TELOS HOLOCRON: The Force is Not Moral
Posted on Sun Apr 13th, 2025 @ 9:54pm by Thane
603 words; about a 3 minute read
RECORD 004
AUDIO RECORDING: DARTH PLAGUEIS, TELOS HOLOCRON
SUBJECT: RUMINATIONS ON THE FORCE AND THE RIGHT TO RULE
Tyrants seek to be feared. Rulers, truly great ones, seek to be understood."
[The avatar of Darth Plagueis speaks as though delivering a lesson to a student - slow, deliberate, watching for comprehension. He is garbed in simple black robes, his stately posture obvious even as a facsimile.]
The first Jedi Order ruled by influence. The Old Empire, as you call it, ruled by force. But both failed, because neither understood the science of power. The equilibrium of a functioning order.
Rule must be elegant. Predictable. It must bind planets together like ligaments, each interlocked, each aware of its role. You do not scream commands to an organism - you instill instinct. Culture. Memory.
I envisioned a galactic order guided not by fear, but by design. Where taxation was standardised. Justice centralised. Law aligned with nature and necessity. And above it all: the Sith. Architects, not despots. Philosopher-kings.
[He leans forward slightly, his expression calm, his voice low.]
Not all will understand. That is expected. But understanding is not required - only results. Let them call you tyrant. Let them cry of freedom and choice. These are luxuries of the healthy. Of the fed. Of the safe.
The Sith must ensure order, young Serus. Not for themselves, but for the galaxy. That is the truth no Jedi dares speak. But you may.
[A pause. A subtle narrowing of the eyes.]
"Do not rule to be obeyed. Rule so that obedience is irrelevant."
[I query Plagueis on the the right of the Force permitting rulership, touching upon the doctrines of Darth Bane's holocron - of the glory he claims derived from the dark side. Plagueis appears almost to allow a tiny sliver of a smile creep across his thin lips.]
Light. Dark. Balance. Chaos. These are words spoken by those too afraid to think.
[Plagueis now appears surrounded by flowing equations and star maps rendered in light - cosmic patterns shifting in rhythm. He gestures casually toward them. The intricacies of the Telos Holocron outshine those of the other devices I have challenged, exceeding the primitive displays they had exhibited.]
The Force is not a god, Serus. It is not just. It does not love, nor hate. It is not destiny. It is not judgment. It is a system.
It has properties. Patterns. Biases. Motive tendencies, if you like. Like gravity, or entropy, or chemical decay. The Jedi sanctify these tendencies. The Sith once sought to reverse them. But few, so very few, ever asked: how does the Force actually work?
[He steps forward. The map collapses into a single spiral.]
There is no will of the Force. There is only action and reaction. Intention and consequence. We perceive its 'will' because we are too small to see the whole of it. But I... I studied it. Lived in communion with it. I traced its roots through blood, memory, myth.
And I came to know this: the Force rewards will. Not virtue. Not cruelty. Not balance. But focused will, executed with understanding. That is why the Jedi fall. Why the weak perish. And why you, Serus, and your successors, must learn to see the Force not as a code - but as a language.
When you speak it fluently, you will no longer ask for its power. You will simply use it.
A lesson and reflection on apprentices, young Sith, will come another day.
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