Dark Apprentice

by Lilith Sedai

GLOSSARY:

Azetal gas: A primary export on Vaklin. Toxic to humans if inhaled in quantity. See Wookieepedia

Corridor ghoul: A doglike mutant found in the underlevels of Coruscant. See Wookieepedia

Cortosis: A metal, most often used in alloy form, that has the ability to deflect and short out the blade of a lightsaber.

Cthon: A nasty creature residing within the underlevels of Coruscant, prone to stalking its victims with shocknets and eating their living flesh. Evolved out of humans via mutation and various nastiness. See Wookieepedia

Darth Mallaigh: Mallaigh is Irish Gaelic (Djinn) for the imperative form of "damn" or "curse." It is Qui-Gon Jinn's Sith name. I am forced to confess, Sith Qui-Gon's look is highly inspired by Henri Ducard in Batman Begins, only slicker and less worn. Guh, those gauntlets!

Duracrete slugs (and worms): Parasitic creatures that devour duracrete and cause erosion to building foundations in Coruscant's sublevels. See Wookieepedia

Feemor: Qui-Gon Jinn's first padawan learner. See Wookieepedia

Form VI Niman: Tahl's chosen form of lightsaber combat. Niman is broad-spectrum, combining maneuvers from most of the other forms, but is relatively easy to master, and thus not given to brilliance. Practitioners often resort to telekinetic attack to balance the utilitarian but otherwise lackluster style. See Wookieepedia

Hall of Knighthood: The ceremonial chamber near the top of the Jedi Temple's central spire in which knighting ceremonies are traditionally held. See Wookieepedia

Hego Damask: One of many aliases held by Darth Sidious's Sith master, Darth Plagueis. Sidious betrayed and murdered Plagueis, and funneled his assets to the misguided Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas to fund the creation of a clone army. See Wookieepedia

Hive rat: A mutant rodent species found in the underlevels of Coruscant. See Wookieepedia

LiMerge Power Building: Darth Sidious's primary headquarters inside The Works district on Coruscant. See Wookieepedia

Master of the Order: The elected leader of the Jedi High Council. Not always the same as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. In this story, as in pre-AOTC canon, Mace Windu holds the title and Yoda does not. This title formally places Windu as second in power among the Jedi. See Wookieepedia

Prokreisha: Jedi Master who ended the first Rust Plague. I say he did it by coming up with a chemical antidote that purged toxic iron from the bloodstream. See Wookieepedia

Risatin: A world in the Free Trade Zone recently taxed by the Republic Senate, prompting the Trade Federation to blockade their world in protest of the new tax (similar to the political situation on Naboo).

Rust plague: I couldn't find out much about this on Wookieepedia, other than that it was "a conflict." So I decided it was a conflict created by an illness that affects the chemical composition of iron in the bloodstream of humanoids. The cause is a chemical reaction that occurs in the rapid oxidation of an unusual chemical form of iron, imported from offplanet and found scattered through Vaklin's many junkyards. This iron interacts with natural chemicals in the Vaklinian atmosphere as it rusts, forming an unusually structured chemical variant of iron. When inhaled, the toxic oxidized particles are absorbed by humanoid systems, rendering the blood unable to chemically bind oxygen. With sufficient time and exposure, an individual's hemoglobin and myoglobin no longer retain the ability to transport and utilize enough oxygen to sustain life. Affected individuals exhibit increasing symptoms of oxygen deprivation and eventually die as if they had drowned on dry land. The plague was active for a time in Vaklin's history, then died down as the iron that carried it disintegrated. Hoping to provoke Vaklin to desperation so that it would join the Separatists, Lord Sidious had his Neimoidian allies seed the planet once more with that form of iron. (Don't look at me if you aren't buying it. I'm neither a chemist nor an MD. If you can't swallow this, just say "For some reason lots of people got sick" and move along. These are not the droids you're looking for.)

Shadow barnacles: One of the few surviving native Coruscant species, these silica parasites live on building foundations in humid areas of the Coruscant sublevels. See Wookieepedia

Shii-cho: Form I lightsaber combat, taught to initiates and known to some degree by all Jedi. Deliberate and methodical, well-suited for training. See Wookieepedia

Taozin: An enormous centipede-like creature, rare, inhabiting the sublevels on Coruscant. See Wookieepedia

Taozin nodule: A secreted byproduct created by a taozin, a creature that cannot be sensed within the Living Force. Possessing a nodule allows Force users to shield their Force presence almost entirely from other Force sensitives. See Wookieepedia

The Works: An abandoned industrial district on Coruscant where Darth Sidious makes his Sith headquarters, convenient to his duties as Senator Palpatine. See Wookieepedia

Vaklin: A world in the Free Trade Zone recently taxed by the Republic Senate, prompting the Trade Federation to blockade their world in protest of the new tax (similar to the political situation on Naboo). Vaklin has a history of supporting the Jedi Order. Vaklin also hosted a unique illness called the "Rust plague." See Wookieepedia