Jedi Initiate
Jedi Initiates, also called Jedi younglings, were children with Force-sensitivity that the Jedi Order gathered from a variety of species across the galaxy. These young recruits began their initial Jedi arts lessons at a very young age at the Jedi Temple located on Coruscant. Their training wasn't just limited to the temple, it also included the planet of Ilum, where the younglings had to complete a sacred rite of passage referred to as the Gathering. During this Gathering, each youngling would claim a kyber crystal for use in constructing their own lightsaber. Before they could move on to more advanced studies, Grand Master Yoda took on the role of instructor, teaching all younglings about the Force throughout his extensive career. To earn the rank of Padawan, younglings were required to pass a series of evaluations known as the Initiate Trials. Successful completion of these trials allowed them to become apprentices to more experienced Jedi, such as Knights and Masters.
During the Clone Wars, the future of the Jedi Order faced a threat from the schemes of Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith and the Jedi's ultimate enemy. Sidious sought to create a force of dark side followers who would serve as his enforcers in the New Order. To achieve this, he orchestrated the kidnapping of several Force-sensitive infants who were destined to become Jedi younglings. However, the Jedi successfully disrupted his plans. Despite their efforts to protect the next generation of Jedi, the younglings, along with most of the Jedi Order, were killed as a result of Order 66 and the subsequent rise of the Galactic Empire.
Overview
Future of the Jedi
The Jedi Order, a group of monks dedicated to upholding peace and justice within the Galactic Republic, typically began recruiting its members at a very young age, although not immediately after birth. Wee Dunn was considered too young to be taken in by the Order as an infant. The Order used blood tests to estimate the midi-chlorian count of potential students, allowing them to identify Force-sensitive younglings from various species across the galaxy. Before their formal training, younglings often excelled in only one aspect of the Force, but they would begin to improve in other areas once their training commenced. After confirming their connection to the Force, these infants or young children were taken to the Jedi crèche at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. This would be their home until they were chosen to become a Padawan.
Some younglings were saved from perilous situations. For example, Dooku's father abandoned him to die after discovering his son's Force-sensitivity, and Depa Billaba and her sister Sar Labooda's parents were killed by pirates. Initiates usually arrived at the Temple at a very young age. However, some arrived later, such as nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker, five-year-old Rael Averross, and eight-year-old Verosha Aniseya, who later left the Order. Upon joining the Order, they quickly realized that the Jedi Order was their true family. Marda Ro of the Path of the Closed Fist accused the Jedi Order of being cruel for taking children from their families, but the Jedi always sought permission from the families when finding younglings.
The Jedi maintained a list of confirmed Force-sensitive infants, including their identities and locations. Given the children's importance to the future of the Jedi, the High Council went to great lengths to keep the list confidential. The list was stored within a kyber memory crystal that could only be accessed through a holocron, an informational device kept in the vaults of the Temple. Only a Force-sensitive individual trained in telekinesis could combine the crystal with a holocron. The crystal itself was entrusted to a member of the Order who served as its keeper.
Youngling clans
Jedi younglings were organized into ten clans, each with approximately twenty students. One such group was Bear Clan, a class of younglings aged four to eight. These youngling clans would remain together, living and training as a unit, until it was time for them to separate and become Padawan learners. Younglings who were not chosen to become Padawans were overseen by the Council of Reassignment.
Instruction
Upon joining a clan, younglings started their basic training in the Jedi arts. Their lessons involved various tests and rituals that had to be completed to progress to the higher levels of Jedi training. Between the ages of four and eight, younglings learned the fundamental skills of lightsaber combat using low-powered training sabers to practice deflecting blaster shots fired by training droids. Both the training droids and lightsabers were designed to be non-lethal.
The next step in their development as aspiring Jedi was building their own lightsaber, the iconic weapon of the Jedi, which required a kyber crystal. This led to the creation of the Gathering, an ancient and important tradition that began centuries before the Clone Wars. The Gathering tested the younglings' ability to find their specific crystal using the Force. This involved traveling from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to the Crystal Cave on Ilum, a frozen world in the Unknown Regions and a place of great importance to the Jedi Order. After finding their crystal, the younglings had to use the Force to assemble all the necessary components into a lightsaber.
For almost a millennium of the Jedi Order's existence, all younglings were trained by Yoda, the ancient Grand Master who also served as an instructor in the Jedi arts for eight centuries by the time of the Clone Wars. Yoda provided the younglings with a basic education in lightsaber combat, which included lessons on using the Force to guide and improve their reflexes. In addition to teaching the basic skills of lightsaber combat, Yoda also guided younglings during the Gathering.
Tera Sinube, another ancient Jedi Master, also oversaw the younglings' development as lightsaber duelists. Besides guiding their students' progress, Masters could also invite a Padawan to give a guest lecture to a youngling clan. Huyang, an architect droid professor stationed on the Jedi vessel Crucible, was responsible for teaching younglings how to properly construct a lightsaber. He personally supervised the creation of lightsabers by younglings for a thousand generations, including Yoda when he was a youngling.
History
High Republic Era
Grand Master Yoda trained all Jedi as younglings. During the High Republic Era, youngling Gella Nattai was a quiet but curious girl who enjoyed exploring the Jedi Temple, searching for hidden passages and tombs. She expected to excel at lightsaber combat and was the first to arrive at lightsaber training, where she was to use a training lightsaber against remotes. Unaware that the training spheres were non-lethal, she became frightened by their many photoreceptors and ran from the room when she saw one. Yoda found her in a temple garden, and together they watched a frog repeatedly try to jump over a stone wall to reach a waterfall. Yoda taught her to overcome fear and to always try again, just like the frog. The next day, she returned to training and was hit on the nose by a training blast, but she overcame her fear and continued to practice.
One day during the High Republic Era, a Jedi seeker approached the Zeveron family, who had two Force-sensitive daughters. Elecia Zeveron had a mild Force-sensitivity that gave her a natural talent for mind tricks, while Oliviah Zeveron had a stronger connection to the Force and was skilled in telekinesis. The seeker ultimately chose Oliviah to be trained as a Jedi, deeming Elecia's abilities too weak. Unfortunately for the Order, this decision would lead to a lifetime of anger for Elecia. Believing she should have been chosen, her resentment towards the Jedi for overlooking her led her down a path that saw her attempt to take over the galaxy as "the Mother" of the Path of the Open Hand. During the Battle of Jedha, which was instigated by the Mother in 382 BBY, Oliviah recognized Elecia and recalled memories of their past, which she confronted Elecia with during the Night of Sorrow.
Late Republic Era
During the Clone Wars, the Sith orchestrated the theft of both a holocron and the memory crystal in order to kidnap members of the Jedi's future generation. Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith who was publicly known as Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, intended to use the younglings in an experimental procedure to create a force of dark side followers who would serve him in the New Order. However, the Jedi, especially Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, thwarted this plan by rescuing the children from captivity and returning them to their parents.
Later, Skywalker played a crucial role in the Order's downfall after succumbing to the dark side and becoming the Sith Lord Darth Vader. With the implementation of Order 66, Vader led a military assault on the Temple at the command of his new Master, who ordered him to kill all of his former comrades. This order included the younglings, a group of whom Vader encountered in the High Council Chamber. One boy, recognizing Skywalker and believing he was still a Jedi Knight, asked him what they should do against the overwhelming number of clones. Vader did not respond but instead slaughtered the children. Following the Galactic Empire's rise to power, most of the Jedi, along with their youngest members, were killed, resulting in the destruction of the next generation of the Jedi Order.
Legacy and further efforts
Despite the Order's destruction, remnants of the Jedi survived throughout the Dark Times, enduring both the Sith and their Empire. However, the survivors chose to remain hidden, leaving many Force-sensitive children in the galaxy without the opportunity to become Jedi. When the Empire located Force-sensitive children, Vader or members of the Inquisitorius took them to be part of Project Harvester, fulfilling Sidious's plan from the Clone Wars. Two surviving Jedi, Master Vanzell Mar-Klar and Padawan Nedriss Narr, attempted to train younglings in secret, away from the Empire's reach.
After the Empire's fall, the Jedi Order was reborn as a new, though short-lived, generation under Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. The Jedi practice of recruiting younglings also inspired Commandant Brendol Hux, an Imperial Academy instructor who greatly admired the training methods of both the Jedi Order and the Grand Army clone troopers. His illegitimate son, General Armitage Hux, incorporated his father's views into the military training program of the First Order, leading to an entire generation of stormtroopers—super soldiers programmed from birth and exceptionally trained in Armitage's view.
Behind the scenes
Jedi younglings were first shown in the 2002 film Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, the second film of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.