#Star Wars Je’daii

[inquisitor-apologist]

The Je’daii dumb as shit tbh. Oh, we see you’ve fallen to the Dark Side. Sad. We will now send you to Evil Dark Side Moon, where it is always dark, you are completely isolated, and the only other people on the moon have also Fallen. This will bring you back to the light somehow. Our civilization has remained in perfect balance for 10,000 years.

[david-talks-sw]

What are your thoughts on the je'daii? Do they even work, like I find myself irritated by the concept because people often use them to validate/prove the notion that "balance = both sides of the Force"

If you stick to what George Lucas said, in Star Wars a person being "balanced" is someone who accepts their inner darkness and resists its pull nonetheless.

When fans mention the Je'daii, it's usually in the context of:

"The Jedi downgraded from the Je'daii, limited their studies of the Force, refusing to study the Dark Side was a mistake. It was an original sin that caused them to create an imbalance within them."

Which is weird, to me, because the whole point of the comic's narrative is that:

the Je’daii Order’s way was doomed to fail.

Introduced in the Legends comic series Dawn of the Jedi (2012), the Je'daii are the predecessors of the Jedi. They are an order of Force users who studied and practiced both the Light Side and the Dark Side in hopes of finding Balance.

The reasoning is simple: everyone has a bit of good and bad in them, you learn to master the good and the bad sides inside of you, indulging them equally. But while this method seems sound on paper… it didn't work.

Consider that they’re already dabbling with the Dark Side...

... but hey, at least they’re aware of its dangers, they’re trying to be responsible about it.

There's a support system where they all warn each other when they're about to cross a line. But even then, there's many who've fallen and been exiled to a moon, to be rehabilitated.

Suddenly, circumstances compel all of them to use the Forcesaber, a weapon that only activates when you draw on the Dark Side.

And that does something to them. Over the course of a year, they all become increasingly aggressive.

Soon, a faction breaks off because they no longer want to stop using the Forcesaber. They’re addicted to the Dark Side.

A war ensues, at the end of which the Jedi Order is born, a group of Force users who:

acknowledge and accept their inner darkness,

while also striving to overcome it rather than give it power.

So that’s the moral of the whole Je’daii story.

Their idea of "Balance by wielding both" was actually so fragile and difficult to maintain that all it took was a little push for them to become vulnerable to the Dark Side's temptation.

Hell, even after the Jedi Order was established, one of its founders, Master Rajivari - who in Dawn of the Jedi (2012) is framed as a wise ex-general who, albeit strict, spends his days meditating and philosophizing - he goes to the Dark Side too! 

Because that's how the Dark Side works.

The Dark Side isn’t just "negative feelings" or a "bad guy superpower" that you can mix with a "good guy superpower" to unleash the ultimate 'Force blast'. This isn’t an anime.

The Dark Side is a drugs/smoking/drinking addiction.

It's selfish, temporary pleasure. The more you consume it...

... the more you get addicted...

... and the more it consumes you right back...

... until nothing remains.

Jon Ostrander, who wrote Dawn of the Jedi (2012), echoed this sentiment multiple times:

“As I see it, those working on the light side work with the Force, channeling it, open and sensitive to what it tells them. They serve it. Those on the dark side try to impose their will on the Force, to make it do their will, to make it serve them. The Je’daii believe in a balance between the light and the dark side and so attempt to use both. Problem is, a balance is hard to maintain and the dark side is so very seductive.” - John Ostrander, LA Times, 2012

“The Je'daii aren't light side or dark side, although they know and are aware of both. Instead they seek a balance in the Force between light and dark. Balance, however, is a difficult thing to maintain and there is always the danger of falling wholly to the dark side — and some Je'daii have done so.” - John Ostrander, Newsarama, 2012

And this is a recurring theme throughout all of Ostrander’s comics, by the way. Be it with the Je’daii, but also with Quinlan Vos or Cade Skywalker, the point remains the same: 

"Yes, wielding the Dark Side gives you great power, and you get to show off some badass new tricks...

… but it ultimately destroys you and everyone around you."

Remember: if it weren’t for Cade or Quin’s loved ones, neither of them would have come back from the Dark Side. They aren't badasses because they can use Force Lightning, they're badasses because they found the strength to give that up.

So if you genuinely think the Jedi "downgraded" by refusing to give the Dark Side more power than it already has on them... you're missing the point.

“It’s not about ripping things out of the sky using the Force or Force Lightning. A lot of people, they think “oh look how powerful Vader is, look how powerful the Emperor is, I want to play be the bad guy because I get these powers”. It’s an empty feeling, at the end of the day, after the moment. [...] The Dark Side is a spiral downward that you’re trapped in.” - Dave Filoni, “Force of Rebellion”, 2018

It was an upgrade.

Framing "balance" as "equal Dark and Light Side" is like consuming one (1) salad a day and one (1) whole bottle of vodka and calling that "balanced". No, buddy, that'll kill you. Because:

The vodka is better at being destructive than the salad is at making you healthy.

It's won't stay just one bottle per day. It'll eventually become two, three, etc.

Because as George Lucas stated time and again, resisting the Dark Side is a constant struggle.

So that's my two cents.

You've probably already heard about the recent announcement of a Dawn of the Jedi feature film, a biblical epic that will be directed by James Mangold.

And truth be told... it scares me SO much that we came THIS close to an Episode IX: Duel of the Fates that framed "balance" as - you guessed it - giving equal power to your light and darkness.

Like, how did this ⬆️ get as far as it did? Did nobody think to sit Colin Trevorrow down and explain to him that he fundamentally misunderstands how the Force works?

So all I can do is cross my fingers and hope James Mangold has a better grasp of - if not the lore (I wouldn't be surprised if the words "Je'daii" or "Tython" aren't uttered once in the film) - at least the message.

[dapurinthos]

been thinking about jedi language since @gffa made this post with the ‘padawan means learner’ bit, and about how there’s a ship in one of the clone wars gameboy games called sedawan. which is a sort-of proto-crucible in that it’s for bringing crystals back from ilum because it’s been deemed too dangerous for the younglings to go themselves (the clone wars: jedi alliance came out in 2008 to the animated series’ ‘the gathering’ in 2012). chu’unthor is a cerean word, so it’s not relevant. takara is not a ship used for padawan training.

so the linguistic analogy should be (since we know george lucas was cooking with japanese flavouring from the jidaigeki films that influenced star wars, not just the buddhism):

student : 学生 : padawan :: teacher : 先生 : sedawan

individually: 学生 (gakusei): student 学 (gaku): education. also: knowledge [ignorance, yet knowledge!] [11-year-old me: like haruka & michiru’s school mugen gauken!]; origin: middle chinese haewk (learning) 生 (sei): (as a suffix) a student. also: a living, life. origin in middle chinese sraeng (alive, raw, unprocessed)

先生 (sensei): an elder, a scholar, teacher — only when referring to another) 先 (sen): before, previous. origin: middle chinese sen (first, before) 生 (sei): [see above]

so is it pada/seda + wan? or is it there rendaku (ori + kami —> origami) happening here and the compounds are pa/se + tawan? (je + tai forming je’daii —> jedi?) as for the compounds, i think it would be really neat if padawan, whatever it breaks down into, is the ignorance, yet knowledge precept in a single word, going from the 'raw, unprocessed' definition of 'sei'. the -wan/-tawan as the 'knowledge' part, with 'pada-/pa-' as the 'ignorant' part. seda-/se- as 'elder, first, before'. padawan: the ignorant acquiring knowledge; sedawan: the one who previously acquired the knowledge.

a side-trip: differentiating between ‘student’ and ‘learner’ 学習者 (gakushūsha, lit. one who learns knowledge) aka 'learner' exists as a word. english is a bitchy language and has both student and learner used for the same thing (why did you choose to use 'learner', rpg book? it's bothering me). it’s the normans fault. all of it. them with their french coming in here and replacing cneordlæcan with estudiant from studeō. the germans got their word from ‘track, trace’ while the latin one is ‘to push, hit’ and somehow does a transformation that almost everyone else didn’t do (yeah, this is where we get pertussis from, because tussis is also a descendant, but one that keeps the violence). italic family, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.

[archivist-annemi]

Got my hands on a really battered old copy of Star Wars Insider 141 mainly because it contains a printing of Eruption, the oldest tale in the old Star Wars Legends canon. To clarify: chronologically the oldest. It was published in 2013, after Disney acquired Star Wars, but before the mouse started their own new canon.

I should note that it’s not necessary to find this copy of Insider if you want to read it, since the short story Eruption was also reprinted in Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void as well as being included in the audiobook. But it was only a few bucks and it has illustrations.

As much as I am an enjoyer of KotOR era Star Wars, I haven’t really forayed into this time period of Legends canon. Dawn of the Jedi (DotJ era?) takes place more than TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND years before the OT (specifically 25,793 BBY). That’s… a huge amount of time. Sure, on the grand, cosmic scale it’s just a blip, but on a human scale? 25000 years ago is considered pre-history in real life. That’s about the age of the oldest permanent human settlement we’ve found so far.

A long, long, very fuckin’ long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

This little short story by John Ostrander showcases two ancient Jedi (or Je’daii as they were called at the time), Lanoree Brock and Hawk Ryo. The story is short and sweet and details the rescue of a hostage and the early work of Jedi as negotiators. It ends with Lanoree being recalled to Tython, the home planet of the Je’daii order, for a special mission. I assume this is the lead-in for Into the Void, which is next up on my reading list.

A little fun fact for you: Hawk Ryo (a blue Twi’lek man) is officially the first character and first Jedi mentioned in the Legends canon if you are reading chronologically. His name is the first word of the first sentence of the story.

[dougielombax]

Regarding my Star Wars OC Leon Vartanian.

I created him due to a lack of explicit queer rep in Star Wars.

That stuff is largely kept to the side in novels and comics.

Which bugs me.

Same for neurodivergent rep. Hence why he’s autistic like me.

He’s not exactly a self-insert though. Only partially.

As for his religion, I don’t have a name for it.

But it’s commonly referred to as the Cathar Order of the Great Light.

It’s an ancient Force religion which predates the Jedi by hundreds of thousands of years.

It was already ancient history before the first Jedi temples were built and before the earliest proto-Jedi sects such as the Je’Daii had formed.

Only Cathar can adhere to it and you can’t convert. One must be born into it (some real religions are like this such as the Druze or the Mandaeans). Hence why all it’s adherents are only Cathar or humans adopted by Cathar.

This stems from a long history of persecution from outside enemies such as the Rakatans (who the Cathar believe to be monstrous savages), the Sith, Zygerrians, the Mandalorians, and many others.

Their religion in question has a great deal of emphasis on knowledge, education, self improvement, environmentalism, selflessness, bravery, justice, collectivism, and altruism.

It also places a great deal of emphasis on ritual baptisms, prayer, and scrutiny and analysis of its own holy texts.

Their religion regards the Jedi as being well meaning, but also single-minded and dogmatically possessed, while it views the Sith as an abomination.

Many key figures in the Cathar religion also show up in some Jedi texts.

The Jedi name is even derived from the Old Cathar (Kedhari) term “Zhi-deikh”.

It had a HUGE influence on the Jedi religion but many Jedi are completely oblivious to this fact. The Jedi emphasis on justice is noticeably similar to that of the Cathar Order.

And many passages from the Jedi texts are said to have been taken directly from Cathar holy books and apocryphal texts.

Unlike the Jedi, adherents of the Cathar religion are allowed to marry and start families.

Cathar religious doctrine encourages adoption and rescue of orphans, particularly in turbulent times in turn with this allowance for starting families.

Hence why Cathar people believe in having two families. Your birth family and your found family.

I’ll add more to this where I can

[groguandthebadbatch]

My of my top favorite subjects to learn about in all of Star Wars!!!! What I would be!

[padawansuggest]

Hello, I hope you're having a nice day! 😃

I just saw your post about bby Obi-Wan & his soulmates (& I love it!) and wanted to ask if you've thought about the vod'e's soulmate marks! You said Kaminoian-Mandalorian would be the cultural type of soulmate mark, but what does that look like? Do the Command class have marks for their Alpha class trainers & vice-versa? Do they paint their markings on their armor when they're allowed to be individuals or are they more private?

tldr: please I just want to know if Alpha-17 gets to have little markers to remind him of his chaos-causing little cadets when they're grown

Hello hi this is so adorable thank you.

Now here’s an explanation for how the soulmate marks work in my idea of it: I HATE it when it’s an image you have to match. I genuinely don’t like that because it confuses me and makes no sense and it would be mega easy to fake and tattoos would be seen as impure because they can imitate a mark… things like that. So normally I do the name on the wrist. But, at the same time those also have the issue of names being fluid (or the fucked up idea of ‘what if your child has a slave code on their wrist’ and how fucked up that would be) and so I like this idea the most because it’s Star Wars!!!!!

What if instead, everyone ever, has a pocket of cells in that area of their body with the highest level of midichlorian concentration possible? Which would make SENSE cause I’ve already put that soulmates are people with pre-existing bonds (this is something I also do for Star Trek, if you have a Vulcan soulmate it’s the one bond that you were born with) so it would make sense that the force itself made those bonds.

Now, without getting into the whole idea of how the clones came to be, because I have had many different ways to make the clones come to be without Jango hating the Jedi, and a general favorite of mine is that it was an ACTUAL experiment for human genetic clone testing as a reason to get the republic to start LETTING clones be made in the republic, and that Jango isn’t the only one who made clones since they obviously would have needed multiple test groups.

Now, again, not explaining too much of that, but I think in general, they would have chosen Mandalorians for athletic standards and because their system isn’t part of the republic.

Now that aside, there would def be a different culture on Kamino for Mandalorians. They would be learning Mandalorian culture from secondary sources until they were given leave to be welcomed into homes in the Mandalorian system.

Which would mean they would have a sub-culture for Mando’a. Not main culture. Sort of like how Mandalorians who grow up mainly on colonies outside the M system or in Little Keldabe on Coruscant, wouldn’t have the same culture as those who grew up in the system.

There is culture and then subculture.

Anyways. Obviously a lot of the clones would choose to stay on the planet to work with the Kaminoians and take care of the babies. And Alpha and Colt are def two of them. Alpha and Colt both have a tooooon of apprentice marks (maybe 10 or so each that’s considered a shitton for just about anyone but that itself started a new round of testing over clones themselves) and yes, they have a bunch of lil rugrats they love with all their hearts.

Now the marks themselves: everyone has a main mark (this is the piece that glows) and this mark depends entirely on the person it exists on. It could be a shape or a picture or a flower it depends on them. Obi likes shapes. And most people have a secondary mark (the piece that Jedi use to signify an apprentice or a sibling or a romance) which 100% depends on the subculture you grew up on. Obi-Wan’s mark is in Dai Bendu, not just because he follows the force, but because he very specifically follows the Old Je’daii ways (I just think he fits more into that category than the modern Jedi way but explaining that is a bit above my brain capacity for the most part, lots of philosophy type speculation) and that reflects him to a very core of his self. Because his characters are in Dai Bendu, he actually speaks the language more than most Jedi because he likes feeling connected to their roots from before Dai Bendu stopped being a slave language, and started being a religious one. (This is another fanon idea. In canon they decided that the pyramids were built as 8 arks to hold Je’daii pilgrims and bring them to Tython, but there have been a few different fanon ideas of what if the Tho Yor started as slaves for their force sensitivity and the Tho Yor were built to help them escape their captivity. I know what’s canon but I like giving the Jedi roots a bit more spice sometimes.)

Anakin’s, on the other hand, ends up having characters in a slave language. When Obi-Wan finds those and asks Shmi and she tells him, and hers are in that language too, Obi-Wan makes a vow then and there and no student of his will call him master. They call him Jeiah, which is a fanon translation in Dai Bendu for teacher. Anakin’s mark for him means ‘learning’ and his mark for Padme means ‘Angel’ but that’s just the modern translation of it, Shmi says (when Arla asks her why she would be Shmi’s Angel) that it used to mean ‘lover’ but for some reason a rumor spread that when two soulmates touched, and one was wearing a slave collar, it would short out the lock and the collar would pop open. They decided Angel was a better word than savior.

On that note, when they had pulled the slave chip from Shmi’s middle back behind the spine, after Arla had touched her, the chip WAS fried… so…

Idk if Anakin has any soulmarks for siblings, but he DEF has one for Ahsoka, but when Shmi says it means ‘student’ Obi-Wan points out that it’s not the same as the sibling mark the Jedi are used to, but in Dai Bendu, that SAME character means ‘baby darling’ and darling in the language is often used for little siblings. So, double one there. Lmao. Language fun.

Mandalorian identifiers, on the other hand, don’t tend to be language. Since the culture is so mish mash about letting anyone and everyone in, they tend to be pictographs. Things like extremely simple images to show a swaddled baby (that’ll be your ad, Jaster only has that for Jango because Jango is his baby boy who will follow in Buir’s footsteps to lead their people, but for Jango it’s a picture of a smaller hand in larger) and a lover could be anything from a traditional heart image to two weapons clashing (there are no markers for enemies because I don’t believe in the force bonding you against your will to someone you’ll hate) and Jaster has a picture of two lightsabers clashing for him and Feemor. He was pretty dubious about that one, trying to pass them off as beskade for a while (Beskar sabers) but now they’re together and he has the darksaber, it makes so much sense…

Anyways. Markers and then their identifiers is something I’ve been thinking about a while and I like it.

Please don’t get weird about my bullshit excuse for the clones to exist without war tho, Palpy choked on a dick and passed away sadly, but I still want my sons without Jango being evil and I use the ‘Palpy kidnaps Jango to make clones’ option too often it’s getting weird. I love the clones tho.

[nerdyerror]

Ili-Raisa Aang (the mother of Obi-Wan Kenobi and scarer of Qui-Gon Jinn) Pictured age 60 (star wars: attack of the clones era)

The fandom apparently: Stewjon is space Scotland

Me: Stewjon is a mash-up of all human cultures (and several non-human ones), held together by the ancient religion of the Je’daii.

[galahadwilder]

Jedi, Sith, or Je'daii?

Je’daii, 100%. I am the wielder of the flame, protector of balance.

There is no dark side or light side. There is only The Force.

[plotbunny-bundle]

Hey the Jedaii order were messed up too.

They seem so nice with their balancing dark and light but the forced balance mediation thing is bothering me.

It’s much better then murdering people who fall to the wrong side but still.

What the Jediia would do with members to strayed to far to the Light or Dark Side was exile them to a moon that was strong the opposite side of the force where they were forced to meditate, provided with basic food and I assumed supple and Kept restrained and Isolated.

First off that sounds like torture. Wtf. 2nd depending on how deep you are in to one side that could hurt like fuck.

3rd there’s no choice! Can you leave the order? Is this a cult?

A better way for balance is to just make the light leaning guys hang out with the dark leaning guys. Make them work together and talk. That could balance your society out.

I need to read Dawn of the Jedi now. I want to see go fucked this is. Like holy shit. Thing too deeply and it gets creepy. Can definitely see the ancestors of the Jedi order here.

[photos-fantasy-and-scifi]

So I don't post much about Star Wars really I haven't posted anything yet, but I've had an idea that I'm proud of. Any idea is a way to essentially make Tython as important and very similar to how it is in legends.

Okay so anyone who knows what they're being about legends knows that Tython was the original home of the Jedi order and before the Jedi order and even the sith was the Je’daii.

And what they could do now is pull a Ben Kanobi and say yes technically the Jedi Temple on Ahch-To from a certain point of view. They would do this by bringing up the Je’daii and talking about their beliefs and how they didn't favor one side of the force over the other and talking about how they made a home on Tython, and stressing how they weren't Jedi, but they are were the Jedi as well as the sith originated from. And they could do the whole splitting of the Je’daii similar to how they did in legends and they can use the explanation on how even though the temple on Tython was used by the first Jedi it technically wasn't a Jedi Temple because it was built by the Je’daii. Therefore leaving the first official Jedi Temple still being allowed to canonically be on Ahch-To because it was the first temple that was actually built by the Jedi.

Of course they can also eventually mention how at some point python was resettled by the Jedi, and a new Temple was built using the reasoning that the old temple built by the Je’daii had become ruins by the time that the Jedi had returned to the planet.(There's also potential for more story to be added there as to why the temple had been turned into ruins other than just time weather and erosion.)

[himboskywalker]

So I’m a bit new to Star Wars and I had zero idea what the D Republic was when I saw you mention it in a post. So I went to YouTube and watched all the trailers to a game and holy force, not only are the lightsaber duels are amazing and the republic/Jedi army really reminds me of the clone army, expect they don’t have chips in their skulls and now I need to know more about this, so please tell me whatever you can

I’m not sure if you’re asking me about the Old Republic as just the game or the history and context of Star Wars during the time period of the Old Republic.No matter, you’re getting the historian’s long answer anyway.

So SWTOR (Star Wars:The Old Republic) is itself a a multiplayer online game from the mid 2000s,much like World of Warcraft and the Lord of the Rings online from the same period.The time period it covers is under the Old Republic,which was the system of government in the galaxy until its fall about 1,000 years before the Prequel era with the last Jedi-Sith War,where it was succeeded by the Galactic Republic,which was the system of government in control during the Clone Wars and prequels,until Sidious took over with Vader and the galactic empire was formed during Revenge of the Sith. 

If you’re reading descriptions of the game or the history of Star Wars in general don’t get too confused,because you’ll find a lot of people and sites will throw around the term galactic republic for the period of SWTOR and that isn’t right because there is a decisive division of Old Republic and Galactic Republic.What they mean is a galaxy wide Republic,but the New Republic/Galactic Republic was only 1,000 years old by the Time of Anakin and Obi-Wan,versus the Old Republic that lasted for over 24,000 thousand years, from around 25,000 BBY to 1,000 BBY.For those of you newer to how time is measured in Star Wars,much like we use BC and AD,with the Biblical birth and death of Jesus Christ as a sort of breaking shatterpoint in history,in Star Wars it’s Before the Battle of Yavin and After the Battle of Yavin (The blowing up of the Death Star in a New Hope.)

SWTOR takes place around 3,600 years before the prequels during the period of the return of the Sith Empire.Now this is where things get intense,because there were a lot of Sith Wars and a lot of returns of the Sith/Sith Empires during the time of the Old Republic,and they all have very similar sounding names.If you want to feel even more overwhelmed,The Jedi and Sith existed long before the Old Republic and long before they became known as the Jedi and Sith,think 11,000 years before the Old Republic and they were fighting even then,in what was called the Force Wars.

Now Star Wars in General is divided into multiple eras for time measurement,we have Prehistory,which starts like 14 billion years before the Battle Of Yavin,which includes the formation of the Universe and the connection of the cosmic Force and Living Force which is told in legend to have formed at the birth of all things at the Wellspring of Life.Included in this period of Prehistory,when little is known and there isn’t much survival of documentation is the formation of the Dai Bendu order,the first religious group of force sensitives and the grandfather Order to the Jedi.

Around 36,000 BBY the Je’daii Order was formed on Tython and this period is when the Force Wars took place between light side force users and dark side force users. Somewhere over 24 millennia before the Battle of Yavin,the Prime Jedi founded the order on Ahch-To.The founding date of the Jedi Order is said to be unclear by some and Wookiepedia has it simply listed as before the formation of the Old Republic,but SWTOR references the Jedi forming with the end of the Force Wars,which would place the forming of the Order about 25,783 BBY.

Okay...now we’ve actually hit the Old Republic.During this period the Zygerrian Slave Empire was finally defeated by the Jedi and then,the schism happened where a group of Jedi split from the Order to follow the dark side and they became the Sith.This period was known as the Hundred-Year Darkness and the Sith were thought to be defeated and the survivors banished to Moraband.Of course the banished Sith rebuilt on Moraband and there they built their Sith temples and tombs and came to build a Sith Empire.Literally after skirmishes and altercations for several thousand years with super weapons made from kyber crystals(precursor to the Death Star), around 5,000 BBY the Sith Empire waged war against the Jedi and Old Republic.This war is known as the Great Hypersace War  also known as the Jedi-Sith War and it was during this period that the Battle of Coruscant took place and the Sith took control of the planet and built a shrine there.The Jedi eventually “defeated” the Sith and retook Coruscant and built a temple over the Sith shrine.They believed the shrine was destroyed but there were underground remains of it beneath the Jedi temple,which would cloud the force and the Jedi Council’s judgement thousands of years later.

The next period is known as the long fall of the Old Republic,from about 5,000 BBY with the Battle of Coruscant to 1,000 BBY with the official destruction of the Old Republic and forming of the New Republic/Galactic Republic.During this period the Mandalorian-Jedi War happened and the Mandalorian Crusades.This is the period of Darth Revan, and the other Knights of the Old Republic games fall between the Mandalorian Wars and the Old Sith Wars with SWTOR.4,000 BBY is the official recorded time of the Four Masters creating the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and in 3,996 BBY the Great Sith War started,also called the First Sith War.This is the period of the rise of Exar Kun (a fallen Jedi who led them) and the rise of the Sith.The First Sith War is considered the precursor to the longer engagement of these wars which lasted until 3,950 BBY and in large is called the Old Sith Wars.SWTOR takes place during the Old Sith Wars and tracks the Jedi deciding to reform on the old temple of Tython where they began.During this period Korriban was retaken by the Sith and this era is where you meet characters like Darth Malgus and Satele Shan.

Then from about 2,000 to 1,000 BBY the New Sith Wars,(also called the Jedi-Sith War but not to be confused with the Great Hyperspace War) took place,which saw a huge rise of power in the Sith Empire and the long and final destruction of the Old Republic.This period also saw a rise in violence and military power in the Jedi Order.Because this period of warfare lasted a thousand years,it’s chunked into smaller ‘wars’ or periods of time,like the Sictis Wars from 1250 to 1230 BBY,which is where we see the introduction of Sithspawn.The last 100 years of the New Sith Wars was called the Republic Dark Age and really saw the final death rattle of the Republic.Within the Republic Dark Age,the last decades and era of the last battles of this period are specifically called the Light and Darkness War and it concluded with the defeat of the Sith Empire and the Ruusan Reformation in 1,000 BBY.

The Ruusan Reformation was a huge turning point in Star Wars history because it saw the restructuring of the Old Republic which became the Galactic Republic,and it saw an insanely drastic change in the Jedi Order.Prior to 1,000 the Jedi were a religious order,but they were also militarized,with a standing army,navy,and starfighter force.The Jedi agreed to disband their army to reassure the New Republic and they further agreed to centralize the training of padawans to Coruscant and in general agreed to transparency of their methods so the Galactic Republic government could trust they weren’t planning to re-militarize and basically seize control of the entire unified galaxy.

After the Ruusan Reformation from 1,000 BBY to about 100 BBY,this period became known as the Golden Age of the Republic,with an end to millennia of warfare and the Sith were thought to be defeated.The High Republic Era specifically centers around 200 BBY,during the Jedi Order’s height in power and peace in the galaxy,which of course leads to the New/Galactic Republic’s fall and the Jedi’s destruction,starting around 84 BBY with the birth of Darth Sidious.

For further reference here is a timeline of the galaxy’s entire history and here is a timeline of all the Star Wars legends video games.All of the current Star Wars Old Republic books are -Fatal Alliance,Deceived,Revan,and Annihilation. I read Revan first and had no issue with it but it takes place 300 years before the others so Fatal Alliance,the first to be published,works perfectly well to start with either way. Each of the books are independent of the other so to pick up any of them and start reading works,I’ve heard from most people that Deceived and Annihilation are their favorites.

[gffa]

I have no clue if you’ve talked about this before on your blog, but what are your thoughts on Grey Jedi/Neutral Force-users? This can also include the original Je’daii Order since iirc they were all about balance?

Hi!  Oh, this is complicated because there are several factors at work here, and I have talked about this fairly often before, but god knows that’s not going to stop me from doing so again! As a foundation for the structure of this discussion, I think it helps to clarify the difference between Canon and Legends.  As I’ve said many times (AND I WILL SAY IT AGAIN! [HOLT.GIF]), the canonicity of something doesn’t really matter in terms of whether or not something is worth reading, either enjoy something or don’t, that’s the most important criteria for whether or not you should read something! But it still helps to clarify because they are separate continuities and it’s Lucasfilm’s property, they get to make their rules.  (And then we, as fans, get to decide what we, personally want to consume and enjoy!  We get to decide whether we want to stick to one continuity or cherry pick between both.)  And this is important because, if we’re having a discussion about a meta topic, it helps to know what continuity we’re playing around in, as whether or not something is canon means:  it informs whether or not something must be taken into consideration when creating other stories within that universe, on the part of the creators. It’s not a value judgement by any means, only that when I say something like, “the Je’daii Order doesn’t exist in the canon”, that just means I’m referring to Lucasfilm Canon and that’s my preferred playground and usually the one we’re talking about, because we’re usually talking about upcoming stories. Further, when I say, “Grey Jedi are not possible to maintain in canon”, you may well have a Legends story that says otherwise or you may just simply like the idea and are playing in a sandbox that’s more interesting than the canon one and those are 100% valid paths to take, just as much as my own path is! All that established, so when I speak to this, take it in the vein that all my meta should be taken in--yes, I’ve done my homework on this, but also I’m still just one fan telling you how I see things, that doesn’t have to change how you see things.  (I know that’s a lot of non-Grey Jedi talk but I figured it was time to re-establish all that, because there are a bunch of people who really like some of these concepts and my clarifying what Canon vs Legends means isn’t an attempt to overwrite any of that!) So, the thing about the dark side is that it’s not part of what it means to be stable and balanced, the dark side is bad full stop.  The dark side exists within all of us, but it’s something we must face within ourselves and discipline ourselves against, that’s what George Lucas says about it, that’s what the Jedi say about it.  The dark side isn’t just a single bad feeling or a quick moment of anger, but it’s about letting those things seize on your heart, about letting it change who you are because you use it to justify your actions, because you let it cloud your vision. And once you step onto that path, it always comes with consequence, no mortal can balance it that way for long, that’s just not how the Force works.  There are creatures who exist outside of this--like the Bendu--but they are not mortal creatures.  (One of the Story Group members talked about this.)  The dark side corrupts, that’s fundamental to how it works. Balance doesn’t seem to be about half-light and half-dark, because that presumes that light and dark are complements or even that they weight the same amount, like say the idea that taking a life weighs just the same as saving one, when it really doesn’t.  Balance is about stability, not about scales being equal, imo.  I really liked this metaphor for it!  ( “It feels light, not dark.  It feels like I’ve finally found the balance.” –Force Collector) Further, the light side is the balance.  It’s the stable side, it’s the one that can exist on its own without being corrupted and I think that’s why it’s interesting that Jedi never say “the Light Side” in any of the movies, because it’s not Light vs Dark in the sense that they’re two sides of the same coin.  But that the dark is part of us and the idea is to strive towards the good, to choose the light, to guard ourselves against the darkness taking hold within us. And it’s one of the core themes of Star Wars that:

--George Lucas (And, as always, this is no shade at those who enjoy Grey Jedi, whether in Legends or in their own world or who just see canon differently than I do.  Have a blast with it, that’s what fandom is for!  But this is my case and I stand by it.  ^_~)

[toxictrannyfreak]

Hi I want to talk to people so what's your favorite niche nerdy fact? Or like just any fact that you like lol I'm not picky

Favorite niche nerdy fact: hmmm I assume you want something irl but I have no interest in its stuff so you get a Star Wars fact.

In Star Wars legends, there are several comic series called Dawn of the Jedi that show the beginnings of the Jedi order from the Je’daii order, and one of the main characters of that series, Xesh is a Force Hound of the Rakata Infinite Empire, and as a child, since he was force sensitive, the Rakata used him (and other force sensitive slaves) to power their machines using the dark side of the force, which stripped him of his empathy, leaving him unable to use the light side, which means that the force reacts with emotions and not intent, and I think that’s really cool.

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars: Alien Races That Changed the Galaxy

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Star Wars is the story of a massive galaxy and the thousands of alien races that inhabit it. More importantly, it’s an epic tale of how these different civilizations come together to live as a galactic community, and the many struggles it often takes to get there.

Like any real-world society, many of the alien races in Star Wars have deep histories that cover everything from their origins and traditions to how they discovered spaceflight and their contributions to the galactic annals. Thanks to the Expanded Universe of books and comics that have spent the last 40 years going way beyond what you’ll ever see on screen, we know all about how the Chiss settled one of the most dangerous corners of space as well as how the Jedi and the Sith were born. We know about many of the earliest races to explore the galaxy, and we’ve learned quite a bit about the massive empire that preceded the one in the movies by millennia.

The point is that the Star Wars universe contains a lot of history, especially when you dig back through the Legends stories that are no longer canon but offer a wide breadth of information on events that predate the eras in which the movies and TV series are set. And now canon stories like The High Republic series are doing the same for the modern Disney continuity.

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

Through these stories, we’ve learned of the many alien civilizations that have shaped galactic history, whether through conquest, scientific discovery, interstellar exploration, or some smaller action that still led to a massive sea change in the galaxy. Here are a few of these civilizations that you should know…

Gree, Kwa, and Tythans

The Gree are so ancient that they predate known history in both Legends and Disney canon. Even the most authoritative Gree scholars didn’t know the full scope of their civilization’s history, but we do know that these six-tentacled cephalopods were one of the first alien races to develop a form of hyperspace technology and explore the stars. While the Gree settled many planets and built an empire, they most famously discovered Tython, a once-hidden planet strong in the Force that would become the birthplace of the Jedi Order.

While the Gree had long abandoned the planet (and the known galaxy) by the time the pilgrims who would become the Jedi arrived on their massive pyramid-shaped arks known as the Tho Yor, they weren’t the only ancient civilization to live on Tython before the days of the Jedi. Next came the Kwa, who were actually contemporaries of the Gree. They were best known for having built the Infinity Gates, a network of structures that allowed them to travel from one point in the galaxy to the other instantaneously — a far more advanced method of interstellar travel than even hyperspace.

But much of this Kwa technology and knowledge had been lost to time when the Force-sensitive pilgrims representing many of the galaxy’s species arrived on the planet and formed the Je’daii Order, the precursor to the religious faction of protectors we know today. These people are also referred to as the local Tythans, an ancient civilization that studied and learned to wield the Force, both the light and dark sides…

Rakata

During the time of the Gree and Kwa, there was also the vicious warrior race known as the Rakata, a primitive cannibalistic society that would one day escape their home world of Lehon and conquer the rest of the galaxy to form the Infinite Empire. Originally discovered by the Kwa, the Rakata learned about the ways of the Force from the more advanced species and quickly embraced the dark side. They created Force-powered hyperdrives and captured Force-sensitive slaves to power their ships, and when they turned on the Kwa in order to take the Infinity Gates for themselves, the Kwa were forced to destroy the network. Ultimately, the Rakata wiped out most of the Kwa, and what was left of that once-advanced civilization eventually devolved into a species of creatures known as the Kwi.

Needless to say, the Rakata were known for two things: their immense cruelty and the massive empire that connected over 500 planets. At the height of their power, the Rakata developed many other Force-powered technology, including the Star Forge, a space station that fed on the dark side and the energy of a nearby star to create an endless supply of battleships and weapons for their war machine.

But like all empires, the Infinite Empire eventually fell. Millennia of wars with other races, in-fighting, and a mysterious plague that cut them off from the Force left the Rakata broken and virtually extinct. The few Rakata that remained centuries later no longer even knew how to power their own technology.

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Sith

The original Sith that existed tens of thousands of years before Palpatine hailed from the planet Korriban (known as Moraband in the new canon) and were very different to the Sith Lords you know from the movies. In fact, the ancient Sith were a unique species of humanoids with red skin and facial tentacles with their own culture and traditions. But they do have one thing in common with the villains of the Skywalker Saga: they worshiped and practiced the dark side of the Force.

The Sith species eventually interbred with a faction of Human Dark Jedi outcasts who had left the known galaxy after a long, bloody war with their light side-worshiping counterparts (a story for another time). It was during this period that the Sith people amassed a great empire of their own and fought many wars against the Republic and the Jedi.

But more long-lasting than their ancient empire — long dead by the time of the movies — are their traditions, religious belief in the dark side, and the many artifacts and teachings they left behind for the Palpatine’s order of Sith to discover and use to conquer the galaxy. Sith holocrons scattered across space contained many great secrets about the Force, while tombs located on Korriban were home to the histories of many of the greatest Dark Lords of the Sith, including one worshipped by the Sith Eternal in The Rise of Skywalker. Without this ancient species, there would be no Sith as we know them today.

Mandalorians

Thousands of years before Boba Fett, the Clone Wars, and the Great Purge, the Mandalorians were known as fierce invaders and conquerors, a race that valued a good fight over all else. Both Legends and Disney canon tell stories of Mandalorian Crusaders who left Mandalore on a campaign of conquest that stretched all the way from the Outer Rim to the Inner Rim of the galaxy. Along the way, they fought great wars against the Jedi and the Republic.

While Disney canon has only alluded to a long conflict with the Jedi, the Legends continuity went into much more detail about the Mandalorian Wars, a 16-year conflict that left countless dead, at least one planet completely shattered, and led to the rise of a new Sith Empire that further devastated the Republic. It was during the aftermath of the Mandalorian Wars that many Jedi also broke away from the Order, turned to the dark side, and joined the Sith, sparking a Jedi Civil War that itself would lead to the near-extermination of the Jedi.

In essence, the Mandalorians’ initial salvo against the galaxy and its protectors escalated into a massive conflict beyond even what this warrior race could have ever imagined, and their legacy is in part immortalized by the role they played in ushering in a key moment in Jedi and Sith history.

Chiss

The blue-skinned and red-eyed Chiss are a mystery to most. In fact, besides the infamous Grand Admiral Thrawn, few Chiss have ever operated in the known galaxy, preferring to instead rule their empire in the uncharted, difficult-to-navigate, and dangerous region of space known as the Unknown Regions (where the Sith planet Exegol from The Rise of Skywalker was also located). Republic historians knew very little about the origin of the Chiss or how they formed their hidden empire, but one theory suggests they evolved from a forgotten group of human colonists who traveled into the Unknown Regions and never returned.

But while most Chiss preferred to keep to themselves on their home planet of Csilla, and the Chiss Ascendancy largely remained neutral in most galactic conflicts, Thrawn changed all that, bringing Chiss brilliance and strategy to the forefront of the Galactic Civil War. Legends introduces Thrawn as the new leader of what’s left of the Empire after Return of the Jedi, while Disney canon introduces him much earlier as a Grand Admiral operating at the height of Imperial power before the Original Trilogy. Regardless of the entry point, this master military tactician left an indelible mark on the galaxy, securing his people’s place in history, even as the Chiss as a civilization continue to confound scholars.

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Kaminoans

Although we didn’t actually get to see this era of Star Wars until 25 years after A New Hope, the Clone Wars have been a key part of the history of the galaxy far, far away since the very beginning. In fact, a brief mention of the Clone Wars in the first movie was one of the first signs that there was a big, epic history beyond the scope of the story being told. Obi-Wan describes the Clone Wars as the stuff of legend to a young, impressionable Luke, a time when the Jedi were at the height of their power. Of course, the Prequel Trilogy painted a much bleaker picture.

Regardless of the point of view, few would argue that the Kaminoans played a pivotal role in the Clone Wars, not only as the creators of the clones themselves but as the civilization that pretty much single-handedly turned the tide of war and set the stage for the Empire’s rise to power and the near-extinction of the Jedi. Before the Kaminoans delivered its massive clone army, the Republic had no army of the scale needed to fight the Separatist forces threatening to dismantle the galactic government. But by the time Palpatine was ready to unleash his ultimate plan at the end of the Clone Wars, he had the endlessly renewable fighting force he needed to do whatever he pleased. And thus, a largely benevolent alien civilization’s dark legacy was solidified.

Geonosians

The future Emperor and Dark Lord of the Sith didn’t just have designs for a grand army that he’d one day turn against a weakened Jedi Order, he also wanted to build the ultimate superweapon with which to control the rest of the galaxy. When it came time to begin construction of the dreaded Death Star, Palpatine turned to the industrious Geonosians, an insectoid species with the ingenuity needed for such a massive undertaking.

Geonosis will always be known as the planet where the Clone Wars began, but it was also the site of one of the most consequential military achievements in Star Wars history, as Geonosians set out to not only design the plans for the deadly space station but build it in the planet’s orbit. But their efforts were not rewarded. Not only did the Geonosians suffer terrible casualties for their part in the opening battle of the Clone Wars, but once the Emperor had no more use for them after the war, he ordered his forces to poison the planet with gas that effectively sterilized and killed the entire Geonosian population. The goal of this monstrous genocide? To keep the Death Star a secret until the time was right.

Bothans

While the Geonosians were key to the Death Star’s design and construction, crafty Bothan played a pivotal role in ending the space station’s reign of terror once and for all. You likely remember Mon Mothma’s words in Return of the Jedi: “Many Bothans died to bring us this information.” It’s a solemn moment that barely scratches the surface of one of the most consequential espionage operations ever conducted.

Known for their cunning and elite spy network, the Bothans worked tirelessly to secure the location of the second Death Star project. These spies also discovered that the Emperor planned to visit the station, presenting the perfect moment for the Rebellion to strike at the very heart of the Empire. The result of Bothan sacrifice was a killing blow to the tyrannical government and the death of the Emperor.

Yuuzhan Vong

One of the most controversial races ever introduced to Star Wars, the Yuuzhan Vong came from outside the known galaxy and played the role of classic alien invaders hellbent on conquering all planets in their path. They were known for their bio-organic weaponry, armor, technology, and vessels as well as for being largely impervious to the Force, making them the ultimate foe for Luke Skywalker’s New Jedi Order in the Legends continuity.

The Yuuzhan Vong waged a war on the New Republic that not only led to the death of Chewbacca and Anakin Solo, the youngest son of Han and Leia but to the dismantling of the galactic government itself. Everything the Rebellion had fought so hard for during the Galactic Civil War was shattered. Whether you like them or not, the Yuuzhan Vong took down the New Republic in Legends canon more than a decade before we even knew what the First Order was.

Let us know in the comments if you think we missed anyone and we may add them to the list!

The post Star Wars: Alien Races That Changed the Galaxy appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[swtor-lewau-legacy]

((i wanna see a game based around the Je’daii. it honestly doesn’t matter to me if it’s a tabletop RPG like the Star Wars RPG from Fantasy Flight Games, an MMO like SWTOR, or a regular RPG like KotOR, as long as it’s a game, the Je’daii are involved, and it has really good character creation, or if it ends up like Fallen Order where you have an established story and an officially established main character that you get to play as, then the story had better be really good.))