Editing Andyr Turon

For most of Andyr’s Guild colleagues, the Empire is a fact of life and often death, something to work for and feed, lest it feed on you. They are the Weak and they submit to the Strong. But it never sat right with Andyr. He didn’t worship the Strong or the Fury. He worshipped the Credit, that unassuming abstraction that contained within it any number of wishes and the promise of their fulfilment in one. He saw how money enabled people in one part of the galaxy turn their own resources into something completely different, bought and brought in from a distant star. He loved the negotiations, cutting deals so that everyone got just a bit of what they wanted. (Sure, there were sometimes losers, but that was part of the game. Nothing personal.) There was joy in commerce and, though young, he quickly saw how the Empire poisoned all that, stripping productive capacity with no respect for the to and fro of trade, and forcing planets to beg for goods in desperation rather than haggle and bargain as respected opponents across a table or comlink. Sure, so long as its links with the Great Houses were good, his Guild could sit back and squeeze its victims, but Andyr was left with a hollow feeling. That money wasn’t earned; there was no achievement, no fulfilment, no feeling of connection to the threads of trade that supported the galaxy. So when Andyr comes into contact with a heretical holocron, he may think the whole equanimity thing doesn’t sound like much fun, but the offer of a living, creative Force is worth the risk of turning against the Empire.

For most of Andyr’s Guild colleagues, the Empire is a fact of life and often death, something to work for and feed, lest it feed on you. They are the Weak and they submit to the Strong. But it never sat right with Andyr. He didn’t worship the Strong or the Fury. He worshipped the Credit, that unassuming abstraction that contained within it any number of wishes and the promise of their fulfilment in one. He saw how money enabled people in one part of the galaxy turn their own resources into something completely different, bought and brought in from a distant star. He loved the negotiations, cutting deals so that everyone got just a bit of what they wanted. (Sure, there were sometimes losers, but that was part of the game. Nothing personal.) There was joy in commerce and, though young, he quickly saw how the Empire poisoned all that, stripping productive capacity with no respect for the to and fro of trade, and forcing planets to beg for goods in desperation rather than haggle and bargain as respected opponents across a table or comlink. Sure, so long as its links with the Great Houses were good, his Guild could sit back and squeeze its victims, but Andyr was left with a hollow feeling. That money wasn’t earned; there was no achievement, no fulfilment, no feeling of connection to the threads of trade that supported the galaxy. So when Andyr comes into contact with a heretical holocron, he may think the whole equanimity thing doesn’t sound like much fun, but the offer of a living, creative Force is worth the risk of turning against the Empire.