Asajj Ventress was a Dathomirian (Zabrak) female who was born into a clan of Force-sensitive Nightsister witches who practiced a dark form of force magick. Early in her life, her coven was forced to surrender Ventress to the criminal Hal'Sted, who took Ventress to the war-torn world of Rattatak. She was raised as a slave but was orphaned when her master was killed by Weequay pirates.[/div]
She was later discovered by the Jedi Knight Ky Narec, who was stranded on Rattatak and waging a battle against the pirate marauders. Narec raised Ventress and taught her to use the Force in the ways of the Jedi Order. The two protected the populace of Rattatak and fought back against the predatory attacks of pirates and warlords. A decade later Ventress was left alone again when Narec was killed in retaliation by those same pirates.
Ventress became enraged by the loss and as a result embraced the dark side of the Force. She used her power to depose the local warlords and take their power for herself. This was short lived however as she was soon captured by the warlord Osika Kirske and she was forced into slavery once again as a gladiator in his arena. During this time she began to build a reputation as a ruthless combatant.
Her reputation grew and she was soon discovered by the Sith Lord Count Dooku. He freed her and put her under his guidance and tutelage as a Dark Acolyte and aspiring apprentice. Asajj Ventress yearned to be considered a true Sith, but such status wasn't allowed under the Sith's Rule of Two. However she did became a commander in her Master's Separatist droid military and an assassin in the employ of the Sith.
Her exploits eventually brought her into conflict with the Jedi Order as she became renowned for her skill and cruelty as she waged war against the Republic. Although she was highly talented and saw much success, Ventress was repeatedly forced to compete for her Master's favor against Confederate military leader General Grievous as well as Dookus own Master, Darth Sidious. Sidious became increasingly wary of Ventress's growing strength in the Force and ultimately ordered Dooku to eliminate his apprentice in a show of loyalty.
Dooku complied and betrayed Ventress by ordering her own forces to execute her. But the attack failed and Ventress, who barely survived, returned home to Dathomir to seek refuge and revenge. Her coven welcomed Ventress back to their sisterhood and together they conspired to kill Dooku. After a failed attempt to assassinate the count, Ventress returned to Dathomir to formally rejoin her clan and forgo further plans for revenge, but Dooku would not have it. The count targeted the Nightsisters for harboring his former apprentice and dispatched his droid army to massacre the Dathomirian witches. Ventress was among the few survivors of the slaughter and she was forced to flee Dathomir.
Ventress was deeply hurt by the loss of her newfound family and so took to wandering the galaxy in search of a purpose, ultimately finding success as a bounty hunter. During this time she encountered the Jedi Master, Quinlan Vos, who was operating under cover as a fellow bounty hunter while trying to find Dooku and assassinate him. Vos ultimately revealed his identity and purpose to Ventress after the two fell in love. Ventress trained Vos in Nightsister culture and dark-side skills to prepare for a strike against Dooku. But their attempt to kill the count failed and she was forced to flee while Vos was taken into Confederate custody.
Ventress eventually rescued Vos, but months of torture at Dooku's hand had turned him to the dark side. Although Ventress sensed his fall, Vos refused to believe his own darkness and became bent on a final mission to kill Dooku. She joined him on this last mission, but it was met with failure again when Vos gave himself fully to the dark side. However Ventress refused to embrace the dark side once more with him. Instead, she sacrificed herself when Dooku attempted to kill Vos with Force lightning by absorbing the blast to protect her lover. Her final sacrifice turned Vos back to the light and she was honored by the Jedi Council. Ventress' body was later laid to rest in the waters of her clan's village on Dathomir.
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I chose Asajj because her life parallels not only my life but my journey in the Force Realist community so closely. I was born into a very spiritually progressive family. I spent my days running in the woods and playing with ranch animals and spending evenings around a ritual fire staring into the millions of stars that peppered the night sky. I never questioned my place in nature or my connection to it until I was older and I began to be told by others that I was a sinner. I began to doubt my place in the universe because of these new people in my life that had become important to me. I lost my path and became a slave to religion, bound between what I knew to be true in my heart and the societal behavior I came to believe I needed to emulate.
Over time the strain of those chains became too great and I was ripped apart as they finally broke and fell away from me. I was the willing catalyst of the destruction for my own sanity and freedom. And it took an outstanding effort to rebuild myself. I knew the tools and the capability were there though. I just needed to re-learn how to use them. It was the second hardest thing I have ever had to do but in the end I did find victory as an independent operator in charge of my own life, accomplishments, attitude and responsibility.
I tried to find others like me and so I turned to the pagan community. What I found there was superstition, fear, conspiracy, fantastical thinking and dogmatic practices. The community was an inbred group of outcasts that had created just another religious structure disguised as independent thought. It did not take long for me to reject those ways of thinking. That was when I found Jediism and my first Jedi Master. He was a brilliant and educated man of philosophy and spiritualism. I studied under him for 2 years before he put me up for Knighthood. But I was rejected by the marauders in the community that did not like me. Even though my work was brilliant my challenging style of communication was all I was judged on. It disillusioned me and my Master. He left the order over the affair, figuratively yet effectively killing him off and I was left alone to the wolves disguised in Jedi robes. So I turned to the dark.
In the Sith worldview I thought I had finally discovered a mindset like my own. The idea of self-responsibility in strength and power of mind to achieve victory in pursuits and thus gaining freedom in self-defined purpose was appealing. And yet time and time again I found few actual practitioners of the philosophy. Instead I found cliques and secret societies and back stabbing all designed to keep anyone that refused to play their game on the fringes of the community. But I wanted their approval and so I enslaved myself to their journey. And during this time I enjoyed a bit of success. I was even Co-Lourdes of the OotS for a time. During this time my reputation grew as a fierce combatant. But the power did not last and my alliances did little to gain me any favor. And I was tossed aside again. That is until I was noticed by a true dark Lourdes of the Sith and I was taken under her instruction.
During this time I learned the true power of the dark side. And I learned how to lesson my grip on things I had no actual control over while caressing those things forward with finesse I did have control over. And the light and the dark became one for me. I no longer saw the distinction between black and white, good and evil, only the raw energy at my command. And my power grew exponentially. But it still wasn’t enough to save the one greatest love in my life. A life partner I would die for, had given everything for and trusted empirically had slowly slipped over the edge of sanity to the depths of the abyss. And like Asajj I sensed the fall as only an empath could. And as badly as I wanted to, I was not capable of following them and so I was betrayed. Letting them go was the hardest thing I have ever done. And I wait now, just existing, mechanically still accomplishing, but not living… waiting to be laid to rest in the waters of my home. Only emotion drives me forward. This is attachment, this is strength, and this is power. But it is not purpose; only time will tell if I can retrieve that.
