Soliath Devin Talith
Family Man
Name: Cato Neimoidia Temple, Moridena Sanctuary, Neimoidia Enclave, Home
Image Source: Speed painting by Mark Molnar
Intent: To document a structure that has been used in many RP's and will likely see increased use.
Classification: Temple
Location: Cato Neimoidia, Northern Hemisphere
Affiliation: Diana Moridena/Avalore Eden
Description: The temple that Diana built on Cato Neimoidia was a simple one, carved from the ruins of an ancient Jedi Enclave that had been destroyed around the time of the Clone Wars. The temple itself is completely hidden within the mountain. Needing a place to flee too after the wars and battles she had discovered, the young Jedi Knight took it upon herself to restore this enclave, and slowly over months of time with careful use of the force and her lightsaber, the young woman managed to recreate the majesty of the Ancient Jedi Stronghold.
The Sanctuary itself is built directly into the side of a mountain, hidden well within a huge mountain range and landing just outside of a small Neimoidian Bridge city. The face of the sanctuary is neither beautiful, nor well adorned, however the central spire that tops the mountain is carved with an elaborate dome that stands with only twelve stone pillars of support.
Though it runs through an entire mountain, the Sanctuary itself has only four floors in total, including the domed area at the very top of the mountain. This was mostly because the Enclave was never designed as a full temple, instead being a retreat for Jedi Masters and Knights who needed time away. Diana decided to retain this exact look and feel in her restorations, keeping the original floor plan of the Enclave to what she had found in the ancients archives.
The young Knight noted at the time however that given enough resources, it was quite easy to expand further into the mountain, and thus make a larger sanctuary.
Lately, young Lira Dajenn along with Hal Terrano and Avalore Eden have installed a Hibridium cloaking device in the temple. This cloak when activates makes the temple completely undetectable to sensors, sight, and even sonar, making it appear as a regular mountains. Hard wired cameras make it easy for the Jedi inside to observe the outside. It is very unlikely that anyone will be able to find the temple, especially with how Cato Neimoidia is, lots of large mountains and fog.
1st Floor: The first floor of the temple is seemingly rather simple and unadorned. It houses the entrance to the temple and is largely a ceremonial area. A large set of double doors lead into a somewhat large room, the floor engraved with an elaborate mosaic of the skies and mountains of Cato Neimoidia, originally carved centuries ago by Neimoidian Artisans. Arranged around the circular rooms are looming marble statues of venerable Jedi Masters that were respected by Diana herself, a few of them bearing the marks of age, though others looking pristine and new.
This is the only thing contained on the first floor and in its time was used for little more than meeting ambassadors and other more official ceremonies. Diana often expressed a disdain for this room, stating that she found the statues to be judging, and the tile mosaics to be a lie. When she visited or stayed at the temple she often tended to avoid the 1stfloor.
Upgrades: The first floor was eventually transformed into a small but comprehensive medical and healing floor. Provided for by the gracious donations of the Cato Neimoidia Council, the most advanced medical tech was donated and installed free of charge. Located within is a new surgery room, two full bacta tanks, a kolto tank (requested for specifically due to Hal Terrano's devastating allergy to bacta), a Healing Chamber, and three small separate rooms for patients. Much of the design is modular and stackable, allowing the greatest efficiency and use out of the considerably small space.
2nd Floor: The Second floor of the temple is perhaps the most useful of them all. It stands quite a bit larger than the first, sprawling for several hundred square feet. This level contains all of the functionaries of the Temple itself.
Its central design is reminiscent of a large honeycomb structure, with the central room being a dining hall of sorts with enough room to fit a dozen or so people comfortably at the tables. In one of the corners of the dining hall was a small podium, upon the podium sat two Carapeced Lightsabers, each with spines running up the length of them, behind them sat a helmet and various plates of armor, all encased in thick glass. This marks a memorial for a founder of the temple, and a way for Avalore to remember Diana every day. To get anywhere on the 2nd floor one had to enter this room first, then take one of the six doors to the other rooms. These six other rooms contained other necessities to Jedi life and were all about the same size.
The Floor contained two training rooms, each opposite one another from the central honeycomb of the dining room. A kitchen, which featured everything one might need to cook most anything, including a full sized walk in refrigerator sat to the 'top' of the dining room. Opposite the kitchen lay a small library filled with ancient flimsy books and datapads alike. Directly to the left of the library sat a study room which lay mostly bare save for a single holo-projector in the center which allowed multiple functions. Then lastly, was a storage room. Over the course of Diana's tenure at Cato Neimoidia this room had mostly been filled with junk, though perhaps an artifact or two lay within.
Upgrade: The outerlying structure of the Sanctuary core from the first floor up was expanded upon, allowing these rooms and the third floor above to be enlarged and extended. This has given a greater breadth of space for the occupants to work with, meaning each room is now about half again as large as it was before.
3rd Floor: The Third floor is perhaps the most essential of all the floors, being that its the temples residential section. This is the floor where everyone sleeps, be they Padawans or Masters.
The design of this floor is more circular in nature, imitating the first floor with a large round room with a mosaic tile floor. From this room branch six short hallways each ending in a single door. Beyond each of these six doors lay the bedrooms of the collective Jedi who make their homes in Cato Neimoidia.
These room are not unique or ostentatious in anyway and unless they were changed by their residents, they are entirely the same. Each of the six rooms is large enough to fit a bed, a desk, and still have more than enough room to walk around in.
Upgrade: With the expansion of the second floor allowed the third floor to grow as well. This gave the Sanctuary now the ability to house not 10 occupants, but upwards of 30 maximum. Two sets of two rooms each (four total) were joined and enlarged - one set being intended to house up to 10 female Padawans, the other 10 male padawans by utilizing five sets of bunk beds. Each bed set has two chests for the users to keep their things. A large walk-in closet is shared by all. At the center of each chamber is a rounded study/desk area with ten chairs. The separate bathrooms were removed from the original four rooms and a community fresher (split down the middle by a wall for gender) was implemented for ease of access and use.
The fifth room was also enlarged and split again with a secondary communal fresher. These two joined chambers were intended for Knights and guests and have two sets of bunk beds, a desk for study, chests, and a large shared closet each.
The sixth room (Diana's old room) saw the largest amount of structural change. Intended for the resident Masters it was not only expanded outwards, but upwards, and extends to the top level of the Sanctuary, giving direct access to the Sky Garden for the Masters. The main room on the second floor is a shared study and living quarters for the Masters to give them some privacy from the rest of the campus. It is complete with a small kitchenette, two full private bathrooms, a communications lounge, and study. The Masters bedchambers are located up a set of spiral stairs that lead to the top level.
Top Floor/Sky Garden: This was the final and top level of the Sanctuary, and was also Diana's favorite place in the whole of the Temple. The Sky Garden sits directly atop the mountain, twelve huge stone pillars situated in a massive circle around a sprawling marble floor that resembled a huge multi petaled flower. At the center very center of the pattern sits a small bump of rock, a slight outcropping that now once again contains her sword Tyrfing. The blade is encased in thick crystaline glass and stands as another reminder of the young Jedi Master.
The Sky Garden as its name implies is completely and totally open to the elements. Save for the huge dome above its marble floor that protects it from harsh rains, the Sky Garden is utterly open. It was here that Diana did most of her meditation and training, and it was here that she was fabled to have sat for nearly an entire month after her self imposed exile from the Jedi Council.
From the Garden on a clear day one can see for untold miles, watching the mists of Cato Neimoidia roll and toil through the skies.
Upgrade: At the north end of the roof level stands the newly constructed bedchambers for the Housemaster and her resident co-Masters. The rooms are complete with simple furnishings and the best view of the Sanctuary. Their Northern walls face out into the open expanse of mountains with great floor-to-ceiling windowpanes. Their southern walls are directly attached to the original Sky Garden that was left untouched save for the addition of Lyra Dajenn's saberstaff alongside Tyrfing and her burial monument where she was lain to rest.
Added atop the expansions and additions of the lower levels was an enclosed greenhouse that circles around the west, south, and east of the original Garden. Here all manner of plants are kept and tended for their use of nutrition and Healing. A large portion of the southern greenhouse was dedicated to the rescue of a hidden grove of bafforr trees from Kuat.
Upgrade - Lower Level: Having expressed his interest in maintaining a Archival area separate of the core of the facilities, Avalore agreed with Hal to expand the Sanctuary downwards as well. There had already existed a small basement for storage which Hal quickly cleared and renovated to suit his needs, but with the ever growing well of knowledge the Archivist was collecting and the arrival of new students it became clear that the space was not suitable as it stood. Cato Neimoidia Council funded the excavation and expansion of this lower level, turning it into a multi-purpose area for study, research, archival work, communications, and security for the Sanctuary as a whole. Mimicing the layout of the upper levels, a lift installed in place of the stairwell to the basement will bring you to the main chamber where meetings and classes are held. Visiting dignitaries are communed with here as well. A round table beset by 30 chairs circles a main holoprojector at the middle while data screens are built into each seat along the table under a protective glass top.
Six rooms are attached around the main chamber, like the above floors. The room directly across from the lift on the opposite end is Hal Terrano's private study. Adjoining this on either side is the Communications Lab and Security room. The three rooms left open-space Library and dedicated Archive hub. All of these outerlying rooms are openly joined and access save Hal's private study which has doors at each of the three entrances.
Hal's study also maintains a secret passageway exit tunnel that allows occupants of the Sanctuary a way to escape to the adjoining hangar should it ever come under attack. The entrances to the tunnels are camouflaged as floor panels on either end.
History: The History of what would become Diana Moridena's sanctuary was mostly lost to the ethos of time. It is known that once this simple place was an enclave for Jedi Knights and Masters who simply needed to escape from the rigors of the Republic. It was never meant to be a fortress, or even a Temple to train apprentice, but instead to be a calming retreat one could find when they were in need of silence.
It was just for this purpose that Diana chose the location, having found mention of the Sanctuary of Neimoidia many times in her studies of the Jedi Archives.
When she was in desperate need, Diana journeyed to Cato Neimoidia, scouring for the location of the Enclave. When she found it, the structure was to no surprise in utter ruin. The gates had long since withered away, the mosaic tile floors had been scorched and burned, many of the statues had been broken, and the earth itself seemed to have collapsed in places to make the ruin unsuitable. In her loneliness, and quest for solitude, Diana began the restoration of the temple, attempting to find a place that was truly her own, that none could deny.
It worked slowly at first, developing at a snails pace.
She pushed away the rubble and broken statues with the force, dragging away what seemed to be mountains of ruin and clearing away the trash. After weeks of its removal, Diana set to work rebuilding. She carved out room, bough droids and payed laborers to aid her in reconstruction. She reformed the Enclave into what it once had been, restoring its function and rebuilding the Temple for its original purpose.
Eventually, she finished her home.
Diana had built the place where she belonged, not a Temple or a Fortress, but home where she could live and train the way she wanted to. Over the months of her stay other Jedi came and visited her, resting and relaxing. Cato Neimoidia became a way station for some, a place to hold themselves after the horrors of the war of the Sith. Yet the only permanent resident remained Diana, until her apprentice came along.
When she met Avalore Eden, it was on Cato Neimoidia itself, and she quickly took the girl as a Padawan. Though Avalore stayed on Coruscant at times, and Diana as well, the slightly older woman insisted that the sanctuary on Cato Neimoidia was their true home. She echoed this with her other apprentices, Sarge, Hal and Mara, though the they were hardly ones to tie themselves down.
Upon her death Diana gifted the temple and all its contents to Avalore. Having bought the land and purchased the rights with the fortune she had gained in her career as a ballerina, Diana had long since decided that were she to perish, the place would belong to Avalore.
Since its not technically owned by the Jedi, instead by Avalore, the young woman has complete and full autonomy of what goes on in Cato Neimoidia.
