Star Wars: Why 14,000 Jedi Left The Order Before The Phantom Menace, & What It Says About The Force

25 years ago, the Star Wars prequels introduced the idea of a decaying Jedi Order to the audience, yet failed to touch on the 14,000 Jedi who’d already left. Mace Windu later confirms that the Order’s ability to use the Force had greatly diminished in its final years. The hubris of the Jedi blinded them to Palpatine’s plot to destroy them. But some Jedi saw this decay beforehand. For example, Qui-Gon Jinn distanced himself from the Council in order to regain a sense of freedom, while others—such as Count Dooku and Barriss Offee—completely turned away from the Order.

While characters like Dooku and Offee were among some of the last Jedi to turn their backs on the Order, they were certainly not the first. In 382 BBY—over 300 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace—a Jedi named Barash Silvain created the “Barash Vow.” Simply put, Silvain opted to refrain from participating in the Jedi Order entirely; she remained a Jedi in name, but rejected the Order and refused to partake in it. Her vow was inspired by her failure during a mission to Gansevor, turning her self-exile into a form of penance.

14,000 Jedi Swore A Barash Vow Over The Centuries

Surprisingly, in the Darth Vader #2 comic by Charles Soule, Darth Vader discovers that over 14,000 Jedi have taken the Barash Vow since the founding of the Order. This comic was released in 2017, leading many to believe that 14,000 Jedi had left the Order in the 25,000 years of its existence. However, Barash Silvain’s story—first seen in 2023 in The High Republic – The Blade 4—recently solidified that the Barash Vow was created in 382 BBY. This creates a strange situation where 14,000 Jedi seemingly left the Order in the last 400 years of its existence.

How Badly Had The Jedi Lost Their Way?

If 14,000 Jedi walked away from the Order in the last four centuries or so, it means that the Order was losing around 36–37 Jedi each year to the Barash Vow. This may seem like a drastic number, but it actually makes a lot of sense given how badly the Jedi had lost their way in the Order’s waning years. Barash Silvain’s own failure may have genuinely inspired her to punish herself, yet she harbored no true ill-will toward the Order. Meanwhile, thousands after her began to use the Vow as a means to get away from the Order’s folly.

While Dooku and the other Lost Twenty Jedi forsook the Order and attempted to raze it, those who took the Barash Vow merely stepped away to realign themselves with the Force. Only now is Star Wars finally starting to elaborate on the Jedi who chose to walk away from the Order’s dealings. The Acolyte recently introduced the first ever live-action Wookiee Jedi named Kelnacca, who has seemingly shaved his head and taken the Barash Vow. No doubt this will help clarify why some Jedi in Star Wars saw the darkness within the Order and chose to walk away from it.