#dai bendu

[jedi-enthusiasm-blog]

The Many Names of Peace (pt.1/?): Mercy

Inspired by Why We Did Nothing by BairnSidhe

Part I | Part II

CONTENT WARNINGS: THE RUUSAN REFORMATION AND HOW IT PUT THE JEDI IN A TERRIBLE PLACE, MANDALORIAN-JEDI HISTORY AFTER THE RUUSAN REFORMATION WHICH INCLUDES PADAWAN HUNTING. THIS INCLUDES:

Cultural genocide (discussed in detail). The Ruusan Reformation is made much worse here, and the Dral'han/Excision is also commented upon.

Child murder (discussed). Padawan hunting, and how Mandalorians killed children and took braids and beads as trophies.

Corpse desecration (discussed in detail). Lightsabers and Padawan braids and beads are taken from their owners. I realize this doesn't seem important for many of us, but it's very important for the Jedi.

Systematic identity erasure of a mixed race character (discussed). Tarre Vizla's Jedi status is barely known by Mandalorians because House Vizla treated it like a dirty secret.

Please mind your headspaces.

"If you hate genocide so much, where were your people at the Dral'han?" Terith asks with a scoff.

The Jetii stops muttering and goes still. Slowly, she turns, with a movement too fluid for a human. She's shorter than them, very slim and apparently frail, and her blond —almost white— hair is tied in a braided bun. Her eyes, which are a glowing emerald green, are burning.

"Where were we? You're asking me why we did nothing when your people were attacked?" The kage Jedi asks the Mandalorian with a soft tone of voice and a polite nod, looking almost like a respected jaieh accepting a padawan's question.

It is not.

Underneath their buy'ce, Terith's lips curl at her words, at her threat.

Zahara begins to move from one side of the room to another. It's too controlled to be called pacing, but the tension is visible in her movements.

"Not all Jedi are human. In fact, most aren't. There are species with very long lifespans and, considering Force-sensitives tend to live a few decades longer than others of their species, two hundred is far from an uncommon age among Jedi" The Jetii doesn't seem to be answering their furious question at first. "We were not there, Mandalorian, because every sitting member of the High Council during the genocide of your people remembered how Mandalore reacted when they came for us, first."

Drovan, her crechemate, her enishee, her brother of the soul, was a member of the EduCorps. He hadn't wanted to be a Knight, done the math, and decided to free up a space for somebody else. In particular, he was fascinated by the History of the Order. Zahara remembers quiet nights, when she was at the Temple resting after a taxing mission, when she Drovan used to sit down on comfortable cushions and her closest sibling rambled about what he was learning.

She's heard him ranting about the Ruusan Reformation, and the cruel limitations it places on her people even now. She's read it herself, once she began her Shadow training, learning every single restriction in search for loopholes that could be exploited to make the Order's job and life easier.

Her people's memories are long. Kages remember. The Jedi remember. Zahara remembers.

"They vividly remembered when the Republic we served brought down our Temples, when they took us from our homes, when they tried to destroy a whole branch of our Order" Zahara lists, voice cold and eyes blazing, "when they took our armor, our back-up and defenses, when they stole everything but our Lightsabers… and when your people laughed and called it easy hunting."

The Mandalorian pride in Terith's heart wants to protest, to deny the Jetii's words. But she speaks like a scholar in a subject she's clearly well versed in, like a grieving verd mourning the violence against her people they'd known nothing about.

History isn't always kind, Mandalorian history in particular rarely is, but it's always worth learning from. It's something Kyr'tsad and the extremists among the Nu'Mando'ade don't understand, and Terith refuses to make their same mistakes.

So, they swallow the growing lump in their throat, ignore the stone sinking in their stomach and try to listen.

Zahara's voice begins to break away from the calm, even tones of a teacher, and slowly fall into the ragged tones of soul-crushing grief. Her breath becomes shallow and rapid, and air gets stuck in her throat. Still, she continues.

"The Republic had been destroying us for two hundred years by the time of the orbital bombardment on Mandalore, and in that time, the number of Lightsabers and Padawan braids and beads seen on Mandalorian armor as trophies skyrocketed" The Jetii hisses, spitting the word trophies with the same venom he would use to say hut'tuunla or demagolka. "We were trapped, betrayed and dying… and your people murdered our young and desecrated our corpses, and had the nerve to carry the stolen lives of our kin as proof."

The air grows colder, a sharpness in it that's as familiar as her own reflection. The galaxy around her sings with promises of vengeance, of justice. Justice for her enishee, justice for Feemor and his charges, justice for Jaieh Ta'ra's murdered Padawan, for the all Jedi dead during the Mandalorian sack of the Anohrah, for the bastardization of Jaieh Tarre Vizla's story and the systematic erasure of his Jedi identity, for all the Jedi younglings dead at Mandalorian hands.

Not against the Mandalorian that did any of those things, but against a Mandalorian, anyhow.

"Your people sacked the Temple, stole the life and soul of a respected Jedi Master, got two of his Padawans murdered, erased every single hint of his Jedi upbringing, and perverted everything he stood for in life, all because he happened to be Mandalorian as well."

The song reaches a crescendo, the highest notes she's ever heard in a Force song, making her ears ring. The melody sounds off-key, and the final notes become loud and insufferable high-pitched screams. Zahara grits her teeth, and breathes in deeply. The xari in the air slowly dissapears.

She will not take revenge.

She's a Jedi, and revenge is not the Jedi way.

She will not Fall. She will not let her anger act upon her and betray everything she, Drovan, Feemor, Ta'ra and her Padawan, Tarre Vizla and his Padawans have ever stood for.

Zahara will not take revenge because it's not what Drovan would have wanted. It's not what any Jedi would want.

She will not take revenge because it's not as useful and satisfying as the thores of passion lead you to believe.

This Mandalorian is innocent. They haven't done anything wrong. They're angry about their people's genocide and rightfully so. They're ignorant, and ignorance can be fixed.

Words, the sharing of knowledge, bringing understanding when there was previously none. Those are her greatest weapons, and she can wield them freely and with as much efficiency as a Lightsaber.

Terith is frozen in place, mind racing with the desire to be anywhere else, away from this hurting, angry sorceress that sees them as an enemy. The manda in their chest screams, in offense or the pain of dishonor Terith isn't sure.

They wish their buy'ce was recording. That way they could investigate the Jetii's claims.

Everyone and their mother has heard the rumors about the Jetiise. Sorcerers from the Core that don't reproduce like other beings, but take children from their parents and train them to be as emotionless as droids, beings that beat all the love and concern for others out of themselves because they believe attachment is a weakness.

Terith believed them, once.

Now Terith doesn't know what to believe. The Jetii speaks with too much knowledge and pain to be lying, nobody can fake that well, and the air around them both is mournfully singing as the truth of her words sink into the depths of their runi.

Zahara breathes out slowly. Still hurt, but… determined not to Fall, not to take out her grief and anger on someone who's done nothing wrong.

"So" the kage Jedi flashes a polite but completely unfriendly smile, "why did we do nothing when they came for your world?"

Within their battered heart, stung with the pain of dishonor, with the stain on the manda itself, Terith knows the answer before the Jetii says a word.

"We did nothing because Jedi are merciful, Mandalorian."

(Notes under the cut)

Dai Bendu

Jaieh — Jedi Master (rank and role).

Padawan — apprentice, learner, student. Lit "the one who learns". Please picture a Jedi hearing a politician saying "Padawan learner", and containing the urge to eye twich.

Enishee — crechemate.

Anohrah — Jedi Temple, home. Before the Ruusan Reformation used to refer to the Temple the speaker was from.

Xari — darkness, the Dark Side of the Force.

Mando'a

Jetii(se) — Jedi (add 'se' at the end to make the plural).

Buy'ce — helmet.

Verd — warrior.

Kyr'tsad — Death Watch, lit "death society".

Nu'Mando'ade — New Mandalorians.

Hut'tuunla — coward. Very harsh insult.

Demagolka — someone who commits atrocties, a real-life monster, a war criminal - from the notorious Mandalorian scientist of the Old Republic, Demagol, known for his experiments on children, and a figure of hate and dread in the Mando psyche

Manda — collective soul of the Mandalorians.

Runi — spirit, soul of the individual.

Zahara is a kage Jedi Knight, officially a Sentinel and a Finder, which is used to explain why she can be in places she isn't supposed to and bust slave rings without prior Senate authorization. Unofficially, however, she's a Shadow. It's common practice for the Jedi to register Shadows as Finders in order to give them more freedom of action.

Terith is a Mandalorian bounty hunter, but they're very picky about their jobs and have interest in medicine, particularly "mind-healing". They were born in a New Mandalorian family but found greater calling to Jaster and the True Mandalorians and switched allegiance once they were of age. They are mildly Force-sensitive, not enough to become a Jedi and only gives them good instincts.

The Dral'han is the orbital bombardment of Mandalore done by the Galactic Republic in roughly 800BBY. The Republic used Jedi ships, but there were no Jedi involved. Mandalorians believed the Jedi were guilty at first, but the truth was uncovered only a decade later.

Dai Bendu is not my creation. It's a colang, although the story of the language is something I made up. Dai Bendu is the language spoken by the Order of Dai Bendu and, later on, the Jed'aii Order. It fell out of use after the Jedi joined the Republic in 25,000BBY, but came back in full swing during the Jedi-Sith Wars when it was very useful to speak a language the enemy couldn't understand.

I don't know if it's canon, but in this story Force-sensitives live longer than the average of their species. Those who aren't trained only live a little longer (a decade in humans), but for those who, like the Jedi, have training that lifespan increases (three to four decades in humans).

"Free up a space". Taken from the Jedi Apprentice series, where Jedi age out at thirteen and there are limited Masters, and where those who aren't chosen are sent to the Corps. Drovan knew he didn't want to be a Knight, so he requested to be sent to the Corps as soon as possible to give the chance of becoming a Knight to someone who actually wanted to be one. Unlike Jedi Apprentice, however, this is an imposition from the Ruusan Reformation, and the Jedi try to bend this rule as much as possible.

Kages' memories begin forming almost at birth. Zahara remembers with vivid detail most of her life. She's doing an alliteration: she remembers because she's a kage and because she is a Jedi.

This is the "Ruusan Reformation but make it worse" AU:

"Brought down our Temples". The Ruusan Reformation demanded the centralization of the Jedi Order. Therefore, all Jedi were forced to move to Couruscant, and their other Temples were either destroyed or repurposed.

"Took us from our homes." Although Terith doesn't know it, Zahara is being redundant. The word for Jedi Temple in Dai Bendu also means home. She's putting enphasis on how painful it was for the Jedi to lose their homes.

"Tried to destroy a whole branch of our Order." The Shadows were supposed to be dissolved after the Ruusan Reformation was signed. However, the Jedi managed to keep training Shadows in secret.

The Jedi used to have weapons, armor and many defenses besides their Lightsabers, but the Ruusan Reformation ordered their demilitarization and "demilitarization". Among the things they lost were the right to carry their birth cultures' sacred armor and weapons. A Mandalorian Jedi wouldn't be allowed to have armor, for example.

Mandalorians tend to take trophies from their enemies after a battle. This is done both for, well, bragging rights and to respect the memory of a worthy opponent (similar to their remembrances for their fallen comrades). However, the bragging rights part can overshadow the respect for a worthy opponent part, and many Mandalorians hunt down defenseless "enemies" to steal important objects from them. The Jedi in particular were a favored target for these… individuals, seeing as they had no armor, only carried one weapon and were usually alone or in pairs because that's how the Senate decided to send them in missions. The victims were usually Padawans, hence the name Padawan Hunts.

Tarre Vizla's story shows the greatest difference between how Jedi and Mandalorians (at least in that era) treat different cultures and double cultured children. The Jedi don't hide that Tarre Vizla was Mandalorian, everyone knows that he left the Order to rule Mandalore, and know what happened to his armor and what he wanted to happen to his body and Lightsaber. However, Mandalorians either don't know or refuse to recognize Tarre Vizla's Jedi status.

"Sacked the Temple". Tarre Vizla left his armor to his Clan and his Lightsaber to the Jedi. When he died, he wanted to be burned in the Temple (both cultures burn their death, so little to no issue here) and his ashes to be spread on Mandalore. House Vizla, however, did the equivalent of spitting on Tarre's funeral pyre and sacked the Temple to steal the Darksaber.

"Stole the life and soul of a respected Jedi Master". Tarre Vizla was a Jedi, and the Darksaber is his life. House Vizla, however, had no respect for their relative's other culture and did the worst thing they could do to him: killing and hurting his Jedi family, and stealing a sacred item they knew was sacred.

I headcanon that Tarre Vizla had three Padawans. He finished the incomplete training of the first because their Master died, did the whole training of the second and got promoted to Master as a result, and only started the training of the third before he went to his home planet to unite Mandalorians against the Sith Empire. Two of them were killed during House Vizla's sack of the Temple.

"Erased every hint of his Jedi upbringing." House Vizla replaced the Jedi Order symbol on Tarre's armor with the symbol of House Vizla, refused to acknowledge Tarre's desire to be remembered as a Jedi and forbade anyone from speaking about his Jedi status, and never say that the Darksaber is actually a regular Lightsaber they stole.

"Perverted everything he stood for." Lightsabers are a Jedi's life, hold their souls in the same way beskar'gam holds a Mandalorian's. Tarre. Ever since it was stolen, the Darksaber has been used as a symbol of authoritarian and tyrannical leadership, warmonging, imperialism and military violence. It's so fucked up that the crystal is beginning to break (the white cracks, originally the Darksaber was pure black) and, had those who held it been trained Force-sensitives, the crystal would have bled.

Terith doesn't know they're Force-sensitive, but they know their instincts are rarely wrong, and they can feel the honesty and grief coming from Zahara in waves. They don't doubt her precisely because they know she's not lying, she's seeing things as she sees them and, even if she's wrong, it's something Terith believes to be worth looking into.

[darth-jess]

Fun Star Wars Legends fact:

The word Jedi originally comes from the ancient order of Je’daii which comes from a combination of Dai Bendu words meaning “mystic center.”

[captain-mozzarella]

Look I I love when the clones have their own little dialect of mando'a. I gobble that shit up

But what I really want is for them to have their own fucked up version of Dai Bendu

[padawansuggest]

Okay so you know the trope where a character is asked their name and they look around for a few items to make a name out of it (I think the one truly funny jone Family Guy ever did was having Peter do this and somehow landing on his own name okay I still think back on that one and laugh it was so bad) and the other character is like???? Who the fuck would name their kid that????

Okay so I think an even funnier idea that could work in fandom is that we know a lot of Mando’a but not much Dai Bendu (the Jedi language) so I want a Mando to ask a Jedi their name and they blank and say something short in Dai Bendu and the Mando is like ‘…holy shit who names their kid TOASTER???’ Or something like that that idea is so funny

[thebrainofocto]

Hc that Dai Bendu is similar to croatian when it comes to the grammar, but the cases aren't communicated by changing the sentence structure, but through the force.

For example, instrumental sentences are often fully expressed through the force since they refer to tools and (in croatian) express companionship. If one is talking about a certain person, one will try to translate that persons force presence and say/project the sentence with the mimicry of the persons force presence (or, when talking about a lightsaber, one will try to translate the Kybers force presence)

This also means jedi can communicate multiple sentences at the same time and and often do

[jedi-enthusiast]

Ok, this is a shot in the dark, but I'm trying anyway-

Is there anyone that'd be willing to help me translate certain sentences into Dai Bendu?

In my fic I'm going along with the idea that the Jedi still speak Dai Bendu, although they're the only ones that do so, and using it to show more of Jedi culture.

The only problem is, I'm not fluent in the language yet and---while I can find the words I need---I'm worried about using the wrong conjugations or sentence structure.

So would anyone be willing to help?

[kbirbpods]

[Podfic Link] | Length: 21 minutes, 2 seconds

Original Work: Purest Expression of Grief {haj dai} by @ghostwriterofthemachine [ao3]

Star Wars: Cal Kestis, Kanan Jarrus, Ahsoka Tano | Rating: T+

Summary: 

Order 66 happens. Cal goes quiet, Kanan thinks too much, and Ahsoka can never go back. (Or; three children and a dying language, after they've seen their people die.)

Notes: Summer Podfic Swap treat for @flowerparrish & @godoflaundrybaskets

[jasontoddiefor]

sometimes it feels weird to know there are a 100+ fics in a tag made for my little conlang project. like, a lot of people went through the effort to learn its grammar and vocabulary to use it in fic. wild.

[dai-bendu-conlang]

hello! i’ve been doing a project recently where i’m creating a new writing script and i’m just getting to the designing stage (finally after a whole lot of research!).

i was wondering if you could tell me a little about how you designed the dai bendu writing system or any interesting things you decided to do with it?

Okay this is going to be much less impressive and helpful than you think it might be, my apologies xD

So, first of: we tried to create our conlang based on the scraps of Jedi language worldbuilding we were given. So when it came to script, we searched for whether there were any scraps. Lo and behold: the sequel trilogy is useful for once as it gave us the sacred Jedi texts and boom: we had a script.

We copied pretty much ever “letter” of those pages and tried to see how many there were. We’d already decided that we were going for a phonological script, meaning that every letter would correspond to a singular specific sound. And then we looked at the letters we had and adapted them until we liked their look. After all, this is supposed to be a modernized script. And that is pretty much it.

Now, as an addendum: what we didn’t know when we did that is that the sacred jedi texts are even more lackluster in creative world building than we assumed. Here is a pretty good research article on what those pages might all be based on. So technically speaking the design of our script falls somewhere between Ge’ez and Coptic.

I’ll hand it to them, however. This is a step up for the absolute catastrophic fuck up that was using Hebrew for Sith originally. Shout out to Ben Grossblatt for fixing that, I’m sorry Disney never let you do more stuff for Sith.

I think the most interesting thing - and our one phonological exception - is the fact that we created a letter that means “Dai” aka “Force”.

We went for three circles as circles keep showing up in Jedi art and we like the symbolism of a circle connecting all. This also enables some really neat calligraphy, which I think Jedi would enjoy practicing. Also fun fact: if you’re insane enough to for some reason sort how every single sith and Jedi temple we know looks like, you’ll discover that Jedi prefer domes in their building designs.

For you: I’d recommend looking into the environment of your culture. What did they first start writing on? What materials were used? How would that have changed? Did they have contact with other cultures that might have influenced the script? And also, is it writeable? Is this something you can do calligraphy with as easily as take some notes grocery shopping? If your script isn’t practical in every day life, you might wanna change it until it is. I’d recommend practicing writing it yourself.

[mystidpurple]

Reaching out to the greater fandom community for help. I'm writing a Star Wars fic (only my second ever) and I need a title that Anakin can use for Obi-Wan that is not Master.

It's meant to be set only a few months after TPM and I feel like if Obi-Wan knew Anakin had been a slave he wouldn't make him use Master this early but also that it's to early for him to have been taught Dai Bendu as a language? The plan is that by the end he would be using Dai Bendu but not yet?

Any ideas would help.

[tellmeeverynothing]

Basic isn't English, humans are probably from Coruscant, Basic can't be English-

Yeah but Dai Bendu can. or at least a variant.

Even aside from the pyramid ships bringing everyone to Tython (remember that running joke about aliens built the pyramids? nice one, SW), Dai Bendu is described (in fanfic at least, which is where I'm angling from) as a Force-assisted language kept by the Jedi from waaaay back when with the Je'daii on Tython, a language impossible to properly speak or comprehend without the Force (like trying to speak Ryl without lekku). So, ridiculously complicated language that would require empathic/psychic communication to know exactly what the other person is saying. Sound familiar? (how common is it to tell someone 'i can't read your mind'? the level to which English relies on tone, syllable stress, context, etc is honestly kinda ridiculous, especially with connotations fucking around- I digress)

Anyway, if you pull in the Coruscant-used-to-be-Earth theory, and humans are from Coruscant, then those pyramids could've carried off a bunch of English speakers off before Coruscant got all scaffold-y. Pyramids land on Tython, sentients gotta communicate, English is accustomed to absorbing other languages, bada-bing, bada-boom. Dai Bendu.

[temporaryuniverse-writing]

Heart of the Blade

First of my daemon kyber au series!

Pairings: None CW: canonical major character death Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Darth Maul, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, Yoda Summary: The crystal is the heart of the blade. Every Jedi knows this, and every Jedi knows also, that the crystal is the soul of the Jedi. A Jedi is not whole without their kaiber. Or: The battle of Naboo, when the Jedi carry their hearts in their hands.

read on ao3...

--

Snippet:

The creature—nev Sii—stood before them, a snarl on their face, and Obi-Wan did not have to look at his Jaieh to know what he was thinking. They ignited their sabers simultaneously, the songs of their kaibers ringing in Obi-Wan’s ears, his own harmonizing with his Jaieh’s as they linked their minds through their bond in preparation for the fight.

The zabrak held out their own saber and as the red blades hissed to life, Obi-Wan heard the screaming of nevi kaiber inside. He flinched and Qui-Gon steadied him through their bond, although Obi-Wan could feel his Jaieh’s own disquiet at the tortured song of the crystals. Here was a being without the other half of their soul, who had taken the souls of two other ekkai—and there were two bled kaibers, Obi-Wan could hear them both—and twisted them beyond recognition into tools of nev Xari. To imagine that kind of violation to his own crystal, to any crystal… Obi-Wan felt nauseated. The bile rose in his throat and he forced himself to swallow it back down. He couldn’t leave his Jaieh to fight alone just because he wanted to be sick.

We take him together, Qui-Gon said in his mind.

Haj Dai, Jaieh.

--

[itstimeforstarwars]

I am learning dai bendu

It is very difficult.

[ohsweetzombiecthulhu]

Next question Dai Bendu speakers

Does ‘celo kat fehl’ translate as ‘my treasure’?

[who-needs-words]

While I do, probably, possess the ability to make a decent con-lang I am also lazy so if I ever need to have a character speak Dai Bendo in a Star Wars fic I’ll just use Quenya because as noted- I’m lazy and Tolkien’s con-langs are objectively the best con-langs

[jedi-enthusiast]

I saw you was waiting to do some translation to dai bendu and i am curious to where i could find more info about it.

I like to keep writing my fiction languages and I have a notebook full of mando'a and wanted to make a version for the jedi. So i could use it more on my works.

So sorry for answering so late! I got really busy and burnt out for a while 😭I get my info from two sources, the Dai Bendu Discord server and the Google Sheet that contains all the info for it, and I'll go ahead and give you both links <3

Discord Server - SW Conlangs

Google Sheet - Dai Bendu - Public View - Google Sheets

You can also follow @dai-bendu-conlang here on Tumblr, which is the group that has really fleshed out the language!!!