About 7 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker felt that the remaining
Imperial forces that still persisted in the galaxy were no longer of a great threat to
where he needed to be constantly on the front lines leading the New Republic against them.
He believed that he was ready to start committing his time to rebuilding and bringing back the
Jedi Order to the galaxy once again.
So he went on to create the New Jedi Order, establishing its base of operations on Yavin
4 and taking over the old Temple that the Rebel Alliance used during their attack on
the first Death Star.
This place was known as the Jedi Praxeum, and it served as the headquarters of Luke’s
Jedi Order for about 15 years until it was later destroyed.
Luke’s Order initially began with only 12 students, but slowly grew over the years to
the point where it contained a few hundred students.
Which was still quite a low number when compared to the old Jedi Order, which contained around
10,000 Jedi.
Though their size and locations weren’t the only differences between the new Jedi
Order and the old one.
The way Luke Skywalker lead his new Jedi Order was vastly different from the days of the
past Jedi.
For one, he was far more flexible when it came to teaching his students.
Luke believed that his students should learn about the force through experiences rather
than in formal, lecture type classes.
That they should go on their own unique, individual paths with the force and learn at their own
paces.
He encouraged them to go on missions that the force called upon them to take up, and
if things got bad during said mission, that they shall trust in the force and let it guide
them to safety.
Luke didn’t want his students to just think about their actions and instead he wanted
them to go out and just do them.
Kind of following the advice of what Yoda told him many years ago, of do or do not,
there is no try.
During the early stages of Luke’s Order, there were only a few Masters and Knights,
many of whom were Jedi that survived the Purge and reemerged from their hiding spots once
they heard of Luke’s new Order.
Because there were so few of them, each Master and Knight had to take on multiple apprentices
at the same time once that became a standard practice again.
Luke also rolled back many of the old rules that Jedi used to follow, either because he
thought they were unnecessary or because he simply didn’t know about them.
The new Jedi were allowed to have relationships with each other and to get married, with even
Luke himself getting married later in his life with Mara Jade.
The traditional robes and other uniforms worn by the old Jedi was no longer mandatory, and
instead the students were encouraged to wear whatever they wished, even battle armor if
they deemed it necessary.
Though traditional Jedi robes seemed to be a standard during formal ceremonies.
Luke’s Jedi Order was also far less decentralized, in that each individual student had far more
personal freedom and responsibilities to take care of.
There wasn’t a central group of Jedi that gave out orders to everyone below them or
held high authority over their peers.
However, Luke did eventually create a Jedi council but their authority was far more limited
and constrained, and they were disconnected from the politics of the New Republic.
Luke did this as he feared the council being corrupted and manipulated by the New Republic’s
politics, which he believed was one of the things that led to the downfall of the old
Jedi council.
Although Luke wanted to separate the Jedi from the political sphere of the galaxy, he
did however want them to be more involved directly with the people.
Unlike the old Jedi Order, where most of its members remained at the Temple and only came
out to settle crises.
Luke encouraged his students and peers to go out and be involved in the galaxy, even
in places where there wasn’t any conflict.
That the Jedi should get to know the people and cultures of each world they visited, to
stay and make friends with citizens during times of peace.
He wanted the galaxy to see that the new Jedi weren’t some closed off monks who served
the elite of the galaxy, and to perhaps tear down the negative stereotypes much of the
galaxy had on the Old Jedi.
Also Luke’s view on the dark side and how the Jedi should deal with it was far different
from the Old Order’s ways.
The old Jedi Order’s view on the dark side was to essentially destroy it at first glance,
to eradicate all traces of it in the galaxy.
This meant killing any dark side users who popped up now and again, or trying to destroy
or cover up dark side artifacts.
Luke on the other hand was a strong believer of redemnation, and he understood that everyone
was capable to falling to the dark side and because of that, everyone was also capable
of returning back to the light.
So he didn’t hold this strict view of there being a need to destroy every trace of the
dark side in the galaxy, and to rather help those who have been taken by it,
Other minor changes with Luke’s Order was that the new Jedi could carry and use weapons
other than lightsabers, including even blasters.
Plus the rule of only infants being allowed was no longer in practice, with many of Luke’s
earliest students being in their teens to late 20s.