Jedi Council

The Jedi High Council (or Jedi Council) is a fictional institution from the Star Wars film series. The Jedi Council are the strongest members of the Jedi Order, and are elected to lead the Jedi.

History

The "Jedi High Council" was a group of twelve wise and powerful Jedi Masters elected to guide the Jedi Order, as well as serve as an advisory body for the Supreme Chancellor (a sage governance). The earliest known Jedi Council was around 3,965 years BBYFact|date=June 2008. Conversations between Bastila Shan and Carth Onasi imply that there was a Jedi Council preceding the "Jedi Civil War era" councilFact|date=June 2008.

The Council was made up of five lifetime members, four long-term members, and three limited-term membersFact|date=June 2008. This organizational structure had evolved from the earlier assemblies of Jedi Masters, and during the Great Hyperspace War may have been nothing more than an "inner circle" within the assembly. The Council originally had no set meeting place, and met irregularly on planets such as Ossus, Alderaan, and Chandrila. With the relocation of the Order from Ossus to Coruscant, the Council was established on that world.

The Jedi Council alone chose promising Jedi to join them. No outside body attempted to appoint a member to the Council against its wishes, until the , when Supreme Chancellor Palpatine appointed Anakin Skywalker to the Council.

Towards the end of the Clone Wars, the majority of the Jedi High Council (along with the other Jedi) were killed by Clone Troopers enacting Order 66 at the behest of the Supreme Chancellor. Members included Mace Windu and Ki-Adi-Mundi. Obi-Wan Kenobi went into hiding on Tatooine and was killed by Darth Vader nineteen years later. Four years after that, Yoda died on Dagobah at over 900 years old.

New Jedi Order

In novels set after the events of the film series, Luke Skywalker re-established the Jedi High Council as part of his New Jedi Order. The most notable difference between the format of the new council and the old is that only half of the council was made up of Jedi, while the other half consisted of politicians. Following the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Jedi withdrew their support from any one political entity and relocated to Ossus, where a full Jedi Council was re-established.