Jirdo Yushari

Jirdo Yushari was a male Jedi who became part of a Force-sensitive triumvirate which established the brief Jedi monarchy of Guudria during the.

In Need of Healing
Born in the Republic, Jirdo was taken to the, but shortly thereafter assigned to the Ardent Guardian, a. He spent his childhood there, training in the Force, but lagged behind his colleagues in many areas, demonstrating a gift only for meditation. After his failure to complete the, the Ardent Guardian ' s Jed Masters informed Jirdo he would not become a. Instead, he joined the.

Assigned to the based on his enjoyment of meditation and demonstrated competence at, Jirdo served throughout contested sectors in the  and. When he was fifteen, the mercy mission on which he was serving was attacked by pirates; Jirdo was the only survivor of the raid. He fled offworld, adrift for a few weeks before a chance encounter with Maia Kyss and Bras Kozondo, who were bound for Guudria to protect the planet from the Sith. At their invitation, Jirdo joined the group.

Church Founder
Maia, the most powerful and skillful of the three, assumed leadership of their new society as Queen of Guudria. Most Guudrians submitted without a fight; when they were opposed, the trio were able to quell resistance with their Force powers and lightsabers. Eventually Maia forged a feudal society arranged around the castle she had constructed, Kharkûskyat.

Jirdo disliked maiming or killing Guudrians, and sought a more peaceable way to keep the populace under control. On an inspiration, he invented the Church of the Jedi, a religion founded on the Force and worship of both it and the Jedi. The faith spread among the Guudrians, bolstered by the demonstrable reality of Jedi Force powers and adding another layer of control. Maia named Jirdo "High Priest" of the Church of the Jedi.

Jirdo, like Maia and Bras, gradually became aware of what the three called "the Whispers"—a sense of intuition and suggestion in the Force. Over time that "voice" resolved into something easier to understand and began relaying ideas and guidance for the rule of Guudria. At the Whispers' insistence, Jirdo added Jedi shrines to the Church, ordering that one be constructed in every village, according to designs the Whispers provided.

Jirdo, like Maia, became uneasy with the Whispers over time, sensing a malevolent consciousness underlying them. Just as bad, Jirdo believed Bras—who he suspected of being a former Sith, not a former Jedi as he claimed—would become a willing thrall of the Whispers, if he had not already. When the Whispers conveyed the knowledge that completion of a certain ritual would free Guudria of its taint, Jirdo amplified his efforts to enact the ritual in order to get rid of that presence.

Crisis of Faith
Before the ritual could be executed, Tirien Kal-Di, his  Narasi Rican, and Tirien's ward, the former  Zaella Sabir, arrived on Guudria and set up camp in the village of Marekka. When the Whispers became aware of the new arrivals, the consciousness sent Maia, Bras, and Jirdo to deal with the threat. After several confrontations, however, all three were repeatedly rebuffed and Jirdo was humiliated by the more powerful Force users.

Sensing that Bras's bloodlust would peak and Maia's obsession with carrying out her destiny of opposing the Sith as she saw it would get people killed, Jirdo tried to talk them down, to no avail. After Maia failed to persuade Tirien to trust her, Jirdo saw her head into the Hills beyond Kharkûskyat and feared she, like Bras, would surrender to the Whispers' baleful influence. He went to Marekka to surrender to Tirien and beg him to help Maia.

Jirdo arrived shortly before Bras, now possessed by the spirit of Chelshgodrû Brokkodd, the "Whisperer". He stayed out of the duel that followed, afraid to fight such a powerful Force user, but helped tend the wounded once the Jedi party drove Bras off. After nearly being strangled by Narasi, Jirdo broke down and admitted his suspicions about the Whisperer. Tirien and Narasi deduced the presence of a Sith tomb in the Cold Lands and went to deal with the situation.

Jirdo was outraged and sickened to discover every member of Maia's guard, as well as Maia herself, murdered on the hilltop. He accompanied the group into the tomb, where they discovered the skeletal remains of Brokkodd's servants and Bras's dead body. In the recesses of the tomb, they found Brokkodd's sarcophagus. The attempted to possess each of them in turn, though he rejected Jirdo at once for being too weak.

When Brokkodd possessed Narasi, Tirien dueled his Padawan while Jirdo and Zaella sought a way to help. Deducing from nearby murals the ritual Brokkodd had employed to encase his soul in his own sarcophagus, Jirdo and Zaella demolished Brokkodd's tomb, which broke his connection to the mortal world. After Tirien and Narasi forced Brokkodd's spirit out of Narasi's body, the dead Sith possessed his own corpse, condemning himself to an eternity of existence without sensation.

In the days after Brokkodd's defeat, Jirdo accompanied Tirien and a group of Guudrian volunteers to loot Kharkûskyat and liberate its Guudrian treasures, then went offworld in the Second Chance as Tirien's prisoner. The group arrived at only to discover that Vedya Gasald's fleet had destroyed the Seventy-Second Republic Battle Group.

Powers and Abilities
Jirdo, though Force-sensitive, had a weaker connection to the Force than most Jedi, and his Jedi Masters believed he was unsuitable for training as a Knight. In the Medical Corps, Jirdo learned a great deal about Force healing, and he retained many of these skills even after defecting. He increased his powers and swordsmanship on Guudria, but lagged behind Maia and Bras and was no match for Tirien, Narasi, or Zaella.

Appearance and Personality
Jirdo was a fair-skinned Human, with a sprinkling of freckles and dark hair. He grew a mustache and goatee beard on Guudria, though both were scraggly and thin. He wore Jedi-style robes as High Priest of Guudria, though they were made of silk. He carried a lightsaber he had retrieved from the body of a Jedi Knight who died in his defense in the pirate attack.

Jirdo disliked violence and shied away from conflict, leading both Narasi Rican and Zaella Sabir to consider him a coward. Though he could effect a grandiose, intimidating demeanor against the Guudrians, he folded quickly under pressure. After Maia's downfall, Jirdo attempted to make amends by serving Marekka's ill and injured, though Tirien took him offworld as a prisoner rather than leave him unattended on Guudria in "penance".

Appearances

 * Moments of Truth