Guardian of Mount Tantiss
- "Yes, the old Guardian is dead. You are the Guardian now. It is you who protects the Emperor's mountain."
- ―Grand Admiral Thrawn
The Guardian of Mount Tantiss was a Dark Jedi assigned by Emperor Palpatine to guard his storehouse at Mount Tantiss.
Some years before Grand Admiral Thrawn arrived on Wayland, the Guardian and the insane clone Joruus C'baoth fought one another and the Guardian was killed. His body lay in a crypt in C'baoth's palace surrounded by candles, one for every person who came to visit him after his death, all of whom (except Thrawn, Gilad Pellaeon, and Rukh) were subsequently killed by C'baoth.
Behind the scenes
- "My original reasoning was just what's laid out here: that whomever Palpatine had left to guard his storehouse had been killed by Joruus C'baoth when he somehow stumbled on the place."
- ―Timothy Zahn
There was some debate over whether C'baoth was indeed the original Guardian, or if he in fact killed him. Although the inhabitants of Wayland remembered a battle between two powerful Force users, they were also all under the mental control of the insane Jedi Master, whose account was only substantiated by the coffin within a crypt that Grand Admiral Thrawn and Captain Pellaeon were taken to. The pair assumed this crypt to hold the body of the original Guardian, but nothing substantiated this assumption other than the mad clone's statements. The Dark Force Rising Sourcebook and the Databank also said that all evidence indicated that Joruus was the sole Guardian. However, none of these sources gave an entirely objective affirmation or denial. It was not until 2008, with the release of The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, that it was confirmed within its entry on Mount Tantiss that the Guardian and C'Baoth were separate entities.
Appearances
- Heir to the Empire (First mentioned)
- Dark Force Rising (Mentioned only)
- Dark Force Rising audiobook (Mentioned only)
- The Last Command (Mentioned only)
- The Last Command audiobook (Mentioned only)
Sources
- Heir to the Empire Sourcebook
- Dark Force Rising Sourcebook
- The Last Command Sourcebook
- The Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
Wayland in the Databank (content now obsolete; backup link)