Jedi Temple Main Entrance

The Main Entrance to the Jedi Temple of Coruscant was the largest entry way from the Temple Court, located on the eastern wall of the edifice. Having been built and rebuilt over the millennia that the Jedi Order existed, it was redesigned several times. From the Ruusan Reformation to the rise of the Galactic Empire, the entry began at the terminus of the Processional Way with a grand staircase crowned by four statues. Beyond a series of monolithic pylons was a courtyard that led to another set of stairs. Passing through the entry way there, the main entry hall stretched beyond to the Great Hall.

History


Erected sometime after 4,000 BBY when the Four Masters established the Jedi Order's presence on Coruscant, the Main Entrance was built to accommodate the ever expanding complex. Leading into the Great Hall the massive entry hall led deep into the Temple complex. Several decades after it was established, the resurgent Sith Empire appeared in the skies of Coruscant and sent an invasionary force on Galactic City. Walking up to the Temple gates. Darth Malgus, accompanied by his Twi'lek lover, slaughtered the Temple Security Force members stationed there. Walking into the entry hall, the Sith Lord confronted the Jedi walking about, just as a stolen Republic shuttle crashed through the entry gates. Unleashing swarms of Sith, the shuttle came to a rest on the bridge as more Jedi and Security Force members brandished their lightsabers and blasters at the intruders. The firefight underway, the Sith Lord confronted the apparent senior-most Jedi in the Hall, killing him as the Sith fleet began to bombard the Temple with blasterfire. Leaving the Temple in ruins the Sith forced the Republic into the Treaty of Coruscant, which forced the surviving Jedi to return to their homeworld of Tython.



Following the Sith's defeat and the Ruusan Reformations, the Galactic Senate had finally raised enough funds to rebuild the Temple completely. When rebuilt, the Main Entrance was redesigned and security was heightened. Five Padawans were tasked with guarding the Temple during the day, while two Knights would oversee the watch in the evening. All guard duties Temple-wide were overseen by the Gate Master.

When Padawan Whie Malreaux was on guard duty at the top of the main staircase a representative from the Troxan delegation delivered a package with specific instructions to turn it over to Grand Master Yoda. Malreaux summoned his master, Maks Leem to rush the package to the Room of a Thousand Fountains where the esteemed Grand Master was meditating.

During the height of the Clone Wars Confederacy of Independent Systems General and leader of the separatist Army, Grievous, was killed on Utapau by Jedi High Council member Obi-Wan Kenobi. Following Kenobi's report to fellow Councilor, Master Mace Windu, the Senior Jedi summoned a group of Masters to travel with him to the Chancellor's Suite to insist that he resign immediately because the war was over. Assigning Gate Master Jurokk to seal all of the Temple entrances and Master Shaak Ti to arm all of the older Padawans, Windu left to take control of the Republic. However the confrontation took a turn for the worse when Supreme Chancellor Palpatine revelaed himself to be Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith. With Windu dead Sidious ordered his new apprentice, Darth Vader, to go to the Temple and kill all the Jedi present. Leading the 501st Legion of the Grand Army of the Republic up the Processional Way and too the gates of the Temple, Vader commenced with Operation: Knightfall. As Gatemaster Jurokk met him in the entry way Vader cut him down and marched the troops inside. Met with heavy resistance in the main entrance, Vader managed to subjugate and exterminate all Jedi present. After all the Jedi were neutralized, the clones began to compile all the dead in the hall; comparing all Jedi bodies to the Jedi Archives' records, and fallen clones to barrack's rosters.



Within a few days of the slaughter, Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda fought their way past the clone troopers stationed behind the giant entrance pylons. Making it onto the mezzanine of the main hall they found hundreds of younglings and Knights slaughtered. The pillars and floors showed the degree of damage the building had sustained from the wild firefight. The Masters proceeded to the summit of the Temple Ziggurat, passing for the last time through the main hall of their home.

The Temple would lie vacant for the next several decades, patrolled only by the Sentinels and shadow stormtroopers of the Galactic Empire. After the Empire was crippled at the Battle of Endor and the New Republic drove the last Imperials from Coruscant, the Temple was retaken by the New Jedi Order led by Luke Skywalker. Briefly re-inhabited as the Order tried to reclaim the information lost in Sidious' purge, the Temple was abandoned again when the Yuuzhan Vong War broke out. When the planet fell to the Yuuzhan Vong the Temple was lost in the carnage. When the Galactic Alliance and the Order drove the Yuuzhan Vong from the planet, the Order seized the ruins of the Temple. Chief of State Cal Omas ordered that the Reconstruction Authority erect the Temple as it once was, as a gift to the Order for their sacrifices during the war.



Completely rebuilt, the new Temple's entrance was much like the hall that served the Order for centuries under the Old Republic. In 41 ABY, Knight Jacen Solo brought his new Sith teacher, Lumiya, to the Temple in an effort to see if she was only using him to get to his uncle, Grand Master Skywalker. Marching through the entrance and several other rooms, Solo decided to trust Lumiya, as she did not show any hatred towards the Jedi. When Grand Master Skywalker was searching for his wife, Mara, he rushed down the main staircase and found Knight Jaina Solo. Ordering Solo to reveal where Master Mara Skywalker had gone, Solo admitted to not being certain but that she wasn't on Coruscant and was trying to locate and assassin that was hunting her son, Ben Skywalker. In 43 ABY the Order was faced a new threat amongst their ranks. Several Knights were stricken with an enigmatic madness that could not be predicted or cured. When several Knights began to go mad, the Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala ordered the Grand Master to turn the ill Jedi over to Alliance custody. To increase the Order's problems, Chief Daala ordered Grand Master Luke Skywalker to be exiled for not preventing one of his Knights, Jacen Solo, from falling to the dark side of the Force and leading the galaxy into civil war. Exiting through the main entrance, Skywalker was bid farewell to by all the entirety of the Order stationed on or near Coruscant, as well as many friends and politicians.

Following Skywalker's exile two Knights standing guard summoned Jedi Masters Kyp Durron and Cilghal to deal with the Galactic Alliance Security agents landing on the Processional Way. When the masters arrived they found bounty hunters Zilaash Kuh and Vrannin Vaxx, along with a Captain arguing with the Knights under the massive pylons at the front of the Temple. Cilghal quickly directed attention to herself, and Captain Oric Harfard begin to vent his frustration on her. Taking Harford's warrant to enter the Temple and retrieve the ill Valin Horn she read it and summoned Interim Grand Master Kenth Hamner to meet the Alliance representatives. Permitting the group of security agents and bounty hunters into the Temple under the escort of Master Durron, Cilghal manipulated Harfords mind, urging him to visit the refresher in order for Hamner to have more time to get down to the entry level.

After the abduction of mad Jedi Seff Hellin from the Armand Isard Correctional Facility, Grand Master Hamner appeared on the front steps of the Temple to denounce claims that the Temple was involved in the conflict that had unfolded the night before. In reality, Hellin had been brought to the Temple by the secret Jedi organization Darkmeld, though Hamner had no knowledge of this. Later, the remaining members of the Unit would meet here, including Jysella Horn, Yaqeel Saav'etu, and Bazel Warv. Only an hour after meeting on the Temple steps, Horn was running through the hall cutting down security droids and fleeing across the Temple Precinct. While Horn was captured by Alliance security members, several Jedi poured out of the Temple only to stare in sadness and regret that they couldn't have gotten to Horn first.

Soon after, with the press keeping constant watch over the Temple entrance in hopes of seeing a Jedi lose control, Knights Saav'etu and Warv were stricken with the disease; though the press was kept at bay due to Knight Jaian Solo's actions in smuggling the two into a speeder entrance from the Temple Court. The Temple entrance would be targeted by Alliance-hired Mandalorians during a raid ordered by Chief Daala. With auto turrets trained on the main hall and sniper taking pot shots at Master Hamner who was defending the Temple, the attack on the main hall was only a distraction while a larger force made a run at the Temple docking complex. The entrance was secured after Knight Jaina Solo was able to rebuff the largest assault group. Chief Daala followed the failed attack with a Mandalorian-led siege, occupying the court surrounding the Temple. As Mandalorian Belok Rhal announced that he would only speak with Master Hamner regarding the release of insane Jedi Sothais Saar and Turi Altamik, Hamner's personal assistant, Padawan Kani Asari walked out onto the entrance staircase in order to negotiate. As the High Council members watched from a vidscreen in the entry hall, Rhal raised his blaster and shot Asari in cold blood, killing her. Demanding her body not be touched, Rhal again announced that the siege would only end with the release of both Jedi Saar and Altamik.

As the siege continued, Chief Daala's Chief of Staff Wynn Dorvan rushed through the sea of Mandalorians to get to the stairs of the entrance before Jedi Raynar Thul walked out per his custom and got himself killed. Reaching the entrance just in time, Dorvan sat with Thul as he ate his sandwich next to the stiffening body of Padawan Asari.

Over a hundred years later, the Temple had been captured by the One Sith. With Emperor Darth Krayt in control of the galaxy, he inhabited the Jedi Temple and had it reconstructed and named the Temple of the Sith. Because the area around the Temple Precinct had grown over the century, the Temple Court was completely obstructed from view. This caused Krayt to have the main entrance rebuilt on the roof of the Temple Ziggurat, which was now at "surface level." Two Sith Lords maintained constant guard of the new entrance, allowing access only to Sith and members of the Moff Council. In preparation for an invasion of the Temple, Imperial Intelligence agent Morrigan Corde disguised herself as a Sith and entered the Temple. Planting explosives in the main starfighter hangar, Corde once again exited the Temple.

Layout


During the history of the Temple, the Main Entrance took on many incarnations, yet maintained similarities. When the main entrance was added to the Temple post-4,000 BBY the Processional Way terminated as a broad stair way which was flanked by six towering bronzium statues of Jedi Masters. Beyond the stairs was a towering stone gate, split down the center allowing passage into the entry hall. Four stories in height the hall was bisected by a pillared mezzanine that brought visitors from the Processional Way. The columns of the mezzanine supported two additional parallel bridges above and to the side of the main walkway. Below the entry mezzanine was a broad hall way with additional balconies and hallways leading deeper into the Ziggurat. Towering bronzium statues flanked the entry mezzanine, their hooded faces looking directly over the central bridge. This entry way would be destroyed in 3,653 BBY when the Sith Empire sacked the galactic capital.

After reconstruction the Processional Way would once again lead to a main stairway which was now crowned by four bronzium statues, two depicting Warrior Masters and two Sage Masters. Beyond the staircase four rows of three massive pylons rose from the large courtyard area; the forward most pylons depicted bas-reliefs of the four Jedi who founded the Temple. Passage under the pylons granted access to the empty stone and duracrete courtyard which led to a set of red-and-white pillared stairs and the darkened passages that led into the Temple Proper. The Entry Hall soared several stories high with a broad area tessellated by stairs and ramps. A large statue of a female Jedi stood at the center of the chamber; to either side of the sculpture ran a two level bridge that stretched the length of the chamber. Between the support pillars of each bridge were life-sized statues of famous Jedi from all time periods of the Order. Beyond the rear wall of the entry hall was the Great Hall, a meeting place for large numbers of Jedi. From the mouth of the entrance, a long meditative corridor ran perpendicular along the perimeter of the Temple complex.



Following the Temple's destruction during the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Reconstruction Authority recreated the ancient edifice almost perfectly. The stairs were reconstructed without the statues of the Four Masters, while the main hall had extra security systems built in. Security droids were stored in several pillars along the hall, controlled by Temple Security and program to detain any intruders that might break into the Temple.

When the Sith redesigned the Temple in 137 ABY, the old entrance was no longer used as it was below Coruscant's rising "surface level." A new entrance was erected on the roof of the Temple Ziggurat; small and inelegant, blast doors could slam shut at a moment’s notice to keep attackers out.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novel
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith comic
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith game
 * Bloodlines
 * Exile
 * Sacrifice
 * Fury
 * Outcast
 * Omen
 * Abyss
 * Backlash
 * Allies
 * Star Wars: Legacy 17: Claws of the Dragon, Part 4
 * Allies
 * Star Wars: Legacy 17: Claws of the Dragon, Part 4

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Notes and references
Entrada principal del Templo Jedi