This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The High Republic #4.
Star Wars has finally revealed why the Drengir, the new threat that has emerged in the High Republic Era, terrify the Jedi. The future of the Star Wars franchise lies in the past, specifically in the High Republic Era. Lucasfilm Publishing has launched a tremendous transmedia initiative set 200 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, at a time when the Jedi Order was at its height. The Republic was expanding into the Outer Rim. In doing so, they stumbled upon a terrifying new threat.
Lucasfilm claimed Star Wars: The High Republic would reveal what sort of threat can make the Jedi afraid. Initially, the key villains appeared to be a group of space Vikings known as the Nihil, but - as formidable as they may be - it's gradually becoming clear the true threat is far greater than that. The Jedi have stumbled upon a dark side race more dangerous than the Sith, the Drengir, voracious plant-creatures who are strong in the dark side of the Force and consider other races to simply be "meat" they consume. But the true scale of the Drengir threat is only revealed in Star Wars: The High Republic #3, by Cavan Scott and Ario Anindito.
It seems the Drengir possess the ability to bond with other creatures, linking them to their own dark side hive mind. Star Wars: The High Republic #4 reveals that is what has happened to the Trandoshan Jedi Sskeer, whose ability to use the Force had been strangely diminished and who was struggling to restrain a growing sense of anger and rage. To be bonded with the Drengir is to be exposed to their darkness, a vast reservoir of evil that even a Jedi Master finds almost overwhelming.
This, then, is why the Jedi will come to fear the Drengir. Jedi are taught to master their own emotions, seeking peace and serenity and confronting their own darker impulses. While it is true empathic Jedi have always been able to sense the darkness of others as well, the sense of exposure involved in bonding with the Drengir is far greater. Sskeer is a seasoned, well-trained Jedi Master, and even he has struggled to retain his self-control. No doubt other Jedi would have fallen, becoming pawns of the Drengir rather than resisting them.
It seems the Drengir will finally explain how the Jedi became afraid of the dark. The glimpse readers have seen of Star Wars' High Republic Era so far has suggested these Jedi were bold and confident, willing to confront the shadows they sensed out there in the galaxy. But the experience of the Drengir looks set to radically redefine their understanding of the dark side, with the Jedi closing off the dark side shrine beneath the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The Drengir taught the Jedi to be afraid of the dark – and thus gave the Sith a chance to flourish in the shadows.
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