Jedi Tower

"For five years, this building was home."

- Zayne Carrick

The Jedi Tower, also referred to as the Taris Academy, was a satellite academy for Jedi training built in Highport on the Outer Rim world of Taris. It was used by the Jedi Order prior to and during the Mandalorian Wars, a conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders. Isolated from other structures by a skybridge, the Tower was a tall, tapering building with the council chamber at the pinnacle. Adjoining the main structure was a smaller, vertical tower that contained a turbolift to access different levels of the Tower via walkways between the two. Surrounding the base of the Tower was a landing area staffed by labor droids.

In 3,964 BBY, the Tower was operated by the First WatchCircle of the Jedi Covenant who killed their students in the Padawan Massacre of Taris. However, one of the Padawans&mdash;a Human named Zayne Carrick&mdash;escaped the Masters' trap and was forced to flee offworld with the Snivvian Marn Hierogryph after both were framed as the culprits of the Massacre. The Masters were recalled to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant when their efforts to track Carrick down failed with the Padawan even contacting them to say that he would track down and kill each Master until his name was cleared. Carrick returned to Taris later to assist Hierogryph and the Taris Resistance in their plans to assassinate Cassus Fett&mdash;the leader of the Mandalorian forces who had taken the Tower as his own&mdash;by blowing it up with Fett inside. The Togrutan Raana Tey, one of the First WatchCicle and still wanting Carrick dead, provisionally cooperated with the former Padawan and Shel Jelavan in their planned role of entering the Tower beforehand to see if Fett was still inside. Simultaneously, however, the paranoid Tey planned to kill Carrick before he could kill her as he had warned. When the plan was enacted, Carrick discovered that the Mandalorian leader was not in the Tower and was confronted by Tey. They dueled until Jelavan intervened, wounding Tey with her brother lightsaber. Gadon Thek, a swoop gang leader helping the Resistance, and Hierogryph arrived to evacuate them on Thek's swoop bike but Tey became stuck and used her lightsaber to free herself. Perceiving this as a threat, the Snivvian prematurely detonated preset explosives and Tey was killed in the destruction of the Tower.

Description
The Jedi Tower was located in Highport on the Outer Rim world of Taris. The foundation of the Tower was part of a disused atmosphere control complex that once recycled the polluted air in the deeper Tarisian streets to remove the contaminants. A ventilation shaft ran vertically down from the storage level of the Tower into the foundations where other shafts opened out to the exterior and the Lower City. The atmosphere control complex was set away from the nearby residential buildings and other structures which meant that, to access the Tower, a skybridge was built. The skybridge, which spanned the gap between a Highport plaza and the base of the Tower, was wide enough to later accommodate a Mandalorian artillery cannon and was adorned by a colonnade consisting of six individual columns. Those using the skybridge would arrive at an entrance to the Tower that went below the landing area above.

On the floor above the skybridge entrance was the landing area where shuttlebuses and airspeeders would land. The apron was staffed by labor droids to assist loading and unloading of cargo. At night, the landing area was illuminated by red, conical lights. A garden plaza was located on the same level. Several bays for keeping vessels in were arrayed below the Tower with one of these leading through to a doorway to the storage area inside the Tower base.

The storage area was normally staffed by LB-series bulk-loading droids coordinating the supplies for the hangars below and had three open shafts leading down to the landing area. Jedi Padawans would play hiding games in the room, packed with crates of varying sizes. An access hatch to the ventilation shaft from the foundations was set in the floor of the storage room and was kept locked. At the back of the room was a turbolift which ran all the way up a slim, vertical tower that was connected to the tower-proper by five walkways. A mast was installed atop the turbolift tower and shone a red beacon from its tip at night.

There was a room used to brief students on their assignments that was equipped with a holoprojector in the main tower. A meditation room used by the seers of the First WatchCircle could be accessed from one of the walkways off the turbolift tower.

The very top of the main tower was occupied by the Council chamber. It was similar in layout to its counterpart on Dantooine, yet it lacked windows and had only five chairs. The walls had a gray and red design built into it and the chairs were in a similar color scheme. The ceiling was made of transparisteel and allowed light in during the day. Lightsabers were not permitted to be worn whilst in the Council chambers except on special occasions. A pair of racks for stowing lightsabers sat to the side of the room. It was in this chamber that the Council executed their Padawans on the grounds that they were protecting the galaxy from the Sith. Zayne Carrick, the only Padawan to survive, fled this room by diving down the turbolift tower and escaping through the storage room to the landing area.

After the Council was withdrawn from Taris, the Mandalorians were able to set up their base of operations for their takeover of the planet in the Tower. Tactical holograms were projected on the floor and the Council's seats were taken up by the nomads' equipment.

Inhabitants
"If the number of Knights on Taris were to double overnight, it wouldn't trouble me in the least."

- Sector Constable Noana Sowrs

Before the Mandalorian Wars, a war fought between the Galactic Republic and the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders, the classes at the Jedi Tower varied in size. Shortly before the outbreak of the war, the Tower's Masters included Feln, Q'Anilia, Raana Tey, Xamar, and the head of the Academy, Lucien Draay. They were also the members of the First WatchCircle, a branch of the secret Jedi Covenant, and used the Tower as their base of operations while they watched for the rise of the Sith and could therefore prevent it from unfolding. Draay was the only one of the five Masters stationed at the Tower not to be a Jedi Consular like the others. It was unusual for a Jedi academy to have so many seers in one place because of the shortage in candidates; something that Masters Vandar Tokare and Vrook Lamar were suspicious of.

Since 3,969 BBY, there were five students at the Tower, one to each of the Masters. Shad Jelavan was a Human apprenticed to Q'Anilia and was native to Taris; Gharn, a Nagai, was Xamar's Padawan; the Ho'Din Oojoh was the Padawan of Feln; Tey's apprentice was Kamlin, a Falleen; and Draay was Master to Zayne Carrick, a Human. Aside from the Jedi, the Tower was occupied by many loading droids to facilitate management of the logistics of the Tower.

Early teaching
The Jedi Tower was built before the Mandalorian Wars in Highport on Taris, a then-unaffiliated planet in the Outer Rim Territories of the galaxy. Before the breakout of the war, the Jedi Order bought the Tower to set up a Jedi academy; choosing the building due to it being set back from residential blocks.

From 3,964 BBY, the students aided the local law enforcement with day-to-day policing and, although there were only a few Jedi on the planet, their presence was appreciated by the Tarisian public. Successful assignments undertaken by some of the Padawans included the breaking up of the Leverby smuggling ring by Oojoh and the capture of P'den Robalt by Kamlin. The Snivvian black marketeer, Marn Hierogryph, had evaded capture by Zayne Carrick six times when the Padawan attempted to arrest Hierogryph again. However, the seventh attempt was also unsuccessful with Carrick nearly falling to his death were it not for Jedi Knight Alek leaping from his speeder to save him. Alek was passing through with his honorary Master hoping to recruit Jedi to their cause against the impending Mandalorian threat. Alek took Carrick to the landing area of the Jedi Tower before departing on a shuttlebus.

The Padawan Massacre
"I didn't do anything! I went into the Temple and found all my friends dead!''" "Dead?" " Murdered!'' Their Masters killed them! Their own Masters! And now they're after us!"

- Zayne Carrick and Marn Hierogryph, after evading the Council

Over a week later, Carrick was on the tail of Hierogryph again but was still unsuccessful. After a chase through the city, the Human fell through the window of the restaurant where the Masters were holding a banquet prior to the Padawans' Knighting ceremony. Carrick had been left to compensate the Besalisk manager for the damages when he saw Hierogryph outside. Carrick jumped out of the same window he fell through and he finally managed to detain him. He took Hierogryph to the Jedi Tower and, leaving the criminal locked to his speeder, took the turbolift up to the Council chambers. In the Council chambers above, Shad Jelavan was unusually late to the ceremony after seeing his brother and sister home safely. He stowed his lightsaber in one of the racks before he noticed that all of the Masters had their lightsabers, including Carrick's Master, Lucien Draay. This indicated that Carrick would also be Knighted, something that Jelavan found suspicious as Carrick always failed his assignments. He demanded to know why they were planning to Knight Carrick. After failing to convince Jelavan of their reasons, the Masters acted on a vision they received earlier and killed the Padawans. It was at this moment that Carrick entered the room. Seeing his friends dead, he turned and ran back to the turbolift with the Masters in pursuit. Draay ordered the Tower control to lockdown the hangar doors at the base of the Tower. Carrick used his lightsaber to cut through the shaft doors and landed on the stationary carriage before cutting through another pair of shaft doors and emerging on the Tower's storage level. The fleeing Padawan jumped down a chute that brought him out onto the hangar level where his speeder was parked with Hierogryph still aboard. Carrick started the speeder and retraced his route back up the turbolift shaft. The Masters pursued Carrick on airspeeders after he smashed his speeder through a window in the walkway to the Council chambers to escape. After failing to find the two fugitives, the Masters returned to the Tower where the dead Padawans' bodies were being removed from the Council chamber by coroner droids. The Masters retreated to a room later to listen through the Force to Hierogryph and Carrick's plans to flee to the Undercity. Their efforts were in vain, however, as Hierogryph had planted a trail to lead the Masters to the Undercity whilst he and Carrick tried to make their way offworld with help from an Arkanian offshoot mechanic, Gorman Vandrayk. The Civil Authority sighted the fugitives near Junk Junction and ambushed them while they were negotiating with Vandrayk. The Arkanian and his companion Jarael had a plan that the Civil Authority and the Masters did not expect; to escape on their concealed junk hauler, Last Resort. With their pursuers unable to immediately follow them into space, the Last Resort crew escaped into the Taris asteroid belt. They managed to evade another attempt to detain them by Draay on the Rogue moon until the Last Resort was caught in the tractor beam of the Oroko. Carrick and Hierogryph discovered that they had sizable bounties placed for their capture; bounties which captain of the Oroko and bounty hunter, Valius Ying, intended to claim. Carrick agreed to turn himself in to the Jedi so that his companions could go free.

Ying took the Padawan back down to Taris and brought him before the Council in the Jedi Tower. Master Draay retold the events leading up to the Massacre and explained that they were members of the Jedi Covenant acting on a warning so that they could prevent the Sith from rising as had happened during the Great Sith War over 30 years previously. Draay then killed Ying to prevent the bounty hunter from retelling what he had heard and prepared to attack his former Padawan. At that moment, the whole room shook and the power failed as the Tower was fired upon from above. Jarael, masquerading as the spacesuit-clad Sith Lord from the Masters' vision, crashed through the skylight with Carrick's lightsaber lit. Using built-in booster jets, Jarael absconded with Carrick through the broken skylight and landed on the top of the uppermost walkway. They climbed to the end of the walkway where they escaped aboard the waiting Last Resort.

Three weeks later, the Dantooine Council ordered the Tower Council back to Coruscant, deeming their failure to capture Carrick as damaging public respect for the Jedi's authority. At this time, Q'Anilia delivered a recorded message from Carrick to the other Masters in the council chamber. In the message, Carrick said that he foresaw one of the Masters confessing to what they had done. He vowed that he would track down those who didn't confess and that those Masters would die.

In Mandalorian hands
"We've just learned that Cassus Fett himself has come to review the operations from Highport. He's using your Jedi Tower as his command center."

- Haydel Goravvus, to Raana Tey

After the Jedi left Taris, the Republic forces under the command of Admiral Jimas Veltraa protecting it were diverted to protect Vanquo against the incoming Mandalorian forces. This left Taris wide open to attack and, in 3,963 BBY, Mandalorian Field Marshal Cassus Fett led the invasion of the planet, starting by landing forces at the polar and equatorial regions. Fett took the empty Jedi Tower as his command center by setting up tactical holograms in the now-candlelit Council chambers. A Neo-Crusader banner was flown from the mast on top of the turbolift tower.

After the Battle of Serroco, Zayne Carrick and Marn Hierogryph were separated. Carrick found himself involved in a confrontation aboard the Arkanian Legacy with a number of Republic Navy officers while Hierogryph was contracted by Jervo Thalien&mdash;the chairman of Lhosan Industries, a swoop bike manufacturer that had pulled out from Taris after the Padawan Massacre&mdash;and taken to Taris to find the planet's Senator, Haydel Goravvus. Three years earlier, Goravvus had helped Lhosan Industries and other companies bribe Taris' way into the Republic so, at the risk of his company being dissolved, Thalien wanted to make sure that Goravvus wouldn't be able to reveal Lhosan Industries' part in the bribery. Thalien used his connections with the Republic Admiralty to locate Carrick aboard the Arkanian Legacy in the Omonoth system which enabled Hierogryph to send Dob Moomo and the Trandoshan Slyssk to bring him back to Taris. Meanwhile, in the Lower City of the ecumenopolis, remnants of the Taris Home Guard and the Civil Authority joined together to form the Taris Resistance under the leadership of Senator Goravvus to fight the Mandalorians. A swoop gang known as the Hidden Beks also tried to keep the invaders at bay but to no avail. Their leader, Gadon Thek, reckoned that they would be more successful if they joined with the Resistance but, after being accused of kidnapping the Sector Constable's children, the Beks were not trusted by the Resistance.

Hierogryph was with the Hidden Beks when he was reunited with Carrick and Thek saw this as an opportunity to gain the trust of the Resistance; using the Jedi as a bargaining chip. While catching up with Hierogryph's exploits, Carrick was approached by Mission Vao, a young Twi'lek member of the Hidden Beks, who took the Jedi to see "a secret". The secret turned out to be the Sector Constable's missing children who had been secretly kidnapped by a pair of Hidden Beks: Brejik and Mission's older brother, Griff Vao. When the children and their kidnappers were presented to Thek, he recognized that returning the children would be much more likely to sway the Resistance to join forces with the Beks than handing over a still-wanted Carrick would. The Beks mounted up on their swoop bikes and traveled en masse to the Resistance's base, taking potshots at Mandalorians in the streets as they did so. Carrick dismounted his swoop when he arrived and saw Shel Jelavan, the sister of Shad Jelavan, run over from the crowd of Resistance members. Believing that he was responsible for Shad's death, Shel aimed a blaster at Carrick and fired. Fortunately for the Jedi, he was carrying a case that belonged to Hierogryph which took the force of the shot. Urging Jelavan to kill him was Raana Tey, one of the Masters responsible for the Padawan Massacre who had approached Shel earlier so that she could use her as an opportunity to kill Carrick. Carrick was saved from further harm by Del Moomo and Hierogryph intervening while Thek reunited the Sector Constable with her children. It was only after this action and mediation by Senator Goravvus that Tey stood down and the Resistance accepted the Hidden Beks as allies. Hierogryph took Goravvus aside to contact Thalien on Coruscant by using the case that Carrick had been carrying which was, in fact, a holotranceiver. After the discussion between Goravvus and Thalien turned sour, the latter voice-activated a bomb that was concealed in the holotranceiver. The bomb failed to go off and, after an inspection by Del Moomo, it was found that Jelavan's earlier shot had overloaded the detonator. After the incident, Carrick tried to make Jelavan realize that he wasn't responsible for her brother's death but, when Tey entered the conversation, she remained firm in the belief that Shad's killer was Carrick. As Jelavan went to leave in anger, Gadon Thek and Senator Goravvus arrived to inform Tey and the others that Cassus Fett had taken the Jedi Tower for the Mandalorians. Thek suggested that instead of storming the Tower in futility, they tried an alternative tactic.

The Resistance strikes back
"I hope you criminals will refrain from blowing us all up until our operatives in the Tower can unlock the portal above me.''" "Just another break-in to us, lady. You guys tell us Cassus Fett'' is in the building&mdash;and you sneak right back out. We'll do all the rest."

- Raana Tey and Gadon Thek

The Resistance's decided tactic was to use the detonator from the holotranceiver bomb to set off demolition charges that the Resistance had already managed to plant in the Tower's foundations in an earlier raid. These charges could not be used then as they did not have the remote detonator needed for a controlled explosion. During a planning session held by Goravvus and the Sector Constable, the final details were worked out. Carrick voiced concerns that there could be civilian casualties in the area but he was assured that the area could be evacuated in time. He then suggested the possibility of Cassus Fett, the intended target, not being present when the explosives were detonated and hence a waste of the Resistance's munitions. Goravvus proposed that one of the Resistance perform a reconnaissance mission prior to the detonation of the explosives. However, to access the Tower from the foundations where the explosives were set required a second person to enter the Tower and open a sealed hatch inside the Tower. Carrick and Jelavan volunteered for the mission having been in and out of the Tower many times before. Insistent on Carrick still being dangerous, Tey stipulated that she go as well to protect Jelavan from the dark side in Carrick. However, Tey had a double motive to her participation in the mission: to use the opportunity to kill Carrick once and for all. She instructed Jelavan on how to use her brother's lightsaber to kill Carrick herself in case Tey was unable to.

The next day, the Resistance put their plan into action. As Thek, Hierogryph, Brejik and Moomo were finalizing setting the charges in the foundation, Tey entered the ventilation shaft that was the access into the Tower. Meanwhile, up in Highport, Jelavan was posed as a prisoner under the custody of a Mandalorian armor-clad Carrick and led across the skybridge leading to the Tower. While crossing the skybridge to the Tower, now adorned by a Mandalorian artillery cannon, the pair argued about the relationship that they had before the Padawan Massacre. Their arguing attracted attention from a passing Mandalorian patrol and Jelavan improvised with a passionate kiss which the patrol passed off as Carrick "recruiting". When the patrol moved on and the immediate danger was over, the pair made their way inside the Tower. Upon entering the storage level of the Tower, Carrick unlocked the access hatch so that Tey would be able to get in. While he was doing this, Jelavan retrieved her brother's lightsaber from a storage rack as Tey had instructed her to. Carrick then boarded the turbolift and went on ahead to the Council chambers where Fett was supposed to be. As Carrick was leaving, Tey emerged from the unlocked hatch and asked why Jelavan didn't use the opportunity she had to kill Carrick then. Jelavan answered that Carrick had distracted her by talking about her brother. Tey turned and took the same path up to the Council chambers as Carrick.

Upon arriving in the Council chambers, Carrick found a single Mandalorian, Gormer, packing up the tactical equipment that Fett had been utilizing in the Tower. Gormer verified for Carrick that Fett was indeed not present and had left an hour ago to strike the Resistance's headquarters. Just as Gormer became suspicious of Carrick, an infuriated Tey rushed in and cut down the Mandalorian. Intent on killing Carrick, Tey lunged at him, commencing a duel. Meanwhile, the Resistance members in the foundation of the Tower received the news that Fett had attacked their base and that they were to fall back to a safe haven. Hierogryph insisted that Jelavan and Carrick would need extraction from the Tower and Thek reluctantly accepted, taking the Snivvian on his swoop bike.

In the Council chambers, Tey and Carrick parried each other's attacks. To evade Tey, Carrick activated the jetpack in his Mandalorian armor and hovered below the skylight. Tey jumped up from a chair and off the wall to disarm Carrick, sending his lightsaber across the room. Carrick fired a blaster pistol at his opponent but she deflected the bolt into the skylight, weakening it. Despite Carrick's pleas for her to stop and remember her teachings, Tey telekinetically pushed Carrick into the skylight, now shattering it completely, before destroying his jetpack with a slash of her lightsaber and sending him into the wall. With her opponent defenseless, Tey told Carrick of how she knew of another prophecy before she prepared to strike the finishing blow. Before Carrick could be killed, Jelavan intervened by stabbing Tey with her brother's lightsaber. A tearful Jelavan finally told Carrick that she believed that he wasn't responsible for the Padawan Massacre and the death of her brother.

Hierogryph and Thek arrived overhead to evacuate the two Humans by use of a tow cable fitted to the swoop bike. As Carrick and Jelavan ascended the cable, Tey regained consciousness and jumped through the broken skylight after them. However, her hand became caught on a pane of transparisteel. Carrick offered her his help to rescue her and get help to heal her wounds, an offer that Tey accepted. Running out of time before Mandalorian patrols could arrive, she activated her lightsaber to cut her hand free. Above, seeing the lightsaber brandished, Hierogryph interpreted this as another attack on Carrick. To stop her, he activated the detonator which set off the explosive charges in the Tower's foundation. As the building collapsed, Tey asked Carrick to tell "Krynda" that she was sorry. As the swoop bike pulled away, Carrick watched the Tower collapse with Tey dying inside.

Behind the scenes
The Jedi Tower first appeared in Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1: Commencement, Part 1, the opening issue of the Knights of the Old Republic comic series written by John Jackson Miller. The Tower served as the location for the initiation of the main plot of the series and the penciler for Commencement, Part 1, Brian Ching, even managed to include it in the very first panel.

The number of walkways joining the main tower and the smaller, vertical tower varies between the appearances in the Commencement story arc penciled by Ching, and the Knights of Suffering story arc penciled by Dustin Weaver. The former clearly shows only four walkways whereas in the latter, the Tower has five.

Whilst writing Commencement, Miller sent rough schematics of the Tower to Ching due to the fact that every detail of the Tower had to be situated with the action scenes in the story arc in mind. Miller took a careful approach to writing Knights of Suffering, Part 2 with regards to the destruction of the Tower and stated on his website that "after September 11, 2001, I felt the proposed destruction of a skyscraper — even a fictional one during wartime — was not something I should approach lightly." He felt that Carrick's concern for civilians in the vicinity of the Tower was an appropriate reaction for a Jedi.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 0: Crossroads
 * The Taris Holofeed: Prime Edition
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1: Commencement, Part 1
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: Commencement, Part 2
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 3: Commencement, Part 3
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 4: Commencement, Part 4
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 6: Commencement, Part 6
 * The Taris Holofeed: Siege Edition
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 16: Nights of Anger, Part 1
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 20: Daze of Hate, Part 2
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 23: Knights of Suffering, Part 2
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 24: Knights of Suffering, Part 3
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 26: Vector, Part 2
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 34: Vindication, Part 3
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 40: Dueling Ambitions, Part 2