Massassi Site

Massassi Site

TheMassassi Site, also known as theMassassi ruins, was a region ofYavin 4, a junglemoon orbiting theOuter RimplanetYavin Prime. The site comprised a group ofstone temples that were built around5000 BBY by order of theexiledDark Lord of the SithNaga Sadow, and it was named after theMassassi warriors who once inhabited it and erected its monuments.

Although the Massassi temples were scattered across the surface of the jungle moon, some of the oldest and most importants temples belonged to the Site. Those would be known millennia later as theGreat Temple, thePalace of the Woolamander and theTemple of the Blueleaf Cluster. In the wake of adevastating battle between the forces ofExar Kun and theJedi Order, the ravaged complex was abandoned for several millennia. TheDark JediAsajj Ventress and thePadawanAnakin Skywalker were amongst the rare visitors of the Massassi complex, on which theydueled in22 BBY.

The Massassi Site was reoccupied in the earlydays of theGalactic Civil War, when theAlliance to Restore the Republic established one of their central bases of operation in the Great Temple. The area was abandoned once again following theBattle of Yavin, but this cluster of ancient ruins housed theProvisional Council of theNew Republic around5 ABY.Six years later, theJedi MasterLuke Skywalker decided to use the Great Temple as the site of hisJedi Praxeum. The Massassi Site remained in use until26 ABY, with thedestruction of Skywalker's academy by the extra-galactichumanoids who called themselves theYuuzhan Vong.

History[]

A Sith Lord in exile[]

In5000 BBY,^[1] at the end of the devastating conflict known as theGreat Hyperspace War, aspace battle occurred between the forces ofDark Lord of the SithNaga Sadow andthe fleet ofEmpressTeta, leader of theKoros system. Sadow's forces, who had justfought and won another battle with his rivalLudo Kressh, were too diminished to sustain the assault. However, the Dark Lord himself managed tofake his death. Aboard hisDerriphan-class battleship, theCorsair, Sadow fled to the uncharted regions and limped to thefourthmoon ofYavin Prime,^[8] located within theOuter Rim Territories.^[12] On this hospitable moon, he wished to rebuild the Sith Empire with the help of a few Massassi, the warriors of theSithspecies.^[8]

Sadow ordered the Massassi to assemble monuments, so his crew burned a piece offorest with their battleship'sconcussion missiles, and then expanded outward from the burned clearing. An army of Massassi workers used their machetes to cut the lianas interconnected with felling trees, then mowed down the said trees with cables. When the surface of the site had been scoured clear of the junglevegetation, the Massassi began drawing up the plans of their future temples, and then the construction started.^[8] The primary material of their constructions was a sedimentary calcite compound with certain conductive alchemical impurities. Such compounds were similar to those that could be found onKorriban andZiost, the homeworlds of the Sith species.^[13]

The Sith survivors named this newly domesticated region "Massassi Site" after themselves,^[14] and they established theirstronghold in theTemple of Fire.^[15] While building the temples for their wordly master, the Massassi came to worship the red orb ofYavin Prime as adeity, the godYavin who filled the skies of the fourth moon. The warriors developed an inferiority complex, and they found a new purpose in the building of temples: reach the sky and achieve godly status themselves.^[16] Even after Sadow's death, the mutated descendents of his Massassi continued to inhabit the Site.^[15]

Den of Exar Kun[]

In3997 BBY,^[1] aHuman Jedi Knight namedExar Kun was seduced by the dark side of the Force. Kun discovered the spirit ofFreedon Nadd, who led him back to Sadow's tomb on Yavin 4. Perfecting his dark powers, Exar Kun appointed himself the new Dark Lord of the Sith. While amassinghis own army of Dark Jedi, he subdued the local Massassi, forcing them to build new temples in his honor.^[17] Among the temples that the Massassi built for Kun was theGreat Temple.^[18] Kun put a roof comb on top of the Great Temple, which was intended to house arcane rituals.^[19] When the alliance of the Jedi and the Republic threatened his newfound glory, Kun used the Massassi's souls to power his own greed, destroying them in the process. At the same moment, the Jedi army orbiting the moon created a devastatingwall of light, a powerful salvo of light side energy, which they launched at Yavin 4. This attack set the moon's jungles on fire, burning the rain forest of the Massassi Site to the ground.^[17] Much of the buildings that stood on the moon were also destroyed in the process.^[20] Since most of the Sith warriors were dead,^[17] and others had fled the moon using emergency spacecrafts,^[21] the temples of the Massassi Site were abandoned for millennia.^[17] The Jedi Order ensured that the ecosystem of Yavin 4 would be restored by constructing a subterreaneanterraforming station,^[22] which was known as theLost City of the Jedi after it was abandoned.^[23]

Showdown on the Massassi Site[]

In22 BBY, when a pan-galactic conflict known as theClone Wars had been raging for fourmonths,^[1] the JediAnakin Skywalker was led to Yavin 4 in pursuit of a mysterious femaleDark Jedi namedAsajj Ventress. After engaging combat in the jungle,^[25] the two ended upfighting in the Massassi complex. The duel ended on a temple's roof when Skywalker gave up to his rage. He caused the stone Ventress was standing on to crumble, causing her to fall off of the edge of the building.Roaring in rage, the Jedi left her for dead.^[26] However, Ventress had in fact survived the fall, and she returned to her allies to keep fighting in the war.^[27]

Rebel Alliance's headquarters[]

Thousands of years later, theAlliance to Restore the Republic was founded in reaction to theGalactic Empire, a despotic regime led byEmperorPalpatine^[28] In the earlydays of the resistance, Alliance members scouted Yavin 4 and decided to establish their primary base on the Massassi Site. TheSullustan naturalistDr'uun Unnh gave their modern names to the temples in the site. These included theTemple of the Blueleaf Cluster, thePalace of the Woolamander, and the Great Temple itself.^[29] The Alliance chose to specifically settle in the ruins of the Great Temple, as it was the largest structure in the area.^[17] In order to meet their new base's energy needs, the Rebels also built apower-generating station.^[14] The Rebels also maintained a few smaller command posts in various ruined structures of the surrounding area.^[30]

In0 BBY,^[1] the Alliance launched their desperate assault against the Empire's "Death Star," a moon-sizedbattle station that had enough firepower to destroy planets. The resulting combat, which came to be known as theBattle of Yavin, ended with the destruction of the Death Star and a decisive victory for the Alliance.^[5] Following that crushing defeat, the Empire launched a series of attacks in retaliation, and the rebels were forced toleave Yavin 4^[31] six months after the Death Star's demise.^[1]

Restful gardens of the new Jedi[]

In4 ABY, the Galactic Empire was defeated at theBattle of Endor, and the Alliance evolved into the democratic government named theNew Republic.^[1] One year later, the Republic established the headquarters of theNew Republic Provisional Council in the refitted Palace of the Woolamander.^[32] However, when the new governmentrecaptured the world ofCoruscant, the Senate was relocated on this planet, which had been the galactic seat of power for millennia.^[33]

The Massassi Site then remained unoccupied until11 ABY, whenLuke Skywalker decided to establish hisJedi academy on Yavin 4.^[1] The new government decided to establish aNew Jedi Order to further protect its institutions, and the history-loaded Massassi Site appeared as the ideal location to train freshJedi recruits in relative safety and autarcy.^[34]

Aside from rearranging the temples, the Jedi also installed their training grounds on the Massassi Site, notably in a set of ruins located to the South of the Great Temple.^[35] The old Rebel power generator had been repaired by Skywalker and his droidR2-D2 during their preparation for the Jedi academy. While the Rebel Alliance had been far too busy in its war against the Empire to bother with archaeological inspections,^[34] Master Skywalker and his students took the time to survey the Massassi Site in detail, discovering other temples—including theTemple Atun—and retrieving ancient artifacts like theBooks of Massassi.^[16]

In14 ABY, theDisciples of Ragnos used theScepter of Ragnos to drainone of the Massassi temples of itsdark side energy.^[35]

In25 ABY, a species ofextra-galactic aliens known as theYuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy, startingone of the most devastating conflicts ever fought in history.^[36] Thanks to an illusory projection generated by the Force, the New Jedi Order's were preserved for a time, but the Yuuzhan Vong eventuallyassaulted Yavin 4 in26 ABY and drove the Jedi out.^[1] Now the invaders had captured the planet, they useddamuteks—giant, star-shaped organic buildings—to raze the buildings from the Massassi Site and beganterraforming the moon's surface.^[2]Four years later, the Yuuzhan Vong were defeated following theBattle of Yuuzhan'tar, but Grand Master Luke Skywalker decided not to rebuild his academy on the Massassi Site, opting to establish anew one on the planetOssus instead.^[37]

Layout[]

A vast area surrounded by forests, the Massassi Site comprised the Great Temple, a fortress of the Massasi people, and two other monuments located to the South-East zone, known to the modern archaeologists as the Temple of the Blueleaf Cluster and the Palace of the Woolamander.^[14] In11 ABY, orbital surveys revealed that more structures still lay buried under the thick vegetation, but the Alliance had been far too wrapped up in its struggle against the Galactic Empire to conduct thorough archaeological expeditions. The Massassi site was crossed by a wide warm river of a sapphire-blue color overlaid with muddy swirls of brown.^[39] This river divided the area into three parcels, each with its own temple.^[14]

When the Alliance to Restore the Republic took up its quarters on the site, the considerable clearing in front of the Great Temple was turned into a landing pad for incoming starships, and a power generator was built^[14] twokilometers away^[19] from the west wall of the temple.^[14] On the uppermost level of the temple, the Rebels constructed an observation deck that allowed them to see the entire Massassi Site from above the trees.^[17] Other notable features of the Massassi Site were a circular water fountain and a viaduct ending in a reflecting pool. By the time of the Galactic Civil War, the pool was completely dry and invaded by vegetation, but the fountain was still functional.^[30]

Behind the scenes[]

The Massassi Site first appeared inStar Wars: Episode IVA New Hope, the first installment of theoriginal trilogy, which was released in1977.^[5] The forests and the temples of the Massassi Site were filmed in theMaya civilization ruins of theTikal National Park inGuatemala.^[17] The same Tikal location was also used in the1978Star Wars Holiday Special to portray the green canopy of the then unnamedRwookrrorro—capitalcity of theWookiee planetKashyyyk.^[40]

The shot inStar Wars Episode IV where a Rebel sentry oversees theMillennium Falcon landing on the Massassi Site was shot on top ofTikal Temple IV, looking east where the roof combs ofTemple I,II andIII can be seen.^[41] Today, this same shot is often recreated by tourists and photographers who visit the Tikal site.^[41][42]

An early depiction of the Massassi Site was often featured throughout the 1980s series of comicsClassic Star Wars, which was written byArchie Goodwin and drawn byAl Williamson.^[43] The temples shown in this series were shaped more like the rectangular summit shrines of Tikal temples rather than the whole structures.^[44] However, later depictions of the Massassi Site's temples incanon more closely resemble fullstep pyramids.^[14]

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

• "Perfect Evil"

Sources[]

• Galaxy Guide 2: Yavin and Bespin
• Galaxy Guide 2: Yavin and Bespin, Second Edition
• The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology(as Massassi ruins)
• Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy
• Star Wars: Complete Locations
• "Refresher Reading: 20 Things You Don't Know About the Massassi Temples" —Star Wars Insider 92
• Star Wars: The Official Starships & Vehicles Collection 12
• Timeline 10: The Exar Kun War onThe Old Republic'sofficial website(article) (backup link)(Appears in hologram)
• Millennium Falcon Owner's Workshop Manual
• Strongholds of Resistance

Notes and references[]