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The Great Jedi Library, also known as the Great Library, was a Jedi temple on the planet Ossus. According to the Qel-Droma Epics, it was designed and built by the Jedi Master Odan-Urr to honor a promise to his Master Ooroo and was located far from Knossa Spaceport and Ossus City. Besides standard datacards, the Great Library contained holocrons, which are polyhedral-shaped devices that store phenomenal amounts of data. It was destroyed at some point prior to the Clone Wars.

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History[]

Defender of Knowledge[]

According to quasi-historical Qel-Droma Epics, honoring a promise to his Master Ooroo, Odan-Urr designed and oversaw the construction of the Great Jedi Library atop the Ooroo Canyon on the planet Ossus. Within the library, Odan-Urr catalogued and studied ancient artifacts in the Chamber of Antiquities, as well as translating and digitizing writings. The library stood for nearly a thousand years as the physical embodiment of Jedi dedication to knowledge, becoming a place of pilgrimage that took several days' to reach.[4]

Post-Cron Supernova[]

The Great Library was destroyed at some point prior to the Clone Wars.[2] At some point before the construction of the Jedi Temple on the planet Coruscant, the Jedi evacuated a few of the holobooks and artifacts from the lost Great Jedi Library on Ossus which made it to the Jedi Archives on Coruscant.[4]

In the Qel-Droma Epics, Ossus was devastated during the Cron Supernova, when the Sith Lord Naga Sadow triggered stars in the Cron Cluster to become supernovae. The Jedi had little warning of the coming cataclysm and prioritized the artifacts from the Chamber of Antiquities. Despite the efforts, they only managed to save a fraction of the artifacts housed on the planet which made it to the Jedi Temple on the planet Coruscant via nearby Exis Station, and the Great Library was left in ruins.[4]

By the Imperial Era, the ruins of Great Library were the only things that remained of what was once palatial facility, with chirping kaddyr bugs roaming around the entrance.[4]

Layout[]

According to the Qel-Droma Epics, erected atop a lone hill above Ooroo Canyon, the Great Library was established several days walking distance from Knossa and Ossus City. The exact appearance of the Great Library varied from source to source, mainly due to deceptive floor plans peddled by the con-artist Skavak. Besides standard datacards,[4] the Great Library contained holocrons, which are polyhedral-shaped devices that store phenomenal amounts of data.[5]

While many items were indeed stored at the Library, a select few were housed in the submerged satellite structures at nearby Imhar Canyon; artifacts needing to be kept in water or in moist environments. Remote access to the library was granted to the branch library in the city of Knossa, where scholars were provided access to the Great Library's unrestricted digitized archives. Researchers there could also remotely control droids within the Great Library facility to interact with nondigitized tomes and scrolls.[4]

Lost Library NoP

Chamber of Antiquities during the Imperial Era.

The main public area of the Great Library's collections was known as the Hall of Knowledge, open to the public and encompassing chambers on multiple levels and functions. Containing ancient star charts and Jedi texts, philosophical text, galactic histories for thousands of worlds, the Hall of Knowledge was sprawling and exhaustive. Jedi librarians prowled the stacks here, ready to assist researchers in their search for knowledge. Among the chambers within the Hall were several archives, classrooms, study and reading rooms, information desks and kiosks.[4]

Odan-Urr understood that some knowledge was too potent for free access, with this in mind, he kept the dangerous items on the second sublevel of the library, known as Chamber of Antiquities. Not just a single room, the Chamber was divided and subdivided into a labyrinth that was difficult to navigate, including rooms such as the Vault of Justice.[4]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

  1. According to Nexus of Power, the Qel-Droma Epics dates the age of the Great Library to "nearly a thousand years". The Epics also say that Ossus' destruction took place approximately 4000 years before the Imperial Era, it could be calculated that the library was constructed approximately 5000 years before the Imperial Era.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Star Wars: Complete Locations
  3. According to Nexus of Power, the Qel-Droma Epics dates the destruction of Ossus to approximately 4000 years before the Imperial Era.
  4. 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 Nexus of Power
  5. AltayaCite "General Equipment (I)" — Star Wars Encyclopedia
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