Jedi: Encyclopedia II - Jedi - Recent history of the Jedi

Jedi - Recent history of the Jedi

Jedi - The Jedi-Sith conflict resumes

In 32 BBY, the presence of the Sith once again became known to the Jedi. Two Sith Lords, the master Darth Sidious, and the apprentice Darth Maul, supported the blockade of Naboo. After Darth Maul was killed, the Jedi knew that somewhere in the galaxy there was still one member of the Sith active, but they were unaware of the identity of Sidious. During the next ten years, former Jedi Count Dooku fell to the dark side and became the new apprentice Darth Tyranus. Tyranus and Sidious, through political machinations and exploitation, engineered the Clone Wars.

At approximately the same time toward the end of the Clone Wars, the Jedi discovered that Chancellor Palpatine was in fact Darth Sidious, and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker submitted to the Dark Side. Anakin became known as Darth Vader, Sidious's final apprentice. During a battle with his master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin suffered serious injuries, including the loss of limbs and terrible burns from fire and lava. After the fight, the majority of Anakin's body had to be replaced with mechanical implants, including a breathing apparatus to keep him alive.

By Darth Sidious' own admission, Darth Vader had the potential to become twice as powerful as himself, going so far as to tell Yoda that "soon Darth Vader will become more powerful than either of us." However this was before Vader's fateful duel with his former master. Since the use of the Force is dependent upon living flesh, and since Vader lost several limbs in the fight, his power was reduced to roughly eighty percent of Darth Sidious'. There is speculation by some Darth Vader fans, however, that Vader's special armor compensated for the grave injuries he sustained, making him stronger than ever.

Jedi - The Dark Times and the Empire Return of the Jedi

At the onset of the Galactic Civil War, the Jedi were almost completely wiped out through the actions of followers of the Dark Side, led by Palpatine (now Emperor) and Darth Vader. Vader led the Great Jedi Purge, wiping out nearly all of his former fellow Jedi. Obi Wan Kenobi (Anakin's own teacher), and Yoda were among the survivors featured in the original trilogy. The Expanded Universe novels indicate that a few other Jedi aside from those featured in the films also survived the purge. Other survivors include Empatojayos Brand, Vima Da Boda and Vergere none of whom are referenced in the movies. Also, in the Star Wars game "Galactic Battlegrounds" the protagonists are aided by a Jedi named Echuu Shen Jon, who claims to have survived the purge.

The novels written after the original trilogy indicate that the Empire took steps to exterminate the Jedi family members and supporters as well as the Jedi themselves. Corran Horn's grandfather was a Corellian Jedi named Nejaa Halcyon, who had died in the Clone Wars. Halcyon's friend Rostek Horn married Halcyon's wife, adopted Corran's father Valin "Hal" Horn, and altered the records concerning the Halcyon family. He did this to protect Hal and his mother from the Empire's Jedi hunters. Hal kept the knowledge of Corran's true grandfather from him, because revealing that knowledge would have made Corran a target as well. As a result, Corran only learned of his true heritage when Luke Skywalker discovered his past, and shared that discovery with Corran.

The Emperor also trained a number of "Hands," or those who had the potential to use the Force as his personal agents. Through the Force, he was able to relay orders to these agents. Mara Jade was one of his Hands. She had been discovered to be Force sensitive at a young age, and was taken by the Emperor for training. It has also been suggested that these "Hands" had little power on their own, being artificially "boosted" by the Emperor's own power, as an extension of his will. Upon his death, Mara found her own power greatly reduced, having to re-learn the ways of the Force through training. That the Emperor could extend his will to empower others under his control was also demonstrated in his formation of the Dark Side Elite. The actions of Luke Skywalker and his relationship with The Force were a principal plot device in the films. As a sign of how desperate things had become, Luke was taken into the Jedi fold as a young adult as opposed to during infancy, or even childhood (as Anakin had been). The period of his training was also amazingly short, by necessity.

Jedi - After the Galactic Civil War

In the novels set after the Galactic Civil War, Luke's main task was to reestablish the Jedi Order by training a new generation of Jedi Knights. It was not an easy task. Because the Emperor had wished to completely destroy the order, almost all information concerning the Jedi had been destroyed. Only a few histories remained, and they were propaganda pieces used to paint the Jedi in an unfavorable light. Almost all the material on instructing Jedi was also eliminated, save a few documents on how to turn potential Jedi to the Dark Side of the Force.

Four years after the death of the Emperor at Endor, Luke discovered the wreck of the Chu'unthor on the planet Dathomir. The Chu'unthor was a starship that had served as a mobile Jedi academy. Dathomir was the home of Force sensitive "Witches," who were the descendants of a fallen Jedi banished to that world. Master Yoda had left the instruction materials from the ship behind with the rest of the ship. Four hundred years later, after defeating the Witches that had fallen to the Dark Side, one of the natives gave Luke the instruction materials that she had kept safely since the time of the crash. Due to Luke's lack of knowledge with the old ways of the Jedi Order, the new generation of Jedi were very unorthodox. He established an academy in order to teach the way of the Jedi to others. The academy was established in the old temples on Yavin 4, which the Rebels had used as a base until after the Battle of Yavin. This new academy used a system very different from the "one student, one master" system used by the old order. The new order also differed from the old in that Luke allowed his students to have personal possessions and had no rule against a Jedi having emotional attachments to friends and family, which had been forbidden by the old order. Accepted students were also taken into the order at a much older age than had been the case previously. Most members were already well into adulthood before they began training.

What Luke did not know was that Yavin 4 had once been a base for the Sith Lord Exar Kun during the Great Sith War. He was unaware that Kun's spirit had been trapped in the temples all that time. As a result, Kun was able to influence two of Luke's students. The first, Gantoris, under the tutelage of Exar Kun, secretly constructed a multi-jeweled lightsaber before being killed by the dark lord's spirit. The other student, Kyp Durron, eventually fell to the Dark Side for a time while under Kun's influence. Kyp's actions resulted with the destruction of several star systems by the Sun Crusher. Eventually, the students at the academy were able to destroy Kun's spirit. Freed of Kun's influence, Kyp surrendered, returned to the Light Side of the Force, and became one of the first new Jedi Masters.

Luke eventually turned the academy into a center that would provide basic training for potential Jedi. He began pairing Jedi who had gone through that training with a more experienced Jedi, much like the master/apprentice system used in the old order.

Jedi - The New Jedi Order

The New Jedi Order grew slowly but steadily. Some Jedi from the first class Luke taught - such as Kyp Durron - became Jedi Masters. The order eventually became large enough that Luke Skywalker considered reinstating the Jedi Council. However, an extragalactic Force-dead alien species, the Yuuzhan Vong, invaded the galaxy. The war had lasted 5 years, and the results were severe. An estimated 365 trillion sentients had perished in the invasion. Many Jedi fell while fighting this new threat, but the order did survive the war and continued to grow in strength. One of the Jedi casualties of this war was Anakin Solo, the youngest son of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo, and Luke's nephew. Before his death, it was widely felt that Anakin would eventually become one of the greatest Jedi of his generation, and that he would eventually take Luke's place. Since Anakin's death, it has been assumed that Luke Skywalker's son, Ben Skywalker, has the most force potential of any living being.

In recent novels, after the war with the Yuuzhan Vong was over, Luke realized that the order would have to further adapt in order to survive. His experiences had led him to believe that the Force was not rigidly divided into a light and a dark side. Strong emotions, including anger, were not intrinsically evil - instead it was the intentions of the Force user that mattered the most. Luke came to believe that nearly everyone, regardless of their heritage, had some ability to touch and use the Force. He also felt that individual Jedi (and other Force users) would need to discover their own paths: that some could be called to contemplative life, while others would feel a need to take a more active role in galactic affairs, like the old-style Jedi. Because the Jedi had no single goal, he felt the Jedi Order as a whole should remain carefully aloof of its allegiance to the Galactic Alliance or any succeeding government.

Interestingly, many of Luke's realizations would have been considered heresy during the time of the original Jedi Order. This has caused many fans to question the continuity of the reformed Jedi order with the principles of the Jedi order in the films.

Jedi - The Dark Nest

After the war with the Yuuzhan Vong, a call was heard through the Force calling the surviving members of the mission to Myrkr, to meet with Raynar Thul. The members who were still alive except for Tenal Ka who was too busy ruling the Hapes Consortium. When the Myrkr strike team was found to be missing, Luke, Han, Leia, Mara, and Saba Sebatyne went to investigate. Raynar Thul had become the leader of the Killik's who were the original species on Alderaan. All of the strike teams except Jaina Solo and Zekk returned to the Galactic Alliance.

The Jedi discovered that the Killik's uncharacteristically aggressive actions were driven by another survivor of the Myrkr mission. She had gone to the Dark Side and been controlling the Killiks as the Hive's subconcious. The Jedi barely managed to stop a war from breaking out between the Alliance and the Killiks. Leia announced that she wished to finally take up the Skywalker legacy and become a Jedi like her brother and father before her. After Luke killed the being they thought was leading the Dark Nest and he saw that person had become a bug-human hybrid he realized that the Dark Side was very much real and personally recanted his Gray Jedi views. The Jedi then realized the Dark Nest was being controlled by Lomi Plo. She had gone to the Dark Side and been controlling the Killiks as the Hive's subconcious.

Months later tensions once again arose between the Chiss and the Killiks. The Jedi went to negotiate with the Killiks and Raynar took Luke and Han hostage to be certain that the Alliance wouldn't betray him. While Luke was gone the Jedi Order fell into chaos with Corran Horn the state appointed leader while Luke was absent. Once Luke decided to free Han and himself from prison he heard about the state of the Jedi and felt doubt. This lead to Lomi Plo being able to defeat him as she was able to use any doubt to cloak herself.

In order to counter the behavior of the Council in his absence Luke attempted to unite the Masters against him by saying he was taking direct control of the Order. This tactic later backfired when the Masters still could not come to a consensus and Skywalker was then forced to actually take control. Luke decreed that the Jedi order had to come before any other commitments. This lead Danni Quee and to resign as Danni's first commitment was to helping Zonama Sekot and Tenel Ka couldn't abdicate her throne as the Queen Mother of Hapes. Luke was forced to exile Lowbacca, Tesar Sebatyne, and Tahiri Veila to Dagobah because they had told Raynar's mother about the fact that Jedi would kill him if necessary, thus betraying him and the Jedi Order.

While there are few who would deny that Luke is capable of serving as the sole authority in the Jedi Order, it has raised concerns regarding the inevitable time when Skywalker can no longer function as the Grand Master, and the fear that successors would be too quick to abuse the power. Unfortunately, at the time there seems to be no other alternative, given the divisions that have formed among the Master's Council.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Recent history of the Jedi", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki