The Jedi Temple is located on Coruscant and the Jedi have made their home on the planet for five millennia. But there is a dark reason the Jedi built the Temple here, and it goes far beyond Coruscant’s status as the Galactic Republic’s capital.
The Jedi believed that by building the Temple atop the shrine, they could bury the past and the dark energy that resided within it. While it seemed like a good idea, the shrine became a distant memory, allowing Darth Sidious to once again manifest this energy.
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Why is the Jedi Temple on Coruscant?
You can trace the Jedi Temple’s roots to 5,000 BBY. Amidst the Great Hyperspace War, the Jedi received a grant from the Galactic Republic for land on Coruscant.
With the granted land serving as a Force stronghold, the Coruscant location was perfect for what the Galactic Republic envisioned the Jedi to build: A fortress that would blend in with other monuments on the city-covered planet.
However, the Jedi felt that by building the Temple on Coruscant that the building would become a symbol of war. Therefore, the Jedi only built a small building that featured few frills. Over the centuries, they expanded the Temple as the Order grew.
While the Jedi opened a few areas to the public, they kept most of the Temple sealed off. Even from some of the most prominent representatives of the Republic, despite the latter pitching in to help operate the place.
What Lies Beneath the Jedi Temple on Coruscant?
While the Jedi embrace the light side of the Force and the Jedi Temple is where they train to embrace the light side, it also contains one of the Star Wars franchise’s darkest secrets.
Thousands of years before Darth Sidious founded the Galactic Empire, the Sith ruled most of the galaxy, including Coruscant. They built a shrine, knowing it would cloak the planet with dark energy. Not long after, the Jedi retook Coruscant and forced a Sith retreat.
When the Jedi saw this shrine, they chose the location to build the Temple to symbolize that no matter what, the Jedi would always triumph over the malevolent Sith.
While some may take this as an act of arrogance on the Jedi’s part, it also served as a reminder to never forget the evil the Sith left in their wake.
How Did the Jedi Forget About This Dark Energy?
Unfortunately for the Jedi Order, they forgot about the dark energy laying just beneath them. This stemmed from their fear of the dark side so much so, that they neglected exposing the Sith’s ways to their Younglings, opting to indoctrinate them into the light side only.
Over the centuries, their neglect left the Jedi vulnerable. Believing the dark side to be nothing more than a distant memory with little to no meaning to most Jedi residing in the Temple, the Order let its guard down.
With so many Jedi looking the other way, it only took one individual to bring them down.
This led to dire consequences, as Darth Sidious visited the shrine when he became Senator and later, Chancellor. Sidious meditated and drew the dark energy toward him, glorifying in his outsmarting the entire Jedi Order, who believed their Temple held nothing but light energy.
Sidious spent so much time there, he was able to learn about the Sith’s past while simultaneously planning for his ultimate takeover and a future Sith-driven Empire.
It makes you think what if? What if the Jedi just destroyed the Sith shrine the second they decided to build the Temple on the location and got rid of the dark energy rather than leaving it to chance?
Had they done so, Darth Sidious may have never had the opportunity to rise into the powerful Emperor he became. Or at least their destruction of the shrine would have made his ambitions more challenging.
What Happened to the Jedi Temple after Order 66?
Following Order 66, the Jedi Temple became the Imperial Palace and Darth Sidious’ home. He spent so much time at the shrine, he meditated more than actually running the Galactic Empire, leaving most of the dirty work to Darth Vader and the Inquisitors.
When Palpatine called the Temple home, he removed Jedi artifacts, destroying them in favor of those that glorified his empire.
Following Palpatine’s death at Endor, the Jedi Temple’s fate remained unknown in the Canon. However, in Star Wars Legends, Luke Skywalker and his students reclaimed the Temple.
They rebuilt the structure as it stood before the Jedi Order’s downfall, but with transparisteel and duracrete pyramid structures encasing it.
Why is there a Sith Temple on Coruscant?
While the Jedi embraced the light side, they had their flaws, given the way they built their Temple atop a Sith shrine before turning a blind eye to the dark side. The Sith were no different, building the Sith shrine atop what was initially a sacred spire, which held light Force energy.
The Sith had a habit of building their monuments, temples, and shrines atop light energy strongholds, with the goal to corrupt it with dark energy.
They succeeded in corrupting these spires across the galaxy. Before the Jedi conquered the land surrounding the shrine, a perpetual dark mass manifested itself against the planet’s sky and remained untouched before the Jedi cleansed the area.