Almas Jedi Academy (Jedi Renaissance)

The Jedi Temple of Almas was constructed by the Jedi Order following the rediscovery of the planet and the ancient Sith fortress there. Establishing the academy as a chapter house from which Jedi could monitor the fortress and protect it from Sith zealots and adepts who might seek to use its powers, the academy quickly grow into an unorthodox place of learning. Because of the nature of the clans on the world, Forceful natives had to be taken for training at a later age. The curriculum eventually grew to allow any older Force-sensitives to obtain a place at the academy, in addition to practicing other strange rules, like system quests which took Padawans ranging across the system as part of their training. Following the Clone Wars, the Order reevaluated their training methods. Using Almas as a template, all academies scattered across the galaxy would house Rangers, or Jedi who would remain attached to a designated system and patrol it. The headmaster of the academy served as the system's Watchman and sat at the head of the academy's local Council of Masters. Despite no longer taking in any new students who had not already begun training on Ossus, the academy still hosted lessons for Rangers, Padawans, Knights and Masters alike.

Rediscovery of Almas
"This school is already far different than any other Jedi Academy in the galaxy. We risk too much making any other changes."

- Master Devan For'deschel addresses the Council at the start of the Clone Wars.

When the noted explorer rediscovered the  in 197 BrS, she initially held off on informing the Jedi Order of her discovery of an ancient fortress on the world that would later be identified as Almas. Doing her own research of the strange ruins, Artom was able to discover that old systems records detailed a battle between the Jedi Order and an ancient cult, and she assumed that the ruined fort must be from that era. After reporting her finds to the Republic Senate, the Jedi High Council would eventually take notice of the reports of the discovery and dispatched members of the ExplorCorps to reconnoiter the ancient Sith stronghold. Arriving in 153 BrS to conduct research, the team was led by the noted Jedi Master Tan Qornah. Accompanied by twelve others, including his Padawan, Qornah sought to identify the source of the dark side emanations stemming from the world.

The world itself was steeped in mysteries; the strange kaluthin grasses that covered the ground gave off an ambient glow which cast a hazy aura around the planet. Far from the binary stars at the heart of the system, Almas was provided only a minimal amount of solar light and relied primarily on the eerie glow of the kaluthin. The Jedi were curious to find that the grasses covered the world completely, except for a near perfectly circular desert which had formed around the ancient ruins. Qornah and the other Jedi had learned from Temple records that the planet had been occupied by the Sith Empire during the New Sith Wars and that Dark Lord Darth Rivan had established a fortress there to conduct research. Despite Qornah's confidence in his own skills to withstand the corrupting effects of the fortress' dark side lure, his student was not as strong of will. Padawan Jeen, under the sway of the dark side, lured his Master away from the rest of the group as they approached the entrance to the fortress. When Qornah had his backed turned, Jeen struck the Jedi down with his lightsaber and entered into the darkness of the ancient structure. Sensing the growing darkness, the rest of the Jedi team evacuated, leaving Qornah and Jeen unaccounted for and presumed lost.

Meanwhile, alone in the dark, Jeen studied the ancient teachings of Darth Rivan and learned to know the Sith ways. After months of study alone in the fortress, Jeen emerged and found his former master's ship left behind by the other Jedi. Departing Almas, Jeen hoped to raise an army with which to strike out against the Jedi High Council and the Republic. As Jeen was scouring the asteroid belt beyond Almas, a team of Jedi sent to recover Qornah and Jeen came across the Zabrak Jedi Master's body at the mouth of the ancient fortress and immediately summoned psychometrics from Coruscant to analyze the scene of the homicide. Upon studying the body and the surrounding areas, the Jedi experienced visions of the murder and quickly alerted the High Council of the disturbing developments. The Jedi were too late to stop Jeen however, as the fallen Padawan had already amassed a large army of pirates and rebels in the asteroid belt and began a brutal assault on the planet Genarius. Over the next several years, Jeen launched dozens of assaults on the world, destroying towns and raiding floating cities before disappearing into the void after each attack, leaving no hints to his identity. Commanding a large fleet secretly bank-rolled by the Sith Lord Darth Sinuptor, Jeen was able to overwhelm the weak planetary forces of the Cularin system.

When the situation evolved beyond the control of the local system's governments in 146 BrS, the Jedi High Council was contacted with rumors that the leader of the assault of Genarius was the lost Padawan Kibh Jeen. Dispatching the Iktotchi Jedi Master Syrena Reukli and her Ruurian Padawan Baku Roosh, the High Council tasked them with eliminating Jeen through whatever means necessary. Infiltrating the system without Jeen's knowledge, Reukli and Roosh organized the system's disparate forces together and forged an strong alliance between different planetary factions and mercenaries with ships capable of out-maneuvering the ships of Jeen's ragtag army. When Jeen launched his next assault, he was taken off guard when the planetary forces launched a strong counter attack. On the bridge of his capital ship, the Hoard Raider, Jeen surrounded himself with Sith artifacts and hoped to crush the Cularin system's forces once and for all. As he sat in a deep trance, trying to enter into battle meditation, Reukli and Roosh stormed the bridge and shattered his concentration. Attempting to defend himself, the former Padawan failed to out-duel the experienced Iktotchi and was cut down amid his treasure trove of artifacts. As Jeen lay on the deck, wheezing his last breaths, Roosh heard the man utter "always too there are; no more, no less," before he expired. Reporting this in their final report, the High Council began to suspect that the Sith had managed to survive their alleged demise through adopting a Rule of Two.

Damming the darkness
In the wake of the destruction wrought by Padawan Jeen, the High Council decided that a Jedi presence would be required on Almas to safe-guard the Sith fortress and prevent any other disasters. In 142 BrS, four years after Master Reukli put down Jeen's insurrection, the High Council funded the construction of a small Jedi outpost on the planet. Tasked with monitoring and studying the ancient Sith fortress and the machinations of the Sith that had been conducted and unleashed on the world, the outpost was small and house a small team of ten Jedi Knights. Making up the team were Jedi archaeologist Janos Vih'Torr, a Bith who specialized in Sith culture from the Ruin-era Sith Empire; ExplorCorps researcher Kael Garoon, a Hortek assigned to study and interact with the local Tarasin natives of nearby. Edbr Vasch	and Reki Manten were Miralukan Jedi Shadows who sought to neutralize the power of the academy and render the dark side effects inert; Reki Manten, a Mon Calamari archivist was tasked with searching out artifacts to add to the Temple Archives on Coruscant; Silus Aban, Shiv Jerikko, Bara Kolzaar, and Anakin Eclissu were Human Knights trained in the traditional forms of defense and served as the defenders of the academy. The only Master-Padawan pair to join the founders of the outpost were Avvin Sekel and Graeme Sallian, two Kiffar who had visited Almas before and used their psychometric abilities to implicate Jeen in the murder of his master.

Ten years after their arrival, Manten and Vasch disappeared into the Sith fortress and were found a decade later by Jedi Sallian during an annual inspection of the fortress' outer walls. Noting that the fortress remained a potent nexus of dark side energies despite the efforts of Masters Aban and Jerikko, Vih'Torr made a recommendation to the Council of First Knowledge that a formal academy be established on the world to keep the darkness at bay. In 122 BrS the Almas Academy was officially recognized and a new facility was built over top of the original outpost and fitted with all of the accouterments of a fully-functioning Jedi academy. Appointing Vih'Torr as Headmaster, Coruscant allowed the Almas Council to began taking in students from the region to train as Jedi.