All posts by FlashFloodNinja

I've been studying the nature of the Sith, specifically the Rule of Two that Darth Bane put into place to preserve the future and the secrecy of the Sith.

As far back as the events of Star Wars: The Old Republic, Sith were actually very prolific. Of course, their characteristic greed for power proved to be their downfall - what with all of the back-stabbing and betrayal that was (and inherently is) prevalent in Sith culture.

Fast forward to the events of the Anakin Saga and you only ever really see two Sith in any sort of prominence - a Master and an Apprentice, as the Rule of Two dictates. There are exceptions, but they quite frequently devolve into in-fighting and betrayal - par for the course.

Now, I haven't studied much of the Extended Universe that takes place beyond the events of Episode VI. With the deaths of Vader and Sidious, I presume a lot is left in flux. Keep this ignorance of mine in mind when I ask the following questions:

Would the Rule of Two remain intact after the death of the last Sith duo?

How might multiple Sith exist in parallel if the Rule of Two wasn't traditionally enforced?

What kind of room is there for Sith outside of the Rule of Two? There seems to be plenty of force-wielding Dark-siders with lightsabers beyond the Two, both across the video games and in the screenplays/shows.

Presuming the Rule of Two was abandoned or abolished, what would a return to the old Sith ways - a time when Sith numbered in the thousands across the galaxy - look like in the contemporary era?

Throughout the movies, you see many references to ship-based deflectors on vessels ranging from fighters to ISDs. With one notable exception - the Droideka bubble shield - there don't seem to be any personal shields or deflectors of any sort. I haven't scoured all of the lore, but do personal shields not exist? Why are they not mainstream? It seems like shielding that can protect a unit from blaster fire - at least for a period of time - is superior to nothing.

Which leads me into the next topic: armor. We see a broad range of uniform selections, but with scant exception (looking at you, Mandalorians), it seems to be little more than show. Regardless of how up-armored a unit appears to be (Imperial storm troopers, for example, are covered head-to-toe in iconic white armor), it only takes a single shot to put them down. Worse, even primitive weapons (as shown in Episode VI) are sufficient to defeat armor. Is armor really useless in Star Wars, or is this just cinematic effect? Is there anything in the Star Wars universe that armor can defeat or protect against?

Obviously, this is a little ambiguous of a topic (as Star Wars tends to be heavily cinematic), but I think there are at least two valid questions here:

1. Do personal shields/deflectors exist? If so, in what fashion? If not, why?

2. Does armor have a defensive purpose? Every personal weapon in Star Wars seems to inflict one-shot kills, so why armor?

According to the article on Lightsaber combat:

"Form I, Shii-Cho, was a highly simplified style, based on age-old fencing principles, and defining the types of attacks, parries, body zones and practice drills that could be utilized with the lightsaber. When Darksiders and fallen Jedi began to arise, lightsaber duels became an almost routine activity, and Shii-Cho was simply not up for the task, as it didn't address lightsaber-to-lightsaber combat."

Does this imply that Shii-Cho, while arguably the granddaddy of Lightsaber forms, is presently obsolete? It would appear that there are other forms that accomplish more without the glaring weakness of being useless in a lightsaber duel.

I'm in the process of prepping for a tabletop Star Wars RPG session, but I'm at a bit of a disadvantage because I'm not much of a Star Wars guru. I wish I knew the lore better because I'd like to be able to accurately portray the likely causes and effects of significant alterations to the setting.

The current "significant alteration" I'm working on comes in the form of a Force-amplifying artifact. Its nature is currently up in the air, but it 1) is easily portable and 2) exponentially increases all Force-related abilities of its wielder - whether by amplifying their connection to the force or amplifying effects when used as a focus.

I anticipate that this artifact's very presence would spark a Force-user arms race, but (again) I don't really know enough about the setting to determine further consequences or likely occurrences it would have on the Star Wars universe on either a macro or micro level.

Questions I have for the body of Star Wars experts:

1. How is the presence of this artifact likely to affect major factions in the Star Wars universe (no specific era)?

2. Depending on the artifact's nuances, how significant would it be if a given Force-User's power as much as doubled - or more?

3. Do you believe this sort of element would be a fitting "campaign device" - or would disrupt the nature of what Star Wars is?

4. What if there were more than one, or the ability to create new ones was discovered or contrived?

I appreciate any insight or discussion.