Potentium

The Potentium was a sect of beings who had a particular way of viewing of the Force. Counter to millennia of Jedi teachings, the followers of Potentium claimed that there was no inherent evil in viewing the Force. They claimed that what others called the light side was actually just the Force itself, which is inherently good. What others called the dark side was a perversion of the Force, twisted by those who used it. Believers of Potentium said that the potential for light and dark sides resided in the user, not the Force itself. They also thought that the Jedi Masters refused to believe in Potentium because it would mean the Jedi were not needed to fight evil, for evil would not exist.

About a century before the Battle of Naboo, the followers of Potentium were expelled from the Jedi Order. Yoda and the rest of the Jedi Council did not consider them Dark Jedi, but they said it was the duty of the Jedi to use the Force to protect others, not study its absolute limits. The Council said that testing the Force to its limits would lead to the dark side.

Followers
The basic precepts of the Potentium may have been influenced by the morally relativistic and solipsistic philosophy espoused by Jedi Master Phanius around 2,000 BBY.

The Potentium was theorized in 132 BBY. Leor Hal was the leader of the Potentium believers at the time when they were expelled from the Jedi Order. Prior to their expulsion, Hal had recruited many students from prospective Jedi among the aristrocratic families of Coruscant and Alderaan.

Sekot, the intelligence of Zonama Sekot, accepted Potentium after its awakening, when it was colonized by some of the outcast followers under Hal. The colonists felt Zonama Sekot was proof of the Potentium philosophy, and Sekot eventually came to consider itself the protector of the Force (though as some derisively pointed out, this protectorship was self appointed). Vergere, an Old Republic Jedi who was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, is believed to have taken this Heresy as one of the contributing factors in her teachings, although contradicting the potentiate's main edicts of evil being non-existent.

Following the expulsion of Hal, Qui-Gon Jinn and Mace Windu had a run-in with a group of Potentium apprentices.

Although many believe that Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order practiced this belief after the Yuuzhan Vong War through Jacen Solo's insistence, it was actually closer to the philosophy of Grey Jedi as stated by the Grand Master himself after the Liberation of Coruscant.

Behind the scenes

 * The Power of the Jedi Sourcebook openly states that the Potentium is a corrupt, misguided philosophy, thus being the first official source to establish that the Jedi Orthodox Philosohy reflects the true nature of the Force.

Appearances

 * Rogue Planet
 * Traitor
 * Destiny's Way
 * The Unifying Force
 * The Joiner King
 * The Unseen Queen
 * The Swarm War