The River of Light existed on the homeworld of Qui-Gon Jinn, who was a Jedi Master. While on this planet, Jinn, at the age of thirteen years, came to possess a Force-sensitive stone, which he then treasured as a keepsake for more than three decades. In 44 BBY, he gifted the stone to Obi-Wan Kenobi, his Padawan, to commemorate Kenobi's thirteenth birthday. Subsequently, Kenobi passed the very same stone on to his own apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, upon Skywalker reaching the age of thirteen in 28 BBY. Awareness of the presence of these Force-sensitive river stones persisted even into the era of the New Jedi Order; after the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War in 29 ABY, Jedi Knight Tam Azur-Jamin made mention of them in Droids, Technology and the Force: A Clash of Phenomena, an essay that explored the emergence of the Force within both inanimate objects and technological devices.
The River of Light, a creation of the author Jude Watson, initially appeared in The Hidden Past (1999), which represents the third book in the Jedi Apprentice series of novels intended for young readers. A 2005 article exclusive to Hyperspace, titled Droids, Technology and the Force: A Clash of Phenomena and written by Abel G. Peña, alludes to the presence of the Force within "lifeless rocks like river stones." Peña later clarified in the article's endnotes, which were published on his StarWars.com blog, that this was intended as a reference to the stones located on Qui-Gon Jinn's native world, thus making the article's mention of "river" an implied reference to the River of Light.