While trying to make an illegal sale of spice and ale, Marn Hierogryph is taken off-guard by Zayne Carrick, a Jedi Padawan assigned to bring the Snivvian to justice. After dropping the barrels of ale on Zayne, Gryph flees by climbing up a rooftop and manages to escape by kicking Zayne off a ladder while he was he was attempting a futile Jedi mind trick. Zayne ends up falling into a private banquet held by the Jedi to celebrate the final Jedi training of their Padawans and is greeted by nine lightsabers pointed at him.
After apologizing for his Padawan, Jedi Master Lucien Draay makes a speech of the coming Jedi Trials, while Zayne talks to his friends. Later, while discussing the cost of the damages related to his entrance with the banquet manager, Zayne sees Gryph and chases him until he is captured through telekinesis. After arresting him, Zayne goes to the Jedi Temple late for the ceremony only to find his fellow students murdered by their own masters.
Brian Ching's original banquet scene design
Early on in the series' development Brian Ching soon realized that it would be hard to convey expressions for Marn Hierogryph on an Ortolan's mouthless face, so Miller suggested a Snivvian instead. Atiyeh and Ching developed detailed visuals for each of the series' characters, and by August 2005 at Comic-Con International in San Diego, most of the first issue was done, and Miller had scripted several issues onward. The script for the first issue had already been completed and turned in by May 2005. The issue was released on January 25, 2006, 363 days after Miller and Randy Stradley had had their initial conversation about the series. Miller deleted Ching's preliminary drawing of the double-page scene in Commencement, Part 1 from his hard drive to prevent himself from accidentally emailing it to fans, as he wanted to keep it secret until the issue's release. Ching and Miller also worked especially hard to create Carrick's and Lucien Draay's expressions for the final page of the issue.
When the series was first launched, Dark Horse was disappointed by the initial sales of #1; however, the issue soon sold out and went to a second printing. By June, orders for Knights of the Old Republic had risen in numbers and was beating out Star Wars: Rebellion. The covers for the fist arc of the series were drawn by Travis Charest, and the cover for issue #1—Carrick holding the slain Padawan Kamlin in his arms—was designed well in advance based on general plot information. For the banquet scene in issue #1, Brian Ching originally depicted the banquet as a particularly busy scene with numerous details, but he scrapped it in favor of a set of panels that focused more on the five Masters and was less "boring."
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Volume 1: Commencement
- Star Wars Omnibus: Knights of the Old Republic Volume 1
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Old Republic Vol. 1
- Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic Omnibus Vol. 1