I've been wondering about the in-universe significance of the fate card, Seeds of Decay: what is its effect supposed to represent, exactly? Reminder: this is the one that lets you focus a committed unit. The LS version shows Luke falling from Cloud City after his confrontation with Darth Vader, and the DS version shows a dark side acolyte doing something with his lightsaber (constructing it, perhaps?). As we know, the rulebook defines being committed to the Force not necessarily as meditation, but as furthering the cause of the light or dark sides of the Force. Seeds of Decay disrupts the flow of that, but I'm just curious what the significance of the card's name might be. I tried Googling my question, but that just reminded me of the recent L5R expansion bearing the name, Seeds of Decay. Whether or not the card title was a deliberate nod by FFG, I can't see there being any deeper revelation in this coincidence.

Thoughts?

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Seeds lets you put a focus token on a committed unit. What you described was echoes.

Whoops, good catch! Editing the post to fix the mistake.

I'll give this my best shot. I think maybe when used by the Dark Side, it represents that LS character being tempted by the Dark Side, so they have to use their efforts to fight off that temptation instead of being able to further the cause of the LS. It's kind of an internal struggle taking place.

When used by the Light Side, I think it is the Dark Side taking its toll on the committed units. The saying goes, "You can't play with fire without getting burned," and I think the Dark Side is the same way. If you give into anger, fear, aggression, and try to further the cause of darkness, the darkness will try to take you down as well.

EDIT: I want to add a little more to this. For example, if the committed character is a Force-user or Force-sensitive, you can imagine that they are fighting off corruption of the Dark Side (think KotOR). If the character, is, say, a Jawa, you can imagine that they are having to take extra care in what they do as they further the Dark Side, since they are probably dealing with powers beyond their control. Think of Lando's deal with Darth Vader. If Lando were a DS character, Seeds of Decay could represent how his deal with Darth Vader went south. "This deal just gets worse all the time." Even Boba Fett could be affected by Seeds of Decay on Cloud City: "What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me!" In both cases, serving the Dark Side resulted in unexpected consequences that these characters had to deal with.

In both cases, the seeds of decay are really about the Dark Side of the Force exerting its influence. Well, that's my interpretation anyway.

EDIT#2: Changed a word for clarity. Also wanted to add a TL;DR: Seeds of decay represents the Dark Side of the Force seducing LS units and betraying DS units.

To me, the imagery of Seeds of Decay represents moments when either side started to "lose grip" on the Force.

LS Seeds of Decay: Luke has decided he'd rather die than give in to the lure of the Dark Side. Just like when he defied Palpatine on DS II, he defied Vader on Cloud City, planting the Seeds of Decay of the rule of the Dark Side.

DS Seeds of Decay: A Sith acolyte who's testing his newly constructed ligtsaber. We don't see his face, but the resemblance to the eternally hooded Darth Sidious is possibly no coincidence. It represents one of the points where the rot of the Old Republic gave rise to dreams of a New Order.

Both of the last posts are really good interpretations.