Jed Master Atris was a Jedi Historian and member of the High Council during the Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War, acting as the last of the Jedi following the beginning of the First Jedi Purge, or, more specifically, the destruction of Katarr. She would continue to serve in this function until her fall to the dark side, and ultimate redemption at the hands of the Jedi Exile.

Early Life – Catalyst for Destruction

Following the Great Sith War, Atris took a radically active stance within the Jedi Order by advocating the implementations of several older attitudes from the Jedi Archives, including the restriction of padawans assigned to a single Master, and stricter demeanors to the concept of love and romantic relationships. She believed that the assignment of several students to a single Master allowed for more unpredictable relationships between the apprentices, and allowed for more personal tutelage from the Masters themselves. As per her stance on love within the Order, Atris denounced it as a path to the dark side, citing the history of the First Great Schism, and pointing out that it had been the product of two lovers. Her ideas were well-received by the Council, and soon she was given a seat amongst them. Her ideas on the constraint of love and relationships would later prove to be the downfall of the Jedi Order as opposed to its redemption. A failure to recognise, face, and conquer the emotions, rather than suppressing them without acknowledging them, coupled with the emotional conflict of necessary compassion versus prohibited passion, would lead to more students falling to the Dark Side, and indirectly to Malachor V and the First Jedi Purge. Regardless, Atris accepted the appointment, and began serving on the council.

Mandalorian Wars - A Conflict on Two Fronts

While the entire High Council would express their opinions, Atris was the most heavily outspoken during many of the relations with the Republic, and eventually the Revanchists, when the Mandalorian Wars first broke in the galaxy. The Republic begged for Jedi assistance in the formative years of the War, but Atris remained firmly dedicated to the council’s decision to reflect and meditate on this new threat to the Galaxy, and what lay behind it, a larger shadow driving the Mandalorian war effort. She also resolutely supported the idea that action would only lead to more conflict in the future, and that if they gave support to the Republic before being sure that said support would lead to a more peaceful galaxy, it would have been a lapse in wisdom and judgment that could have destroyed the entire public in years to come. Many of the younger students within the Order could not understand the council’s hesitation, and eventually, the Jedi Knights Revan and Malak made the decision to go to war against the wishes of the council, giving birth to the Revanchist movement. Many Jedi followed them, including the Jedi Exile, who Atris secretly held a fondness for, considering the young Jedi as something of a hero. When this happened, Atris’ convictions, and devotion to the light side, were disrupted by a sense of personal betrayal.

In an act of retaliation to what she considered an attack on everything she believed in, Atris enthusiastically condemned the Revanchists, and the teachings of the open-minded Jedi philosopher and fellow historian, Kreia, as individuals that had walked the paths necessary for a fall to the Dark Side. As the war came to a close with a victorious Republic, only one Jedi returned to the Council to face judgment for her actions as a Revanchist:  the Jedi Exile. The former heroic general that had detonated the Mass Shadow Generator returned as Revan did, now wearing the guise of Dark Lord of the Sith and threatening to over-run the galaxy. After her final battle, the Exile had cut herself off from the Force so completely, she created an emptiness in it around her. However, she remained resilient in her beliefs and reasons for going to war, showing no sorrow for her actions. This shook Atris to her core, and caused her to feel vengeful towards her former hero, condemning her as a pawn of the dark side, and desiring a harsher punishment for her than exile. After the sentencing was complete, the Exile drove her lightsaber into the center stone, and withdrew, but the meeting itself was not yet over.

Atris conveyed to the other Masters that whatever she had become, it was of the dark side, and if she was allowed to roam the galaxy, she would merely rejoin Revan. The council ultimately ignored this, and decided to allow the Exile to wander space, never knowing the truth of her loss of the Force. When the meeting had ultimately been adjourned, Atris removed the Exile’s lightsaber from the center stone, and kept it as her own, as a reminder of her former idol, and what had become of her.

The First Jedi Purge – Dark Wars

The aftermath of the Jedi Civil War saw a degradation of infrastructure within the Republic, as the war had driven it to the edge of destruction before finally ending. Faced with a monumental task ahead of them with a small amount of Jedi left to help rebuild the Republic, the Order was halted by a new threat, an unseen entity striking out at Jedi Knights all over the galaxy, and systematically exterminating them. Atris, ever the activist, gathered the Jedi on Katarr for a secretive conclave, hoping to use the natural affinity for the Force the native Miraluka possessed to perceive their threat and where it was striking from. Atris, instead of joining her fellow Jedi to assist in their meditations, leaked information about the meeting in hopes to draw out her threat so it could be faced by the large congregation of Jedi on the planet, and be defeated. This was, however, a rash underestimation of her enemy. Darth Nihilus arrived in orbit above Katarr, and wiped the entire planet of life through the Force, all but decimating the Jedi Order. Atris, having been off-planet during the massacre, withdrew into exile, along with her fellow surviving Masters of the Jedi High Council, but her work for the Order did not end there.

 Atris instead adopted the belief that the fundamental flaw with the Jedi was not the overly strict and narrow-minded nature of their teachings, but rather a lack of preventative measures to disallow students of the Jedi to fall to the Dark Side. She therefore trained a sect of Echani half-sisters to be deadened to the Force, so she could utilise them as guardians who would subdue padawans who began to lose focus and turn to darker impulses. Atris set in motion plans to help rebuild the Republic from her secret academy in the Telos IV polar region, so that she could eventually destroy the unknown threat and rebuild the Order herself, neither of which she would accomplish, as she began to fall farther to the Dark Side than she had already threatened to do in the past, due to her vested interest in Sith Holocrons she had managed to procure.