Wound in the Force



"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi (referring to the destruction of Alderaan)

A Wound in the Force (also called a Disturbance or Hole) was a weakness in the very fabric of the Force caused by a tramatic event. The Force existed in all life and when many lives where extinguished in a short period of time, a wound was created.

Overview
"If you had traveled far enough, rather than waiting for the echo to reach you, perhaps you would have seen it for what it was. There is a place in the galaxy where the dark side of the Force runs strong. It is something of the Sith, but it was fueled by war. It corrupts all that walks on its surface, drowns them in the power of the dark side – it corrupts all life. And it feeds on death."

- Kreia (speaking of Malachor V).

Wounds in the Force were created whenever a massive loss of life occured. All life in the galaxy was interconnected. When a significant number of lives, say the population of an entire planet, suddenly disappeared, the Force sustained a localized injury in that area much like a sentient who had lost a limb. The epicenter of the wound became a dark place filled with the reverberating echoes of the pain, terror, and suffering of those lifeforms who had lost their lives there.

Many historians have theorized that the life destoying effects of the dark side itself can cause a breach in the Force – especially when weilded by one as powerful as a Sith Lord. Such a hypothesis was never universally accepted, but it did help to explain how such potent dark side users as Darth Revan and Darth Sidious were able to long hide their corruption from the Jedi Council. It also explains why the dwelling and dying places of the Sith such as Dxun, Onderon, and Korriban remained dark and corruptive locations for millenia after they were abandoned.

Echoes
"This echo travels in the places where death has walked, where planets have died. Massacres fuel its power, the death of life fuels it."

- Zez-Kai Ell

Wounds in the Force cast echoes throughout space much like the ripples in a pool of water. They coursed through the Force like a scream that only Force-adepts could hear. When a great tragedy took place, such as the destruction of Alderaan, a Jedi could feel the reverberations of the disaster from half-way across the galaxy. The echoes caused distortion in the Force itself much like white noise. Any Force user who was within close proximity to a wound was sheilded and could not be easily sensed from without due to the interference.

Mandalorian Wars
"When you returned to us, we saw what had happened. You carry all those deaths at Malachor within you, and it has left a hole, a hunger that cannot be filled."

- Zez-Kai Ell

A "hole" in the Force was created at Malachor V during the final battle of the war when the Mass Shadow Generator was triggered by a Jedi General later known as the Exile. The Jedi watched as the superweapon drew both the Republic and Mandalorian fleets from orbit into a vast gravity vortex powerful enough to crush the countless ships into the planet's crust and fracture the world to its very core. Fearing that he would be destroyed by the overwhelming waves of pain and terror reverberating through space, he sealed himself away from the dying screams of friend and foe, and thereby effectively lost his connection to the Force. Thereafter, he was deafened to its call; incapable of sensing it through the interference caused by the echoes of the suffering he had witnessed.

Jedi Civil War
"Revan knew the power of such places... and the power in making them. They can be used to break the will of others... of Jedi, promising them power, and turning them to the dark side."

- Kreia

During the Jedi Civil War, Darth Revan made use of several locations that were the epicenter of wounds in the Force for his own purposes. The Trayus Academy on Malachor V, Freedon Nadd's tomb on Dxun, the Sith Academy on Korriban, and the Rakatan Temple of the Ancients on Rakata Prime all served as secret Sith academies. Throughout the war, Jedi were captured and brought to those locations because the disturbances in the Force weakenen their will so that Revan and his loyal servants could lure them to the dark side. In such places, he converted hosts of Jedi into loyal dark Jedi and Sith Assassins for his Sith Empire.

Post-Jedi Civil War conflicts
"It is the teaching of these new Sith, to feed on others, on other Force sensitives. They are symptomatic of the wound in the Force."

- Vrook

During the post-Jedi Civil War conflicts between the Republic and the remaining forces of the Sith Empire led by Darth Traya, Darth Sion, and Darth Nihilus, the Sith learned how to create and make use of wounds in the Force in order to strengthen their own powers and to aid their attempt to assassinate the remaining Jedi.

Galactic Civil War
"That place...is strong with the dark side of the Force."

- Yoda (speaking of the Dark Side Cave).

It was suggested that Yoda could not defeat Darth Sidious in battle, being overpowered by the disturbance caused by the many simultaneous Jedi deaths. It might be possible that those strong in the Force can have glimpses of what is creating the disturbance. This could explain why Yoda seemed to know what happened when Obi-Wan Kenobi was about to look at the security recordings of the Jedi Temple.

After the rise of the emperor, Yoda fled to the planet Dagobah were he hid in the shadow of a Dark Side Cave. He hid there because as a wound in the Force, it provided some concealment against those searching for him. He was hidden by the dark side interference caused by the cave.

In 0 ABY, a wound in the Force was created at Alderaan when the planet was destroyed by the Death Star I.

New Republic Era
In 11 ABY, Kyp Durron destoyed the Caridan system with the Sun Crusher and the echoes of the disturbance were felt by the students of the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin IV.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Dark Force Rising