Jedi Order

The Jedi Order, also known as the Order of the Jedi, and the New Jedi Order under Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, was a noble monastic and nontheistic religious order united in their devotion to the light side of the Force. They served as mediators, warriors, and with teaching and exploratory efforts. With a history dating back thousands of years before the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Jedi Knights—noted for their lightsabers and natural ability to harness the powers of the Force—stood as the guardians of peace and justice in the Galactic Republic. The Order was originally established on Ahch-To in the Unknown Regions. In later years, the Jedi Grand Temple on the Core World Coruscant served as the hub of all Jedi activity in the galaxy. The Temple was also a training school for younglings and Padawans, who learned the ways of the Force under the supervision of Jedi Masters, twelve of whom were elected to serve on the Jedi High Council—the Order's highest governing authority. The High Council's staff officers were the Grand Master, who functioned as the leader of the Order and was a title reserved for the wisest Jedi Master, and the Master of the Order, who served as the Council's appointed leader. The Jedi Code governed the Order's way of life; therefore, every Jedi was duty-bound to observe and uphold the Code or else risk expulsion from the Order.

The emergence of the Sith Order was the result of a schism that fractured Jedi unity, dividing the Order between the Jedi who remained faithful to the light and a group of renegades that followed a rogue Jedi into exile for exploring the dark side of the Force. Thenceforth, the Jedi and Sith warred with each other for centuries. Although the last conflict concluded with the fall of the Old Republic, the ancient Sith all but perished as well, allowing a new Galactic Republic to rise under the protection of the Jedi Order. Unknown to the Jedi, however, the Sith endured in secret for a millennium beginning with Darth Bane, the sole-surviving Dark Lord of the Sith who reformed the Sith way by creating the Rule of Two—a rule limiting the Sith Order's ranks to two members: a Sith Master to embody the power of the dark side, and a Sith apprentice to covet that power. While the Jedi and Republic moved on, their ancient wars with the Sith fading from memory, Bane's legacy spawned a lineage of Sith Lords that culminated in the rise of Darth Sidious approximately three decades before the Battle of Yavin.

During the final decades of the Republic, the Jedi Order vowed allegiance to the Galactic Senate as the galaxy was beset by political instability and social unrest which, in turn, created a secessionist crisis that ultimately resulted in the formation of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Lacking the sufficient manpower needed to protect the galaxy, the Jedi became commanders and generals in the newly-formed Grand Army of the Republic. For roughly three years they commanded armies of clone troopers in a conflict known as the Clone Wars, engaging the Confederacy's battle droid forces led by Count Dooku—a former Jedi Master who became a Sith Lord—and the cybernetic warlord General Grievous. Though the Jedi fought to preserve the Republic, the government they served was secretly taken over by Sidious who, as Senator Sheev Palpatine of Naboo, rose to power in the Senate and became the last Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. The Jedi were unknowingly being deceived by the Sith.

The Chancellor's deceptions and machinations culminated in the execution of Order 66, a secret protocol that forcibly turned the Jedi's clone soldiers against them, leading to an all but total extermination of the Jedi Order. With most of the Jedi eliminated, Sidious supplanted a thousand years of democracy with a new government known as the Galactic Empire. In addition, Sidious succeeded in manipulating Anakin Skywalker—the prophesied Chosen One who was destined to bring balance to the Force by destroying the Sith—to betray the Jedi and join the dark side, with Sidious renaming him Darth Vader. As a Sith Lord, the former Jedi Knight served the self-proclaimed Galactic Emperor by hunting down the few surviving Jedi, who had gone into hiding across the galaxy. In spite of the Sith's efforts, however, the Jedi continued to endure. Within a generation of the Empire's rise to power, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda—both of whom survived the initial purge of the Order—trained Vader's son, Luke Skywalker, in the Jedi arts. Luke would later redeem his father, causing the redeemed Anakin Skywalker to return to the light and fulfill his destiny as the Chosen One, destroying both himself and his Master during the Battle of Endor.

The Empire dissolved into various remnants as a result of their defeat in the Galactic Civil War, allowing the Alliance to Restore the Republic to rise as the New Republic. Under the new era, Luke Skywalker endeavored to rebuild the Order by training a new generation of Jedi. Among Skywalker's students was his nephew, Ben Solo, the son of his twin sister, Princess Leia Organa, and the famed smuggler Han Solo. Ben, however, was seduced by the dark side of the Force at the coaxing of Snoke, an enigmatic figure who spearheaded the Imperial-inspired First Order. Luke confronted and frightened Ben, who fought back and fled. As a result, Ben adopted the name and persona of Kylo Ren, a First Order warlord and master of the Knights of Ren.

The new generation was betrayed and destroyed by Ren, who left the Jedi training temple burning by the time Skywalker recovered from the attack. Feeling responsible for Ben's fall and the massacre of his apprentices, he went into exile and disappeared from the galaxy, leaving only traces of his location on a star map. The First Order and the Resistance both sought to acquire the map, but ultimately it was the latter that succeeded due to the actions of the Jakku scavenger Rey. She followed the map to the planet Ahch-To, where the last Jedi had taken refuge in the first Jedi Temple.

Skywalker, stricken by grief and believing his return would only cause more problems, was reluctant to train Rey or another generation of Jedi. However, the last Jedi eventually returned to the fight, buying time for the Resistance to escape the siege of Crait led by Kylo Ren, who became the new Supreme Leader after killing his master, Snoke. Skywalker became one with the Force after exerting a great amount of energy to project himself across the galaxy to face his fallen nephew, but not before acknowledging that he would not be the last Jedi. His heroic tale spread across the galaxy, inspiring others and giving hope in a time of rising darkness.

Having returned from death, Darth Sidious urged Kylo Ren to end the Jedi Order by killing Rey, who was his granddaughter. After Ren renounced the dark side, Sidious attempted to turn Rey until he discovered her bond with Ben Solo. Realizing they were a dyad in the Force, Sidious nearly drained them of their life force to regain his full power. Though weakened by Sidious’ attack, Rey was strengthened by the spirits of past Jedi, allowing the apprentice to stand against the Dark Lord of the Sith. She destroyed her grandfather using his own Force lightning against him, preventing the rebirth of the Sith Order, but the effort left her dead. Solo resurrected her at the cost of his life, becoming one with the Force as the last Skywalker. The Skywalkers were gone, but their legacy endured through Rey, who took the Skywalker name to honor her mentors and restore the Jedi Order.

Text and facts from the “Jedi Order” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.