Warning: this article contains full story spoilers for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor!
Even though Star Wars Jedi: Survivor takes place between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, it also features an era from hundreds of years in the past known as the High Republic. The High Republic was first revealed in 2020 as a publishing-only initiative but is now slowly being incorporated into other media, with the Disney+ shows Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures and The Acolyte taking place during that era and now Survivor using flashbacks and such to offer a glimpse into the past. Throughout the course of the game, Survivor reveals numerous characters, locations, and concepts from the High Republic that have never been seen before on-screen, so here’s a primer on the High Republic and a rundown of all the new information we’ve learned about this bygone era.
What Is the High Republic?
The High Republic is an era of peace, prosperity, and expansion for the Galactic Republic. It spanned from 500 BBY to 100 BBY, well before the events of the Skywalker Saga. This was a golden age for the Jedi Order where their numbers and resources were plentiful, as evidenced by their opulent lightsaber designs with blade colors ranging from teal to orange, and fancy robes trimmed with gold.
There were no active major conflicts at this time, and so with no wars to fight, the Jedi and the Republic focused on exploring the galaxy. During this period, the most significant threat to the galaxy were the marauding space vikings known as the Nihil, but even with them causing trouble, the High Republic is known as a time of relative harmony.
Check out our full High Republic explainer for even more details.
How the High Republic Intersects With Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
When Jedi survivor Cal Kestis stumbles upon an old High Republic Jedi meditation chamber on the planet Koboh, he opens a window to the past. He meets an ancient droid named ZN-A4 aka Zee, who was trapped in the chamber for hundreds of years. It turns out that Zee belonged to the Jedi Order of the High Republic and was trapped while completing a mission.
Through talking to Zee and using his Sense Echo ability to watch a series of Force visions, Cal learns about High Republic Jedi Order members Santari Khri and Dagan Gera and their tragic quest to find the fabled planet Tanalorr hidden on the other side of the deadly Koboh Abyss nebula. Tanalorr is said to have great importance because it’s essentially a hidden utopia, and Dagan had grand ambitions for it.
Cal discovers a High Republic medical facility and finds Dagan is miraculously still alive inside a bacta tank. Unfortunately for Cal, Dagan awakes in a rage, bleeds his lightsaber’s Kyber crystal red and turns to the Dark Side, and tries to kill him, then he makes off with Rayvis, a survivor of the High Republic era and devoted follower of Dagan.
We go on to learn that Dagan had found a way through the Koboh Abyss and built a Republic settlement and Jedi Temple on Tanalorr with Santari. Tragedy struck when the Nihil attacked Tanalorr and the Republic made the decision to abandon the settlement. Dagan felt betrayed by the Republic and was enraged by their lack of commitment to what had become his life’s work. Santari tried to talk some sense into Dagan but he was too obsessed with Tanalorr to see reason and lashed out at her. In their ensuing clash Santari defeated Dagan by slicing off his arm with her lightsaber, then she put him in a bacta tank where he was forgotten about and remained in stasis for some 200 years.
Is Dagan Gera a Sith Lord?
Despite Dagan Gera wielding a red lightsaber and acting as the game’s premiere Force-wielding villain, he’s not a Sith Lord. The Sith were in hiding during the High Republic era, so making Dagan a fallen dark Jedi gone rogue helps maintain that continuity. He even converts his lightsaber crystal to red right in front of Cal, dramatizing a rarely-seen Dark Side ritual. It’s emphasized that Dagan is driven by his own maniacal desires rather than the philosophy of the Sith.
An Era of Opulence
As Cal journeys through the game world, relics of the High Republic are easy to spot because of their gold designs. There are gold emblems painted across the lands, gold machines that operate High Republic technology, and the collectible Santari Khri lightsaber has a gold hilt. The seven High Republic meditation chambers where Cal must solve complex puzzles to obtain upgrades are identified by their circular golden entrances.
Zee is an exception in that she’s silver, not gold, but her design is still very much of the High Republic because it’s far more eccentric and ornate than the more standard protocol droids of the Imperial era like C-3PO.
This lavish aesthetic helps set apart elements of the High Republic from the post-Empire ones, which are much more utilitarian. It showcases how different life was in the High Republic compared to the meager, worn-out trappings of the Star Wars universe seen in the Original Trilogy. There’s a sense of sadness as Cal explores these long-forgotten locations, like the High Republic research facility on the Shattered Moon that was abandoned after a meteorite struck the moon and half destroyed it. It’s a reminder of how mighty and untouchable the Republic and the Jedi Order once seemed, and how now they’re little more than ruins.
Enduring Characters of the High Republic
Dagan Gera and Zee survived long past the High Republic era, but they’re not the only ones. There are several Star Wars characters that lived during that time and were still around by the time of the Skywalker Saga. Yoda, for example, is hundreds of years old and was a Jedi Master during that period. Dagan and Santari mention Master Rancisis, who like Yoda enjoys great longevity and served on the Jedi Council during the High Republic and through the events of the Skywalker Saga; he’s one of few to survive the Jedi Purge and go into hiding, with his ultimate fate still unknown to this day.
Then there’s Rayvis, leader of the Bedlam Raiders. He’s part of an alien species known as the Gen’Dai, which Star Wars fans will know as the species of the notoriously hard-to-kill bounty hunter, Durge. The Gen’Dai have Wolverine-like healing capabilities, which allow them to survive most injuries and live for a long, long time. As we see during the second phase of the Rayvis boss battle, under all that armor their anatomy is actually a mass of writhing tentacles. Rayvis served Dagan with unyielding loyalty and used his army of Bedlam Raiders to search Koboh for his long lost master.
How the Story Wraps Up
After tracking down his enemies, Cal defeats Rayvis and then makes his way to Dagan, killing him in a lightsaber duel. It’s tragic for Dagan to perish because he could have been a valuable Jedi ally in the fight against the Empire, but it’s especially bitter because, as far as Cal knew, he was the last known living being from the High Republic era. There’s no doubt Dagan had a wealth of knowledge about the High Republic Jedi Order, from Force techniques to philosophical teachings, but it all died with him because he couldn’t see beyond his own ambition. (Later in the timeline, Luke Skywalker “meets” a High Republic Jedi, so not all ends up being lost in that regard.) In the end, Zee is the only High Republic character to survive the events of the Fallen Order sequel, and she seems to be content settling down on Koboh in Pyloon’s Saloon.
For more on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, check out why fans are loving Turgle, the game’s “aracnaphobia mode,” and our review of the game.
