the following communication is sent to the Jedi High Council, including Master Hohenfel
Masters,it is with a serious and sober mind that I must report serious problems with the Viscaran Jedi Council. I was recently told to chose between returning to join the service corps or to accept expulsion from the order. I have spent the last few days in meditation trying to decide what to do, and have come to see that my own dilemma is only a symptom of a much larger problem. I only regret that it took something so drastic to make me realize that there was such a large problem here.
The issues with the Viscaran Council that I have encountered are:
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Becoming emotional and attacking a padowan
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Pressuring an initiate into accepting an apprenticeship with someone they have serious reservations about
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Passing an Initiate through initiate trials who clearly still has issues with romantic attachment
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Advising a Knight to accept a padowan who is known to carry romantic feelings for them
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Poor communication with members and each other
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Taking a complaint against a padowan and taking action without due investigation into claims
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Interfering with the progress of another master’s padowan
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Dismissing reports of inappropriate behavior of a knight without investigating
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Training that violates Jedi Code
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Inappropriate attachment to a padowan
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Neglect of assigned padowans
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Disciplining a padowan without granting a fair chance of defending against accusations
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Unduly harsh judgement of a padowan
These are the Issues that I know of that have happened or are currently happening since I have come to Viscara. Most of them I know of because they involved me, but I have become aware of issues that did not, and will detail each case below:
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I had been called to Seela’s ship who was at the time a padowan of then-knight Keyan. Master Keyan was telling me that the 15 years of training I had previously received in the order carried no more worth than the single month of training that he had given Seela. I attempted to speak to him and explain myself calmly, but instead of carrying on a rational discussion where he might offer me guidance, he became emotional and allowed himself to indulge his pride and claimed to be insulted, and then attacked me through the force, squeezing my heart.
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Initiate Iuyihp’uru had voiced serious doubts and issues about an offer made to her by Knight Seela to be her padowan. Doubts revolved around her understanding of the code as well as her closeness to Padowan Althea who has repeatedly displayed a lack of respect for the council, advising padowans and initiates not to listen to them. Iuyihp’uru also had concerns about the two carrying on a romantic relationship despite Seela’s claims that the two of them were no longer romantic. Given these reasons, she felt that Seela was not a good fit to be her master, and claimed that she saw through the force that she had no future with her. Master Landyn told her she should take the offer anyway despite her strong reservations and did not pay respect to the initiate’s concerns.
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I am unsure who conducted the trials or decided that Aedan was ready, but he was passed through his initiate trials even though he is known to have a romantic attachment for his then-teacher, Knight Sandra Mana. Aedan has carried such feelings for as long as I have known him and at the time of his trials, was still following Sandra around and paying quite a lot of attention. His feelings were transparent enough that he was commonly known to have them by the community at large and several people had tried to talk to Knight Mana about it.
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Given the issue of #3, Knight Sandra was advised by her master, Artemis, to make Aedan his padowan despite his romantic feelings for her. Sandra advised that Artemis already know about the romantic feelings and advised such anyway. I should not have to explain how confusing and damaging to a master/padowan relationship such feelings and attachments can be.
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Information about the Viscaran Council is not made available to members. We do not know who is on the counil, nor do we know the ranks of them. I was told Master Landyn was a knight and investigator, not a Master. I did not find this out until he was confronting me with accusations. Ashla could not or would not tell us whether she is a knight or a master, only that she is on the council, which I had not known previously. The Viscaran jedi do have a central hub where important information can be posted, but the council does not make use of it. Thus it is very rare for communication to take place between masters and padowans and initiates. This naturally can cause a lot of confusion as it did for me when I was addressing Master Landyn and was reprimanded for not referring to him as Master.
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Several months ago, Knight Seela (at the time outside the order), complained to Master Nulaa (who at the time was still a knight) that I was insensitive of the affects of the force connection we had formed and was doing nothing to address it. Nulaa took this complaint and called me to try and pressure me into allowing one of us to be cut off from the force. She did not first ask me for my side of it, nor did she listen when I tried to tell her that I had been working on that very issue for an entire month with my own master, Verrac, and together, we had made much progress with it to the point where I could no longer feel Seela more than anything else in the force. Nulaa did not get both sides before taking action, and took Seela’s word over mine when there was a contradiction in claims. In the end, I had to refer her to my own master about it, because she would not believe me. I can only speculate why Seela would lie about the bond. At the time, she was still angry at me for suggesting she admit to Master Hohenfel that she was in a romantic relationship with Althea who then made her choose between the order and her attachment. Seela chose Althea and carried a resentment towards me afterwards, as did Althea who on several occasions following severely berated me.
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This relates to #6. I was at the time apprenticed to Knight Verrac, and rather than go to him about this issue, then-Knight Nulaa called me forth, pressured me very passive-aggressively to allow her to cut me off from the force (to save her from having to do it to Seela). Nulaa should have gone to my master before ever confronting me with this, and my master should have been present in any attempt by her to convince me to let her cut me off from the force.
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With regards to #2, when Initiate Iuyihp’uru voiced her concerns and objections about Knight Seela, instead of taking the information seriously, Master Landen discarded her concerns out of hand claiming that she should just trust Seela. This goes against one of the most basic tenents of our code. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. Master Landyn made assumptions, however likely or otherwise, that Iuyihp’uru was wrong and that Seela was innocent of any of the claims. Not only was this against the code, but far outside how I would expect an investigator to respond to serious accusations against a knight. I did much more to allay the initiate’s concerns by actually speaking with Knight Seela to get her side and then following up with Iuyihp’uru to straighten out their misunderstandings.
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Master Nulaa’s training of former Padowan Iradtoki did not follow the order’s standard code of training. She was taught use of the force before she was taught understanding or phylosophy of it. Iradtoki displayed a very large lack of understanding in the nature of the force and the purpose of the Jedi Order as a whole several times when I and others would speak with her, yet she would not listen to anyone when they tried to offer her the benefit of their own knowlege of such things. She formed her own opinion of how she thought things worked and stubbornly clung to them out of ignorance. Additionally, Nulaa coddled Ira in many ways which only made her ill prepared to deal with the challenges she would eventually have to take. Iradtoki’s leaving the order in the manner that she did should illustrate well enough the the effects of such training methods and coddling.
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Iradtoki was incredibly distraught after Nulaa dismissed her as her student because Nulaa had formed a deep emotional bond with her and became far too close to her. This closeness may have clouded her judgement in how she trained her and as result coddled her instead of teaching her what she would need to know to face the incredible challenges those of our order are known to face. She was allowed indulgence past the point in her healing where it became detrimental to her growth as a jedi and eventually resulted in her leaving the order because she was not prepared to face the challenges befrore her without special treatment. Iradtoki was offered special treatment by her master and her non-jedi friends, and this only served to set her expectations on other peers to a point where it became a hindrance on her growth. Because of such coddling, Iradtoki often lashed out at anyone who did not offer the same level of coddling and accused them of being judgemental or uncaring.
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Viscara is rife with examples where padowans are left to their own devices and are forced to figure out their training on their own, but this specifically refers to my own experiences with Knight(?) Ashla. Upon my returning to the order, Master Zhar put me under Ashla’s care, yet after we returned to Viscara, I did not see her again for an entire month, when she cryptically told me someone was supposed to have contacted me, but would not say about what. In that month that passed, I received absolutely zero guidance from Ashla. I attempted to contact her every day, along with the other knights on Viscara, and she never once responded or was available. I tried to reach her on comms, I tried sending her messages asking what I should be working on, but I never got any reply. I was left to try and figure my training out on my own and tried to get guidance from other knights daily, but only once did one of them have any to give me, which came from Knight Sandra. Master Zione came to see me once and spoke to me about different pionts of view, or things being more than they seem, but otherwise, I have received no guidance in the last month since meeting with Master Zhar. I understand that the council thinks I’m not ready to be a knight or even take my trials, but I very much want to learn to be a better Jedi, and I can only learn so much if left to my own devices. How can I be the jedi you wish me to be if you offer me little to no guidance?
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This finally gets to the issue that made me realize that something here is very wrong. My studies were interrupted a few days ago by Masters Landyn and Zione who confronted me about what they called several reports about my conduct. They were very vague at first and I had to ask for specifics of what I had done wrong. They referenced three situations that I believed were either misunderstandings or unfair judgements. I attempted to talk them out, but I was repeatedly interrupted, even when I was asked to give my side, and I was left with the feeling that little I said was listened to or considered. It seemed as if my fate had been decided before they even arrived and I was never permitted a fair chance to defend myself against the accusations made against me. Instead judgement was given and I am expected to decide between joining the service corps or being expelled from the order. This is not how the order handles issues that can result in expulsion and is very unfair to me as a padowan, especially considering the order’s recent neglect of my growth.
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For the sake of argument, if the accusations against me were well founded, they were not serious enough to warrant expulsion. Circumstances and intent were not taken into consideration in these matters, and each of these instances should be menial in severity. I have received a single warning in the past about voicing doubts about a master in front of others, which I have tried to make sure and heed. Again, when my growth and training is neglected and the master assigned to oversee me does not respond to me in a month, you have to expect some issues will arise when you leave a student to their own devices. The offenses I allegedly made are not something that should warrant expulsion in any case, but rather, it should only reinforce the need I have for guidance. As I stated before, I very much want to learn and be better, but that will take actual guidance, not being ambushed by two masters who will barely allow me to speak in defense of myself. Expulsion is a very disproportional punishment for what I am said to have done, which is correcting an initiate and new padowan in public, ordering a jedi-hopeful away from a dangerous individual, and disagreeing with a master during a discussion with another padowan and an initiate. What would have been much more suitable and fair would have been to demote me to initiate or simply provide me the guidance that I was supposed to have received under Ashla but never got.
I hope this illustrates to you that there is indeed very serious issues with the Viscaran Jedi Council, and that the order cannot operate sufficiently here in its current state. In my specific case, I must ask that I be given the chance to fairly face the accusations against me and give a fair defense where I am able to address them, and following that, that a master work with me to help me overcome whatever shortcomings such deliberations find in me as well as helping me to continue to train to be the Jedi that Masters Karnz and Verrac believed I could be. That I know I can be.
Sincerly and respectfully,
Tara Renathi