Foreword: I suppose if you’re reading this, then you’ve bypassed whichever security measures I used to keep my private thoughts to myself. Of course you have. I’m sure you’re looking for all of the latest gossip in higher circles. Everyone can always use a word in the right place to their own ends, and I’m sure this is what you’ll do when reading this. Well whatever. I’ll be certain not to put in anything that might be unduly used against me later on.
My name is Archibald Loreantus. I probably would have had a good life of power and prestige I duly deserved. I’m the son of Aloysius Loreantus, one of Coruscant’s many senators. He was a man of power with plenty of means to achieve the ends he had desired. I have the utmost respect for him, and he made sure I wanted for nothing in this world.
That is, until I found both my blessing and curse, my sensitivity ot the force. Like any youth that finds themselves duly sensitive, I was sent to be trained by the Jedi. It was certainly something we both at the time appreciated. The Jedi are a respected body that wields considerable influence and holds a crucial place in the Republic. I certainly would have been happy to wield the power they did. If only they would have actually let me have that power in the first place, that is.
Years went on, years I’d wasted. The Jedi didn’t teach me much and kept trying to ensure I was cut off from my family and their prestige. Further it seemed like they were trying to stifle my ambitions, as if they didn’t want anything but a puppet to their own desires. I still had my station to look forward to. I could have attended several of the more prestigious colleges with my talents instead, as I simply wasn’t malleable enough to be one of their little minions. Regardless, after a while, I was deemed unsuitable for further training. All of it was a waste, they hadn’t taught me how to harness the power of the force, not to mention the utter disgrace and indignity of having a family member denied Jedi training. Can you imagine? I wonder if one of my father’s rivals had anything to do with it, he certainly had plenty of enemies in political circles in the senate, although I suspect the Jedi made it all on their own.
Well, at least I could then return to a more civilian role. Other forms of higher education were open to me at least, though the stigma of being a Jedi Reject was entirely unpleasant to deal with. I could deal with it however. I still had time to find power in another form.
Of course the world wasn’t through putting me through several odious indignities. It all was that fateful day I remember all too well, when my father was arrested and charged with a multitude of corruption offenses. The whole thing was of course rubbish, it’s not like every senator doesn’t do everything they can to consolidate their own power. There was a trial and everything. I also remember the nasty face of republic troopers as they tried to interrogate me about everything I knew about my father’s business. Naturally I was skilled enough in wordplay that they didn’t get anything of import out of me, but it was ever so irritating to be hassled by their constant insipid questioning at every turn.
It didn’t matter in the end. Evidently they had enough evidence at the trial to name my father guilty on an unprecedented length of corruption charges. I had to admire his rivals in a way, who managed to arrange such a thing, they’d taken a powerful man and reduced him to nothing. It’s something I would do in their position if I had the opportunity. Regardless, there was nothing I could do at that point as he was hauled off to jail.
I of course didn’t expect them to stop harrying me, and they didn’t. I was still pressured for questioning at every turn. Many of my family’s assets were seized as part of the guilty ruling. I would have plotted the downfall of everyone responsible except I had nowhere near the assets required to make that happen.
So here I am, on some backwater pit of mud where there’s very little proper company around, having had to flee from all of the harrying that would have followed me had I been anywhere near the galactic core. Such is my life now.
What an utter indignity.