Post by nickcousland on Jan 12, 2011 0:20:06 GMT -5
The Great Temple, was built on Yavin 4 by the Massassi to worship Naga Sadow, a Sith Lord who had enslaved and mutated the Massassi using Sith Alchemy.
The Massassi continued to worship their god at the Temple even after he entered a state of hibernation inside a sarcophagus. They continued to worship there for over a thousand years (long after their god's presumed death at the hands of Freedon Nadd) until Exar Kun eliminated the species. Kun allowed the Massassi warrior Kalgrath to remain behind, however, guarding the Temple in a state of hibernation.
During the Galactic Civil War, Rebel Alliance scout Dr'uun Unnh discovered the temple. The Alliance chose Yavin IV due to its exclusion from official Imperial maps, after being forced to secretly abandon their former base on Dantooine. After retrieving the Temple's key from the fabled Yavin Vassilika, Roons Sewell and Jan Dodonna built the Massassi Station (Yavin Base, callsign "Base One") within the Temple. The Rebel Alliance launched its assault on the first Death Star from this facility. Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, the Rebel Alliance was forced to abandon it.
Luke Skywalker established his Jedi Praxeum in the temple in 11 ABY. It was attacked in 12 ABY by Admiral Daala's forces. The temple was partially demolished in 23 ABY during the Battle of the Jedi Praxeum, but promptly reconstructed by a joint New Republic-Jedi effort throughout 24 ABY.
Kyle Katarn confronted Desann in the underground portion of the Temple (where Desann was defeated). Then later, Tavion Axmis commanded her Reborn to suck the Force energy out of the above ground portion of the Temple.
The Temple was destroyed down to ground level by the Yuuzhan Vong in 26 ABY, although the underground levels remained partially intact.
When the Jedi Order relocated to Yavin IV from Coruscant, they had the Massassi Temple rebuilt and turned into their military command headquarters.