#temple jedirodyne

[dracothulhu]

The Temple Jedirodyne AU

Presume for a moment that the Jedi a thousand years prior to the PT were not so absolutely sure that the Sith were extinct. Presume that they looked at the ravages of the Dark Side presence from the occupations and battles pressing at their senses like a miasma, and decided that more needed to be done. The Temple on Coruscant had been attacked and occupied at least once during the Jedi-Sith War, after all. So they looked at the possibility of creating an guardian that would stand for as long as the Temple existed - the Temple itself. 

The Temple is alive; suffused with the presence of one of those ancient Jedi to defend the younger generations far into the future. The structure itself is reinforced with extra, hidden defences - concealed blast doors, enough power generation (solar, wind, geothermal, whatever) to support itself even cut off from the Coruscant power grid, a shield generator capable of withstanding orbital bombardment, and so on - all of which the Temple itself can control. It’s a fortress of last resort, even if it pretends not to be - even ignoring that the Temple is tapped into the Force nexus within the heart of the mountain that it caps, which gives it terrifying power compared to a mortal wielder.

Meanwhile however, the Temple is not merely a silent guardian. That first generation of Jedi after it came to life knew it after all, and would have no reason not to keep speaking with a fellow. The Temple can see, hear, and speak through both mundane means (cameras, microphones, and so on) and the Force itself, and its immense Force presence is a beacon across the whole planet - for the Jedi, a warm and encompassing comfort, like a psychic hug; for the Sith and others of the Dark Side, burning like the air too close to a raging bonfire. The Temple speaks to the Jedi across the generations, and becomes something of a fixture for the Order as a whole - like a close uncle or aunt, an entity who can always be relied on for support and guidance no matter the Jedi in question (though the Temple vigorously refuses any formal position of authority).

Skip forward to the Clone Wars: like with the rest of the Jedi, the Temple has been slowly battered down by the encroaching misery of the war, the fatigue and stress of the Jedi and the constant slow trickle of their deaths. By the close of the war, the Temple is near catatonic and no longer responding to the presence or calls of its inhabitants. Then Order 66 happens.

The Temple feels the one-two punch of the Jedi around the galaxy dying, everywhere, all at once, and it finally feels the Sith presence from Palpatine and Anakin Falling. This - the sudden agony of its charges dying, and the re-emergence of the ancient enemy and the purpose for the Temple’s current existence - is enough to shock the Temple out of its stupor and it begins to enact the measures that it had planned for for a thousand years and never needed to enact. The Temple orders all of the Guard inside, and then locks down. Every entrance is sealed, every defensive system (unused, but thanks to a small army of maintenance droids, dutifully kept in working order and updated through the centuries) fired up. Operation Knightfall is a resounding failure, the Temple remains unbreached (though it will remain under interdiction and observation for the duration of the Empire), and the Jedi inside survive - the old, the young, the wounded, and everyone who was there to recuperate in their ancient home. (Palpatine knew, more or less, that the Temple was aware, from the fragmentary knowledge of previous Sith and the knowledge he’d carefully gleaned from the young Anakin Skywalker in years past. He perhaps thought it would be a delightful cruelty to break the entity to his will, to fully cement his victory. He did not know of the titanic power it could wield to tear apart the surrounding plaza to hurl and scatter troopers like sown grain and cast lightning from the spires to destroy aircraft. He wouldn’t have reason to. He can’t go near the thing now - Vader survived only barely, and clings to life inside a new life support suit, but the Temple would crush Sidious like a bug without remorse.)

Some of the Jedi leave, and the Temple sends them out through forgotten passages into the depths of the undercity where the Empire cannot maintain a watch. Many others remain, safe in the Temple, and stay there until the day the Empire dies.

#star wars #star wars au #order 66 au #temple jedirodyne #I'm a big fan of Girl Genius and Castle Heterodyne is just the coolest #mostly Disney canon but with some parts of Legends to spice things up #how did the Temple get possessed by a Jedi ghost you ask #it doesn't matter #the Force provides #don't worry about it #get fucked Palpatine #no palace for you

[dracothulhu]

Just a little snippet I wrote for the Temple Jedirodyne AU

Darkness.  Darkness all around.  Cloying.  Suffocating.  Rot creeping through the eddies and flow of the Force.

Lights, illuminating the Dark.  Fighting back.  Doing what they could.  But not enough, not against such a tide.  Some flare.  Some are cut off.  Some fade into the Dark, and each one tears at the Temple like a wound.  Dooku, so serious.  Krell, so proud.  Offee, who it can barely feel slipping away as the Dark starts to finally batter it insensate. The Temple is buried under the slow, relentless assault, and its awareness turns sluggish. Not sleep, for the Temple does not sleep - not in a thousand years has the Temple’s awareness so much as flickered, but now the insidious numbness that has been picking at it all these years finally begins to win out.

The Temple can only barely muster its attention within its own halls, much less outside into Coruscant proper, such is the malaise. There is no sense of time passing, merely a dull rush of days and weeks blurring together, and the Temple cannot muster the focus.... It nearly misses what happens. Council Masters leave, their Force presences grim and purposeful. And then, shortly afterward in the endless now that comprises the Temple’s paralyzed and helpless watch, their threads snap one by one. It senses Skywalker, who burned so brightly even as the shadows reached into his heart (the Temple had tried to reach out, but it has been so hard to rouse itself now against the weight of the Dark, against the misery of its young charges washing through, and the ghosts crowding the halls), and feels him Fall.

It feels a Sith. Suddenly, a greater change.  The lights are being silenced.  Glittering stars the galaxy over, being snuffed out. The young ones are under attack. Quickly, too quickly, and the Temple feels the Darkness throb.  Malice.  Hunger.  Triumph.

No!

It is like swimming through molasses to try and stretch its awareness back into the spaces it had once filled so comfortably - like wading through clinging, sucking tar; but the Darkness is encroaching, and the lights outside are dying, and it must come back to itself.   All resistance must crumble eventually, and this miasma is no different. There is an almost palpable snap, a shift in the air, and it is as though a dam has been breached, the river charging forward once more and never to be contained again. Awash with new-old-returned-always energy, the Temple ziggurat fairly quivers, and the ancient mind takes stock.

The cradle is under threat, and this is what the Temple-mind was reborn for, cast in durasteel and stone and the pure, coursing flow of the Force.  No more. No further.

The children must survive.

The children will survive.

The Guardians are warned.  Inside.  Retreat.  Protect the Younglings. 

Shield generators not used in an age begin spooling up.  Power surges through ancient conduits, unused but well maintained.  Blast doors and durasteel shutters grind into motion, crumbling the thin facades behind which they had hidden for years. 

And at the centre of the old mountain, the ancient will of the Temple reaches into the wellspring, and it drinks deeply.  Static charge begins to crackle around the spires, the dry-hot seeds of lightning gathering as the Temple casts its formidable awareness forth. Across the rolling duracrete plain of the Temple plaza, a faint tremor pulses.  The few citizens still lingering at this time of night glance about, filled with a sudden nervousness, and begin to make their way home, each filled with a feeling of should-not-stay. The Temple sends its awareness out ever further, toward the dark miasma of the Sith leech, even as part of its attention focuses on the network of exterior cameras raking the perimeter approaches. The Temple feels at the cloying mass for but a moment before withdrawing and settling in to wait. At such a distance, the Sith is impossible to make out amidst the polluting Darkness. Instead, the Temple sends forth a message - a wave strong enough to cross the length and breadth of the planet, with enough force that it is a wonder that it doesn’t shake the air itself.  Come on then.

#star wars #star wars au #temple jedirodyne