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 Nautolan Dark Jedi Bengel Morr and a Jedi Padawan. Morr, the former Padawan of Jedi Master Orgus Din, had gone missing after the Sacking of Coruscant and the destruction of the Jedi Temple by the Sith Empire ten years earlier. The Jedi had recently discovered that the Nautolan had gone insane and was marshaling Tython's native Flesh Raiders against the Jedi Order in an attempt to destroy them.

During the conflict between the Raiders and Jedi, Morr approached the Twi'lek pilgrims of Kalikori Village and struck a deal with them&mdash;if they delivered Morr's former Master to him, he would spare the settlement from further harm. However, he reneged on their deal almost immediately and demanded the life of Din's current Padawan as well, forcing the villagers to try to kill the young Jedi. The village's Matriarch Ranna Tao'ven objected, and the Padawan was able to convince the villagers to leave peacefully. Learning from Tao'ven that Morr had taken Din to the location of the machine known as the Forge in the temple-city of Vur Tepe, the Padawan and the astromech droid T7-O1 raced through the Flesh Raider-controlled territory around the temple in an attempt to rescue Din.

There, before the ancient machine used by the apprentices of the Jedi Order to craft their lightsabers, Din's apprentices of the past and present faced off. Despite Morr's experience, he and his Flesh Raider guards were defeated by the younger Padawan and T7. The duo was able to subdue the Dark Jedi and awaken Master Din. Taking Morr back to the Jedi Temple, Din gave his apprentice the components for a lightsaber and urged the Padawan to construct the weapon as a final rite of passage. However, the Jedi's use of the Forge awoke a sleeping jurgoran, and the apprentice was forced to kill the enraged creature before returning to the Jedi Temple. For the Padawan's bravery and actions during the crisis, the apprentice was elevated to the rank of Jedi Knight and sent to the Republic capital, Coruscant, on a new assignment.

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

Around 3,643 BBY, 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 great numbers. Thanks to the actions of Jedi Master Orgus Din and his new apprentice, the Order had discovered that Din's former Padawan, Bengel Morr, was the mastermind behind the Flesh Raiders' invasion. The Nautolan Morr had been present in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant during the Sacking of the capital planet by the Sith over ten years earlier. Morr was able to escape the devastation, fleeing into the ruins of the Temple and going into hiding, but his gentle personality was destroyed. Over the next decade or so, Morr recruited a Human apprentice named Callef and plotted to destroy the Jedi Order, which Morr saw as weak and hypocritical. He wanted to 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 increasingly aggressive and strike more boldly at the Jedi, as well as Twi'lek Pilgrims that had also emigrated to the planet. However, Morr's plans were disrupted when Callef, at his master's directive, led a Flesh Raider invasion force against a Jedi base in the area known as the Tythonian Gnarls. Instead of a successful strike against a relatively unprotected outpost, Callef was killed by a recently arrived Padawan and the Flesh Raider force turned back by a team of Jedi.

War on Tython
"Every so-called Jedi on Tython is going to die. That's a promise. Your entire order is weak. You've done nothing to stop the Sith Empire's advances."

- Bengel Morr promises to destroy the Padawan

Din, who had witnessed the apprentice's defeat of Callef, took on the young Jedi as his new Padawan, and the pair began to investigate the Flesh Raiders' actions. After the apprentice rescued a Jedi astromech droid named T7-O1 while recovering a supply of weapons for the Twi'lek settlement of Kalikori Village, the two Jedi learned from a holorecording that Bengel Morr had survived and was leading the natives. After several more assignments, Din's Padawan successfully disabled a shield generator protecting the Flesh Raiders' command base while Din and several other Masters attacked the site. At the command base, the Jedi discovered the locations of many other camps, forcing the Order to send out most of the Knights and Masters on the planet to eliminate them all.

Din and his Padawan each received their own assignment, with Din sending his apprentice to destroy a base near the ruins of the ancient temple-city Kaleth. 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 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 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 terms, the villagers informed their Matriarch, Ranna Tao'ven, of the agreement 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 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 long after Morr's departure and spoke with Tao'ven in the Matriarch's building. When asked about Din and the distress call, Tao'ven lied, saying that she didn't know anything about a signal, and T7 was unable to detect Din in the village. However, the Padawan was suddenly knocked out from behind, and T7 was sent reeling with an ion blast.

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 them. Since, Morr had abjured their bargain, claiming that Din was not enough: he would only protect the village if they killed the apprentice. However, Tao'ven protested and tried to stop them, giving the Padawan time 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, whom would be able to download directions to the Forge, she was relieved to learn that the Padawan had forgiven her.

Race to the Forge
While the villagers argued over the Padawan's fate, 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. 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 ascension to Jedi Knighthood. The Forge itself was also part of the ancient temple-city of Vur Tepe, one of the nine Great Temples of the Je'daii. 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 the Grand Chieftain Keshk, had also been marshaling in the ruins of the city in preparation for an attack on the Jedi Order. Keshik allowed Morr and his bodyguards to pass through the ruins with their unconscious prisoner to the caverns beyond, where the Nautolan Dark Jedi approaced the Forge machine itself. Morr 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 them. 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, got past Keshk, and reached the caverns beyond.

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 stood. Just as the Forge came into view, the apprentice witnessed Morr 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 witnessed 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 needed to 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 apprentice defeated the Flesh Raiders and began to duel the Nautolan. But to the Dark Jedi's surprise, the Padawan was able to beat the more experienced Morr using a 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, then 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, unconscious. The Jedi then woke 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 craft a weapon in the Forge while Din himself took the unconscious Morr back to the Jedi Temple.

A slumbering beast awakened
"This weapon will be a light in the darkness."

- The Padawan, about to construct the lightsaber.

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. The opening of the Forge awoke a jurgoran in one of the canyon's caves below, and the savage beast climbed 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 Morr and Keshk, who had died, the Flesh Raider army had begun to dissolve, allowing the apprentice and T7 to return to the Temple through the ruins of Vur Tepe without much conflict.

An uprising quelled
"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 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 can 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).

The Grand Chieftain Keshk can be found in the ruins of Vur Tepe, and he stands in the center of the path leading towards the entrances to the Consular and Knight story phases. As a default environmental enemy that respawns, Keshk can be defeated by either Consular or Knight players, and it is also possible to sneak past Keshk without fighting him. After defeating Bengel Morr, the player has three options. For light side points, the player can choose to spare Morr 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 starship, thanking him for saving him. There are two dark side options: the player can accept Morr's offer and allow him to leave, or they can choose to kill him for maximum dark side points. If the player accepts Morr's offer, the Nautolan will give them a green lightsaber crystal, and the player is presented with two options upon their activation of the Forge. Choosing to use the green crystal will result in a "Dark Jedi Lightsaber" being crafted, while choosing the normal option gives a standard blue lightsaber. If the player chooses to kill Morr, the green crystal is unavailable, and they are forced to construct a blue lightsaber. 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 nearest medcenter, in the ruins of Vur Tepe. Since a story phase cannot be reentered after completion, players are unable to defeat the Guardian if they choose to return to the 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