**Spoilers for Jedi: Survivor and The High Republic Phase One**

Jedi: Survivor has been released, and while people are still making their way through the game, the story mode is easily accessible to watch or read through online (you can read my breakdown/thoughts on the story here). 

One of the plotlines revolves around The High Republic, mainly two Jedi— Dagan Gera and Santari Khri who discovered a hidden oasis planet, Tanalorr. Dagan and Santari dreamed of starting a Jedi Temple to train Younglings in a safe corner of the galaxy. Unfortunately, an attack from the Nihil destroys hope for their future on Tanalorr.

Cal learns about Tanalorr when he stumbles on Master Khri’s old droid ZN-A4 on Koboh. Khri wiped any information on navigating the Koboh Abyss from the droid’s memory databank. Even though Dagan and Santari lived 200 years before the events of Jedi: Survivor, Cal faces Dagan directly when he discovers the Jedi in a bacta tank. Having seen visions of Dagan through his psychometry, Cal sympathizes with and releases him. Unfortunately, Dagan immediately bleeds his Kyber crystal and turns against Cal, focused on returning to Tanalorr.

Beneath the surface, Dagan is a secondary antagonist to Cal on the way to Bode. But there is a parallel between Dagan, Cal, and Bode. Dagan and Bode become so obsessed with Tanalorr that they abandon reason and betray those close to them. Bode refuses to share Tanalorr with members of The Path and only wants the entire planet for himself and his daughter. That selfishness seals his fate. 

Meanwhile, Cal is struggling with attachment. During the game, Cal is battling his feelings toward Merrin, which the Jedi Order forbade. The only family Cal had known before the Mantis crew was the Jedi Order, and it is hard for Cal to shed the habits the Order instilled in him. He is encouraged to do so, interestingly enough, by Bode. By the end, Cal and Merrin are together.

How does this relate to Dagan? Well, his relationship with Santari bares a second look. It plays like something more is going on, especially as a mirror to Cal and Merrin’s relationship, but it is vague enough that people could see them as just good friends.

But Dagan resents Santari’s betrayal in a way that feels more intimate than a friendship. We also learn that his greatest fear is Santari’s opinion of him. That would make sense if the two were a couple. Either way, a deep attachment affects the decisions and actions of both Dagan and Santari. Dagan turns to the dark side not only because the Order abandons Tanalorr but also because he feels Santari abandoned him. Meanwhile, Santari holds out hope for Dagan, leaving him in the bacta tank at the forest array on Koboh. 

While their closeness might give warning signals during Cal’s Jedi Order, the High Republic Jedi Order was not as strict on attachments between Jedi. However, there is also an indication that events from the High Republic led to the Jedi becoming more firm on this. First introduced in The High Republic Phase One, Jedi Masters Stellan Gios, Avar Kriss, and Elzar Mann are three close friends who have grown up within the Jedi Order. Elzar Mann struggles with his feelings for Avar Kriss, frustrated with what he feels is a growing distance between them. Mann is the last of the three knighted, and it is suggested that the Jedi Order is weary of his desire to explore the limitless potential of the Force. Because Mann operates outside of the lockstep of the Order, he is one of the most interesting High Republic Jedi. Jedi like Mann are also susceptible to the dark side, as he proves during a battle with the Nihil in Rising Storm.

It is unclear when the events of Phase One versus those from the High Republic in Jedi: Survivor occur, but it is at least after The Great Disaster (referred to as The Emergence in the game) from Light of the Jedi. Therefore, seeing Dagan, Santari, or both in publishing is not a stretch. And there is plenty of time.

The Lucasfilm Publishing panel at Star Wars Celebration Europe revealed The High Republic Phase Three slate, and the last phase in the publishing initiative will take us through Spring 2025. At the end of Phase One, the leader of the Nihil, Marchion Ro, used Stormseeds to block off ten sectors in the Outer Rim from the Republic and the rest of the galaxy from interfering. Koboh is a planet in the Outer Rim and could have been in one of those sectors, thus increasing an urgency to find a world off the radar to most of the galaxy. The reference to threats in the game leaves the door open for a more defined point in the timeline.

And even if Phase Three comes and goes without a mention of any of this, that does not mean we won’t see Tanalorr again. Cal, Merrin, Greez, and Bode’s daughter Kata are now on Tanalorr to set up a refuge for The Path. There has been no official announcement of a third installment of the Jedi series. Still, sales for Jedi: Survivor are strong, and, despite performance issues on PC, the game received positive reviews overall. Lucasfilm Games and Respawn should be working on a third game by those standards. 

We still don’t know where Cal is during the Original Trilogy, but Tanalorr can conveniently take him and Merrin away from the Galactic War. A third game and an explorable Tanalorr would give more opportunities for Cal to see visions from The High Republic involving Dagan and Santari. If the main threat in a third game is keeping Tanalorr off the Empire’s radar, we could also get a definitive answer on how the Nihil found the planet. Master Eno Cordova suggests that they just found a compass; however, given what we know from the novels, it is more likely that they used their secret Path routes calculated by Force-sensitive Mari San Tekka.

An appearance or mention in The Acolyte is less likely to happen as that series takes place near the end of The High Republic when the Nihil appear to be a non-issue, making way for the rise of the Sith.

In a final confrontation, Dagan uses the Force to confuse Cal. But the Jedi turns Dagan’s power against him, revealing what Dagan fears most- the judgment of Santari Khri

Character card of Dagan Gera after he is defeated, Jedi: Survivor (Respawn and Lucasfilm Games)

Dagan’s ability to Force project someone’s fears is a power we rarely see a Jedi use (outside of Palpatine or a Force entity like the Cave of Evil). How did he learn this power? He also fought Cal and maneuvers as if his right arm remained.

Santari’s mind and navigational prowess are also worth noting. She not only created the compasses used to navigate through the Koboh Abyss but an alternative navigation involving aligning the three arrays in the game to a set of coordinates in her goodbye message to Dagan. This technology held up for 200 years, allowing Cal and the Mantis crew to navigate safely to Tanalorr.

Then there is the mystery of Tanalorr itself. Is there something other than the location that caused Dagan to become so obsessed? Kantari notices that the Force is strong there, and Star Wars has planets particularly attuned to the Force (Dagobah, Lothal).

With Masters Dagan Gera and Santari Khri renowned within the Jedi Order and the first mass introduction to the High Republic before The Acolyte series premieres in 2024, it is hard to believe we won’t get more of them in some capacity, whether that is a continuation of the Jedi game series, streaming, or within The High Republic publishing initiative. From not liking each other when they first met (per Dagan) to close “friends,” and their tragic end, there are many more gaps to fill in this complicated relationship.