The academy on the Rogue Moon of Taris was a tall structure established by the Jedi Order for the purpose of excavating the mysterious Force-imbued minerals which were found in abundance on the the moon.
History[]
New Sith Wars[]
Erected over a mine of mysterious Force-imbued clay, the Jedi Order intended for the academy to serve as a place of study for the many different minerals found in the crust of the moon. Under the control of the Ansion Council, a body of ten Jedi Masters tasked with operating a number of command centers and training outposts on the lawless Outer Rim during the New Sith Wars, the academy's headmaster was a Human Jedi named Rita Bandora. Under Bandora's leadership, the academy excavated large quantities of the rare minerals found in the crust of the planet, promoting study of the strange clay and other minerals. As the Sith Empire grew, members of the Council on Ansion grew fearful of Sith entanglement in their research academies.
As fears grew among the leaders of the Council, Bandora stopped attending meetings, secreting herself away within her private chambers for long hours. While masters on the Council believed that she was simply taking time to fortify her academy, Bandora had fallen to the dark side along with six other members of the Council and was in the practice of opening up a rift in the Force. Together with her fallen Councilors, Bandora was able to create a Shadow realm; a place where cursed souls could be sent and placed in a sort of holding pattern until summoned. Harnessing the dark side and the mysterious properties of the clay she had mined, Bandora was able to use dark side alchemy to craft the clay into living flesh. The Jedi stationed at her academy joined their headmaster in her fall to the dark side and allowed their souls to be cursed with the promise of immortality. Sending her minions into battle, each one who fell found their souls imprisoned within the Shadow realm, only to return to the land of the living as Bandora's servants crafted stronger, monstrous bodies for them from the Force clays of the moon.
Revealing her seemingly unbeatable army to the remaining Councilors on Ansion, Bandora led a campaign of destruction across the Outer Rim, wage war on several fronts and conquering all she encountered. Wedding fellow Councilor Impori Zedd, their dark side union proved far to strong for the reduced number of Jedi on the Outer Rim and their reign seemed all but unstoppable. Remaining at the academy-turned palace over Taris, Bandora was able to continue regenerating a seemingly endless supply of foot soldiers and generals, all through the trapped souls of Jedi lost in the Shadow realm. Bandora's reign lasted a thousand years and seemed like it would continue until four centuries after the Battle of Mizra when Zedd's ship was shot down on the fringes of known space. With Zedd thought dead, Bandora was enraged and launched a full-scale assault on the command center on Ansion. There Bandora was caught off guard by the head of the Council, Master Elriza Zordon, and was imprisoned along with several of her chief generals and alchemists and set adrift in space. The remaining Ansion Jedi sacked the moon palace, barring its doors and destroying the ships remaining there. Over time the palace was buried under dust and debris, and the old academy faded out of historical records as the Republic entered a Dark Age.
Silent Wars[]
In 13 BrS, the prison of Bandora was discovered by feckless spacers and the ancient Dark Queen was released upon the galaxy once more. Along with her henchmen, the former Jedi hijacked their liberators' ship and returned to the Rogue Moon to hunt out their old base. Using her dark side magics to restore the palace, Bandora took up residence once more and began mining activities once more. Around the galaxy, dark forces were at work and her old compatriots, the group known as the Dark Councilors of Ansion came out of stasis and exile, imprisonment and death, to wreak havoc on the Outer Rim. The ancient command center of Ansion, which had been completely forgotten by the Order, was run by a droid faithful to the Republic and the Jedi who detected the return of the ancient Dark Councilors and alerted the Coruscant Temple of the disturbance. Zordon, who had been imprisoned in his own right, was able to retain a presence at the academy on Ansion and began training Jedi to repel Bandora's forces as the Order mustered an army of Shadows to counter the newly started war on the Outer Rim.
From her palace, Bandora's assaults were calculated and vicious. Her strongest generals were reincarnated in powerful new bodies which she made grow to towering sizes. When the Jedi Order attacked, they were careful to keep news of the return of their dark enemies quiet, which earned the conflict the name the Silent Wars. As word spread among the returned Dark Councilor's of Bandora's growing strength, Zedd returned from exile to lead her armies to victory. Together the Dark Jedi ruined the planet Jarnollen, killing half the world's populace in one violent assault. As war erupted on countless fronts as the joined might of the Dark Councilors was unleashed, the Jedi seemed all but outmatched. Salvation came in the form of a new foe for Bandora and her allies; the Machine Empire, an organization of living droids known as the Silentium. Unleashing chaos among the armies of the Dark Councilors, the Empire attacked the Rogue Moon palace and badly damaged the structure forcing Bandora and her minions to flee. Once Bandora reorganized, a massive push by the Dark Councilors and the Machine Empire against the planets of the Outer Rim almost destroyed the Jedi task force dispatched to end the conflict until the Padawan Tomac Moorcé destroyed Master Zordon's energy field, releasing a wave of light side energy which washed across the afflicted worlds. When the armies of the Dark Councilors were touched by the energy wave their clay-and-alchemy bodies were reduced to sand and their life force released to the Force. With Bandora and her armies gone, the old academy lay abandoned once more as the Silent Wars came to an end.
Jedi Renaissance[]
When the Jedi Order defeated the Sith Lord Darth Sidious at the end of the Clone Wars, Master Kel Fee championed the reopening of the academy to work in conjunction with the academy of science Anil Kesh on Tython. Reopening the mines, Fee took up residence as the headmaster and converted the old throne room of Master Zedd into a classroom and the main domain of Celegian Master Koorid. Under Fee's direction the academy flourished and the clay of the moon were finally understood by the Order. The Mistress of Lightsabers at the academy, Olana Chion, defended the academy from intrusion by the criminal and former Governor of Taris, Zorys when he attempted to assassinate Master Fee. When Fee returned to the academy after serving on the Jedi High Council for several years, the old Codru-Ji master passed away and was cremated on the academy's pyre.
Layout[]
A tall structure constructed above a large mine, the academy consisted of a central spire and several small towers behind the base arrayed in a fan pattern. The main gates were located at the base of the central spire at the end of a broad promenade leading from the moon's main landing pad. Inside the main building the academy was made up of classrooms and laboratories, dormitories and store houses for equipment. The upper levels of the tower were given over to the headmaster's quarters which consisted of a suite of rooms with large balconies overlooking the rocky landscape surrounding the academy. The tower was crowned by a large rotating globe powered by machines which dug deep under the academy into the mines and caverns.