Xīngqiú Dàzhàn: Báiyín Shìyuē (lit. Star Wars: The Silver Oath), officially translated as Star Wars: The Vow of Silver Dawn, is a Chinese Web Serial Novel set in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. It is written by a popular Chinese author under the penname "His Majesty, the King".
Set in the age of the High Republic, the story revolves around the Jedi Padawan Sean, who goes on adventures in the Outer Rim with his master, Jedi Master Mostema, as his "story of silver" lights the way in a dark of space that is the Galaxy Far Far Away.
It can be read here
on the Qidian webnovel website, available in Chinese only. Non-Chinese speakers can use Google Translate to read the text. The novel is updated daily, beginning December 16, 2020. As of late September 2021, the webnovel has concluded, with 324 chapters total.
The Vow of Silver Dawn contains examples of:
- Animal Theme Naming: The Jade Rats.
- Aerith and Bob: Unusual for a Star Wars book, it seem the opposite is in effect as only Mostema is the truly odd name. While the rest (Sean, Jamie, Qianyu, etc.) are rather common names in real life.
- Boom, Headshot!: Xia Yan utilizes this trope, intending to have his own men shoot him if the Jedi attempt a Jedi Mind Trick on him. Sean and Mostema realize that they'll have to tread lightly around him, as as Jedi being charged with killing a member of the Qiankun Group would be bad for Republic-Qiankun relations.
- The Call Put Me on Hold: In Chapter 3, we learn that Sean's Force-sensitivity is weaker than other Jedi's, but surprisingly, Mostema chose him as her apprentice, believing that he's still capable regardless of his strength in the Force.
- Continuity Nod:
- While Sean and Mostema investigate Nan Heli's research into the Force, the High Republic's situation with the Nihil in the past is mentioned.
- The president's head chef is a Latero, the same species as Greez from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
- It's suspected that the president's Mandalorian-for-hire is merely a pretender, a topic that was recent at the time of the novel's release due to The Mandalorian Season 2.
- Lothal is mentioned.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Nan Qianyu suffers this as their body begins to swell with tumor-like growths from the poison he drank.
- Elixir of Life: The fabled and sought-after Xuanhuanghue, which is believed to be the key to immortality.
- False Flag Operation: The Longren are repeatedly attacked on their homeworld Gen by the Qinglong pirates, which contributes to them trusting the smugglers when they promise Xiarun Pharmaceutical will provide for them if they immigrate offworld. Of course… both Qinglong and the smugglers are both working for Xiarun.
- Fantastic Racism: The Longren species (Zhuang Yuanying's species) are treated this way by the humans in the Qiankun Group. Originally normal humans until they were experimented on, the Qiankun propaganda also distorts their image to the public. The Qiankun Group is also xenophobic, which is why there aren't many aliens in the sector.
- The Four Gods: The manor is attacked by the Zhuque (Vermillion Bird) pirates, and later, we meet the Qinglong (Azure Dragon) pirates, which implies this is the naming theme of the pirate gangs in the Qiankun Group. However, it seems that the Jade Rats are the stand-in for the Jade Turtle.
- I Owe You My Life: Owing them his life for rescuing him from pirates and separated from his master, Sean joins the Silver Knights.
- Irony: When asked if they're planning on beheading Jamie Brasen, the president of Begamore, both Sean and Mostema baffled by this misconception. As Sean explains, the Jedi don't initiate dispute, let alone assassinate planetary leaders, as that would only lead to a power vacuum that would result in a dictator being put into power. Guess how Palpatine was able to frame the Jedi as the "true" villains a few decades later and managed to get rid of Dooku so he could get a new apprentice?
- Jade-Colored Glasses: In Chapter 26, after testing Sean's combat skills, Anping has a medical droid tend to Sean's wounds in the medbay alone. At the end of the chapter, when he tells the other members of Team Red Apricot about this, they chew him out for scaring away prospective members and leaving Sean alone since they're basically a skeleton crew and Anping just gave their newest recruit an opportunity to run away. As they scold him, Chang sarcastically asks him if he thinks Sean is Nice Guy enough to want to stay and chat over dinner... cue Sean entering the break room and wanting to do exactly that.
- Meaningful Name:
- The Qiankun Group is named for China's concept of the "universe", translating literally as "heaven and earth". The name of the capital world, Kun, literally translates to "earth", and the Qiankun Group is colloquially called the Qian Group, Qian literally translating to "heaven".
- The inhabited bodies in the Qiankun Group are named after the Eight Trigrams. The Qiankun Group also goes by the Qian Group, the planets Kun and Xun, and the space station Li (though this is a homophone), are all named for some of the trigrams.
- The Red Apricot Team is named for the Chinese phrase (which exists in-universe), "a red apricot tree comes out of the wall"In Chinese . In real life, the phrase is used to refer to an unfaithful wife (which is not pointed out in the book, although it is noted in-universe that this is still a strange source of inspiration), but Li named the team this because the core meaning of the phrase is to do whatever they want and that there are no rules. This is because the hong character used can mean "revolutionary" aside from also meaning "red".
- The space station 离, which is transliterated as either Chi or LiIn Chinese . It may be named for the chi, a Chinese mythological beast whose name means "mountain demon", or li, meaning "depart". Given that the inhabited bodies in the Qiankun Group have a naming motif based on the Eight Trigrams, it's likely this is meant to be Li, as it is a homophone for another Li in the Eight Trigrams.
- The Lei family protects the secret of the Elixir of Life, the Xuanhuanghue (玄黄血), which translates to Dark Yellow Blood. This is a reference to a Chinese phrase about war; "the blood of a dragon that fights in the wild is dark/black and yellow". Therefore, an equivalent translation for the name of the Xuanhuanghue can be "Dragon's Blood".
- The Lei family also manages a business called "Nirvana", referring to the Buddhist, Jainist, and Hindi concept of enlightenment.
- The smuggling ship of the Twi'lek lobbyists is called the Heishihao (黑石号), or the Blackstone. 黑石号 was the shipwreck of an Arabian ship returning from China that was found on Belitung Island and was discovered to contain the largest collection of Tang Dynasty treasures outside of China as well as being the then-unknown ship type, the Arabian dhow. This event is known as the Belitung shipwreck, as well as the Batu Hitam shipwreck, "batu hitam" meaning "black stone" in Malaysian in reference to the nearby large black reef. In Chinese, it was called the 黑石号 as a direct translation of its Malaysian name.
- The Qiankun Group is named for China's concept of the "universe", translating literally as "heaven and earth". The name of the capital world, Kun, literally translates to "earth", and the Qiankun Group is colloquially called the Qian Group, Qian literally translating to "heaven".
- President Evil: The story opens with Sean and Mostema being sent to the world of Begamore to investigate the president's corruption.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: With a dash of Hunting the Most Dangerous Game. Sean is shocked to discover Ning Tao, a high-ranking member of the Qiankun Group, practices slavery; even if the sector isn't a part of the Republic, the Qiankun Group still frowns upon slavery. Anping then explains Ning Tao gets his sick jollies via using the Azure Dragon pirates to capture a group of civilians and use them for either pleasure or hunt them down for sport, killing at least five slaves each time he does.
- Starter Villain: Jamie Brasen ultimately proves himself as this in the first arc on Begamore.
- Time Abyss: The space station Chi/Li was established by colonizers over two thousand years ago. Surprisingly, this time period is only scarcely explored in Star Wars, canon or Legends — this would be at least a millennium and a half after the Old Republic games in Legends and a few centuries prior to the rise of Darth Ruin.
- Title Drop: After the first twenty-ish chapters, Sean is rescued from pirates by an organization of smugglers that call themselves the Silver Knights, and he's stuck with them per their supposed Code of Honor by their leader.
- Weird World, Weird Food: In Chapter 4, Sean goes undercover as a dessert chef, and he manages to convince the head chef to let him in because he knows a Mythrol dessert: detoxified Wyyyschokk spider eggs simmered in hot vinegrass soup. He also says you can make an excellent syrup by melting sugar using the fat of a Leaping Beast from Kashyyyk.
- World Limited to the Plot: Most of the plot takes place in the Oplovis Sector, in the space where the Qiankun Group is the ruling government rather than the Republic, utilizing this to use Chinese names, terminology, and references that the rest of the western-based Galaxy doesn't use.
