Taris Jedi Academy (Jedi Renaissance)

"For five years, this building was home."

- Zayne Carrick, Jedi Padawan, an a member of the inaugural class of the Taris Academy.

The Jedi academy of was a towering facility built in the prominent city of Highport during the decades preceding the Great Sith War. A beacon of light in a turbulent era, the academy held the promise of safety and greater security as the city-planet's security forces struggled to maintain the peace. Ultimately, the leadership of the academy was controlled by a secret Jedi cabal bent on the eradication of the Sith and less focused on the mundane lives of the public. Following the devastating Padawan Massacre of 3,929 BrS, the public support of the Jedi guttered and the Jedi High Council recalled the academy's Council and closed the academy.

Millennia later, in the wake of the Clone Wars (Jedi Renaissance), the Council of First Knowledge approved plans to rebuild the long lost academy and reconvene the Council of Taris. Led by the system's Watchman, the Council opened the facility as a Ranger Academy where criminal justice could be studied and applied.

A convenient gift
Constructed in the heart of the city of Highport, the facility was commissioned at the behest of the Jedi High Council with funding from the Draay Estate. Construction of the academy coincided with the planet of Taris' early discussion of joining the Republic and was part of a deal conceived by Jedi negotiators hoping to get a foothold on the so-called Heart of the Outer Rim. Before the treaty was finalized, a growing unease threatened the Republic's stability and war with the Sith erupted, effectively suspending negotiations indefinitely. Despite this, the Tarisian government had already selected a location for the academy which would place the Jedi in the prospering heart of Highport while also eliminating an irritating eyesore. Amid the glistening new buildings that dominated the city's upper levels stood an ancient atmosphere control complex; a tower of odd angles and boxy shapes that was unsightly to its wealthy neighbors. Responsible for recycling the polluted air from the Under City and filtering out contaminants so that the citizens hundreds of levels could continue to breathe, the tower could not be demolished and building luxury residences atop of it was out of the question. Eager to prevent stagnation in growth of Highport, the city government offered the rooftop space in the center of the city to the Jedi Order who quickly accepted the prime real estate and erected their academy in the form of a brilliant skyscraper. By the time that the academy was ready for occupation, the treaties with the Republic had stalled completely but the Order was welcomed to the planet to begin bringing prosperity back to the crumbling world.

Arrival of the Jedi
Known colloquially as the Jedi Tower by most residents of Highport, the tower knifed its way up through the opulent urban center while beneath the surface the city-planet rotted. Disease and despair plagued most of the Under City, but the upturned noses of the willfully blind occupants of the Upper Cities refused to acknowledge this growing problem. When the Jedi finally arrived, they were greeted with an optimistic public, who was weary of their own suffering and false hope. The Academy staff, which consisted of one Master, two Knights and three Padawans, arrived in time to protect President-elect Fidelis Borjinin from numerous assassination attempts. A highly unpopular President, Borjinin did not do the Jedi any favors so far as their public image went, as he requested a Jedi Knight to be assigned to him personally as an adviser. Putting in the request to Coruscant, the High Council dispatched Jedi Knight Bylanda Cron, a diligent political taskmaster and a powerful presence in Galactic City. Taking up residence in the Jedi Tower, Cron walked from the Tower daily to meet with President Borjinin at the Presidential Residence several blocks away in Highport's government district. Given a wide berth, Cron was stern and just and would not appease the President or stoke his ego; if she believed that his actions were out of line she would call him on it and make him debate her until he saw her logic.

Borjinin's political opponents attempted to paint Cron as his Jedi mistress and discredit both his administration and the Order, but these attempts were quickly rejected by the public who saw Cron as their true guiding light as her presence became more and more recognized. Over the next decade, the Jedi Tower came to be more of a symbol of Taris governance then the Presidential Residence, with President Borjinin submitting early on in his first term to requests by Cron to hold debates within the academy's largest lecture hall. Permanently home to fifteen Jedi, the Tower came to be a busy governmental complex with offices near the skybridge level being provided for government officials and pages. Cron took up offices in the pinnacle chamber of the tower where she and Borjinin discussed the future progress of Taris' economic and political expansion. As Taris flourished around them, the economic upswing even trickled down the towers to the Mid- and Under Cities. The prosperity of Taris was attributed to the Jedi-guided administration and enjoyed two five-year terms of office before Borjinin was replaced by his Vice President, Arlic Kri, a Quermian with goals as lofty as his head atop his long neck. Cron continued to serve as an adviser to Kri until 3,975 BrS when Cron and Kri were abruptly assassinated at a nearby cafe when terrorists from the Lower City bombed the superstructure atop which the building housing the cafe was constructed. With the death of their most prominent Master and the loss of a supportive President, the residents of the Jedi Tower were shaken. A strong Humanocentric campaign was launched by the bureaucrats vying for power, and anti-alien and anti-Jedi sentiment laid the blame for the attack at the feet of President Kri and Jedi Cron's inability to see past their arrogant, alien-Jedi beliefs.

Following the election of Bro Kiden to the presidency, government officials were recalled from their offices at the Jedi Tower and the doors of the government shut to all members of the Jedi Order. Over the next decade, Kiden successfully reduced the public's faith in the Jedi as he blamed the increase in violent gang activity in the Under City on the Order; for they, like the vagrants of the Under City, were unemployed in the eyes of the state and relied on government subsidies to operate. Worse still, a conflict with the Sith Empire was brewing on the horizon and the Jedi High Council was encouraging each academy to expedite their training of new Knights which further distracted from the academy's mandate to maintain the peace. Assigning their Padawans to different sectors of the city, the academy's three Masters focused their efforts on bolstering their relationship with the Taris Civil Authority and the Office of the Ojoster Sector Constable who took a negative view of the new administration's policies for policing and maintaining civility in the lower cities. As the Krath Holy War occupied the High Council Coreward, the academy staff felt a strain as their newly knighted Jedi were called to defend the center of the galaxy. Despite the mounting setbacks, the academy managed to maintain its training grounds and to assist in the policing of the lower cities all the while slowly resting back public support. In 3,961 BrS, the Jedi Order suffered the great loss of Ossus and half of the High Council. With this tragedy, the academy's days seemed numbered; when the current class of students approached their knighting ceremony, there would be no new class to replace them.

A preoccupied Council
Fifteen years following the loss of Ossus, the Jedi Tower was home to two overwhelmed Jedi Masters and three Knights with a single Padawan. Heavily underused, the academy's residents had by this time solidified their relationship with the Sector Constable and the TCA. Following the death of one of the Knights during the opening salvo of the Swoop Gang War which erupted in the Mid City the academy's headmaster, Laric Var, petitioned Coruscant for reinforcements. Expecting to be refused once again, the entire academy was shocked to learn that High Councilor Tott Doneeta himself had seen to the placement of five Jedi to the academy's staff. In 3,945 BrS the city-world celebrated the arrival of the five new Jedi Masters with parades and feasts in honor of the Masters led by Lucien Draay. Believing that the re-invigoration of the academy might bring about real change once again, the public was pleased to see the youthful Jedi Masters of varying species counter the Humanocentric policies of the current President. Led by the young Master Draay, the five Masters were regarded with gentle suspicion by Headmaster Var who found it strange that five Jedi Masters, three of whom were young enough to be senior Padawans, had suddenly become free, when Taris could not even receive two Jedi of any rank over the past two decades.

Overtime, the High Council on Coruscant demanded that the five apprenticeless Jedi took Padawans under their wing. Frustrated by this distraction, the Masters had no choice but to agree and in 3,934 BrS Master Draay and his companions took on five Padawans from Dantooine. To allow themselves some freedom, the Masters assigned the Padawans to take over the coordination of the TCA's day-to-day policing to relieve the overtaxed Jedi Knights still serving on the planet. As the Padawans trained at the academy, largely under their own volition as the Masters worked towards a clandestine mission, they were highly successful in their work to cut down crime. Working closely with Constable Noana Sowrs, Padawan Kamlin Rac arrested crimelord and Padawan Oojoh toppled the Leverby smuggling ring. Despite several attempts to bring the black marketeer, Padawan Zayne Carrick was never successful in his attempts.

Following the corporate-backed appointment of System Senator Haydel Goravvus in 3,931 BrS, the five Jedi Masters from Coruscant became anxious around the headmaster and were frustrated with his constant interference in their dealings. Aside from serving the High Council, these five Masters were actually members of a secret cabal of Jedi obsessed with the eradication of the Sith. Unbeknownst to Headmaster Var the five Masters, four of them Seers under the leadership of their Executor Jedi Master Lucien Draay, were pursuing ancient artifacts that were rumored to have been lost on Taris. Using their connections on Coruscant, the First WatchCircle Masters were able to have Var recalled back to the capital. As he prepared to leave, Var warned the other Jedi present at the Tower to keep an eye on their brother and sister Jedi as he was suspicious of their motives. With Var gone, the five Masters converted the pinnacle chamber of the tower into a Council Chamber and declared themselves the governing Council of Taris' academy. Receiving approval from Coruscant, the Masters allowed the academy's remaining Jedi to continue assisting the TCA as they focused all of their attention on the pursuit of dark side artifacts. The last two Knights were eventually compelled to join the Covenant after long talks with the Taris Council. Both these Jedi, Knights and  had a thorough understanding of the planet and volunteered to begin tracking down leads on ancient Sith artifacts.

The Padawan Massacre
"I didn't do anything! I went into the Temple and found all my friends dead!''" "Dead?" " Murdered!'' Their Masters killed them! Their own Masters! And now they're after us!"

- Zayne Carrick and Marn Hierogryph, after escaping the Jedi Tower.

Life at the academy had become extremely tense in the year following its admittance into the Senate, as Jedi Zeel and Marrian were recalled to Coruscant by Haazen and reassigned to different postings in anticipation of the war brewing with the Mandalorians. Jedi began to move around the galaxy as whispers turned into threats of violence. The academy hosted several Jedi in transit, who were using the facilities on Taris as a place to rest and rearm themselves as they went to investigate the Mandalorians and their movement across the Outer Rim. As all-out war seemed imminent, the High Council issued orders to their academies that the eldest Padawans should accelerate along the path to knighthood. The Masters of the WatchCircle decided to test their students' abilities on the plains of the barren Rogue Moon as it passed by Taris on its peculiar travels through the system. There, the Masters had a vision they interpreted to mean that one of the students would become the next Sith Lord. Setting events in motion to deal with this, the Masters planned to knight their students sooner then expected.

While his fellow students reported to the Jedi Tower for the ceremony, Padawan Carrick pursued the criminal he had long failed to apprehend: Marn Hierogryph. Meanwhile, the Masters of the Council and their students met in the Council chamber at the Jedi Tower in preparation for the ceremony. Confronting their Masters over the possibility of Carrick being knighted, the Padawans found this sudden turnaround of the Masters' opinion of Carrick to be very suspicious. After failing to convince the students of their reasons, the Masters acted on the vision they received earlier on the Rogue Moon and massacred the young Jedi. Successfully managing the assignment of capturing Hierogryph, Carrick rushed back to the Tower to report on his success. Late for the ceremony, Carrick entered the pinnacle chamber to find his friends dead at their Masters' feet. Confronted with five Jedi Masters with their lightsabers drawn, Carrick fled the Tower and successfully avoided detection. At the Jedi Tower the Council was forced to report the death of their students to Coruscant, blaming Carrick for the massacre.

Attempting to flee offworld with new companions and Hierogryph, Carrick evaded Master Draay but was detained by the bounty hunter and returned to Taris. Ying marched Carrick across the skybridge to the Jedi Tower, surrounded by a furious public who condemned Carrick's alleged crime. High in the Council chamber, Master Draay explained to Carrick and Draay that the Council was truly working for the secret cabal known as the Covenant and sought to destroy the Sith. Killing Ying to prevent him from revealing any of what he revealed, Carrick escaped once more when his friends, two Arkanian genetic offshoots and the criminal Hierogryph attacked the Tower. Firing on the Tower with their ship, the Last Resort, the Arkanians knocked out the academy's power supply and shattered the skylight in the Council chambers as Carrick made his second successful escape.

Life at the Tower continued shakily for three more weeks. The Council Masters consulted with the TCA and the Constable in attempting to hunt down Carrick, while Senator Goravvus attended a small memorial within the Tower's morning court where citizens dropped messages, flowers and lit candles around holographic memorials of the four dead students. When the Council received a holotransmission from Coruscant, Grand Master Vrook Lamar delivered a harshly-worded critic of the academy's Council and recalled them to Coruscant for a meeting with the High Council so that they might be reprimanded and reassigned. Demanding the academy be secured and shutdown, the WatchCircle had no choice but to secure their belongings and transport anything which might connect them with the Covenant back to Coruscant. Meanwhile, Carrick transmitted a message to his former Masters claiming that he had foreseen that one of their number would confess to their crimes and clear his name. Until then, Carrick vowed to hunt down the other Masters and kill them so that justice might be had for his fallen comrades.

In Mandalorian hands
"We've just learned that Cassus Fett himself has come to review the operations from Highport. He's using your Jedi Tower as his command center."

- Haydel Goravvus, to Raana Tey

Following the abrupt departure of the Council from Taris, the Republic fleet stationed around the planet was reassigned to the planet, leaving the world vulnerable. With the year, Mandalorian Field Marshal led an invasionary force down the gravity well of Taris and seized the world. Targeting Highport, Fett bombed the Presidential Residence and took up residence in the Jedi Tower by quickly overwhelming its mechanical defenses. Establishing his command center within the Council chamber at the summit of the Tower, Fett's men quickly filled the chamber with tactical hologram projectors and lit the windowless room with candles so that he might monitor the traffic flow the the planetary invasion. Flying a Neo-Crusader banner from the summit of the turbolift tower, Fett ordered that an artillery cannon be installed on the skybridge and that no one without the proper clearance be allowed within a nine hundred meter radius.

As a resistance movement formed in the Lower City, the Jedi Tower became an obvious target for the forces longing to strike at the Mandalorian regime. Using holographic blueprints of the facility from base to summit, the resistance infiltrated the atmosphere control complex the Tower was built atop and planted hundreds of MM-40 thermal charges. Secretly evacuating the surrounding buildings to avoid any civilian casualties, Resistance leader and Republic Senator Goravvus suggested sending a reconnaissance team into the tower to ensure that Cassus Fett was present when the detonators went off. Fugitive Padawan Carrick volunteered to assist in this aspect of the mission accompanied by Shel Jelavan, the sister of his slain friend and fellow Padawan, Shad. Much to the discomfort of Carrick, one of his old Masters, Raana Tey, assisted in the assault under the pretense she would not attack him or attempt to harm him during the mission.

Entering the building through the front entrance disguised as Mandalorians, Carrick and Jelavan were to enter into the facility and disarm the security measures on the ventilation shafts so that Tey could enter from the Tower's substructure. Once inside, Carrick and Jelavan entered the storage level and opened the vents, believing that the Mandalorians they had seen departing the tower were simply changing shifts. However, the reality was that the Tower was being evacuated and Cassus Fett and his men had relocated elsewhere. When Carrick made his way to the old Council chambers, he discovered only a single Mandalorian trooper remained packing equipment for transfer. Discovering that Fett was gone, Carrick prepared to leave the Tower but was soon confronted by Master Tey. The angry Togruta killed the Mandalorian warrior in cold blood before attacking Carrick with her lightsaber. Defending himself, the dueled around the Council chamber, knocking over the stone chairs and shattering the recently replaced skylight once more. Standing on the rooftop, Carrick pleaded with Tey to face reason and recognize that he was not the Sith she was looking for. Furious, Tey launched herself at Carrick but was soon caught in the shattered skylight's transparisteel structure. Deactivating his lightsaber, Carrick moved to assist the struggling Jedi and take her to safety. Wounded from the broken shards and having been impaled earlier in the stomach, the weakened Togruta drew her lightsaber to help herself free of the debris. When Carrick's friends and fellow members of the resistance arrived, they misinterpreted Tey drawing her weapon as renewed attack. Acting quickly, the resistance members detonated the explosives in the Tower's superstructure which caused a crippling chain reaction all throughout the facility. As Tey tried to free herself, the superstructure buckled from the explosions and began to collapse in on itself. Realizing that escape was impossible, Tey told Carrick to flee and to tell her Master, Krynda Draay, that she was sorry. As Carrick and his allies boarded an escape craft hovering just above the Tower, the Jedi academy, along with Raana Tey, plummeted down into the building's footprint. As the Tower fell Tey was crushed under the rubble and died with the Jedi Tower.

Reclamation
Smoking for weeks, the Tower ruins rested in the Under City for several weeks undisturbed as the wreckage cooled. Following the ruination of Taris after Darth Malak ordered the surface destroyed via bombardment from orbit, the ruins of the Tower were buried under the weight of the rest of the city. Located in a region that came to be known as the Sinking City, the Tower's remains were located by members of the Jedi Order during reclamation efforts initiated by the Republic several centuries removed from the initial collapse during the Cold War. The Order stationed several Jedi at the site to excavate the ruins and locate any lost relics or artifacts which could be salvaged and shipped to the Order's new home on Tython. Successfully recovering several medical holocrons, the ruins would be abandoned and cleared in the ensuing millennia as Highport was rebuilt. The site of a new atmosphere control center, the facility was a vital piece of the rehabilitation effort of the city. By the time of the Clone Wars (Jedi Renaissance) the control center was fully operational and Highport had been a thriving city for the better half of two centuries..

When the Clone Wars concluded and the Jedi Order entered into a renaissance period, the High Council commissioned the reconstruction of the academy on Taris with the blessings of the current President of Taris. Using ancient records of the original structure, the Order built a similar tower as a memorial to a bygone era as well as a symbol of a return to normalcy. Rebuilding the iconic structure and revitalizing the skyline, the Tower was completed in Year 27.