Cal Kestis

Cal Kestis was a Force-sensitive human male Jedi who survived Order 66 as a Padawan and lived in hiding through the early years of the Galactic Empire. After his master Jaro Tapal died protecting him during the purge, Kestis concealed himself among the scrappers of Bracca until an act of instinct exposed him to the Inquisitorius. Recruited by the crew of the Stinger Mantis, he undertook a secret mission to rebuild the Jedi Order in 14 BBY, and years later, in 9 BBY, was drawn into the search for the hidden world of Tanalorr.

Survival on Bracca#

Cal Kestis was a Jedi Padawan during the Clone Wars, apprenticed to the Lasat Jedi Master Jaro Tapal. When Palpatine issued Order 66 and the clone troopers turned on their commanders, Tapal sacrificed himself to protect Kestis, who used the Force to slow the troopers as his master fell. The young Padawan escaped, but lost both his master and his own lightsaber, salvaging the pieces of Tapal's broken double-bladed weapon to carry forward.

In the years that followed, Kestis hid on the shipbreaking world of Bracca, joining the Scrapper Guild and burying his identity. His concealment ended when he instinctively used Force Stasis to save his friend Prauf from a fatal fall. An Imperial viper probe droid recorded the act, and the Inquisitorius dispatched the Second Sister to hunt him. When the Inquisitor ordered the assembled scrappers to reveal the hidden Jedi, Prauf stepped forward to protect his friend and was killed on the spot, forcing Kestis to ignite his blade and flee.

The secret mission to rebuild the Jedi Order#

Kestis was rescued by the crew of the Stinger Mantis, the former Jedi Knight Cere Junda and the Latero pilot Greez Dritus, who recruited him for a secret mission to rebuild the Jedi Order. In 14 BBY, guided by the droid BD-1 and holograms left by the late Jedi Eno Cordova, Kestis traveled across the galaxy reawakening his connection to the Force. He came to Dathomir, where he confronted the fallen Jedi Taron Malicos and gained the aid of the Nightsister Merrin, who used her magicks against him before joining his cause. He recovered his abilities on worlds such as Zeffo, aided Saw Gerrera's Partisans against Imperial supply lines, and ultimately infiltrated the Inquisitorius fortress on the moon of Nur, entering the flooded structure through an underwater airlock.

The quest for Tanalorr#

In 9 BBY, Kestis, now a Jedi Knight, led a new Stinger Mantis crew on missions against the Empire, including the theft of Imperial military intelligence on Coruscant. His path turned toward Tanalorr, a world hidden beyond the treacherous Koboh Abyss that he hoped to make a haven for the Hidden Path, a network sheltering Force-users and others persecuted by the Empire.

In pursuit of Tanalorr he encountered Dagan Gera, a High Republic Jedi who had been kept in stasis since the fall of his order. When Kestis returned Gera's lightsaber, the fallen Jedi removed and bled its crystal, turning against him. The quest cost Kestis dearly when his friend Bode Akuna, secretly an Imperial agent, betrayed him on the holy moon of Jedha, a betrayal that led to the deaths of Masters Eno Cordova and Cere Junda and the destruction of much of the salvaged Jedi Archive. Akuna fled with the last remaining compass to Tanalorr, intending the hidden world as a refuge for himself and his daughter alone. Finding another way through the Abyss, Kestis pursued the Akunas to Tanalorr with Merrin and Greez and killed Bode in a final duel.

The Force and the dark side#

Kestis came to rely on a double-bladed lightsaber built from the salvaged pieces of Jaro Tapal's weapon, later rebuilt with components from Cere Junda's saber, and he was capable of wielding it as a crossguard blade gripped with both hands. He was proficient with Force Stasis, the power that first exposed him on Bracca and that he used against clone troopers during the purge.

In his confrontation with Bode Akuna in the Nova Garon system, consumed by hatred for the man who had betrayed him, Kestis drew on the dark side of the Force, an episode later cited as a stark example of how the dark side could take hold of even a Jedi survivor.