Anil Kesh, or the Temple of Science was one of ten Great Temples of the Jedi Order located on the Deep Core world Tython. Situated above the massive gorge known as the Chasm on Talss continent, Anil Kesh straddled three towering cliffs, suspended over the abyss by three strong support arms. A feat of Jedi engineering, the temple employed Force-inspired architectural techniques to keep it balanced over the void. Originally built by the prehistoric Je'daii Order, the Academy of Sciences was reconstructed by the Jedi in the wake of the Clone Wars and the Order's renaissance after the defeat of the Sith.
Description[]
The schematics for this temple detail a long neglected use for our connection with the Force: architecture. The ancient Je'daii who designed this place were brilliant and highly in tune with the Balance of the Force. We can learn much from these feats of engineering.
—Temple Master Del'gatto analyzes the complex schematics of the temple during its reconstruction.
Anil Kesh was the smallest of the Temples on Tython, straddling the peaks of a mountain range along the Chasm at the center of Talss continent. Suspended out over the abyss, Jedi who studied within the halls of Anil Kesh sought to learn the mysteries of the Force through the application of science. The location of Anil Kesh was of deep fascination to its students; as one descended deeper into the Chasm, the touch of the Force was dampened and calling upon it for strength was near impossible. The greater strength in the Force an individual had, the worse the effect; indeed, some who descended into its open maw found only insanity and death. The base of the Temple Proper held the alchemy pens where beasts created by the Jedi were held or could be released. A large central chamber of the Temple projected a beam of energy down into the Chasm which could analyze whatever it touched and send data back up into the Temple. Additional structures dotted the mountain range leading up to Anil Kesh's support arms while its main hangar was carved into the mountainside.
The main body of the Temple, suspended between the insect-like support arms, was a ball-like structure constructed in the ziggurat style common in Je'daii and Jedi architecture. A nine-sided, eight-stepped ziggurat, the temple was widest at its center and was equipped with a large collections cannon pointed downward from its lowest level. The Center Level of the Temple was the widest point of the structure and the portion of the facility where the support arms connected. The rooftop of the center level was ringed by a wide viewing balcony from which Jedi could gaze out at the Chasm and the surrounding Riftlands. The interior of the Center Level was home to the Temple's pens and hangars. Small, single person exploration craft launched from the hangars to quickly navigate the surrounding areas and bring back samples for testing in the laboratories; the pens housed fauna and beasts for study and experimentation using alchemical techniques.
Level Aurek sat atop the Center Level and was the main level of the Temple. With entrances on three of its nine faces, Level Aurek was home to classroom and orientation halls where Jedi new to the Temple were taught to acclimate to the odd Force effects the Chasm played on occupants. Training labs on the level were used for introductory courses in the varying sciences explored at Anil Kesh, before moving up into the more specialized labs higher in the complex. A dedicated archives library was filled with holobooks recording experiments, scientific knowledge, and accounts of ancient Jedi in the fields related to the work done at Anil Kesh. A small infirmary and operations theater was staffed by the Master of Medicine, who oversaw the well-being and good health of the Temple's occupants and visitors. Level Besh was dedicated to the study of chemistry, the physical science of atomic matter. Laboratories here worked with different types of matter and explored the effects of the Force at the chemical level. Level Cresh was where Jedi studied physics, while Level Dorn, the topmost portion of the Temple, was where the atmospherics of Tython and its Force Storms were monitored and understood. Below the Center Level was Level Esk, where biological studies took place and had direct access to the pens in the center level. Alchemical experiments were explored in the labs of Level Esk and flora, fauna, and mineral were analyzed and studied. Level Forn, which was equipped to study planetary science, an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Tython, utilized the massive collections cannon that shot a coherent beam of light into the Chasm to collect daily samples and data on the happenings beneath the Temple. Level Grek, the lower most level, contained the Temple's powerplant and the machinery necessary to support the collections cannon that protruded downward from the Temple.
Each of the three insect-like support structures had two parts; the legs which suspended the Temple over the Chasm, embedded in the rocky cliffs, and the balancing arms which arced over the Temple and created a counterweight to the legs. The interior of these structures was a honeycombed maze providing strength to the support system and housing dormitories, refectories, meditation chambers, and dojos. A Master of Lightsabers presided over the Temple's main dojo and instructed Jedi Journeyers in the applications of the sciences to their use of the lightsaber. In addition to their studies, all Journeyers were expected to prepare meals, serve others in the refectories, and clean the facilities they used and occupied. Dormitories were spartan and utilitarian, with small windows providing a dim light into the durasteel cells and chambers of the residential areas.
History[]
Je'daii Order[]
When the philosophers and scholars from across the galaxy first arrived on Tython in the age of the Infinite Empire, they were brought forth from the stars on giant pyramidal constructs called the Tho Yor. These nine massive ships scattered across the planet and landed in separate locations, releasing those held within to settle the planet. The Tho Yor themselves would serve as the very foundations for these travelers' new homes and places of study. The Sāh-shtraṁh Tho Yor settled above a portion of the Chasm, a large canyon wherein Force anomalies affected the senses of Forceful individuals within proximity to it. The earlier explorers from the Tho Yor were quick to discover that the deeper one embarked into the gorge, the worse the effects of the Chasm were. Establishing a series of villages and small temples along the cliffs of the Chasm, the the newly formed Je'daii Order was intrigued by the Chasm, drawn to it by the natural curiosity of the power of Force nexuses. Over time, the Je'daii established the first Temple of Science along the cliffsides, sending out Je'daii to explore the Chasm and the surrounding region. One such explorer, Rian Ruh, ventured as far as the Rift. A volcanically active region, the Rift was a massive tear in the ground that was extremely difficult to navigate. Once there, Ruh discovered a pit seeped in the dark side of the Force and went mad. Realizing the necessity to have proper training and supervision of the region, the Je'daii began planning for the construction of a larger temple that could straddle the Chasm and provide a safe place to study the odd properties in the depths of the canyons.
Constructed 781 years after the Tho Yor arrived on Tython, Anil Kesh was completed in 35,637 BrS and open to the Journeyers who crossed Tython on their path to become a ranking Je'daii. Upon arriving at Anil Kesh, it was necessary for all Journeyers to undergo an orientation of sorts which provided them with the skills they needed to endure the adverse affects of the Force-storms raging beneath them at all times. The temple at Anil Kesh had a close working relationship with the Temple of Vur Tepe; a saying existed which claimed, "whatever Anil Kesh can imagine, Vur Tepe can make real." The Je'daii Temple Master, the Je'daii who served as steward of the facility and oversaw its functions, would see that all students practiced safely and advised those who wished to descend into the Chasm. The Temple served the Order for millennia and the work done in its pens came to populate the world with many strange beasts, such as the great dragons. Among the animals experimented on at Anil Kesh were the rare and exotic beasts that emerged from the Abyss of Ruh; diverse and isolated to the Rift, these animals had strange abilities and were often connected to the Force. Despite the hazards, some Je'daii continued to explore the Chasm and the Abyss in pursuit of scientific inquiry and a fascination with Tython and its connection to the all-encompassing Force. Many went mad, few returned, and even fewer ever recovered. This danger was representative of the dangers of the universe, the threat of death and madness, even in the Force. Study was conducted at Anil Kesh for millennia; older structures were abandoned and newer, satellite facilities were erected near to Anil Kesh and the Chasm. Je'daii came and went on their Great Journey, with many returning to teach, study, and contribute their knowledge and skills to the Order. Je'daii took up residence in the Temple and surrounding structures to support the Temple of Science and its primary mission to serve as the Order's greatest collection of laboratories in which the study of the Force as it manifested in the sciences could be safely conducted.
When Daegen Lok and Hawk Ryo descended into the Chasm in the wake of the Despot War, they were besieged by Force visions of an army of dark warriors wielding blades of frozen fire marching across Ska Gora, led by a being with one red eye. Seeing himself leading the Je'daii to war against these warriors, Lok became obsessed with the vision and was deemed mad by the Sky Judges at Akar Kesh. Exiled to Bogan to contemplate Ashla by the Council, Lok's vision was ignored by the Order and dismissed as the ravings of a mad man. When the Infinite Empire invaded the Tython system in the decade after Lok's vision, many Je'daii were pulled from their posts at Anil Kesh to contribute to the war effort. Those who remained behind researched new weapons and war material to be used against the Rakatan invaders. Beasts of war were alchemically altered to serve in battle and counter the armies of Flesh Raiders deployed by the Rakatan invaders. Following many setbacks and losses, the Order was driven back to Tython when the Infinite Empire launched a massive strike against Anil Kesh itself, for they believed that a powerful Infinity Gate lay deep in the Chasm below the academy. As the Je'daii fought the Imperial ground forces, a strike team of Rakata infiltrated ancient Kwa tunnels and passageways that navigated the Chasm to its depths. Focusing on the strange symbols etched into the side of the mysterious Tho Yor, the Rakata and several Je'daii were able to pass through the Chasm's strange defenses and reach the Infinity Gate at its heart. Before the Rakata could unleash their terror through the Gate, the Je'daii in Anil Kesh used a Kwa holocron to activate a defensive cannon on the Tho Yor and destroy the Infinity Gate and decimate much of the Imperial Navy in the process. While the battle was won, it cost the Order the Temple of Science, as Anil Kesh was at the epicenter of the deadly blast that destroyed the Infinity Gate. Despite remaining structurally sound, the Temple was a burning wreck of twisted steel and was forced to be abandoned as the Order faced a deep schism that ultimately brought about the abandonment of Tython. When the final battle of the Force Wars caused an event known as the Force Cataclysm, the Temple collapsed into the Chasm as the shockwave swept across the planet. Despite its destruction, the Temple's foundations remained, eternal in the Force and standing against the passage of time. Memory of the Temple passed out of memory and was forgotten, recorded in only a handful of scrolls and datacards that were misplaced, destroyed, or corrupted.
Reconstruction[]
Many millennia removed from the Force Wars, the Jedi Order saw itself weakened after a near fatal alliance with the Galactic Republic drew them into a deadly war. On the brink of extinction the Order appointed a new Grand Master, the Purpilian Tomac Moorcé, who would reinvigorate the Order and begin a new chapter in its history known as the Jedi Renaissance. Sending scouts to Tython, the High Council ordered an exploration of the ancient ruins of the Je'daii temples with the intent of rebuilding them and using them to bolster the existing Jedi academy system. Locating the Chasm and the clifftops which once supported the Temple of Science, the Builder Corps and the Council of Site Preservation and Construction used ancient schematics and new technology to draw up plans for the Temple's rebirth. Because the foundations of Anil Kesh had been preserved through the Force, the Jedi rebuilt the Temple with relative ease, improving upon the design with modern technology and techniques, while respecting the ancient methods employed by their predecessors. Both memorializing the Je'daii and giving new direction to their modern era, the Council of SPC believed that by rebuilding the ancient structures they could forge anew what was once lost and make it stronger and greater than before.
As work was underway on Tython, the High Council selected the Balosar Jedi Master Zarsa Del'gatto to serve as the Temple Master for the facility. An enigmatic figure among the Order, Del'gatto had been trained by the legendary Knol Ven'ari and favored her use of flames in his study and fighting technique. Despite his reputation as a maverick and his past as a Grey Jedi, the High Council found that Del'gatto's scientific mind would allow for studies to expand to all regions of Force sciences, including the long maligned science of alchemy. Watching the Temple's construction from a distance, Del'gatto quickly opened the academy upon its completion and set to work plumbing the depths of the Chasm, regathering information lost to time from the age of the Je'daii. With a small staff of only twenty Jedi Knights and Masters, and support staff and associate professors from the EduCorps, Anil Kesh was reopened as a hub for learning and scientific discovery. Because scientific Force exploration had largely been suspended during the war, the staff at Anil Kesh required the first group of Jedi Journeyers that arrived on Tython at the end of Year 17 to assist in shaping the curriculum and aid in reenergizing the Order's scientific arm. Not long after the academy's opening one of its lead instructors, Master Kel Fee led a team to the Rogue Moon of Taris to reclaim a Jedi-operated facility there abandoned during the New Sith Wars. The Rogue Moon Academy was situated over a mine with heavy deposits of a mysterious clay and several other minerals which were useful in alchemical practices. Appointed as Headmaster, Fee's academy served as a satellite facility to Anil Kesh and its findings were reported to Del'gatto and his eventual successors.
The support city reestablished around Anil Kesh began to thrive in the wake of the Golem Wars, during which the study at Anil Kesh was vital in thwarting the strange mineral-based ships of the warring Golems. Many famed Jedi scholars settled in the city of Vindian, forming a scientific community of respectful debate and discourse on a variety of topics. The Great Forum of Vindian was an open air debate arena with Anil Kesh framed just beyond its pillared walls.