The Jedi of Yavin IV

The Jedi in the Temple Academy of Yavin IV are among the most volatile and dangerous of the Order, often picked out for being unusually aggressive or troubled as compared to their peers while in training in Dantooine. These Jedi are trained as Jedi Guardians, where they focus on the more martial arts as an outlet and control for their aggression rather than trying to stifle it. Having learned to temper the darkness within themselves, they are among the best-suited in the Jedi Order to resisting the Dark Side's lures.

The Temple Academy uniform is brown and black Jedi robes, though uniform standards are quite lax as to the cut and material of garments.

The Temple Academy itself was rebuilt in the years after the Sith-Imperial War, with construction beginning sometime in the 150s ABY. The original Temple was the very first training academy of the New Jedi Order, where Luke Skywalker trained the inaugural class and they defeated the ancient spirit of Exar Kun. It was destroyed in the Yuuzhan Vong War, but fortunately by that point the Jedi Order had already established itself in the galaxy.

The new Temple Academy is modeled after the Massassi ziggurats, but eschews the dark side spirits and ancient Sith writings. The Academy has four main ziggurats arranged around a central courtyard. The north ziggurat is the largest, about one hundred and forty meters tall and about two hundred and thirty meters to a side, while the other three are about one hundred meters high. The north ziggurat is a hangar complex, while the other three serve as dormitories and campuses. All are fortified against attack, with well-concealed armories, perimeter defenses, and security systems. There are clusters of more standard buildings around the bases of the ziggurats, these serving additional functions which did not fit well within the main pyramids as well as providing additional living and classroom space. The renewed jungle encroaches daily, though the Temple maintains a cleared perimeter out to about fifty meters and has repellant fields up to harmlessly deter the more unpleasant of Yavin's native life.

The Temple Academy is led by a Jedi Council of its own, and the Yavin Council has representatives from each of the major interests in the Temple. The exact membership varies, but generally it's around six to eight Jedi Masters. The current Headmistress of the Yavin Temple is Master Lexi Shan, an accomplished swordswoman whose ability with the lightsaber is unparalleled and her martial arts abilities very nearly so.

The training in the Temple Academy is touted as being the hardest in the Jedi Order, borrowing heavily from the Alliance and Imperial military training and even hiring military instructors from across the galaxy, but it is by no means harsh. After all, brutality without purpose engenders nothing in a soldier except resentment, while well-treatment and concern for their conditions prepares them well for the worst privations. Even Imperial Knights recognize that the Jedi Guardians trained in Yavin IV are trained and proficient fighters, able with a wide variety of weapons and skilled in the use of the lightsaber. They are perhaps lacking in proficiency with the Force as compared to other Jedi, and certainly in diplomatic tact, but make up for it with devotion and resolute will.

The Temple Academy's Headmaster's Trials are traditionally in direct conflict against dark-siders and the Dark Side of the Force, though not necessarily violently so. Master Shan is not a cruel woman; she assigns only what she expects the Jedi apprentice to be capable of overcoming. The Temple Academy is still often the last of the three Trials an apprentice undergoes before submitting to the Jedi Council's Trial.