Orla Jareni is an Umbaran Jedi Master introduced by Claudia Gray in Into the Dark (2021). She is a Wayseeker — a recognised status within the High Republic Order in which a Jedi operates independently of the Jedi High Council, choosing her own work.
The best idea the era invented
The Wayseeker is a genuinely useful piece of worldbuilding. It gives the Order a sanctioned escape valve, which makes the institution feel older and more confident than the Council-and-Temple monolith of the prequel films, and it hands writers a Jedi who can plausibly be anywhere. Jareni declares her status shortly before the Great Hyperspace Disaster, which means her retirement from Council authority lasts about a week before the galaxy needs her.
Her people
She and Cohmac Vitus grew up together in the same crèche, and both were shaped by the Eiram–E'ronoh crisis as Padawans. She also does the practical work of putting Elzar Mann back together after the attack on Valo, which is the closest thing the era has to a scene about Jedi mental health.
Her end
Jareni dies in 230 BBY aboard Starlight Beacon, in the events of The Fallen Star — the novel in which the initiative demolishes its own central symbol.
