Meetra Surik

"They may not call you a Jedi anymore, but believe me, you are. It's not something you just stop being. You're stuck with it. Just like you're stuck being the General."

- Bao-Dur

The Jedi Exile was a Jedi Padawan, on par with most Jedi Knights of the time, who studied at the Academy on Dantooine prior to the Mandalorian Wars.

Mandalorian Wars
"When you returned to us, we saw what had happened. You carry all those deaths at Malachor within you, and it has left a hole, a hunger that cannot be filled."

- Zez-Kai Ell

Before he could begin his trials to become a Knight and take on his own apprentice, the Mandalorian Wars surged through the galaxy. The Exile, with overwhelming compassion for the lives lost on the Outer Rim, was soon lured to battle and joined Jedi Knight Revan's forces after being personally recruited by Malak himself; thus never being ordained as a Jedi Knight, and leaving a prospective Padawan, Mical, without a master.

The Exile was a General directly under Revan during the Mandalorian Wars. Overseeing the final battle at Malachor V, he gave the order to activate the Mass Shadow Generator. This generator crushed both the Republic and Mandalorian soldiers caught in its destructive sphere. The death and destruction caused such a substantial 'Wound in the Force' that the shock would have killed the Exile had he not detached himself from the Force. The only Jedi under Revan able to turn away from the dark side after Malachor V, he was also the only Jedi who willingly returned to Coruscant to face trial for his actions - and also to defend them. Despite an impassioned plea, the Jedi High Council decreed that because he had followed Revan to war, he was to be cast out of the Jedi Order. In reality, the Council feared the 'wound' in the Force that surrounded him. Some on the council felt that they were punishing the Exile not because of what he did, but because he was symbolic of the many Jedi that had fallen to the dark side over the course of history. These council members felt that he was the perfect opportunity to examine why and how so many Jedi fall to the dark side. More conservative council members, however, felt no need to do more than exile the former Jedi. Full details of the Exile's adventures in the Outer Rim are unknown, but it is known that Jedi Master Atris had orchestrated the Exile's return to known space. In order to attract the growing Sith threat, she leaked his return to the galaxy and, predictably, attracted the Sith's attention.

Post-Jedi Civil War
"And now you run in search of the Jedi. They are all dead, save one. And one broken Jedi cannot stop the darkness that is to come."

- Darth Sion

The Exile's return to the Republic space occurred in 3,951 BBY. The Harbinger, a Republic cruiser bound to Onderon, suddenly received an order to abort the trip and head to the Outer Rim instead. The Exile's description was included, and he was requested to be given status of a diplomatic passenger and escorted to Telos. When the Harbinger had the Exile on board, they were ambushed by a Sith warship. Then Ebon Hawk, a small freighter that once had played a major role in the Jedi Civil War, rescued him from an unappealing fate. With the help of the utility droid T3-M4, the Exile was taken care of, and the Ebon Hawk was guided to the Peragus mining facility. When the Exile woke up from his stupor in the mining facility, he found an old woman left for dead named Kreia, a mysterious Jedi Master (exiled by the Council because of her many failed apprentices; Revan included) who guided the Exile through his journey to find the missing Jedi Masters who sentenced him to exile. They found the facility to be completely abandoned, except for malfunctioning mining droids. While searching for a way off the station, the Exile found Atton Rand, a man imprisoned within the brig. After Darth Sion and a force of Sith Assassins arrived on the Harbinger, intending to kill the Exile (believing he is the last of the Jedi), the three escaped with T3-M4 onboard the Ebon Hawk, traveling to Telos, finding it to be the only available destination in the Peragus navigational charts. While being pursued by the Sith in the asteroid field around Peragus, laser fire ignited the volatile fuel within the asteroids. The resulting explosion destroyed both the facility and the planet itself, though the Ebon Hawk and the Sith onboard the Harbinger were able to escape. After arriving at the massive Citadel Station in orbit around Telos, the Ebon Hawk and T3-M4 were stolen and brought to the Telosian surface while the Exile and his crew were held for questioning in the Peragus explosion. After Republic investigations proved their innocence, they utilized alternative transportation to get down to the surface, where they were shot down by Czerka air-defense turrets. A Zabrak engineer named Bao-Dur, who designed the Mass Shadow Generator and served under the Exile at Malachor V, saw the crash and pulled the three unharmed from the wreckage. While on the surface, they learned that the Ebon Hawk had been taken to the old planetary aqueducts in the polar region of the planet. Stealing a shuttle from an abandoned military compound, they traveled to the aqueducts and found Atris there, a member of the Council that sentenced the Exile. Atris was attempting to recover lost Jedi teachings and had surrounded herself with several Echani sisters. These sisters, known as Handmaidens, had vowed not to learn the ways of the Jedi. After a heated debate over what the Jedi should have done during the Mandalorian Wars with Atris, the Exile and his party left with the Ebon Hawk and T3-M4. He soon discovered, however, that Brianna, the Last Handmaiden, abandoned Atris to join him on the Ebon Hawk. Despite the rest of the crew thinking she was a spy sent by Atris, and in defiance of Kreia's protests, the Exile allowed Brianna to stay after revealing herself on board the ship. After leaving the academy, T3 revealed that he had managed to download Atris's database while being held, including a recording of the Exile's trial and records of where the last five remaining Jedi Masters were hiding: Atris on Telos, Kavar on Onderon, Vrook Lamar on Dantooine, Zez-Kai Ell on Nar Shaddaa, and Lonna Vash on Korriban. The crew went off to these worlds in search of the Jedi in an attempt to unite them against the Sith and to find the answers as to why the Exile was sentenced as such. After locating and conversing with all of the remaining Jedi Masters, the Exile returned to Dantooine to find the rebuilt Jedi Enclave. There Masters Vrook, Kavar and Zez-Kai Ell had formed a council in which they would decide his fate. Right after they reestablished his exile and just before the Masters could strip him of the Force, Kreia stormed into the meeting to save the Exile at the last moment. The Exile, still under his stasis state established by the Masters, was left helpless to defend them as Kreia put the Jedi Masters through the same suffering the Exile had felt on Malachor V, leaving them not only dead, but void of the Force. After she left, the Exile finally regained his strength and departed for Telos IV to find Kreia, now reestablished as Darth Traya. There the Exile was forced to confront Atris at the secret academy. After he defeated her, the Exile was able to persuade Atris to forgive her and help her see the folly of her beliefs. Atris then told the Exile that Traya had fled to Malachor V to wait for him there for a final confrontation. Atris then told him that she was no longer a Jedi and would go into exile and try to find understanding. Shortly thereafter, the Exile faced Darth Nihilus aboard the Ravager, to keep him from destroying Telos in order to fuel his need and hunger for the Force. With the assistance of Visas Marr, former apprentice to Nihilus, and Mandalore with his Mandalorians, the Exile defeated him and headed to Malachor V.  After crashing on the surface of Malachor, the Exile proceeded to the Trayus Academy, where he battled the Sith assassins and confronted Darth Sion himself. After persuading Sion to let go of his hatred, which caused Sion to finally succumb to his numerous injuries, he confronted Kreia, who had revealed her true identity as a Sith Lord. After a fierce but short battle, the Exile defeated Kreia but spared her life. Before she gave her life to the Force, Kreia gave the Exile information about Revan's location in the Unknown Regions and about the future fates of the Exile's allies and the planets they had visited. Shortly after this exchange, Bao-Dur's remote reactivated the Mass Shadow Generator in order to completely destroy the planet. The crew of the badly damaged Ebon Hawk retrieved the Exile and escaped the planet.

Powers and abilities
"You are a cipher, forming bonds, leeching the life of others, siphoning their will and dominating them. [...] You are a breach that must be closed. You transmit your pain, your suffering thought the Force. Within you we see something worse than the teachings of the Sith. What you carry may mean the death of the Force ... and the death of the Jedi."

- Vrook

The Exile, at first, was a Force user of average ability. He demonstrated an unusual ability to easily form connections with others, forming bonds through the Force that allowed him to leech off of his followers, though he was largely unaware of this ability. After reconnecting with the Force, the ability became even stronger. He was able to gain greater power through all the deaths he caused, a result of his being a "wound" in the Force, but again he was largely unaware of it.

The Exile was one of only four known Force users to voluntarily sever themselves from the Force (the others being Jacen Solo, during the Yuuzhan Vong war, Ben Skywalker during Yuuzhan Vong war and the beginning of The Swarm War, and Kyle Katarn after his subsequent near fall to the dark side on Dromund Kaas, although none, after The Exile, were so severe that they allegedly caused a "wound" in the Force. In all four cases the severings were temporary and eventually reversed).

Significance
"You were always a difficult one to read – both when you were tied to the Force, and even more when it was lost to you."

- Zez-Kai Ell

The ramifications of the Exile's actions are still being felt throughout the galaxy. The Jedi he trained would go on to resurrect the decimated Jedi order into a body that would number thousands until Palpatine's great purge. Furthermore the actions he took on Dantooine, Onderon, and Telos would ensure the solidification of a Republic that had been teetering on collapse, and prolong its existence for several thousand more years. Whether this would ultimately prove a good or bad thing will undoubtedly be a subject of debate among historians until time's end, but whatever the result it is undeniable that the Exile is an extraordinary example of a single individual upon which the fate of the galaxy, for an albeit brief time, pivoted.

Behind the scenes
The Jedi Exile is the main character in the PC/Xbox video game Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Following the tradition of the first KotOR game, the aforementioned light side story is assumed to be canonical. However, according to Leland Chee, as of February 21, 2006 an official decision on this had not yet been reached. No canonical gender has been confirmed, either.

An easter egg exists when using the random name generator where the name Lann Darth is available.

The alternate dark side story only differs in the fates of the planets Exile visits (Onderon is usurped by Vaklu, Dantooine is captured by Azkul and his mercenaries, Telos becomes a world of machines due to its Czerka takeover, and Malachor V remains intact), as well as one party member (Hanharr joins the player's party instead of Mira).

The Jedi Exile is fully customizable by the player, and so can take several different appearances and either gender. The male and female storylines have minor differences, with the most notable one being one of the player's party members (Brianna only joins a male Exile's party, and Mical only joins a female Exile's party). Promotional images present the Exile as male, and so masculine reference has been used throughout the article for the sake of simplicity.

It should be noted, however, that on August 19, 2005, Leland Chee made a statement on the StarWars.com forums in which he said he is trying to make the canonical Exile female (as opposed to the canonical Revan being male). As Chee said on February 21, 2006 (see above), determination of the Exile's gender is "imminent". Later, on April 10, he added that "a name revelation is unlikely" and that the gender will likely be established in the next source to describe the Exile in detail.

As with Revan, a number of KotOR fans oppose the idea of strictly defining the one and only true ending of both games and are likely to refuse to acknowledge the Exile's canonical gender and alignment when they are defined.

One popular fan theory is that Zayne Carrick, the protagonist of the Knights of the Old Republic comic series set nearly a decade before the games, is the Exile. While the comic series hint that Zayne has a great future that the Jedi Masters fear, he and the Exile could not have been canonically considered the same person at the time the first KotOR: Commencement comic was released, due to the aforementioned Leland Chee comment.

Although the player has the choice on what type and color the lightsaber is that Atris takes out during their conversation at the Telos Academy, if the player declines to talk about the lightsaber after Peragus, the default lightsaber is a single-bladed lightsaber corresponding to the player's class (green for Jedi Consular, blue for Jedi Guardian and yellow for Jedi Sentinel).

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords