The Disturbing and Twisted Fate of Jabba’s Palace after His Death (Legends)

I’ve gone down a deep Legends rabbit hole more times than I can count, and this topic always comes up when people talk about the darker corners of Star Wars lore. So let’s walk through what actually happened to Jabba’s Palace after Return of the Jedi, because the story goes in a direction many fans never expect.

Before The Crime Lords: The Palace’s Strange Beginnings

I always find it surprising when I look back at where Jabba’s Palace came from. Long before Jabba and his crowd filled it with noise, smoke, music, and danger, the structure started as a B’omarr monastery around 700 BBY. These monks searched for complete mental clarity, and the way they tried to reach it was extreme.

The B’omarr believed the mind grew stronger when a person cut themselves off from physical sensation. As they advanced, they talked less, avoided stimulation, and tried to separate their minds from their bodies step by step. When a monk reached what they called enlightenment, other monks helped them remove the monk’s brain and place it into a nutrient jar. That jar kept the brain alive so it could spend years thinking in total quiet.

Hundreds of these jars rested in the Great Room of the Enlightened deep under the monastery. When a brain needed to move, the monks used BT-16 brain walkers—spider-like droids that carried the jar and followed simple telepathic signals. It looked eerie, but to the B’omarr, it represented freedom from physical limits.

They kept their deep ritual rooms hidden, disposing of empty bodies in sacrificial pits and walking long spiraling stairways as part of meditation. So the building that we later call Jabba’s Palace already housed dim corridors, old chambers, and silent brain-filled shelves long before smugglers stepped inside.

From Bandit Hideout To Hutt Stronghold

Civilization grew on Tatooine over the next centuries, and the isolated monastery caught the attention of outlaws. Around 150 years after the monks arrived, the bandit Alkhara discovered the building. He came prepared for a fight, but the monks simply greeted him and let him stay. They didn’t care about authority or territory—they only guarded the deepest areas where the enlightened brains rested.

Alkhara turned the monastery into a base of operations, building fortifications, extra chambers, a tower that took his name, and even connecting the complex to the Western Dune Sea with a road. The monks still walked through the halls quietly while thieves lived above them.

Around 516 BBY, Jabba Desilijic Tiure took the building from Alkhara. Again, the monks allowed the takeover. Jabba expanded the surface-level areas with ditanium plating, a large hangar, a motor pool, and deep storage tunnels. The old B’omarr chapel became his throne room, with the rancor pit beneath it.

Even while Jabba filled the palace with criminals, smugglers, Gamorreans, and performers, the B’omarr Order continued its rituals down in the sub-levels. So during Jabba’s era, the complex worked on two layers: a crime palace at the top and a functioning monastery underneath.

Jabba And The Monks: Coexistence, Corruption, And Brutal Rituals

At first, Jabba tried to stay away from the monks. Their practices confused him, and he had other things to focus on. Over time, though, he realized they could help him. He bribed some of the embodied monks to act as spies. They shared information about his rivals, about possible betrayals, and about moves other criminals planned.

Other monks ended up working for Jabba’s enemies, like Lady Valarian, or passing information to figures like Ephant Mon and Bib Fortuna. That turned the monastery into a quiet battlefield for secrets.

Jabba also twisted the B’omarr ritual into a punishment. When someone failed him, he sometimes ordered the monks to remove the person’s brain and place it in a jar. Some victims even returned in the wrong bodies after corrupt monks like Grimpen performed brain transfers.

So under Jabba’s rule, enlightened monks still rested in their jars, but new jars held criminals, prisoners, and unlucky people Jabba wanted to humiliate. Their brains shared space in dark catacombs with those who had trained for years, creating a disturbing mix of forced and voluntary “enlightenment.”

Chaos Returns To The Palace After The Sail Barge Explosion

When Jabba died above the Pit of Carkoon, many of his closest followers died with him. Still, some members of his inner circle survived: guards, advisers, and especially Bib Fortuna. They rushed back to the palace, hoping to steal Jabba’s wealth, claim hidden vaults, and rebuild parts of his empire.

Inside the palace, fights erupted between surviving factions. Guards fought former allies, thieves tried to open locked rooms, and every group looked for control of the structure. Within those thick stone walls, a small civil war began.

The monks watched the conflict unfold. They had tolerated outside powers for centuries, but now the palace was weak, divided, and full of wounded criminals. The B’omarr Order decided it was time to reclaim the structure.

Forced “Enlightenment” And Life As A Brain In A Jar

During the infighting, the monks moved through hidden corridors and ambushed survivors. They used the maze-like layout of the palace to corner small groups. As the fighting died down, they captured the remaining criminals instead of killing them.

The monks then carried out their ritual on the captives:

• They removed the victims’ brains through the same process used on monks who reached enlightenment.
• Many jars went into the deep dark levels, where shelves held other brains.
• A smaller number were placed into brain walkers. One of these was Bib Fortuna, who spent the rest of his life moving through the monastery as a spider-like droid.

Victims who had never trained for separation from the body often reacted badly. Some brains screamed for days or months, unable to adjust to the sudden change. The monks isolated those jars so they would not disturb other brains.

In this period, the palace transformed again. Criminals once laughed at spider droids roaming the halls, but after Jabba’s fall, many of those droids carried the minds of people who once ruled parts of the palace.

A Sealed Fortress And Failed Attempts To Break In

Once the monks regained full control, they closed the palace. The massive front gate stayed shut, guarded by brain walkers and hidden defenses. No one could enter or leave without the monks’ decision.

Other Hutts wanted Jabba’s records and wealth, so they sent groups to try breaking through the palace’s exterior. None succeeded. Jabba’s improvements made the building strong, and the monks understood the layout far better than any raiding party. After repeated failures, the Hutts gave up.

Hutt activity shifted to Gorga the Hutt’s smaller palace on Tatooine. Jabba’s old fortress became a quiet, closed structure again, just as the B’omarr originally intended, though with far more unwilling minds stored inside it.

Luke, Han, And The Last Known Visitors Years Later

The palace comes up again years after Jabba’s death during the events surrounding the Darksaber project. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo returned to the palace disguised as Tusken Raiders to recover important records tied to Hutt plans.

Inside the silent complex, they met Maizor, a rival crime lord whose brain Jabba had ordered placed into a walker long before. Maizor had eventually learned how to exist in that state and stayed with the monks after Jabba died. Because he still hated the Hutts, he gave Luke and Han the information they needed.

Across the next two decades, thieves kept trying to enter the palace in search of Jabba’s treasures. The monks allowed a few raiders to escape with real loot on purpose. Those survivors spread stories about easy rewards, which attracted new groups into the palace. Most never left. The monks gained new brains every time more thieves arrived.