Star Wars Writing Tips and Tricks.

Myriad of Force Users.

A Force-Sensitive, also known as a Force User, is any living organism that is keenly attuned to Force. These beings could be both sentient and non-sentient, as organisms such as certain animals and plant life, like the Uneti trees, could also being Force-Sensitive.

An indication of Force-Sensitivity in an individual was the quantity of 'midi-chlorians' within the subject's cells, typically determined by a blood sample amongst other possible tests, as Force-Sensitives possessed a higher than average count of midi-chlorians than the general population.

Other indications, which were typically displayed by older children, included 'natural gifts/talents' such as faster reflexes from their enhanced precognitive abilities, naturally higher flexibility and physical strength, unusually high amounts of luck in guesses and correct decision making, an affinity to animals, and greater senses and attunement to their surroundings as well as potentially having a chance at glimpsing other people's thoughts and emotions, if such feelings were particularly strong when the Force-Sensitive child was present even if not really being displayed openly by the other person/people in question.

During the Old Republic era of Star Wars, Force-Sensitives who were discovered by a Jedi at a young age were enlisted for training in the Jedi Order. Individuals who were discovered later and had developed familial ties and friendships with others were rarely trained because of the associated attachment and negative emotions that these ties could produce in an individual.

This ruling originated after the Exar Kun War but varied wildly in its implementation until the Ruusan Reformation in the aftermath of the Seventh Battle of Ruusan.

Detecting Force-Sensitivity in infants and young children usually involved the blood test to determine their midi-chlorian count, but other methods were also used. During the New Jedi Order in the wake of the defeat of the Empire, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa-Solo discovered a different way to reveal someone's Force-Sensitivity through the defences of the brain. It is a natural reflex of a Force-Sensitive to rebuff intrusion to the areas at the very back of the brain when the Force is being used to access them.

I believe that this method may have also been known to Jedi prior to the Fall of the Republic, but the availability and ease of use of the blood tests may have rendered the prodding of the brain unnecessary and even intrusive.

Sometimes, though uncommon because of the dangers that it poses to the individual using the ability, a Jedi would go into a trance to find Force-Sensitives by detecting the beacon that was displayed through the Force itself.

This technique is already hard enough to master in addition to spreading the Jedi's Force abilities quite thin as a Jedi doing this cannot fight nor concentrate on anything else that becomes a distraction to them when combined with the amount of beings that the Jedi must mentally touch to find the Force-Sensitive. This technique also requires time to use effectively, which is another downside when things are needing to be done quickly and in a timely fashion.

With proper training, Force-Sensitives could learn to sense and manipulate the essence of the Force around them. With this training came the ability for Jedi to sense high levels of the Force present in individuals, even those in the nearby vicinity could be sensed by those with a keen skill in detecting the presence of the Force. With this however, comes the ability to 'shroud' and hide ones presence from detection through the Force, which could be done both consciously and unconsciously.

Throughout the ages, several different organisations developed that specifically focussed on the development and training of Force-Sensitive individuals, each with an almost vastly different philosophy than another.

The most noted of these were the Jedi Order and the Sith Order.

Whilst the Jedi drew their power from the Light Side of the Force and maintained a position of protecting the galaxy, the Sith were the opposite and drew their powers from the Dark Side of the Force for their own benefit at the often great expense of others.

Other Force-Sensitive organisations over the millenniums of Star Wars history include the Force Wielders, Force Priestesses, the Ysanna, the Nightsisters of Dathomir, the Aing-Tii Monks, the Baran Do, the Ordu Aspectu, the Fallanassi, the Jensaarai, the Krath, the Sorcerers of Tund, and the Frangawl Cult of Bardotta, just to name a few.

These were typically made up of Force Adepts, both Light and Dark, who learnt as they went along without any of the formal training associated with the Jedi and Sith Orders in Star Wars canon.

During the rule of the Imperial Reign after the fall of the Jedi Order, the aptly named 'Project Harvester' was an Imperial Initiative to hunt down and recruit or cull Force-Sensitive individuals as other methods and technologies for testing were developed to hunt them down during this time.

If found young enough or easily manipulated though, these Force-Sensitives may have been taken to be trained by the Imperial Forces, resulting in the Inquisitors seen in Star Wars Rebels or the elite Emperor's Hands in Legends.

Most Force-Sensitives discovered during this time however were culled by the Inquisitors and other Imperial forces due to three main factors:

- The threat of other powerful Force Users emerging.

This was a fear of Palpatine's and those considered this were simply eliminated on sight.

- Were an alien Force-Sensitive.

They were more than likely killed upon sight due to the major Imperial view that Humans were the galaxy's superior species and all others, even including those considered Near-Human, were vastly inferior to them.

This is the outcome suggested by the Human High Culture movement that was most prevalent in the Core Worlds where Humans were amongst the vast majority of the inhabitants as compared to the worlds further out from the Core.

- And, Lack of sufficient power during vigorous 'testing' performed by Imperials.

There were three known means to achieve Force-Sensitivity as it was either inherited from a Force-Sensitive progenitor (the most likely case), acquired through a random mutation or evolution, or, in the rarest of cases, being artificially imbued with Force-Sensitivity, such as the cases of the Reborn and Sith Cultists through often vicious experimentation.

Even latent Force-Sensitivity in individuals could be artificially activated or magnified by those with greater attunement to the Force than the latent individual. However, there were some cases where children of a Jedi or other Force-Sensitives were incapable of using the Force themselves in a rare and unexplainable phenomenon that occurred in random generations.

In addition to this, certain species were noted for having higher numbers of Force-Sensitives than others, with some having no attunement to the level of Jedi candidacy in the Force at all. Humans, including Near-Humans like the Kiffar and Korunnai among others, Kel Dors, Ithorians, Twi'leks, Zabraks, Nautolans, Togruta and Cereans were noted for having high numbers of Force-Sensitives whereas Wookiees, Jawas, Hutts, Caamasi, Ewoks and Kaminoans were noted for having significantly low numbers of Force-Sensitives that could be considered for Jedi candidacy.

Certain species such as the Khommites and the Humans of Jabiim openly feared and detested Force-Sensitives to the point of killing them outright if discovered.

Next, we delve into the vast spectrum that makes up one's Force-Sensitivity from the light side to the dark side.

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