Battle of the Forge

"You're stronger than any Jedi I've known. You could redeem the order and destroy the Sith. I understand. You are the weapon I came to forge."

- Bengel Morr, after his defeat

Near the end of the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, a battle occurred on the planet Tython between the forces of the Dark Jedi Bengel Morr and a Jedi Padawan. Morr, himself the former Padawan of Jedi Master Orgus Din, had gone missing after the Sacking of Coruscant and destruction of the Jedi Temple by the Sith Empire ten years earlier, and the Jedi had recently discovered that the Nautolan had gone insane and was marshaling Tython's native Flesh Raiders against the Jedi Order. When Morr captured Din and took him to the ancient temple known as the Forge&mdash;known in more ancient times as Vur Tepe&mdash;Din's current Padawan confronted and defeated the Dark Jedi.

Prelude
"You gave my Master to the enemy!" "No, you can still save him. Bengel Morr took Orgus to someplace called the Forge. Reactivate your droid&mdash;it might know where to find them."

- The Padawan and Ranna Tao'ven

Near the end of the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, the native Flesh Raiders of the Jedi Order's adopted homeworld of Tython began attacking other groups on the world in greater numbers. The Order had recently discovered that the former Padawan of Human Jedi Master Orgus Din, the Nautolan Bengel Morr&mdash;who had vanished during the Sacking of Coruscant over ten years ago&mdash;was the mastermind behind the Flesh Raiders' invasion. Morr, who had been present in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant when Darth Malgus had led the Sith assault upon it and destroyed the Temple, had barely escaped the ruins and went into hiding, his gentle personality destroyed. Morr and his Human apprentice Callef&mdash;who had been killed by Din's current Padawan when the Nautolan's apprentice had led a Flesh Raider invasion force into the Tythonian Gnarls &mdash;were attempting to destroy the Jedi Order, which Morr saw as weak, and rebuild it into something strong enough to destroy the Sith. Using the Flesh Raiders as soldiers and training some of them in the ways of the Force, Morr urged the natives to become more and more aggressive and strike more boldly at the Jedi and the Twi'lek Pilgrims on the planet.

While almost all of the Jedi Order struck at recently discovered Flesh Raider camps across the planet, Din's Padawwan destroyed a base near the ruins of Kaleth, an ancient temple-city. Built millennia earlier by the the Je'daii Order, the predecessors of the modern Jedi, the ruins were considered by many Jedi to still be tainted with the dark side as a result of the Force Wars between the early light and dark-siders. When the apprentice contacted Din to report success, the Jedi Master revealed that he had just received a distress call from the Twi'lek settlement of Kalikori Village&mdash;they had spotted Bengel Morr. Since the other Jedi were too far away, Din and his apprentice were the only ones close enough to reach the village in time.

Betrayal
"Master Orgus responded to your distress call. I was to meet him here. What's happened?" "Nothing. We didn't send any distress call. Things have been quiet since you left. I haven't seen or spoken to Master Orgus."

- The Padawan and Ranna Tao'ven

What Din and his apprentice did not know was that this was a trap&mdash;upon learning that the other Masters were occupied attacking his scattered Flesh Raiders, Morr used this opportunity to strike at his former master. He approached the village's Scout Chief Moorint and several other villagers, including Eseni and Saylew, and offered them a deal. If the village could deliver Din to Morr and his bodyguards, then the Dark Jedi would order his forces to stop attacking the Twi'leks. Agreeing to the deal, the villagers informed their Matriarch Ranna Tao'ven of the deal and sent out a false distress call to Din, drawing him there under the pretense that they had spotted Morr. When Din arrived at the village ahead of his apprentice, he was attacked and subdued by Morr and several Flesh Raiders. Morr then departed, mentioning briefly to Tao'ven that his destination was someplace called the Forge.

The Padawan arrived not longer after Morr's departure, and immediately spoke with Tao'ven in the Matriarch's building. When asked about Din and the distress call, Tao'ven lied that she didn't know anything about a signal, and the astromech droid T7-O1&mdash;which the apprentice had rescued earlier&mdash;could not detect Din in the village. However, the Padawan was suddenly shot with a stun bolt and T7 with an ion blast, knocking the pair out.

When the Padawan awoke, Tao'ven was arguing with several villagers: Saylew, Eseni, and the Scout Chief Moorint. Moorint revealed that they had used the signal as bait for Orgus Din, as part of a deal that Bengel Morr had offered to them. But Morr had reneged on their bargain, claiming that Din was not enough&mdash;he would only protect the village if they killed the apprentice. Tao'ven protested, however, and the Padawan was able to persuade the villagers to leave in peace. Tao'ven begged the apprentice for forgiveness, horrified at what the villagers had almost done, and told the Jedi that Morr had taken Din to the Forge. Urging the apprentice to reactivate T7, who might know how to find the Forge, she was relieved to learn the the Padawan forgave her.

Race to the Forge
While the Padawan argued with the villagers, Morr and his Flesh Raider servants made their way through the Flesh Raider-controlled Tythos Ridge&mdash;a once lush mountain range that had become barren and burnt as a result of a major Flesh Raider presence in the region &mdash;. Morr's destination, the Forge, was an ancient machine used by the Jedi Order's Padawans to build their own lightsabers as part of their final Jedi Trials. The Forge itself was also part of the ancient temple-city of Vur Tepe, one of the nine Great Temples of the Je'daii like Kaleth. In the time before the Republic, Vur Tepe was where the Je'daii had crafted their weapons, and the Jedi Order had continued that tradition when they returned to the planet. Morr's Flesh Raider army, led by their Grand Chieftain Keshk, had also been marshaling in the ruins of the city in preparation for an attack on the Jedi Order, and allowed Morr and his bodyguards to pass through the ruins with their unconscious prisoner to the caverns beyond. Approaching the Forge machine itself, the Nautolan Dark Jedi also summoned almost two dozen of his Flesh Raider Force Adepts to guard the path.

With Tao'ven's information, T7 and the Padawan immediately contacted A-4P0, one of the droids at the Temple Archives, and told the protocol droid to send all of the information on the Forge to T7 right away. While the droid complied, it reported that all of the Jedi Masters at the the Temple were busy fighting the Flesh Raiders, and those Jedi thus would be unable to assist. Using a different path to reach the Forge than Morr, the pair raced along the Elarian Trail and used a tunnel behind the Tythos River's waterfall to reach the ruins of Vur Tepe. Some of Morr's Flesh Raider soldiers had also learned to reprogram the ancient war droids that littered the area, and the Flesh Raiders used the droids as additional soldiers in their army. Despite the heavy presence of Flesh Raiders and war droids, T7 and the Padawan successfully fought their way through the ruins and reached the caverns beyond. The native's Grand Chieftain also fell in combat with the Padawan, despite the Flesh Raider's massive size and strength.

Before the Forge
"I sensed you coming. Your fear betrayed you. You're weak, like my old Master. You will fall. With him."

- Bengel Morr

Passing through a tunnel in the valley wall, the Padawan emerged in a canyon spanned by a rocky bridge. Fighting through almost two dozen Force-wielding Flesh Raiders, the apprentice approached the far end of the bridge, where the ancient machine used by the Je'daii and Jedi to creaft their swords and lightsabers stood. Just as the Fore came into view, the apprentice witnessed Bengel grip Orgus Din with the Force and throw him against the stone steps.

Expressing his disdain of the fear he sensed in the Padawan, Morr promised the destruction of the Order. When the apprentice questioned Morr's hatred of the Jedi, the Nautolan scornfully explained how he had witness Din surrender to the Sith after the Temple's destruction, and how he viewed the Order's actions as weakness. He believed that the Jedi must be sacrificed to strengthen the Force, and planned to rebuild a new Order from the ashes of the old.

Morr then stepped away, drawing his yellow lightsaber and commanding his two Flesh Raider bodyguards to kill the Jedi. With the aid of T7, Orgus Din's two apprentices defeated the Flesh Raiders and began to duel the Nautolan. But surprisingly to the Dark Jedi, the Padawan was able to beat the more experienced Morr using a simple vibrosword, and forced the Nautolan to submit.

Defeated, Morr claimed that he understood his destiny now: the reason that the Force had brought him to this moment was, through the trials of battle, to craft the Padawan into a weapon strong enough to destroy the Sith and redeem the Jedi Order from its weakness. Instead of being the one to engender this destruction, Morr would be the Padawan's herald. To that end, he asked the Jedi to allow him to leave and prepare the galaxy for the Padawan's rise. The younger apprentice refused, however, and punched Morr in the gut when the Dark Jedi reached for his saber. A second blow&mdash;an elbow strike to the back of the neck&mdash;sent the Nautolan to the ground out cold. The Jedi then awoke Din, who congratulated the Padawan on the defeat of his former apprentice and the decision to spare Morr's life. Din gave his Padawan the components necessary to build a lightsaber, and told the apprentice to enter the Forge and craft a weapon, while Din himself took the unconscious Morr back to the Jedi Temple.

A slumbering beast awakened
The apprentice ascended the steps and activated the ancient machine, entering a state of deep meditation. Using the Force, the Jedi combined each component with precision, assembling a lightsaber with a blue crystal and blade. But the opening of the Forge awoke a sleeping jurgoran in one of the canyon's caves below, and the savage beast ascended the cliff to reach the narrow bridge that spanned the ravine. The jurgoran blocked T7 and the Padawan's path to the cave tunnel through which the pair had come, and the Jedi was forced to kill the beast with the new weapon to reach safety. With the loss of their leaders Keshk and Morr, the Flesh Raider army had begun to dissolve, and the apprentice and T7 were able to return to the Temple through the ruins of Vur Tepe without much conflict.

Aftermath
"You arrived on Tython a Padawan, but you leave a Knight of the Republic. May the Force be with you."

- Grand Master Satele Shan

Upon returning to the Temple, the Padawan met with the Council. Din was already briefing Grand Master Satele Shan and the other Masters of the recent occurences, and upon learning that Matriach Tao'ven had surrendered herself to the Jedi for judgement, Shan asked the young Jedi how they should proceed. Din's apprentice believed that the Twi'leks needed their support, and that the Jedi Order should remain allies with them against the weakened Flesh Raiders.

Agreeing with his apprentice, Din then changed the subject. Because of the Padawan's bravery and exceptional skill in repelling the Flesh Raider invasion and defeating Bengel Morr, he believed that the apprentice should be granted the rank of Jedi Knight&mdash;a decision that Shan supported. The Knight's first assignment was to go with Din to Coruscant, the Republic's capital, and aid Master Bela Kiwiiks in her investigation of the dark presence that the Council had sensed there. T7 also requested that he be permanently assigned to the young Knight, something with which the Jedi agreed. Bengel Morr was taken back to the Temple, where he was rehabilitated by Jedi healers and healed of his insanity.

Behind the scenes
"I have spent a lifetime learning the paths to power. That knowledge is now yours. Let me leave Tython and prepare the galaxy for your ascendance. I will deliver the gifts you need to claim your destiny."

- Bengel Morr offering the player the dark side option of allowing him to leave

The Battle of the Forge appears in Star Wars: The Old Republic, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game released by BioWare on December 20, 2011. It serves as the finale of the Jedi Knight character's storyline on the starting world of Tython, taking place over the course of two quests: "Dark Temptations" and "Weapon of the Jedi". As the finale of the planet storyline, the two quests feature multiple situations where the player may make moral choices that alter the character's alignment between the dark and light sides of the Force, and affect the outcome of events as well. When the villagers attempt to kill the Padawan, the player can choose to kill them, a course that grants dark side points, ask them to leave for light side points, or Force Persuade them to leave peacefully for maximum light side points. When Tao'ven asks for forgiveness, the player can refuse for dark side points or forgive her for light side points. If the player chooses to forgive the Matriarch, she will ask what she could do to make things right, giving another set of alignment options: learn from her mistake (light side), give up her post (dark side), or nothing (neutral).

After defeating Bengel Morr, the player has three options. For light side points, the player can choose to spare Bengel and knock him out, and he will eventually appear on Corellia in the game's third act with other characters redeemed by the player. He also sends the player a holomessage that can be accessed on the player's ship, thanking him for saving him. There are two dark side options: the player can accept Bengel's offer and allow him to leave, or they can choose to kill him for maximum dark side points. All three options still result in the Jedi gaining a lightsaber.

After constructing a lightsaber, a jurgoran will appear at the base of the steps. Defeating the jurgoran&mdash;called the "Forge Guardian"&mdash;is an optional bonus quest, but the player must either kill it or be defeated, at which point they are forced to teleport back to the Temple's medcenter. Players can also choose to simply Quick Travel back to the Temple, but as the "respawn at medcenter" and Quick Travel options are game mechanics, this article assumes that the Forge Guardian was defeated by the Knight character.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic