Background
The Erito (or Elite) occupy a rather strange position within the Kingdom of Jod. Originally part of the Heishi No Za Chumon (Soldiers of the Order) and Hito No Sono Chikara (People of the Force), the Erito were the lone survivors from a lone escape ship fleeing their home world of Homu Sekai in the Unknown Regions during a brutal Chiss Ascendancy planetary invasion. The escape ship crashed somewhere in between the Outside Galaxy and Companion Cresh after a hyperdrive malfunction and most of the thousand or so civilians & military personnel died in the crash, either upon impact or from exposure to the planetary elements. Less then one hundred personnel survived, all of them being part of the Erito and all of them in cybernetic hibernation pods at the time of the crash.
Use & Debate
The Erito (future Elite) are strictly a covert & clandestine operation special forces organization with additional skills in assassination, espionage, and military deception used the House of Royal Intelligence; they can be related to aspects of Ninjas in general terms. Already being Force-Sensitives, their training includes extensive martial arts (including Ninjutsu & Tae Kwon Do), melee weapons, lightsaber training, and slugthrower & blaster training for ranged kills, as well as proficient use in Force Powers. They most closely align with Gray Jedi and can be related on combat skill & Force Power to Darth Maul (although not as good as Maul).
Their use is the subject of much debate, especially among the Church of Jod, whose few members who know about the Elite felt that such a powerful Force-capable organization should be under studied Force practitioners and loyal Jod citizens, not a foreigner and exiled ambassador from the Jedi Order and what members of that Order survived. Despite Jedi Master Zat's close ties with the Church of Jod, this offense---as they saw it---justified his excommunication from the church, as well as any Jedi who followed him. Which, not all surviving Jedi did, some disagreeing with this militarized force being too closely aligned with Dark Jedi & Sith methods (then Jedi methods) and choosing to stay with the Church of Jod and leave what was left of the Jedi Order. Ultimately, those dissenting voices may have been right, as Jedi Master Alexander Zat started leaning more towards being a Gray Jedi himself then the Jedi he was in the Clone Wars.
Due to a vow of silence, Elite will only speak among themselves, to Jedi Master Zat, or to the House of Royal Intelligence.
History
A few months after the end of the Clone Wars, the Erito were rescued by Jedi Master Alexander Zat and a handful of other Jedi Knights & Padawans who had survived Order 66 and were being assisted by Royal Command & House of Royal Intelligence in locating & rescuing other Jedi survivors. This rescue effort drove the soon-to-be-awakened Erito to view Zat as their new Master of the Order and they swore allegiance to him, the Jedi Order, and the House of Royal Intelligence, as well as Royal Command (in extension to HRI).
While this rescue and its greater arrangements were kept highly secret, a handful of members within the Church of Jod somehow found out about these "rogue" Force-Sensitives running around the Kingdom of Jod without their supervision and voiced strong opposition to it with the Jod Royal House. Despite this leak, the House of Royal Intelligence was quick to silence any further leaking, most of it being done during Operation Timber.
Over the years, Jedi Master Zat and his fellow excommunicated Padawans & Knights, and the Elite themselves looked more like a Religious Military Order then they did the Jedi Order they sought to restore. This understandable confusion in priorities prompted the personal intervention of Jedi Master Yoda personally around 2 BBY.
Weaponry
A "full load out" for an Elite (including their extensive Ninjutsu & Tae Kwon Do training) contains the following, with the first three weapons all but "standard" regardless of the mission:
- Tac-S-1 Strategic Katana Sword (primary weapon)
- Tac-SS-1 Strategic Staff (secondary weapon)
- Tac-HHD-1 Strategic Shuriken
- Tac-C-1 Strategic Crossbow (mission profile optional)