Grand Master Shu-Hen
20000 BBY, Tython, Hidden Truths of the Order
”Shii—Chō! Shii—Chō!” The shouting of the many younglings could be heard as they drilled strikes and steps on an evergreen field of grass a mile away from the Jedi Temple. They were moving in a formation of eight ranks, with each row of pupils consisting of twelve young Jedi of the future—or so the Grand Master of the Order hoped. They were coordinated in their strikes, all repeating the same sequence again and again. A strike from above, and a vertical strike that were coupled with fine footwork that the great Grand Master Shu-Hen had just taught them.
He himself was yet somewhat unfamiliar with the lightsaber form at hand, but he had grasped the basics quite well. It was called Shii-Chō, the Form of Determination. Although it barely differed from traditional use of a sword, it was the first time the Jedi had given their form of combat a name. Thus far, all of the Jedi had used their own preferred forms of combat or those they had learned from their masters—but as of late, the Battlemaster of the Order had ruled that each padawan trained under the order should learn a form known to all for the sake of unity. Unity was what the Jedi needed now, more than ever.
It was something that the Knights of Bogan lacked, as the dark side of the Force often drove those who wielded it to fight one another sooner rather than later. Shu-Hen watched his pupils with pride, but there was a concern behind his eyes that was written on his face—what would come out of all of this? This war? This conflict? He wished and did everything for it to end soon, but the Jedi themselves were between a rock and a hard place. Their numbers were drawn thin on multiple fronts, and most of their most vigilant knights and masters were besieged on Metellos, and should they lose that planet it would expose Ilum for a direct attack by the Knights of Bogan.
Ilum was more than just a symbolic world for the Jedi, it was the main source of their kyber crystals—without it, future generations of the Jedi wouldn’t be able to build lightsabers unless they found other planets with these crystals. And then, what truly haunted him, was the mission on Koros Major. Their goal there wasn’t to succeed in diplomatic relations with the Korosi, but to make sure that they’d remain neutral until the end of the war. And beyond that, the mission that Jeh’Kant Kai undertook. It was a risky mission for the aforementioned Jedi, because it could drive the said Jedi towards something that he hoped wouldn’t ever happen. A secret that had been kept since his birth.
”Patience, young Padawan. Keep your elbows tighter. Feel your lightsaber, it is your extension.”
Shu-Hen told a pupil as he watched the young ones drilling. As he looked on, he was approached by a female Jedi—one of taller than usual stature, with brown hair and a light complexity. Green eyes, young, perhaps in her early twenties. It was his own padawan, Jedi Knight Syphia Ajeddo. She stood next to him, seeing his masters’ conflict within.
”Master Shu-Hen, are you well?”
She asked with a tone of softness and care, looking at her master with a worried expression.
”My beloved apprentice, I am well. But the state… of everything, does worry me. The Force has eluded me, and I can not see what is to come. All I know is that the Force means all of this to happen. And I trust all things will end well.”
Shu-Hen replied, with wisdom and age as you would imagine from someone who had served the Jedi Order for more than seventy years. He turned towards his apprentice, looking at her with intent in his eyes.
”However… I can not bypass the thought of what is going on in Koros.”
He uttered with almost as if worry, as his apprentice raised her eyebrows with a sense of wonder and as if she had hundreds of questions to ask.
”Why master? Jeh’Kant is more than adept for his mission, and so is Master Xev.”
She asked, with a tone of wonder and thought. He responded with truth in his voice, releasing his worries and thoughts all at once.
”Master Xev will indeed succeed in his mission, but Jeh’Kant… Even if he succeeds, it will only lead to grief. I am afraid of what is to come.”
He uttered with a worried tone, as his pupil replied with more questions and a sense of urgency that seemed to grow the further their discussion went.
”Master, what do you mean?”
She asked as he remained silent—knowing a truth regarding Jeh’Kant that only him and two other Jedi within the order knew. That Jeh’Kant was an anomaly, born from something unnatural and difficult to explain. Something so difficult that he couldn’t explain it to his pupil at all. His sight turned away as he looked at the many younglings that trained on the field, reminiscing times when Jeh’Kant trained much like them. He also remembers when he was born—a birth that was unexpected, as much as was the pregnancy of his mother.
His mother was a Jedi Knight, once. Then something unexplainable happened and she became pregnant, without a father to the child. The Jedi conducted many tests and investigations as they suspected that she had a relationship, however, it was indeed true that she became pregnant without a biological father. It was only when a handful of monks from the Dai Bendu Order approached the Jedi in hopes of retrieving the child that Shu-Hen found out about his origins. Or, what the Dai Bendu believed it to be. Now many millennia ago, the Dai Bendu conducted experiments on the Force and midi-chlorians—tampering with life itself, a practice far deeper than even alchemy. They managed to create a ripple effect in the Force, and in time, they believed that those ripples culminated in Jeh’Kant—the pure vessel, as they claimed. However, Shu-Hen drove those monks away and refused to believe their story then. However, having seen Jeh’Kant’s ability and gift in the Force, he began to believe that he might be a child of the Force itself.
Out of those monks who had come to retrieve Jeh’Kant, only one was alive—and it was the one whom the Knights of Bogan had captured as they believed that he held information regarding a weapon of great power. This weapon, however, was indeed the Pure Vessel whom they claim the young Jeh’Kant to be….
