By George & Josh Bate
The Old Republic was a vastly explored era of the Star Wars timeline in Legends / EU, yet canon stories in the Disney era only scratched the surface of what a galaxy far, far away looked like thousands of years prior to the Skywalker Saga. A new Star Wars novel out today offers unexpected insights into the Jedi of the Old Republic, including a conflict they had with a reformed Sith, how they differed from Jedi of the prequel era, and more.
Taking place between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, Legacy finds Rey, Leia, and the rest of the Resistance struggling to rebuild after barely escaping the First Order on Crait. Feeling the pressure of being the last Jedi in the galaxy, Rey feels alone and overwhelmed, especially as her mentor Leia has limited knowledge of the Force and the Jedi. A glimmer of hope, however, emerges when Rey discovers that a long-forgotten Jedi Temple on Tython may hold the key to repairing the lightsaber. Rey and Leia make the journey to Tython, where their pursuit of a lightsaber forge intersects with two men who almost pulled off the daring assassination of a First Order major.
People in the Old Republic Era Spoke Differently
Author Madeleine Roux’s novel primary takes place on Tython, a highly Force sensitive planet that previously featured in the novel Shadow of the Sith and in The Mandalorian Season 2 as the site where Grogu communed with Luke Skywalker and was later kidnapped by Moff GIdeon.
On Tython, Rey discovers an ancient Jedi temple from the Old Republic era built into a complex cave system, which C-3PO refers to at one point as “A Wonder of the Old Republic.” Upon entering the cave for the first time, Rey is greeted by a hologram recording of a Jedi of the Old Republic named Master Vree Ra’vinel. In depicting how Rey perceives Vree’s speech, Roux reveals that people of the Old Republic may have spoken differently than those in the High Republic and Skywalker Saga eras.
“The accent hit Rey’s ears strangely,” Roux writes. “He didn’t sound garbled exactly, but it was clear this message had been recorded a long time ago, with some words pronounced differently, the cadence almost lyrical.”
This is a neat little detail as it reflects how languages have naturally changed over the course of history in real life. For instance, Old English, which was spoken between 450 – 1100 AD, sounded very much like old German as Angles and Saxons brought the root language to Britain. The language evolved into Middle English when English mixed with French around 1066. Then, Early Modern English developed around the invention of the printing press and reshaped the pronunciation of vowels. Eventually, this gave way to Modern English beginning in the 1800s.
The Old Republic Jedi Faced Off Against a Reformed Sith
One of the more fascinating parts of Star Wars: Legacy comes in the form of a subplot, which unfolds over the course of holotapes and recordings that Rey and the others watch. The recordings detail why the temple on Tython was eventually abandoned and what led to the deaths of so many of the Jedi who occupied it.
In the Old Republic era, a female Sith lord named Kalrian Diir came to the temple on Tython. Diir is described as a human with a bald head covered in intricate rune tattoos. The tattoos inhibit her remarkably strong connection to the Force. She wielded a lightsaber with a hilt made of carved bone and stained blackish grey, decorated with geometric runes in tiny, meticulous rows.
Kalrian Diir presented to the Jedi in the Tython temple having killed her master, Darth Maritosh, also known as the Terror of Stirant. When Jedi Master Vree asks her what her name is, Diir replies, “I have erased my name. It should be forgotten. I will rediscover it here, or you will kill me.”
Diir goes on to express her anger toward her former master for stealing her from her parents and depriving her of the name they gave her. “That is the name he gave to me,” Diir angrily says when Vree addresses her as Diir. “The one my parents chose was wiped from my memory. Can you give it back to me?”
Vree initially shies away from further involvement with Diir, stating, “The Jedi Council will not welcome anyone into the fold who has strayed as far as you have. This is for your safety as much as ours. It is not easy. Previous caretakers have compared it to being flayed alive. Such is the temerity of the dark side. Such is its hold.”
Vree soon changes his mind, however, as he tells Vree, “You will pass the trials and reach the forge or fail and stand before the Council, where your fate will be decided.” Vree later remarks that he sensed Diir’s response.
Moving forward in the novel, Diir recalls details of her traumatic background. “A stranger comes to the longhouse,” she recounts. “He wants to see me…. The stranger says he will take me away, that there is no use resisting. I can feel the evil in him. It’s like he’s swallowed my nightmares, holds them in his chest. He isn’t human, I know that right away. His fingers have claws. His mask is another man’s skull, thin and fanged. He says he doesn’t have to pay my parents anything, that they should thank him for removing a mouth that must be fed. But he gives them, and they kiss the hem of his cloak as he drags me away.”
Despite her disdain for the Sith and desire to reclaim her lost identity, Diir struggles to let go of the dark side. “That’s all I have,” she tells Vree. “I will not be a Jedi until I know her name. My name. I will not have you Knight a creature of darkness but me, the person I was never allowed to become.”
Later on, Diir reveals how she killed her master Darth Maritosh and presented his head to the Jedi Council. As Maritosh tattooed Diir with markings that limited her Force sensitivity, Diir pursued a relic that restored and even deepened her connection to the Force, providing her with the ability to kill him. “With his dying breath, my master told me to return to the Sith and proclaim my ascension,” she details. “He created me, annihilated what came before.”
Things did not go as planned for Diir as she struggled to let go of the dark side and was eventually drawn into a conflict with the Jedi of the Tython temple. In the clash, Diir killed numerous Jedi, although her ultimate fate remains a mystery.
Ancient Worlds Occupied by the Sith During the Old Republic
The novel features a passage that provides context for the state of the galaxy during the Old Republic. “The Prime is One, but the Jedi are Many,” Roux writes. “The Sith wereMany but through betrayal their numbers dwindled. The Seeds of the Jedi have been Sown throughout the Galaxy, on Ossus, Jedha, Xenxiar, and Others. The Sith have no Seeds, since what they Bury does not Grow. They are the Despoilers of Worlds, and have Laid to Waste once Fertile Habitats such as Korriban, Ziost, Ixigul, Asog, and Others.”
Ossus is the location of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Temple between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Jedha is the holy city depicted in Rogue One and in Phase II of the High Republic.
Korriban is an ancient Sith World that first appeared in the Legends comic series Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith in 1994. The planet appears in canon in the episode “Sacrifice” of The Clone Wars, but George Lucas preferred the name “Moraband” and scrapped the name Koraband. C-3PO explains in the novel how Koraband was an old name for Moraband. “If I may interject, mistress, that is the ancient name of Moraband, struck from most of the Republic records of the era,” the loyal protocol droid says.
Ziost was the capital of the Sith Empire in Legends and was first depicted in canon on a galactic map for a Force Awakens game. Ixigul is likely an ancient spelling of Exegol, the Sith world that Palpatine resides on in The Rise of Skywalker.
Jedi of the Old Republic Era are Introduced Into Canon
Through the holotapes, lectures, and recordings that Rey watches, readers are introduced to a host of Jedi that existed in the canon version of the Old Republic. These are the Jedi:
- Master Vree Ra’vinel – seemingly the leader of the Jedi Temple on Tyhton. A self-described pilgrim, Jedi, and lonely seeker, who is most invested in Diir’s reformation.
- Zebra Beetz – a Nautolan Jedi who was caretaker of the Forge and the Way. She wielded a highly decorated lightsaber engraved with swirling, wavelike designs.
- Master Taelo – a soft-spoken Twi’lek with his lekku wrapped in twine, charms twinkling from his belt; he had opinions on mud crab populations, the right way to arrange spring flowers, and the importance of communicating politely but not overly familiarly.
- Master Thebocir – she led most of the meditations in the temple.