Hunt for Lor San Tekka

"I'm hoping Lor San Tekka knows where to find my brother, Poe. And Luke Skywalker may be the only hope we have left."

- General Leia Organa, to Poe Dameron

Thirty years after the Battle of Endor, during their conflict with the First Order, the Resistance mounted a search for Lor San Tekka in the hopes that the old explorer had information related to the whereabouts of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, who disappeared into exile many years earlier. The First Order, hoping to find Skywalker and eliminate him so he could not bring about the return of the Jedi and defeat their plans, also searched for Tekka to find the map he had that led to Ahch-To, the planet on which Skywalker was believed to have made his exile. Using information recovered from Hevurion Grace, a ship that belonged to a First Order collaborator and New Republic senator named Erudo Ro-Kiintor, General Leia Organa&mdash;leader of the Resistance and twin sister of the missing Jedi Master&mdash;sent Commander Poe Dameron to find Tekka. The mission first brought Dameron and his team, Black Squadron, to a planet where he discovered the Crèche, a religious people with whom Tekka had once dwelled. The First Order also tracked Dameron to the planet.

Dameron and the Resistance eventually found Tekka living on the desert world of Jakku, where he lived in the spiritual village of Tuanul with other members of the once-forbidden Church of the Force. Tekka gave Dameron the maps in the hopes of ending the despair in the galaxy, as he believed the Jedi were essential to maintaining balance in the Force. The First Order also tracked Tekka to Jakku, where the dark warrior Kylo Ren killed Tekka and brought Dameron into custody in the hopes of finding the map. Dameron, however, had given the map to his astromech droid, BB-8, who returned it to the Resistance base on D'Qar with the help of a Rey, a scavenger; Finn, a stormtrooper who defected from the First Order; Han Solo, the famed Rebel Alliance General; and Solo's friend and co-pilot Chewbacca. After being given the final piece of the map from the droid R2-D2, Rey followed the map to Ahch-To where she found the fabled Jedi Master.

Prelude
"Lor San Tekka. An explorer. He's been all over the galaxy&mdash;there’s not a sacred site or Jedi ruin he hasn't seen. He’s supposed to be dead, but this holovid you intercepted shows him alive, and older than the last time I saw him. He could still be out there, and if he is, he's our best hope for finding Luke."

- General Leia Organa

In the years following the Battle of Endor and the defeat of the Galactic Empire at the Battle of Jakku, Luke Skywalker set out to restore the Jedi Order. Skywalker, the last Jedi Knight, had help from Lor San Tekka, a member of the Church of the Force who helped Skywalker find Jedi sites and lore that the Empire tried to suppress after the fall of the Jedi Order. Skywalker began training a new generation of Jedi, but his attempt to restore the Order was thwarted when one of his apprentices, his nephew Ben, turned to the dark side of the Force and destroyed the Jedi. After Ben's betrayal, and his adoption of the name Kylo Ren, Skywalker felt responsible and went into exile. Those closest to him believed that he went in search of the first Jedi Temple. Unbeknownst to most, Tekka had a fragment of the map that could lead to Ahch-To, the world in which the ancient temple was located.

Years later, the First Order emerged from the Unknown Regions as a successor to the old Galactic Empire. After the New Republic failed to take the threat of the First Order seriously, Leia Organa&mdash;a member of the Galactic Senate, twin sister of Luke Skywalker, and mother of Kylo Ren&mdash;formed the Resistance to combat the emerging threat. She hoped to bring her brother out of hiding so he could help in the fight against the dark side once more, but she did not know his location. After Commander Poe Dameron, a Resistance pilot, led a mission that resulted in the theft of the Hevurion Grace, a ship that belonged to a First Order collaborator and Republic senator named Erudo Ro-Kiintor, the Resistance learned that the First Order was attempting to locate Skywalker; Snoke, the Supreme Leader of the First Order, feared that if Skywalker was to re-emerge it would bring about the return of the Jedi and threaten his plans.

Hoping to find Tekka before the First Order, General Organa assigned Dameron the mission to discover his whereabouts. She hoped that, because the First Order was unaware that Tekka was alive, it would give the Resistance the advantage they needed to find Tekka and Skywalker in time. Organa gave Dameron broad authority to execute the mission however he deemed fit, and he put together a team of other pilots that included Captain Karé Kun, L'ulo, Jessika Pava, and Captain Temmin "Snap" Wexley. Dameron also flew with his personal astromech droid, BB-8. Together, they formed Black Squadron and left the Resistance base on D'Qar to execute their mission.

Encounter with the Crèche
"That's&hellip; That's the explorer.''" "You got it. He was here, unless there's another giant egg shrine around somewhere. I just need to talk to him, and then I'm out of your hair, I promise. Where is he?" "''Gone. He left long ago."

- A Crèche elder and Poe Dameron, on the whereabouts of Lor San Tekka

The search brought Black Squadron to Ovanis, a planet filled with vast canyons. The squadron surveyed the area after they arrived, with Dameron piloting his personal X-wing, Black One, deep into the canyons. He flew through an underground cave system and set down inside, where he encountered a group of people called the Crèche. The Crèche greeted him with suspicion, believing him to be a potential threat to the spiritual egg that they were protecting; the Crèche believed that the egg, which they would guard until it hatched, was essential to the fate of the galaxy. Dameron soon learned from a Crèche elder that Tekka had once lived with the Crèche, so the pilot hoped the Crèche would tell him what they knew about the one they called "the explorer." Although the Crèche had once told Tekka their secrets, that was after he had lived with them for a long time and he earned their trust. Dameron was still an outsider.

Having briefly lost contact with Dameron, Black Squadron was finally able to reestablish communications with Black Leader and he informed them that he was safe inside the dangerous cavern system. BB-8, who had detected a signal earlier, realized that there was a homing beacon on Black One. The Crèche mistook the beacon that Dameron held as a detonator and nearly started a firefight in the cavern, but the fighting came to an end when Dameron explained what the device truly was and the Crèche worried that a fight would harm the egg. Because of the tracker, Dameron was concerned that the First Order would find them on the planet, but Black Squadron discovered that the First Order had already arrived and was amassing troops. Dameron plead with the Crèche to trust him&mdash;whatever their reservations were about him, he said that the First Order would not hesitate to destroy what they had worked for.

Retrieving the map
"This will begin to make things right. I have traveled too far and seen too much to ignore the despair in the galaxy. Without the Jedi, there can be no balance to the Force."

- Lor San Tekka, as he gives Poe Dameron the map to find Luke Skywalker

Dameron and the Resistance eventually learned that Tekka was living in the village of Tuanul on the desert world of Jakku, where he had retired and dwelled with a number of other adherents to the once-forbidden Church of the Force. Dameron and BB-8 traveled there and found Tekka, who gave Dameron the partial map to Ahch-To. Tekka said that giving the Resistance the map would begin to help make things right for a despairing galaxy, and that he believed there could be no balance in the Force without the Jedi. As the two spoke, the First Order arrived to claim the map for themselves. Dameron fled with the map just as First Order stormtroopers began attacking the village. He attempted to retreat in his X-wing, but the craft was damaged so he gave the map to BB-8 and sent the droid away from the village.

As BB-8 fled with the map, Kylo Ren arrived on the scene of the battle. Tekka was brought before him, and Ren demanded that the old man hand over the map. Tekka, who knew the dark warrior when he was still known as Ben, refused to give him the map. For his reticence, Ren struck the retired explorer down with his lightsaber. Dameron used his blaster rifle to fire on Ren, but the dark warrior used the Force to freeze the blaster bolt mid-air. Dameron was brought before him and Ren realized that Tekka gave the map to the pilot, so Ren had Dameron taken aboard his shuttle to be returned to his Star Destroyer, the Finalizer. Before leaving, Ren ordered the stormtroopers to kill the remaining villagers. The stormtroopers, with the exception of FN-2187, complied with the order.

Aftermath
"The map! It is complete!''" "''Luke."

- C-3PO and Leia Organa

BB-8 ventured across Jakku before finding and meeting Rey, a scavenger with whom he took refuge. Dameron, meanwhile, was interrogated aboard the Finalizer before escaping with the help of FN-2187, who defected from the First Order. Dameron and FN-2187, whom Dameron nicknamed Finn, crash-landed on Jakku. Finn believed that Dameron died during the crash&mdash;the pilot actually survived and was able to return to the Resistance&mdash;and eventually met Rey and BB-8. Together, they escaped from the First Order forces on Jakku aboard the Millennium Falcon, which was soon rediscovered by the famed smugglers and Rebel Alliance war heroes Han Solo and Chewbacca after they lost the ship years earlier. This began a journey that culminated in the map being returned to the Resistance base, where the astromech droid R2-D2 soon discovered that he had the rest of the map in his possession. Rey, who had come into the possession of the lightsaber that once belonged to Luke Skywalker and his father, Anakin Skywalker, followed the map to Ahch-To. There, she discovered Skywalker in exile and presented him with his old lightsaber as a symbol of hope for the galaxy.

Behind the scenes
The discovery of Lor San Tekka and his map on Jakku were depicted in the opening scene of the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. The backstory was first depicted in the 2015 novel Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka, while the search for Lor San Tekka itself forms the basis of the ongoing Marvel comic book series Star Wars: Poe Dameron. The series is written by Charles Soule, with art by Phil Noto.

Appearances

 * Before the Awakening
 * Star Wars: Poe Dameron 1: Black Squadron, Part I
 * Star Wars: Poe Dameron 2: Black Squadron, Part II
 * Star Wars: Poe Dameron 3: Black Squadron, Part III
 * Star Wars: Poe Dameron 4: Lockdown, Part I
 * Star Wars: Poe Dameron 5: Lockdown, Part II
 * Star Wars: Poe Dameron 6: Lockdown, Part III
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens
 * Star Wars: The Force Awakens novel
 * Star Wars: The Force Awakens: A Junior Novel
 * Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Part I
 * Finn & the First Order