The Jedi Knights were the guardians of the Old Republic from the very beginning. They protected the citizens of the galaxy and vaquished evil, but a gradual deviation of this noble tradition developed as the Knighthood grew. The corruption had begun when human Jedi Masters had taken nonhuman disciples. The Jedi Knights went from being the guardians of the Republic to the secret masters of it's future. They used their powers to manipulate and direst the Republic's leaders. After the resolution of the Clone Wars, the Jedi began to move toward an open grab for power. Senator Palpatine circumvented them and deposed their puppet. In overthrowing the corrupt Old Republic, the Emperor stripped from the Jedi their political power and laid their evil bare for all to see. The Jedi denied the truth he revealed, all except one of their number. His fellows tried to murder him, but he survived their treachery and rose to assist the Emperor in rooting out the evil that had ruined the Knighthood. He was Darth Vader and never had their been a greater champion for the high ideals of the Empire than he.