The sentient Jerni were the original inhabitants of the ancient Outer Rim desert planet Jerne, where they once ruled over a glorious empire before suffering extinction many eons before the Galactic Civil War. In a failed bid to capture Princess Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker of the Rebel Alliance shortly after the destruction of Alderaan, the Dark Lord Darth Vader tricked his nemesis into chasing after the fabled Eternity Crystal, a device allegedly crafted by the Jerni that promised to save Alderaan through the power of time travel.

Biology and appearance[]

The Jerni were once a sentient species that lived among the pale sands of their desert homeworld, Jerne. According to image tapes concocted as a hoax by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader, the Jerni were hairless humanoids with maroon skin, oval heads, and wide nostrils.^[1]

Society and culture[]

The Jerni civilization consisted of domed, windowed structures of varying sizes. Darth Vader's phony image tapes suggested a vast society spread out across innumerable such structures, with plentiful vegetation interspersed between them.^[1]

History[]

As the original inhabitants of the ancient^[1] Outer Rim Territories^[2] planet Jerne, the Jerni controlled a once-great empire on their homeworld millennia before the Galactic Civil War. However, the Jerni eventually became extinct, and only a few scattered ruins remained of their civilization by the time of the Galactic Empire.^[1]

Sometime after the destruction of the planet Alderaan,^[3] during the Galactic Civil War, Darth Vader devised a scheme to capture^[1] Princess^[4] Leia Organa of the Rebel Alliance by using the promise of a great Jerni scientific wonder as bait. Knowing that Organa would not pass up a chance to possibly save her beloved destroyed homeworld, Vader invented a hoax centered around the fabled Eternity Crystal, a relic supposedly built by the Jerni that could reverse time to a critical juncture in history, at which point time would then continue as normal but along a different path.^[1]

Vader's plan included the creation of phony image tapes that depicted the Jerni harnessing the power of the Eternity Crystal to undo a destructive war and reclaim a period of peace and prosperity on their homeworld. The Dark Lord also had a sleek alien starship built, complete with a falsified log stating that it had been built by the Jerni and had come from the planet Jerne, then sent it into the nearby void of space for the Rebels to find. Sure enough, Vader's ruse attracted Organa and her Rebel ally Luke Skywalker to Jerne, believing that they could find the Eternity Crystal and use it to save Alderaan from its fate or even prevent the Empire from existing at all. However, Vader's plan ultimately failed, and both Rebels escaped from Jerne.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

The Jerni were created for the comic story "Dark Knight's Devilry," which was written by Steve Moore, illustrated by Alan Davis, and originally published by Marvel Comics for the 153th issue of The Empire Strikes Back Monthly^[1] in January 1982.^[5] "Dark Knight's Devilry" depicts the Jerni within the context of Darth Vader's phony image tapes, leaving the species' actual physical characteristics ambiguous.^[1]

Dark Horse Comics republished "Dark Knight's Devilry" in the first issue of its Classic Star Wars: Devilworlds series,^[6] which was released on August 21, 1996.^[7] This reissue presented "Dark Knight's Devilry" for the first time in color by artist Matt Webb^[5] as the story was originally published in black and white in The Empire Strikes Back Monthly.^[8]

Appearances[]

• "Dark Knight's Devilry" — The Empire Strikes Back Monthly 153 (First appearance) (Depicted in Darth Vader's fake image tapes)
• "Dark Knight's Devilry" — Classic Star Wars: Devilworlds 1 (Depicted in Darth Vader's fake image tapes)

Sources[]

Explore all of Wookieepedia's images for this article subject.

• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. II ("Jerne")

Notes and references[]