Great Jedi Library

The Great Jedi Library, also known as the Library of Ossus or as the Great Library of the Jedi, was a massive library complex consisting of several buildings erected by the Jedi Order on the planet Ossus. Commissioned by the Jedi Master Odan-Urr following the Great Hyperspace War, the Draethos Jedi assembled ancient documents and scrolls detailing every detail of sentient history and ingenuity. Home to the Order after leaving their homeworld Tython in the Deep Core, the Great Library became a symbol of the Jedi and the great storehouse of knowledge in the galaxy. Over the ensuing centuries Ossus thrived as the home of Jedi wisdom, encouraging visitors from across the Galactic Republic to visit and study at the archives.

After centuries of peace and growth, the Library was raided by Dark Lord of the Sith Exar Kun and his followers. Storming the Chamber of Antiquities, the Sith stole the forbidden Sith artifact known as the Dark Holocron from Master Odan-Urr before slaying the venerable Jedi. As Kun grew stronger and gathered his forces, the Sith unleashed the devastation of Naga Sadow's ancient battleship, the Corsair, detonating the stars of the nearby Cron Cluster in 3996 BBY.

As the Jedi desperately tried to empty the Library and ship its contents offworld, Kun and his minions returned in a bid to steal the last bits of knowledge from the Jedi. Before long, the world was irradiated by the supernovas, eradicating the planet's major cities and entombing more than half of the Library's knowledge within its halls. The Library stood abandoned for the next three millennia, while the surviving Jedi known as the Ysanna kept constant vigil in the ruined world. The Jedi who had made it offworld transported the surviving artifacts to Coruscant where they would be kept in the new Archives that would serve as a smaller version of the lost Library for centuries. After the planet had gone long without visitors aside from occasional archaeological teams Jedi Luke Skywalker and Kam Solusar rediscovered the world and begun to study the ruins. After several decades more had passed, the Jedi Order returned to the now-habitable planet and established a new academy on the world, erecting a new Archives to replace the Great Library.

Text and facts from the “Great Jedi Library/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.