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The Order Prologue

Twenty-five thousand years before the Battle of Yavin, Alderaan, Caamas, Chandrila, Corellia, Coruscant, Duro, and several other planetary governments came together to form the Old Republic. At around the same time, the Jedi were established as a simple religious order. They were dedicated to contemplating the mysteries of life. Yet they soon realized that there was something even greater for them to study. And that something was what made it possible for new members to join the order.

Over the next five hundred years, these simple priests, locked away in a shrine on the distant planet Ossus, studied life as they slowly came to understand their ability to touch and manipulate what they came to call the Force. Yet they could not all stay locked away in their shrine forever. New members were always welcome and high priests regularly left Ossus to travel about the young Republic searching for possible candidates. The order's Grand High Priest also traveled to the capital of the Republic, Coruscant, regularly as a spiritual guide for the thousands who sought enlightenment from the order's religious beliefs.

As the years passed, the priests who traveled far and wide in the Republic witnessed untold crimes against the innocent and helpless. The temple from which the Grand High Priest provided enlightenment on Coruscant became a refuge for the helpless as it was known the Jedi would allow harm to come to no one within it's walls. Each new Grand High Priest added on to the temple, while requesting more protection for the helpless from the government.

Sadly, the Republic, though consisting of numerous planetary governments, was unable to put together a large enough law enforcement agency to deal with every crime against the innocent. And the bulk of this agency was forced to deal with what was seen as even greater threats such as pirates, smugglers, and spice lords. Yet as Coruscant had been a city planet for thousands of years longer than the Republic had existed, crimes committed against individuals on the planet were more likely to make the news than those committed on someplace such as Alderaan or Chadrila.

Fearing public outcry that it could not maintain law and order in the Republic if it could not do so in the capital, the Galactic Senate put together a police force to protect the citizens of Coruscant and investigate crimes against them. Culled from the top officers of the Republic Law Enforcement Agency, the Justice Enforcement Department soon began making it possible for the citizens of Coruscant to feel safe. But only as long as they didn't travel below the lowest levels any sane being would inhabit. Below these levels lived nightmarish creatures no one wished to meet. And the Justice Enforcement Department was not equipped to protect people from such creatures.

Two hundred years after it was created to protect the citizens of Coruscant, the Galactic Senate added the J.E.D. to the Republic's Judicial Department, which included the Republic Law Enforcement Agency, the Republic's Attorney General's office, and the court system. To become a Justice Enforcement Department Inspector was the dream of virtually everyone within the Judicial Department. J.E.D. Inspectors (J.E.D.Ins) found themselves stationed on the member worlds of the Republic, protecting the innocent and bringing the guilty to justice.

Five years after the J.E.D. was added to the Republic's Judical Department, the Jedi realized they could no longer be mere priests. For five hundred years they had studied life and had learned how to use the Force. With it, they could do more to help the Republic than merely harboring the innocent in the temples they had preached at on each of the member worlds. The temple on Coruscant itself was little more than a refuge. Enlightenment meant little in the fifty story building. And the tales of more and more innocent seeking refuge in their temples saddened the Jedi on Ossus.

At first they sought to change their orders name. Yet the tales they heard of the J.E.D., and the realization that the acronym J.E.D.Ins was close to the name of their own order, the Jedi took it as a sign from the Force that they were meant to be the protectors of peace and justice in the Republic. They also realized that the innocent already linked the name of the order with protection and peace, and thus decided the orders name should remain Jedi.

Yet the Grand High Priest realized that even though they could use the Force to protect others, it would also be possible for them to use it to hurt them as well. Not knowing how best to responsibly use the Force in protection of others without going to far, he and a select group of the high priests and priestess off the age decided to seek help from the most peaceful people they knew, the Caamasi. And it was on Caamas that the Jedi came to learn what a great responsibility it was for them to use the Force. For ten years they studied the moral use of the Force on Caamas, even initiating those Caamasi who were Force-sensitive into the Jedi order.

Soon these masters of the Force and the new Jedi philosophy returned to Ossus and trained the other Jedi priests in what they had learned. The order also saw the need to return to it's roots. While they felt priests could protect others, the Jedi did not believe they should go out and fight to defend others. The first Jedi priests had been warriors and knights who had believed that their path was to be more in the way of religious leaders. Now the Jedi returned to being knights. The priests and high priests soon formed the core of this reformed order as Jedi Knights. The Grand High Priest and those who had accompanied him to Caamas became Jedi Masters based on their mastery of the Force. And all disciples of the priesthood who had not yet become priests themselves became apprentice Jedi.

The Grand High Priest soon went before the Galactic Senate to offer the services of the Jedi as protectors of peace and justice. While skeptical, the Senate accepted their offer. But before the Jedi could begin to bring peace and justice to the Republic, a new threat loomed over the Republic. War. The Hutts saw the Republic's law and order as a threat to their criminal activities. And as they did with Xim the Despot, they planned to wipe out the Republic so that they could rule the galaxy.

The Jedi would find that they were not merely the protectors of peace and justice for the just those in the Republic. They had to prove themselves willing to bring peace and justice to the entire galaxy.