I don’t see Vastor as evil. Not as a truly bad man. Yes, he radiates darkness—but so do all the Korunnai. And the Balawai. His is the darkness of the jungle, not the darkness of the Sith. He does not live for power, to cause pain and dominate all he surveys. He simply lives. Fiercely. Naturally. Stripped of the restraints of civilization.

He is less a man than he is an avatar of the jungle itself. Dark power flows into him and out again but it does not seem to touch him. He has a savage purity that I might envy, were I not a Jedi and sworn to the light.

Black is the presence of every color.

He doesn’t make the darkness, he only uses it. His inner darkness is a reflection of the darkness of his world; and it darkens the world around him in turn. Internal and external darkness create each other, just as do internal and external light: that is the underlying unity of the Force.

As Depa might say, he didn’t start this war. He’s just trying to win it.

And that was it, right there: my Jedi instincts had made a connection below the threshold of my consciousness. Vastor. The jungle. The akk dogs, and the humans who had been made into Vastor’s pack, Depa. Darkness so deep it was like being blind. Nick’s words: The jungle doesn’t promise. It exists. Not because the jungle kills you. Because it is what it is.

The war itself.


- Shatterpoint, Chapter 9