Padawan Massacre

"If the hand endangers the limb, strike it off."

- Lucien Draay

The Padawan Massacre of Taris was carried out in 3,964 BBY by the five members of the Jedi Covenant, Jedi Masters of the Jedi Tower: Feln, Q'Anilia, Raana Tey, Xamar, and Lucien Draay. The Covenant had been established to prevent the return of the Sith, and to watch for the fall of another Padawan to the dark side, as had happened with Exar Kun. But eventually, their task would soon fail.

Dark Prophecy
All of the masters but Draay were Jedi Consulars, four of the best seers of the Order at the time, and had been feeling an approaching darkness. They arranged for their Padawans to have a survival test on the Taris system's Rogue Moon, a place where the Force flowed freely and where the Masters would be alone from their Padawans for a sufficient amount of time. The four Consulars entered meditation.

They envisioned the destruction of the Taris Academy and the occupation of Taris by Mandalorians and Sith. Feln envisioned himself on Odryn and saw the holocaust of his people. Xamar envisioned himself in the Republic Navy, only to see himself being killed under friendly fire. Q'Anilia saw the Coruscant Jedi Temple in ruins, with dead Jedi everywhere, including their female associate. Tey envisioned herself on Taris while Mandalorians and Sith invaded and then herself struck down from behind by an individual wielding a lightsaber. In all cases, the Masters also saw a Sith Lord encased in red armor and armed with a red lightsaber, which they immediately assumed to be the cause of their demise.

Feln was the first to make the assumption that the red figure symbolized one of their Padawans, each of whom was wearing a red environmental suit on the moon at that moment. Tey suggested that they had to kill off the Padawans to stave off the events of the vision. Feln and Draay readily agreed, and Q'Anilia passively gave her consent. Only Xamar opposed the plan, wishing to contact their Covenant associate - Draay's mother, Krynda - on Coruscant. After pretending to contact his mother, Draay lied, afraid of his mother's death in the prophecy and stated that she approved, which assuaged Xamar's feelings.

However, in reality, Haazen - the right hand of Krynda Draay - had only ordered Draay to bring the Padawans to Coruscant for judgment. When Draay ordered them killed, Haazen was enraged.

The Massacre
The masters devised a plan to kill the five Padawans (Zayne Carrick, Shad Jelavan, Kamlin, Oojoh, and Gharn) at their Knighting ceremony, and falsely pin the murders on a dark-side tainted Shad Jelavan. When the day finally came, Carrick, in his usual fashion, was tardy, busy chasing the criminal Marn Hierogryph.

While waiting for Carrick to arrive, Jelavan noticed that Master Draay was wearing his lightsaber, implying that Carrick was to be knighted. Incredulous, Jelavan confronted the masters, and when he became unruly, the masters were forced to act sooner than planned, killing four of the five Padawans.

It was at this moment that Carrick arrived, finding his masters standing over the bodies of his slain classmates. After Zayne was amazingly able to escape from the five masters, they framed him for the murders, infuriating the populace of Taris, in what was becoming a less and less stable political environment. After nearly a week of chasing the fugitive Jedi all over the Taris System, they finally apprehended him. Carrick was willing to allow himself to be killed to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled. However, he was rescued by his friend Jarael, disguised as the Sith Lord just as the masters were about to finish him.

Aftermath
"No mission is worth the lives of children! Who taught you that it was?"

- Krynda Draay to her son

After what appeared to be two consecutive failures by the masters to catch the wayward Padawan, support for the Jedi on the planet began to wane. Massive riots rocked the planet, doing the most damage in the Lower City and the Middle City. As a result, the Temple was closed and the masters were recalled to Coruscant. However, shortly before the closing of the temple, they received a message from Carrick, still on the run. Zayne claimed that he had a vision of his own, that one of the five masters was going to confess, clearing Zayne's name. Knowing this, Carrick had sworn justice on each and every one of the masters, knowing that the one left alive would have to be the one to confess.

Soon after, the Masters were recalled to Coruscant, cutting their losses on the chaotic Taris. This opened the window for the Mandalorians to invade that key sector in for the real crusade.

Because of Hierogryph being framed, his account on Telerath was frozen.

However, a Covenant Shadow, Celeste Morne, hearing Zayne's story, figured that Krynda wouldn't have allowed the massacre.

When Lucien was elected to the Jedi High Council, it was just part of the Council's plan to find out the truth behind the massacre.

Soon, Xamar confessed to the Council on Coruscant of Zayne's innocence. However, because his exposure of the Covenant, he and many Jedi were killed by Haazen, revealing himself as the real one who had fallen to the dark side.

In her final moments, Krynda revealed that she and Haazen had wanted the students to come to Coruscant to investigate the vision. She had received a vision of when the WatchCircle killed their students, and as her headaches were worsening to such an extent that she couldn't move, she couldn't contact Lucien to know the truth. Haazen then put her in stasis, saying that she couldn't die yet, that it was too soon. In stasis, she relived the moment of the Padawan's deaths over and over, and the only thing that got her through was her belief that Lucien wouldn't do something like that. As she lay dying, she demanded to know who taught Lucien that students' lives were expendable. To her horror, he said it was her, and that he had done it because he thought it was what she wanted: to sacrifice lives to stop the Sith.

"I... was wrong. Face... the future... with humility..."

- Krynda Draay's final words

After the events of Vindication, the Covenant was dissolved. The parents of the students who were killed were the only ones who were told what had really happened since the Republic and Jedi Order were too embarrassed to admit to the public what had really happened.

Behind the scenes
The name "Padawan Massacre of Taris" was first coined on Wookieepedia for its article on the subject. As a result, it was later used by the comic's author, John Jackson Miller and eventually used in Reunion.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Commencement
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Flashpoint
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 9: Flashpoint Interlude: Homecoming
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Reunion
 * The Adjudicator Special Report: The Outer Rim
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 15: Days of Fear, Part 3
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 16: Nights of Anger, Part 1
 * The Taris Holofeed: Invasion Edition
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 19: Daze of Hate, Part 1
 * The Adjudicator Special Report: Tools of the Trade
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Knights of Suffering
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 26: Vector, Part 2
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 28: Vector, Part 4
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 29: Exalted, Part 1
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 34: Vindication, Part 3
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 39: Dueling Ambitions, Part 1

Notes and references
Padawan-Massaker von Taris Masakra padawanów na Taris