the knights of ren were an organization of masked force-wielding warriors, who were neither sith or jedi, but a new generation of dark side warriors that emerged to fill the void left by the supposed demise of the last sith lords, darth sidious and darth vader. they had code, to which they were flexible in following: living life the way they wanted, taking what the galaxy gave them, and consuming what the dark side sent them. the knights consisted of six individuals named vicrul, ap'lek, cardo, kuruk, trudgen, and ushar, and, prior to the destruction of luke skywalker's new jedi order, they were led by another individual known simply as "ren". some of the knights were students of luke, who, similarly to their future leader, kylo ren, had lost their faith in the jedi and succumbed to the dark side. eventually, after kylo ren's fall to the dark side, he became the new leader of the knights of ren and led them on the attack that destroyed luke's new jedi order, although luke himself managed to escape and exiled himself. the knights first appeared in a vision to rey in "", but played a more important role in "". after kylo ren became the new supreme leader of the first order, the knights became his personal guards and began following him more closely. when kylo formed an alliance with the resurrected emperor palpatine, who ordered him to kill his granddaughter rey, the knights of ren joined him in his hunt for her and were present during their confrontation on pasaana, where they captured chewbacca. later, after kylo redeemed himself and became ben solo once again, the knights instead swore their loyalty to palpatine and served as his guards during the final battle of exegol, where they were all slaughtered by ben, marking the end of the knights of ren.