Just random thought on ways to secret a holocron into a setting, without it having to be hidden in an old temple, or randomly found in a junk vendor shop (like that awesome artwork of the little girl finding one that way).

So I thought, "Well, they tend to glow, they have some kind of power source to power the holocron image/instructor" , could someone mistakingly think it's some kind of odd power source, and hook it into a mechanical device, completely oblivious to the true nature of the device?

I know the GM caveat of "If you want it to work that way, yes" applies, I'm just kind of curious if any of the lore/canon has ever suggested as much.

Plus it could make for a really cool scenario, depending on the device, the AI/Imprint might utilize the device it's plugged into, to try and communicate with someone that is a potential Force user. Sort of like how the AI in the film Johnny Mnemonic kept bumping into Johnny here and there.

Like someone thinks it's some kind of droid, that's been plugged into a ship system perhaps, or maybe some rich guys house as the House AI, etc. And it's just playing along for now, waiting for someone to find it, so they can claim it, and it can then teach them, per it's purpose.

So yeah, that's about it, just a random story seed that I'm curious if the canon suggested might be possible.

Nothing in the lore or canon establishes that, no.

The second Darth Bane books has a good description of Sith holocrons, but it’s not canon. Rebels has several episodes that feature a Sith holocron, including it talking, and it’s interaction with a jedi holocron. If by power source you mean the force it’s got that.

Just now, Eoen said:

The second Darth Bane books has a good description of Sith holocrons, but it’s not canon. Rebels has several episodes that feature a Sith holocron, including it talking, and it’s interaction with jedi holocron. If by power source you mean the force it’s got that.

He's asking if a Holocron can be used as a power source to power other pieces of machinery; particularly, if this has been done in the official lore, whether Canon or Legends .

I thought he was asking if it could be plugged into a ship, and act as an ai. The one Ezra plunged into the Malichor temple definitely controlled a power source, and acted as an ai, at least while it was plugged in.

9 minutes ago, Eoen said:

I thought he was asking if it could be plugged into a ship, and act as an ai. The one Ezra plunged into the Malichor temple definitely controlled a power source, and acted as an ai, at least while it was plugged in.

I'm asking in general, in multiple capacities. I was randomly tossing out ideas on how it might be utilized, sometimes just as power supply, or possibly as an AI as well, but that the person using it doesn't know they have a holocron.

I look at Jedi/Sith Holocrons as powered by the Force not another discrete power source. I don't know if it's cannon or not but it just feels wrong to use such an thing as a battery.

1 hour ago, FuriousGreg said:

I look at Jedi/Sith Holocrons as powered by the Force not another discrete power source. I don't know if it's cannon or not but it just feels wrong to use such an thing as a battery.

Lightsabers use a conventional power source. There's no good reason why a holocron couldn't too. It's not a magic item, just a spell book of sorts (or one of those weird Kryptonian memory crystals from Superman stories).

41 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

Lightsabers use a conventional power source. There's no good reason why a holocron couldn't too. It's not a magic item, just a spell book of sorts (or one of those weird Kryptonian memory crystals from Superman stories).

I don't see lightsabers in the same vain as Holocrons. Lightsabers are weapons, tools, that, through Kyber crystals, give a Force user a focus to enhance their abilities when using it. A holocron, at least those made by the Jedi/Sith are more than that, they cannot be created or used without the Force plus they hold the memories and knowledge of a Force user. To me that implies that it's the users Force ability or maybe something akin to a Force ghost that powers holocrons. All the lore points to a something similar to phylactery, things that hold souls, and not an actual power source.

21 minutes ago, FuriousGreg said:

I don't see lightsabers in the same vain as Holocrons. Lightsabers are weapons, tools, that, through Kyber crystals, give a Force user a focus to enhance their abilities when using it. A holocron, at least those made by the Jedi/Sith are more than that, they cannot be created or used without the Force plus they hold the memories and knowledge of a Force user. To me that implies that it's the users Force ability or maybe something akin to a Force ghost that powers holocrons. All the lore points to a something similar to phylactery, things that hold souls, and not an actual power source.

But we've seen holocrons being used with people who are still alive in them. I'm specifically referring to an episode in Rebels, where...I think it was Ezra(?) was looking at a recording of Anakin teaching a lightsaber form for dealing with blaster fire. And we know Anakin wasn't dead at that point in the timeline. And the way it was recorded, implied it was simply a recording device, nothing more. He was like a million martial arts instructors on Youtube "OK! So today I'm going to show you a method to deal with multiple attackers. I find this style works very well in this situation, compared to other methods...here we go...." *proceeds to do the routine* It was hardly a mystical thing, and was more just a mundane recording device. So I don't about the "powered by the Force" thing, as that would imply that the Force could be used to power other things as well. Which just opens so many cans of worms I don't even want to contemplate it.

1 minute ago, KungFuFerret said:

But we've seen holocrons being used with people who are still alive in them. I'm specifically referring to an episode in Rebels, where...I think it was Ezra(?) was looking at a recording of Anakin teaching a lightsaber form for dealing with blaster fire. And we know Anakin wasn't dead at that point in the timeline. And the way it was recorded, implied it was simply a recording device, nothing more. He was like a million martial arts instructors on Youtube "OK! So today I'm going to show you a method to deal with multiple attackers. I find this style works very well in this situation, compared to other methods...here we go...." *proceeds to do the routine* It was hardly a mystical thing, and was more just a mundane recording device. So I don't about the "powered by the Force" thing, as that would imply that the Force could be used to power other things as well. Which just opens so many cans of worms I don't even want to contemplate it.

According to the existing lore, when a Jedi or Sith create a Holocron, they Imbue it with a piece of their essence, or spirit. This becomes the gatekeeper of the Holocron, which is itself fully sentient and conversant , and knows everything that the creator of said Holocron knew up to the time of the Holocron’s creation.

My own take is that a holocron would have it's own internal power source, but said power source in and of itself isn't very strong, and won't be able to power anything much bigger than itself for very long, if at all.

With lightsabers, at least in Legends, their power cells tended to last so long (near indefinite from what Luke said in one book to a bunch of trainees) simply because they were ridiculously energy efficient, only losing power when they cut into something, and even then the process of recharging them was fairly quick. Granted, the Jedi of the Old Republic had micro-chargers on their belts that kept the lightsabers at top charge when clipped to their belts, so the notion of power loss was generally moot.

I would suspect Jedi/Sith holocrons of operating on a similar principle, having their own equivalent to a high-end watch battery that is hyper-efficient due to the Force aka the setting's space magic. Said battery won't do much to power larger devices for any length of time, but will keep a holocron up and running potentially forever due to a mix of technology and the afore-mentioned space magic, especially if it's not left on and running all the time.

For the Malachor Sith holocron, I see it's interactions with the Malachor temple and the machinery there as being aspects of the temple itself, with the holocron acting as a key to activate and direct the machinery rather than it being the machinery's source of power. So I don't see holocrons being used to be a viable source of power for weapons, vehicles, or starships.

Now, as for it giving off some sort of energy reading that could be detected, my take is that when a holocron is not in use, any energy emissions are so faint as to nigh impossible to detect by conventional means. It's possible a Force-sensitive being might detect a holocron, but that's more due to any sort of tremors in the Force the holocron causes by its presence than due to detecting the object's power emissions.

An active holocron would probably be akin to an active walkman or non-WiFi-enabled iPod, in that unless you're specifically looking for it the energy signature is likely going to be lost as mere background noise. And even if you are looking for it, the difficulty should be Daunting at least, if not Formidable or outright Impossible.

3 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

According to the existing lore, when a Jedi or Sith create a Holocron, they Imbue it with a piece of their essence, or spirit. This becomes the gatekeeper of the Holocron, which is itself fully sentient and conversant , and knows everything that the creator of said Holocron knew up to the time of the Holocron’s creation.

Granted, this is Legends lore. In Canon, we don't know quite how Holocrons work.

1 hour ago, Underachiever599 said:

Granted, this is Legends lore. In Canon, we don't know quite hoe Holocrons work.

Very true, which is why I said “existing lore” as opposed to current canon.

I tend to go with the second Darth Bane book as how things work with Holocrons. Thus they are very 'Magic' items within the SW lore. I would find it strange to be able to use one as a battery but the thought is funny.
I suppose a holocron could emit a sort of signature or reading that someone might pick up but, personally, I would not do so.

I imagine that someone could somehow collect one and think it's a pretty cool thing that they found and or understand that it ties to Sith/jedi culture but not understand the true significance and so just sort of have it out for decoration. That you'd need the force to detect it is a shorter way of saying so and since it's a magical item that if you scanned it I find it unlikely you could pick up the power from it as that same device would need to be able to somehow read the force in general.

That said......I had the idea whilst reading this that a force user that spent enough time around holocrons could somehow devise a sort of Dragon radar (stay with me) that could pick up holocron's specifically. Or at least ones that's runes worked in a similar way to others they'd previously interacted with.

I see them as a mixture of alchemy and technology, merging the Sith holocron and the Jedi one in rebels caused a vergence, but they also have a gate keeper program and a holomatrix. It seems they can also store new files.

2 minutes ago, Eoen said:

I see them as a mixture of alchemy and technology, merging the Sith holocron and the Jedi one in rebels caused a vergence, but they also have a gate keeper program and a holomatrix. It seems they can also store new files.

Having them run on a rechargeable alchemical battery--recharged when a Force-user accesses it--isn't too much of a stretch. Like modern smart phones, the battery life gets worse and worse requiring more Force to get the really old ones to open up.

1 hour ago, HappyDaze said:

Having them run on a rechargeable alchemical battery--recharged when a Force-user accesses it--isn't too much of a stretch. Like modern smart phones, the battery life gets worse and worse requiring more Force to get the really old ones to open up.

Swish.

That actually makes a lot of sense. I Would add the better made ones/ones that had a more powerful source at creation don't degrade at the same rate. I liked that in the Bane book Revan's crumbled rapidly where he was able to spend a larger amount of time with others. Seemingly you can damage the battery life (sticking to the vein) by misuse.

Much as I like that way of thinking I still wouldn't have it in my game as being something detectable.

I bet holocrons are mostly inert, and the act of applying Force wakes and opens it. Stop applying Force, and it goes back to 'sleep'. Current data storage doesn't require power to keep state, only to interact with it. Since wookieepedia says it's kyber based, requiring Force to power a holocron doesn't seem that far out.