Hey everyone! Caitlin Sullivan Kelly here, your resident SWTOR Narrative Specialist. I'm so excited to share a short story that I wrote with you all. "Quite A Story to Tell" takes place after "Echoes of Vengeance" (Game Update 6.2) and shortly before the events of "The Dark Descent" (Game Update 6.3, coming soon).

 

If you love Aryn Leneer, Darth Malgus, old Jedi ruins, or spelunking (or all of the above!) check out "Quite A Story To Tell" here: http://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20210413

I'm not a fan of the Malgus .... BUT this is a good read !!

Should be interesting to see where this leads to next !!

(nicely done BTW)

Great story.

For those who don’t know the full story of Aryn Leneer’s history with Malgus. This link can fill in some of the blanks

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Aryn_Leneer

I am glad that we are getting a short story again as a means of reading upcoming content. It's been way too long since we got one of these. One would think these would be relatively easy to provide on a regular pace, but apparently not.

That being said, I have two major issues with this story, one from an objective and one from a subjektive point of view.

Let's start with the objective issue, since I believe it is the more pressing one:

This short story, whether by accident or not, is not possible from the perspective of an Imperial player. The problem here is the mention of Gnost-Dural. Gnost-Dural gets removed from the conflict between Republic and Empire at the end of the Jedi Under Siege storyline, based on player choice. He either gets dealt the deathblow by the player or gets captured and shipped off to Vaiken Spacedock for interrogation.

There has been no mention of him on the Imperial side since then, nothing about him having escaped Imperial captivity or him pulling something like Luke in TLJ with an astral projection or whatever. The man is either dead or in prison, meaning that particular detail in this story can only happen in Republic playthroughs.

Until now, these short stories have always avoided bringing up anything that might be different depending on player choice, so the mention of going off to see Gnost-Dural feels like a glaring oversight. This requires further clarification or change, as the dev team and writers have always said that the "canon" of SWTOR is determined by player choice.

I'm not trying to be standoff-ish here, just pointing out what I consider to be a big problem with this story in regard to what's going on in the game.

Onto my subjective issue:

I realize that the title of this story is based directly on a quote from Satele at the end of Echoes of Oblivion, but I got to disagree and say, no, this is is not "quite a story" to tell.

I wasn't necessarily expecting some epic from a short story designed to tease upcoming game content, but with a setup like this, I was expecting *something* to happen. This story can basically be summed up as "Aryn goes after Malgus, sees him fighting some droids, runs away because she doesn't think she can take him".

We don't really get anything new from this story, a confrontation is avoided because one party doesn't engage the other out of fear. The entire arc of suspension falls flat, because there is no payoff. I had hoped to get some interaction between Malgus and Aryn, lightsabers or not, given their history from the Deceived novel. To read this and not get anything interesting out of it is, well, disappointing.

A nice short read to set the tone for what's to come, though I am hoping they nail the ambiance in game. I recall all hype leading up to Manaan's inclusion being dulled with the swiftness because it was an incomplete pitstop for a flashpoint and nothing more. This read felt like a natural extension of the enclave's story though, one that I am happy has remained relevant to some degree 2 decades later irl, and it sounds like Aryn has a potentially interesting role to play in the story of the Jedi. Genuinely excited!

Also, I don't know who to direct this to but could you folk over at BioWare publish these a lot more frequently so as to fill the gaps in the story? They would provide EXCELLENT material for shaping the narrative, could be like the diaries of Gnost entries made prior to launch and build hype on social media like the game should be. There is a great wealth of personal stories and galactic narratives out there to be told and all from the material YOU guys made.

Thanks! I always enjoyed these short stories, it's nice to finally get one again. Loved the way you described Aryn's inner thoughts about not being ready to fight. Also that we got a bit more about the status of the Jedi Order and what Malgus is up to (one can only guess).

I have to agree with BenKatarn though that Gnost-Dural should not have been mentioned as alive and well. As a mostly imperial side player it failed as part of "the player's storyline" and that should always be kept in mind. The stories should not create a canon with things that could potentially be a player choice. (Sorry for the nitpicking, otherwise I really enjoyed the read! )

I really enjoyed this!

Doubly enjoyable since I read all those SWTOR books years ago.

I hope we see more short stories!

I am a bit confused. Other's have said "again", so I guess there were stories like these in the past? So this is not a cost-cutting move to replace cutscenes and ingame narratives with plain text?

I'm not sure that I like that I now need to check things outside the game to keep up-to-date with the story.

I am a bit confused. Other's have said "again", so I guess there were stories like these in the past?

There have been a handful of short stories throughout the years, usually before a bigger content update. I wanna say the last one was prior to the launch of KOTET, dealing with Senya on Ord Mantell after she fled with Arcann at the end of KOTFE.

They are very... infrequent, sadly.

There have been a handful of short stories throughout the years, usually before a bigger content update. I wanna say the last one was prior to the launch of KOTET, dealing with Senya on Ord Mantell after she fled with Arcann at the end of KOTFE.

 

They are very... infrequent, sadly.

As I recall it was actually before 5.6's launch

I really liked this short story. It was some time ago since I read a star wars book! Reading this made me remember how much i like the more in-depth character development you get in a book. I see that the author has written a dragon age book as well, il keep my eyes open for more!

PS. Some interesting comments in this thread about the characters in the short story that i obviously missed, i definately have to go and replay it now

I am a bit confused. Other's have said "again", so I guess there were stories like these in the past? So this is not a cost-cutting move to replace cutscenes and ingame narratives with plain text?

I'm not sure that I like that I now need to check things outside the game to keep up-to-date with the story.

No, you do not NEED to check things outside the game to keep up with the story. These are just to fill in the universe more, and provide extra details and context, like the SWTOR novels.

With a name like Caitlin Sullivan Kelly you obviously have deep Irish storytelling genes!

 

If you take a look at the ending of "Quite A Story To Tell," you’ll notice that I’ve changed the Jedi Master that Syl and Satele mention. I’d like to thank those of you who constructively pointed out Master Gnost-Dural’s inclusion, and I’d like to apologize to anyone who took this story as an implication that anyone’s choices are more “canon” than others. I want to reassure everyone that that is absolutely not the case.

 

I hope you all consider this change to be a welcome addition, as well as an improvement to the quality of “Quite A Story To Tell.” Thank you all again for your engagement, and may the Force be with you… always!

Personally, I loved “Quite A Story To Tell", even with Gnost-Dural in there, but that's just me. I guess the Master in the story now makes more sense! But I still really love it, and am glad to see a new short story posted! I hope we see more in the future.

PS: The link to the story in the OP is pointing to a Page Not Found... page!

Personally, I loved “Quite A Story To Tell", even with Gnost-Dural in there, but that's just me. I guess the Master in the story now makes more sense! But I still really love it, and am glad to see a new short story posted! I hope we see more in the future.

 

PS: The link to the story in the OP is pointing to a Page Not Found... page!

Reset your web interface cookies. I had the same thing happen to a couple of active threads.