Great Temple / Base One
Name: Massassi Great Temple / Base One
Planet: Yavin IV
Starport Type: Military Base
Traffic: Heavy
Control: Rebel Alliance
Docking Areas: 60 small landing pads, two medium landing pads
Docking Fee: 0
Customs: Heavy
Law Enforcement: Heavy
Services: Full Service
Population: 10,000
Points of Interest: Grand Temple’s throne room
Background: The Great Temple was constructed over 5,000 years before the Battle of Yavin by a group of Massassi, a slave race once ruled by the Sith, under the leadership of the Sith Lord Naga Sadow. It was surmised that the temple’s site was either holy or significant for primitive scientific purposes.
At some point, either as part of the building’s original intent or through ulterior additions, the Ordu Aspectu used the Great Temple to store data, including a map room giving directions to the Citadel of Rur on Garn.
The Massassi eventually went extinct millennia before 0 ABY, sometime after finishing their temples. Over five thousand years after its construction, the Great Temple was rediscovered by the Alliance to Restore the Republic, who, having abandoned its former base on the planet Dantooine to evade detection by the Galactic Empire, had its engineers convert the large structure into its base of operations, designating it Base One. From the Massassi Base, Jyn Erso, K-2SO, and Cassian Andor traveled to Eadu. The Alliance then launched a force of X-wings and Y-wings to the planet from the base. Later, when Rogue One was trapped on Scarif, nearly all of the Rebel forces at Massassi Base were sent with the Alliance Fleet to attack the planet.
After successfully attacking the Empire’s Death Star from the Temple, the Alliance was forced to evacuate Yavin 4 for fear of retaliation. At some point following their departure, the Empire took over the Great Temple.
The Great Temple was a lofty pyramidal structure with several successively receding stories and a high-ceilinged chamber at the top. It was built from huge blocks of stone hewed from Yavin 4’s crust, with no visible signs of advanced machinery. After the Alliance to Restore the Republic took possession of the building, it arranged the Great Temple according to its needs, drilling new cavities and reinforcing the interior walls with sheets of seamed metal and the stone floors with ferrocrete. The Rebels also added elevators from the subterranean level to the open hangar.
With the Rebel additions, the base was large enough to hold at least sixty fighters and two Gallofree Yards GR-75 medium transports. The base’s barracks had space for thousands of soldiers. Though this was plenty of space, there were not enough bunks for every soldier, so some fashioned hammocks from cargo nets.
Deep below the moon’s surface were survival bunkers connected to the temple with turbolifts. The Alliance installed them as a “last refuge” in the event of an Imperial planetary bombardment.
Appearances: Rebels, Rogue One, Episode IV A New Hope
