Qu Rahn


 * "With the Force there are two paths - good and evil - one may take, nothing in between. One leads to a full life, no matter the years. The other is most assuredly a short path that leads to a certain solitary end. One should choose wisely."
 * &mdash;Qu Rahn

Qu Rahn (c. 55 BBY &mdash; 5 ABY) was a Human Jedi Master and one of the few survivors of the Great Jedi Purge.

Early Life
Qu Rahn was born on Socorro around the year 55 BBY, and, after being identified as Force-sensitive, was taken from his parents and brought to Coruscant to be trained as a Jedi at the Jedi Temple. As a youngling, Rahn was member of the Katarn Clan, where, like most Jedi of his time, he trained under Master Yoda.

Rahn grew to become an extremely loyal, steadfast Jedi, surviving the transmission of Order 66. Like many of the Jedi that escaped death, he went into hiding. Shortly after the formation of the Empire, Rahn was listed as one of the Jedi fugitives by Imperial Holovision, along with Kai Justiss, Ydra Kilwallen, Maw, Ranik Solusar and Halagad Ventor. Later, Rahn would part of the group of Jedi that was betrayed by Ventor to the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Vader killed all the Jedi at the location - except for Rahn himself.

Troubled and confused about how Jedi such as Anakin Skywalker, Jerec and Ventor could turn to the Dark Side of the Force, Rahn made the dangerous journey to Dagobah to visit with Yoda. Rahn hoped that Yoda's wisdom would help to give clarity to the thoughts that were troubling him. Instead of a reassuring conversation, Yoda merely spoke enigmatically about a planet, on which was located a “valley of Jedi souls”. Yoda bestowed upon Rahn the rank of Jedi Master, giving him a gold lightsaber in the process and and sending him on his way, but not before teaching Rahn the ability to live on after death as a Force ghost. Although Rahn was baffled by both the new knowledge and the weapon Yoda gifted him with, Rahn accepted it and vowed “to protect the lightsaber as it would him”.

Search for the Valley of the Jedi
For the next few decades Rahn searched obsessively for any information about the history or location of the long lost Valley of the Jedi. Time and time again any leads Rahn found to the valley's hiding place left him empty handed. In his mind the valley seemed unreachable - as mythic as as the planet Millinar or the Lost City of the Jedi. To make matters worse, the Galactic Empire’s Inquisitorius relentless task to find every last Jedi made travel nearly impossible,

Ultimately one Inquisitor caught wind of Rahn’s search - Jerec - and the race to be the first to find the Valley of the Jedi was on.

Around the time of the Battle of Yavin, Rahn heard a report that Halagad Ventor, the man who had caused so many Jedi deaths, had been found by a group of Rebel Alliance soldiers and redeemed before he died. But Rahn scoffed at such rumours, refusing to believe the tale that had found its way to his ears, remembering the words that Yoda had told him in their meeting on Dagobah, “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.”

In Rahn’s opinion traitors to the Jedi Order, like Jerec, Skywalker and Ventor had sealed their own fates - they could never be saved. After countless years of dead ends and false leads, Rahn was close to admitting defeat in what was increasingly looking like a fruitless quest, but then a vision helped restore his resolve. The vision led him to a simple farmer living on Sulon - a man named Morgan Katarn. From Katarn Rahn discovered not only the coordinates of the planet where the Valley of the Jedi was located, but also the precise location of the valley on the planet itself. Katarn also shared with Rahn a thousand-year-old prophecy dating back to the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, that the native Bouncers had told him about the valley. “And a Knight shall come, a battle will be fought, and the prisoners go free.”

Having seen in the same vision, that he would be captured before he could reach the valley, Rahn entrusted his personal lightsaber to Morgan, and urged Morgan to pass down the location of the valley and the lightsaber with Morgan's own son - Kyle Katarn - whom Rahn had sensed was strong with the Force.

Confrontation with Jerec
Resigned to whatever hand Fate would deal him, Rahn then prepared to confront Jerec. He was eventually captured by Jerec's Dark Jedi minions on Dorlo and brought aboard the Vengeance, in the process losing the lightsaber that Yoda had given him. Rahn attempted to will himself to die, having already seen this event in vision, but Jerec was able to prevent Rahn’s attempt at a noble demise, and using the Force pried the information he needed about the Valley of the Jedi from his mind.

Rahn was devastated, in his own mind he had become the very thing he had despised - a betrayer of the Jedi. Not only had he now lost Yoda’s lightsaber, but he had betrayed Morgan Katarn and a secret that had been kept for generations. In that dark moment, the loyal Jedi Master gave into despair, and, using a Force Pull, he stole the Dark Jedi Yun’s lightsaber and attacked his captors.

Rahn put up a valiant fight, managing to sever one of Jerec’s companions, Maw, in half at the waist, only to be brought to his knees by a blast of Force Destruction from Jerec. As Jerec moved in for the kill, Yoda’s voice echoed in Rahn's head the promise that one day he would understand.

At that moment Jerec struck the killing blow, decapitating the helpless Jedi Master, but in his final moments, Rahn glimpsed the spirits of Anakin Skywalker and Halagad Ventor and finally realised what Yoda wanted him to understand.

No one was beyond redemption.

Behind the scenes

 * Qu Rahn first appeared in Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight where he was portrayed by Bennet Guillory. Like Kyle Katarn, Rahn was originally a character created for a videogame that has since made the transition to the wider Expanded Universe.
 * In Jedi Knight, he only appears as Rahn. The first name Qu was added later, perhaps a word-play on the Qu'ran, the holy book of the Muslims.

Appearances

 * Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
 * Star Wars Insider 84 (HoloNet News)