Telosian Jedi Academy

Telosian Jedi Academy
General information
Constructed	Between 3958 BBY and c. 3956 BBY
Location	Telos IV
Builder(s)	Jedi Master Atris
Chronological and political information
Affiliation	Jedi Order Galactic Republic Galactic Empire Bounty Hunter's Guild

"Yes, it bears the semblance of an academy… but where are all the students? Curious."

―Kreia comments on the Telosian Jedi Academy

The Telosian Jedi Academy, also known as the Telos Polar Academy, was founded by the Jedi Master Atris during the Jedi Civil War, in the wake of Darth Revan's Sith Empire's attack on the planet Dantooine that left the Jedi Enclave there in ruins. Hidden inside a mesa in the polar region of the planet Telos IV that housed the abandoned Telos Polar Irrigation System, the Jedi Academy was afforded secrecy and security. Although the Academy never housed any students, it was inhabited by Atris and the Echani Handmaiden Sisters who served her. The building also hosted numerous Sith holocrons that Atris had collected, along with other relics. Among the collection was various materials of learning that had been saved from Dantooine's Jedi Enclave.

Five years after the end of the Civil War, Meetra Surik, an exiled Jedi who had been fleeing the Sith, traveled to Telos' Citadel Station aboard the Ebon Hawk. When Atris had the ship brought to the Academy, Surik, accompanied by her companions, Kreia, Atton Rand, and Bao-Dur, followed a trail of evidence that pinpointed the Hawk's location, thereby discovering the Academy. Once there, Surik met with Atris to discuss the past struggles between the Jedi Order and the Sith before leaving to gather other surviving Jedi Masters.

Description

A map of the Academy

Located within a mesa in the planet Telos IV's polar region that housed the abandoned Telos Polar Irrigation System, the Telosian Jedi Academy was retrofitted from the facility by Jedi Master Atris—founder of the Academy and Jedi historian of the Jedi Order. Also known as the Telos Polar Academy, the building was designed to be completely self-contained, having been built with every facility needed to maintain its self-sufficiency. The Academy's interior was clad in blue-gray hues, and was similar in appearance to the water-distribution network of the Galactic Republic capital planet Coruscant.

The Academy's mesa drew power from the Telosian shield network's power grid to generate a shield protecting itself. The building held a hangar that was large enough to accommodate a light freighter. In addition, it had storage rooms, a prison, and separate quarters for any on-site personnel, as well as a private meditation chamber for Atris, as well as a Jedi Council meeting chamber. The chamber was circular, with seats resting upon yellow and red carpets and arranged at equal distances from each other around a gray rock pillar. The mesa was black and squat, with its base wider than its top, the Polar Plateau, which was covered with snow. The Academy's entrance was located at the plateau's southern half. Four black towers rose up around the mesa, arranged at equal distances from each other to form a perimeter.

In 990 BBY, Telos was a Jedi world and a hub of information on which Jedi Consulars fulfilled their researching and teaching duties. The training academy on Telos specialized in data collection and analysis at the time, and had input locks that were the envy of scholars. However, they were only accessible to Jedi.

History

Origins

Constructed under strictest secrecy after Telos was bombarded from orbit by Darth Revan's Sith Empire in 3958 BBY, the Academy was intended to be a point of retreat for the Jedi Order should the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine ever fall. Telos was selected to host the Academy, partly in the hope that the Sith would not devastate the same world twice; however, prior to the war it had served as a place where Jedi who had failed their training would continue to serve the galaxy as farmers and laborers. Throughout the Jedi Civil War, which Revan's Sith waged against the Jedi and the Galactic Republic from 3959 BBY to 3956 BBY, Jedi holocrons and other materials and relics of historical value had been secretly evacuated from Dantooine to Telos. However, according to Jedi historian Tionne Solusar in Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, a historical compendium created in 40 ABY, the Jedi Master and historian Atris also amassed a collection of Sith holocrons at the Academy around 3956 BBY. without the knowledge of other Jedi, delving into forbidden knowledge of the Force's dark side in hopes of finding a way to defeat the Sith from within.

Jedi Masters at the Dantooine Jedi Enclave

At the height of the Jedi Civil War in 3956 BBY, the Dantooine Jedi Enclave Council foresaw the destruction of the Enclave and organized an evacuation. While the warning came too late, a number of senior Jedi Masters and Knights escaped the oncoming attack by Revan's Sith Empire and helped Atris spirit a number of Jedi artifacts to Telos.

Administration under Atris

During the Jedi purge that followed the war, Atris forsook the other Jedi, blaming them for their apathy and unwillingness to actively fight the threat posed by the Sith. With most members of the Jedi Order being killed at the disastrous conclave on Katarr around 3952 BBY, Atris decided to bring about the Order's rebirth. She gathered several members of the Echani species, daughters of the famed Echani General Yusanis and collectively known as the Handmaiden Sisters, at the Academy, and demanded an oath from each that they would never be trained in the Jedi ways, even if they themselves were Force-sensitive.

Atris then instructed them in vigorous mental exercises that were aimed at teaching them to resist Force-based influences. The Handmaidens were intended to protect the Academy from the influence of the dark side; as part of their service they were ordered to deal with any Jedi who showed signs of falling under its sway, including killing them. Atris was the only one whom the Handmaidens absolutely trusted; she was the only Jedi who resided within the Academy. The Jedi historian never trained any apprentices in the ways of the Force while there, as almost nobody knew of the place's existence.

Exiled Jedi

"You've got to be joking. What is a Jedi Academy doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

―Atton Rand, upon arriving at the Academy

Furthermore, Atris herself had never before taken on a Padawan, as Meetra Surik pointed out to one of the Sisters when she arrived at the Academy. While the surviving members of the Jedi Order knew of the secret training facility, they presumed that Atris had been killed and that the Academy had fallen into disrepair.

The Council chamber and a catwalk to the meditation chamber

In 3651 BBY, a Handmaiden Sister stole from Telos' Citadel Station the Ebon Hawk, the ship used the exiled Jedi Meetra Surik. The Hawk was taken to Telos, where the Academy's hangar secretly received the freighter. From Restoration Zone RZ-0031 on Telos, engineer Bao-Dur accessed a landing pad's computer panel to help Surik find her lost ship. While the Jedi Exile said that the Telos Security Force could only determine that the Hawk was not present at any of Telos' sanctioned landing sites, Bao-Dur deduced that the ship could be at a shielded yet unofficial site. The engineer then found that power was being diverted to supply a shield covering a small mesa in the polar region, and confirmed a subtle, seemingly unsuspicious anomaly in the planetary shield network's power grid. While an orbital camera revealed empty lands, the Exile's mentor, Kreia, stated that they should investigate further, feeling that the lead was their best chance at finding the Hawk. The group thus took a shuttle from the nearby military base and traveled to the polar region.

While passing through the snowing polar region, the shuttle was shot down by pursuing HK-50 series assassin droids and crashed on the Polar Plateau. While the Exile and her group survived the crash, Bao-Dur was rendered unconscious, and the crew were confronted by three HK-50 units. Having detected nothing of interest at the icy mesa, the droids queried why the Exile traveled to the remnants of the Telos Irrigation System before attacking her. However, the Exile and her group destroyed the HK-50s and proceeded to search for refuge, leaving Bao-Dur behind as they entered the secret Academy's entrance.

While two Echani Sisters inspected the crash site, the Exile's group arrived at the Academy's entrance chamber below and were confronted by three other Sisters.

Surik retrieved the Ebon Hawk, which had been stolen by one of the Handmaidens—however, upon securing the vessel, she immediately left Telos and Atris behind. Even when the three surviving Jedi Masters, Zez-Kai Ell, Kavar, Vrook Lamar, learned that Atris was still alive and preparing to restore the Order, the Telosian Academy proved to be of little significance to them or their plans. Instead of resurrecting the Order on Telos, they decided to meet in the rebuilt Jedi Enclave on Dantooine in the hope of fighting the threat of the Sith when it was finally exposed.

The Academy entrance

Atris, however, was proven to be wrong in her belief that the Sith would not attack Telos twice. Darth Nihilus arrived with his fleet above Telos in order to feed on the Force energy within the Jedi who he believed dwelled at the Academy. Nihilus's plans, however, were thwarted by Surik, who defeated the Sith Lord aboard his flagship, the Ravager, thus preserving the Academy's structural integrity. By then, as part of the training of Meetra Surik, Kreia had exposed Atris's corruption and fall to the dark side, provoking the Jedi Master into acknowledging her own dark nature before leaving for Malachor V to complete Surik's training. Soon after, fresh from her efforts to drive the Sith away, Surik arrived at the Academy and was attacked by Atris in the Academy's Council chambers. However, Atris was defeated, and, against her predictions, was spared by Meetra Surik in the wake of their duel. Seeing the flaws of her actions as a result, Atris decided to leave the Jedi, wishing to find her true self in doing so. Atris then revealed to Surik the location of Kreia, directing the exiled Jedi to confront her mentor on Malachor V whilst she herself remained within her chamber of Sith holocrons.

The new Jedi Order

"Some of the civil-war–era holocrons remain on Telos, from the old Academy. I convinced Master Yoda it was time to bring the last of them to Coruscant."

―Jedi Master Tahl

As instituted by Kreia, a new Jedi Order was later formed by Surik and her followers, and the Telosian Academy continued to be maintained during the Cold War between the Republic and the resurgent Sith Empire.

Around 3643 BBY, an individual affiliated with one of those factions dispatched a companion to Telos IV to explore the secrets of the Academy, and the facility's caretakers permitted the party to study the building in return for a donation. With help from the caretakers, the crew uncovered a Jedi weapon that had been created by Atris.

The last of the holocrons from the Telosian Academy were retrieved from Telos IV by Jedi Master Tahl.

In 990 BBY, the structure was used by the Jedi Order as a satellite training academy that specialized in data collection and analysis. Alongside the Kamparas and Obroa-skai Jedi academies, the Telosian Academy was recommended to Jedi Initiates with an affinity for science by Jedi ace and New Sith Wars veteran Crix Sunburris in his writings in the Jedi guidebook The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force. However, by 53 BBY, the Telosian Jedi Academy was no longer operational; Jedi Master Tahl convinced Grand Master Yoda that the last of the holocrons from the time of the Jedi Civil War be finally brought from the "old Academy" to the Coruscant Jedi Temple. Per Tahl's request, she accompanied fellow Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn on his assignment to Telos IV, where the Noorian retrieved the Telosian Academy's holocrons from an archive on the planet with temperature-controlled packing. Tahl then left for the Landor system alone to rescue Stieg Wa from pirates at the behest of Master Yoda.

Fall to the Sith

"The Jedi were mistaken if they thought they could hide these academy worlds, as if this very volume didn't reveal their location. My legions wiped them out, saving us a great deal of time tracking down the Jedi children."

―Darth Sidious, The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force

The Sith Lord Darth Sidious noted in his stolen copy of The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force that the Telosian facility was one of many Jedi sites he had uncovered during the Great Jedi Purge. Sidious remarked that the book itself revealed the academy's location, saving the Galactic Empire time as they hunted Jedi younglings. Later, by special arrangement with the organization, the Empire allowed members of the Bounty Hunter's Guild to train on three properties formerly used as Jedi chapter houses. The three facilities' locations were a closely guarded secret, being known only to Guild members and a select faction of Imperial officers. As annotated by bounty hunter Boba Fett in his book The Bounty Hunter Code, specifically his copy of the Bounty Hunters Guild Handbook's Imperial edition, the locations were Telos, Kamparas, and Bogden 3.

Inhabitants

Jedi Master Atris, the Academy's founder

Although the Jedi Master Atris wished to one day train Jedi at the Academy, it was only inhabited by herself and six young Echani warrior-women who were collectively known as the Handmaiden Sisters. It was here that Atris secluded herself after the disaster at the Conclave on Katarr, during which over a hundred of the remaining members of the Jedi Order were killed by Darth Nihilus when he sucked all life from the planet in order to feed his hunger for Force-energy. While Atris meditated with her large collection of Sith holocrons in an attempt to unlock the secrets of defeating the Sith, the Handmaiden Sisters relentlessly trained themselves both in fighting techniques and in closing their minds to Force-based influences. This resulted in them being almost Force-blind, unable to use it even if they were Force-sensitive.

Behind the scenes

Notable appearances

The Telosian Jedi Academy was created by Obsidian Entertainment for their 2004 video game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The Jedi Academy was later mentioned in Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare's 2011 massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, in which the academy was a possible location for players to assign their companions to in the optional quest "Telosian Jedi Academy." That mission was eventually removed from the game.

Alternate storylines

If the player chooses the non-canonical dark side path in The Sith Lords, there are different conversation choices with the Academy's denizens during the first visit, and again when Surik returns to the Academy in the wake of the Battle of Telos IV. During her battle with Atris, Surik can choose to kill the Academy founder or save her from the dark side of the Force, before learning of Kreia's intentions and departing for Malachor V.

There are also some differences with the game and, hence, the fate of the Academy itself if the player chooses the non-canonical path of a male Meetra Surik. In it, prior to Surik's arrival at the Academy in the wake of the Battle of Telos IV, the former Handmaiden Sister Brianna arrives. Enraged, Atris duels her, eventually subduing the Handmaiden with Force lightning just as Surik arrives to confront the former Jedi Master. At the end of the game, Kreia still gives a number of predictions, however instead of predicting a future for Mical, she instead states that Brianna will take up Atris' post of Jedi Historian.

Appearances

• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (First appearance)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic (Mentioned only)
• Jedi—The Dark Side 1 (Mentioned only)

Sources

• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Prima Official Game Guide
• Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force
• The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force
• The Bounty Hunter Code: From the Files of Boba Fett

Notes and references

In other languages

• Deutsch
• español