like Jedi and Sith condescending to each other.]

And did you die there?

[kanyounot]

That sort of thing requires a deep and personal understanding of the person actually making the decisions. Of their history, of their morality, of their worldview. Good luck getting that information from the Porter. The last time anyone tried talking to it, the results were bad.

[ His mouth tightens a little. ]

I didn't die there, no.

[jadus]

I disagree. Probabilistic models of action can be built without such personal details, when the behavior in question is directly linked to the information you possess.

This is why I am collecting information from the population rather than the Porter itself. I am disinterested in jeopardizing our only means of return to our galaxy.

Have you been informed of your date of death?

[kanyounot]

You won't succeed, if only because you'll be lucky if you get even half the Imports here to tell you this information. Also I'm pretty sure multiple people have tried to figure out patterns like this and no one has ever succeeded before.

But since it's harmless, no, I haven't been informed of the date of my death.

[jadus]

Then my problem remains the same: My concern is not with the Porter, but who comes through it.

If any who have conducted this research are still extant, I would speak with them. Partial successes are no reason to declare utter failure.

[kanyounot]

Kaneki is your best source for information. It's what he does. I'd just hate for you to uselessly retread ground.

[ Sarcasm. ]

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[marr]

Calling it the Battle of Yavin will be a source of confusion for anyone who arrives from the same time I do.

I participated in the Battle of Yavin IV as a leader of the coalition force. A very different Battle of Yavin from the one discussed on that timeline.

[He has read through that timeline, and Alderaan definitely existed during his Battle of Yavin.]

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[kanyounot]

Well, call it the second Battle of Yavin if that makes it easier then.

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[marr]

It is better to use the destruction of Alderaan as the defining attribute, rather than sequential numbers. The Battle of Yavin before Alderaan, and the Battle of Yavin after Alderaan.

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[kanyounot]

Okay, so do that then.

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[carbonfrozen]

If it's got a "BY" attached, it's before or after the Battle of Yavin. Easy benchmark, that one, when you're in the middle of a war.

Also: we're putting a timeline together, pal, don't worry your helmet off over putting one together. Or about predicting who's coming in or going out—far as I know, there's just no pattern.

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[jadus]

Out of the entire population of the galaxy, over its entire history, the majority of those drawn to Earth are from within fifty years of each other. Many are already personally acquainted before their arrival. Multiple individuals are related.

This is not random. Any with academic or strategic inclinations should consider this worth investigating.

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[carbonfrozen]

I dropped out of the academy 'cause I didn't have "academic inclinations". [He may or may not be lying. It's hard to tell and not just because of the Solo movie.] Believe me, if it ain't random, then there's a chance the Porter's playing favorites.

So maybe it's just that this one era's its favorite. I'd say go ask it, but the last time someone tried the rest of us came down with migraines at best and death at worst.

[jadus]

That is my theory.

I have no intentions of tampering with the Porter. Its mechanism of action is beyond my understanding. I do not wish to jeopardize its function, or my own. But understanding it is necessary nonetheless.

[carbonfrozen]

Don't know if understanding it's possible, but hey, you wanna have a crack at it? Fine. Right now the last thing I remember's heading off to Endor—I know about two other people here who're there already, so that makes three of us in that tiny little piece of time.

That helpful enough for you?

[jadus]

Until an analysis is attempted, we cannot know.

It is. If the others are willing to volunteer this information, I will accept it as well.

[carbonfrozen]

Good luck with that.

Though, speaking of luck, you'll have more of it if you talk to Kanan Jarrus. Cassian Andor, the guy who first put up the timeline, left and then came back with no memory of Earth, so maybe not him.

Happens all the time, by the way: people leaving and then coming back. Sometimes they still remember, sometimes they don't—either way, you don't know till they come back, if they do at all.

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[marr]

I fought in a different Battle of Yavin on the fourth moon.

It is not a useful benchmark.

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[carbonfrozen]

Just how many times has that moon been the site of a major battle? [U g h.]

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[marr]

It was the site of more than just major battles.

Are the temples still there?

[Just a bit of mild curiosity.]

[carbonfrozen]

So it saw a lot of tinier battles, huh?

Those things? Far as I know, yeah. We used them as a base 'bout three years ago, though we've been gone long enough that all that's there now is just plants.

[marr]

Knowing what I do of the planet's history, it would not surprise me.

Those temples were built by a Sith considered ancient even in my time. How strange, to think that you and I may have walked through the same halls and stood upon the same ground, separated by thousands of years.

[Marr sounds quieter and contemplative as he considers it.]

[carbonfrozen]

The planet's history is that bloody? Stang.

[There's a moment where Han just kind of stares at the screen, because this is definitely not something he was expecting to hear about the Sith. They have temples now? And one of them was possibly the one the Rebels used on Yavin IV?]

I knew there was something creepy about them.

[marr]

Sith are attracted to places of violence, and violence often happens in places where Sith build monuments.

[Sith build all kinds of massive stone temples and 'creepy' monuments.]

It does not surprise me to hear you felt unease in that place.

[carbonfrozen]

...yeah, all right, so what usually comes first, the violence or the monuments?

Could've also been the part where the Empire was bearing down on us, but sure, guess some Sith's faded interior decor was at fault for that too. [Now he's just trying to see if he can get a reaction out of this guy. It'd be a little hard to tell under the helmet, but damn if Han's not going to try.]

[marr]

[He's not going to dignify the first part with a response, as he doesn't think Han would appreciate a philosophical debate on the matter.

Getting a reaction from Marr will take a very long time or pressing some very specific buttons.]

You need not try to explain away such feelings; even those who are not sensitive to the Force can be affected in places where the Dark is concentrated.

[ video ] » ID: Wanda Maximoff

[divaricate]

I definitely recognize some of those terms.

[Not because she's from that same galaxy, of course -- information which she is not offering yet -- but because she is both friendly here with a few members of the galaxy where these terms seem to exist, and also because people from the galaxy are posting on the network about their space drama every few days or weeks.

Which, she knows isn't why he's posing the question. She might be trolling just a bit with that, sorry. She'll make up for with some potentially helpful info, though: ]

But I don't think you're going to have any luck predicting who's going to show up and who's going to leave. People have tried messing with the Porter for answers, and before you get any ideas to do the same — just don't. It makes us sick and can even cause us to die. I'm speaking from personal experience.

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[jadus]

I am not inclined to meddle with artifacts I do not understand. However, predicting its results does not require functional knowledge of their workings.

And I do not aim for absolute accuracy. But establishing the probability of arrival is vital information that should be gathered.