Gaming

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Reveals New Secrets of the High Republic

ByNews Polite May 4, 2023

Cal discovers a High Republic medical facility and finds Dagan is miraculously still alive inside a bacta tank. Unfortunately for Cal, Dagan awakes in a rage, bleeds his lightsaber’s Kyber crystal red and turns to the Dark Side, and tries to kill him, then he makes off with Rayvis, a survivor of the High Republic era and devoted follower of Dagan.

We go on to learn that Dagan had found a way through the Koboh Abyss and built a Republic settlement and Jedi Temple on Tanalorr with Santari. Tragedy struck when the Nihil attacked Tanalorr and the Republic made the decision to abandon the settlement. Dagan felt betrayed by the Republic and was enraged by their lack of commitment to what had become his life’s work. Santari tried to talk some sense into Dagan but he was too obsessed with Tanalorr to see reason and lashed out at her. In their ensuing clash Santari defeated Dagan by slicing off his arm with her lightsaber, then she put him in a bacta tank where he was forgotten about and remained in stasis for some 200 years.

Is Dagan Gera a Sith Lord?

Despite Dagan Gera wielding a red lightsaber and acting as the game’s premiere Force-wielding villain, he’s not a Sith Lord. The Sith were in hiding during the High Republic era, so making Dagan a fallen dark Jedi gone rogue helps maintain that continuity. He even converts his lightsaber crystal to red right in front of Cal, dramatizing a rarely-seen Dark Side ritual. It’s emphasized that Dagan is driven by his own maniacal desires rather than the philosophy of the Sith.

An Era of Opulence

As Cal journeys through the game world, relics of the High Republic are easy to spot because of their gold designs. There are gold emblems painted across the lands, gold machines that operate High Republic technology, and the collectible Santari Khri lightsaber has a gold hilt. The seven High Republic meditation chambers where Cal must solve complex puzzles to obtain upgrades are identified by their circular golden entrances.

Zee is an exception in that she’s silver, not gold, but her design is still very much of the High Republic because it’s far more eccentric and ornate than the more standard protocol droids of the Imperial era like C-3PO.

This lavish aesthetic helps set apart elements of the High Republic from the post-Empire ones, which are much more utilitarian. It showcases how different life was in the High Republic compared to the meager, worn-out trappings of the Star Wars universe seen in the Original Trilogy. There’s a sense of sadness as Cal explores these long-forgotten locations, like the High Republic research facility on the Shattered Moon that was abandoned after a meteorite struck the moon and half destroyed it. It’s a reminder of how mighty and untouchable the Republic and the Jedi Order once seemed, and how now they’re little more than ruins.

Enduring Characters of the High Republic

Dagan Gera and Zee survived long past the High Republic era, but they’re not the only ones. There are several Star Wars characters that lived during that time and were still around by the time of the Skywalker Saga. Yoda, for example, is hundreds of years old and was a Jedi Master during that period. Dagan and Santari mention Master Rancisis, who like Yoda enjoys great longevity and served on the Jedi Council during the High Republic and through the events of the Skywalker Saga; he’s one of few to survive the Jedi Purge and go into hiding, with his ultimate fate still unknown to this day.

Then there’s Rayvis, leader of the Bedlam Raiders. He’s part of an alien species known as the Gen’Dai, which Star Wars fans will know as the species of the notoriously hard-to-kill bounty hunter, Durge. The Gen’Dai have Wolverine-like healing capabilities, which allow them to survive most injuries and live for a long, long time. As we see during the second phase of the Rayvis boss battle, under all that armor their anatomy is actually a mass of writhing tentacles. Rayvis served Dagan with unyielding loyalty and used his army of Bedlam Raiders to search Koboh for his long lost master.

How the Story Wraps Up

After tracking down his enemies, Cal defeats Rayvis and then makes his way to Dagan, killing him in a lightsaber duel. It’s tragic for Dagan to perish because he could have been a valuable Jedi ally in the fight against the Empire, but it’s especially bitter because, as far as Cal knew, he was the last known living being from the High Republic era. There’s no doubt Dagan had a wealth of knowledge about the High Republic Jedi Order, from Force techniques to philosophical teachings, but it all died with him because he couldn’t see beyond his own ambition. (Later in the timeline, Luke Skywalker “meets” a High Republic Jedi, so not all ends up being lost in that regard.) In the end, Zee is the only High Republic character to survive the events of the Fallen Order sequel, and she seems to be content settling down on Koboh in Pyloon’s Saloon.

For more on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, check out why fans are loving Turgle, the game’s “aracnaphobia mode,” and our review of the game.