Sith holocron

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A Sith holocron was a device used by Sith to store information. Sith holocrons originated from secrets shared with the Sith King Adas by Rakatan soldiers trying to gain the trust of the Sith ruler. Adas made a holocron based on Rakatan design and presumably the art of holocron making originated among the ancient Sith from this. They were immediately identifiable with respect to Jedi holocrons, as they were usually pyramidal in shape, and etched with strange symbols and ancient hieroglyphs. Inscriptions usually lined the bottom of the device, and various dark incantations were found all over the smooth surface. At the holocron's apex rested a black crystal, used to power the holocron's store of information. The design of the holocron was not the only way to discern its affiliation: Sith holocrons emitted a dark presence, creating tremors in the Force upon activation. It took a great deal of willpower for a Jedi to access the dark devices, and some of the more inexperienced Jedi often felt sick and ill from merely laying their gaze upon a Sith holocron.

Internally, however, Sith holocrons worked in much the same way as did a Jedi holocron. The black crystal of the Sith holocron was made up of intricate lattices and vertices, capable of storing massive amounts of information, as well as the holocron's Sith gatekeeper. The holocron was able to capture the appearance and cognitive networks of the holocron's owner, and transform this into a three-dimensional hologram. This gatekeeper acted as a guide through the holocron's store of information, as a search and recovery engine with a more personal touch. These gatekeepers could relate stories from the holocron's archives to events in the life of the one who activated the holocron.

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Jedi gatekeepers could sense the ability and level of a Jedi, and offer or restrict information accordingly—so that Padawans were not shown information too advanced and dangerous for their basic stage. However, Sith holocrons usually allowed the activator unlimited access to its entire dark side repository. The gatekeeper would draw the viewer in with tales of power, and could even turn some Force-users to the Dark Side. The pull of the Sith holocron was strong, indeed. Which the Jedi Historian, Atris discovered as she collected the holocrons that slowly turned her to the dark side. As of 3,996 BBY, only one known Sith holocron existed, having been captured by Odan-Urr during the Great Hyperspace War; forty years later, Atris kept scores of them in the Telosian Jedi Academy. The holocron captured by Odan-Urr was said to contain information dating back to around 100,000 BBY.

Most of the Sith holocrons were created long before the Clone Wars, and as of the Battle of Geonosis, the Jedi Archives on Coruscant contained most of the only surviving Sith holocrons in the Galaxy. These devices were locked away to all but the most senior Jedi—in fact, most of the Jedi in the Temple did not even know Sith holocrons resided in the building. The holocrons were kept in case the Jedi would ever face the threat of the Sith again, whereupon Jedi Masters could consult the holocrons for ideas on how to defeat the Dark Lords. However, the Sith holocrons were not as safe as the Archives Director believed: Jedi student Lorian Nod was able to steal a Sith holocron from the Archives, though the theft ended in his expulsion from the Jedi Order. Count Dooku stole at least one Sith holocron from the Temple during the First Battle of Coruscant. The remaining Sith holocrons in the Temple at the end of the Clone Wars were (according to Sidious) forgeries, but Sidious had his apprentice Darth Vader recover them nonetheless.

Several ancient Sith holocrons were kept by Darth Plagueis and were presumably inherited by Darth Sidious. Another Sith holocron was created by Darth Andeddu, an ancient Sith Lord. This holocron was recovered during a competition between Quinlan Vos and Tol Skorr for Count Dooku during the Clone Wars, while Quinlan was allied with Dooku. It contained much dark side knowledge as well as a red lightsaber crystal embedded in its core, possibly used to power Darth Andeddu's own Sith lightsaber. The holocron itself was kept by Tyranus while the red crystal was used in Quinlan Vos' lightsaber for a brief time.

A Toydarian named Zippa tried to sell Lorn Pavan a cubical Holocron in 32.5 BBY that Pavan suspected was a Sith Holocron, but as the deal fell through, this was never confirmed as a Sith Holocron.