Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Reveals New Secrets of the High Republic

Even though Star Wars Jedi: Survivor takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, it also takes place in a time called the High Republic, which was hundreds of years ago. The High Republic was first introduced in 2020 as a book-only project, but it is slowly making its way into other media. The Disney+ shows Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures and The Acolyte take place during that time, and now Survivor uses flashbacks and other techniques to look into the past. During the course of the game, Survivor shows characters, places, and ideas from the High Republic that have never been shown on-screen before. Here’s a guide to the High Republic and a list of all the new information we’ve learned about this time period.

What Is the High Republic?

The Galactic Republic is at peace, doing well, and growing during the High Republic. It took place between 500 BBY and 100 BBY, a long time before the Skywalker Saga. During this time, the Jedi Order had a lot of members and a lot of money, as shown by their fancy lightsabers with blades that ranged from blue to orange and their expensive garments cut with gold.

At this time, there were no big fights going on. Since there were no wars to stop, the Jedi and the Republic focused on exploring the world. During this time, the Nihil, a group of raiding area Vikings, were the biggest threat to the galaxy. Even though they caused trouble, the High Republic is known as a time of relative stability.

Check out our full guide to High Republic for a lot more information.

How the High Republic Intersects With Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

When Jedi survivor Cal Kestis finds an old High Republic Jedi meditation room on the planet Koboh, he opens a window to the past. He frees an old robot named ZN-A4, also known as Zed, who had been stuck in the room for a long time. It turns out that Zed was part of the Jedi Order of the High Republic and was caught while trying to complete a mission.

Cal finds out about High Republic Jedi Order members Santari Khri and Dagan Gera by talking to Zed and using his Sense Echo ability to see a series of Force visions. They are on a terrible mission to find the legendary world Tanalorr, which is hidden on the other side of the deadly Koboh Abyss nebula. Tanalorr is said to have a lot of importance because it is basically a hidden paradise, and Dagan had big plans for it.

Cal finds a hospital centre for the High Republic and is amazed to find that Dagan is still living inside a bacta tank. For Cal, Dagan wakes up in a rage, turns to the Dark Side, and makes his lightsaber’s Kyber crystal bleed red. He then tries to kill Cal and takes Rayvis, a loyal fan of Dagan’s from the High Republic era, with him.

We then learn that Dagan had actually found a way through the Koboh Abyss and that he and Santari had built a Republic village and a Jedi Temple on Tanalorr. When the Nihil attacked Tanalorr, disaster struck, and the Republic chose to leave the town. Dagan felt like the Republic had failed him, and he was furious that they didn’t care about what had become his life’s work. Santari tried to talk some sense into Dagan, but he was so into Tanalorr that he didn’t hear her and shot her. During their fight, Santari cut off Dagan’s arm with her blade. She then locked him in a bacta tank and forgot about him for about 200 years.

Is Dagan Gera a Sith Lord?

Even though Dagan Gera uses a red sword and is the best bad guy in the game who uses the Force, he is not a Sith Lord. During the High Republic, the Sith stayed hidden, so making Dagan a former dark Jedi who went bad helps keep that link. He even changes the colour of the crystal on his blade right in front of Cal, which is a rare Dark Side move. It is emphasised that Dagan is driven by his own crazy wants instead of the Sith’s way of doing things.

An Era of Opulence

As Cal travels through the game world, it’s easy to find antiques from the High Republic because they have gold designs. Gold symbols are drawn all over the land, and the famous Santari Khri lightsaber has a gold handle. The 7 meditation rooms of the High Republic where Cal has to solve hard problems to get upgrades can be found by their circular golden entrances.

Zed is different because she is silver instead of gold, but her style is still very High Republic because it is much more unique and complicated than that of C-3PO and other simple Imperial-era androids.

This fancy look helps separate things from the High Republic from things from after the Empire, which are much more useful. It shows how different life was in the High Republic compared to the parts of the Star Wars world that were weak and broken in the Original Trilogy. Cal feels sad when he goes to places that have been forgotten for a long time, like the High Republic research centre on the Shattered Moon, which was left empty after a rock hit the moon and broke it in half. It’s a reminder of how great and invincible the Republic and the Jedi Order used to be, and how they’re not much more than ruins now.

Sustaining Characters of the High Republic

Dagan Gera and Zed have been around since long after the time of the High Republic, but they are not the only ones. During that time, a lot of Star Wars figures lived and were still around when the Skywalker Saga took place. Yoda, for example, is hundreds of years old and has been a Jedi Master for all that time. Dagan and Santari talk about Master Rancisis, who, like Yoda, is very tough. He was on the Jedi Council during the High Republic and the Skywalker Saga, and he is one of the few people who survived the Jedi Purge and went into hiding. His ultimate fate is still unknown to this day.

Rayvis is the boss of the Bedlam Raiders. He is a Gen’Dai, which Star Wars fans call the kind of alien that Durge, the famously hard-to-kill runaway hunter, is. The Gen’Dai have healing powers like Wolverine’s, so they can survive most accidents and live a very, very long time. During the second part of the fight with the Rayvis boss, we see that under all that armour is a mass of moving arms. Rayvis was always loyal to Dagan. He used his band of Bedlam Raiders to search Koboh for his long-lost master.

How the Story Wraps Up

After finding his opponents, Cal beats Rayvis and then goes to Dagan, where they fight with lightsabers until Dagan is killed. It’s sad that Dagan died because he could have been an important Jedi partner in the fight against the Empire. It’s especially sad because, as far as Cal knew, he was the last known living person from the High Republic era. There’s no question that Dagan knew a lot about the High Republic Jedi Order, from Force techniques to philosophers who taught him, but he lost it all because he couldn’t see past his own goals. (Later in the universe, Luke Skywalker “satisfies” a High Republic Jedi, so not everything is lost because of respect.) In the end, Zed is the only character from the High Republic to survive the events of the Fallen Order follow-up, and she seems happy to just chill out on Koboh in Pyloon’s Saloon.

Check out why fans care about Turgle, the “arachnophobia mode,” and our review of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor to learn more about the game.