101 Star Wars Variations 10: Ewok Order

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

There was a forest moon called Endor, and there lived the Ewoks.  Although they were isolated from the rest of the galaxy, and never left this moon, the Ewoks received many visitors.  Once there was a man on a pilgrimage, trying to comprehend the mysteries he had learned about in his studies.  He had not intended to visit the Ewoks, because like everyone else he didn't even know they existed.

When the man first came across them, as was usual the Ewoks took him captive.  Neither understood each other at all.  Deep into that evening, when the Ewoks were still trying to decide what to do with the man, he panicked.  He had never been a violent man, but he had the sense that the natives of this moon meant him harm.  At first he had been willing to cooperate, but as the day wore on so did his patience.  Freeing one hand from the ropes the Ewoks had used to bind him, he threw a fist out, wildly, connecting with nothing, concerning none of his captors at all.  It was a futile effort, but it got the Ewoks thinking.

They turned to their shaman, the wisest among them, and asked him what the man might have been thinking, the sheer futility of his attempt.  But the shaman said the man had been wise, far wiser than any of them had been.  He had known, instinctively, something the shamans of the Ewoks had known for countless generations.  He had known about the Force.

The shaman chose to do something drastic, next.  He ingested some of his most precious herbs, the ones that gave him access to the Force, the ones that helped him commune with the spirits, allowed him to bridge all communication divides.  He then asked the man if he had ever encountered the hidden knowledge of the Force.

At first the man was confused.  He had no idea what the shaman was talking about.  But then he reconsidered.  There had been references to it in some of the oldest books he had studied.  They spoke of ancient sources, beyond the advent of written word in the galaxy, something more...primitive.  He looked at the shaman again, for the first time.

Here, standing before him, was the only living source for power never before realized, at least anywhere besides this moon.  Here was a living conduit of the Force.  It was everything the man had been seeking, nothing like he had imagined.  And suddenly everything made sense.

In time, the man and the shaman shared everything they knew with each other.  They became master and apprentice.  Sometimes the shaman was the master, sometimes the man.  This was the way of things for many years.  One day, the man decided it was time for him to go.  He asked the shaman if he would leave with him.  The shaman said his place was forever on this moon, his art the way of the Ewoks.  The man was sad.  He knew the shaman's people would never understand him, or the Force, the way he did.  In time, even the line of shamans would forget what he knew.  It was the way of things.  But the shaman was adamant, and the man departed without another word.

That was the beginning of the Jedi Order.