Orla Jareni

Orla Jareni is an Umbaran Jedi introduced in the publishing initiative Star Wars: The High Republic, which is set about 200 years before The Phantom Menace. Tall, strikingly pale, and marked by geometric facial tattoos, she wields an unusual hinged double-bladed lightsaber that produces white blades - a visual sign of her wish to follow The Force in her own way rather than traditional Jedi orthodoxy. After growing disillusioned with Council decisions during a disastrous hostage mission on Dalna, Jareni petitions to become a “Wayseeker,” a rarely chosen status that allows a Knight to operate entirely outside the Order’s hierarchy. At the time of the Great Disaster she is en route to the new space station Starlight Beacon aboard the smuggler ship Vessel, where alongside Cohmac Vitus, Dez Rydan, and Padawan Reath Silas she uncovers the long-dormant threat of the Drengir on an Amaxine Space Station (events chronicled in Claudia Gray’s novel Into the Dark).

Although she rejects official postings, Orla continues to work for the light - ferrying refugees, mediating local disputes, and investigating Force phenomena in her personal starship, the Lightseeker. Her independence often places her at odds with more conventional Jedi, yet her calm intuition and willingness to question doctrine earn her deep respect from friends such as Cohmac and Stellan Gios. Ultimately, she answers Starlight Beacon’s call for aid when the Nihil sabotage the station in The Fallen Star. There, Jareni becomes one of the earliest Jedi to encounter the Leveler (or “Nameless”), a creature capable of severing beings from the Force; her final act is a selfless attempt to shield civilians before the creature turns her to lifeless ash, a fate discovered too late by her comrades. Though her life is cut short, Orla Jareni exemplifies the High Republic’s spirit of exploration - proving that true service to the Force sometimes means stepping beyond the comfort of tradition.