The Keeper

"This was the Keeper&hellip; and its task was to rebuild and ready the war-torn world for the day its people would come back."

- The Keeper's history lesson

The Keeper was a machine with an artificial intelligence located on an unnamed world. It controlled by four android children. Built by the Akurians to preserve their homeworld in a time of war, the Keeper drew its power from Akuria's core, which allowed it to survive long after the people had fled. The Keeper was installed to restore the world to its former status for the Akurians, so that when they would return years later, the planet would be suitable for them to live on.

Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa landed on Akuria seeking shelter from an Imperial fleet. Battling their way through the wilderness with the aid of their two droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, they stumbled upon the Keeper's Temple, and in turn, met the Keeper's four android "children". The Keeper was convinced that the Rebels were of good faith, and decided to help them, by forcing the Imperial troops that had landed to flee offworld. Skywalker and Organa then left the Keeper in peace to continue her task of building a civilization.

Creation
At some stage prior to the Imperial era, the people of Akuria fled from their homeworld to escape impending destruction in a galaxy-wide war. But the people were fond of their homeworld, and wished to restore it to its former state. So they built the Keeper; a gargantuan machine which drew its power from the planet core. They tasked the Keeper with reshaping Akuria so that it would be as it was by the time of their return.

The Children
The Keeper had been programmed with a mother's instinct, and since its work lasted many centuries, it naturally grew lonely. To counter this, it created four android "Children" to provide company. These Children resembled Akurian youths, save for their eyes, and they were imbued with abilities that would allow each one of the four to control a separate element of nature: fire, earth, wind, and water. The children were tasked with aiding the Keeper in reshaping the world&mdash;by using each of their powers to their full extent, they were able, at least in theory, to recreate a fully functioning ecosystem.

But something went wrong in the shaping process. When they recreated the Akurian jungles, they also inadvertently created gargantuan monsters that towered over the trees. The Keeper and the Children, however, used this to their advantage, and employed the creatures as security for their temple. The Keeper maintained the hostile appearance of the planet to ward off any would be intruders, invaders, or any new settlers.

Galactic Civil War
Sometime in 0 ABY, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, C-3PO and R2-D2 set out from Yavin 4 to make contact with the second major Rebel base, located in the Akuria system. Due to the poor repair job performed on R2-D2 following the Battle of Yavin, the astromech caused the ship to prematurely exit hyperspace, and, by coincidence, in the middle of an Imperial fleet. However, due to Skywalker's Force-enhanced piloting skills, the Rebels were able to temporarily escape capture. In his evasive maneuvers, the Rebel transport was caught in the gravitational pull of Akuria I, and forced to land.



Skywalker explored the vast jungle with his two droids, in the hope of finding shelter, food, or other sentients. Instead of finding help, however, he instigated a hindrance. A large humanoid monster, one of which the "Children" had created many years before, attacked Skywalker et al. The Rebels were able to fight back, and eventually drove off the monster. With its first line of defense inadvertently broken, the Keeper had to rely on her "Children" to save her from the impending threat of war.

By this time, the Imperials had dispatched a search party to apprehend the Rebel figureheads. Skywalker, spotting the shuttle and tracking its descent, ushered his friends to move deeper into the jungle. The Imperial captain, spotting them, gave chase with his squad of stormtroopers. As they progressed, the Rebels stumbled into the Keeper's Temple. They reached a dead end in the structure, and were cornered by the Imperials. But by chance, C-3PO accidentally triggered one of the Keeper's teleportation devices, sending the Rebels to the deeper levels of the Temple.

Temporarily safe, the Rebels ventured deeper into the Temple, closer and closer to the Keeper's mainframe. They eventually came across the Keeper's "Children" who had assessed that they were of good intent. After the Children had finished demonstrating their powers, the Imperials discovered the portal, and resumed chase. Fire held the Imperials back with a wall of flames, and rallied together his allies, bringing them into the core of the temple to meet the Keeper directly.

When the Rebels were presented to the Keeper, she was outraged. She had been displeased with the fact that they had learned of the Children, let alone the mainframe itself. Attempting to remedy the situation, the Keeper instructed the intruders by subconsciously beaming content to their minds. The content was a history lesson which outlined the Keeper's existence to the foreigners. The situation clarified, the Keeper instigated an earthquake to ward off the Imperial troops, and then allowed the Rebels to leave by repairing their ship.

Personality and traits
The Keeper was programmed with a mother's sensibilities, perhaps because she had to "raise" an entire planet, and nurse an ecosystem back to health. Despite all the effort she put into the task, there was no reward for her, at least not one that she could perceive. She felt that her motherly output needed sufficient return, and, at the same time, she decided that assistance was required in her task. Her attitude towards her children presumably echoed the standard Akurian culture, since that was all she knew. Due to this, she had no time for outsiders, and feared that they might damage or even destroy her precious work. This is perhaps due to the fact that she was constructed in a time of war, by a pessimistic yet non-violent people. Even the Akurian non-violence was imbued in her programming, as she did not directly seek to enter into confrontation with foreigners; instead, she used nature to ward them off.

Behind the scenes
The Keeper was created by Archie Goodwin and first appeared in the comic serial The Keeper's World. In that story, the Keeper is the key manipulator behind all of the events that take place on the Keeper's world. The Keeper's first appearance was provided by Tony DeZuniga. To date, The Keeper's World is the Keeper's only appearance.

Appearances

 * The Keeper's World