Serifa Altunen (Jedi Renaissance)

"I follow the Force&mdash;not the law. I serve the people&mdash;not the Senate. I will make peace&mdash;not war."

- Serifa Altunen to Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Serifa Altunen was a female Arkanian Jedi Master who served the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars and the later Golden Age of the Jedi as a diplomat and a philosopher. When the Clone Wars broke out between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Altunen left the Order, believing that it should be serving the Force, not the Galactic Senate. When the war ended, Grand Master Tomac Moorcé invited Altunen back into the Order, appointing her the leader of the Council of Reconciliation.

Early life
A Force-sensitive Arkanian, Serifa Altunen was trained in the ways of the Force by the Jedi Order at the Coruscant Jedi Temple.

Unwilling philosopher
Ascending to the rank of Jedi Knight after completing the Trials of Knighthood, Altunen went on to become well respected within the Order. When negotiations between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems broke down and the Clone Wars erupted across the galaxy, Altunen dutifully took on the role of General as she led troops in the Grand Army of the Republic.

As the war dragged on, Altunen became disenchanted with the Order's role in the war and the corruption in the Galactic Senate. Departing Coruscant, Altunen returned to her homeworld of Arkania where she began encouraging the Arkanian government to declare neutrality during the Clone Wars. When the High Council heard of this, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker were dispatched to persuade her to return to the Order and the war. Rendezvousing with Altunen on a watery tundra plain thirty months after the start of the war, Master Kenobi pleaded with the woman to return to the Jedi Temple. Taking off her Jedi robe and folding it, Altunen officially resigned from the Order, citing that she served the Force, and that she believed that the Jedi no longer did. With the conversation over, Altunen departed the company of her fellow Jedi and returned to her people.

Powers and abilities
Serifa Altunen received her initial training at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, ensuring that she possessed a standard understanding of the Force, and its applications. Having achieved the rank of Knight, Altunen was also proficient with a lightsaber, having crafted one herself and imbuing it with a green crystal discovered in the caves of Ilum. Developing his skills as a Consular, Altunen focused her energies into the art of diplomacy and politics. These skills were vital to her appointment as Chief Diplomat and bolstered by her time as the Watchman of Arkania during the Clone Wars.