Vultar Cataclysm

"But Old Republic records chronicle the Vultar Cataclysm, an event in which the activation of an artifact known as the Cosmic Turbine destroyed that system."

―Edited transcript of the debriefing of Doctor Insmot Bowen^[3]

The Vultar Cataclysm was the destruction of the Vultar system in 4250 BBY. During the Third Great Schism that year, a group of Dark Jedi took up residence in the star system and discovered Celestial machines there, including the gravity-manipulation device known as the Cosmic Turbine. The darksiders activated the machinery but were unable to control it, and as a result, the entire Vultar system was destroyed. Centuries later, the Jedi Shayoto recalled the Vultar Cataclysm, and the event was also recorded in several historical documents.

Prelude[]

In 4250 BBY,^[2] after a group of Dark Jedi were driven from^[4] the galactic capital world^[5] Coruscant as part of the Third Great Schism, they took up residence in the Vultar system. The adherents of the dark side of the Force discovered a set of massive machines there, including^[4] the gravity-manipulation device^[5] they dubbed the Cosmic Turbine, that had been left behind by the ancient species known as the Celestials^[4] before they had disappeared from the galaxy by 30,000 BBY.^[5]

The cataclysm[]

"During the Vultar Cataclysm in the Third Great Schism, dark siders influenced by the Sith triggered the obliteration of an entire world."

―Chief Librarian Restelly Quist, The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force^[6]

Seeking revenge against their Jedi Order foes^[4] and intending to unleash as much destruction as possible,^[7] the Dark Jedi activated the Cosmic Turbine and the rest of the devices but proved unable to control them. Several days into the darksiders' attempt to use the Celestial machinery, a catastrophic accident^[4] that came to be known as the Vultar Cataclysm^[2] destroyed the entire Vultar system—including the devices and the Dark Jedi^[4]—leaving behind the Vultar Nebula.^[3] The Jedi helped the Galactic Republic deal with the catastrophe,^[8] and the event was witnessed by the long-lived Jedi Shayoto.^[9]

Aftermath[]

"The primary accounts of the Vultar Cataclysm would have been part of the Jedi Archives, which are restricted."

―Edited transcript of the debriefing of Doctor Insmot Bowen^[3]

Centuries after the Vultar Cataclysm, Shayoto still remembered the event.

The Vultar Cataclysm was eventually chronicled in Republic records.^[3] In 3997 BBY,^[5] during the Jedi conclave on the planet Deneba that sought to address the growing threat of the Krath cult of darksiders in the Empress Teta system,^[9] the centuries-old^[10] Shayoto addressed the gathering, rhetorically inquiring whether anyone beside him remembered the Vultar Cataclysm before relating the methodologies of ancient organized dark side followers.^[9]

A section of the^[6] 990 BBY^[11] Jedi trainee guidebook The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force authored by the Jedi Chief Librarian Restelly Quist noted the event,^[6] as did the Jedi historian Tionne Solusar's work Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, published in 40 ABY.^[12] In 1 BBY, the Obroan Institute for Archaeology researcher Doctor Insmot Bowen also mentioned the Vultar Cataclysm during a Galactic Empire debriefing on the Celestials. The scholar hypothesized that the primary accounts of the event had been kept in the Jedi Order's Archives, access to which the Empire had restricted.^[3]

Behind the scenes[]

Tojdls3cover — The Vultar Cataclysm was introduced in *Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith* 3.

The Vultar Cataclysm was first mentioned in the third issue of Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi - Dark Lords of the Sith comic book mini-series. The issue was authored by Tom Veitch and Kevin J. Anderson^[9] and published on December 13, 1994.^[13] In the 1997 audio dramatization of Dark Lords of the Sith, Shayoto's line mentioning the event is erroneously delivered by Jedi Master Arca Jeth instead.^[14] In addition, the 116th issue of De Agostini's The Official Star Wars Fact File magazine,^[15] which was published around March 17, 2004,^[16] erroneously described the Vultar Cataclysm^[15]—as opposed to the Third Great Schism it was a part of^[4]—as a schism within the Jedi Order.^[15]

The Vultar Cataclysm was originally meant to be mentioned in the 2012 reference book The Essential Guide to Warfare by Jason Fry and Paul R. Urquhart; however, the section that would have mentioned the event was cut before the book's release. The information regarding the Vultar Cataclysm was later released in 2013 as part of Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare Author's Cut, a series of articles published on the StarWars.com Blog by Fry and Del Rey editor Erich Schoeneweiss containing various cut content from The Essential Guide to Warfare.^[3]