Year
4,383 before the Great ReSynchronization
(4,417
Standard Years before the Battle of Yavin)
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03:17, day (Outer Rim
Territories, Auril sector: Ossus): Jedi
Knight Freedon Nadd, a Jedi with unequaled enthusiasm and dedication, believes
the time has come for him to become a Jedi Master, but he is bypassed by his
instructors. This outright denial of his ascention raises a tremendous conflict
within the young Jedi, and his confusion leads him to the ancient Jedi Master
named Matta Tremayne, a Human woman from Corroth who spends most of her time
practicing lightsaber cadences on the outskirts of Ossus. But she ignores him,
and a frustrated Freedon Nadd turns and storms off toward the wild lands
surrounding the city. But he is called back by Tremayne who tells him that some
things cannot be taught directly but have to be discovered from within. When
Nadd pleads with her to help him, she replies that she cannot. Enraged, the
young Jedi shouts out that he will become the greatest Jedi who ever lived,
with our without the Jedi Masters’ help. Igniting her lightsaber, Tremayne
tells Nadd to prove it to her. The two Jedi engage in a lightsaber contest, and
after a while, Freedon Nadd sees a chance to teach Tremayne and the other Jedi
a lesson: he swings his lightsaber in a wide arc at Matta Tremayne’s shoulder.
She looks up just as the lightsaber comes around, but she ignores the weapon
and instead gazes into Freedon Nadd’s eyes. As his blade swoops down, he sees
something in Tremayne’s stare, an expression of calmness and acceptance,
underlied by a strength he had never noticed before. Suddenly he knows that he
has failed, that Matta Tremayne had offered him a true test and that he had
chosen to see it as a threat. Desperately he tries to angle his lightsaber away
from her, but it is too late: as the blade of light strikes Matta Tremayne’s
shoulder and arcs down and across, her robes collapse to the floor, suddenly
bereft of the body that had held them up a moment before.
Freedon Nadd stares at the lifeloss cloth lying before
him, berating himself for his own arrogance. But the more he thinks about the
situation, the more he realizes that Matta Tremayne had brought her death upon
herself: she was the arrogant one as she did not have to do what she did to
prove her point. In a rage that clouds his thoughts and directs all of his
emotions into his anger, he decides to steal a ship and flee Ossus. Plans of
retribution for what the Jedi had done to him emerge, feeding his anger and
providing him with focus: one day, he would destroy those who had sought to
destroy him. But he realizes he needs to learn more about the Force, he needs
to possess more power than the Jedi. From all of his studies he knows of only
one source that will readily accept his apprenticeship and teach him to wield
the Force with impunity: the Sith.
As Ossus disappears into a tiny pinpoint below him, he
sets course for Ashas Ree, an ancient system deep in the dark heart of what had
once been the Sith Empire. (note: YMD-date conjectured by Freedon
Nadd’s bio in Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Companion)
1996
(November), by George R. Strayton hardcover
(roleplay), West End Games
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