A Long Time Ago

Surveillance mission report: Sentinel Master Lusien Gorixo reporting to Council Master Mace Windu. Strictly in confidence. Not to be Archived.

Please note the language of the planet in question is unfamiliar, and no spellings of names are guaranteed correct. All words heard spoken but not seen written are italicized.

The mission was assigned by Master Windu personally, and is deemed a matter of high urgency, due to the rarity of Council members choosing to speak directly to Sentinel Masters. The mission brief was that an anomaly had occurred, or was expected to occur, on a certain world beyond Wild Space, which anomaly would change the universe as we know it. I was accompanied by my Padawan, Jiron Jados, and Padawan Reseda Che, whose Master was indisposed and remained at Mereaux.

In the area of the world where we landed, the climate is hot and arid, though not insupportable. The language spoken there is called Aramaac, a tongue not known in the Republic. However, I found fewer language difficulties than anticipated, as the spoken form of this Aramaac is closely related to Umgallian Lisarith, in which both Padawans and I are moderately fluent. The written form of Aramaac was entirely new to us, and I managed to obtain a sample of it for the interest of the Archives.

We first arrived in the small city of Vrushlayam on a local feast-day, the beginning of a major festival, and the city was crowded with foreigners from all over the world, so we were moderately inconspicuous. On the first day, we became delayed in a crowd of people observing a procession. They were throwing down their cloaks, and the large flat leaves of trees, to make a clean path for a man, who was riding a beast of some sort down the street, followed by some dozen or so other men on foot. While I did not see the man, Padawan Jados did, and reported that he was not noticeably different in feature or dress to any other man in the city. A bystander informed me that the man was a savior, or m'ssiyah, foretold by the holy writings of the place.

We obtained accommodation in the city, and used it as a base of operations as we explored, and spoke to the people, gathering information. Five days after our arrival, there was a minor disturbance late at night. Looking out of a window, Padawan Jados saw that the man from the procession had been arrested by armed security personnel for an unknown misdemeanor, and the man's followers resisted his arrest, which was what caused the disturbance. Padawan Che was keen to investigate further, finding it suspicious that an ordinary-looking and unarmed person would be arrested by such a large number of armed men. Although I gave him permission to do so, his researches ended at the gates to the residence of one of the chief men in the city.

Over the course of the following morning, nothing new could be learned about the rumored anomaly we were sent to investigate. Near the residence of the governor, Padawan Che was separated from us in the crowd, remained lost for some hours, and returned describing the situation as 'a zoo' and saying that the governor had ordered the execution of the man arrested the previous night. He also learned the man's name, which he rendered as Yeshwa.

At around noon, it suddenly became dark. I can state with confidence that this was not an eclipse, because total darkness prevailed for a further three hours. Padawan Jados had heard something relating to a place called Galgota outside the city, and made his way there. Padawan Che and I remained in the city, but the festival had brought so many strangers into the area that it was difficult to gain any accurate information as to major current events.