Kyp Durron

"No change comes without conflict. Perhaps my destiny is to be the irritant that forces the discussion, the blister that lets you know your boots don't fit."

- Kyp Durron

Kyp Durron was a Jedi Master, and a hero of the New Republic. For years Kyp served in the spice mine of Kessel, the son of political prisoners. In 11 ABY, he escaped with the help of Han Solo and Chewbacca. Kyp became one of the first Jedi to enter Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum.

Kyp soon rose to become Skywalker's best student, but, impatient and hungry for more knowledge, he fell under the influence of the Dark Lord Exar Kun. Now under the spell of the dark side of the Force, Durron took the Sun Crusher to Carida, destroying the Imperial-allied planet. However, his rampage ended shortly after when Exar Kun was defeated by the other students at the Jedi Praxeum.

Durron eventually became a powerful Jedi Master, although his views came into conflict with Skywalker's during the Yuuzhan Vong War. Durron believed the Jedi should not hesitate to use the Force as a weapon with which they would crush the Vong. Following the end of the war, Kyp Durron was seated on the High Council of the New Jedi Order. During the Swarm War, he once again led a faction of the Order, which preached that the Jedi were not tools of the Galactic Alliance.

Early life (5 BBY–11 ABY)
Kyp Durron was born on the Deyer colony of the Anoat system. In an Imperial roundup of dissidents, he and his parents&mdash;politicians outspoken against the destruction of Alderaan&mdash;were sent to be slaves in the spice mines of Kessel. Kyp was only nine years old. His older brother Zeth was conscripted into Imperial service.

While laboring in the spice mines, Kyp met Vima-Da-Boda, who taught him what minor Force skills she could before being removed by Imperial authorities.

Jedi training (11 ABY–25 ABY)
"I want to be a Jedi."

- Kyp, to Luke Skywalker, after his redemption

Eight years after Kyp's enslavement, Han Solo and Chewbacca were taken prisoner by Moruth Doole and forced to work in the spice mines. With the help of Kyp, the three managed to escape. In their flight, Kyp used his natural affinity with the Force to pilot them through The Maw, an almost impregnable cluster of black holes in the Kessel system, inadvertently leading them to a top secret military program led by the Imperial Admiral Daala. It was here that Kyp first found the Sun Crusher, which the trio used to escape the facility. Upon their return to New Republic space, Kyp found a place at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4. Luke used a Jedi technique to test the boy's Force potential, which was so immense that the resulting feedback from the test threw Luke across the room.

Kyp advanced quickly, but soon became dissatisfied with the Praxeum's slow pace. Feeling that Luke was holding him back, Kyp was seduced and possessed by the dark side spirit of Exar Kun, an ancient Sith Lord from the era of the Great Sith War. With the assistance of Exar Kun, he gained control of the Sun Crusher by using the Force to fly it out of the gas giant Yavin. He then used it to pursue a destructive course of action. Kyp traveled to Endor and, at the spot of Anakin Skywalker's funeral pyre, proclaimed himself the new Dark Lord of the Sith. One of his first actions was to seek revenge for the Imperial slaughter of his brother and parents.

The fallen Jedi used the Sun Crusher to fire a torpedo into the Caridan system's sun, starting a supernova that annihilated the Imperial base on Carida. Soon after firing the weapon, he discovered that his brother Zeth was not dead as the Caridan officials claimed, but was in fact alive among the ranks of stormtroopers at the Imperial Academy there. Unable to save him in time, Kyp saw his brother disintegrate before making his escape, and as a result his guilt and rage drew him further into the clutches of the dark side.

Luke and Han Solo were eventually able to catch up to him and return him to the light. He then returned to the Maw and piloted the Sun Crusher in the ensuing battle between the New Republic and Admiral Daala's forces. He then destroyed the Sun Crusher by piloting it into one of the Maw's black holes and taking the pursuing Death Star prototype with it. He narrowly escaped by slowing down his bodily functions, squeezing himself into a message pod normally too small for a Human, and breaking many bones in the process while launching the pod out of the black hole's gravity well.

Jedi missions
"If Kyp Durron needed help, I doubt he would ask."

- Kirana Ti

Despite his many atrocities, Master Skywalker welcomed Kyp back to the Academy. But although Luke had forgiven him, Kyp had a difficult time forgiving himself. Terrified that he would succumb to the dark side again, and sometimes wishing death upon himself, it was a long healing process. On his first mission after his redemption, he assumed the alias Zeth Fost and investigated rumors of a Jedi Knight operating on the planet Prishardia. Though ultimately the rumors were proven false&mdash;it was only con-artist Ghitsa Dogder posing as one&mdash;the mission was a personal success for Kyp, for the smuggler Fenig Nabon began the process of Kyp's inner healing. Kyp would rise from the ashes of his past to become a Jedi Master and one of the foremost members of the New Jedi Order.

In 12 ABY, when Admiral Daala reunited the various Imperial factions, Kyp Durron and his friend Dorsk 81 went on a Coreward mission to spy on her, but were discovered and forced to flee. When Daala subsequently attacked the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, Kyp was one of the senior Jedi leading the defense against her ground forces. Although the Jedi were victorious, Dorsk 81 was killed in the battle. Kyp then left the jungle moon again.

Later, having returned to Yavin 4, Kyp was present for the arrival of the Academy's newest student&mdash;Dorsk 82. So striking was his similarity to Dorsk 81 that Kyp momentarily confused the two. Kyp soon took the new trainee under his wing, taking him out into the jungle to visit Dorsk 81's grave. There he presented Dorsk 82 with the lightsaber of his deceased predecessor. Impressing Dorsk by fighting off a battle hydra in the jungle, the new trainee pledged to become a Jedi Knight, with Kyp declaring his support.

Shortly after, the two departed on a mission to the mining colony of Corbos in the Celador Sash. Finding the mining colony deserted the two set off to investigate. Kyp was immediately subject to screams and cries for help through the Force&mdash;mysterious considering the dead colonists that they found. While Dorsk 82 slept, Kyp set out to find the reason behind this mystery. Out in the pouring rain, Durron climbed to the top of the crater city, discovering a slavering leviathan&mdash;a bioengineered Sithspawn created by the Sith during the Hundred-Year Darkness.

"We've got a score to settle, you and I. Come and get me monster!"

- Kyp Durron taunts the leviathan

Meanwhile, the insecure Dorsk 82 awoke to find Kyp gone and fled to their ship to raise the comm and get help from the Academy. Responding to his distress signal, Streen and Kirana Ti set out from the Academy to join them flying another of the Order's ships. Arriving on the planet they joined up with Dorsk 82 and went in search of Kyp. Meanwhile, Kyp engaged the creature in a vicious battle inflicting numerous lightsaber wounds on it before finally using a grappling hook to climb onto its back. There, within a milky portal, the ghoulish faces of the miners spirits stared out at Kyp. Plunging his red saber down into the portal Kyp released the spirits&mdash;and was flung off the leviathan's back. Losing his grip on his lightsaber, Kyp was plucked up by one of the leviathan's tentacles, which proceeded to force him down its maw.

Down below in the mines the other Jedi were looking for Kyp and discovered a clutch of leviathan larvae. At the same time, Kyp fought the leviathan using Force storm lightning to kill it. He then broke more portals to release the miners' spirits. Dorsk 82, Streen and Kirana Ti climbed out of the mines and caught up with Kyp. The Jedi then encountered an even larger leviathan. Dorsk 82 and Streen then fought the leviathan while Kirana Ti went to search for Kyp. She then found an unconscious Kyp near the body of a smaller leviathan. The group worked together to defeat the larger leviathan. They then returned to the ships.

Yuuzhan Vong War (25 ABY–29 ABY)
"I can't see the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force any more than he can, but I don't need that to tell me they're evil. To know that they have to be stopped."

- Kyp Durron, to Jaina and Anakin Solo

Kyp quickly grew strong in the Force and took on Miko Reglia as his Jedi apprentice. He and Reglia formed the Dozen-and-Two Avengers, a vigilante group of X-wing and other snubfighter pilots. This squadron was one of the first to encounter the Yuuzhan Vong. Kyp lost his squadron and his apprentice to the Yuuzhan Vong, barely escaping with his own life. Escaping into Hyperspace, Kyp came out with two grutchins on his fighter. He was able to kill one with his lightsaber and squished the other one with his wings. They did not die without a fight though, they pretty much ate his ship apart. Kyp was able to bring his shields back up and take short hyperspace jumps, to a near planet to tell people of the Yuuzhan Vong. Afterwards, he formed a similar squadron of fighters called the Kyp's Dozen.

Although he favored more aggressive tactics than many of the other Jedi, he proved himself a valuable asset in the deadly conflict. After Warmaster Tsavong Lah called for the heads of the Jedi, however, he broke from Luke Skywalker. Most of the other masters, who had been his fellow students, supported Luke, but Durron took the fight to the Yuuzhan Vong with a small&mdash;but significant&mdash;group of supporters. Over the first year of the war, his Dozen protected Bothawui and fought at the Battle of Kubindi. He also journeyed to occupied Dantooine, observing a kilometers-wide pit filled with the bones of those the Vong had sacrificed to their gods.

He briefly took on Jaina Solo as an apprentice and there were hints of a budding relationship between them, but she lost much respect for him when he tricked her into destroying a Yuuzhan Vong worldship that he claimed was a gravitic superweapon. While it did not destroy his level of support among the Jedi, there was a growing consensus that Durron was no longer stable.

After the Fall of Coruscant, Kyp was one of those who managed to reach Hapes. As he watched Jaina come close to falling to the dark side, Kyp finally understood how dangerous his own aggressive tactics were. Jaina managed to come back from the edge, and she re-apprenticed herself to Kyp. Leia Organa Solo, however, warned him that if he ever hurt Jaina again, the Yuuzhan Vong would be the least of his problems. After this incident, he became a much more stable person, and since his reformation he gained greater acceptance among the other Jedi.

Though Kyp disagreed with many of Luke Skywalker's policies, he was appointed to the High Council. Kyp eventually learned to work out his differences with Luke and the other Jedi, even though their views on certain subjects often differed.

At the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Kyp, Leia, Han, Judder Page, Meloque and Wraw worked on Caluula while the Galactic Alliance fought at Dac and Alpha Red destroyed every living Yuuzhan Vong on the planet. During their mission the team was imprisoned by Malik Carr and was to be killed, but Booster Terrik, Shada D'ukal, Lando, Talon Karrde, Crev Bombaasa and Mirax Terrik Horn from the Smuggler's Alliance rescued Kyp and the others with the Errant Venture. Later, Kyp was one of the Jedi to fly a Zonama Sekotan fighter in defense of Zonama Sekot. After the end of the war Kyp was present at the Conclave on Zonama Sekot.

Dark Nest Crisis (35 ABY–36 ABY)
By the Dark Nest Crisis, Durron was on the Masters' Council. However, he was once again at odds with the other Jedi. Though he no longer opposed Master Skywalker, he was, along with Mara Jade Skywalker, a leader of the faction which felt the Jedi had a duty to the galaxy at large before the Galactic Alliance. This stance was reminiscent of Revan during the Mandalorian Wars and Count Dooku's during the Clone Wars. This brought him into conflict with Corran Horn and Kenth Hamner, who felt that the Jedi were answerable to the Alliance. When Luke was out of contact on Woteba, Chief of State Cal Omas attempted to disorganize the Jedi by appointing Corran the Order's interim leader. Kyp refused to take part in it, saying that Luke Skywalker led the Jedi, and that there would be no peace as long as Cal Omas was Chief of State.

Second Galactic Civil War (40 ABY)
During the Second Galactic Civil War, Kyp kept a low profile as a member of the Masters' Council, though he did put out the suggestion that Jacen Solo be made a Jedi Master to bring him back into the Jedi Order and exert some control over Jacen's activities. Directly after the Battle of Hapes, he was chosen to investigate the incident involving the Skywalkers' son, Ben Skywalker, and Zekk. After having a discussion about it with Luke and Mara, Kyp decided not to investigate.

Kyp later admitted to fellow Masters Luke and Mara that he had found a woman who liked his hair long and didn't mind the gray in it. He also told them that both Cal Omas and Cha Niathal wanted Jacen to be elevated to the rank of Jedi Master. Despite his own belief that Jacen should be elevated to the rank of Jedi Master, in the meeting with Cal Omas and Niathal, Kyp sided with Luke who thought otherwise since he believed that Jedi problems were worsened when politicians interfered. Kyp would later go on and offer assistance to Mara when she decided to hunt Lumiya, which she refused. He also told her that he didn't understand why Luke had tolerated Jacen as long as he had and believed making him a Master would change his views and priorities. Again he would offer his assistance in the hunt for Lumiya after Mara's death.

During the Battle of Kuat, Kyp commanded Shadow Saber squadron before the Jedi left the battle.

After the Battle of Kashyyyk, Luke ordered Kyp to organize a Jedi plan to feign an assassination of Jacen. He also assisted scientist Toval Seyah in the destruction of Centerpoint Station. Kyp was present during the Battle of Shedu Maad, when Darth Caedus, as Jacen was now called, was killed.

Behind the scenes
Kyp Durron was created by Kevin J. Anderson.

Originally, Kyp was not planned to be in the New Jedi Order series. In the early stages of planning and the first draft of Vector Prime, he was absent; however, there was still an original hotshot Jedi character who led the Dozen and Two Avengers. After it was decided that fan outrage over dropping elements of the Bantam continuity might be too great, the Del Rey staff had R.A. Salvatore change the Jedi pilot's name to Kyp and add in several bits of text relating to his background.

Continuity errors
In Dark Journey, Kyp's name has incorrectly been spelled Kip on one event. It also states that he dragged the Sun Crusher out of the heart of Yavin however, in Dark Apprentice he used the Force to remotely power up the ship and fly it out of the gas giant.

Though it is sometimes claimed that Kyp killed "billions" in his destruction of the Caridan system, Carida in fact had a population of about 25 million.

Kyp's eye color changes from black to brown in earlier EU sources to green in the NJO series. Furthermore, his hair color is referenced as black several times during the NJO, but dark brown elsewhere. However this could simply mean that he dyed his hair or that it was simply changed between the different books.