Kai Justiss, a male Human, distinguished himself as a Jedi Knight during the era of the Clone Wars. Remarkably, he successfully avoided capture during Order 66 and lived through the Great Jedi Purge. Early in his career as a Jedi, Justiss encountered diverse lifeforms like muttamoks and marsh haunts during his travels. Furthermore, he collaborated with the Wookiees of Kashyyyk, specifically those residing in Rwookrrorro, to foil a scheme by droid expert Turren Lonarr aimed at disrupting Wookiee society. When the Clone Wars commenced in 22 BBY, Justiss participated in the initial battle that unfolded on Geonosis.
Later, he served on the Acclamator-class assault ship, the VCD987, working alongside fellow Jedi Sian Jeisel and Tsui Choi. In 22 BBY, while transporting troops to Drongar, the VCD987 was ambushed by forces from the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Subsequently, the ship was boarded, leaving Justiss and his comrades at the mercy of Count Dooku, the leader of the Confederacy. However, Dooku showed them mercy, allowing Justiss to continue his service to the Galactic Republic. He was then permanently assigned to diplomatic duties on Kashyyyk for the Jedi Order and later became the subject of a bounty issued by the enemy commander Asajj Ventress. Following the execution of Order 66, Justiss was compelled to flee from the agents of the Galactic Empire, which had replaced the Republic. He successfully evaded capture until 0 BBY, at which point he was apprehended by the Empire and executed by Darth Vader aboard the first Death Star.
Kai Justiss, a Jedi Knight, was known to wield a lightsaber with a blue blade. During his time as a Jedi, he came across a multitude of strange beings across numerous distant worlds. In several of these instances, such as when he encountered a Force-sensitive jakobeast out in the Outer Rim Territories, he was forced to use his weapon in self-defense. He and fellow Jedi Ur-Sema Du once stumbled upon a species that was also sensitive to the Force known as a marsh haunt. In one particular mission, when he was using his Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor, muttamoks stole his datapad, since they were known for taking any shiny object that caught their eye. Justiss visited the Jedi Archives inside the Jedi Temple at least once while Jocasta Nu was in charge.
At one point early on in his career, Justiss went with a Wookiee to his homeworld of Kashyyyk. After landing in Rwookrrorro, Justiss and his Wookiee companion were greeted by K-27, a translator protocol droid. As the three started to explore the Wookiee city, they heard an explosion and saw a nearby building in flames. K-27 encouraged Justiss and the Wookiee to try and save anyone who was stuck inside as the fires grew. The Jedi and his companion were able to rescue some of the building's occupants before Wookiee firefighters got there.
One of the Wookiees who was rescued, Urrurrowo, said that flame beetles were inside the building for some unknown reason. K-27 said that a similar fire had destroyed another part of Rwookrrorro a week before and that the head firefighter, Rruurrfhurra, had struggled to save one of the wroshyr limbs that the city was built on. Rruurrfhurra showed up shortly after this; Justiss and his companion mentioned that they had seen some maintenance droids close to the building right before the explosion. They offered to assist Rruurrfhurra in finding the droids and figuring out what had caused the disaster. K-27 cautioned them, however, that they could be fined and deported if they messed with the droids. Rruurrfhurra agreed with this, but he still accepted the pair's help.
Through their investigation, Justiss, his companion, and Rruurrfhurra figured out that the flame beetles had been drawn to the building's walls because they thought there was a large group of their hatchlings there. This didn't explain how or if the maintenance droids had started the fire, so Justiss and his Wookiee companion had no choice but to wrap up their business on Kashyyyk. As the Wookiees were handling the duo's cargo, they discovered Rruurrfhurra's dead body inside one of the containers. Justiss and his ally were then taken into custody and spent several hours explaining where they had been since the last time they had seen the firefighter. The authorities eventually let the pair go, but told them not to leave Kashyyyk.
When Justiss and his companion got back to their ship, they saw that it was surrounded by flame beetles and JR-8 janitorial droids. After getting rid of the beetles and droids, the two looked at one of the JR-8s and found that it had come from Temporary Droids—the rental company that had provided K-27 to the Wookiees. The protocol droid was upset by the idea that his master, Turren Lonarr, might have been involved in the recent fires, but he still told Justiss that Lonarr was from Dosha and that he hired Trandoshans to guard his Temporary Droids warehouse. Trandoshans, who came from a world that was in the same system as Kashyyyk, had been in a blood feud with the Wookiees for centuries.
Justiss, his companion, and K-27 went to the Temporary Droids warehouse and were attacked by the Trandoshan guards, who were trying to give Lonarr time to escape. Justiss and the Wookiee fought their way through and defeated the Trandoshans, only to see Lonarr escaping in a liftcar that was powered by kshyy vines. The two tried to take over the liftcar's controls, which forced Lonarr to jump to safety on a wroshyr limb that was two hundred meters above them. As the Jedi and the Wookiee got close to where Lonarr was, he told them that the Wookiee nursery ring, which was right above them, was set up to attract flame beetles and would be set on fire if Lonarr died. However, Justiss and his companion were able to fix the situation, stopping the nursery ring from being destroyed and defeating Lonarr in the process.
In 22 BBY, Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Knight, sent a distress signal from Geonosis after discovering that the Confederacy of Independent Systems was building a droid army there. Kenobi, along with his apprentice Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padmé Amidala, had been captured by the Confederacy, so Mace Windu, a Jedi Master, led a team of Jedi to Geonosis to rescue them. Justiss fought in the First Battle of Geonosis that followed when the brief negotiations failed. He fought alongside many other Jedi in the Petranaki arena and was one of the few who survived the battle, which the Republic eventually won. As war broke out, Master Yoda agreed to become one of the Republic's military leaders, and Justiss took his place as the Jedi Watchman of Kashyyyk.
Seven months into the Clone Wars, Justiss was serving on the Acclamator-class assault ship VCD987, which was transporting reinforcements to Drongar. The world was home to the [bota](/article/bota-legends] fungi, a healing substance known to decay rapidly after being harvested. Both the Republic and the Confederacy had harvesting operations on the planet, making it a contested territory. Jedi Sian Jeisel and Tsui Choi were with Justiss. While they were in transit, the VCD987 was attacked by a stronger Confederate force, and the enemy guns damaged its engines. Justiss, Jeisel, and Choi fought alongside clone troopers to fend off Quarren boarders, but the attackers lowered their weapons when Count Dooku boarded the ship, accompanied by his Dark Acolyte Sora Bulq.
Justiss stood by and watched as Dooku argued with Jeisel, who had been hesitant to fight for the Republic earlier in the war. The Count insisted that he wasn't trying to destroy the Jedi, and to prove it, he had Justiss, Jeisel, and Choi taken to neutral territory. However, the clones on the VCD987 were killed. Later that year, Justiss was permanently assigned to Jedi diplomatic duties on Kashyyyk. In a statement to HoloNet News, the Jedi praised the Wookiees for their unwavering reliability.
In 21 BBY, Asajj Ventress, a Confederate agent, put a bounty on Justiss' head. However, the Jedi was not alone, as Ventress had also placed bounties on the heads of many of his colleagues, including Saesee Tiin, Luminara Unduli, and Anakin Skywalker. Justiss survived Order 66 at the end of the war and managed to evade Imperial Intelligence for a while afterward. He avoided death for almost twenty years, seeking refuge on Garqi around 0 BBY. Local farmers betrayed him to the Crimson Nova chapter of the Bounty Hunters' Guild, who sent a group of bounty hunters—including Breela, Boushh, and Zuckuss—after him. Justiss was forced to fight the hunters and even managed to remove the arm of at least one Trandoshan during the fight.
The Empire eventually captured Justiss and took him to the first Death Star, where Darth Vader executed him.
Unlike some Jedi, such as Serifa Altunen and Sian Jeisel, Justiss fully accepted his role as a Jedi during the Clone Wars. He had respect for the Wookiees of Kashyyyk, even publicly praising their loyalty on HoloNet News. Justiss was also very good at hiding, as he managed to avoid the Great Jedi Purge for two decades.
The character of Kai Justiss was created by Joe Corroney, an artist, in 2001. Corroney was assigned to illustrate the role-playing adventure Kashyyyk in Flames, which was written by J. D. Wiker for Star Wars Gamer 4. Kyle Hunter, his art director, asked him to create images for several "player" characters to attract readers. Corroney based the character on his friend Justin Chung, a webmaster and fellow artist who had been making custom lightsabers and Jedi robes, for reference.
The character was not named in Kashyyyk in Flames, but he was later identified in Republic HoloNet News Core Edition 14:10:03, which was written by Pablo Hidalgo. Corroney and Chung came up with the name, and the character was then used in several later installments of HoloNet News. The character also appeared in the Power of the Jedi Sourcebook and Jedi: Count Dooku by John Ostrander, where Jan Duursema drew Justiss. Besides Corroney and Duursema, Chris Trevas is the only other artist who has drawn Justiss, creating the character for Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force by Ryder Windham. Other authors who contributed to Justiss' story include Abel G. Peña and Ryan Kaufman.
Corroney and Chung would later add to the known canonical details of Justiss' life on Corroney's blog, "Drawing in the Empire." These additions were based on Justiss' existing depictions and included identifying Ur-Sema Du as Justiss' master, Justiss working directly for Jocasta Nu, Justiss being promoted to the rank of Jedi Master, and Justiss' involvement in the Battle of Kashyyyk. However, since these details have not been published in a canonical source, they are not canon.