Books are... vague, for the most part. The Jedi library doesn't have a whole lot of information about the dark side. They mostly say that it's bad and you should avoid it, here are some ways to make yourself calmer.

....if it was as simple as 'calm' she's pretty sure Occlus wouldn't be a Sith, but file that under 'things she's not going to say aloud in a Jedi library'. (Raafi is fluent enough in kobold to catch that she's skeptical, if not why.) Disappointing, anyway.

So, Revan's holocron next; she's forgotten the name of the holocron he suggested talking to about this.

"I recommended reading about Jolee Bindo, but I don't think he actually has a holocron," says Revan's holocron.

"All right." (Raafi writes it down.) "Maybe you can help, anyway. We're pretty much set up to exile all the current Sith; the next thing I'm trying to figure out is what it'll take to stop there from being any more of them, to see if I can do something about that, too."

"... Exile all of the current Sith," repeats the holocron, raising his eyebrows a little. "Can I get a clarification there?"

"...it's mostly what it sounds like? I found an uninhabited universe to send them all to; the ones that want to keep their lightsabers will go to one planet and the ones that are willing to give theirs up will go to another, the Jedi are going to be sending supplies to both of them but in the long run I expect they'll be self-sufficient. Well, assuming that the ones with the lightsabers can get a functioning society going, which I'm not really assuming is going to be the case, but that's their choice to make; they have a chance, anyway."

... Revan's holocron bursts out laughing.

"That," he says, "is fantastic."

The kobold preens just a little. "Yeah, I thought so. The exiling spell is pretty cool, too - as a side effect, any Sith who touches an enspelled Jedi, even with a lightsaber, gets sent to the new universe. Before the attack does more than maybe singe their clothes."

"Clever!" says Revan's holocron. "Though are you exiling all Sith? I think some might be better to redeem."

"Yeah, I found one like that already... well, 'redeem' might be a little strong, but they're peaceful enough that Grandmaster Satele has agreed to let them stay and even learn my magic. Sorting that out for any others is the last major piece of that puzzle before the exiling project can get started - the first place they go in the new universe is basically a holding cell, and there'll be people talking to them at least enough to ask them whether they want to go to the lightsaber planet or the no-lightsabers planet; I need to figure out what else they should be asking to see if they should be given a third option of some sort. But I think I need to know how people go from being Jedi to Sith and back again to really answer that question anyway, so here I am."

"I think I might actually be one of the go-to holocrons for that! Though admittedly I don't remember everything, so."

She nods. "It is not," she glares at the pile of books, "going to be very hard for you to do better than what we've already found."

Snort. "All right, so - do you want this in story format again, or in more of an overview format?"

"Story." She smiles up at her friend. "This is Raafi of Tales, by the way, they're another kind of mage from a different world; they're mostly here to watch what happens."

"It does seem to be quite the epic tale in the making," says Raafi, grinning.

"Pleasure to meet you, Raafi of tales," says the holocron, his projection bowing. "All right, so. Want me to re-tell the parts you already know for your friend's benefit, or?"

"Yeah, please."

"All right, so -"

He tells a very familiar story, though he tells it a bit differently. Expands more on the specifics of the war, how the empathy a jedi has was something of a double edged sword - it made them better at fighting, but at the same time, they had to feel the deaths of all of those they killed. And, worse than that, the deaths of their own men. ("It's clearer and harder to put aside when it's your friend that's dying," says the holocron, sounding a little haunted.) The danger, says Revan's holocron, is that a lot of a Force-user's power comes from strong emotion. So, in a war, jedi get to suffer all of their fellows dying, and then in a desire to save them, they rely on the strongest emotions possible - and in war, those are likely to be the darker ones.

"I think falling is different for different sorts of people. For Revan, it was like... Being cut off from the rest of the world. Being alone. Having their only inputs being from people that just blindly agreed with them, thinking that what they were doing was worth whatever price they paid. Saying 'I did what I had to' when they didn't really sit down and think about alternatives. Painting the world in black and white and ignoring the shades of grey, while condemning everyone else for only seeing in black and white.

"The most common thread I've seen for those that fall is despair. Not necessarily the kind where they think everything is lost, but the kind where they think it can't be changed. That there's only awful things in the galaxy, and the only way to win is to be better at being terrible."

The kobold sits very still, through most of this, and Raafi cuddles her. When Revan's done speaking, she nods, but doesn't otherwise respond right away.

"Kobolds are very empathetic too," explains Raafi, when it's clear she needs a moment. "Not magically, but body language is their main form of communication, and they're very good at it."

Revan nods. "Yeah. Sorry. Revan went through some shit."

"Yeah, me too." She's still not quite doing the eye contact thing. "I can do emotions as a spell trigger. If it's just a matter of intensity, it's going to be hard to come up with a spell that looks for the right thing, but I can do despair like that."

"Despair would definitely be a good one for a Jedi. ... Anger would, too, really, but it's less of a problem than despair. Just - strong, bad emotions are a good bet, really. Not necessarily meaning they've fallen, but just to make sure they're okay."

She nods. "Yeah. I was hoping there would be warning signs that I could use, actually; I can set something up so that someone who's angry or sad or scared more than a certain amount has to go talk to someone about it, as a separate thing from the despair. One of my defensive spells already works like that, with the fear, except it just brings me someplace safe." She's coming out of it, just a little.

"That's clever, and I like it," says Revan's holocron, smiling. "But - how much control would the person have on picking who to talk to about it? Sometimes Revan didn't want to talk to anyone after something nasty, and sometimes it led to them toeing the dark side, but other times it led to them deciding to be better. And they weren't even an introvert, some people just want to process things internally. I'm worried about picking up an introvert and telling them that because they were traumatized they have to bare their heart to someone they don't know. Which isn't really a solution, you know?"

She shrugs. "I'm used to kobolds, we don't do privacy so much; I'm not sure what would work for other people. For me... when I'm around my tribe, I'm focused on them and they're focused on me; if I'm upset they're going to notice it and I'm going to notice them noticing it more easily than I'm going to notice it in myself. That's what I'm used to. I pay more attention to myself when I'm around other kinds of people, since I can't count on them to notice - with some exceptions," she pats Raafi's hand, "but for the most part, and it's harder." She considers. "Maybe just skip the other person and have the spell tell them directly, would that help? It doesn't seem like it would, but..."

"It might, yeah. Maybe ask the person, have it be customized based on them and what they'd like? I don't think just talking to me's the answer for a solution for everyone. You kind of took on a really difficult job, so uh. Good luck! I'll help how I can!"