User:Tommy9281/Anvil

"Age is indeed a curious thing. As I grow older I see less clearly in the dark, but I see the dark more clearly."

- Arca Jeth

Jedi Master Arca Jeth was an Arkanian male with Sephi blood who served the Galactic Republic as Watchman of the Onderon system on behalf of the Jedi Order. From his excellence with the lightsaber to his mastery of the Force, Jeth was revered as one of the wisest and most powerful Jedi of his day, and was hailed by his kinsmen as a champion of the Arkanian race. Jeth primarily resided on his homeworld of Arkania, where he instructed many of the era's most prominent Jedi in the ways of the Force.

In 4,030 BBY, Arca Jeth was part of the Jedi and Republic task force that was sent to the Hapes Cluster to eliminate the threat of the Lorell Raiders, pirates who had preyed on Republic shipping lanes for decades. Jeth was then chosen to lead two dozen Jedi Knights to combat the Nelori Marauders, whose quest of terror and piracy spanned throughout the Hyabb-Twith Corridor. The Marauders were defeated through Jeth's use of Jedi battle meditation, a rarely-seen Force ability that simultaneously invigorated his allies and demoralized his enemies. The Arkanian Master proved himself again in fifteen years later, when he demonstrated a droid-disabling Force technique to end the Great Droid Revolution on Coruscant. Jeth harassed the slaving rings of the space-city Ereesus shortly afterward, and liberated the Twi'lek Doneeta family, whose young son Tott was identified as strong in the Force and taken as Jeth's apprentice. The Jedi Master returned to his his praxeum on Arkania, where he trained Doneeta alongside many others, including brothers Cay and Ulic Qel-Droma, the latter of whom Jeth regarded as his most gifted student.

The Arkanian Jedi sent Doneeta and the brothers Qel-Droma in 4,000 BBY to settle a civil dispute on the planet Onderon between the citizens of the capital city of Iziz, and the exiled Beast Riders of the planet's wilderness. His charges failed utterly in their mission and, as the final battle of the Beast Wars erupted, Jeth arrived on Onderon to defeat the armies of Queen Amanoa, and banish the power of the dark side from Iziz. He and his students remained on the Inner Rim world for the next two years, during which time Amanoa's husband, the sorcerer-King Ommin, staged an uprising in the name of his Sith forefather, Freedon Nadd. Jeth was captured and tortured by the king and the spirit of Nadd, but was ultimately rescued by a team of Jedi Knights, led by Ulic Qel-Droma, and the prodigious young Nomi Sunrider. Although the dark side was permanently driven from Onderon through the efforts of the Jedi, the oppression of the Sith survived in the form of the Krath cult of the Empress Teta system. Master Jeth assumed Watchman duties over the besieged Tetan worlds, and sent Qel-Droma and Sunrider to join the Republic Navy in battle against the Sith. The Jedi were soundly defeated by the sorcery of the Krath, and the Jedi High Council organized a mass-gathering on the planet Deneba in response, to discuss the rising dark side threat. Jeth was present for the Jedi conclave and advocated for swift and decisive action against the new Sith, and spoke sternly against the infiltration mission proposed by Ulic Qel-Droma. It was during the convocation's recess that the Jedi were beset by an army of Krath war droids, and Master Jeth joined his fellows in battle against them. However, he suffered a fatal posterior blaster wound, and became one with the Force in the arms of his greatest student.

Knight of the Republic
"I assure you, I can sense it. And actually, I'm surprised that you cannot."

- Arca Jeth, while fighting the Nelori Marauders

Arca Jeth was a Sephi and Arkanian male from the homeworld of the latter, who served with distinction as a member of the Jedi Order. His aptitude with the Force and dedication to the service of the Galactic Republic saw him rise quickly within the ranks of the Jedi. Jeth was one of many Knights of the Republic sent to the defense of the Hapes Cluster from the Lorell Raiders, pirates who had discovered a number of safe routes through the Transitory Mists from which they could attack Republic shipping lanes. In 4,030 BBY, a Republic task force commanded by Jeth and stationed just outside the Mists destroyed a large force of Raiders, a loss from which they could not recover. In their new-found freedom, the women of the Hapes Cluster, who had been forced into servitude by the male Raiders, instituted a new matriarchal society that no man would ever govern, ruled instead by an all-powerful Queen Mother.

Arca Jeth next participated in a series of fierce battles between the Jedi Knights and the Nelori Marauders of the planet Dachat. A series of defeats drove the enemy from their home to the safety of the heavily-disputed Hyabb-Twith Corridor, in recognition of the local government's reluctance to provoke each other with mutual efforts to patrol such heavily-disputed shipping lanes. The Marauders executed numerous attacks from the safety of the Corridor itself, and with each attack they grew bolder as they penetrated deeper into the Core. The Jedi Order became aware of the Marauders' aggressions, and as the number of dead Republic citizens increased, Jedi met on the library world of Ossus and the decision was made to stand against them. Jeth was one of two-dozen Knights immediately sent from Ossus in pursuit of the Nelori Marauders, several of whose starships were encountered and pursued through the Hyabb-Twith Corridor to their headquarters on the planet Voon. Severe damage was dealt to the Nelori stronghold, and most of those stationed therein were killed. However, the besieged Nelori were able to call for reinforcements from other Marauder bases in the vicinity. The Jedi suffered a vicious assault upon their arrival, and of the original twenty-four originally dispatched to the Hyabb-Twith Corridor, only Jeth and four others survived. Forced to call for their own reinforcements, the beleaguered endured another forty-eight hours before thirty Jedi arrived in their support.

Since the initial attack, the sum of the Marauders had gathered from throughout the Corridor and established a last bastion on Voon. Together, the Jedi converged upon the Nelori stronghold, only to find it deserted. Troubled by the suspicious absence of the enemy, the Jedi wondered how the Marauders could have escaped the planet beneath their notice. Arca Jeth stretched out with the Force and sensed that below the Nelori stronghold was a mass of indistinguishably tangled and entwined life, the likes of which he had never felt before. Jeth cautioned his fellow Jedi, and together they descended deep into the subterranean caverns that pocketed Voon's crust. They eventually came upon a crudely cut, sloped corridor which led to a cavernous antechamber, through they warily passed into the adjacent chamber, where Jeth once again sensed a dark coldness permeating their surroundings. Suddenly, the antechamber exploded into a hailstorm of blaster fire as more than two hundred Nelori Marauders attacked the enclosed Jedi, killing four immediately. With the other Knights on his heels, Jeth attempted to halt the Marauder's advance, and together they formed a defensive perimeter around their fallen comrades. The Jedi bulwark was little match for the Marauder's ferocity, and their numbers slowly dwindled. Meanwhile, Jeth began to realize that his own attacks had become fiercer, empowered by emotions without control of the Force, used to counter the enemy's attack. With a readjustment of focus, Jeth instead began to concentrate on an image of victory as he gave himself to the will of the Force. What followed was an unexpected change of events, with the tide of the battle soon turned in favor of the invigorated Jedi, while the demoralized Marauders were suddenly in a state of upheaval. Arca Jeth's sudden implementation of battle meditation resulted in a swift Nelori rout and forced them into retreat, thus erasing their threat from the Hyabb-Twith Corridor and ultimately the Core.

New responsibilities
"There are no shortcuts to mastery of the Force, Haazen&mdash;and there can be no excuses."

- Jedi Master Arca Jeth

In 4,015 BBY, a violent insurrection was led by the prototype HK-series assassin droid, HK-01, on Coruscant itself, in which thousands of automatons revolted against their sentient owners. In the weeks that followed, countless citizens fell to the murderous rampage of all manner of rogue droid, from sanitation, to those specialized for security security, even protocol. However, it was the reckless abandon of the assassin and especially lethal Juggernaut war droids that warranted the intervention of the Jedi Order's greatest Masters, of whom Arca Jeth was now counted among. He disabled HK-01's entire droid army via the Force in the subsequent defense of the capital, and with the destruction of the lead hunter-killer, the Great Droid Revolution was brought to an end.



Jeth continued to serve the Jedi Order and the Republic in the years following the Coruscant droid revolt. When the Masters of the Order began to forebode return of the Dark Lords of the fabled Sith Empire, Jedi were sent to various sites throughout the galaxy that were once focal points of the dark side. Jeth returned to his homeworld of Arkania, a planet that in yesteryear had been a longstanding repository of ancient Sith knowledge. He established a Jedi praxeum in the wilderness, far removed from the most remote diamond mines that pocketed the planet, and trained as many as twenty students at any given time. Jeth's students learned meditation, powers of the Force, and lightsaber combat drills that imitated the lightning-fast strikes of the Arkanian dragon. While his students trained, Jeth continued to survey the planet and searched for any presence, no matter how small, of the dark side.

In that era, the public's perception of the Jedi Order was that of an elitist fraternity, an opinion frowned upon by an acquaintance of Jeth's, fellow Master Noab Hulis. In an experiment, the Miraluka brokered a deal with Jeth to train an illustrious financier named Barrison Draay, as well as his lowly retainer Haazen. Jeth also assumed the responsibility of Hulis' daughter Krynda, the third of his to enroll in the Jedi Order. After a time, the Jedi Council deemed the training of Draay and Hulis complete, and authorized their promotion to the status of Jedi Knight. Noab Hulis and several additional Jedi were present in the Arca Jeth's praxeum for the Knighting ceremony over which he was to preside, wherein knelt in deference before those gathered, Barrison Draay and Krynda Hulis. Also present was Haazen who, despite having trained alongside Draay and Hulis, had been deemed unworthy of Jedi Knighthood by the Council. What resulted was a heated confrontation between Haazen and Jeth, who nonetheless maintained his position. Haazen's dejection eventually led to his fall to the dark side of the Force.

On a particular offworld mission, the Arkanian Jedi Master intercepted a vessel en route to the slave markets on the space city of Ereesus. He defeated the slave drivers and freed the captives, among them the Twi'lek Doneeta family. Awed by the Master's power, their Force-sensitive son Tott wished to be trained as a Jedi, and Jeth obliged. He returned to Arkania with the boy and trained him alongside many students, including two sent by their mother, a friend of Jeth's and a renowned Master in her own right, Lien-Tsai Qel-Droma. The Twi'lek became close friends with her sons, brothers Ulic and Cay Qel-Droma of Alderaan. Not long afterward, Master Jeth was caught in a fire and scarred heavily. Many of his injuries were healed and deformities repaired by doctors under the employ of Adasca BioMechanical Corporation of Arkania, but Jeth's pointed ears&mdash;a trait prominent among those of Sephi heritage&mdash;were not restored. Because he was regarded as a Jedi champion among the Arkanian people, Adascorp sought to mute any trace of Jeth's hybrid lineage with cosmetic reconstruction that made his appearance more in line with individuals of pure Arkanian heritage.

Jedi Watchman
"In keeping with our pledge to the Republic, the Jedi Masters assign one of their number to become the Watchman of each new system&hellip;today I've accepted charge of the Onderon worlds."

- Arca Jeth

In 4,000 BBY, Republic explorers chanced upon Onderon, an underdeveloped Inner Rim world previously unknown to galactic astrographers. In accordance with the Jedi Order's mandate to liaise with new civilizations on behalf of the Republic, Arca Jeth was designated Watchman of the Onderon system and agreed to assist the namesake planet's Queen Amanoa bring an end to centuries of civil war. At the end of a drill in which Ulic Qel-Droma displayed his superiority in lightsaber combat over that of a training droid, Jeth called him, his brother, and Tott Doneeta together, to explain&mdash;through benefit of an extremely lifelike Force illusion&mdash;the history of Onderon. Two separate and very distinct societies inhabited the planet: the established society of the walled city of Iziz ruled by Amanoa, and the Beast Riders, descendants of exiles who refused to abide her sovereignty, and rode the ferocious beasts of the planet's wilderness. Although Watchman duties were given to Jeth, he instead sent his three apprentices to bring the Beast Wars of Onderon to a peaceful resolution, in what would be a test of their Knighthood.

Doneeta and the Qel-Droma brothers arrived at the walled city of Iziz, and discovered that its citizens were under the influence of the dark side spirit of the ancient Sith Lord Freedon Nadd. The Jedi found themselves suddenly in the midst of a conflict when Amanoa declared war on the Beast Riders. The Queen wrought havoc upon her enemies with Sith magic learned from Nadd's ghost, and victory was nigh at hand. However, Arca Jeth, who had sensed the failure of his charges from afar, arrived on Onderon in his personal ship, the SunGem, and defeated her forces through his mastery of Jedi battle meditation. Stern rebukes were given to Ulic Qel-Droma for decisions made in haste that ultimately resulted in unnecessary war, and also to Cay, for the careless loss of his arm to a Royal Protector of the queen. In in the wake of the Jedi-assisted Beast Rider victory, Jeth felt compelled to also break the pall of Freedon Nadd's spirit over Iziz, an oppression suffered by the Onderonian monarchy for centuries. With the help of Amanoa's daughter, Princess Galia, Jeth located the queen in the tomb of Freedon Nadd, and cast the Dark Lord's power from the city, which also resulted in Amanoa's death.

The Naddist Revolt
"The dark side of the Force&hellip;the city is still permeated with it&hellip;"

- Arca Jeth

Galia was given official dominion of Onderon with her husband, King and Beast Lord Oron Kira, and enjoyed two years of relative peace as the planetary society attempted to integrate and thus rebuild itself. Jeth remained on Onderon with his apprenticed during that time, but occasional and seemingly-random acts of terrorism led him to believe that a darkness caused by the residual potency of Freedon Nadd's remains still overshadowed Iziz. In an effort to lift the pall of the dark side, Jeth ordered the relocation of both the sarcophagi of Amanoa and Nadd to the furthest side of Dxun, the primary moon of Onderon, in a tomb-fortress constructed of nearly indestructible Mandalorian iron, and several Beast Rider patrols were charged with surveillance of the catacombs beneath Iziz. Jeth then sent Tott Doneeta to the nearby planet Ambria, whereupon resided the great Tchuukthai Jedi Master Thon, with whom the Twi'lek was to entreat for additional reinforcements. His mission accomplished, Doneeta returned soon afterward with the Vultan Jedi Oss Wilum, just as the funeral procession of the late Amanoa and her Sith forefather began with Jeth at the head.

During for the remains of Nadd and Amanoa, a Dark Jedi by the name of Warb Null led a Naddist attack against Jeth and the other Jedi. While Cay Qel-Droma and Oss Wilum defended against Null, Arca was suddenly attacked by an invisible dark force, which effectively neutralized him. The Naddists managed to steal the sarcophagi of Freedon Nadd and Queen Amanoa in the midst of the commotion, and then retreated back to their underground dwellings.

After Warb Null and his forces retreated from the skirmish, Ulic and the other Jedi rushed to Arca Jeth`s aid. The attack, mixed with the dark side strike, proved what the Arkanian Jedi had thought all along; that Sith magic was still active on Onderon. Upon hearing that news, Queen Galia told Master Arca about her father, King Ommin, who she said knew of the dark side even more than her late mother, Amanoa, had. Galia led Arca and Ulic Qel-Droma to where her father, a seemingly decrepit and sickly old man, was being cared for. However, when they arrived, Ommin revealed that he was not as helpless as he seemed; while the spirit of Freedon Nadd appeared, Ommin lashed out at Master Arca and disabled him with a surge of dark side energy. Galia, who was surprised and horrified at her father's transformation, stayed with Ulic while he tried to fight his way through Ommin's guards to rescue his fallen Master. Warb Null appeared at that moment to delay Ulic while Ommin escaped with the unconscious body of Arca Jeth. Ulic managed to defeat Null, killing him the process, but was unable to reach Arca in time to rescue him.

With the capture of Arca Jeth, Ommin planned to torture Arca to the brink of death, where Ommin believed that Arca would be forced to call upon the dark side of the Force to save himself. At that point, Ommin planned to destroy Master Arca's body and raise the fallen Jedi as a dark side spirit. To that end, Freedon Nadd assisted Ommin in tormenting Arca Jeth.

Meanwhile, Ulic sent a request to Ossus for further Jedi support in helping to rescue Master Arca and to the Republic Senate to help defeat Ommin. A strike team was sent which included Nomi Sunrider, Dace Diath, Shoaneb Culu, Kith Kark, and Qrrrl Toq. The Jedi reinforcements arrived on Onderon and immediately fought their way to where Ulic and his remaining Jedi were. Together, they stormed the stronghold where Arca Jeth was being held and managed to fight through Ommin's guards. The combined might of the Jedi forced Freedon Nadd to withdraw his spirit's support from Ommin, and Ulic was able to charge forward and kill the old man and rescue Jeth.

Following the defeat of King Ommin during the final battle, Arca Jeth supervised the internment of Freedon Nadd's remains in a tomb on Dxun. He also recorded the events of and surrounding the Freedon Nadd Uprising within the recesses of the Great holocron.

Conclave of Deneba
"Vodo's in great torment these days&hellip;one of his students left him to seek forbidden knowledge. No good will come of it, I'm sure."

- Arca Jeth speaking to Master Thon in regards to Exar Kun

In the wake of the Freedon Nadd Uprising, a pair of aristocrats from the Empress Teta system seized power in a bloody coup and named themselves the Krath, after a fearsome childhood legend. These two usurpers were Satal Keto and his cousin Aleema, and both were proficient in the use of Sith sorcery taught to them by the late King Ommin of Onderon and the spirit of Freedon Nadd.

Due to his firsthand experiences fighting the Sith, Master Arca was the Jedi Order's choice to lead an attack against the Krath. Having received his assignment, Arca traveled back to Onderon to inform Ulic and the other Jedi of the new developments. After dispatching the young Jedi on several different tasks, Master Arca traveled back to Deneba to address the Jedi assembly there. During the assembly, Ulic proposed his plan to defeat the Krath by infiltrating their society and operating from within. Arca, along with the unanimous support of the gathered Jedi, strongly opposed the plan and the dangers that it posed. However, before he could speak, the Krath launched an army of war droids against the assembly. The Jedi fought bravely, pushing back the droids, and Master Arca once again demonstrated his mastery of Droid Disable against the invading horde. The Jedi defended each other furiously, but the battle had a tragic end&mdash;Master Arca was struck down by a Krath war droid even as he saved Ulic Qel-Droma's life and died in the arms of his student.

Legacy
As the Jedi Order solidified itself following the defeat of the Sith, the Coruscant Jedi Temple began to take shape as the headquarters of the Order. Along the Processional Way as of 3,956 BBY, a giant bronzium statue of Jeth was erected alongside the likenesses of fellow Masters Ooroo and Odan-Urr. A university on Arkania was named after him after his death.

Fallen students
Arca Jeth was considered a hero by his Arkanian people, to such a degree that a university on Arkania was renamed in his honor. He also created his own holocron at some point in his career as a Jedi which eventually became buried on Arkania. It would later be rediscovered and given to the Jedi Master Tionne on behalf of the New Jedi Order.

Following Master Arca's death on Deneba, Ulic Qel-Droma was overcome with grief and blamed himself for the death of his master. As a result, Ulic went ahead with his plan to infiltrate the Krath believing that his desire to avenge Arca's death justified the action&mdash;Ulic would eventually fulfill his destiny of becoming a Dark Lord of the Sith. Qel-Droma was subsequently defeated and stripped of his ability to use the Force: Ulic had led a titanic war against the Republic; become a Dark Lord of the Sith; and eventually killed his own brother, Cay Qel-Droma.

These incidents, combined with Nomi Sunrider's stripping him of the Force, led Ulic into a self-imposed exile on the tundra planet of Rhen Var. While there, Ulic entered a state of depression where he constantly reflected on the life he lived, the love he lost, and the mistakes he had made. It was during one of these moments of reflection that he began to contemplate his own death and he wandered out into the snowy wastes of Rhen Var. It was then that he experienced a vision of his long-dead master, Arca Jeth. Ulic argued with Arca about what he had left to live for since he could no longer feel the Force. Arca, after asking if Ulic was a coward, reminded Ulic that he was still in possession of what he had always had&mdash;his inner strength, and natural lightsaber skill. Upon hearing that Ulic reflected on the fact that he owed Master Arca so much, and for that Ulic vowed he would live.

Another of Arca's apprentices would also fall to the dark side of the Force: the failed Padawan Haazen. Using a secret Jedi Covenant to create a rift in the Jedi Order, Haazen would amass a trove of deadly Sith artifacts in a plot to elevate his own power over not only the Jedi, but the Republic as well.

Offspring
"Soon, there were a lot of kids&mdash;all physically talented at a young age. All related, in a sense, to Arca Jeth"

- Rolhan Dyre

In addition to the spiritual legacy personified by Qel-Droma, Haazen, and all his other apprentices trained over the years, Master Jeth left a genetic legacy that the galaxy discovered only during the Mandalorian Wars. Indeed shortly after the Great Sith War, Antos Wyrick, a Zeltron scientist who had obtained a sample of Arca Jeth's DNA, began experiments on fetuses in trying to mix the cells of the Jedi Master with those of these children. What he finally managed to accomplish with the support of the Mandalorians who hoped to create Mandalorian Knights and take their revenge on the Jedi Order. Among these "descendants" of Arca Jeth was the Arkanian Offshoot Jarael, and Wyrick's white-haired daughter, Chantique.

Personality and traits
"A Jedi needs more than mere bravery&hellip;overconfidence has been the undoing of many a seasoned warrior. Let the Force be your strength!"

- Jedi Master Arca Jeth

Arca Jeth was known as one of the wisest and most insightful of the Jedi Masters of the Old Republic. During the Freedon Nadd uprising, he demonstrated his wisdom in helping end the conflict. Likewise, during the Conclave of Deneba Arca Jeth showed his wisdom by speaking out against Ulic Qel-Droma's mission proposal which would bring him awfully close to the dark side. Ulic, however, did not heed his master's wisdom and eventually fell to the dark side, becoming a Sith Lord.

Firm was his censure of Qel-Droma's rash behavior on Onderon. He was called upon by the Jedi Order for his mediating abilities and his ability to resolve conflicts without force. However, when the situation required it, it was then that Arca would wield his lightsaber.

He initially thought of Barrison as soft and too old for Jedi training. He looked down upon Haazen's life in the shadow of Draay and Hulis, and sited it as the primary reason why Haazen had failed as a Jedi.

Powers and abilities
"Ah, Jedi battle meditation. Thon is good at that. Arca was even better. Arca could raise the will of a defeated army and make them victorious."

- Odan Urr

Arca was an expert swordsman who earned his legendary status while fighting in the Hyabb-Twith Campaign. It was also during that campaign that Arca first used the Force power of battle meditation; although he was not the first of the Jedi to use it, he was but one of a handful of Jedi to ever truly master the ability. With his use of battle meditation, Arca Jeth was able to influence the outcome of several conflicts, mainly that of the Hyabb-Twith Campaign and the Beast Wars of Onderon.

Master Arca was also known to have had an incredibly strong connection with the light side of the Force. Like most users who touched the light, Arca drew heavily upon it for its calming characteristics and used its calming abilities on creatures, people, and also with his battle meditation.

Behind the scenes
Arca's surname was never mentioned in the Tales of the Jedi comic-book series, and was only provided the last name of Jeth with the release of the Tales of the Jedi Companion from West End Games.

On page nineteen of the Tales of the Jedi Companion it is stated that "two dozen Jedi warriors" were initially dispatched to deal with the Nelori threat. However, at the end of the same paragraph it is written that "Only five of the twelve Jedi survived the encounter". It should have stated that only five of the original twenty-four Jedi managed to survive.

In the comic issue Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 33: Vindication, Part 2 Arca Jeth's first name is incorrectly spelled as "Arka" in one caption. The misspelling is present in the Vindication trade paper back as well.

JATM says he created battle meditation & was first to use it on a large scale in universe, but both Odan Urr and Ooroo used it in the Unification and Great Hyperspace Wars.

Appearances

 * Tales of the Jedi: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Tales of the Jedi audio drama
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Freedon Nadd Uprising
 * Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith
 * Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith audio drama
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War
 * Tales of the Jedi: Redemption
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 17: Nights of Anger, Part 2
 * Adascorp Fiscal Period Financial Report and Outlook: Field Report: Project Black Harvest
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 33: Vindication, Part 2
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 48: Demon, Part 2
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 50: Demon, Part 4
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived
 * Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight
 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Empire's End
 * Empire's End audio drama