Darkworkers come in Pairs

[Plato]

For a lightworker all people are equal and therefore thrive in groups. Lightworkers may disagree about things, but ultimately they recognize that we're all on the same side.

However, equality does not exist between darkworkers. In fact, two darkworkers who perceive themselves to be of equal power are natural competitors. In a roundabout way they benefit each other through this competition because it is a growth experience, but this is not the intention.

An interesting thing happens when a weaker darkworker and a stronger darkworker recognize each other as such. They form a mutually beneficient relationship.

Examples in of this in fiction are Palpatine and Vader, but a much fuller example is Melkor and Sauron from J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional mythology. I have also experienced this in my own life. I think Steve wrote somewhere that he has as well, during his thieving days.

The recognition of higher and lower status in the hierarchy of power is vital. If they become equals they are competitors.

Why do darkworkers form these mentor/student relationships?

The Student:

Tolkien puts this best when he says "it was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him."

A darkworker loves and admires intensity of will and efficiency of action above all things.

A powerful lightworker is disgusting and infuriating to a darkworker because they have lives full of abundance as a by-product of idle and stupid distractions (from a darkworker's perspective). Weaker darkworkers are jealous of such individuals and hate them. Once the darkworker has the power to dominate and out-do lightworkers the hate is transformed to indifference towards the lightworkers and an internal feeling of peace.

Anyway, the student darkworker recognizes that by aligning himself with the mentor he serves his own purpose of gaining greater power. He not only learns from the mentor but is elevated to a high position as the mentor's right hand man. In this way being a pawn to another is actually beneficial.

The Mentor:

The mentor gains a loyal and trustworthy servant. This is incredibly valuable. More than that, the mentor will be bonded with the student on an emotional level because the student is an extension of his own will. To the mentor his own will is the greatest good, and the student is a part of it.

However, the mentor must be careful the student doesn't become equally powerful because then the student no longer has anything to gain. At this point they become competitors for power. In Star Wars when Palpatine has learned everything he can from his mentor he kills him.

[Cran]

"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."


Darth Bane was indeed very wise

[Plato]

I looked up Darth Bane to see if you were mocking me. I ended up ordering the Darth Bane books from Amazon. Thanks!!

[Cran]

I enjoyed them very much, especially the first one, a third one will be coming at the end of the year or next year, I think.

Hope you like them, too.

[erego]

Plato,

I don't know you (and vice versa). I am very curious and interested in your thoughts of darkworkers. I find real darkworkers rare and those willing to share how they are, how they really work is...well. (I may know one but she is not fully conscious of it.) Are you one?

[Daniel Birdick]

“Power is only a means to an end. It is not an end in itself. What do you need power for? Freedom. Those who follow the light side must submit themselves as slaves to a greater good. Those who follow the dark side see the truth of their enslavement. We recognize the chains that bind us and hold us back. We believe in the power of the individual to break these chains. That is the path to greatness. Only when we are free can we reach our full potential. The belief that an individual must not bow down before anyone or anything is the dark side’s greatest strength…”

Darth Bane, slightly paraphrased as he was teaching his new apprentice.

Yes, I know Star Wars is a myth, but its fun and more importantly, it does have useful insights.

I like your posts Plato. Good stuff.

[pyrogen]

In literature, certainly Darkworkers often come in pairs, but as a former teenage Queen Bee, I can assure you that I was allied with another equal Queen Bee (my best friend) as an equal. We simply had different "hives" that did not intersect. As long as members of our hives didn't stray into the other Queen's hive, and boundaries were respected, the peace was kept between us.

[Plato]

Well I read the Darth Bane books. Quite enjoyable, and the Sith code is good.

I disagree with the reasons presented for having an apprentice though. They seem to come from some misplaced desire to continue the Sith order after your death. Or more likely it's for literary purposes that this is included than any logic.

[Cran]

Should we start a darkworkers-only (aspiring or already there) Star-Wars-Fanclub? Or, while at it, a Sith-Club, perhaps.

The concept of taking on an apprentice for realising a "higher good" (in this case, dominance over the galaxy), but forsaking the plan to attain this most-high goal for yourself is, I agree, a bit fishy. If it is all about power for the individual, it won't fit. What do they care about the galaxy after their death?
So I agree, it is about the story-line. But it wouldn't have been necessary, after all, Bane was largely self-educated by holocrons, so ohers could have taken this route, too.
But of course, the Jedi and the Sith are constructed as "monastic" orders, that have a tendency to prevail over death of the individual, and this IS a conflict with the invented Sith-philosophy.
It isn't like that in all novels including Sith, the storyline of Knights of the Old Republic, for example, shows exactly the strive of Sith against Sith, and the most powerful will prevail and eventually take apprentices, if they serve him. Taking apprentices to further his own power, not the Sith-order.

But alas, books seldomly get close to reality or are free from inconsistencies. Too bad.

(Hhm, guess I managed it to out myself as a Star Wars geek now. I'd love to be able to force-choke some people! Do you think I'd have to face trial for force-choking? Nobody believes that it is possible, it is like trying somebody for bewitching someone!)

[Andrew Gubb]

I read a run down of "the forty-eight laws of power" which this reminded me of. Many of the laws involve submitting yourself to greater powers in order to build your own power. Pretty odd from a lightworker perspective -- becoming a slave in order to become a tyrant? When a lightworker negates the concepts of both slavery and tyranny, seeing only the pure humanity in all people, he feels free regardless of position. I'd say that lightworking is better*, but my experience with the other side was too shallow in comparison... I'm biased.

*I know, I know... better for what purpose? That's the ultimate question that decides polarisation I guess... what is the be all and end all that asks for no justification but rather justifies all other things?

Do darkworkers ever really feel peace? I would have thought that peace was basically DW's antithesis. If there was no percieved threat, there could be no fear, and no darkness, therefore.

[Celeste de Kai]

Oh, how I wish that I had found a mentor in my younger age. Just think how much more abundant and efficient my path would have been. But, perhaps that was for the best - instead of longing to change the past, I will do my best to alter the present.

Anyway, this thread gave me something interesting to think about, not as an apprentice but as a potential master.

Consider this flaw in the darkworker student-mentor relationship - the mentor creates the student in his own likeness. So an mentor who is an Emperor creates an Emperor apprentice. A mentor King creates an apprentice King. A mentor Dark - God creates an apprentice Dark - God.

Seeing as the student learns faster than the mentor (because he has his mentors wisdom to guide him, whereas the mentor is forced to be an autodidact) sooner or later the student will reach the mentors knowledge. What happens then? The Apprentice will have all the knowledge necessary to take the masters place himself and will therefore displace his mentor. This is not even a question of greed, but a natural progression of things - If you're an aspiring emperor then you want power. If the only way to gain power is to kill the current emperor, you will do so even if he is your former mentor.

To counteract this problem you have to realize that your apprentice is never meant to be a smaller copy of you (why would you want a power hungry mini-dictator at your hands in the first place?) What you want to create is the perfect right hand man. (So long as we are working with fictional examples, consider the Emperor Hakuoro from Utawarerumono - his two right hand men Benawi and Oboro fit the example perfectly. They accept their position as Hakuoro's henchmen and for them "to become better" is to become better henchmen as opposed to actually replacing Hakuoro in a power struggle).

So to sum up, while becoming an apprentice is a wonderful thing, actually getting an apprentice is like an early retirement sentence for yourself.

My advice? Don't get an apprentice - Get a right hand man.

[Michael Chui]

Off the top of my head, as Star Wars counterexamples:

Elegos A'Kla in I, Jedi.
Yoda in Dark Rendezvous.
Nick Rostu in Shatterpoint.
A-98 in Cestus Deception.

I don't think I'm going to bother responding to the misconceptions Plato has decided are gospel truth, though.

[Plato]

You're dead weight Michael. Take you're condescending comments elsewhere.