Bio

Standing less than 1 meter tall, Yoda was a male member of a mysterious species. He was the Grand Master of the Jedi Order and one of the senior members of the Jedi High Council in the last days of the Galactic Republic. He had exceptional skills in lightsaber combat, employing whirling and acrobatic Form IV techniques (Yoda also was a master of all forms of lightsaber combat and was considered by many as the Swordmaster). From c. 300 BBY to 19 BBY he trained almost every Jedi in the Galaxy—as Grand Master, he had instructed every youngling in the Jedi Temple at least once before they were assigned to a master.

Details about Yoda's past are scarce, but some events in his history have been established. Born on a remote planet, Yoda originally did not know that he was Force-sensitive at all. He left his home planet with a Human friend, who also did not know he was Force-sensitive, on an old, barely spaceworthy ship en route to the Core Worlds to seek employment. However, long before they could reach their destination, the ship was struck by an asteroid, causing it to become severely disabled beyond their abilities to repair. They spent several days drifting dead in space during which time both their life support systems and rations came close to being exhausted, and there was still no response to their distress signal. It seemed like they would soon meet their deaths until their sensors picked up a star system not too far away. They had just enough power to make it there, and did so before crash landing on a swampy planet covered with a dense fog. They spent a few days there before being found by a strange being: Hysalrian Jedi Master N'Kata Del Gormo, who revealed to them both that they were Force-sensitive. Master Gormo took them to his home where he trained them in the ways of the Force and, not long after their training was complete, a Galactic Republic starship picked up their distress signal and rescued the two friends, who were now Jedi themselves. It is possible that this "rescue" was in fact planned by Master Gormo, as the timing would seem to fit a bit too nicely, but this has never been confirmed.

By 796 BBY, Yoda had been granted the title of Jedi Master and had begun the training of his first student, who would be one of the many Padawans Yoda would train over the course of his own life.

Later, Yoda was one of the Jedi Masters who led the mobile academy aboard the starship Chu'unthor, which was constructed circa 500 BBY. After crash-landing on the planet of Dathomir one hundred years later, Yoda and the other Jedi fought with the famed Witches of Dathomir. Coming to a stalemate, he agreed to leave the ship's data tapes although left no means of reading them. The tapes were bestowed to Rell of the Singing Mountain Clan for safekeeping until a time when a Jedi would come to save the planet from darkness and the information could safely be shared with the Witches. This did not happen until around 8 ABY.

In 482 BBY, Yoda traveled to Kushibah in search of a new Padawan. There among the diminutive Kushiban, the Jedi Master discovered young Ikrit, and took him to be trained as a Jedi. By around 400 BBY, when Beldorion left the Jedi Order, Yoda could be considered one of the greatest Masters in Jedi history, comparable with Nomi Sunrider or Thon more than 3,500 years earlier.

Star Wars

A decade later, during an investigation of a strange poisonous dart, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi discovered that a massive army of clones was being created on the planet Kamino. After Obi-Wan reached Geonosis in his search, a group of Jedi was sent in his assistance and Yoda decided to travel to Kamino to see the clones for himself. When the Jedi and Senator Padmé Amidala were captured by the Separatists, Yoda arrived with the clone army, beginning the Battle of Geonosis.

As the battle began, he learned that the droid army was controlled by his former apprentice, Count Dooku, who had become a Sith Lord and supported the Confederacy of Independent Systems against the Republic. Yoda met Dooku in a hangar right after the Sith had wounded Obi-Wan and Anakin. After rejecting some of Dooku's Force Powers, among which Force Lightning,Yoda realized that Dooku had turned to the Dark Side of the Force, becoming a Sith Lord. A lightsaber duel began between the two, Yoda almost managing to defeat Dooku when the latter used the Force to drop a pillar over Obi-Wan and Anakin. Yoda had to concentrate on stopping the massive construction from crushing the two Jedi, time in which Dooku made his escape.

Though the Republic won the Battle of Geonosis under the direction of High General Yoda, many Jedi were killed. More importantly, the 1,000 year peace ever since the Seventh Battle of Ruusan was over. Yoda sensed that the Clone Wars would be a long and tumultuous period for both the Republic and the Jedi Order itself, and indeed they were, shaking the galaxy. During the Clone Wars, Yoda, along with many other Jedi Masters, was forced to become a General fighting in various battles for the Republic on worlds across the galaxy.

Born: 896 BBY

Died: 4 ABY

Height: 0.66 meters

Master: N'Kata Del Gormo

Video game appearances