THE STORY OF DARTH SANTA
by ardavenport
"Have you ever been told the story of Darth Santa?
"No?
"Well, it is a Jedi story. And not one that your elders would be likely to tell you.
"Darth Santa was a Dark Lord of the Sith. Do you know of the Sith?
"No?
"Well, they have been extinct for a thousand years. Defeated by the Jedi. They are not commonly spoken of now.
"The Dark Lords of the Sith adhere to the Dark Side of the Force. Evil powers of the mind and body. They used them to dominate and control others, to manipulate and destroy them. The acquisition of power, especially at the expense of others, was always the ultimate goal of the Sith.
"Well, some people consider that evil.
"Darth Santa was unusual for a Sith Lord. Instead of immediately destroying others to acquire power, he preferred to lure them to him with gifts. He savored the power he gained over them. For the generosity of the Sith always comes with hidden obligations and debts.
"Yes, some people consider that evil, too.
"He was very clever. He did not indulge in overt displays of bravado or cruelty. He did not revel in inspiring fear from those he subjugated. He made himself attractive. He was large and jolly, with long Human hair and beard, white like snow. Much thicker and longer than mine.
"The beard at least.
"Darth Santa was large and powerful. He projected strength and confidence and people are attracted to that. He was boisterous and loud. And he would make people happy with laughter and song. He had a very fine voice. He knew all the old songs of the world he came to that were sung in gatherings about sharing and love and kindness. And he added some of his own songs about gifting and giving.
"He wore fine, bright red robes, trimmed in white. And he stomped about in tall, shiny black boots and he wore a wide belt, like mine, but shiny black on which he hung a large silver and gold lightsaber. But no one ever thought of it as a weapon. He always told people it was just for show. That Sith always had to wear a lightsaber. It was tradition. Whenever he ignited it, he only held it high over his head, like a bright cheerful red beacon.
"No. Mine is green.
"And Darth Santa wore a red hat. All the ancient Sith of that era were notoriously over-dressed.
"The world he came to rule was dominated by a large polar city and when he first came, he arrived in the darkest season and the people welcomed Darth Santa's new holiday. He gave them gifts. He encouraged them to give gifts to each other. But Darth Santa always declined gifts given to him. Instead, he them away. He always said that his gift was the joy and cheer he saw in the faces of others. And none of the others seemed to notice the subtle allegiance that they owed Darth Santa for his favors.
"Well, Darth Santa's holiday immediately became very popular. People very much liked receiving presents; fancy jewelry, hats, toys, little droids, fine food and wine. Small material goods and possessions that made people happy.
"The holiday was even more popular the next year. Darth Santa recruited the previous year's participants to prepare an even more splendid event with more elaborate presents. Fabulous clothes, spectacular holos, stunning decorations. The revelry climaxed in the glorious morning when the gifts were presented.
"Darth Santa was appointed the official prefect over the holiday that he had invented. And that appointment included some subtle but significant authority over the local commerce.
"Year by year, the celebration of the holiday of Darth Santa grew larger and expanded over a longer part of the season. And Darth Santa's influence over the planetary commerce and then the government expanded as well. The popular holiday spread to other worlds in that sector. Along with Darth Santa's power.
"Soon, the holiday of Darth Santa became the most important event in that whole region of space. A whole system of commerce grew up around it. The economies of many worlds depended on it. And the songs of the holiday changed, from the fulfillment and joy of sharing to the excitement and riches of receiving.
"And when his powers were great enough, Darth Santa began issuing decrees about who should receive holiday gifts and wealth. This all seemed perfectly natural to everyone, that gifts should only go to the worthy. Darth Santa had lists of who they were.
"At first, the requirements were small and simple, that only those who participated in the holiday and gave gifts themselves should receive them. Then it was the ones who Darth Santa said were good. Then it was the ones who Darth Santa said were strong. Then it was the ones who Darth Santa said were loyal.
"And all along, as the holiday grew, the habit developed of shunning and even taking gifts away from those who did not receive Darth Santa's holiday gifts, because associating with such people might lead to you becoming unworthy, too. Shunning led to contempt. Contempt led to hostility. Hostility led to abuse. Abuse led to an acceptable oppression. Because if you were not worthy of Darth Santa's gifts, then you were not worthy of anything.
"By this time, Darth Santa's holiday had completely overwhelmed all the other commerce of the worlds it had infected. It came earlier and earlier in the season because so many people depended upon the gift giving. And there were decorations, parties, grand events planned around Darth Santa's holiday as well.
"Some people began to dread the oncoming of the holiday, the ceaseless competition for treasure, the most valuable gifts and possessions. And the fear that one year you might end up on Darth Santa's bad list. But no one dared speak aloud about it. How could one speak badly about such a joyous time? If you did, you would instantly be placed on that list. And possibly disappear in the night, if you were considered exceptionally bad.
"So, it went on, with Darth Santa's power and influence growing with the size of the celebration of his holiday. There seemed to be no end of it. But an end did come.
"There came to the primary world of Darth Santa's little empire a Jedi Master, Zeer Kooj, and her young Padawan, Mori. They came in secret, to spy on Darth Santa, to find his weaknesses. To defeat him, as all Jedi are sworn to do.
"Now Mori was a very young Padawan. Not much older than yourselves. But many thought that she was old and wise in spirit. And she had come from that world. She had been a very small youngling when she was taken by the Jedi to be trained, but she remembered some of the old traditions, before Darth Santa's holiday became so important.
"And when she and Master Zeer covertly walked among the people they saw the severe division among them. The small groups of the worthy. And the larger groups of the unworthy. And the Jedi Master saw that Darth Santa did have a weakness.
"Darth Santa loved his power as all Sith Lords did. And he wielded it by adding people to his bad list. He savored the mornings when he would see his victims gathered together to find their gift bower bare. Stripped of all treasures. And the fear in their faces. For they knew that their former friends would desert them. They would soon be driven into isolation. And poverty.
"Yes. That is very scary. I did say that Sith Lords were evil.
"Well, the weakness was that as Darth Santa added more people to his bad list, his list of allies grew smaller. And it was Padawan Mori who suggested to her Master how to exploit it.
"The Jedi learned who Darth Santa's next victims would be. It was a group of councillors who had been very much favored by the Sith Lord. Until this year. Darth Santa had grown weary of them. He thought that they had become weak and fat, though Darth Santa was hardly in a position to complain about the excessive girth of others. His own waistline had grown proportionally with his power. He was quite large by then and his bright red robe was more than three times as large around as it had been on his first holiday year.
"The Jedi hid. And they watched the guard droids remove all the priceless gifts that the councillors and their families were expecting in the morning. They took away brightly colored toys; floaters and wheelers and squealers. They took the exquisite gowns and suits, delicate and finely crafted artworks, intricately woven rugs, golden plates, jeweled cups, valuables of all kinds. They took away many, many loads of treasure.
"And the droids stripped all the decorations. All the shiny streamers and color bubbles and bells and baubles. The guard droids even commandeered the gift droids to help, so they could do the job quicker. And very soon the bower was bare, the room stripped of all the Councillor's wealth. And Darth Santa chuckled in anticipation of seeing the fear in the their faces, their holiday joy extinguished.
"The Jedi saw the lift doors open. And the councillors spilled out with their families, their spouses, their parents and siblings and children and cousins.
"And they saw the bare bower, the empty room. No presents, no treasures. Only a few broken bits and shreds of the pretty holiday decorations remained on the bare floor. And their faces fell, their lips trembled with fear and terror, for they knew that they were now on Darth Santa's bad list. And they would soon all lose their beautiful possessions and be poor.
"Then Padawan Mori stepped forward, in the middle of the desolate floor. And they all saw that she was of their world, with large blue eyes and pale green skin.
"She began to sing. One of the old songs. One of the ones about giving of the heart. Giving of oneself to others with deeds of kindness that were more valuable than any wealth or treasure and that brought joy that could never be taken away. And that as long as they were kind and loving to one another, no material possession mattered at all. She had a fine clear voice, and the song flowed with the Light Side of the Force.
"The older family members and younglings remembered that song from the days before Darth Santa's holiday made them all forget. And they began to sing with her:
'Sharing with me.
Sharing with you.
Share our joy with family.
We all love you,
Come and join us,
All are welcome,
All together,
We all are kin, our troubles passed,
As long as we have hands to clasp.'
"And they all joined hands and very soon they realized that they didn't need all the presents and parade of the holiday. They were all still together and they could see that poverty shared wasn't really so poor after all.
"Well, Darth Santa had hidden nearby, so he could see them defeated, their spirits crushed. But now he was shocked. He had never imagined that such a thing could happen. They were happy. He had taken everything from them. But they were still happy. And not at all afraid. He certainly could not allow that.
"Darth Santa angrily stormed into the room. His red, Sith lightsaber blazed, ready to cut down the innocent young Padawan who sang about sharing love and family. He had quite forgotten how to be subtle to win over allies for himself. He had come to enjoy his power far too much, which is always the weakness of the Sith.
"Master Zeer Kooj stopped him. It turned out that Darth Santa's lightsaber really was just for show after all. He had always been a terrible duelist; he wielded dark powers of the mind best. And now he was very fat and out of practice, too.
"Master Zeer cut him down in a few minutes.
"And all of the councillors and their families stripped off their fine coats and covered up the body. It was a huge mound in the room. And they left their fine house and sang in the streets of being free of the tyranny of their treasures. And of Darth Santa's defeat. All the people came out and sang with them.
"And a new holiday was started. One that still endures to this day on that world. Where all the people gather and renounce treasure and wealth and possessions - - symbolically at least, because they still have very large parties where gift giving is strictly optional - - and they join hands with joy and happiness in simply being together."
"What?!! What is this rubbish you are saying?!!"
The tall thin Muun matron stared wide-eyed at the bearded Jedi Master, seated on a high stool, telling his story to the crowd of Banking Clan younglings, seated on the floor before him. They looked up with rapt and somewhat confused attention.
"Oh, how did you get in here?!" More matrons spilled into the room along with a few elderly patrons, their thin, dark golden faces scowling. Qui-Gon Jinn slid off of his stool and spotted one matron dragging his very young Padawan by the arm. Qui-Gon was as tall as any of the Muuns and quite a bit broader and the matron fearfully let Obi-Wan Kenobi go when came over to them.
"Oh, get out of here, you ragged vagabounds!" the head matron shouted as the others gathered up their younglings.
Calmly bowing to them, Qui-Gon retreated, his apprentice's lighter brown robe huddled close to his darker one as they backed out of the room and then left.
Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak, but Qui-Gon silenced him with a gesture. Obi-Wan obediently closed his mouth shut. He was young, barely nine standard years and even the most minor missions were very serious business to him. Qui-Gon smiled reassuringly.
They went in silence back to the common areas of the space station. The light of four stars in black, starry space, red, green, blue and white cast multicolored shadows on the park through the transparisteel dome above. There were only a few other pedestrians about, and none of them nearby, as the Jedi walked together through the garden. One tall and older Master and one small Padawan, guiltily looking up to his teacher.
"I am sorry, Master. I did not give you as much time as you asked for. Matron Sill caught me."
"Aaaaah, but you kept them busy long enough for me to retrieve this." He held up a bright yellow data chit. "Pon Yall thought that he could hide this from the auditors in his son's favorite toy. It was not difficult to find." He tucked it away back into a belt pouch. Then he folded his arms before him. Immediately, Obi-Wan earnestly did the same.
"And after we have taken this to the authorities and returned to the Temple on Coruscant we shall work on your training on how not to be caught."
Obi-Wan smiled up at him and nodded. "Yes, Master."
They walked together in silence for a few moments under the multi-suns before Qui-Gon spoke again.
"In the meantime, my young Padawan, have you ever heard the story of Darth Santa . . . . ?"
[b]***///***///*** END ***\\\***\\\***[/b]
Disclaimer: This story first posted on tf.n on 24-Dec-2009. All characters and the Star Wars universe belong to George and Lucasfilm; I am just playing in their sandbox.