By Jason Dietzel
Not a very well-known Force sect and coming from an era of Republic history with little to no references, the Order of the Terrible Glare is a splinter group from the Jedi Order, lasting almost a thousand years. Shortly after the Pius Dea religious cult came to power in the Galactic Republic in the year 11,987 BBY, some dissident Jedi Knights split with their order to help the Contispex dynasty enforce their Pius Dea Crusades.
Believing the Pius Dea were correct in their fanatic pursuits, the Order of the Terrible Glare moved their sect to the planet Garn. Led by the High Shaman, the order became master illusionists and excelled at perverting nature, based off the training they received as Jedi. One such Force ability they created was the soul snare – the ability to capture a sapient being’s life force within a crystal prism for eternity.
The shamans also built a massive computer in their fortress as a means to store their knowledge, as well as device a curious technology to be able to sense when lightsabers were activated across the galaxy. In the waning days of the Pius Dea Crusades, the order began working with an extra-dimensional species. Though little was known about this species, it was enough of a worry for the Jedi that they attacked the order’s tower on Garn.
Erecting a tower to help this unknown species from another dimension gain access to the “regular” dimension proved to be the Order of the Terrible Glare’s undoing. With the Republic wrestled away from the crazed Pius Dea in 10,966 BBY, the Jedi were able to turn their full attention on the shamans, nearly eradicating the splinter group.
However, unbeknownst to the Jedi, only one person survived: High Shaman Rur. Substituting the computer for crystals, Rur was able to transfer his essence into the mainframe, trapping himself for millennia. Rur would spend the remainder of his artificial life seeking revenge on the Jedi, one Jedi at a time. He manipulated the computer to send distress signals to Jedi and when they would arrive, he would use his mastery of illusion to attack and kill his rescuers.
This ghost in the machine was finally destroyed when a young Luke Skywalker ventured to Garn, answering one such distress signal. When Rur attempted to attack him, Luke was able to trick the spirit that he was not a Jedi, but merely a man wielding a lightsaber. He proceeded to inform Rur of galactic history and how recent events saw the Jedi destroyed from the Great Purge.
Angered at the idea, as misguided as it was, that he could not seek out his revenge of crushing the Jedi, Rur fell into a fit of rage that ended in self destruction. His unbridled rage brought down the tower, destroying the facility and computer that housed his essence.
The Order of the Terrible Glare’s only appearance is in the comic story Blind Fury by Marvel UK’s Star Wars Monthly 159, as well as some omnibus reprints by Dark Horse. In some ways, the Order of the Terrible can be seen as a precursor to the Sith and Prophets of the Dark Side, drawing many similarities with characters like Emperor Palpatine and Exar Kun.
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