Telosian Jedi Academy

"Yes, it bears the semblance of an academy&hellip; but where are all the students? Curious."

- Kreia, referring to the Telosian Jedi Academy

The Telosian Jedi Academy was founded by the Jedi Master Atris during the Jedi Civil War, in the wake of the Attack on Dantooine when the Jedi Enclave there was sacked by the Sith Empire. The Academy was hidden within a large plateau in the polar region of Telos IV, which had been used to house the Telos Polar Irrigation System. The irrigation facility had been abandoned in the wake of the Bombing of Telos IV in 3,959 BBY, during the early stages of the war, providing a measure of secrecy and security for the Academy. Though it never housed any students, the Academy did play host to a large number of Sith holocrons that Atris had managed to collect, along with many Jedi- and Sith-related relics. Among the collection were various materials of learning that had been saved from the Enclave on Dantooine prior to its destruction at the hands of Darth Malak.

Five years after the end of the Jedi Civil War, the Academy still stood largely empty, save for Atris and the Echani Handmaiden Sisters who served her. That same year, the Jedi Exile, who had been fleeing the Sith at Peragus II, ended up on Telos' Citadel Station aboard the Ebon Hawk. When Atris had the ship brought to the Academy, the Exile, accompanied by her companions, Kreia, Atton Rand and Bao-Dur, followed the trail of evidence that pinpointed the Hawk's location, thereby discovering the Academy. Once there, the Exile met with Atris to discuss current events before disembarking to find a number of other Masters who had been presumed missing.

Layout
The Telosian Academy was designed to be completely self-contained, having been built with every facility needed to maintain its self-sufficiency. The building held a hangar that was large enough to accommodate a starship the size of a light freighter, storage rooms, separate quarters for any on-site personnel, a private meditation chamber for Jedi Master Atris, the Academy's founder, and a chamber for a Jedi Council to meet. The latter was similar in style to the one seen at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant during that era; in addition, the exterior outwardly resembled the Temple on the Galactic Republic's capital world. Four artificially-created towers rose up around the perimeter of the Academy's exterior, arranged at equal distances from each other to form a box. The Academy itself was retrofitted from the Telos Polar Irrigation System, which was not unlike the water-distribution network found on Coruscant.

Origins


Constructed under strictest secrecy after Telos was bombarded from orbit by forces of the Sith Empire commanded by the traitorous Admiral Saul Karath, the Academy was intended to be a point of retreat for the Jedi Order should the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine ever fall. Telos was selected to host the Academy, partly in the hope that the Sith would not devastate the same world twice; however, prior to the war it had served as a place where Jedi who had failed their training would continue to serve the galaxy as farmers and laborers. Throughout the Jedi Civil War, Jedi holocrons and other materials and relics of historical value had been secretly evacuated from Dantooine to Telos. However, no one else in the Order knew that Atris was also collecting a number of Sith holocrons, delving into forbidden knowledge of the dark side in hopes of finding a way to defeat the Sith from within.

By the time of the height of the Jedi Civil War in 3,956 BBY, the amnesiac ex-Dark Lord of the Sith Revan had arrived on Dantooine in the wake of the destruction of Taris. The masters of the Dantooine Enclave Council chose to retrain the former Sith Lord, eventually sending him out into the galaxy to find&mdash;and, if possible, to destroy&mdash; the Star Forge, the massive space station and weapons factory that had fueled the Sith war effort. Approximately midway through Revan's quest, the Council foresaw the destruction of the Dantooine Enclave, organizing an evacuation. Unfortunately for most of the Jedi there, the warning came too late; however, a number of senior Jedi Masters and Knights were able to escape the oncoming attack and help Atris spirit a number of Jedi artifacts to Telos.

Administration under Atris
"You've got to be joking. What is a Jedi Academy doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

- Atton Rand, upon arriving at the Academy

During the Jedi purge that followed the war, Atris forsook the other Jedi, blaming them for their apathy and unwillingness to actively fight the threat posed by the Sith Empire. In 3,951 BBY, the Jedi Order was all but wiped out at the disastrous conclave on Katarr, when all life on the planet was destroyed by Darth Nihilus. Still on Telos, Atris decided to bring about the Order's rebirth despite what she had inadvertently done to destroy it by leaking the time and location of the Katarr meeting in a bid to draw out the hidden Sith. As remnants of the Sith Empire continued to prey on Jedi, she gathered several Echani, daughters of the famed General Yusanis and collectively known as the Handmaiden Sisters, at the Academy, demanding an oath from each that they would never be trained in the ways of the Jedi, even if they themselves were sensitive to the Force; Atris then instructed them in vigorous mental exercises that were aimed at teaching them to resist Force-based influences. The Handmaidens were intended to protect the Academy from the influence of the dark side; as part of their service they were ordered to deal with any Jedi who showed signs of falling under its sway, including killing them.

Atris was the only one whom the Handmaidens absolutely trusted; she was, in fact, the only Jedi to reside within the Academy. She never trained any apprentices in the ways of the Force while there, as almost nobody knew of the place's existence. Furthermore, Atris herself had never before taken on a Padawan, as the Jedi Exile pointed out to one of the Sisters when she arrived at the Academy. While the surviving members of the Jedi Order knew of the secret training facility, they presumed that Atris had been killed and that the Academy had fallen into disrepair. The only Jedi to ever come to the Academy was the Exile herself, and only because she had come to retrieve the Ebon Hawk, which had been stolen by one of the Handmaidens&mdash;however, upon securing the vessel, she immediately left Telos and Atris behind. Even when the three surviving Jedi Masters, Kavar, Vrook Lamar and Zez-Kai Ell, learned that Atris was still alive and preparing to restore the Order, the Telosian Academy proved to be of little significance to them or their plans. Instead of resurrecting the Order on Telos, they decided to meet in the rebuilt Jedi Enclave on Dantooine in the hope of fighting the threat of the Sith when it was finally exposed.



Atris, however, was proven to be wrong in her belief that the Sith would not attack Telos twice. Kreia, who had sought revenge upon Darths Sion and Nihilus, who had cast her from the Sith Triumvirate that she had created as Darth Traya, as well as the Jedi Council who had exiled her from the Order, and even the Force itself, which she believed to be a careless, manipulating entity, manipulated Colonel Tobin into misleading Darth Nihilus, who brought his fleet to Telos in order to feed on the Force energy within the Jedi he had been told, through Tobin, dwelled at the Academy. The Exile, who discovered Nihilus's intentions and Kreia's manipulation from her pilot and comrade, Atton Rand, raced to Citadel Station, the basis for the Telosian Restoration Project, to engage the Sith forces as they attempted to disable the orbital complex. With the station secure, she confronted and defeated the Sith Lord aboard his flagship, the Ravager, before destroying it from afar.

By then, Kreia had exposed Atris's corruption and fall to the dark side, provoking the Jedi Master into acknowledging her own dark nature. When the Exile arrived, fresh from her efforts to drive the Sith away, Atris fought her in the Academy's Council Chambers. Although the Exile spared Atris in the wake of their duel, the Jedi historian had become disillusioned about her intents and agreed to voluntarily leave the Jedi Order for a time, no longer wishing to expose the Jedi to her corrupted influence.

Inhabitants
Though the Jedi Master Atris wished to one day train Jedi at the Aacademy, it was only inhabited by herself and six young Echani warrior-women who were collectively known as the Handmaiden Sisters. It was here that Atris secluded herself after the disaster at the Conclave on Katarr, during which over a hundred of the remaining members of the Jedi Order were killed by Darth Nihilus when he sucked all life from the planet in order to feed his hunger for Force-energy. While Atris meditated with her large collection of Sith holocrons in an attempt to unlock the secrets of defeating the Sith, the Handmaiden Sisters relentlessly trained themselves both in fighting techniques and in closing their minds to Force-based influences. This resulted in them being almost Force-blind, unable to use it even if they were Force-sensitive.

Behind the scenes
The Telosian Jedi Academy was created by the developers at Obsidian Entertainment for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The Academy level serves to instigate the main plot and storyline for the game, where the Exile encounters Atris for the first time since departing for the Malachor Van Wars]]. During conversations with Atris and the Handmaiden Sisters, the player learns more of what happened to the Jedi Council, and departs with the mission of finding the remaining Jedi Masters.

If the player chooses the non-canonical dark side path in the game, there are different conversation choices with the Academy's denizens during the first visit, and again when the Exile returns to the Academy in the wake of the Battle of Telos IV. During her battle with Atris, the Exile can choose to kill or redeem her, before learning of Darth Traya's intentions and departing for Malachor V.

There is also some differences with the game and, hence, the fate of the Academy itself if the player chooses the non-canonical path of a male Exile. In it, prior to the Exile's arrival at the Academy in the wake of the Battle of Telos IV, Brianna arrives. Enraged, Atris duels her, eventually subduing the Handmaiden with Force lightning just as the Exile arrives to confront the former Jedi Master. At the end of the game, Darth Traya still gives a number of predictions, however instead of predicting a future for Mical, she instead states that Brianna will take up Atris' post of Jedi Historian; however, even with this, the fate of the secret Academy on Telos is never disclosed.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

Notes and references
Jedi-Akademie (Telos)