Tenocron Codex (Ten-o-cron Co-dex)

It's a legend among Force orders, like the Sith, that tamper with the Dark Side...

... and a warning that there are perhaps dark corners to the Force that should not be explored.

— Errol Vondromas, former Sith Lord

Sith holocrons. Sith spellbooks. Artifacts of dark power and knowledge. Ever since the Lost Twelve left the ancient Jedi Order, the Sith understood that knowledge is power and so they’ve hunted for it ever since. Along the way, they recorded their lessons, their dark studies, to pass on what they learned of the Dark Side of the Force.

The Tenocron Codex is one of those dark volumes. Perhaps the most dangerous of them all.

According to legend, the Codex was assembled by Darth Tenock. Tenock was a Sith alchemist that appeared during the height of the ancient Sith Empire, just at the dawn of the old Galactic Republic.

Location

Port Etmar, apartment of Errol Vondromas, reluctantly appointed leader of the Chalcedon Dust Lancers

Stardate

3-6-12731

---

Late afternoon desert wind blew south into Port Etmar from the Gahvey Crater Badlands. Errol Vondromas glanced down at his datapad once more and sighed.

The conversation over email with Jedi Knight Vanya Ysadora went about as he expected: poorly. He pursed his lips, then frowned at the sunset. A door chime broke his light meditation.

“Enter.”

His voice command unlocked the door. It slipped open with a dull hiss.

“Vondromas.”

Errol smirked before he turned around.

“Derma. What brings you here? Isn’t this your evening ‘orchid hour’? I’m surprised you didn’t send Trenloe if you wanted to know something.”

Derma the Hutt chuckled while he slithered his bulk inside.

“Some things are too interesting to leave to others.” The hutt paused inside the door. “Errol, you look troubled.”

“No, only frustrated.” He waved the datapad in Derma’s direction. “Email is a terrible medium for communication. It guts the intent out of the message. Jedi Ysadora asked me a few questions, and the result was garbled at best. In hindsight, I should have said ‘I have no idea, but I’ll find out’ and left it at that.”

Derma let out a deep, guttural laugh while he continued into the room.

“She asked about something, so you fed her what little you knew in hopes it would help?” The hutt shook his head. “I’ve told you before, you need to learn to hold your sabbacc cards close to your chest. I thought you Sith Lords were all about secrets?”

Errol dropped the datapad on a table by the balcony, then walked over to clasp hands with Derma.

“You forgot the ‘former’ part of Sith Lord.”

“Did I?”

Errol shot the hutt a deadpan look. Derma chuckled again.

“So, I deduced where Palpetine hid a backup of his notes on ‘Evil for Fun and Profit’, then got you a copy. I’m curious. Did you find what you were looking for?”

Errol gestured to an open workstation on the same desk as the datapad.

“About the Tenocron Codex? I did. It’s always interesting to learn about a twisted, self-aware piece of Sith technology that has nothing better to do than to make trouble.”

Derma’s amber-yellow eyes widened.

“Self-aware? What was its purpose?”

Errol tapped a few keystrokes to bring up an image of a charcoal, hard bound book on the holoscreen.

“Oh, the usual. Store interesting knowledge, mostly Sith formulas and teachings, and kill anyone that tried to access it in the most elaborate way possible. The usual Sith philosophy is that if the person accessing it survived, they earned the right to learn what was there… or die trying.”

Contents

Type

Manual, Scientific

Medium

Crystal, Photonic

Related Locations

Mustafar

Coruscant

Yavin 4

Burdened with a Dark Purpose

Anyone who studies the Codex long enough encounters the rumors and myth that surround the actual reason why Darth Tenock created the Codex.

The most plausible is that Darth Tenock planned to use the Codex as a lure, and a death trap. A clever means to assassinate the current masters of the Sith Order of the age. Once dead, Tenock would ‘reluctantly’ assume control of the Sith Order, to “maintain stability”.

There are older, darker myths.

Two of the oldest, and most persistent, myths surround Darth Tenock himself.

One myth is that Darth Tenock intended to deliver copies of Codex pages to rulers of the galactic governments of the time, such as the Queen of the Republic, to plant a seed of the Dark Side in each recipient. Once that seed was planted, Darth Tenock could use the Codex to further tempt each ruler to the Dark Side, if not outright control them.

Another myth is that the Codex itself is a tool designed to allow Darth Tenock immortal life through manipulation of the Force. In this story, the Codex siphons off the Force from each user who reads the Codex. Then, once the Codex has returned to Darth Tenock’s resting place, it would clone a new body for him through Sith alchemy and the stolen power of the Force. Tenock would then inhabit this newly created body to continue his work.

Materials and Make of the Codex

The Tenocron Codex is a thin book, or binder, of fifty-two flimsies. Each flimsie is more than just a transpara-sheet page. It is a piece of masterwork craft, a thin holocron on its own.

This technique to make a flimsie-thin holocron no longer exists. Some records suggest that the mysterious Choni Techaugers re-discovered the method. The tech-monks vanished before they revealed what they learned.

Where each page is a thin holocron, the binding is entirely different.

There have been numerous attempts to identify the binding material by Sith alchemists, researchers, and others who have encountered the Codex. The material is a tanned, charcoal black animal hide, pressed into a durable, hard cover. What animal species, or even planet of origin, has eluded researchers for generations.

The hide that makes up the cover is highly durable to where it resists extreme heat and cold, even the cold of vacuum. No matter the temperature, this material doesn’t become brittle and keeps its fresh, soft leathery texture. If heated, the binder exhibits an additional reaction.

High amounts of heat, such as from a plasma torch to lightsaber, cause red letters to materialize on the cover. The language is ancient; a sub-dialect of the original ancient Sith people that no longer exist.

One Order to set the Mind in Motion.

One Order to Still the Chaos.

By Order alone, All will be Sorted into their Place.

— Inscription on the cover of the Tenecron Codex

While the Codex itself has never been destroyed, samples from the Codex have been studied to see just what can harm the material. Sith research states that the binder protects itself using the Force.

After any attempt to damage the binder, the digitized ‘guardian’ of the Codex draws upon the knowledge stored inside to defend itself against the attack. Often, this is just a Force shield. But some Sith alchemists, before their abrupt demise by the Codex, recorded that focused Dark Side Force Storms and worse are possible.

Sith researchers identified that the only item that can destroy the Codex is the Sith forge that created it. The location of this forge is a mystery, as Darth Tenock’s lab was lost thousands of years ago.

Three locations have been suggested as the resting place for Darth Tenock’s lab and his Sith forge. These are the Kulir Mesa on Mustofar, Tochi Marble Grove on the original surface of Coruscant, or the lost Temple of the Dark Eye somewhere on Yavin 4.

Contents and Pagekeepers

It's a magnificent piece of technology. But that ability it has for destroyed pages to 'reappear' into the Codex? That's a bit frustrating if you're looking to wreck the thing.

— Errol Vondromas, reluctantly appointed leader of the Chalcedon Dust Lancers

Each page of the Codex contains unique information. This could be skills in manipulating the Force, ancient metallurgy techniques, long-lost star charts with hyperspace routes, or even unique healing methods. Because each ‘page’ is a thin holocron, the list is endless; the information, almost impossibly ancient.

True to a holocron, each page has its own gatekeeper, called a Pagekeeper. These Pagekeepers come in a wide variety of forms. Force Wraiths, digitized memories of Force users, even destructive Dark Side Force effects or ‘curses’ guard the Codex pages. Some Sith mention strange ‘Sithspawns’ materializing to life and then challenge the reader.

Once a page has been opened for reading, or removed from the Codex itself, the Pagekeeper will appear. If the Pagekeeper is a thinking construct, such as a Force Wraith, they will challenge the reader. If an effect? That happens instantly.

Survivors may study the material on the page.

Pages in the Codex are removable. This doesn’t damage the page or pages. In fact, once the reader has either been killed by the Pagekeeper, or learned all they could from the page, that page dematerializes. It later re-materializes inside the Codex. If a page is somehow destroyed, yet the Codex is intact, that page will later re-materialize inside the Codex. This ‘dematerialize’ and ‘re-materialize’ ability is an ancient, and rare, Force-based technology that is said to be recorded in the Codex.

The Codex itself has its own ‘holocron gatekeeper’ called a Master Pagekeeper. This construct appears to be modeled after an ancient species lost to the galaxy for over a thousand generations. All Sith researchers agree that the Master Pagekeeper is truly self-aware, and is the one responsible for possessing anyone holding the Codex. Anyone possessed is compelled to transport the Codex to a new location.

There are several theories why, the most common is that the Codex is trying to return to its owner, Darth Tenock. But Tenock perished in one of the many Sith-Jedi wars during the ancient, early days of the Old Republic, or so history shows.

Location

Port Etmar, apartment of Errol Vondromas, reluctantly appointed leader of the Chalcedon Dust Lancers

Stardate

3-6-12731

---

“That is what she was asking about?” Derma said. “And Emperor Palpatine had this monstrosity when he was alive?”

Errol nodded while he finished collecting the notes as attachments to the email.

“Yes, on both questions,” he said. “Though, Palpatine had the Codex long enough to learn some skills from it. At some point, the Codex possessed the Dark Emperor and had him transport it to another location off Coruscant.” He glanced at Derma. “Possibly to either try to locate Darth Tenock’s remains or ‘bring order’ like the inscription says.”

Derma was quiet for a moment. Eyes half closed, he pursed his lips.

Errol recognized the expression. Trenloe had explained that was Derma deep in thought, his genius working overtime on a bit of information. The former Sith Lord gave a slight shake of his head, then continued to finish the email.

“Disturbing,” the Hutt declared a few seconds later. “Why would the Sith, any Sith, make something like this to hold information they would pass to someone else?”

Errol smirked.

“You said it yourself, my friend. The Sith. They do like their secrets. It just so happens they’re also a little murderously paranoid.”