Star Wars: Where Anakin Did His Darkest Deeds – The Jedi Temple Breakdown
Throughout the galaxy the Jedi Temple was a beacon of hope, then a reminder of sorrow. Let’s take a look a the home and grave, of the Jedis.
The Great Dune Sea of Tatooine. The towering spires of Theed, capital of Naboo. Amid the clouds, the floating cities of Bespin. Truly the Galaxy is full of wondrous sights. But none are as impactful, nor half as tragic, as that great bastion of the Jedi Order that towered over Coruscant itself.
Throughout the years, it served as the Jedi’s Tower of Guard, their fortress watch upon the dark. But in later years, it was home to darkness itself. This is the Jedi Temple.
The Jedi Grand Temple
Millennia before the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Rebellion, and the events that followed, the Jedi Temple was established on Coruscant. In the time of the High Republic thousands of Jedi spread across the galaxy. And there were many temples. But the Jedi Grand Temple was meant to unite them all.
Much as the Force binds all life together, so too would the Jedi Grand Temple be a central hub. So much so that, even though there were many temple to the Jedi, if you were to speak of the Jedi Temple, all would know which one you meant.
It was originally built by the Four Masters, a group of four Jedi Masters who commanded the Force like no others. Two were known to be great warriors, two were known to be great sages. Little else is known, but their likenesses are carved into the pylons of the Jedi Temple.
And it served as a central hub for all Jedi throughout the Republic. Throughout the years, the Jedi rebuilt and expanded the temple many times. At the height of their power, the Jedi Temple served as a monastery for Jedi Knights and Masters, as well as a school for the training of young Padawans and initiates.
The Jedi Temple also housed the Holocron Vault, which kept the Jedi’s most protected secrets; the Jedi Archives, which contained their largest repository of information; and the Jedi Council Chamber, where the Jedi High Council convened.
It was built on Coruscant, in the Federal District. A promenade known as the Processional Way led right to the steps of the Temple. But its place wasn’t chosen at random. The Jedi Temple was built into a natural mountain spire, home to many shrines, temples, and other holy places in the millennia before.
Jedi Temple Structure
The Temple itself was a ziggurat. At the widest base of it, there was a series of pillared halls that carried the weight of the temple. Here, there were many tranquil rooms. Meditation halls, quiet archives to study, as well as the Room of a Thousand Fountains.
Throughout the rest of the Temple were more practical facilities. Storage rooms for linen (to make the robes) and training equipment. Throughout the Temple were classrooms and dormitories to house and train new younglings.
The most sophisticated holographic technology known to the Jedi was used here to create combat scenarios and other tests for Padawans and newly-minted Knights. Indeed, the play of modern technology and ancient facilities defined much of the temple. Under stained glass arcades and ancient tablets depicting the Jedi’s greatest heroes, you could find rooms dedicated to storing and maintaining starships.
But the Jedi Temple housed a secret. A dark secret.
The Shrine in the Depths
Long before the Jedi Temple was ever built, though, the sacred mountain was home to a much darker power. Five millennia before the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Sith built a shrine atop the spire of the mountain that would one day house the temple.
At the time, the spire was home to a powerful light side vergence. A naturally occurring concentration of the Force that drew in Force-sensitives with prophetic visions and promises of power.
The Sith built their shrine there in the hopes of corrupting the light side vergence with the power of the Dark Side of the Force. Over the years, they succeeded. The great black edifice that towered against the Coruscant sky as a symbol of their dominance and power, corrupted the vergence. Which is why the Jedi razed the temple to the ground at the end of a great war.
They had hoped to seal away the dark power the Sith had unleashed. Hoping eventually to return the vergence to the light side. However, the dark side is insidious. And the existence of the shrine became known to Darth Bane and his dark side acolytes.
When Darth Sidious came to power and destroyed the Jedi Order, the new Emperor had the shrine excavated in secret. Closely guarding the knowledge, Sidious used the shrine as his own private sanctum.
After the Emperor’s death the Republic reclaimed it. Perhaps in time, it will be a bastion of the light once more.
May the Force be with you
