The Abyss compasses were devices invented by Jedi Master Santari Khri during the High Republic Era as part of a Galactic Republic research project on the planet Koboh. Using navigational data from the uncharted voyage of fellow Jedi Master Dagan Gera, the compasses were intended to guide travelers through the dangerous Koboh Abyss, and would allow access to the hidden world of Tanalorr.
Centuries before the Imperial Era, the Galactic Republic and Jedi Order established a research colony—led by Jedi Master Santari Khri—on the planet Koboh and its moon in order to permit the study of a deadly nearby stellar anomaly called the Koboh Abyss. While early attempts to navigate the Abyss ended disastrously and the Republic almost abandoned the project, the renowned Jedi Dagan Gera volunteered to fly into the Abyss alone on an uncharted route.
Miraculously, Gera survived, discovering the paradisical world of Tanalorr hidden within the Abyss. Using the data from Gera's flight, Khri invented the Abyss compasses, which were capable of navigating a starship through the Abyss.
After the Nihil marauders invaded Tanalorr and the order was given to abandon the planet, the Jedi Council also ordered the destruction of all Abyss compasses, believing the Nihil must have stolen one in order to cross the Abyss. However, three compasses remained unaccounted for; however the only intact one was kept by Khri herself. As the compasses were systematically destroyed, Gera's resentment toward the Jedi Council for abandoning the planet he had deemed his new home boiled over into a murderous hatred, and he slew several of his fellow Jedi as they attempted to destroy the compasses.
Gera returned to the lunar facility to retrieve the final compass from Khri and return to Tanalorr, however Khri refused to give Gera the compass. The resulting altercation resulted in Khri severing Gera's right arm. She ordered that he be placed in the Forest Array's Rehabilitation Wing in a bacta tank to be given a second chance at life, as she then placed the compass within her personal observatory above Koboh's surface.
Some time later, an Emergence shattered Koboh's moon and began to cause a cataclysm on the world below, causing the Republic to evacuate the planet. Khri subsequently ordered ZN-A4 to travel underground, reach the Forest Array, and awaken Gera, and give him a final message from her—seek Khri out, or continue his obsession with Tanalorr. After giving this final order, she left the planet. Zee was, however, trapped within the Chamber of Duality under rubble for the next two hundred years, Gera remaining in stasis and the compass remaining in the observatory untouched.
In 9 BBY, after Cal Kestis crash-landed on Koboh, he discovered Zee under the Rambler's Reach Outpost, who entrusted him with her mission. Kestis subsequently awakened Gera, who resumed his quest to return to Tanalorr.
Gera soon discovered the final compass's location and traveled to Khri's observatory, but was closely pursued by Kestis and his friend Bode Akuna, who killed the fallen Jedi in a final confrontation in the observatory's Grand Oculus. While the compass was damaged during the duel, it was not beyond repair. Kestis and Akuna set out for Jedha to enlist the help of Jedi Master Eno Cordova, who they believed could repair the compass.
While Cordova succeeded in repairing the compass, Akuna betrayed Kestis and the crew of the Stinger Mantis to the Galactic Empire and murdered Cordova, stealing the compass. Akuna planned to use Tanalorr as a refuge for him and his daughter Kata, and was simultaneously a former Jedi and a reluctant mole from the Imperial Security Bureau who disagreed with Kestis and the Mantis crew planning to use the planet as an endpoint for the Hidden Path, as he believed it would endanger Kata. After retrieving his daughter from the ISB base in the Nova Garon system, Akuna set off for Tanalorr, pursued by Kestis and the Mantis crew. After Kestis found an alternative way to reach Tanalorr, he and Akuna fought one final duel in the ruins of the Jedi temple on the planet, resulting in Akuna's death.
Kestis thus took the final Abyss compass into the possession of the Mantis crew, and planned to use it to make Tanalorr a safe haven for those who were persecuted by the Empire.
The Abyss compass was created for the 2023 video game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and plays a major role in the game's story.