Guardians of the Whills

"Who are they?''" "''The Guardians of the Whills. Protectors of the Temple of the Kyber. But there's nothing left to protect, so now they're just causing trouble for everybody."

- Jyn Erso and Captain Cassian Jeron Andor

The Guardians of the Whills were a religious order active in the city of Jedha towards the end of the Age of the Galactic Empire. They traditionally handcrafted the lightbow, a complicated form of bowcaster native to Jedha, such as the one used by Chirrut Îmwe during the Battle of Scarif. The protectors of the ancient Temple of the Kyber, the Guardians were forced to live on the streets when the Empire occupied Jedha in search of kyber crystals and stripped the Temple bare of its many treasures, where they nonetheless remained true to their beliefs by preaching to the citizens about the Force.

Behind the scenes
"Originally, I was trying to have the story be told by somebody else (an immortal being known as a Whill); there was somebody watching this whole story and recording it, somebody probably wiser than the mortal players in the actual events. I eventually dropped this idea, and the concepts behind the Whills turned into the Force. But the Whills became part of this massive amount of notes, quotes, background information that I used for the scripts; the stories were actually taken from the Journal of the Whills."

- George Lucas

In early drafts of A New Hope, the name "Whills" referred to an early version of what became the Force.

In the screenplay for Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, an unfilmed scene featured the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn telling Yoda that he learned the secret to becoming a Force ghost after death from a Shaman of the Whills. In another cut line, Yoda claimed the secret to immortality was held by the "Ancient Order of the Whills." Qui-Gon's claim was repeated by the then-canon Databank and the Encyclopedia on StarWars.com.

A later, canon interpretation of this scene was featured in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but had Qui-Gon point Yoda to the Wellspring of Life as the source of immortality instead.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Force Arena
 * Guardians of the Whills
 * Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
 * Rogue One: A Star Wars Story novelization
 * Star Wars: Rogue One: A Junior Novel
 * Star Wars: Rogue One: Secret Mission
 * Rogue One, Part I
 * Rogue One, Part II
 * Rogue One, Part III
 * Rogue One, Part IV
 * Rogue One, Part V
 * Rogue One, Part VI

Non-canon appearances

 * Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes