What was Mace Windu's connection to the Whills supposed to be in early drafts of the script for Star Wars?

Question

George Lucas' first draft of the synopsis of the script for Star Wars - written in 1973 and titled "Journal of the Whills" - is said to begin as follows:

This is the story of Mace Windu, a revered Jedi Bendu of Ophuchi who was related to Usby C.J. Thape, Padawaan learner of the famed Jedi.

Lucas explains the original "Journal of the Whills" concept in Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays:

Originally, I was trying to have the story be told by somebody else; there was somebody watching this whole story and recording it, somebody probably wiser than the mortal players in the actual events. I eventually dropped this idea, and the concepts behind the Whills turned into the Force. But the Whills became part of this massive amount of notes, quotes, background information that I used for the scripts; the stories were actually taken from the ‘Journal of the Whills’.

Elsewhere, he has described the Whills as "immortal beings" connected to the Force.

As we know, he eventually dropped the "Journal of the Whills" idea, and made Mace Windu a Jedi who died in the Clone Wars.

I'm curious as to why Mace Windu would have written a journal named for a race of immortals. Was he originally conceived as one of the immortal Whills? Or did Lucas come up with the idea that the Whills are immortal later in the writing process? What was Windu's relationship to the Whills initially intended to be?

Answer 1

It was told to the Whills by "C.J. Thorpe"

The opening line given in the question isn't quite right:

Journal of the Whills

I

This is the story of Mace Windy, a revered Jedi-bendu of Ophuchi, as related to us by C.J. Thorpe, padawaan learner to the famed Jedi.

(Photo source: https://medium.com/@Oozer3993/everything-known-about-the-journal-of-the-whills-outline-d8db1f1410ea, which attributes the photo to The Making of Star Wars; confirmed accurate in my 2010 copy of Star Wars: Year by Year. Emphasis added, spelling as in original.)

In other words, this is saying that the story was told to "us" (presumably the Whills) by C.J. Thorpe, who knew Mace Wind(y) personally. The rest of the outline goes on to tell C.J.'s story in first person:

I am Chuiee Two Thorpe of Kissel. My father is Han Dardell Thorpe, chief pilot of the renown galactic cruiser Tarnack. As a family we were not rich, except in honor, and valuing this above all mundane possessions, I chose the profession of my father, rather than a more profitable career. I was 16 I believe, and pilot of the trawler Balmung, when my ambitions demanded that I enter the exalted Intersystems Academy to train as a potential Jedi-Templer. It is here that I became padawaan learner to the great Mace Windy, highest of all the Jedi-bendu masters, and at that time, Warlord to the Chairman of the Alliance of Independent Systems.

Never shall I forget the occasion upon which I first set eyes upon Mace Windy. It was at the great feast of the Pleabs. There were gathered under one roof, the most powerful warriors in the Galaxy, and although I realize my adoration of the Master might easily influence my memory, when he entered the hall, these great and noble Warlords fell silent. It was said he was the most gifted and powerful man in the Independent Systems. Some felt he was even more powerful than the Imperial leader of the Galactic Empire.

It's not clear in-universe why C.J. Thorpe needed to tell the story to the Whills—maybe they weren't omniscient, and still needed the help of primary sources—but in any case, it doesn't seem like either Mace or C.J. was a Whill.