                                Star Wars 

                           Wizard's RPG Stories

          source : http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=starwars/newsarchive
          upload : 10.IV.2006


     Life's Memories

     By Morrie Mullins Former Living Force Plot Director and Campaign Designer

     Former Living Force Plot Director Morrie Mullins presents a supplement to
the  campaign's  newest  scenario.  In  "Life's  Memories,"   two   well-known
Gamemaster characters examine the concept of death as it relates to the Force.
"Life's Memories" ties into the July Living  Force  scenario,  Excursion,  the
second part of the "Belted In" trilogy.

     Some of the first  Gamemaster  characters  encountered  by  Living  Force
heroes were San Herrera and Nia Reston, two young Humans with nothing but  the
best of intentions. San and Nia appeared in "The Resistance Within,"  as  well
as "Something Uffel," "Tilnes Rising," and most recently, "Memories."  As  the
heroes have progressed, so have San and Nia, following what they  perceive  to
be the will of the Force - - but in a non-Jedi fashion.

     Recent months, including their own adventures, have given  them  a  great
deal to reflect upon, and issues of mortality weigh heavy on the minds of many
in Cularin. In this - - their attempt at a scholarly treatise - - San and  Nia
discuss the meaning of "death," both as it is commonly understood and as  they
suggest we might better understand it in terms of the Force.

     Thesis: In this paper, we will present the position  that  death  is  not
well understood by the denizens of the galaxy, that a number of misconceptions
and outright falsehoods exist, and that a different perspective may  serve  to
better enable individuals to deal with the harsh reality of death. We  discuss
one such perspective and the advantages it may provide.

     What begins, ends.

     What is born, dies.

     All that is made can be un-made.

     Dark has no meaning without light,

     And for all living things

     there is the final

     silence. (1)

     The galaxy is wide, and the variety of species  almost  beyond  counting.
Hutt and Human, Verpine and Vuvrian - - the differences from one  star  system
to another, even from one planet to another, can be astounding. Yet,  for  all
the differences that exist across peoples(2) there is a common thread. All  of
us who live will, one day, die.

     As children, we do not understand death. It is a specter, a  threat  that
has no meaning to us. Who dies? We don't die. People talk about dying, but  is
it real? Of course not, because we ourselves have never died, nor do  we  plan
to.

     The mind of the child is incapable of grasping the  concept  of  its  own
cessation. Some look at children and envy them; lucky, to not  know  that  you
will one day die.

     Others look at children and pity them; a shame, that the  child  believes
in something that can never be. A shame that one day the child will learn,  as
we did, that life ends, that everything we see and know and experience one day
simply ceases to exist for us.

     We ask this question: Who is to be envied, and who is to  be  pitied?  We
would argue that the "adults" in both of the above examples are, in fact,  the
ones to be pitied, as the adults have come to an understanding of "death" that
is inherently flawed.

     Does that mean that the children are to be  envied?  No.  These  children
will be taught the "reality" of death by adults, many of whom possess a flawed
understanding of what death means. They will learn to fear  death.  They  will
learn that death is something "bad," rather than a natural part of life.  They
will come to view death as an ending, rather than simply another step in  what
is, inherently, a natural progression.

     This is a time, in Cularin and in the galaxy at large, in which  many  of
us are considering the meaning of death. As war rages, we find ourselves faced
daily with reports from  battlefields  on  distant  worlds,  images  of  ships
blasting away at other ships amidst fields of peaceful  stars  that  will  not
change no matter what we do to one another. Even here, we lose those  we  love
and respect, and many view such passings with sadness. At  a  recent  memorial
service, Mother Dariana spoke a few words about the  service  -  -  which  was
treated not as a time for mourning but as a celebration of a life well-lived -
- in which she said the following: "This isn't about  [the  deceased].  That's
what you learn, when you see enough of these. It's almost never about what the
person who's moved on would have wanted. It's about what the  people  who  are
still living need."(3) "Belted In" Trilogy Summary Nirama, the enigmatic alien
crime lord, has an agenda - - a very  public  agenda.  He's  not  happy  about
recent goings-on in Cularin, and he's less happy with the strangeness  in  the
asteroid belt that he calls "home." Is Nirama helping the people  of  Cularin,
are the people helping him, or is it actually mutual?

     What do the living need, though? What is necessary to allow us to  "cope"
with death?

     Perhaps the hardest part of death for many individuals to contend with is
the feeling of emptiness, of loss, that results when someone who has been part
of our lives is suddenly no longer. Certainly, there are elements of fear  and
uncertainty that play into that - - if the person is  no  longer  here,  where
have they gone? Did they simply cease to exist,  and  if  so,  does  that  not
violate the basic laws of physics?

     At this point, you may have become skeptical. How  could  death  possibly
violate a physical law? Well, consider this statement, treated as  basic  fact
by every student of the sciences in the galaxy: Matter and  energy  cannot  be
created or destroyed; they can only change from one form to another.

     When a living creature dies, it becomes inanimate. Any  energy  that  was
stored within that body is lost. Lost. Not  destroyed.  Even  "lost,"  though,
carries inaccurate connotations, since the energy cannot be lost but can  only
change from one form to another. (4)

     To understand death, then, one must first understand that it is not truly
a "loss" of anything. It  is  simply  a  transformation  of  the  energy  that
provides the vital essence of the individual from one form to another.

     The Force as Energy While we are not Jedi, we do find many of their texts
(at least, those made available to the general public) of great  interest  and
help in understanding the meaning of death. Any  student  of  the  Force  will
likely recall the words of Jedi Master Ood Bnar, who wrote of the Force  as  a
"mystical energy field" that surrounds all living things. (5) We suggest  that
this is the energy present in each of us, which animates us and gives  us  our
individuality, and that when our bodies fail us, this energy changes form  and
merges once again with the Force, serving to bind the galaxy together.

     The meaning of this should be immediately clear. Who we are -  -  who  we
really are, if we are to understand ourselves in the context of the galaxy and
not just in an egocentric manner - - is not the body  that  others  see.  That
body is flesh, which ages, withers, and dies. It is a vessel, a container, and
one that does not always serve its purpose particularly  well.  Pimples,  pus,
embarrassing odors at inopportune moments - - these  are  reflections  of  the
body we inhabit, not the person we are.  The  person  we  are  exists  on  the
inside. Not in the guts of the individual, but  in  the  energy  that  courses
through us, which makes us part of something greater than ourselves.

     The key to understanding death (and life) is to realize that we all  have
the Force inside us. Not all of us are Jedi. Not all of us can even  feel  the
Force, most of the time. But it is there. It is what makes us  into  something
more than crude piles of matter that stumble  our  way  through  life.  It  is
inside us all, and we are part of it, and when we die, the energy that allowed
us to live does not simply cease to exist. It merges once more into the Force,
and the individual becomes part of the whole -  -  from  which  he  was  never
separated, truly, to begin with.

     The Jedi Code has it right, though it doesn't go far enough in explaining
its words. Ultimately, the key to understanding and coping with  death  is  to
realize that it is not something to be feared; it is part of who we are. For a
time, a small part of the Force takes up  residence  inside  our  bodies.  The
bodies, inevitably, fail. The Force lives on. Thus, death is not to be feared,
because in a very real sense, "There is no death; there is the Force."(6)




     (1)Translated from the Ithorian "Life's Memories" by  Soshu  Londahl,  as
originally published in the anthology Lyrical Metaphysics:  Ode  on  an  Odon,
edited by Soshu Londahl, Coruscani Publishing.

     (2)We use this term in the loosest possible sense; we are aware that some
readers will view "people" as a Humanocentric term, since in  Basic,  "people"
is often used to shorthand "Human"  in  everyday  speech.  We  prefer  a  more
inclusive understanding of the term, using  "peoples"  to  refer  to  all  the
sentient creatures (and potentially nonsentients, though this may  perhaps  be
stretching the term beyond its utility) that reside in  the  galaxy.  If  this
usage offends, we apologize, but believe it to be the least  exclusionary  and
most succinct of our linguistic options.

     (3)Excerpted  from  Mother  Dariana's  memorial  speech  at  the  funeral
celebration of a major Cularin figure, six months ago.

     (4)This forces us to draw a distinction that is not wholly  accurate,  in
our opinion, between the physical body and the energies that make  us  up.  We
will return to this distinction shortly.

     (5)Ood Bnar, Lectures on the Nature of the Force; Jedi Temple, Coruscant.

     (6)From "The Jedi Code."