Jedi Temple
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The Jedi Temple is a fictional building in the Star Wars universe. It is a massive structure standing 1km high above the buildings of Galactic City, Coruscant, in an area where the Temple is largely unobstructed to sight.
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[edit] Architecture
From the outside, the Jedi Temple appears as a high-raised ziggurat building in a stepped design, with five spires built on top, one taller spire surrounded by four smaller ones. These spires symbolize a Jedi's climb to enlightenment. Its design suggests that of a fortress, but for more than forty generations, it has stood as a symbol of peace and justice.
- The tallest Central Spire is known as the Temple Spire, and is traditionally the most important, since it holds the ancient texts of the Founding Jedi, and those scrolls saved from Ossus. The official status of Knighthood, and Master are given in this spire.
- The first of the four smaller spires is Jedi Council Spire where the twelve members of the High Council sit and debate the various facets of the Republic. This is the most important tower because the High Council has overall decision-making powers over the whole Jedi Order, and, thus, quite a bit of influence in the Galactic Republic. The Jedi Council Spire stands southwest to the Temple Spire.
- The next tower is that used by the Council of First Knowledge. This council takes care of matters requiring the wisdom of past Jedi Masters or Council members, and gives advice to the High Council, or most any Jedi who requests it. This spire stands northwest to the Temple Spire.
- The third spire is the Council of Reconciliation Tower, which seeks to find peaceful settlements to political disputes at home on Coruscant or offworld in the Republic. This spire stands southeast to the Temple Spire.
- The fourth and last spire is the Reassignment Council Tower, which handles the organization of work for young Jedi who have not been chosen by Jedi Masters to be apprentices. This spire stands northeast to the Temple Spire.
Each of these five spires carries high-gain communication transmitters, used to contact field Jedi or other offworlders as required by any of the four Councils. This is part of the reason why the Jedi Temple's towers stand so high over any other buildings, where there is little or no interference with the antennas.
[edit] Use
The Temple itself is the home to the Jedi, where they live for the first years of their apprenticeship, and where they learn of the ways of the Force and train in the traditions of the Jedi Order.
- The Jedi Archives are housed inside the Temple
- The Temple also provides independent transport for any Jedi who needs it. The recently constructed Temple Hangars house Delta-7 and Eta-2 Jedi Starfighters, capable of transporting Jedi anywhere in the Galaxy.
- The rest of the inner Temple consists basically of just dormitories, meditation, and training areas. There are many different areas, including where Jedi Masters train Younglings and where Jedi learn and develop their skills with the lightsaber, or areas that simply provide meditation space.
- The Temple's network of communication systems is controlled in the computer room; it holds the Jedi beacon that allows speedy contact between the Temple and Jedi without having to use the HoloNet.
The Temple is surrounded by an extensive Precinct, which also offers docking space for larger spaceships, and contains other buildings built after the construction of the Temple.
[edit] Jedi Archives
The Jedi Archives contain knowledge and research dating back thousands of years. The Archives Library was located in the lower portion of the Jedi Temple, under the control of Madame Jocasta Nu, a former Jedi Council member.
The Archives covered a vast range of criteria, including details on supposedly every planet and species in the Galactic Republic. They also included Diagnostic Laboratories, the home of the JN-66 analysis droids, and held both Jedi and Sith holocrons.
Just before the Clone Wars, somewhere between 32-22 BBY, information was emptied from the Jedi Archives concerning the planet Kamino, the Kaminoans and their cloning industry. The information about Kamino was removed by Count Dooku, who also murdered Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas. Darth Sidious had ordered Dooku to do this to conceal the creation of the Clone Army from the Jedi Council as one of Dooku's first assignments as Darth Sidious's new apprentice. This was uncovered by Obi-Wan Kenobi when he tried to identify the origin of Senator Amidala's attacker, who used a Kamino sabre dart. This eventually led to the uncovering of the Separatists' plans for war, and the beginning of the Clone Wars.
It is unknown whether the Jedi Archives were destroyed when the temple was attacked in the Great Jedi Purge. Although the temple was severely damaged, it was not completely destroyed, as it is visible in the celebrations on Coruscant at the end of Return of the Jedi over twenty years later. During the invasion of the Jedi Temple, Sith Lord Darth Vader was destruction of the Jedi Temple by the Jedi and the clone troopers during the battle. A special clone trooper task force was deployed directly to the library to defend several important bookcases containing information of all Jedi knowledge on the Sith.
[edit] History
Thousands of years before there was a Temple, the Jedi Order was run out several Enclaves throughout the Galaxy, as depicted in Knights of the Old Republic and The Sith Lords. Various locations included Dantooine, Coruscant and other planets. The Enclave on Coruscant might well have become the Temple itself; this is suspected due to comments referring to the Room of a Thousand Fountains being within both the Temple and Enclave. The Enclaves were subsequently bombed during the many wars with the Sith.
During the Jedi Purge in 19 BBY, the Temple was attacked by the 501st Legion of Clone Troopers, led by the newly anointed Lord Vader carrying out Order 66 of the new galactic emperor. The Jedi inside were cut down and slaughtered. The Temple itself was set alight, statues cast down and destroyed and the building riddled with laser marks and signs of the previous attack during the purge. It was later found to be abandoned, but curiously was not completely destroyed (it is seen in the DVD edition of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi). The temple was rumored to be used as a prison for Jedi and lightsaber storage.
In the limited-series comicbook, Star Wars Infinities: A New Hope, which told an alternate history to Star Wars, the Jedi Temple is shown to be the personal residence of Emperor Palpatine, which is possible, taking into account Palpatine's contempt for the Jedi by using the former sanctuary of his enemies as his home. This would also mirror how the Sith temple on Yavin 4 was used as both a Rebel base and later as a new Jedi training facility. However, since this comic series exists greatly outside of the canon, it cannot be confirmed that the temple was ever used for this purpose.
After the fall of the Empire, Luke Skywalker established a new Jedi Temple and Academy on Yavin 4, and began to rebuild the Jedi Order.
The New Jedi Order makes it clear that the Coruscant Jedi Temple is no longer standing. Given its appearance during the Return of the Jedi timeframe, the most likely causes of its destruction are the damage to Coruscant when the Lusankya is freed (though this would depend on the Temple's relative location to the Manarai Mountains), the reborn Emperor's attacks, or simply the Yuuzhan Vong terraforming.
Five years after the events of The Unifying Force and 35 years after the Battle of Yavin, the Jedi Temple was rebuilt on Coruscant by the Galactic Alliance as a gift to Jedi for their services and achievements during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. The new temple is in the form of a massive pyramid made from stone and transparisteel that is designed to fit into the new look of Coruscant.
[edit] References
- Jedi Archives at the Star Wars: Databank
- Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
