Hero's Quests

The next period of my life was punctuated by several significant events, as well as many insignificant ones. For the sake of my readers' interests, I shall recount only those major events here that changed my life profoundly. Not all of these events may have taken place in the order in which I shall recount them.

The first notable event that I should record is my achievement of being named Hero of Tatooine.

I do not record this event because of any personal pride or need to demonstrate my superiority. I feel only that it is necessary to demonstrate the path that led me further to my ultimate destiny.

I had begun my training in the Teräs Käsi art, and had begun searching for suitable locations to practice my skills. I needed living targets to practice on, for the most realistic feedback, but I was not interested in harming innocent people or creatures of the good-natured variety.

The GDC members were most helpful in helping me find good hunting grounds. One such place in particular was located on the planet Tatooine, and commonly referred to as the Squill Cave, though I don't believe that it had any officially registered name. It was simply an extensive system of caverns below the ground near Mos Entha, which was infested with a large, rapidly reproducing colony of mountain squills. The beasts were able to replenish their numbers so quickly that it had proven impossible to eradicate them all. They were nasty, mutated creatures that served no valuable purpose. No one would miss them in the slightest. Even better, they were humanoid in form so they were well suited for practicing martial arts.

Each expedition I made to the Squill Cave was more and more successful. Eventually, I was able to defend myself so well that I could venture very deep into the cavern's dark reaches. Finally one day, after hours of combat, stealth and sweat, I found myself at the very bottom of the dank pit, face to face with an old man.

He was sitting by a small fire, in a modest encampment tucked away in a corner of the rock. I was so astonished to find such a sight at the bottom of a cavern, that I stood speechless before him for many minutes. Finally, he broke the silence and spoke, his raspy voice reverberating against the wet cavern walls.

"Well?" he said, "What, you've never seen an old man before?"

I shook myself out of my bewildered haze and stepped forward. I introduced myself and asked the man what he was doing at the bottom of the Squill Cave. He told me that he lived there during the warm season, taking refuge from the desert heat. The squills didn't bother him, he said, though he did not explain why. He could walk freely among them without fear of being attacked.

"You must be a warrior of some aptitude to have made it all the way down here in once piece," he said.

I shrugged and told him that I was a student of Teräs Käsi, not yet a certified Master, but well-learned and experienced.

He raised an eyebrow at this, and began to speak of the "world above," as he called it, and the political changes that were underway in that domain. It seemed a strange subject for an old hermit in a cave to be talking about with a bloody-handed stranger coated in squill mucus and gore, but I supposed that he didn't get much chance to talk with anybody down there. I told him that I was aware of the political strife caused by the conflict between the Empire and the Rebellion that was said to oppose it, but that I had not chosen to become involved. He asked me whether I supported the Empire's ideals, as a matter of principle. Truthfully, I told him I did not.

The hermit said that Tatooine was in need of people like me, who believed in the autonomy of the people and who were strong enough to stand up for that which they believed. He asked me if I would be willing to validate my principles by helping those in need. I told him that I would.

Thus began a long quest to enact change in the lives of some of Tatooine's inhabitants, to right some wrongs and to uphold nature's balance. The hermit gave me several tasks to complete, and only cryptic information as to where I could find them. He said that a true hero of Tatooine would understand its people and would know where to look.

As it turned out, that was true enough. I had spent a great deal of time on Tatooine before and after moving to Temple City. I spoke with some people that I knew, in the Bestine cantina, for example, and soon learned of a few situations that sounded very similar to those that the hermit had described for me.

The tasks were varied in their nature. One required that I destroy a ravaging beast called a bladeback boar that was harrassing a community in the north. Another, a test of intelligence, required that I assist a bounty hunter in identifying her mark, who had hidden himself cleverly among a group of people, all of whom were so similar that he could not easily be singled out. Yet another quest took me into the desert east of Mos Eisley, where some pirates were being held in the cellar of a local ranch. I found their captain encamped but a few kilometers away. He pleaded with me to help them, saying that his compatriots had been framed. I went to the ranch the next morning and spoke with the rancher's wife, and realized that there was not a shred of truth in what the treacherous criminals had told me. I assisted the ranchers until the authorities were able to come and apprehend the pirates. Later, I helped a moisture farmer by infiltrating a bandits' cave where his kidnapped family was being held and leading them to escape.

Several weeks passed before the hermit told me that my tasks were complete. He presented me with a large, metallic orb, which glowed orange, seemingly under its own power. He told me that he spoke for the people of Tatooine, and that I had proven myself worth of the honorable title of Hero of Tatooine.

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The Art of Teräs Käsi

I had valuable new knowledge of the Force. I had insights into the Path it seemed that I was destined to follow. I even had an ancient lightsaber, a reminder of K'te and of what the future might hold for me. Yet I still felt empty. There was still something missing.

The Holocron the Remnant had given me was silent. It did not respond to my thoughts or attempts to activate it. There was no voice in my head when I held it in my hands. I considered briefly that the Remnant might have been deliberately misleading me by giving me an artifact that was faulty, or worse, but it didn't take me long to decide that I did not care either way. I was through with the Holocrons. I would not seek out any more of them.

They had been intriguing guides for me, but I had decided the time had come for me to seize my own destiny. Perhaps there was indeed a great plan in place for me, but if there was, I was going to discover it on my own. It was time to follow the Path of my own accord.

Sales were good. They had been slow at first in Temple City, but soon I had trouble keeping up with demand. I kept my shop open on Tatooine as well, and the money started rolling in.

As most of my production was automated, I had time to devote to other pursuits. Having mastered the art of Fencing, I had realized that while it was an effective technique, it was still far inferior to the art of Teräs Käsi, the martial art I had seen Gerrvin apply so effectively in combat. I decided to learn it myself.

I had grown accustomed to the physical activity of a fighting art, so I knew what to expect. Nevertheless, it took an enormous amount of willpower and effort to learn the basics of Teräs Käsi. It was only through countless hours of repetition that I was able to get a grasp on the fundamental aspects of the art.

It seemed it would be a long road, but I was pleased that it was a road of my own making.