Lit What are the Principles of the Altisian Jedi?

So I've read the original Callista trilogy (Children of the Jedi, Darksaber, Planet of Twilight) in which Callista and first appears and Djinn Altis is first mentioned, as well as No Prisoners, Order 66, and 501st in which Djinn and Altis appear in their earlier time period.

The Altisians are setup as a splinter group from the Coruscant Temple-based Jedi, they allow attachments, relationships, families, multiple Padawans, they travel collectively on a massive starship, and seem to the be the Jedi who do the best job of winning public affection.

What would you say the principles of the Alistian Jedi were vis a vis the Coruscant Jedi?
What made them Jedi, as opposed to a different Force sect entirely?

 

IMHO, the Altisians were the Protestants to the Coruscant Jedi's Catholics. They felt that "Jediism" had lost its way at some point in its evolution and wanted to get back to a "truer, purer" interpretation of "Jediism".

The Altisians have a tremendous amount in common with the Jedi of the Pre-Great Sith War period. One could easily see Nomi Sunrider or Ulic Qel Droma getting along swimmingly with Callista or Djinn Altis and agreeing perfectly on matters of doctrine. The Jedi of the pre-Great Sith War period allowed romantic relationships, multiple apprentices, families, etc. The caveat of the time was that duty came first and foremost and that, if you had to pick and choose between duty and family, you should do your duty.

Put bluntly, more trust was placed in the individual to be able to resist the negative connotations that came with attachment when responsibility called.

The Coruscant Temple came to the conclusion at some point that people couldn't be trusted to balance family and duty, and so the rule on attachment was strengthened to an outright ban on relationships. Much of this seems to have been a byproduct of the Ruusan Reformations, which were a reaction, not only to multiple Jedi falling to the Darkside, but to the Jedi Lords.

Put bluntly, during the Thousand Year Darkness the Jedi stopped being Jedi. The Jedi are supposed to be peacekeepers and ambassadors, servants of the people. Not feudal lords passing their power and privilege from parent to child. Ruusan was intended as a corrective measure. Unfortunately it was overcorrective.

 

For their out-of-universe history, weren’t they only retconned to be a separate branch after AOTC showed a lot of the established history of Corran’s Jedi family no longer made sense if they were mainstream Jedi?

 

You're thinking of the Corellian Jedi, not the Altisians. The Corellian Jedi primarily kept to the Corellian Sector, whereas the Altisians seemed to go wherever they pleased. Yes, they retconned two separate splinter groups of Jedi that permitted families, go figure.

Strangely enough, while strongly independent, the Corellian Jedi are implied to have had a closer and more cooperative relationship with the Jedi High Council than the Altisians. The Altisians are implied to have only cooperated with the mainstream Jedi after the Clone Wars started and were thought of as heretics, whereas its implied Corellian Jedi cooperated semi-regularly with the rest of the main Order long before the Clone Wars started and Corellian Jedi like Thame Cerullian were seen as wise and respectable by the mainstream Jedi Order.

 

They were created to make Callista Masana's history of being one of two Padawans to a Master who had no issue with attachment and families and children make sense. Ironically, before Traviss created the Altisians, Jedi Trial made Nejaa Halcyon a member of the Coruscant Jedi who was censured for his libertine views.

The other reason they were created is to give Luke's Order continuity with Jedi less than 3-8 thousand years old.


@HMTE , it's funny you use the Catholic/Protestant example because I have encountered more than a few Catholic's who can't stand criticism of Yoda's Jedi, which let's be real, if the guy became (a) Grandmaster within 200 years of the Ruusan Reformation, it is his Order.

Also, I grew up in fundamentalist Christianity, and while the philosophy is different from Coruscant Jedi, I recognize the high control cult aspects and agree with most of Traviss' criticisms (more so as she presents them with Altis, Geith, and Callista, rather than the Mandos - the later are a little too biased IMO)

 

So, the funny thing with Nejaa Halcyon is that there was a Holonet News blurb stating that he was one of 24 Corellian Jedi who heeded the Jedi Council's recall order to serve the wider Republic in the months prior to the Clone Wars. So we have Holonet News to thank for squaring Nejaa Halcyon's background between what is shown in Jedi Trial and what is shown elsewhere.

One gets the sense the Corellian Jedi were essentially grandfathered in since they were an organization that existed as far back as the Great Galactic War in the 3600's BBY. At least, that's my headcanon for why the Coruscant Temple seemed more tolerant and cooperative with them when they couldn't seem to stand the Altisians.

The Altisians, by contrast, are very much a modern phenomenon (as in, a couple decades old at most).

Continuing the Christianity parable, if Yoda's mainline Order are the Catholics, the Altisians are one of those hippy dippy "Jesus loves everyone, can't we all just get along" nondenominational churches.

Which makes the Corellian Jedi, I don't know, Eastern Orthodox?

One of the issues I have with the Altisians is that they provide the perfect out for Anakin, and it makes Anakin look stupid(er) in retrospect.

At the end of his interaction with Djinn Altis, it's made clear to Anakin, that, if he ever gets expelled from the Jedi then he'd have a place amongst the Altisians.

Why not take up that opportunity? You still get to be a Jedi and you don't have to hide your marriage.

Maybe it's because the Altisians are less influential and well connected than the mainline Jedi? We know Anakin is ambitious and wants power. Being an Altisian would have let him be with Padme openly, but it would have been a bit of a step back in terms of influence.

 

The Altisians do feel like something of a throwback, yeah.
Corellian Jedi are a lot older... at least back to 5000 BBY, possibly even 11,000 maybe, and seem to reflect a less conservative or more outward view of the role of Jedi, too?
Perhaps at a time of greater integration with the masses, and before some of the radicalization that occurred since the Sith conflicts began. Or in schisms like the one in 4250 BBY?

So certainly a 'back to basics' approach may have been the intention. There's also a strong hint of Altis' creed being influenced by commune-like thought, as a movement.

 

My memory of No Prisoners is that Anakin thinks that joining Altis would take him away from being able to protect "his men" on the front lines. Since the Altisians aren't included in the Jedi-Military integration act that officially gave Padawans and Commanders GAR ranks.
He probably also thinks not fighting Dooku, who he knows is a Sith, is cowardly.

My headcanon is that he actually likes the political influence the Coruscant Jedi hold, based on what he told Padmé in AOTC about "making" the senate act. Combine that with Ahsoka telling Barriss in TCW that "I'm not sure Peace time will agree with him" and "his views are a little radical" I think he'd be very in favor of a return of the Jedi Lords. Especially if it meant he could go free all the slaves on Tatooine/elsewhere (as he and Ahsoka swear they will in the Slaves of the Republic comic)

 

I could totally see Anakin nodding his head in approval when he learned about the Jedi Lords in history class.

History teacher, probably Jocasta Nu: "And due to the total collapse of the galactic economy, the mass deaths caused by Candorian Plague, and the onslaught of countless Sith incursions, most planetary governments were wiped out. In their place the Jedi assumed power as feudal lords."

Anakin: "Sweet."

Jocasta Nu: "Uh...no. It was actually one of the darkest moments in the history of the Order."

Anakin: "Agree to disagree."

 

That makes a lot of sense to me.

Also, are the Alsakan Conflicts, and the basic summary of what they were about, still canon? Or just Legends or One Canon retconning?

The Alsakan Conflicts were a missed opportunity for more gray storytelling. They kind of fall under one of the options in that thread I just made on future antagonists/villains in any time period we'd like to see.

 

The Alsakan Conflicts are referenced explicitly by name in the Canon "Battles that Changed the Galaxy" reference book from 2021. So they are 'officially' Canon, even if there is not real information on them.

 

I never even heard of that reference book.

Is at least their number mentioned? (And it sounds like no hint it was a civil war, and seemingly not tied to the Sith or anything like that?)

 

Nope. Nothing on the number of Conflicts. It just said that the ships of the time were the first to match the scale of the ships that would later be used in the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War

 

Remains to be seen. Unless there is major contradictions in new material, most historic stuff in Legends is assumed to have broadly happened, for One Canon purposes. Some dates might be retconned later, though.

But I treat much of the deep past dates to be approximations anyway, so far - placeholders by the evolving New Republic Historical Council, likely.

And yes, the split over the Alsakan conflict makes good sense for a split for Corellian Jedi - maybe further solidified by Dea crusades within the broader Corellian Hegemony, later...?