For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire. Those few years of intense oppression and devastation from Imperial rule left an indelible mark on all of the races of the galaxy. Part of that mark was a galaxy of peoples united in gratitude towards the almost extinct Jedi, who brought an end to that great catastrophe of government and became a symbol for freedom and salvation.