How Did The Events Of The High Republic Impact The Skywalker Saga?

Star Wars

Sep 2

July 2025 saw the conclusion of the third and final phase of The High Republic, Lucasfilm’s massive multimedia endeavour. Initially called "Project Luminous," the campaign officially began in January 2021 with the release of Charles Soule's Light of the Jedi, although initial plans date back to 2018. After that, The High Republic spawned dozens of novels and comic books, two TV series (The Acolyte, Young Jedi Adventures), and its own web series (The High Republic Show).

Set between 500 and 100 BBY, the events of the High Republic era predate the Skywalker saga by far (although some characters from the movies, like Yoda, Yaddle, or Maz Kanata, were alive then).

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Still, some concepts and events from this "golden age" foreshadowed and impacted the fate of the galaxy in the last years of the Republic and during the reign of the Empire.

"It's Farthest From"

At the beginning of this era, the Republic set a plan in motion to move beyond the Core Worlds and the Colonies and to explore and to integrate what was then called the Galactic Frontier, and would later be known as the Outer Rim Territories. With no established star maps or hyperspace routes, navigation was difficult and dangerous, and Jedi called "Wayfinders" assisted the Republic in expanding its reach.

Once trade routes were available, humans and aliens hoping to find fame and fortune rushed to the new territories. However, they soon had to find out that a life so far from the galactic core was still burdensome and dangerous, caused by a lack of supplies, piracy, communication problems, and the inability of the Republic to bring the Outer Rim under its formal control.

Trying to remedy some of these problems, Chancellor Lina Soh ordered the construction of a massive space station, called Starlight Beacon, that should provide food, supplies, communication, and shelter for everyone in need. The project ultimately failed, and the Outer Rim regions remained what they still were when Luke Skywalker grew up on Tatooine: distant, sometimes lawless, and merely beyond the control of whoever ruled the galaxy.

No Sith?

More than 500 years before the High Republic, the Jedi fought and seemingly destroyed the Sith in a massive battle. Believing that their old arch-enemies were finally gone and that the Light Side had prevailed, the Jedi focused on gaining knowledge, meditation, and exploration, without having to engage in any major conflict for centuries.

Unbeknownst to them, Darth Bane's Rule of Two ensured that the Sith still existed, hiding in the shadows, plotting their revenge and luring the Jedi into safety, making them blind and ignorant to the growing darkness around them.

Until the phantom menace arose, and it was too late.

No Generals

When the Nihil, a group of violent marauders, made themselves known to the galaxy after the Great Hyperspace Disaster and started attacking various planets in the Outer Rim, the Jedi immediately joined the forces of the Republic to provide help and fight the new enemies. Though technically not a war, but rather a series of battles throughout the galaxy, it was the first time in centuries that hundreds of Jedi fought against a common enemy. The next time a confrontation of that scale would arise would be the Battle of Genonis and the following Clone Wars.

Still, there was a major difference between these two conflicts: during the time of the High Republic, the government and the Jedi Order were equals, and the Jedi chose to help the Republic. This didn't stop them from following their own agenda at times, like going after the Drengir, a massive, plant-like creature that spawned several planets, without consulting the Republic. After the emergence of the Nameless, strange creatures that could sever the connection of the Jedi to the Force and basically make them lose their minds or even turn them to stone, they decided that they needed time to heal and refused the call for help from the Republic for a time.

During the Clone Wars, on the other hand, the Jedi were basically subordinates to the Republic and the Chancellor, forced to act as generals for the clone army in a war they were not prepared for.

No Superheroes

The High Republic showed the Jedi at their peak, working together in unison for the greater good of the galaxy. Still, they were not immune to the power of the Dark Side.

When Elzar Mann, one of the most powerful Jedi of that time, tapped too deeply into the Dark Side, he felt an immense shame, separating himself from his friends and meditating on a remote planet to re-establish his connection with the Force.

On a greater scale, the continuous fight against the Nihil left scars on the Jedi Order as a whole, making them more rigid, bureaucratic, and less open to the Living Force, as they had been before. Like some senators insisted that the Republic relied too much on the Jedi and their powers and urged various star systems to set up strike forces of their own, the Jedi started to hide some things from the government, planting the seeds of distrust that would only grow until the fall of the Republic.

Echos from the Past

Though centuries apart, various Star Wars stories that take place during the Skaywalker saga reference or even include events, characters, creatures, and material things from the High Republic era:

Lor San Tekka, the man who stood up against Kylo Ren at the beginning ot The Force Awakens, is a direct descendant of the San Tekka family that were among the first ones to explore new routes into the Outer Rim during the early days of the High Republic.

Mari San Tekka, a woman who was taken by Marchion Ro, the Eye of the Nihil, lived for more than 120 years as a kind of involuntary (and mostly unconscious) navigator of the Gaze Electric, Ro's flagship, allowing the leader of the Nihil to travel to otherwise unreachable regions of the galaxy.

When Luke Skywalker was training Ben Solo, he and Lor San Tekka searched for ancient Jedi temples from the time of the High Republic.

One of the advantages the Nihil had against both the Jedi and the Republic was the Path engine, a technology that allowed incredibly precise hyperspace jumps. Thought to be lost in time, the rogue archeologist Doctor Aphra was able to discover one of these path engines during the time of the Original Trilogy, although the plan to create a functional replica of the engine failed.

In search of fuel for the Rebel Alliance, Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, Lando, and Amily Holdo were able to reach No-Space, the location of the Great Hall of the Nihil, the secret hideout of the marauders, between the events of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Though the pirates were long gone, their descendants were still there, as there were some ancient and very dangerous technologies from the time of the High Republic.

In the video game Jedi: Survivor, Cal Kestis encounters a century-old droid, leading to visions of a Jedi from that time that influence his journey through the galaxy.

The High Republic also explains how Jedha had become such a sacred place not only for the Jedi but also for other Force users. The planet was the location of one of the first conflicts of the High Republic era, explaining how and why the massive Jedi figures, seen in Rogue One, had fallen.

In the short story "The Veteran", collected in From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi, Dexter Jettster remembers the fight of the Jedi against the Nihil during the victory celebration after the Battle of Endor.

Other canon books set in the time of the Skywalker saga referencing the High Republic are Dooku: Jedi Lost by Cavan Scott, which includes the first official mention of the term "High" Republic", Bloodline by Claudia Gray, which mentions a century old invasion of a planet, that could be linked to the Nihil and The Living Force by John Kackson Miller, which mentions Starlight Beacon and the Jedi Avar Kriss.

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