Great Jedi Library/Legends

"Can you smell the history, the power here?"

―Exar Kun

The Great Jedi Library, also known as the Library of Ossus or as the Great Library of the Jedi, was a massive library complex consisting of several buildings erected by the Jedi Order on the planet Ossus. Commissioned by the Jedi Master Odan-Urr following the Great Hyperspace War, the Draethos Jedi assembled ancient documents and scrolls detailing every detail of sentient history and ingenuity. Home to the Order after leaving their homeworld Tython in the Deep Core, the Great Library became a symbol of the Jedi and the great storehouse of knowledge in the galaxy. Over the ensuing centuries Ossus thrived as the home of Jedi wisdom, encouraging visitors from across the Galactic Republic to visit and study at the archives.

After centuries of peace and growth, the Library was raided by Dark Lord of the Sith Exar Kun and his followers. Storming the Chamber of Antiquities, the Sith stole the forbidden Sith artifact known as the Dark Holocron from Master Odan-Urr before slaying the venerable Jedi. As Kun grew stronger and gathered his forces, the Sith unleashed the devastation of Naga Sadow's ancient battleship, the Corsair, detonating the stars of the nearby Cron Cluster in 3996 BBY.

As the Jedi desperately tried to empty the Library and ship its contents offworld, Kun and his minions returned in a bid to steal the last bits of knowledge from the Jedi. Before long, the world was irradiated by the supernovas, eradicating the planet's major cities and entombing more than half of the Library's knowledge within its halls. The Library stood abandoned for the next three millennia, while the surviving Jedi known as the Ysanna kept constant vigil in the ruined world. The Jedi who had made it offworld transported the surviving artifacts to Coruscant where they would be kept in the new Archives that would serve as a smaller version of the lost Library for centuries. After the planet had gone long without visitors aside from occasional archaeological teams Jedi Luke Skywalker and Kam Solusar rediscovered the world and begun to study the ruins. After several decades more had passed, the Jedi Order returned to the now-habitable planet and established a new academy on the world, erecting a new Archives to replace the Great Library.

History

Jewel of the Jedi

"I remember the last words of my master Ooroo. Perhaps I can build a great learning center. A giant library of Jedi knowledge and books on the quiet world where Master Ooroo trained me. On Ossus!"

―Odan-Urr after recovering a Sith Holocron at the end of the Great Hyperspace War

Following the end of the Great Hyperspace War, Jedi Knight Odan-Urr, a noted Jedi Consular and Lore Keeper returned to the planet of his early training in the Jedi Order under Jedi Master Ooroo. Drawing inspiration from the expansive library found in the Praxeum in Knossa, Odan-Urr began to conceptualize a massive archive of wisdom on the quiet and meditative world of Ossus.

From the days of its foundation, the Library of Ossus contained the culmination of hundreds of generations of knowledge and wisdom. Odan-Urr scoured the galaxy for all attainable knowledge, eventually cataloging what was said to be data on all sentient works and history from the foundation of the Galactic Republic. Containing rare scrolls and hand-written books, many librarians and archivists recorded these text in more secure datacrons and holodiscs in order to ensure their preservation and integrity. Over time, the ever-growing collection was home to many artifacts imbued with the light side of the Force, including holocrons of wise Jedi Masters and ancient weapons.

Destruction in the Great Sith War

Approximately 4000 BBY the Great Sith War broke out and war came to the Republic. Republic troops were funneled through Ossus and were occasionally staged on the world's surface. During the war, the Library was visited by the Sith Lord Exar Kun, who seduced many young Jedi to the dark side. When he had gathered enough followers, he went to Master Odan-Urr in the Chamber of Antiquities and demanded that he turn over the Dark Holocron. When the ancient Jedi refused, Kun brutally slew him and took the Sith knowledge bank. Thus Odan-Urr died surrounded by the books he loved so much just as his own teacher, Master Ooroo, had predicted.

Soon after, Kun's forces used an ancient Sith weapon aboard the Sith battleship, the Corsair, to unleash a cataclysm that would wreck the surface of Ossus. Within a matter of hours, the Jedi were aware that the destruction of the Cron Cluster by the Sith would create a supernova that would wipe out all life on the world. As special teams of Jedi hastily recorded data and transferred artifacts aboard ships fleeing the system, other Jedi tried to save themselves and the other beings studying on the world. Scrolls, datachips, antique lightsabers, and journals were loaded aboard transports while ancient mosaics and arcades were delicately removed from the floors and walls and placed in precise patterns in the vessels that would ferry them to safety. Despite these heroic efforts, only a fraction of the ancient materials were saved, with the majority of them making it to Exis Station over Teedio where they would be stored in a temporary library before being transferred to the newly built Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

The Jedi's hasty evacuation of the Library.

As the Jedi scrambled to evacuate the scrolls and artifacts, the Sith came one last time. Jedi Master Ood Bnar, utilizing an ability unique to his species, buried a collection of ancient lightsabers and rooted himself over them, becoming a tree-like being and binding his life force to the planet's, insuring the artifacts' safety. As the supernova's wave quickly approached, the last of the evacuation ships launched and the Sith retreated. While most Jedi evacuated, some did not. In addition to the hibernating Master Bnar, several Jedi were left inside the Library and surrounding areas, as well as the countless other species that had lived on the world. While many of those who survived the planet's irradiation died off in the ensuing years, the hardier of those species persevered and formed a group of tribal primitives known as the Ysanna. Embracing the Force-based traditions of their ancestors, the Ysanna stood sentinel over the ruins of the Library, keeping out intruders and safeguarding the secrets that remained intact within.

Rediscovery

The Library sat largely undisturbed for the next centuries. The Jedi Order relocated to their new home in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant where they erected an expansive Archives facility to store what was saved from Ossus. Stone mosaics were inlaid in the Temple's floors, and a stained-glass arcade was installed after having been salvaged. As the Ysanna stood watch, the towers of the Library crumbled and the facade, most of which was already damaged, saw further deterioration. Eventually the Library blended in with the bleak landscape of the barren world, a mountain of crumbling rock amid the wrecks of ancient star cruisers and old battleships. The Ysanna tribes eventually forgot the exact nature of the Library after centuries of distant protection, and its exact location became the stuff of legends. Despite its importance in Jedi history, the Jedi seldom held recovery missions on the planet, occasionally dispatching members of the Academy of Jedi Archaeology to accompany the scientists and researchers of the Hanna Institute of Antiquities and the University of Agamar on digs.

Following the Eternal Empire's conquest of the galaxy, Jedi under Master Gnost-Dural—along with the Twi'lek Pilgrims and other war refugees—established the isolated Jedi Colony near the Great Jedi Library, exploring the ruins as they developed farms near the colony. During their stay, the Ysanna often lured nearby and stole some tools but avoiding direct contact, which caused the colonists to be suspicious of their presence.

Around 3628 BBY, the Sith Empire discovered the Jedi Colony and invaded Ossus in an attempt to destroy them but Republic forces reinforced the planet and fought the Imperial forces, allowing the colony to evacuate off-world.

As the worlds of the Republic spun into yet another war, one that would claim the Republic and snuff out the Jedi Order, a young Ysanna tribesman rediscovered the ruins while exploring a region governed by fallen Jedi Travgen. Despite his inclinations to the dark side, Travgen had been hiding out on the world for several years, protecting the ruins as he ruled over a Ysanna tribe. Careful to keep the knowledge a family secret out of fear of looters, the man's grandson, Okko would be the keeper of this knowledge when the Galactic Empire was in power.

Jedi Master Skywalker and Jedi Knight Solusar fly across Ooroo Canyon on their approach to the ruins of the Great Library.

Roughly a decade after the Battle of Yavin between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and apprentice Kam Solusar traveled to Ossus in search of the remains of the Great Library. Led to the world via clues in an ancient holocron, Skywalker and his student landed on the world and immediately noted the Jedi's influence in the dilapidated buildings. Not long after their arrival, the Jedi were confronted by the Ysanna people and were forced to engage them in order to protect themselves. The Ysanna quickly noted that the two intruders were drawing on the light side of the Force and ended the attack. Rejoicing for the return of the Jedi after thousands of years, the celebration was short lived as Imperial forces had tracked the Jedi to the planet and begun an assault.

Led by Imperial Executor Sedriss QL, the Empire's bravest stormtroopers were unleashed on the Ysanna tribe. Aided by the Jedi, the natives drove off their attackers until Sedriss remained. Driven near the ruins of the old Jedi fortress, Jedi Skywalker engaged the Executor in a worn courtyard. As Sedriss attempted to kill a young Ysanna girl, Skywalker telekinetically hurled Sedriss into a gnarled tree dominating the courtyard. As Sedriss struggled, the tree transformed into the ancient form of Neti Jedi Master Ood Bnar and entrapped the dark sider in his vines. Sensing Sedriss' power, Bnar used his remaining energies to destroy the man, costing him his own life.

Despite the loss of Master Bnar and his ancient wisdom, Skywalker and Solusar had reason to be celebrant. Beneath the spot Bnar had occupied survived the ancient lightsabers he had hidden millennia earlier. Collecting the weapons and finding them still in working order, the Jedi forged a good relationship with the Ysanna tribe and began to make plans to excavate the ruins. The two Jedi were escorted through the ruins of the Great Library, and found many of the ancient scrolls and books remained in good condition.

The Jedi and Ysanna leaders explore the ruins of the Hall of Knowledge.

Appearances

• Tales of the Jedi – The Fall of the Sith Empire 5 (Vision)
• Tales of the Jedi – The Freedon Nadd Uprising 1 (First appearance)
• Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith 1 (Mentioned only) (as Jedi archives)
• Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith 4
• Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith 6
• Tales of the Jedi – The Sith War 1
• Tales of the Jedi – The Sith War 4
• Tales of the Jedi – The Sith War 5
• Tales of the Jedi – The Sith War 6
• Star Wars: Dark Empire II
• Star Wars: Empire's End
• "Firestorm" – Star Wars Adventure Journal 15 (Mentioned only)

Sources

• Dark Empire Sourcebook (First mentioned)
• Tales of the Jedi Companion
• The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons
• "Le facteur X"—Casus Belli 115