Yoda (Exile)

Yoda was a legendary Jedi Master who led the Jedi Order through the time of the High Republic, in the years leading up to its destruction by the Sith, and during the transformation of the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire. Small in stature but revered for his wisdom and power, Yoda trained generations of Jedi, ultimately serving as the Jedi Order's Grand Master. He played integral roles in defending the Republic during the Clone Wars, survived Order 66, and lived to passed on the Jedi tradition to Luke Skywalker, and unlocking the path to immortality.

Born in 896 BBY, Yoda served the Jedi Order for centuries, becoming Jedi Grand Master and helping to teach many younglings. During the High Republic Era, in 382 BBY, Yoda helped bring an end to a devastating battle between the Jedi and the anti-Jedi Path of the Open Hand cult. After the battle, which became known as the Night of Sorrow, he decided to keep the living weapons against Force-sensitives the Path had used, the Nameless, out of the Jedi Archives to protect the order. Over a century later, he took a sabbatical from the Jedi High Council to train Padawans aboard the Star Hopper, leading them and other Jedi in fighting the Nihil pirate organization in 232 BBY. After disappearing without explanation for over a year, Yoda reappeared in 230 BBY on Corellia, where he helped his former Padawan Kantam Sy and other Jedi battle the Nihil, accompanied by a former Jedi who fought in the Night of Sorrow named Azlin Rell. As the Nihil had also weaponized the Nameless, Yoda hoped that Rell's knowledge he had accrued about the creatures since the battle would help the Jedi find a way to fight them.

Yoda was almost nine hundred years old in the latter days of the Republic. A leading member of the Jedi High Council, his contemporaries included other legendary Masters, such as Mace Windu and Ki-Adi-Mundi. During the Invasion of Naboo, in 32 BBY, the maverick Qui-Gon Jinn introduced Anakin Skywalker to the High Council, believing with absolute certainty that he had discovered the prophesied Chosen One. The Jedi elders sensed that the boy was full of fear and anger and declined to train him, deeming Skywalker too old and emotionally compromised to commit himself to the Jedi Code. After Jinn's death during the liberation of Naboo, the High Council reversed their decision in spite of Yoda's continued opposition to Skywalker's apprenticeship, having sensed grave danger in his training. At the same time, the Jedi discovered that their ancient nemesis, the Sith, had returned after a millennium in hiding. Aware of the Rule of Two, Yoda was convinced that at least one more Sith Lord remained active following Obi-Wan Kenobi's victory over the Sith apprentice Darth Maul.

Over the next decade, the galaxy was on the verge of civil war with entire star systems—led by Count Dooku, Yoda's one-time Padawan—threatening to secede from the Republic by 22 BBY. Unable to defend the entire Republic against this betrayal on their own, the Jedi took command of the newly-formed Grand Army of the Republic, with Yoda himself leading an army of clone troopers against the Separatist Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems in the first battle of the Clone Wars, rescuing the Jedi and Senator from execution. For three years Yoda led the Republic military's war effort as a Jedi General, determined to bring a swift and decisive end to the conflict. During this time he was approached by the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn, who helped Yoda learn how to retain his identity as a spirit after death. Yoda's efforts against the Separatists were undermined by Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith who conspired to destroy the Jedi and restore the Sith to power. After the Great Jedi Purge commenced in 19 BBY, killing thousands of Jedi both on Coruscant and across the galaxy, Yoda confronted the self-declared Galactic Emperor but failed to cut short Sidious' reign and retreated into exile, leaving the Sith Master to consolidate his power with a new apprentice, the former Anakin Skywalker-turned-Darth Vader, at his side.

Yoda's remaining years were spent living in isolation on the remote world of Dagobah. After the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was able to commune with his spirit, who wished for Yoda to train Anakin's son Luke Skywalker. Yoda initially reluctantly agreed, but later believed that the galaxy as better off without him and refused Kenobi's request. After being convinced by Kenobi to enter the Cave of Evil, in which he confronted many figures from his past and made peace with his failures, he agreed to teach Luke Skywalker, who soon after sought out the Grand Master in the hope of becoming a Jedi Knight. He trained Skywalker for a time, until despite Yoda's warnings Skywalker hurriedly abandoned his training to save his friends after a having a vision that they were in danger.

Known for his wisdom, Yoda had spent eight centuries training and tutoring generations of Jedi. Yoda also had a sense of humor and curiosity, despite his age and wisdom. His sense of humor continued, as shown when he playfully rummaged through Luke's belongings when he first met him. He enjoys messing with people.

Yoda was highly secretive about his homeworld and never revealed it to anyone.

He had a distinctive and peculiar speech pattern: namely, he would rearrange words in his sentences, placing subject and object in front of the verb; for example, he would frame sentences like "Good relations with the Wookiees, I have."

Despite his small size and old age, Yoda was an extremely accomplished lightsaber duelist, wielding a short green-bladed lightsaber. Yoda used the Ataru saber form, boosting his body with the Force to be able to perform the needed movements.

Even despite his small size and old age, Yoda was extremely powerful and accomplished in the Force. with a connection to that power and knowledge of Force techniques that may well have surpassed that of any other Force user.

According to Obi-Wan, Yoda's thirst for knowledge was the grandmaster's greatest weapon. Yoda could walk for hours without food or rest up a mountain/giant.

Yoda kept a second green lightsaber on Dagobah inside his hut in 3 ABY after his previous one was lost during a duel in the Galactic Senate against Darth Sidious. He also uses a cane.

Dagobah was a remote, unexplored planet in the Dagobah system, and one of the purest places in the galaxy within the Force. A remote world of swamps and forests, it served as a refuge for Jedi Grand Master Yoda during his exile. Luke Skywalker received advanced training in the ways of the Force under Jedi Master Yoda on Dagobah.

The Galactic Civil War is a major galactic conflict fought primarily between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The Alliance is a rebel faction dedicated to the restoration of the Galactic Republic, the government that the Empire had supplanted at the culmination of the Clone Wars in 19 BBY.