Battle of Jedha

From the years 387 BBY to 382 BBY, the Outer Rim Territories planets Eiram and E'ronoh were locked in what was considered to be a forever war. In 382 BBY, after a tentative cease-fire was enacted, the Galactic Republic and Jedi Order organized a summit between the leaders of both planets in the hopes of ending the war, especially due to the grave impact it had on the Outer Rim. At the summit, it was decided that the war would end with the marriage of Prince Phan-tu Zenn of Eiram and Princess Xiri A'lbaran of E'ronoh in the hopes of securing lasting peace. However, the couple and their wedding were attacked by forces that wished to see the war continue, including the terrorist group the Children of E'ronoh and the cult the Path of the Open Hand which had been heavily recruiting from people on the planets that wanted to escape the draft. The Children of E'ronoh were defeated by the heirs and their allies, but the Path of the Open Hand were never discovered to have been the ones behind their assassination attempts, only using proxies like a solitary assassin and Axel Greylark, the son of Chancellor Kyong Greylark.

After the wedding, both planets decided to move forward with the treaty. They decided that it would be signed at a summit on the holy moon of Jedha, suggested by Jedi Knight Gella Nattai because of its reputation for peace and unity that had always made her want to visit. Chancellor Orlen Mollo wished to preside over the summit, but was unable to due to Republic security regulations. He designated Morton San Tekka, of the illustrious hyperspace prospecting San Tekka Clan, to be the mediator for the precedings, hoping that the San Tekka reputation in the Outer Rim would make his selection respectable and not appear that the Republic was overstepping its bounds by appointing a Republic official. Due to the severity of destruction from the war, Princess A'lbaran and Prince Zenn decided it was necessary that they stay on their planets and oversee the rebuilding efforts rather than leave for the treaty signing. Ambassadors Lian Cerox of Eiram and Tintak of E'ronoh were sent to represent the two planets instead, both political figures and former military that had been ordered by the heirs to sign the treaty.

The summit was to be held in the Second Spire, an old temple that had been refitted. The Guardians of the Whills were given special jurisdiction by the Republic to serve as guards for the summit. However, due to lingering mistrust between the two worlds, both delegations arrived with large fleets as a show of force in the event the other chose to reject the terms of the treaty. This was an unsettling image for a peaceful world, and the Jedi worried that it would send the wrong message to the people of Jedha. Jedi Master Creighton Sun and Jedi Knight Aida Forte were the Jedi assigned to oversee the proceedings, Sun specifically designated to watch over Ambassador Cerox and Forte assigned to tend to Ambassador Tintak. An adjunct of the Church of the Force named Keth Cerepath was sent to tend to Morton San Tekka, the Church and the San Tekka clan having close ties.

The presence of the two fleets in orbit added to existing tensions between the various Force sects already present on Jedha. Despite attempts to ease these tensions with the establishment of the Convocation of the Force, the factions' differing view about Force use made for a delicate balance of power within the Holy City. Most prominently, the Path of the Open Hand, a cult who rejected any use of the Force as abuse of the mystical power they all worshiped, began openly, yet peacefully, protesting against such practices, which were embraced by the majority of the other sects. The Path was from the planet Dalna and had traveled there as a great endeavor in their flagship the Gaze Electric. They were known to 'liberate' Force artifacts by stealing them so they could not be used by the wrong people. They were led by Elecia Zeveron, who was a supposed Force prophet they called the Mother, and their Herald, Werth Plouth, who led their council of Elders. The Path bought an old almshouse in the city and refurbished and transformed it into their healing house, where they treated, helped, and housed all those in need. The Path also began offering their services around the city as 'gifts freely given'. The Path intended to petition for membership in the Convocation, an idea spearheaded by Marda Ro in the hopes that they could create real change and spread the word of the Path. They had sent Path member Radicaz Dobbs aka 'Sunshine' to announce their arrival to the Convocation earlier.

At the same time, the Convocation of the Force began planning the Festival of Balance that was expected to bring a massive influx of tourists, and therefore business, to Jedha. They coopted the Season of Light for the festival, which angered some sects, and the idea was largely seen to have been misguided and just a cause of more tension. But at the same time, artifacts started to go missing from various sacred places on Jedha. Vigilante and thief Tey Sirrek noticed this and arranged a meeting in the Shrine of Sarrav with a Sarravi woman named V'Kara who had information about the robberies, but was also not listened to by the groups she went to with her information. Before the meeting, Sirrek tried to calm a heckling individual who claimed to be a real Truthsayer by telling them that they shouldn't be unpleasant right before the Festival of Balance, but the individual believed that the Convocation didn't have a right to force their celebration upon them, a sentiment shared by many. Then Jedi Padawan Matthea Cathley, who was stationed on Jedha alongside Oliviah Zeveron, inserted herself into the conversation, giving Sirrek the opportunity to steal an object from the annoyed individual. However, Jedi Master Vildar Mac, who was with Cathley, spotted Sirrek steal and chased after him, but Sirrek managed to elude the Jedi. Mac had just arrived on Jedha hoping to find himself and make change in his life, and Cathley was introducing him to the moon and showing him around. Sirrek then went to the Shrine of Sarrav to meet with V'Kara, but discovered her dead on the shrine's floor.

One of the other main reasons that the Mother had decided to support the Path going to Jedha was because Sunshine Dobbs revealed to her that the Rod of Daybreak was kept in a vault controlled by the Jedi on the moon. The Rod was one in a set of three Rods, the Rod of Seasons already in the Path's possession. These rods could control the species known as the Nameless that preyed upon Force-sensitives, a member of which the Mother had acquired and named the Leveler. After a Little named Naddie encountered Jedi Master Silandra Sho in the Jedha markets, Marda Ro spoke to her about how she believed the Jedi were dangerous, claiming that her old Jedi friend Kevmo Zink was killed by the Leveler because he used the Force. Ro then went to the Mother and the Herald and the three agreed that Jedha was infested with people that manipulated the Force and that something needed to be done. The Mother insisted that they kept making their voices heard, and revealed that the 'time of the Leveler' would soon arrive. The Herald also assured her that they would petition the Convocation soon.

During the signing ceremony, a bomb in the Holy City's Second Spire killed mediator Morton San Tekka. The bomb was deployed by a ceremonial droid that flew in using thrusters before detonating it. The Guardians of the Whills and the Jedi immediately jumped into action to find survivors and evacuate the spire. Keth Cerepath ran in and discovered his charge's dead body, needing to be comforted by the Jedi. He also revealed that he had brought his ceremonial droid P3-7A to the spire and that he couldn't find it in the destruction, leading to the Jedi speculating that it was his droid that detonated the bomb. Uncertainty over the identity of the bomber was increased by conflicting accounts from several sources who all claimed to have seen a different person speaking with the bomber droid beforehand, blaming representatives from the warring planets, the different sects, even the Jedi themselves. Later, just as the Ambassadors were being brought back to the spire, Cerox's quarters were bombed and Tintak's shuttle was as well. There were also more incidents which threatened to cause the tensions within the city to boil over. In an attempt to keep the summit alive, Republic Chairperson Meldan appointed Tilson Graf to replace San Tekka as mediator. Unknown to all, Graf was an agent of the Mother.

After the bombing, Creighton Sun approached his friend Jedi Master Silandra Sho, who was on Jedha for the Season of Light and was helping tend to the injured from the bombing. He asked her to investigate the bombing, as he believed it was not conducted by Eiram or E'ronoh but some outside force, but needed someone impartial and not connected to the proceedings to conduct the investigation. At Creighton's suggestion, she first went to speak with Keth Cerepath in the Church of the Force's of the Temple of the Kyber, as he had been assigned to attend to Morton San Tekka and his droid had suspiciously gone missing during the bombing. However, Cerepath revealed to her that his droid had returned, and thus could not be the one that detonated itself in the bombing. She eventually decided to have Cerepath be her guide as a native of Jedha as she investigated the different people and sects on the moon. After speaking with a few members of the skull mask-wearing dark side sect the Brotherhood of the Ninth Door, who had caused a panic due to a backfiring speeder bike that sounded like an explosion. In secret, the Brotherhood were working with Graf, who had recruited them on the order of the Mother. The first sect Cerepath and Sho visited was the Path of the Open Hand in their healing house. The patients of the Path who had been present for the bombing each claimed that they a had seen different person speaking with the ceremonial droid before the bombing, leaving Sho and Cerepath more confused after they left.

After the bombing, the Path of the Open Hand was one of the first religious sects to arrive at the spire to help, treating people on site as well as bringing them to the Healing house. That day, Path Little Naddie came across a wargaran that was being held in a cage by a , who had brought it for viewing at the Festival of Balance. Believing that the creature, who she was told could hunt with the Force and was connected to it, should be free like the Force, she released the creatures. However, the creatures attacked her and descended upon the city, attacking and killing many civilians. The Mother and Marda Ro organized the Path to round up all of the creatures and help those hurt, leading to the Path being hailed as heroes. Naddie's actions and their result, inspired the Mother and caused her to plan for something to elevate the Path involving the Leveler.

Jedi Vildar Mac and Matthea Cathley eventually were able to speak with Tey Sirrek in Enlightenment, and he explained the missing objects across the moon and everything that was going on. But after discovering a kyber starbird illegally on sale, an artifact from the Temple of Kyber, Sirrek realized something much bigger was happening on Jedha and headed with the Jedi to speak with the Guardians of the Whills in the Temple. However, before they could speak peacefully, Sirrek and the two Jedi were confronted in force by the Guardians. The Guardians revealed that Sirrek was a traitorous former Guardian, which caused him to leave of frustration, while the Guardians brought the Jedi inside. Archivist Zumeg thanked the Jedi for bringing the missing artifacts to their attention but claimed no one could have stolen from the temple, however they were quickly proved wrong when they found the Firebird of Colsassa, the relic Sirrek had found, was missing. The Archivists and Guardians tried to blame Sirrek, but the Jedi didn't think it made any sense that he'd steal it. Sirrek snuck in and found where the Jedi were speaking with the Archivists, but he noticed an explosive hidden there an picked it up. Mac sensed something wrong in the Force and found Sirrek holding the explosive, getting it away with the Force but not before it exploded the side of the temple.

When Creighton spoke with Gella Nattai via holo to consult about who might have wanted the war to continue, she revealed her belief that Axel Greylark had been working with the Path of the Open Hand when he attempted to stop the peace process and the wedding of the heirs. Creighton relayed this information to Silandra, who decided to return to the Healing house and speak with the Mother to see if she could comment on it. When she arrived, the Herald and others initially rejected her presence, but the Mother allowed her and Cerepath to speak with her in her chambers. However, being in the chambers made Sho ill and unsteady, as the Leveler nearby but unseen had an awful effect on her. She asked the Mother if the Path had anything to do with the bombings and she insisted they didn't, before their conversation turned tense and argumentative. Sho warned her against lying to her and the Mother took it as a threat, ordering them to leave. Afterward, Sho still felt so ill that Cerepath brought her to Enlightenment to recover with food and drink.

Next, the Herald of the Path of the Open Hand, went with Marda's cousin Yana Ro and Sunshine Dobbs to the Convocation Chambers to petition the Convocation on the behalf of the Path of the Open Hand. He requested for the Convocation to prohibit all use of the Force because of his belief that it hurt it. After they rejected the idea outright, he then asked for a temporary ban as well as accepting the Path into the Convocation until they could prove their claims. The Convocation rejected this as well, and the Path members then removed themselves from the Chamber.

Meanwhile, Master Sho and Cerepath leave Enlightenment after Sho recovers due to having soup, but are attacked by an individual on a speeder that shoots at them. Sho deflects the blasts with her shield and keeps Keth safe, before attempting to chase after the assailant. However, the attacker shoots at the civilians and tries to plow through them, forcing Sho to protect the citizens but losing the speeder because of it. Having been separated from Cerepath, but having used his droid P3-7A to try and chase the assailant, Sho found herself in the central square, where the Herald was speaking to a crowd.

The Herald stood outside the Convocation chambers in the city's central square, giving a speech to a gathered crowd against the Convocation and the Jedi under the pretense that he had been unfairly treated. Riling the crowd into an angry mob, he also revealed to them that he had overheard in the Convocation chambers that the bombing of the Temple of the Kyle's was a deliberate attack, but that the Convocation were going to cover it up and claim it was an accident. Yana Ro, at his direction, then secretly unleashed a creature named the Leveler that was a member of the Nameless species upon the crowd. At the same time, Convocation member and member of the Sorcerers of Tund Tarna Miak burst out of the Convocation Chambers and told the Herald to stop, but the Herald only used it as proof of the Convocation attempting to silence him and lying. Miak called on the Guardians of the Whills who tackled the Herald, as he continued to incense the now riotous crowd. The Leveler caused the many Force-sensitives in the crowd, which had already turned violent, to have their minds warped and filled with fearful visions, leading to them lashing out and compounding the now extreme riot. This included Miak, who began to unleash fire upon the crowd using the Force.

The riots soon engulfed the entire city, even reaching the Second Spire, where Eiram and E'ronoh were meeting again in the hopes of signing the treaty. As the riots reached the Spire, an individual on a speeder bike drove it through the window to the meeting chamber and shot and killed E'ronoh ambassador Tintak. Blaming the Eiram delegation, after believing the individual on the speeder to have been wearing an Eirami uniform, the E'roni attacked them, and the firefight resulting from the Eirami guards returning fire, compounded with the riots, began the Battle of Jedha. Ambassador Cerox withdrew her people from the Holy City and ordered her fleet in orbit to engage the E'roni forces in space and on the ground, beginning the battle.

During the firefight in the spire, Creighton Sun and Aida Forte snuck Cerox out of the spire and into the streets of Jedha. They then spotted E'roni military shuttles deploying forces to fight the Eirami, causing Cerox to lose all hope that the battle could be avoided and peace could be made. As the Jedi led her through the streets, rioters incensed by the Herald and blaming the Jedi for the violence, began attacking them by throwing items at the Jedi and the Ambassador, forcing them to take another path to the Ambassador's shuttle. When she reached it, however, Cerox told the guard there to deploy Eiram's forces to fight back against the E'roni. Sun begged her not to, but she told him that it was too late and they needed to defend themselves before leaving in her shuttle. The two Jedi then broke back into the grand chamber of the spire to check in on the firefight, only to discover that all of the Eirami and E'roni guards and soldiers were dead. The two Jedi then split up, Sun going to use his droid B-9H0 to call for reinforcements from the Jedi and Republic on Coruscant, and Forte going to rally the Guardians of the Whills to protect the citizens of Jedha from the violence.

Meanwhile, in the midst of the the fighting in the central square, Silandra was stalked by the Leveler after discovering that the creature had turned someone into dust and killed many others. She was saved by Keth Cerepath's droid P3-7A, who dragged her away from the square and the creature. However, the riot raged on. Members of the Brotherhood of the Beatific Countenance began attacking others in the crowd within the crowd. After being affected by the Leveler greatly himself, Vildar Mac managed to shake himself out of it and break Tarna Miak out of the effect and talk him down as well. However, Susalee, the Lonto representative in the Convocation began attacking Master Leebon, the Jedi's representative. But Leebon fought back and allowed Mac, Cathley, and Jedi Knight Oliviah Zeveron to search for the source of the conflict.

Heavy forces from both Eiram and E'ronoh were deployed in the city and began all out war. E'ronoh deployed weaponized mining loaders that they used to destroy buildings, and Eiram employed enforcer droids supplied by Graf. Aida Forte teamed up with the Guardians of the Whills, including Mesook and Selik and began to take down and stop the mining loaders, but there were very many and many buildings were destroyed. At the same time, Creighton attempted to use B-9H0 to reach Coruscant, eventually getting through to Jedi Master Xinith Tarl and begging her for help while explaining the situation. After she agreed to bring help, Sun returned to Forte and helped her against the armies. They decided to split up so that Forte would take Selik to take on the E'roni and their mining loaders while Sun and Mesook would take on Eiram's enforcer droids.

Meanwhile, Sho met up with Cerepath once again in Enlightenment, who blamed himself for leaving the window open when sneaking P3-7A through the Second Spire's window. Realizing that P3-7A was present at the bombing and might have seen something, Sho and Cerepath access his databank. They discover that a member of the Brotherhood of the Ninth Door was the one who spoke to the ceremonial droid before the explosion. The Enlightenment's owner, Kradon, who was quite knowledgeable about the goings on on Jedha, revealed that the Brothers had the ability to cause anyone who looked at them to see only what they wanted to see and not what actually was, explaining the conflicting reports. Silandra wanted to bring the evidence to Creighton and Aida so that they could prove that neither Eiram nor E'ronoh was behind the bombing and end the fighting, but after heading outside and seeing the full scale of the battle, decided it was more important that she fight to protect the citizens of Jedha from the E'roni war machines. As she distracted them and focused their energies on her, Cerepath led the civilians to the Dome of Deliverance, which could hold half the population of the city and block stray shots.

After defeating many mining loaders, Sho traveled to the Dome of Deliverance. Meeting her there were several members of the Brotherhood of the Ninth Door, who had been behind the bombings and the assassination of Tintak and had conducted them at the word of Tilson Graf and the Path of the Open Hand, them even attacking Sho by Graf's request. She fought them in the Dome and in the Kyber Mirrors below it, defeating two out of the three before Keth Cerepath sacrificed himself to save her and kill the last Brother.

In the chaos of the battle and its rioting, a massive statue of a Jedi that stood just outside the city known as the Final Protector fell, a dark symbol for the moon. It was taken down by a group of rioters who hated the Jedi using ropes and explosives. The rioters were spotted by Jedi Master Leebon beforehand, who called Oliviah Zeveron to help her stop them, but they were too late, and arrived on their speeders just before it fell. Master Sun and Mesook watched the statue fall as they took down Eirami droids, the event crushing both of their spirits immensely. Even worse, Eirami enforcer droids shot and killed Mesook right after. Knowing that the Eirami and E'roni troops would soon converge on the central square and massacre each other, Sun raced to intercept them. Forte and Selkirk, after successfully taking down most of the E'roni weaponized mining loaders, met Sun in the square with the hopes of stopping the slaughter.

As the forces of Eiram and E'ronoh met in the square, preparing to fire on each other despite the Jedi and Guardians standing between them, the reinforcements Sun had managed to request finally arrived: a force of Jedi and a platoon of Republic peacekeeping troops in a transport ship. Both armies nevertheless prepared to fire, only for the Jedi to hold back the blaster shots as Sun gave a speech about how the battle was over and convinced many of the soldiers defy the orders of their superiors and return to their ships. The Republic peacekeeping force then began to organize a withdrawal of both armies.

The pirate crew of Maz Kanata participated in the battle. The Jedi Padawan Sav Malagán went undercover in order to join Kanata's crew during the battle.

A Spiral-class Viz-Core Eviscerator also participated in the battle, though shortly after the battle the Galactic Republic petitoned to have production of the starfighter model shut down entirely, and had them banned.

After the E'roni left, Ambassador Cerox left with her people too, but now resolved to continue to fight the E'roni despite the heirs' wishes. The communications system that had just been reestablished around Eiram and E'ronoh was destroyed again and pirates began targeting different areas on both worlds, making use of the chaos. After briefly returning to Coruscant to get the permission of Master Yoda and Chancellor Greylark, Master Sun and Forte planned to undertake a mission to Dalna to investigate and potentially stop the Path of the Open Hand due to their hand in the battle. Chancellor Greylark also considered blockading hyperspace to protect the warring planets' neighboring regions from the chaos.

Master Sho visited Enlightenment days after the battle and sat with Moona and Piralli, with Kradon listening. She honored Cerepath's sacrifice by telling them the tale of his heroism and life. The Mother was displeased with the way in which the Herald incited the riot, having wanted it more controlled and calculated. Nonetheless, Path member Binnot Ullo was eager for the chaos that would follow the battle, which he believed the Path would thrive within.

In 232 BBY, Maz Kanata and Sav Malagán reminisced about the Battle of Jedha and how long they've known each other while going through old stuff in Takodana Castle. They specifically recalled Malagán's master's face when he found out that she had gone undercover with Maz's pirate crew during it. About 382 years after the battle, in 1 BBY, the remains of the statue of the Protector, which had fallen during the Battle of Jedha, still laid outside Jedha City. However, the city and most of the moon was destroyed in that year by the Galactic Empire using the Death Star superweapon.

The Battle of Jedha was first mentioned by name in the ninth issue of the comic series Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures, which was written by Daniel José Older and published by IDW Publishing on October 6, 2021. Its capitalization of "Battle" was confirmed by The High Republic: Midnight Horizon. The battle made its first appearance in the audio drama The High Republic: The Battle of Jedha, which was released on January 4, 2023.