Rey was a Force-sensitive human female who, after years of living as a scavenger, became a Jedi during the war between the First Order and the Resistance.  In order to survive on Jakku where she was left by her parents as a small child, Rey became a scavenger in the employ of Unkar Plutt, trawling through the junk fields of the Starship Graveyard which was littered with the remains of starships and other military technology[7] from the Battle of Jakku. At first, she worked for other scavengers, bringing them the loot she found in crashed New Republic and Galactic Empire vessels that were downed during the battle. She heard local stories about what happened during the battle: that it was the last stand of the once-powerful Empire during the Galactic Civil War, that the Empire locked onto Republic ships during the fighting and dragged them down to the surface together, and more.