The Jedi Temple Guard was a security force maintained by the Jedi Order and tasked with the protection of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the capital planet of the Galactic Republic. An ancient and honored tradition in Jedi history, the Temple Guards were Jedi Knights pulled from the ranks to become anonymous sentinels as part of their lifelong commitment to the Order. Concealed within formal robes and a mask, the life of a guardsman was a higher calling that demanded absolute emotional detachment. Armed with lightsaber pikes—a double-bladed lightsaber that produced yellow plasma blades—, or similar hinged double-bladed lightsabers, the Guards served under the head of security, Jedi Master Cin Drallig. During the Clone Wars, Padawan Barriss Offee was arrested by the Temple Guards for committing treasonous acts against both the Order and the Republic.
With the end of the Clone Wars, the fall of the Jedi Temple and the Galactic Empire's rise to power, one survived the Great Jedi Purge by pledging his allegiance to Darth Sidious, and joined the Inquisitorius—Jedi hunters trained in the ways of the dark side of the Force by Sidious' Sith apprentice, Darth Vader. The former Guard was granted the title of Grand Inquisitor.
During the Age of the Empire, the Grand Inquisitor committed suicide after failing to defeat Padawan Kanan Jarrus. At the Emperor's command, Vader deployed additional Inquisitors to hunt the Jedi fugitive and his compatriots. Upon journeying to the abandoned Jedi Temple on Lothal, Jarrus encountered the spectral forms of several Temple Guards, including the Grand Inquisitor as he appeared during his time as a Jedi through a Force vision. After passing the Jedi Trials, the specter knighted Jarrus, declaring him a full-fledged Knight of the Jedi Order, a status the Inquisitor once held before his fall from the light side of the Force.
Temple Guards hold back an outraged Anakin Skywalker.
The Jedi Temple Guard was an ancient, honorable heritage within the hallowed halls of the Jedi Temple that reported to head of security Cin Drallig. The Temple Guards were anonymous Jedi Knights who were selected from the Order. The Temple Guards were some of the best fighters the Jedi Order had to offer, sworn to protect the various Jedi temples to the end. The Guards would hide inside the brown robes and identity-concealing masks, which was the grand symbol of emotional detachment required.
The Jedi Temple Guard armor robes incorporated layers of armorweave to provide them with an effective defense against blaster bolts and lightsabers.The mask contained a comlink and a scanner located in the helmet. Temple Guards carried lightsaber pikes—thick, double-bladed lightsabers that produced a yellow blade. Some Temple Guards also had a single-bladed variation. Each lightsaber was assigned to the guards in order to help maintain the anonymity of their ranks. Despite their station as guards for the Jedi Temple of Coruscant, they could leave the planet for off-world missions.
Temple Guards in the temple detention center.
Jedi Temple Guards were responsible for guarding the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. At least one Temple Guard active during the Sith Wars took part in the Great Scourge of Malachor fought against the Sith between circa 5000 BBY and circa 1032 BBY. In the end, the battle only came to its end with the activation of a superweapon at the heart of the Malachor Sith Temple, which wiped out all Jedi and Sith on world and left their petrified remains behind. The Temple Guard's mask remained abandoned on the steps of the Sith temple for centuries to come.
In 382 BBY during the High Republic Era, several Temple Guards joined Jedi Master Ela Sutan and three other Jedi on a mission to the planet Dalna, home of the Path of the Open Hand cult that was correctly suspected to be waging an underground campaign against the Jedi, shortly after Jedi Knight Aida Forte and Jedi Master Creighton Sun were also dispatched to Dalna. Sutan's team, including its compliment of Temple Guards, entered the cave systems beneath the Path compound, where they met heavy resistance and blasterfire from the prepared-for-battle cult members. As the mission devolved into a battle remembered as the Night of Sorrow, Sutan contacted Sun to report their status and that they could not help his team with their own troubles because they were pinned down.
Two temple guards tell Yoda he cannot go for a walk.
During the Clone Wars, several Temple Guards were on hand to respond in the aftermath of the the Jedi Temple Bombing. Later, several Temple Guards intervened in a lightsaber duel between the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and the rogue Padawan Barriss Offee. After Offee was exposed for framing Ahsoka Tano, several Temple Guards led her into custody.
During Order 66, Skywalker, now Darth Vader, attacked the Jedi Temple with clone troopers. As Skywalker and the clones marched up to the Temple, one of the Temple Guards recognized Skywalker, in confusion he spoke Skywalker's name under his breath before he was cut down by the fallen Jedi.
A vision of three Temple Guards appears to Kanan Jarrus in the Lothal Jedi Temple.
The Grand Inquisitor, a Pau'an who headed the Galactic Empire's Inquisitors, was a former Temple Guard and Jedi Knight. About three years before the Battle of Yavin, several spectral Temple Guards including the Pau'an who became the Grand Inquisitor appeared in Kanan Jarrus' Force vision at the Jedi Temple on Lothal. After dueling with him, the spectral form of the Pau'an Guard knighted him as a Jedi Knight. These spectral guards later delayed the Inquisitors known as the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister, allowing Kanan and his companions to flee into hyperspace aboard the Phantom.
The helmet of a Temple Guard was among the Jedi artifacts and treasures that were collected by Grand Admiral Thrawn and Grakkus the Hutt. After Order 66, some of their battlegear survived in private collections and the lost corners of the galaxy. A mask was displayed in Luthen Rael's Galactic Antiquities and Objects of Interest in 5 BBY.
At Dragon Con 2018, Henry Gilroy revealed an idea that the Grand Inquisitor actually murdered the other Jedi Temple Guards when Order 66 happened to allow Anakin Skywalker and the 501st Legion access into the Jedi Temple.
- The Art of Star Wars: Visions