User:Teris Shae

Please do excuse the lack of sophistication on this page, but I am fairly new to Wookieepedia and I understand it's not a good idea for newer users to engage in overkill with their userpages when they still haven't got a lot of edits to the main wiki, so I'm going to try and get out as much as I can in one shot.

Hopefully to everyone's relief, my fanon is going to largely stay on those writing sites aside from a brief mention here and whenever it comes up, I will provide links under "Who is Teris Shae?" for anyone who wants to go further.

Please use my Discussion page if you need to get hold of me; keeping it all in one place will make things a lot easier, not that I expect a flood of traffic! ;-)

Who am I on the WWW?
I am known as Minstrel Ayreon on the SheezyArt and Storm-Artists.net community, where I am writing a novel entitled The Way of the Shadow Blade, which takes place in its own created universe and is my main written work. I have also written fan-fiction of various types, including some inspired by music such as Dutch musician Arjen Lucassen's project, Ayreon.

Here's the Minstrel in a nutshell:

Interests: Music, writing, philosophy, drawing, sci-fi/fantasy

Religious Affiliation: Christian (not ultraconservative...I don't bite!)

Favorite music: Ayreon, Bach, Beethoven, Blind Guardian, Coldplay, Copland, Dream Theater, Enigma, Peter Gabriel, Killswitch Engage, Opeth, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Stravinsky, Symphony X...and more!

Favorite author: C.S. Lewis, Dostoyevsky

Favorite TV shows: Battlestar Galactica, DS9, History Channel, news

And obviously I love the Star Wars movies!

I'm sorry, but I do not give information out on the Internet (photo, residence, etc.) that could identify me in real life. Nothing against any of you; just a general policy, but please do not ask.

What do I hope to contribute to Wookieepedia?
You might be asking why a self-admitted "Padawan" of a fan would think they have any business playing with the "Masters" here on Wookieepedia. I respect that there are many more knowledgeable people about the Star Wars universe, and unless I happen to spot some kind of glaring vandalism or it's something to do with one of the very few Expanded Universe books I actually own, I'm going to try and keep out of that for now.

Still, I think there are some things I can contribute:

1) Copy-editing for English. As I've surfed around Wookieepedia, I've noticed some articles that are in need of cleanup in terms of spelling, punctuation, grammar, and so on.  That's no offense to the original writers, who as I've said before usually have better canon knowledge than I do.  Some probably are dealing with a foreign language.  (See #4 for more on that.)

2) "Behind the Scenes" parallels to the real world.  Obviously I don't have a leg to stand on to prove I did this since I hadn't bothered to get myself an account yet, but here are a couple of examples of what I mean: when I first read the Xaczik article, I immediately noticed the parallel between the way the Rebel Alliance used the language and the way the Allies used Navajo in World War II to keep their codes from being broken.  (Oh, and thank you to the kind Wookieepedian who cleaned up after me when I had not yet figured out the difference between the "Behind the Scenes" and "Trivia" sections of an article.)  Similarly, I am also able to help in some cases with the possible etymology of Star Wars character names that bear connections to Earth languages.

3) Translation into Spanish.  I have a fairly decent command of written Spanish and as time allows, I may be able to help with getting some of the English articles translated into Spanish.  Because I am not a native speaker, though, I ask the assistance of any Spanish-speaking readers who should spot errors in my grammar and usage if they run across something I have translated.  You will not insult me by doing so.  If I do not understand the reason for my mistake after seeing the change, I may ask why...that's not a challenge or insult; it's my genuine curiosity about languages kicking in.  I really do want to know! :-)

Who is Teris Shae?
Teris Shae was ostensibly just a typical university student from Corellia who left her homeworld to study at Coruscant University beginning in the year 2 BBY. Her mother dead not long after her birth, her grandparents raised her and her brothers in the city of Tyrava so that the children could receive a stable education. Each summer, though, their father Davell Shae, would take the children with him on his ship, hoping to instill the zeal for smuggling in at least one of them. The last straw came when without Davell's knowledge, Teris won a scholarship to Coruscant University. Coming on the heels of her older brothers' refusals to become spacers,  this effectively destroyed whatever relationship had ever existed between father and daughter. For most people that knew her, this was explanation enough of why Teris had left--but there was more to it than that, and it very nearly cost her everything and even still came with a heavy price.

For six years, Teris Shae would obtain two undergraduate degrees in droid and sentient linguistics, and continue to graduate studies in the latter field with a focus on commercial translation. Her attempt to complete the advanced degree was nearly derailed when...

Sorry guys! More on this will come as I start to post about who Teris is and what role she plays in the Star Wars fanon, but the people over at my gallery sites get first dibs on seeing all of it first. Here's where it'll eventually be posted:

Minstrel Ayreon at SheezyArt.com

Minstrel Ayreon at Storm-Artists.net

Opinions on the Star Wars Universe...
...or what happens when you're too unsophisticated to use userboxes. ;-)

The Force
I don't quite agree with the Potentium argument that the light and dark sides of the Force are nonexistent and that only the user's intent is of importance; however, I do think that at times, the Jedi Order is too rigid as to what it defines as dark and light powers. For instance, while Force persuasion won't destroy a person's spirit, it has high potential for abuse and the ethics of any use of it are in question for me--yet the Jedi object to double-bladed lightsabers and armor as leading to the dark side. In a canon example, Luke certainly proves that Dun Möch can be reversed and turned into a tool for the light side. One could even make the case that there are instances where the use of Force lightning might be acceptable...say, for instance, if the target is machinery rather than a living being or a droid. Other powers, of course, are undeniably rotten at the core and only dark siders would contemplate using them: Force insanity being a blatant example.

In a nutshell: there is a light and dark side of the Force that can sway the motivation of a being, but whether a power falls on one side or the other is in the majority of cases dependent upon the user's allegiance.

The Old Jedi Order
I'm sorry, but I can't say I sympathize with these guys very much at times, and while I would never say that Order 66 was excusable, some kind of shakeup was definitely in order.

Roan Shryne nailed it when he pointed out that they had an entitled attitude and I find their attitudes about attachment especially irritating. That they took children away from their families when they were too young to decide for themselves what they wanted to do was their most grave offense, and denying them the family life was the second offense. It is not attachment that is in and of itself the problem--it is baggage like jealousy and selfishness that is. Depriving children (and adults) of the kind of attachments that for some people may actually curb these tendencies, through offering stability, is utterly ridiculous.

(Compounding this is the fact that they didn't really seem to know how to handle children despite having so many younglings in the Temple...whatever would possess them to tell a child he was the Chosen One of prophecy? Way to go, idiots--do you think anyone could get out of that upbringing without a swelled head?)

While I don't know enough about the Expanded Universe canon to be sure, it also seems to me that the old Jedi Order arrogantly thought of themselves as superior to non Force-sensitives in an ironically Sith-like way. They seem to have taken a paternalistic attitude towards the non-sensitives, and it finally bit them in the butt when, assuming that Palpatine was just one of those non-sensitive bumblers, they failed to pay attention to what he was up to until it was too late.

Personal form of lightsaber combat
If I were to pick the form of lightsaber combat most suited to me, it would be Form V: Djem So, without a question. I'm a firm believer in the principle that swift, overwhelmingly strong action is necessary to avoid unnecessary destruction; dallying with unnecessary showmanship, stalling maneuvers, and the like only increases the chance of people suffering pain they never should have. That doesn't mean acting in a wanton manner, but it does mean not being afraid to make a show of force, or to back that threat up with real force, when necessary.