Jarvashqiine

"With the resources of a galaxy at his disposal, he gathered the greatest works of knowledge from over a million worlds. He studied the Force in all its guises throughout the galaxy, whether it was the shamanism of the Jarvashqiine or the tales of the Tyia. Coupled with perversions of the secrets he ripped from the living minds of Jedi he captured during the Purge, he learned more than he ever expected."

―Voren Na'al

Jarvashqiine was a shamanistic Force religion that worshiped individuals who were able to use mystical powers—what the Jedi and Sith knew as the Force—and practiced shamanism; these beings were thus known as the Jarvashqiine shamans. During his quest to gain mastery over the dark side of the Force, Palpatine, in his alter ego as Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, studied the Jarvashqiine shamans and other Force groups, such as the Tyia, Krath, and Heresiarchs. Palpatine took everything that he learned from these various groups, most of which was crude and simplistic, and refined it, recording it in his Dark Side Compendium.

Practices and beliefs

Jarvashqiine referred to both a Force religion and the shamans whom the religion's members worshiped. The shamans were able to manipulate the binding, metaphysical power of the Force—although "the Force" was the term used by the Jedi and Sith, the Jarvashqiine did not refer to it as such—and were thought to possess mystical powers. They believed that they could only access the dark side of the Force via elaborate blood rituals, and that if an individual's rites were removed, then then that person's capacity to use the Force would be blocked. The shamans were worshiped for their powers, and Jarvashqiine's members believed in the existence of spirits.

History

The Jarvashqiine existed around the time of the fall of the Galactic Republic and the rise of the New Order. Palpatine was a Naboo man, who, at varying times in his life, was a Senator, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, and Galactic Emperor, as well as the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious; and it was as a Sith Lord that he visited the Jarvashqiine at some point in his life, sometime between 82 BBY and 4 ABY.

Palpatine studied the religion in the hopes of widening his knowledge of the Force, in order to gain mastery over its dark side. He studied many other Force-based groups, including the Tyia, Krath, and Heresiarchs, and tortured many captured Jedi, searching for secrets that he needed to continue his studies. Palpatine learned much from the Jarvashqiine and other Force organizations, and he began to experiment with what he had learned. Most of the techniques he found were usually primitive, but he refined it and gathered it into a great assemblage of dark side lore, much of which made its way into his Dark Side Compendium.

Behind the scenes

The Jarvashqiine were created by Michael Allen Horne for the Dark Empire Sourcebook in 1993, though little of the details regarding the religion were established. Later, in 2008, The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia by Daniel Wallace, Stephen J. Sansweet, Pablo Hidalgo, and Bob Vitas included an entry on the Jarvashqiine, establishing more details on the group. They were also mentioned in The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force, in 2010.

Sources

• Dark Empire Sourcebook (First mentioned)
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force

Notes and references

In other languages

• Deutsch