First Jedi Purge

By the year 3956 BBY, the Jedi Order had weathered one of the most turbulent periods in its long history—three galaxy-spanning wars that occurred in the short span of fifty years, two of which had been orchestrated by fallen members of the Order itself. In the aftermath of those devastating conflicts, the Order had dwindled and weakened to the point that it had become a shadow of its former self. Thousands of Jedi were lost in the Great Sith War, the Mandalorian Wars, and Jedi Civil War, and those conflicts erupted across the galaxy in such close succession, that the Jedi were not given enough time to rebuild their numbers; the Order simply could not sustain such heavy losses over such a short period of time.

The Order's problems were compounded by the fact that the Jedi faced a dramatic loss of knowledge stemming from the destruction of critical centers of learning, including the Great Jedi Library on Ossus and the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine. Too many important holocrons, records, and histories had been scattered, lost, or looted during the wars. As a result, there were too few experienced Jedi to instruct aspiring students and an inadequate knowledge base with which to teach them.

By the end of the Jedi Civil War, the already depleted Jedi Order had been all but wiped out. Less than one hundred individuals survived to rebuild. As the Galactic Republic hovered on the brink of collapse, the Jedi Order slowly began to deteriorate. Also, a redeemed Revan left Republic space, denying both the Republic and Jedi someone to rally around to rebuild. An intense climate of disillusionment permeated the Jedi ranks, as the few surviving members faced an unprecedented level of anger and resentment from the Republic citizenship who had begun to fear their former heroes. The Jedi themselves were losing faith in the Order, as they began to ask themselves how and why so many of their number had fallen to the dark side over the years. Even members of the Jedi High Council began to question the Jedi teachings.

After the death of Darth Malak and the destruction of the Star Forge, the infrastructure of the Sith Empire had disintegrated. Most of the Dark Jedi who had survived the war wiped themselves out in struggles for dominance, yet scattered remnants of Revan's Empire remained entrenched in secret places of power. With time, they regrouped, and new leaders emerged to guide them. On the ancient Sith world of Malachor V, Revan's secret sect of Sith assassins still lingered. In the heart of the Trayus Academy, the Trayus Core, the Sith Lords Darth Traya, Darth Nihilus, and Darth Sion developed a new strategy. Waging a shadow war, the new Sith Triumvirate battled with only one goal in mind: the complete and utter extermination of the Jedi. They manipulated events from the darkness, causing local conflicts on key Republic planets. These worlds, if left to fall, would mean a quick and decisive end to the Republic.

It was a dark and chaotic time for the Order. A steady stream of Jedi, including the Jedi Watchmen overseeing several worlds, stepped down, renounced the Order, and were never heard from again. Entire Jedi gatherings began to vanish, leaving behind a strange disturbance in the Force that only a few members of the Jedi Council could recognize. In time, the Jedi began to suspect that they were being hunted. At last, the Jedi Master Atris summoned many of the most powerful and influential of the remaining Jedi Masters to a secret conclave on the Miraluka world of Katarr under the pretext of discussing the emerging threat. But the conclave was not as secret as the Jedi thought.

Atris leaked information about the conclave to the greater galaxy in an attempt to draw whoever was attacking them out of the shadows. As a result, Darth Nihilus arrived as the Jedi assembled and annihilated every living thing upon the planet, both the Jedi and the Miraluka colonists. The sole survivor of the attack was the Miraluka Visas Marr, whom Nihilus captured and trained as his apprentice. After that shocking event, the remaining Jedi Council members, Masters Vrook Lamar, Kavar, Zez-Kai Ell, and Lonna Vash, decided to go into exile. In so doing, they hoped that the mysterious and secretive new Sith threat would be lulled into a false victory and reveal itself.

By the year 3951 BBY, almost all the Jedi had been eliminated. One of the survivors was the figure known Meetra Surik, alias the Jedi Exile. Surik—who had spent time in the Outer Rim and the Unknown Regions, having been banished from the Jedi Order for following Revan to fight in the Mandalorian Wars—returned to Galactic Republic space in 3951 BBY. The Harbinger, a Republic cruiser bound for Onderon, had been ordered by the Republic admiral Carth Onasi, a veteran of the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War, to abort the planned trip and head to the Outer Rim instead, in order to pick up Surik. Then bound for Telos IV, the Harbinger suddenly received a distress call and, upon reporting it and the distressed vessel's ID, was ordered to assist the vessel.

Upon their arrival the captain of the Harbinger discovered both the Ebon Hawk and the Sith warship seemingly adrift. He ordered a boarding crew onto the Sith vessel and the Ebon Hawk to bring aboard any survivors. The Sith warship was found to be completely empty - a "ghost ship" as one unnerved Republic soldier remarked - save for the 'corpse' of the then unknown Lord Sion, which was brought aboard. Over the next few days, the crew reported feelings of "being watched" and unexplained mishaps occurring, such as systems suddenly dying on them, climaxing when Lord Sion awoke and Republic officers being killed by cloaked Sith assassins that had secretly boarded the Harbinger when the ship had attached an umbilical to the 'empty' Sith warship.

While the Sith were taking control of the Harbinger, the Ebon Hawk docked with the vessel, extracted Surik and attempted to depart. The Harbinger had been completely taken over by the Sith at this time and fired on the small freighter, heavily damaging it as it jumped to hyperspace, rendering everyone aboard unconscious as a result.

Several days later, Surik woke up from a stupor in the mining facility and found an old woman who had been left for dead. This woman later revealed herself to be a Jedi Master named Kreia. She guided Surik through their escape from the mining facility. They found the facility to be completely abandoned, except for malfunctioning mining droids, an HK-50 protocol droid, and an imprisoned Human named Atton Rand.

Before long, however, the Sith Lord who had attacked the Harbinger arrived. Kreia, the Exile, and Atton escaped with T3-M4 onboard the Ebon Hawk, setting a course for Telos IV—the only available destination in the Peragus navigational charts. While being pursued by the Sith in the asteroid field around Peragus, laser fire from the Harbinger ignited the volatile fuel within the asteroids. The resulting explosion destroyed both the facility and the planet of Peragus II itself, although the Ebon Hawk and the Sith on-board the Harbinger were able to escape.

After arriving at the massive Citadel Station in orbit around Telos, the crew of the Ebon Hawk were detained for the destruction of the Peragus mining facility. They were soon cleared of any crime—but not before the Ebon Hawk, with T3-M4 on-board, had been stolen and flown to the Telosian surface. After being refused a new vessel by the Telos Security Force, the three utilized alternate transportation to get down to the surface, where they were shot down by Czerka Corporation air-defense turrets. They were pulled out of the burning vessel by a Zabrak engineer named Bao-Dur, who was responsible for designing Telos' planetary shields. While on the surface, they learned that the Ebon Hawk had been taken to the old planetary aqueducts in the polar region of the planet. Stealing a shuttle from an abandoned military compound, they traveled to the aqueducts and were once again shot down, this time by three HK-50 bounty hunter assassin droids. After defeating the droids, Atton, Kreia and Surik (Bao-Dur was knocked unconscious by the crash) entered the polar aqueduct system.

There, they found themselves once again being detained by the Last Handmaiden and her sisters. They had entered the secret Telosian Jedi Academy. Surik was granted an audience with Atris, the Jedi Master controlling the facility. After a heated debate over what Surik should have and did do during the Mandalorian Wars, she and her party were granted leave and left with the Ebon Hawk and T3-M4.

After leaving the academy, T3 revealed that he had managed to download Atris's database and navigational charts while at the academy, including a recording of Surik's trial and records of where the last five remaining Jedi Masters were hiding: Atris on Telos, Kavar on Onderon, Vrook Lamar on Dantooine, Zez-Kai Ell on Nar Shaddaa and Lonna Vash on Korriban. Surik, wanting to know why she had been exiled, traveled to these worlds in search of the Jedi in an attempt to unite them against the Sith and to find the answers to her questions.

During her search for the remaining masters, Surik came to Dantooine to search for Master Vrook. When she arrived, she found that much had changed since she left for the Mandalorian Wars: the Jedi Enclave had been destroyed, and Dantooine was barely surviving as a planetary government. The remaining citizens had pulled together and built a new government based at the old Matale estate, that was known as Khoonda. After meeting with the administrator, she journeyed into the ruins of the Enclave. There, she found out that Vrook had been captured by the mercenaries on the planet.

Surik found and freed Vrook, but Vrook said he had allowed himself to be captured to avoid a conflict with Khoonda and the mercenaries. Now that they had lost Vrook, the mercenaries would launch a full-scale assault on the weak government. Surik chose to help Khoonda, and under her military leadership the Khoonda Militia defeated the mercenaries.

The second stop on their search was the moon Nar Shaddaa. Nar Shaddaa was the "gaping maw of Nal Hutta." The massive population and large cityscape of the moon made it easy for one to hide and lay low for a while. Unfortunately, Surik did just the opposite. In her attempt to find Jedi Master Zez-Kai Ell, Surik made an effort to cause much anger and distress to the Exchange, and get the bounty hunters off her back. When Meetra was captured, the famous bounty hunter Mira joined up with Meetra's party and they rescued her on G0-T0's yacht. During the rescue, the yacht's cloaking was sabotaged and one of the local Hutts Vogga, whose freighters were being raided by G0-T0's yacht, quickly seized the opportunity and destroyed it, right as the Ebon Hawk escaped.

Finally, Surik came back to Nar Shaddaa and found the Jedi Master. The Master confessed that he felt that the Jedi Order had much to take responsibility for, and their inability to do so at Surik's trial caused him to leave. He answered her questions and taught her a lightsaber form. He then agreed to go to Dantooine and wait for her there.

Surik's journey also took her to Onderon where Master Kavar, who was also an old friend, was staying as an advisor to Queen Talia. But she found that, like Dantooine, Onderon also had problems: Many people on Onderon blamed the Republic for all the suffering that had come during the recent wars. Taking advantage of this, General Vaklu, Talia's cousin, began to round up followers by saying Onderon should break away from the Republic and become independent again. His plans were to ultimately kill Talia and make himself king.

After nearly being shot down by Vaklu's forces, Surik landed on Dxun, one of Onderon's moons. There, she found the Mandalorians, under the command of Mandalore the Preserver, were rebuilding. She was able to ally with the Mandalorians and get safe passage to Onderon. But her meeting with Kavar was cut short by Vaklu's troops. She left the planet with Kavar's word that he would contact her again.

By the time Kavar was able to contact Surik, Vaklu was ready to strike. He launched a civil war in the streets of Iziz. When Surik heard of this, she headed to Dxun. Surik, along with the Mandalorians, launched a counter-attack from Dxun and succeeded in defeating Vaklu before Talia could be defeated.

Surik also traveled to the Sith world of Korriban, the goal to search for Master Lonna Vash but upon arrival she found that Vash had already been killed. Vash was killed shortly after the Ebon Hawk touched down on the planet, as noted by one of Surik's companions. It was also here that Meetra Surik first fought with Darth Sion, who knew Surik would come looking for Vash, and waited in Korriban's Sith Academy where he then attacked her. As they dueled Surik gained the upper hand, striking down Sion several times. Unfortunately for Surik, the Lord of Pain used his Dark Side powers to heal himself each time. Finally Kreia contacted Surik telepathically urging her to flee, telling Surik that this was a battle she could not win.

After escaping Sion, Surik discovered the lost tomb of Sith Lord Ludo Kressh, where she confronted and defeated several visions from her past. These included her service in the Mandalorian Wars (specifically the Battle of Dxun), as well as her decision to defy the Jedi Council and join the Republic's war effort. She emerged from the tomb stronger in the belief her decisions had made her the Jedi she was.

After locating and conversing with all of the remaining Jedi Masters, the Exile returned to Dantooine to find the rebuilt Jedi Enclave. There, Masters Vrook, Kavar and Zez-Kai Ell (Master Lonna Vash had already been killed by the Sith) had formed a council in which they would decide her fate. Right after they reestablished the Exile's banishment and just before they could strip her of the Force once again, Kreia stormed into the meeting. The Exile, held in stasis by the Masters, was left helpless to defend them as Kreia put the Jedi Masters through the same suffering the Exile had felt on Malachor V, leaving them not only dead, but void of the Force.

After she left, Surik finally regained her strength and departed for Telos in search of Kreia, who had once again assumed the title of Darth Traya. There the Exile was again forced to confront Atris, who had been corrupted by the dark side by the Sith holocrons at the secret academy. After the Exile defeated her, she was able to persuade Atris to forgive her and helped herself see the folly of her beliefs. Atris then told the Exile that Traya had fled to Malachor V to wait for their final confrontation. Afterwards, Atris declared herself an ex-Jedi and went into exile to try to find understanding.

Shortly thereafter, a Sith fleet headed by Darth Nihilus arrived at Telos, having been drawn to the academy in the polar region. With the assistance of the Mandalorians and Mandalore Canderous Ordo, the Exile boarded and engaged Nihilus aboard his ship, the Ravager, to keep him from destroying Telos in order to feed his hunger. With the assistance of Visas Marr and Canderous, the Exile defeated him and headed to Malachor V.

Having succeeded in defending Telos and defeating Darth Nihilus, the Exile and her associates made their way to Malachor V. After crash-landing on the surface of the planet, the Exile proceeded to the Trayus Academy, battling her way through storm beasts, Sith warriors, and assassins before confronting Darth Sion himself. After an intense and prolonged duel, the Exile finally brought Sion to the realization that Kreia was using him and didn't care what happened to him. Having been persuaded to let go of his hatred—the only thing that kept him alive—Sion finally succumbed to his numerous injuries. The Exile then made her way to the Trayus Core, where she confronted Darth Traya.

After a fierce battle, the Exile succeeded in defeating the Sith Lord but spared her life. Traya refused to give up however, and attacked the Exile again. But the Exile was able to defeat her again, and this time also redeemed Traya from the dark side. Before she gave her life to the Force, Kreia gave the Exile information about Revan's location in the Unknown Regions and about the fates of the Exile's allies and the planets they had visited. Shortly after this exchange, Bao-Dur's remote reactivated the Mass Shadow Generator in order to completely destroy the planet. The crew of the badly damaged Ebon Hawk retrieved the Exile from the Core and escaped the planet.

With the defeat of the Sith Triumvirate and the "restoration" of the Jedi Order, the Exile left the Republic in the hands of her Lost Jedi and began her journey to find Revan in the Unknown Regions.

• Jedi MasterDorak: killed by Darth Nihilus on Katarr.
• Master Zez-Kai Ell: Killed by Kreia on Dantooine.
• Master Kavar: Killed by Kreia on Dantooine.
• Master Vrook Lamar: Killed by Kreia on Dantooine.
• Master Zhar Lestin: Killed on Katarr.
• Master Vandar Tokare: Killed on Katarr.
• Master Lonna Vash: Killed by Darth Sion on Korriban.

• The New Essential Chronology
• Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force
• The Essential Atlas
• Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide: Updated and Expanded