The Jedi Code

Greetings all, I am Dante Deveaux, ambassador to The Order of Vandelhelm.

We have received much inquiry and curiosity as to our organization and its purpose. From questions courtesy of Aerandir Calmcacil on behalf of the current Order, to private messages, to long chat discussions. We have stayed deliberately silent, however, and this has been by purposeful design. We wanted to be sure of our resolve, of both purpose and commitment to our new Order, before announcing ourselves publicly. The Order of Vandelhelm, in the simplest of terms, is seeking to reconnect with what it means to be a Jedi. We wish to do this, because, as time has gone by here on the site, the very definition of what it means to be "Jedi" has fluctuated, shifted, and changed rapidly. This is to be expected, of course, with a site of so many people, with so many differing views.

However.

The current iteration of what it means to be a Jedi - large armies, fleets, vast resources unbecoming for any one Jedi, is distasteful to us. We are keepers of the peace - not soldiers. This slight could have been looked over, perhaps, if such resources had been put to actual use; but, as The Shepherd said before us - Kashyyyk remains a Sith world, despite vast resources to take it. And, in reference to the Sith, their own numbers and factions have grown wildly out of proportion to Jedi forces, with Jedi being lax in actively being Jedi, and putting a stop to letting such corruption grow in their backyard. This, combined with baby sitting repeated dark-side offenders, not to mention numerous distortions ad infinitum of what the Jedi Code even means - all add up to, in our humble opinion, the fact that Jedi have stopped being Jedi at a fundamental level.

Assigning blame, concocting defenses, figuring our who is right, who is wrong, who did what, who said what when: this is all entirely beside the point. The Order of Vandelhelm seeks to remove ourselves to one of the most remote planets in our galaxy, Vandelhelm, where we can strive to become true Jedi again. Vandelhelm is envisioned by our Order as a transformative place, a safe place; a place where a character can go, and undergo metamorphosis into a clearer and more well defined version of what it means to be a Jedi. I myself, a Gray Jedi for many years, owner of many possessions, credits, and armies; even now I myself undergo that transformation, asking myself IRL, as well as IC, "What does it mean to be truly a Jedi?" And then undertaking that transformation.

More so, though, we envision Vandelhelm as a place where we do not have to answer the Jedi Order leadership at large, or even the scrutinizing eyes of others and their opinions of what a Jedi, and their version of the Code means. We by no means intend any offense or vengefulness. We wish to keep an amicable relation with the Jedi Order, and other factions on the site. However, we deliberately fashioned this Order so that we would be held accountable to ourselves, and only ourselves. We want, in a word - a clean start.

Our Order grows daily, and we have continued interest. We are, at this time, taking members on a case by case basis. We are not an Order you join simply for a few stories, just to leave a few days later. We are an Order you join if you want true development, insight, and growth into moving not only your character, but the site as a whole to a purer Jedi orientation. You will only be answerable to yourself, as well as your peers - and vice versa.

There will be no further statements or discussion on the subject within this thread. We go in peace, and ask you let us do so. All queries and interest to our Order should be directed through PM to myself, Gene Kenobi, or Amlu Eerkerk. Thank you my friends.


- Dante Deveaux, Ambassador to The Order of Vandelhelm

Well, I have to admit, there is a lot of valid points both from an IC and OOC perspective from both Shepherd and Dante. There is some disconnect between what a Jedi is/should be and how a lot of people have been portraying them both before and after the unification efforts. I mean, we took several Orders with differing ideologies and combined them together. It was undoubtedly going to come to a point where we needed to do some course correcting, and that moment is right now. The fact it has taken so long to actually get around to this topic isn't perhaps desirable, but considering the time and effort it took to unite the factions, then realise we lacked the man power to maintain 6 different enclaves, and decide which one's we were going to try hold and where to base ourselves from. Well, it's probably about on schedule for this kind of thing to happen.

To that end, I really do hope we can all work together as a community of writer's to fix this. The whole purpose of this discussion, is essentially very much in line with what you guys are trying to achieve. The Order needs some reform, and if we work together, we can achieve that.

I certainly agree that Jedi shouldn't have massive fleets, armies and resources at their personal command. Although, admittedly, I can't say I've seen a Jedi with these kinds of resources under their personal ownership since before the Republic was disbanded. But either way, I certainly agree that no single Jedi should have control of such things. The Order as a whole? sure, if these resources are provided by a government/group to aide in completing some short term mission.
In terms of Kashyyyk, that is no longer a Sith world, and the resources committed to it are back in appropriate hands. Yeah, the fact it remained that way so long sucks, but then, no one wanted to try deal with the OOC fallout from that. And yeah, there has been a number of places avoided because the writer's who we should have gone after, weren't always amicable to such things, or were not approached in an amicable way. It's just a part of how JvS was. Is it still that way? I don't believe as much, but obviously you will always come across writers who have darksiders that they don't necessarily want their characters dying just yet.

I can't say I know exactly what you mean as far as the infinite distortions of the Jedi Code go. Though, admittedly, even canon had no one clear interpretation of it. But even I admit, we could do with a good reminder of what the Jedi Code in its most fundamental form is:

with some further expounding with this:

Those are certainly qualities I have tried to ensure Rawkill follows, and ones he has tried to ensure are upheld by others. Rawkill and Rutil were certainly at some odds over such points IC. Which admittedly, was a rather fun thing to write. There are a lot of tenets to which Rawkill adheres, with the exception of those that specifically related to the time of the Republic (taking more than one padawan, regardless of age. And enforced celibacy).


In most respects, I certainly agree with Shephard's assessment of what it means to be a Jedi from an OOC standpoint. Follow the core tenets of the code. Remember that you are a Jedi first and foremost. Your duty is to the Order.
I certainly think we are moving along the right path, but there are still a number of Jedi IC that need some coaxing back upon that path. After all, it wasn't enough to call yourself a Jedi in canon. You had to abide by the teachings, and practice what was preached. If you look at the Shaolin Monks, for which I think are a good comparison to the Jedi Order in some respects, they still have to practice their beliefs. Something I feel some Jedi have forgotten to do IC and tend more towards just calling themselves Jedi.


Rawkill certainly echoes many of these sentiments. As I said, he more leans towards the new Jedi Order's Code. He understands that the Jedi aren't as prosperous as they once were. He also knows the value of knowledge, as appropriate for his position upon the Council of First Knowledge. He certainly wouldn't kill someone that was unarmed. He recognises that there is things that need to change about the Order, mostly because he has seen how the Order has operated in the past, and compares some of it with the way a lot of Jedi act now.




there was some more, I think, but my train of thought has been derailed, so... just leaving it at this for now.

So I'm a bit out of date on everything, but I randomly saw this and decided to add my two or three cents.

Firstly while we should have some collective idea of what the term "jedi" means, I don't know if we should start denying people the right to call themselves Jedi if they don't conform to our opinions of what that means. Although I suppose anyone is entitled to call themselves whatever they want *Declares himself kind of the booze just for kicks* and this would be more of "what the official jedi order considers its members to be" sort of thing. That being said as a writer I agree that a Jedi should definitely be "jedi first" and be fully committed to the order and what it stands for, not a "casual membership" sort of thing. It should also stand for rightness and light and all the fluffy bunny feelings possible... but within reason. We can't just go charging into sith controlled planets that we can't hope to "Liberate" just because it's the right thing to do, we've got to be reasonable about our capabilities both IC and OOC, we've got to respect what the bad guy writers have in mind as well as what we want.

Now all that being said Mike as a character has a very different opinion on what a jedi is/should be. He thinks more along the lines of "personal internal decision", a Jedi is the one who when faced with a decision chooses the one that is (to their experience) the "just" thing to do. He believes that to be a jedi is to serve the light in your own way, not in the way some old man (yes he is also an old man) at the top of the tower sitting in a circle tells you to. It's much more of an internal code rather than an external guild of justice seekers.

Just a few random opinions from a random person who showed up randomly.

I'm sort of new to writing jedi's (& as of yet untrained) so this may change in time, but my views boil down to this.

OOC: Jedi are the keepers of peace. Sith, as the ultimate foes of peace are their main focus, but not their only one. For the most part, they are more like super cops than anything else & should hold themselves to the standard that position ideally represents. This doesn't exclude being married, owning stuff, or any number of other things, as long as it doesn't affect the work.

IC: Mary had a crash course in being a jedi from a holocron, though most of it was more geared toward surviving the short term future. She is more of a raging crusader. Criminals, Slavers, Sith. Doesn't matter, to her the appropriate sentence is death. No appeal, no mercy. On the other hand, anyone not in those groups she will go to extreme lengths to protect.