Pathfinder – Jilly James

Some stuff about language and word usage in the story.

The term HON is used occasionally in the story and is shorthand for “human or near-human.” Why?

• Almost anything that breathes oxygen, is capable of conventional speech, has arms and legs, and walks on two legs is called “human or near human” by the wikis. So Twilek, Iktotchi, etc, are classified has “near human.” In practice, nobody calls Iktotchi “near human.” They’re always referred to as Iktotchi. Same thing for Twilek. Almost anyone using the term “near human” in any practical sense means they look close to human but no one can tell for sure by a visual inspection. Which makes sense since there are probably very few mostly or all-humans anymore. Also, there are probably species that are distinctly not human but visually not easily distinguishable from humans. Which leads to the second point.
• People are linguistically lazy. They’d never say “human or near human” all the time. Realistically, there’d be some sort of shorthand slang that means “we can’t tell by looking how much human DNA they have, but they’re probably human-ish.” I chose to just go with the acronym HON. It’d be pronounced the same way you’d pronounce the name Han (as in Han Solo).

Regarding Dai Bendu, I have one reference to Dai Bendu language (which may not survive my final edit). Regardless, I think of Dai Bendu as being like Latin. No one really speaks it anymore, though some words might be used in the common Jedi vernacular. And, yes, I’m aware the language is a fan creation even if the order of the Dai Bendu is canon. Dai Bendu influenced my head canon about the Force quite a lot, so the language stuff creeps in.

Also, for me, the plural of Nexu is Nexi. Otherwise, there’s all this confusing blathering about the rampaging Nexus, and then I’m lost in the nexus. I refuse to budge on this point.

If I used Melida/Daan, I’m probably referring to the planet in a historical context before the war was won. Melidaan would be referring to the planet after the Young won the war, so it’s a subtle timeline reference, probably not me being absentminded.

Some terms used in this story:

• sai tok – one of the lightsaber marks of contact where someone is bisected with a saber (Darth Maul was defeated in Phatom Menace with sai tok)
• Cin Vhetin – fresh start, clean slate (lit. white fields)
• verd’goten – mandalorian coming of age (lit. warrior birth)
• Mand’alor – sole ruler/leader
• Evaar’la – young

This starts 3 months post-war, and I’d say Obi-Wan is fairly traumatized still; his core personality certainly hasn’t reasserted itself yet. In some ways, he hasn’t left the war.

• As always, I tried to write it such that you don’t need to know anything about canon to follow this story, but certainly those who have read The Defenders of the Dead will get more out of it (or if you’ve brushed up on Jedi Apprentice lore). It’s not my habit to info dump, but everything you need to know about Melida/Daan will be explained in the story. Also, I did change some canon elements that aren’t particularly relevant to the fix-it (for example, the exact way Cerasi died).
• Jedi Apprentice books have been out of print for a while, so there’s no way to get caught up on relevant canon to this story. You may be able to find some summaries of the JA books, or you’ll have to trust me that I’ve got you covered when it comes to being able to understand the storyline. Probably the best movie to understand many of the characters, though hardly all, is weirdly, Phantom Menace, even though this takes place probably 11 years before Phantom Menace.
• I cherry picked from Disney canon, Legends canon, and JA canon, threw out what I didn’t like, and filled in gaps then just started making shit up. I’m pretty sure that’s most Star Wars fic these days, no? Mostly Jedi Apprentice events, I’ve changed some events from the Melida/Daan arc, but it doesn’t affect the overall trajectory of the fix-it, which is actually using Melida/Daan as an impetus to… well, you’ll see! (Also, the Young deserved better)
• There’s a lot within about the the interplay with the other branches of the order. While there’s some information about how the other branches of the order operate, there wasn’t enough, and it didn’t suit my purposes anyway. When in doubt, do your own world building. jazz hands.  I definitely did my own world building about the service corps. For the purposes of my story, the branch of the order with the knights, which has the Jedi Academy, is the Diplomacy Corps.
• I realize in canon that Tyvokka died during the Stark Hyperspace War in 44 BBY, however, handwave, he lived. Plo Koon still wound up on the Council though. It’s magic.
• I have my own head canons about the Force and have a lot of world building I’ve worked up, only some of which is explored here. The Force may not work that way, but, then again, the Force works how I say it works! 😉
• There are a couple of Force concepts I will almost never bring up in any story. 1. midi-chlorians. 2. Mortis. I’m not a fan of them conceptually. I tend to ignore midi-chlorians entirely, so you can pretend they exist or not at your preference, but if my story contradicts the existence of midi-chlorians, then they don’t exist. But Mortis and the father&daughter&son shenanigans do not exist at all. We hates it.

The story is Gen for most of it, but it takes a turn towards the relationship at some point. The relationship is tame in deference to their ages.

Trivia! one role in this story was originally written for Tyvokka, but Keira ruined me with love for Space!Daddy so I rewrote some stuff to change it to Jaro Tapal. And, yeah, of course Jaro Tapal and Eeth Koth are together, becuase she ruined me with an OTP too! It’s not on-screen (much!), but just know that the Force ships it.

Other fun fact. I wound up removing Feemor from this story, but he’ll be in the next one. Anyway… Did you know his last name is Starr? It is. AO3 named him. Let me tell you how.

So, I’m reading on the archive one day, and I see Feemor in the tag list, and it says Feemor (Star. The tag wrapped, and I failed to notice the parentheses, and I thought I was seeing his name. What it really said was Feemor (Star Wars), but I read Feemor Star. It was mightily stuck in my head from that moment onward. I talked to Keira and we agreed it’s spelled Starr. This is how head canons become a thing. AO3 named Jinn’s abandoned baby a Starr. Even though he’s full grown, he probably needs a Space!Daddy.

Obi-Wan: Ewan McGregor (significantly de-aged), Nield: Dylan O’Brien (a little de-aged), Rinnea Wodij: Katy O’Brian (aged up like whoa), Jaro Tapal: Lasat, Reloth Kan: Iktotchi, Thee Ohri: Kel Dor, Yoda: Bog Troll, Von-Re Soren: Tarnab, Yaddle: Tadpole Princess and Master of all She Surveys, Lodha Ebé: Regé-Jean Page (Wings, baby)

Name pronunciation guide:

• Nield: I always assumed this is pronounced similar to yield. If i’m wrong, I’m not sure I want to know. It’s entrenched in my mind.
• Rinnea Wodij: Rinnea is similar to Linnea. Wodij is pronounce woe-dee, no emphasis on either syllable.
• Reloth Kan: Reloth. If you were to pronounce zealous with a th sound at the end, you’d have it (zealoth)… reh-luth. no emphasis on either syllable. People call her Re, but that would be pronounced Ree.
• Thee Ohri: no h’s in the pronunciation. So Tee Oree.
• Yoda: Bog Troll
• Von-Re Soren: This one is pronounced how it looks. Long e in the first name, short e in the last name. Von-Ree.
• Lodha Ebé: Low-duh, slight emphasis on the first syllable. Eh-bay. Again, slight emphasis on the first syllable.

All OC names came from the fantasy name generator, except Rinnea. The name generator gave me Cex Wodij. I mean, come on. There’s only one natural way to pronounce that. I can’t run around calling the admiral something that sounds like “sex”!

Masana Tide is a major character later in the story, but I couldn’t find any images of her that weren’t of her except as the Ninth Sister, and I’m just not prepared to put that image out there. That’s just sadness all over. Don’t look up Masana Tide’s canon story, for your own sanity, okay? If you’re really curious about Jedi Masana, WestWind did some concept art for her, which can be found on my site on the art menu under art created by others.