In 3643 BBY, as the Cold War neared its conclusion between the Galactic Republic and the revived Sith Empire, a confrontation unfolded on the planet Tython. This clash pitted the forces of Bengel Morr, a Nautolan Dark Jedi, against a Jedi Padawan. Morr, once a Padawan under Jedi Master Orgus Din, had vanished following the Sacking of Coruscant and the destruction of the original Jedi Temple by the Sith Empire a decade prior. The Jedi recently discovered that the Nautolan had succumbed to madness and was mobilizing Tython's native Flesh Raiders against the Jedi Order with the intention of annihilating them.
During the skirmish involving the Raiders and Jedi, Morr made contact with the Pilgrims residing in Kalikori Village and proposed an agreement. He promised to protect the settlement from further harm if they delivered his former Master to him. However, immediately after receiving the captured Jedi Master, he broke their agreement and demanded the life of Din's current Padawan as well, compelling the villagers to attempt to eliminate the young Jedi. Ranna Tao'Ven, the village's Matriarch, voiced her opposition, and the Padawan managed to persuade the villagers to depart peacefully. From Tao'Ven, the Padawan learned that Morr had taken Din to the location of the machine known as the Forge within the ruins of an ancient city. Consequently, the Padawan and the astromech droid T7-O1 hurried through the Flesh Raider-infested territory surrounding the city in an attempt to rescue Din.
At that location, in front of the ancient device used by Jedi Order apprentices to construct their lightsabers, Din's past and present apprentices engaged in combat. Despite Morr's extensive experience, the younger Padawan and T7-O1 defeated him and his Flesh Raider guards. The duo successfully subdued the Dark Jedi and revived the unconscious Master Din. After bringing Morr back to Tython's Jedi Temple, Din provided his apprentice with the necessary components for a lightsaber and encouraged the Padawan to construct the weapon as a final initiation. However, the Jedi's use of the Forge awakened a dormant jurgoran, and the apprentice was compelled to slay the enraged creature before returning to the Jedi Temple. Due to the Padawan's courage and actions during the crisis, the apprentice was promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight and dispatched to the Republic capital, Coruscant, for a new mission.
In 3643 BBY, as the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire drew to a close, the indigenous Flesh Raiders of Tython, the Jedi Order's adopted homeworld, initiated widespread attacks on other groups inhabiting the planet. Thanks to the efforts of Jedi Master Orgus Din and his new apprentice, the Order discovered that Bengel Morr, Din's former Padawan, was orchestrating the Flesh Raiders' invasion. The Nautolan Morr had been present in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant during the Sacking of the capital world by the Sith over a decade prior. Morr managed to escape the devastation, fleeing into the ruins of the Temple and going into hiding, but his gentle personality was shattered.
Over the subsequent decade, while the Jedi retreated to Tython and constructed a new Jedi Temple, Morr recruited a Human apprentice named Callef and plotted to destroy the Jedi Order. Perceiving the Order as weak and hypocritical, Morr sought to rebuild it into a force strong enough to vanquish the Sith. Utilizing the Flesh Raiders as soldiers and training some of them in the ways of the Force, Morr encouraged the natives to become increasingly aggressive and launch bolder attacks against the Jedi, as well as the Pilgrims, who had also emigrated to the planet. However, Morr's plans were thwarted when Callef, acting on his master's orders, led a Flesh Raider invasion force against a Jedi base in the Tythonian Gnarls. Instead of a successful strike against a relatively unprotected outpost, Callef was killed by a recently arrived Padawan, and the Flesh Raider force was repelled by a team of Jedi.
Din, having witnessed the apprentice's victory over Callef, accepted the young Jedi as his new Padawan, and the pair began investigating the Flesh Raiders' activities. After the Padawan rescued a Jedi astromech droid named T7-O1 while recovering a supply of weapons for the Twi'lek settlement of Kalikori Village, the two Jedi learned from a holorecording that Bengel Morr had survived and was leading the natives. Following several more assignments, Din's Padawan successfully disabled a shield generator protecting the Flesh Raiders' command base, while Din and several other Masters attacked the site. At the command base, the Jedi discovered the locations of numerous other camps, prompting the Order to dispatch most of the Knights and Masters on the planet to eliminate them all.
Din and his Padawan each received their own assignment, with Din sending his apprentice to destroy a base near the ruins of the ancient temple-city Kaleth. Constructed millennia earlier by the Je'daii Order, the predecessors of the modern Jedi, the ruins were considered by many Jedi to still be tainted by the dark side due to the Force Wars between the early light and darksiders. When the apprentice contacted Din to report success, the Jedi Master revealed that he had just received a distress call from Kalikori Village—they had spotted Bengel Morr. Given that the other Jedi were too far away, Din and his apprentice were the only ones close enough to reach the village in time.
Unbeknownst to Din and his apprentice, this was a trap. Upon learning that the other Masters were occupied attacking his scattered Flesh Raiders, Morr seized the opportunity to strike at his former Master. He approached several villagers, including Moorint, the settlement's Scout Chief, and proposed a deal. If the village could deliver Din to Morr and his Flesh Raider bodyguards, the Dark Jedi would order his forces to cease attacking the Twi'leks. Accepting the terms, the villagers informed their Matriarch, Ranna Tao'Ven, of the agreement and sent a false distress call to Din, luring him there under the pretense that they had spotted Morr. When Din arrived at the village ahead of his apprentice, he was subdued by Morr and several Flesh Raiders. Morr then departed, mentioning briefly to Tao'Ven that his destination was a place called "the Forge."
The Padawan arrived shortly after Morr's departure and spoke with Tao'Ven in the Matriarch's building. When questioned about Din and the distress call, Tao'Ven lied, claiming she knew nothing about a signal, and T7-O1 was unable to detect Din in the village. However, the Padawan was suddenly knocked unconscious from behind, and T7-O1 was sent reeling by an ion blast.
Upon awakening, the Padawan found Tao'Ven arguing with several villagers: Saylew, Eseni, and Scout Chief Moorint. Moorint revealed that they had used the signal as bait for Din as part of the deal Morr had offered them. However, Morr had reneged on their bargain, claiming that Din was insufficient; he would only protect the village if they killed the apprentice. Upon learning of their plan, Tao'Ven had protested and was attempting to stop them, giving the Padawan time to persuade the villagers to leave in peace. Tao'Ven begged the apprentice for forgiveness, horrified by what the villagers had nearly done, and informed the Jedi that Morr had taken Din to the Forge. Urging the apprentice to reactivate T7-O1, who could download directions to the Forge, she was relieved to learn that the Padawan had forgiven her.
While the villagers debated the Padawan's fate, Morr and his Flesh Raider servants proceeded through the Flesh Raider-controlled Tythos Ridge, a once-lush mountain range that had become barren and scorched due to the significant Flesh Raider presence in the region. Morr's destination, the Forge, was an ancient machine utilized by Jedi Order Padawans to construct their own lightsabers as part of their final ascension to Jedi Knighthood. Before the Republic's existence, the Forge was where the ancient Tythonians had crafted their weapons, and the Jedi Order had continued that tradition upon their return to the planet. Morr's Flesh Raider army, led by the Grand Chieftain Keshk, had also been assembling in the ruins of the city in preparation for an assault on the Jedi Order. Keshk permitted Morr and his bodyguards to pass through the ruins with their unconscious prisoner to the caverns beyond, where the Nautolan Dark Jedi approached the Forge machine itself. Morr also summoned nearly two dozen of his Flesh Raider Force Adepts to guard the path.
Armed with Tao'Ven's information, T7-O1 and the Padawan promptly contacted A-4P0, a protocol droid located at the Temple Archives, instructing the droid to immediately transmit all information on the Forge to T7-O1. While the droid complied, it reported that all Jedi Masters at the Jedi Temple were occupied fighting the Flesh Raiders and unable to assist them. Taking a different path than the one Morr had used to reach the Forge, the pair raced along the Elarian Trail and used a tunnel behind the Tythos River's waterfall to reach the ruins of the ancient city. Some of Morr's Flesh Raider soldiers had also learned to reprogram the ancient war droids that littered the area, using them as additional soldiers in their army. Despite the significant presence of Flesh Raiders and war droids, T7-O1 and the Padawan fought their way through the ruins, bypassed Keshk, and reached the caverns beyond.
Emerging from a tunnel in the valley wall, the Padawan found themselves in a canyon spanned by a rocky bridge. Fighting through nearly two dozen Force-wielding Flesh Raiders, the apprentice approached the far end of the bridge, where the ancient machine stood. Just as the Forge came into view, the apprentice witnessed Morr grip Din with the Force and hurl him against the stone steps, rendering the Jedi Master unconscious. Expressing his disdain for the fear he sensed in the Padawan, Morr promised the destruction of the Order. When the apprentice questioned Morr's hatred of the Jedi, the Nautolan scornfully explained how he had witnessed Din surrender to the Sith after the destruction of the Temple on Coruscant, viewing the Order's actions as weakness. He believed the Jedi needed to be sacrificed to strengthen the Force, planning to rebuild a new Order from the ashes of the old.
Morr then stepped away, drawing his yellow lightsaber and ordering his two Flesh Raider bodyguards to kill the Jedi. With T7-O1's assistance, Din's apprentice defeated the Flesh Raiders and began to duel the Nautolan. To the Dark Jedi's surprise, the Padawan managed to defeat the more experienced Morr using a vibrosword, forcing the Nautolan to submit. Defeated, Morr claimed to understand his destiny: the Force had brought him to this moment to craft the Padawan into a weapon strong enough to destroy the Sith and redeem the Jedi Order from its weakness through the trials of battle. Rather than being the one to bring about this destruction, Morr would be the Padawan's herald. To that end, he asked the Jedi to allow him to leave and prepare the galaxy for the Padawan's rise.
The younger apprentice refused, then punched Morr in the gut when the Dark Jedi reached for his saber. A second blow—an elbow strike to the back of the neck—sent the Nautolan to the ground, unconscious. The Jedi then woke Din, who congratulated the Padawan on defeating his former apprentice and choosing to spare Morr's life. Din gave his Padawan the components necessary to build a lightsaber and instructed the apprentice to craft a weapon in the Forge while Din himself took the unconscious Morr back to the Jedi Temple.
The apprentice ascended the steps and activated the ancient machine, entering a state of deep meditation. Using the Force, the Jedi combined each component with precision, assembling a lightsaber with a blue crystal and blade. The activation of the Forge awakened a jurgoran in one of the canyon's caves below, and the savage beast climbed the cliff to reach the narrow bridge spanning the ravine. The jurgoran blocked T7-O1 and the Padawan's path to the cave tunnel through which they had come, and the Jedi was forced to kill the beast with the new weapon to reach safety. With the loss of their leaders, Morr and Keshk, who had died, the Flesh Raider army had begun to dissolve, allowing the apprentice and T7-O1 to return to the Temple through the ruined city without much conflict.
Upon returning to the Temple, the Padawan met with the Jedi High Council. Din was already briefing Grand Master Satele Shan and the other Masters on the recent events. Upon learning that Matriach Tao'Ven had surrendered herself to the Jedi for judgment, Shan asked the young Jedi how they should proceed. Din's apprentice believed that the Twi'leks needed their support and that the Jedi Order should remain allies with them against the weakened Flesh Raiders.
Agreeing with his apprentice, Din then changed the subject. Due to the Padawan's bravery and exceptional skill in repelling the Flesh Raider invasion and defeating Morr, Din believed the apprentice should be granted the rank of Jedi Knight, a decision supported by Shan. The Knight's first assignment was to accompany Din to Coruscant and assist Master Bela Kiwiiks in her investigation of a dark presence the Council had sensed there. T7-O1 also requested to be permanently assigned to the young Knight, a request the Jedi granted. Morr was taken back to the Temple, where he was rehabilitated by Jedi healers and healed of his insanity.
The battle is featured in the 2011 video game Star Wars: The Old Republic as the culmination of the Jedi Knight character's storyline on the starting world of Tython. As the finale of the planet storyline, the two quests include multiple situations where the player can make moral choices that alter the character's alignment between the dark and light sides of the Force and affect the outcome of events. When the villagers attempt to kill the Padawan, the player can choose to kill them, earning dark side points; ask them to leave, earning light side points; or Force Persuade them to leave peacefully, earning maximum light side points. When Tao'Ven asks for forgiveness, the player can refuse, earning dark side points, or forgive her, earning light side points. If the player chooses to forgive the Matriarch, she will ask what she can do to make things right, providing another set of alignment options: learn from her mistake (light side), give up her post (dark side), or do nothing (neutral).
The Grand Chieftain Keshk can be found in the ruined city, standing in the center of the path leading toward the entrances to the Consular and Knight story phases. As a default environmental enemy that respawns, Keshk can be defeated by either Consular or Knight players, and it is also possible to sneak past him without fighting. After defeating Bengel Morr, the player has three options. For light side points, the player can choose to spare Morr and knock him out, and he will eventually appear on the planet Corellia in the game's third act with other characters redeemed by the player. He also sends the player a holomessage that can be accessed on the player's starship, thanking him for saving him. There are two dark side options: the player can accept Morr's offer and allow him to leave, or choose to kill him for maximum dark side points. If the player accepts Morr's offer, the Nautolan will give the individual a green lightsaber crystal, and the player is presented with two options upon the activation of the Forge. Choosing to use the green crystal will result in a "Dark Jedi Lightsaber" being crafted, while choosing the normal option yields a standard blue lightsaber. If the player chooses to kill Morr, the green crystal is unavailable, and the player is forced to construct a blue lightsaber. All three options still result in the Jedi gaining a lightsaber.
After constructing a lightsaber, a jurgoran will appear at the base of the steps. Defeating the jurgoran—called the "Forge Guardian"—is an optional bonus quest, but the player must either kill it or be defeated, at which point the player is forced to teleport back to the nearest medcenter, in the ruins of an ancient city. Since a story phase cannot be re-entered after completion, players are unable to defeat the Guardian if they choose to return to the medcenter. Players can also choose to simply Quick Travel back to the Temple, but as the "respawn at medcenter" and Quick Travel options are game mechanics, this article assumes that the Forge Guardian was defeated by the Knight character. As part of an April Fool's joke in 2011, several cinematics from the game were released on The Old Republic's website with vocalization in Shyriiwook, the language of the Wookiee species. One of the videos showed the events of the mission "Weapon of the Jedi," in which players confront Bengel Morr, but the video showed Callef in Morr's place.