The Force

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"Don’t underestimate the Force."

– Darth Vader, who could literally strangle you to death while being in another space ship

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship."

– Yoda, 900 years old and still kicking

The Force is a supernatural energy field derived from all living things in the Star Wars galaxy which binds them together. A few individuals are sensitive to The Force and can make use of it, though they are also influenced by it.

Certain individuals are born with an affinity towards The Force and as such can use it a wide variety of ways. Likewise it exerts itself onto them as they use it.

What is the Force?

In the Original Trilogy, the Force was accepted to be a mystical, quasi-religious power that exists in and permeates all life forms to greater or lesser degrees, not unlike qi in Chinese mythology and martial arts. During Episode 1, however, George Lucas decided that he needed a more tangible explanation for the Force to explain why Anakin Skywalker was so much better than any Jedi, so he used the explanation he toyed with earlier in development that the ability to actually connect to the Force stems from the presence of symbiotic micro-organisms called "Midichlorians"; the more of these an individual has, the stronger their connection to the Force and the better their ability to use its energies. Despite what a lot of people will tell you, they don't create the Force, they just govern your ability to access it. Think of them as biochemical sockets tapping into the Force. Force Users have a higher than average count of these midichlorians, and how much higher than average this count is determines how powerful a Force User can actually be. One of the appeals of the Dark Side, then, is the ability to circumvent this built-in "power limit", kind of like switching from AC current to DC current, although channeling more power than your physical limits can handle will do a number on you, which is only expected when you're talking about forcing the equivalent of high voltage through your brain.

Because this explanation was considered very skub, it was never brought up again and quietly reverted back to its mystical roots. The Force can be divided into two distinct forms; the Living Force, which exists inside of all living things, interacts with and eventually joins the Cosmic Force upon death. The Cosmic Force influences living beings who are strong in The Force, such as giving said individuals premonitions or visions.

The Light and Dark Sides

A key aspect of The Force is the dichotomy between the Light Side and the Dark Side. The Light Side is linked with self control, altruism, a love for all life and a desire for harmony both internal and external. The Dark Side is linked with selfishness, passions left to run wild and a desire for power. The most well known users of the Light Side of the Force are the Jedi and the most well known users of the Dark Side are the Sith, though neither of which are the exclusive users of either one.

The Light is also entirely passive; it is a choice not to act but to observe, judge, endure, and heal. The Dark is active; it attacks, conquers, and desires. The Light is waning in strength for those who are lost or lose control. Anger, desire, and hatred from The Dark simply flow more freely and give more ready power to those who haven't devoted themselves to acetic nonaction. With a complete and holistic study and devotion, however, The Light has a greater ability to guide and strengthen. The Dark on the other hand almost always leads to self destruction as its practitioners inevitably give rise to their own nemesis; the Dark does not play favorites.

The Force is constantly in turmoil with itself between Light and Darkness, forever pushing towards an balance which it can never fully achieve. It is also notable that individuals who use the force can get caught up in the pull of either side. If one is Drawn to the Dark Side by anger or fear, it will amplify said quality in them. The same could be said about the light.

Force Abilities

Since West End Game's Star Wars RPG, Force abilities have fallen into three primary disciplines: Control, Sense and Alter.

Control

Control powers focus on controlling the user's body (and the body of others for more skilled users). It's largely buffs.

• Meditation/Trance: More a Jedi thing. Sends the user into a deep sleep that boosts the speed they recover from wounds and fatigue while also using less food and air than normal waking or sleeping. On the downside, it's a really deep sleep, so the user will only be woken by physical stimulus, a code word that terminates the trance is heard or a pre-selected amount of time elapsing.
• Force Speed: Speeds the user up and/or greatly slows their perception of time. Combined with foresight it allows blocking blaster bolts. Combined with telekinesis it allows the user to make very large leaps.
• Mind Trick: One of the skubbier powers, morally speaking. Conceptually similar to hypnosis or the voice from Dune. The force can be used to overpower the focus of individuals with fairly weak wills, rendering them receptive to suggestion and deceit. The simpler and less demanding the suggestion, the easier it is to project. Jedi generally limit their use of this to obfuscation and persuasion (ie "you didn't see anything unusual"). But the extra power of the Dark Side can push this to the point of mental domination, turning people into unwitting puppets even on the battlefield; but this requires both exceptional power and concentration. Some races have natural mental defenses against force persuasion techniques.

Sense

As you'd expect, Sense holds all the divination powers. Also Telepathy.

• Foresight: The most common force power, and only one that is used unconsciously by untrained users. It gives the user glimpses into the future, which at the lowest level gives the very practical ability to react to things before they happen. At the highest level it gives visions of the long term future, though these visions tend to be pretty useless since they're vague and attempts to prevent them nearly always result in them coming true.
• Farsight: Allows the user to see things happening elsewhere. This sometimes translates to feeling major fluctuations in The Force, especially when it involves mass-genocide of entire planets or of the Jedi Order.
• Psychometry: A rare ability that allows the user to sense sights, sounds, and emotions when touching an object with a "force echo" attached to it. Jedi with psychometry are very useful as trackers and scouts, but you wouldn't want them handling anything connected to the Dark Side as they'd basically be far more exposed than your average force user.

Alter

Alter is the broadest category and holds powers that alter the world around the user. In practice this works out to anything not covered by the above two schools.

• Telekinesis: Control stuff with your mind! Easily the force power with the most variants. In addition to the many abilities to move specific things in specific ways, it's also the basis of some odd-ball powers like starting fires by agitating particles enough till a fire starts. Used on the user, it allows them to leap great distances. Used on the enemy, it can crush their vital organs, throw them into pits or throw heavy stuff at them. In virtually everything except the original WEG material, using telekinesis offensively (outside of force choke) is not considered a dark side act.
• Energy Projection: Most commonly encountered in Force Lightning, this power allows the user to fire off energy as an attack. Generally dark side when used against living things, except for Force Judgement, a power used exclusively by Plo Koon. A handful of sources feature a different variant that pulls the energy of an opponent away from them, disabling them non-lethally and thus not a dark side power, but it's often considered Skub. Another non-dark variant occasionally seen in RPGs is a variant that only works on droids, but nobody really care about this (outside of maybe Clone Wars campaigns) because it's completely useless when fighting anything other than droids.
• Immortality: aka "Force Ghosts." Only a select number of Jedi have ever learned the secret of retaining their souls upon death so they can communicate with the living, rather than simply return to the Force. Qui-Gon Jinn discovered the technique, then posthumously passed it on to Yoda, then to Obi-Wan, and then the Skywalkers. As Obi-Wan put it, death, quite the opposite of setback, makes one "more powerful than you could possibly imagine." This ability is limited only those who commit themselves to the Light Side; while the Sith have also sought out immortality, they're limited to transferring their souls from one vessel to another, or else living a more wraith-like existence, bound to a place or object by their malice and hatred. Occasionally, powerful force users who died with one ore more outstanding concerns can keep themselves in a force ghost like state capable of regularly interacting with the world, like Darth Marr who hanged out for at least five years in this state so that he could see the Sith Emperor dead. The most extreme example is Revan, who essentially split into dark and light halves to survive before reunifying and kept his soul going in this state longer than Marr to see the same Sith Emperor dead.

Force Users

The most famous users of The Force in the Star Wars franchise is the Jedi Order, a semi-monastic order dedicated to keeping the peace in the galaxy. An ancient schism led to some Jedi leaving the Order and turning to the Dark Side, and they created the Sith Order. Jedi who fall to the dark side without becoming part of the Sith, and certain non-Sith trained by Sith in the force become "Dark Jedi", but this term is often applied to independent dark side users who have never had an affiliation with the Jedi order. Former Jedi may be termed "Rogue Jedi." Force users working for the Empire are not considered Sith, but are typically part of the Imperial Inquisition, used to hunt Jedi survivors and kidnap potential Force-sensitive children.

The general term for a force user that isn't part of of the Jedi or Sith is Force Adept. This term was invented whole cloth by Wizards of the Coast and sees little official use outside of RPG products, though the fandom likes it. A more widespread but blander alternative is simply "force user". "Darksider" is often used as a general term for dark side force users.

There is an argument to be made that while the Jedi and Sith are associated with the Light and Dark sides respectively, they are not synonymous with them. At their best, the Jedi serve the "Will of the Force", an act that inherently requires sacrifice and selflessness and thus steers them towards the Light. But when they became dogmatic, overly focused on serving the Republic and destroying the Sith, they lost sight of their true purpose, and more importantly forgot the Will of the Force, and thus fell. Whereas the Sith, who crave personal power, use the Force to serve themselves, thus creating imbalance in the force; the inherent destructiveness of the Dark side is merely a means to that end. A "good Sith" might be a contradiction in terms, but a healthy respect for the Dark side's place in the natural order as part of the creation-destruction cycle isn't a bad thing; just don't let it get to your head.

Other Force Users

The Jedi and Sith are the best known Force religions, but many smaller religions exist in he galaxy, usually practiced by a single race. Some are light-aligned, some are dark-aligned, some are neutral. Some may see The Force as something to be wielded (for good or ill), others may see it as a purely mystical force to be worshipped and passively respected. The Force may go by different names among these races, such as the "Life Wind," "The Sight," "The Beyond," etc. There are also religions that have followers who are not Force Wielders; the Church of the Force shared the same ideals as the Jedi Order, while the Sith maintained cults of acolytes to serve them.

Dathomir Magic

Somewhat distinct from The Force as Jedi and Sith understand it, Dathomir Magic is a unique manifestation of The Force as practiced by the witches of Dathomir; while influenced by the planet's natural Dark Side energies, they seem to be specific to the planet itself and its inhabitants, and is used in a much more ritualistic form than the Jedi or Sith. Dathomir witches mainly focus on illusion and manipulation, infusing people with "spirit ichor" to empower them, and can even use their magick to resurrect dead Nightsisters to fight on their behalf. The Nightsisters claim that, although they use the Dark Side, unlike the Sith they exercise more control over it and don't let it corrupt them (make of that what you will).

The Ones

The closest thing to Force Gods the setting has, these beings simply known as the Ones are nigh-immortal, nigh-powerful beings of uncertain origins. They are known as the Daughter, who is strong in the Light Side, the Son, who is strong in the Dark Side, and the Father, who represents the Will of the Force, and keeps the balance between the two. The Ones primarily appear to be responsible for protecting the galaxy from galactic-scale threats; they created the barrier that separates the galaxy from the outer universe to protect it from dangers like the Yuuzhan Vong, and likely created the same barrier in the Unknown Regions that guards against superpredators native to that region of space. They also created the Maw as a gigantic prison; more on that below. That being said, one of the greatest threats to the galaxy was themselves, and they were forced to withdraw in isolation.

During the Clone Wars, they lived on the Force Nexus known as Mortis, and the Father attempted to recruit Anakin as the Chosen One to replace him and maintain the balance between his two children. Ultimately he failed, and all three were killed during the family infighting. The Ones are obviously meant to personify the different aspects of the Force, but fans tend to disagree on the exact nature of their relationship. The Daughter, though at times overzealous in fighting her brother, is ultimately loyal to the Father and completely selfless. The Son, despite being tied to the Dark Side, isn't initially evil, merely a part of the destructive side of nature and the more selfish inclinations of people. It is only after Anakin's arrival that he lets his ambition and desire for power to fully corrupt him, thus causing the imbalance on Mortis and the Ones' ultimate destruction. And the Father, though mistaken in his understanding of Anakin's place as the Chosen One, understands the need to end the conflict between his children and restore the balance, or else risk the complete destruction of the galaxy.

Whether the Ones were actually destroyed on Mortis or not is unclear. Morai, a form or familiar of the Daughter, continued to manifest occasionally to Ahsoka Tano well after the events on Mortis, suggesting the entire incident may have simply been a vision or manifestation.

The Ones do have a Mother in the Legends continuity, though she was originally a mortal, and was afraid that her death would end the balance between the children. In the process of becoming immortal, she transformed into the eldritch abomination known as Abeloth and became imprisoned deep within a super-dense cluster of black holes, known as the Maw, escaping every few thousand years to wreak havoc on the galaxy.