(Oh, he knows)
"Yes," says Saar, "but somehow I think you will find that the Republic prefers people that know how to do more than just kill. That is where Kuylen's people are different, harsh as they are. They have some decent sense of society. Kuylen is a nobleman, after all. All for show, these days, of course. No-one fights wars in the Republic any more."
"What exactly is it that you think the Sith TAUGHT?" says Kuylen, with a hard edge to his voice. "This isn't adding one and one. The Sith learnt on a par with the Jedi, and even a young Jedi is dangerous. But your surprise should be that such a thing exists at all. The Sith did not keep such records. All their training was done by word of mouth, Master to Apprentice.
"That tablet comes from a planet now called Avalar. Heard of it?"
-
"They can build, eat, drink and kill," says Saar, "And that is about all. And the importance of them being outside the Republic is that it means WE can make use of them. I am sure Kuylen would have liked to have led his own people to Galactic domination but no Republican world would dare do such a thing. These people will have to do.
"Come with me," says Saar. He stands up, and reaches his hand casually forwards. A large iron key flies from the desk to his hand.
"NO-ONE is a full Sith," says Kuylen, testily. "They have been extinct for a thousand years. The Jedi destroyed them.
"But they were made weak by internecine struggle. The Sith's ways were old-fashioned; they had no true discipline. My organisation is different. This is a military venture.
"Avalar was an interesting... experiment of the Sith. A group of dissident Sith monks set up a Monastery there, and there they set themselves the task of codifying the lore of the Sith. Every piece of knowledge, every instruction, every secret they held, was codified on these tablets and placed in their archive. Theor objective was to build a trainig centre to rival the Jedi temple, where new Sith Apprentices could learn the ways of the Sith, and so a new army be trained.
"But the more traditional Sith took objection to it. They firmly believed that word of mouth was the only way for Sith to be trained. An army led by Darth Bane stotmed the monastery- which, being Sith, was more like a fortress- and killed the Sith monks there. But the archive was left intact, due to the sacredness of the tablets the knowledge was inscribed on.
"Avalar was never found by the Jedi and it passed into their myth. Many people did not believe it existed. I found it."
-
Galder, you are getting nothing. Their comms are down. It's just static.
But wait; you are getting some sort of pulse signal from somewhere.
-
Takuan, it is a large stone room, mostly empty- but with what looks like a large coffin inside.
"If I had that power," said Kuylen, "I would not be wasting my time here with you. I would be ruling this Galaxy.
"The Sith are extinct and rightly so. My group is out to steal its power, not its ways.
"Getting the Arhive was difficult. Avalar itself was an unstable planet; it has only centuries to live before its sun will destroy it. Already it is virtually uninhabitable, and it is absorbing materials from its star which caysed its icy surface to become filled with solid deposits. We had to mine through those layers to reach the Archive. Though this did give us a fortunate sideline in the gokd we so extracted.
"But this needed resources and resources needed alliances. The man we allied with, who we needed to get access to Avalar, betrayed us. My agents killed him for his treachery, and nearly exterminated the pirate clan that also proved treacherous, which is the reason for the bounty on my head and now yours. But the damage of the betrayal was done. As a result, the Jedi caught up with us at Avalar before we could extract the Archive. We have but a fraction of it and the rest is lost."
-
Takuan, the coffin is extremely cold to the touch.