Tyia

Tyia

The Tyia was a faith, a philosophy, and a way of knowing the Force. It taught of holding a high regard for peace and life. It came to the planet Revyia around 30 BBY, after an independent freighter brought a missionary of the Tyia faith to the planet. Its message appealed to the indigenous Revwiens, and became widely accepted amongst them, to such a degree that the Tyia was widely seen as native to that culture.

Tyia practitioners were known as Thuwisten, taking their name from the Tyia's prime tenet that one should seek personal harmony with one's own Tyia so that other Tyia forces may join to form a bond-circle, a joining of spirits called "Thuwisten", complete in their utter harmony. Indeed, Thuwisten believed that individual introspection was key to knowing the ways of the universe.

Tyia-practicing Force users were taught to control their personal Force through ceremony and meditation. Their focus on their inner Force resulted in Thuwisten having a heightened awareness of the skill the Jedi knew as Control; however, a Thuwisten found the use of the Alter ability to be a more difficult and time-consuming practice than the Jedi. Nonetheless, many Thuwisten regarded the Jedi as true masters of the Tyia.

The practitioners of Tyia, a relatively peaceful sect of Force- users, have only been widely known in the galaxy since the rise of Palpatine's Galactic Empire. One of the few Force traditions to practice openly during the reign of the Empire, Tyia adepts spread their beliefs in the space lanes through peaceful discourse and meditation. Unlike many Force traditions, practitioners of Tyia rarely come into conflict with the Empire prolonging their freedom from the Emperor's Jedi hunters.

HISTORY

The Revwien are a sentient plant species hailing from a distant planet beyond the Outer Rim. Revwia is temperate world with long rolling plains and an equatorial jungle belt. The Revwien revere the jungle belt as a holy site. Those Revwien who display talent with the Force are sent to the jungle to develop their abilities and study the Tyia. For much of the galaxy's history, Revwien Force-users studied the Tyia and developed a kind of religion around it, spreading the word of their beliefs to any who would believe it. The masters on Revwia sensed the deaths of the Jedi from the nefarious Order 66. The discord caused by the deaths of so many Force-sensitive beings sent the masters into a panic. They gathered their best and brightest in a temple grown from the largest trees on the planet. The mission was laid out plainly. The students were to leave their homeworld and seek out the Jedi to help them in the wake of the Great Jedi Purge, to help return the galaxy to a state of harmony.

LOCATION

The practitioners of Tyia can be found anywhere. from the Deep Core to the Outer Rim. They branched out from the Revwien homeworld in force during the days of the Galactic Empire. Traveling the space lanes as passengers aboard tramp freighters, sharing their thoughts and wisdom with other beings that seem interested in or strongly connected to the Force. Practitioners of Tyia can be found anywhere in the galaxy that tramp freighters fly, but during the time of the Empire they are more likely to be found in shadowports.

PHILOSOPHY

"Tyia" is the Revwien word for "breath." Tyia is the spark of life that all living creatures have. All creatures that breathe have some measure of power in the Tyia. As long as there is life in the galaxy, there will be Tyia. Students of the Tyia spend their time in he wilderness to experience how all life is connected. The prey eats the plant. The predator eats the prey. The predator dies and his remains feed the plant. All things reflect this cycle. Students of the Tyia learn to reach out through these connections and alter the world around them.

Things moving normally are referred to as "Harmony." Harmony is akin to the light side, and most students of the Tyia strive for Harmony. They mediate disputes, heal those not ready to die, and do what they can to keep peace In the galaxy. When the dark side intervenes the Tyia falls into Discord. The Fall of the Republic was hastened by the Discord of Palpatine. Anakin Skywalker succumbed to his Discord because he could not be both a Jedi and husband to Padme Amidala.

Conflict is part of life. Though students of the Tyia do not carry liqhtsabers, they know that predators hunt prey and war is a natural step in the evolution of the galaxy. While those who study the Tyia revere all life, they also battle those who would destroy it. They prefer to use Force abilities to knock down and immobilize opponents rather than pick up a blaster to do so. If there is no alternative the Tyia would still rather stun and enemy than kill it. Killing, even in defense, is a quick path to Discord. Those students who fall from the path of the Tyia are given no name. They are believed to have lost the right to call themselves anything because of their Discord. Revwien who fall to the dark side take on a shriveled cast. Their voices become whispers of fallen leaves. They long to break out of the endless cycle of the Tyia and often want to take as many others with them as possible. The fallen student of Tyia looks to destroy and disrupt. There are places on Revwia where the earth is black and nothing grows. These are the places where Harmony and Discord have battled. Discord never fully wins in the end, but it often extracts a great price when it loses.

Membership

Although practitioners of Tyia are usually Revwien, Force sensitive members of other species can embrace the philosophies of the Tyia and become practitioners of this Force tradition as well.

Tyia teaches that individual introspection is the way to learn the true way of the universe — students are taught to control their own personal Force (called "Tyia") through meditation and ceremony. Because of the unique way in which the Tyia studies the Force, there are some special rules regarding its use:

• A Tyia student learning Control at 1D automatically learns Hibernation Trance and Emptiness (which is Easy difficulty for Tyia). The character learns an additional three Control powers.
• All Alter powers have their difficulty increased by one level.

All powers have minimum time to use of one minute.