The History of the Furious Angels of Iego

[Keeloth]

Hi all!

What is this?  Some kind of story?

This is the first part of a writing project that started a couple of months back in an effort to iron out the details of what kind of organization, exactly, the Furious Angels are in Star Wars.  It's one part dramatic retelling, one part history, and one part C-3PO making explodey noises.  This is not necessarily how the final product will look, the main idea is to hammer out how exactly FA has interacted with the SW universe while making it at least somewhat entertaining to read.

Can can I help?

Absolutely!  This story belongs to all the Angels.  Feel free to make suggestions, write in-depth about events mentioned off-hand in the history, anything.  Just keep in mind that Tbone is the ultimate authority on what is or isn't FA "canon."

I want to talk to you about a suggestion, but I don't see you on teamspeak!

Even if I'm not on teamspeak, I'm usually on the forums.   Send me a PM and it *should* notify me.

Can I just PM you my writing?

If it's a side-story separate from the main history go ahead, just give  me a brief intro to what it is I'm looking at.  If it's editing/additions to the main history, please make the text of your changes in red so I can spot them easier.

Now, without further ado, the History itself.

[Keeloth]

EDIT:  Originally I was just going to post the history here, but formatting is a pain in the arse.  You can find the history here at googledocs.  You shouldn't need an account to see it.  You should be able to download it as a .doc for easy editing/revision purposes.

[Ash]

I'm sure the History is awesome Keeloth but make sure Tbone has approved our "backstory" to be free for the world to see.  We generally try to keep a tight wrap on everything we do and only let the world see specifically what we want them to see. (I'm speaking specifically about our "history" being on GoogleDocs with no security in place.  That and GoogleDocs would then technically own any document you upload to their servers.)

[Keeloth]

Other potential discussion topics for this thread:

The nature of the Furious Angels's unique connection to the Force.

All Ascended Furious Angels have at least one trait in common: their connection to the Force.  This unique connection has two effects.  The first is that any Angel is "in tune" with the Signal, hence it's use in our recruitment methods.  The second is that this connection makes the Angel resistant to the lure of the dark side.

That leaves things open, as you can tell.  I believe leaving things open is a good thing for the most part, as it leaves room for interpretation and development further down the line.  That said, I DO have a pet theory on why Angels are resistant to the Dark side.

Keeloth's pet theory:  Furious Angels are resistant to the dark side due to their unique connection to the force providing them perspective regardless of their emotional state.  

Luke: "How am I to know the good side from the bad?"  
Yoda: "You will know, when you are calm.  At peace."  

A Furious Angel, however, will ALWAYS know. Even when s/he is...well, Furious.  It's like a built-in moral compass.  It's impossible for us to get lost in a moral quagmire and suddenly find ourselves past the point of no return.  Note that this doesn't mean an Angel can't choose to turn to the Dark side, merely that they are almost certainly not going to unintentionally "fall".

Here another question for discussion:  does the nature of our connection to the force meant that every Angel is Force-sensitive?  I assumed as much while I was writing the history, but it was pointed out to me last night that the Force is in everything.  Keep in mind that non-jedi are vital to the Furious Angels either way, so you're not minimizing anyone's importance with your opinion.

[Keeloth]

It's in the same vein as the youtube videos that are private, you can't access it without having the link.  Editing the document is limited to me, at the moment. The alternative is to have everyone register with googledocs and make an FA group there.  Or, I could give the formatting on these boards another go.

[Arawn]

The Force is in everything... So all living beings are force sensitive... Others are just more... "in-tune" with the force, thereby the catchphrase: "The force is strong with this one."

That dosent mean Troopers/Smugglers get to toy around with force powers (force push/pull) its just that they sense things... ones could forsee the movements of their enemies, others could sense their presence... hell, even sense danger... and speaking of which... thats where i wanted to go... When you see people say i got a bad feeling about this or i got a hunch, etc. its just they sensed something thru the force.

I like it when you say we got a special connection to the force, plus we can go raping women and children and pillagin Empire cities and not falling to the Dark Side? I just love it! But it may be a bit too much... I mean... I do consider myself a cold-hearted bastard that takes tough decision... much like Cleric John Preston in Equilibrium but there gotta be some kind of limits.

But what im saying is, it may be better if we say we've trained ourselves in such ways that we can resist the dark side, rather than leaving it purely to the connection to the force.

[Keeloth]

I like it when you say we got a special connection to the force, plus we can go raping women and children and pillagin Empire cities and not falling to the Dark Side? I just love it! But it may be a bit too much... I mean... I do consider myself a cold-hearted bastard that takes tough decision... much like Cleric John Preston in Equilibrium but there gotta be some kind of limits.

I don't mean to say that Angels can't commit evil acts, or turn to the dark side.  What I was driving at is the slippery slope that most Jedi falling to the dark side deal with: one thing leading to another until they realize they passed the point of no return somewhere (think Anakin going "What have I done?!").  Basically, my theory is that Angels cannot commit a dark side act without realizing it is, in fact, a dark side act.  That's why I use the term "turn" instead of "fall."  A fall is accidental, you're not really paying close enough attention to where you're stepping and you find yourself tumbling into darkness.  Turning, however, is a conscious choice.  "I have to embrace the dark side if I am to accomplish X."

[Winter]

While its never really been "strong" in canon I always had a belief in "grey" Jedi.  These are Jedi who have come to understand that the concepts of Light and Dark do not belong to the Force; for it is inherently neutral, but to the person using the Force.  I think there were two forms of belief when it came to the Force: The Living Force, and the Unified Force.  If I recall the Living Force is the one espoused by the traditional Jedi Council, while the Unifying Force is the one that I mentioned above.  Perhaps the Furies believed in the Unifying Force Theory?

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[Arawn]

True. I went thru that paragraph just to explain it in the last 2 lines of my post (which you dint quote T_T). I know that falling is alot whole different that turning... and thats what I wanted to explain... We do not fall, we turn, IF we want.. But the reason behind it is because of the thousands of years of studying, training, through meditation, etc. Not just because we share an unique connection to the Force... Don't wanna make us sound too godly, instead we are good simply because we worked our ass off... Althou some of us could have been born with a natural advantage above others is ok.

We know each consequence of our action and how it is interpreted vis-a-vis The Jedi Code (Can we put the Sith Code here too? I think we should as we gotta study our enemy to be able to find and exploit any and all weaknesses)

[Keeloth]

Winter, that's a good question, and I don't know the answer.  I'm with you on the grey Jedi thing,  Jolee Bindo is the model I'm basing my consular on.   But I'm hesitant to say that the whole organization adheres to only one interpretation of the force, I don't think that's really my call to make.

Sorry I didn't address the last 2 lines, Arawn.  I agree that training would be necessary to be able to utilize the connection in the way I suggested, instead of just being born special.   I just don't think it's something that just anyone, Jedi or not, can achieve by training.  I also don't mean to imply that no one outside FA is capable of having this "moral compass", it's entirely possible others have their own methods and abilities that grant similar perspective.  

Studying the Sith Code sounds like something we would do in an effort to better understand the enemy we face.

[Erathaol]

I hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE the idea of Grey Jedi.

In the traditional Star Wars universe canon, the Force was made to be a dualistic philosophy.  There are two aspects, or sides, of the same power, with no middle and no overlap.  There is a Light side and a Dark side, and nothing in between.  It's only through (mostly poorly written and craptastic) fairly recent Expanded Universe nonsense that you get the Grey Jedi and the whole Unified Force Theory.  Now, that EU stuff is considered canon, but I much prefer to deal with something as major and influential as the Force as it was originally created and intended to be.
Sorry if it seems like I'm picking on you, Winter.  I don't mean to.

Keeloth, I really like your idea of FA being "in tune" with the Force, thus able to consciously understand which side of the Force their actions are aligned with.  We are not controlled by our emotions, and not swayed by our temporary state of mind to fall to Darkness.  If an Angel turns, it darn well is a conscious and willfull choice, not some accident or mistake.
As an Angel, I like the idea that we can feel the pull of the Dark side and actively reject it, thereby allowing us to act more freely than the strict Jedi code would typically allow.

Though I must say, I'd like Tbone to set us straight on what is "FA canon."  That way we won't have any bickering amongst ourselves.

[Keeloth]

Well, keep in mind Era that there are two definitions of "Gray jedi."

The first is simply a jedi that does not adhere to the will of the Council.  Qui-gonn was considered grey.  By this definition, pretty much all FA jedi will be qualified as "Grey."

The second is more your Jolee Bindo, someone who advocates a view of the Force that is not in line with the dualistic philosophy normal espoused by orthodox jedi.  To quote Bindo directly, "Love doesn't lead to the dark side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled, but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love, that's what they should teach you to beware, but love itself will save, not condemn you."    Obviously, this is up for debate.  I think what some people take to be as grey in this case is "a jedi who will sometimes do a Dark action in order to benefit the most people."  The whole "needs of the many before the few" issue.

[Winter]

No offense taken, Era.  Few people like the Grey Jedi/Unified Force concept.  And, to be honest, there is a lot of EU stuff I can't stand.  But I've always been a fan of the varying theories on the force (Witches of Dathomir, Ang-ti Monks, etc).  I think it adds to the mystery of the force.

As for "Force-Sensitives" vs "Force Users", I take a lot of this from the Table-Top RPG in that Anyone can "use" the force(i.e. "I gotta bad feeling about this), but Force-Senitives tap into it naturally (i.e. young anakin racing ability).  Only Force Sensitives can become Force Users (those formally trained in using the Force).

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[Dration]

Hm, I had a feeling that this was going to be the biggest mind mash-up for everyone. Lots of people have very interesting ideas, and even beliefs (!!!) about the Force. Both the Jedi and the Sith... and hell, almost every group of Force Users in the entire timeline have some sort of religious, spiritual, or ceremonial connection to the Force.

FA has had plenty of time away from the Jedi Council after they left (the first time), so perhaps there was a form of training that gradually developed, some teaching or viewpoint that explained it.

Rather weak to me... the people coming back to Iego wouldn't have had that teaching, so it must be something that's part of them. But they are in fact coming back to Iego, amIright? So we had to be from there at some point in time? Perhaps someone in our history was one of those Furious Angels that mixed back in. Maybe it's something in the bloodline? Perhaps they mixed with the Diathem somehow, and that supplied the sharp defining line that allows a Furious Angel to see where his actions fall on the great Yin-Yang of the universe. Maybe it's something more invasive than that, and it has something to do with Iego itself.

Don't beings age differently on Iego? Like... not at all? Or is that merely the Angels themselves? Everything I've read seems to be rather unclear on that front. I'll let speculation wander on that one for a bit, as I'm sure one of us has the answer somewhere.

Perhaps there's an alchemical reason for it? The Sith screw around with that sort of thing all the time, perhaps a little modification of perception found it's way into the kool-aid. I know a few mad scientists, they're all about that sort of thing.

Pardon, I'm a little everywhere at the moment. I figured I'd vent ideas and see if they sparked anything.

[Subb]

Maybe it's something in the bloodline?

Don't beings age differently on Iego? Like... not at all? Or is that merely the Angels themselves? Everything I've read seems to be rather unclear on that front. I'll let speculation wander on that one for a bit, as I'm sure one of us has the answer somewhere.

Perhaps there's an alchemical reason for it? The Sith screw around with that sort of thing all the time, perhaps a little modification of perception found it's way into the kool-aid. I know a few mad scientists, they're all about that sort of thing.

1) That's what I was thinking; bloodlines - the signal may be there for all to hear, but the calling is not.

2) If it's true, then remember that all of the Angels will be off planet most of the time RPwise.

3) That idea sounds cool (alchemy) but it sounds a bit too Grey Wardeny.