Major Faction
Throne World: unknown
The story of the Jedi Order is one of many parts. It is an undeniable tragedy, for many lessons were offered along the way, and ignored. The wisest of the Jedi Knights, many millennia ago, sought out to protect their Order from corruption, and for many millennia they succeeded. But all things which rise must fall, as did the Jedi.
Originally a monastic group of philosophers, the Jethi-Bendu were adherents to the mysterious Force of Others, which granted many of them fantastical powers which to the average citizen of the galaxy seemed like magic. Yet the Jethi-Bendu could control this power, and turn it to their will. For some, this power went well beyond simple tricks, which made the monk-like ascetics figures of fear and distrust.
Eventually, figures such as Yoda, an aesthete and stoic, united the rest of what was then called the Tribe of Bendu into a united Jedi Order, and crafted a Code of ethics and behaviour which would strictly control their use of the power they wielded. Over time, other Jedi, like the warrior-poet Ulic Qel-Droma, would embody the Code and became famous for their virtuous defence of justice, reshaping the way both the Code and the Order itself were held in the minds of the galactic citizenry. The Jedi became figureheads of peace and prosperity, and the enemies of corruption. And so, the Jedi Order was born. And with it, their legend. For across the galaxy—under the fledgeling Galactic Republic which had united a handful of important worlds into a single democratic community—the Jedi became renowned as peacemakers.
And so it was that the Jedi became figureheads of the judiciary in the early Republic. Soon, greater power was granted to them that they could maintain order and law across whole sectors of space. Before long, each planet within the Core Worlds enjoyed both a representative in the Galactic Senate as well as at least one Jedi Knight to maintain justice on their world. The Jedi were granted extensive bureaucratic and legal exemptions, in order that they be kept above and outside politics, and able to administer justice without the need to earn income or be held accountable to local authorities for punishing corruption.
Yet as fine as these principles were, they could not last. And so, the Jedi became haughty, distant, often cruel in their application of the law. Many citizens began to feel that their planet’s Jedi was no longer representative of justice at all, and had descended into despotism. While many Jedi still clung to their Code, just as many had long since ceased to consider it. Eventually, even the Jedi recognised their hypocrisy, and in an effort to stem their worst instincts, created the Knights of the Sith to act on their behalf in matters which could taint the Order itself. Unbeknownst to the galaxy at large, the Sith also existed to hunt down and punish Jedi who the Council believed had overstepped the boundaries of the Code.
Yet even this solution eventually failed, and the Jedi exiled the Sith in order to deflect attention from their own shortcomings. As great warriors, the Jedi were prone to prideful displays of martial prowess when challenged, and as four great schisms can attest, the Jedi may have long been fine arbitrators of the problems of others, but could not peacefully resolve their own. Eventually, the last of these schisms brought an end not only to the Jedi Order, but to the Old Republic itself.
Fallen and exiled just as their kin the Sith once were, the Jedi are a dying breed, hunted and reviled in the Core Worlds, and forced to live destitute lives on the Outer Rim unless they lower themselves to turning their considerable talents to mercenary work, or acting under their own conscience in regions where might—regardless of justice or law—makes right.