A dangerous complacency had set in, wherein the Jedi believed the Sith extinct. The Jedi began to neglect details that they should not have. Little did they know the order would arise anew, to destroy their ranks.

At first, the signs were few. The sudden appearance of a Sith attacker during the Battle of Naboo was startling to the Council, but that threat was dispatched. Still, according to Sith lore, the dark villains always traveled in pairs, a master, and apprentice. For a decade, there was no physical signs of the remaining Dark Lord, but evidence of his power began to appear.

The Jedi ability to use the Force inexplicably began to diminish. This, coupled with increasing violence in the galaxy sparked by a Separatist movement overburdened the valiant protectors. Their ranks were spread thin trying to maintain the peace, and many Jedi fell during the crisis.

Jedi Master Mace Windu, one of the Council leaders and a diplomat by nature, believed in the power of words over action. But as the galaxy found itself increasingly fragmented by the rise of a powerful secessionist movement, he grew to question some of his firmest held beliefs.

He thought it impossible that the Separatist leader, former Jedi Count Dooku, could be behind the escalating flashpoints of violence in the galaxy. Such aggression was not in his character, the Jedi Master reasoned.

During the Separatist crisis, the Jedi had to weather not only the flashpoints of violence scattered across the galaxy, but increasing public backlash against their apparent shortcomings. While the Jedi undoubtedly saved many lives through their duties, many disenchanted citizens saw only their failures.

When an intelligence report from Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi revealed the Separatists gearing up for war, Windu came to realize that the time for negotiation had passed. Though he reminded the Supreme Chancellor that the Jedi were peacekeepers and not soldiers, as the Clone Wars began, the Jedi found themselves leading platoons of clone troopers into battle.

Reversals such as these troubled Master Windu, for they came about too suddenly, and the usually prescient Jedi were unprepared. Something was clouding the future, and the order's very connection to the Force was weakening. That a Sith Lord existed, somewhere in the galaxy, was not in doubt, but could this shadowy villain really bring this much imbalance to the Force?

When it came to war, and the first shots of the Clone Wars were fired on Geonosis, only a scant 200 Jedi were readily available for the conflict. However, Jedi High Council Member Depa Billapa stayed behind at the Temple to safeguard the children. At the first engagement on Geonosis, Mace Windu arrived ahead of the clone trooper army with a Jedi taskforce. He was there to free Jedi held captive by Count Dooku. Most of this taskforce was killed in the battle, but reinforcements, in the form of the Republic’s new military, secured a victory against the Separatists.

The Clone Wars had begun.

Jedi Knight Obi-Wan and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker attempted to intercept Count Dooku, before he escaped to foment even further rebellion against the Republic. In a darkened hangar, the two confronted Dooku. Though Obi-Wan insisted they work together, headstrong Anakin rushed into the fray. Dooku nearly incapacitated him with a powerful blast of dark side lightning, showing the two Jedi that he now belonged to the Dark Side.

Kenobi was forced to face Dooku alone, but the elder Jedi Master was cleary the more-skilled combatant. He wounded the Jedi Knight, and was ready to deliver the deathblow, but Skywalker jumped in to intercept. Dooku and Skywalker dueled with fierce energy, but Dooku proved far too powerful for even the Chosen One. However, Skywalker also took his next step to the Dark Side and managed to get a blow in on the former Jedi by giving in to his anger. The renegade Jedi then slashed through Anakin's parries and severed the youth's arm. Anakin collapsed, but was spared death by the timely rival of Jedi Master Yoda, who battled Dooku.

Though Yoda's withering lightsaber attack nearly stopped the evil Jedi, Dooku was able to distract the diminutive master by endangering Obi-Wan and Anakin with a fallen crane torn free by the Force. Yoda used his telekinetic abilities to stop the crane before it crushed the two younger Jedi, and Dooku was able to escape.

After a brief convalesence wherein Anakin Skywalker's severed arm was replaced with a mechanical one, he accompanied Senator Amidala back to Naboo.There, at a secluded lake retreat, the two were secretly wed by a Naboo holyman in a ceremony witnessed only by two droids. It may have been the start of a new life, but it was another step to Anakin's eventual destruction.

-all non-original information has been compiled from Starwars.com

Introduction | The Early Days | The Great Schism | The Great Hyperspace War
The Freedon Nadd Upising | The Great Sith War | The Aftermath | The Jedi Temple
The Sith Renewed | The Phantom Menace | The Clone Wars | The Fall of the Jedi
The Return of the Jedi | After the Empire | The Jedi Chronicles

Communications | Join | Academy | Holo-Archive