Warning: this article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The High Republic #14!
The latest High Republic Era. The first phase of Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The High Republic transmedia initiative is set 200 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, at a time when the Jedi and the Republic were at their height.
Obi-Wan Kenobi famously claimed the Jedi guarded the Republic for a thousand generations, but of course they weren't all times of peace. The Jedi of the High Republic found themselves in battle with a band of space pirates called the Nihil, who were opposed to everything the Jedi stood for. They initially underestimated the Nihil, but the villains have uncovered an ancient enemy of the Jedi - creatures called the Levelers. Cavan Scott and Ario Anindito's Star Wars: The High Republic #14 sees Jedi Master Avar Kriss lead a team of Jedi back to Starlight Beacon, the space station that served as the Jedi's base in the Outer Rim. To their horror, they arrive in the wake of a Nihil attack, with the space station burning. When the Jedi enter the upper half of Starlight Beacon, they are horrified to learn the Levelers are there.
The Levelers turn the Force into a Jedi's greatest weakness. The Jedi belief in non-attachment is a lie, because the truth is that the Jedi prize one attachment above all others - their connection to the Force. But the mere presence of a Leveler twists and distorts the Force, leaving a Jedi reeling and filled with fear. The stronger a Jedi is in the Force, the more debilitating the experience becomes. Confused and disoriented, unable to distinguish between reality and fevered hallucinations in the Force, they become easy prey to the Levelers, who feast on a being's midi-chlorians.
Ironically, the Jedi who have entered Starlight Beacon have one advantage against the Levelers; Sskeer, a Trandoshan Jedi Master who has lost the ability to use the Force due to a condition called Magrak Syndrome. Sskeer believes his days as a Jedi are numbered, but ironically because he does not possess the ability to access the Force, he is the one Jedi on Starlight Beacon who is immune to the Leveler's powers. The Force has become a weakness - and, because he doesn't have the Force any longer, it is a weakness Skeer no longer shares with his allies.
Star Wars: The High Republic is one of Lucasfilm's boldest stories to date. The Levelers have essentially turned the franchise upside-down, leaving the Jedi reeling in shock as they struggle to deal with the loss of their greatest asset. Claudia Gray's novel Fallen Star has already revealed the fate of Starlight Beacon in the High Republic, the Jedi's greatest defeat before the prequels, but she's deliberately left the fate of Avar Kriss' fellow Jedi unrevealed - meaning anything can happen to the Jedi as this Star Wars story continues.
