In the mysterious landscape of the Chasm, a Tho Yor touched down in 36,453 BBY and a community of pilgrims formed around it. Eventually the Temple of Science, Anil Kesh, took form over the gaping maw of the Chasm, suspended between the peaks of a trio of craggy outcroppings. As the Tho Yor floated gracefully overhead, the Temple became a place of pilgrimage for members of the Je'daii Order, where they focused their time studying the mysteries of the Chasm below. Je'daii who studied within the halls of Anil Kesh sought to learn the mysteries of the Force through the application of science. The location of Anil Kesh was of deep fascination to its students; as one descended deeper into the Chasm, the touch of the Force was dampened and calling upon it for strength was near impossible. The greater strength in the Force an individual had, the worse the effect; indeed, some who descended into its open maw found only insanity and death.
Upon arriving at Anil Kesh, it was necessary for all Journeyers to undergo an orientation of sorts which provided them with the skills they needed to endure the adverse affects of the Force-storms raging beneath them at all times. The temple at Anil Kesh had a close working relationship with the Temple of Vur Tepe; a saying existed which claimed, "whatever Anil Kesh can imagine, Vur Tepe can make real." The Je'daii Temple Master, the Je'daii who served as steward of the facility and oversaw its functions, would see that all students practiced safely and advised those who wished to descend into the Chasm.
During the Great Journey of Lanoree and Dalien Brock, the former truly found her calling in the Force, studying under Master Dam-Powl in the mysterious art of the alchemy of flesh. Using living tissue from their own flesh and blood, Brock learned how to create things that should not live but were capable of drawing breath. Despite Lanoree Brock flourishing, Anil Kesh was the site of Dalien Brock's failure in the Order. The younger Brock sibling ran off into the Abyss of Ruh where he put the lives of his fellow Journeyers in peril. Captured and returned to Anil Kesh, he shot and killed Journeyer Skott Yun and fled Je'daii custody, only to be thought dead in the catacombs beneath the Old City, kilometers away in the Red Desert.
During Shae Koda's Great Journey she trained under Je'daii Temple Master Quan-Jang in the beast pens of Anil Kesh. Practicing taming her rancor-dragon in the skies above and around the Temple, Koda lost control of the beast and nearly plummeted into the Chasm after a projection in the Force assaulted her mind. The image, that of Force Hound Xesh, was a warning meant to alert the Je'daii Order to the arrival of the Infinite Empire. Meanwhile as the Storm raged, Je'daii Ranger Lanoree Brock was concluding her mission in ending the Stargazer Uprising. Having killed her brother, Dalien Brock, in the depths beneath the Old City, she had taken into her possession a volatile dark matter device that her brother had sought to use to power a Gree hypergate. Landing at the Temple, three Rangers took custody of the device, taking it into the bowels of Anil Kesh on a stable trolley for study and safekeeping. Lanoree Brock's companions, Tre Sana and the droid Ironholgs, were treated and repaired respectively within the Great Temple.
When the Infinite Empire's Force Hound Xesh located Tython's signature in the Force, he led his master, Predor Skal'nas to the system to begin an invasion. Simultaneously, the Je'daii seers active in the war effort were gifted a vision of the coming battle at Anil Kesh, allowing the Order to mount a defensive in the Chasm's storm wracked crags. On the eve of battle Je'daii seer Tasha Ryo and her mentor, Ters Sendon, consulted the A'nang Holocron in the halls of Anil Kesh to ask for answers to the question of what the Rakatan sought in the Chasm below the Temple. As the battle began on the slopes of the surrounding mountains, the lack of balance in the Force caused the Chasm to fill with violent Force storms, and for the rocks and canyon to split and tremor from the violence. As the battle churned below the Temple, seer Ryo and Sendon were able to extrapolate from A'nang's holocron the true purpose of the Tho Yor. Using the holocron as the fail-safe it was designed to be in the event of a Rakatan attack, Ryo sacrificed herself to initiate a defensive sequence in the Tho Yor, throwing herself in the exploration beam in the heart of the Temple. This act of sacrifice triggered the Tho Yor to activate and prepare to fire its defensive systems. Realizing the danger, Master Sendon ordered the excavation of Anil Kesh and fled before the destruction began. Fully charged, the Tho Yor launched a devastating blast down through Anil Kesh and into the Chasm, destroying the Prime Gate that was hidden at the bottom of the pit, the true target of the Infinite Empire's leadership. This act tore through the Temple, blowing out windows and rending metal. In the wake of the battle, Anil Kesh's impressive engineering stood up to a direct energy blast, with all three structural support legs keeping the core Temple in place. The blast from the Tho Yor had destroyed the Temple's upper floors and central exploration cannon, leaving the Temple in ruin. Temple Master Ketu joined Master Rajivari and Daegon Lok in the ruins to survey the damage and discuss the future of the Je'daii Order.
Anil Kesh in orbit with the Tho Yor.
A masterpiece of Je'daii technical skills, the Temple of Anil Kesh straddled the cliffs of the Chasm with such strength that the violent Force storms which raged constantly within the massive crevasse did not effect its structural integrity. The Tho Yor around which the Temple was constructed floated around the Temple in a mysterious circle, held adrift and propelled by unknown means. Consisting of three massive support legs, a central structure, and three balancing arms, the Temple had an insectile appearance, with a heavy metal shell protecting the interior from the outside forces.
The support legs supporting the Temple anchored the structure in place, using shock dampeners the size of to keep the complex in place during sustained winds and violent storms. Tanks filled with pneumatic fluid were spaced at regular intervals up each leg to ensure the necessary stability. The interior of the legs was a honeycomb of apartments for Journeyers and Masters alike; this system of construction allowed for the even greater structural integrity. While never used in the history of the Temple, escape craft were stored in emergency hangar ports in the event a collapse forced an evacuation. The beast pens of Anil Kesh were similarly located in the support arms. In these pens, beasts taken from the Abyss of Ruh were genetically manipulated using Force alchemy. Despite the process unnerving some Je'daii who question the morality of changing a creature's nature, the Je'daii strove to make the alterations a continuation of the animal's natural evolution.
The Temple proper itself was held aloft between the three support legs, an armored, eight-sided structure with several exterior viewing platforms and landing aprons. Housed within were the many laboratories, libraries, study rooms, gymnasiums, and other facilities required to maintain the Temple of Science. Among the major laboratories were weapons labs that developed both Force-augmented metallurgical weapons, and tools specific to the Force. Alchemists in these rooms tampered with the nature of chemicals and solids, an attempted to harness the wild energy captured I the Chasm. Organic tools were grown here, not quite alive but also not completely inert, to be used in equipment across the planet. The lower floors were dedicated to the hangar bays where drones and other equipment could be dropped into the Chasm. Emerging from the bottom side of the Temple was a scientific cannon that fired a continuous stream of white energy down into the bottomless pit collecting samples and data long after every conceivable experiment had been conducted. Despite the power of the exploratory beam, not even it could pierce the Chaos Wall in the depths of the Chasm.
The three claw-like arms arced from a joint atop each support leg and curved over the main body of the Temple to form a counterbalance to the support legs. Each balancing arm housed multiple communications arrays which made it possible to communicate with the other Great Temples and Rangers in the field. Additionally, absorption equipment made it possible to gather atmospheric charges, providing a renewal energy source to power the entire facility.
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