Search for Lor San Tekka Thirty years after the Battle of Endor , during the Cold war , the Resistance mounted a search for Lor San Tekka in the hopes that the old explorer had information related to the whereabouts of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker , who disappeared into exile many years earlier . The First Order , hoping to find Skywalker and eliminate him so he could not bring about the return of the Jedi and defeat their plans , also searched for Tekka to find the map he had that led to Ahch - To , the planet on which Skywalker was believed to have made his exile . Using information from " Hevurion Grace " , a ship that belonged to a First Order collaborator and New Republic senator named Erudo Ro - Kiintor , General Leia Organa — leader of the Resistance and twin sister of the missing Jedi Master — sent Commander Poe Dameron to find Tekka . The mission first brought Dameron and his team , Black Squadron , to a planet where he discovered the Crèche , a religious people with whom Tekka had once dwelled . The First Order also tracked Dameron to the planet . Dameron and the Resistance eventually found Tekka living on the desert world of Jakku , where he lived in the spiritual village of Tuanul with other members of the once - forbidden Church of the Force . Tekka gave Dameron the maps in the hopes of ending the despair in the galaxy , as he believed the Jedi were essential to maintaining balance in the Force . The First Order also tracked Tekka to Jakku , where the dark warrior Kylo Ren killed Tekka and brought Dameron into custody in the hopes of finding the map . Dameron , however , had given the map to his astromech droid , BB - 8 , who returned it to the Resistance base on D ' Qar with the help of a Rey , a scavenger ; Finn , a stormtrooper who defected from the First Order ; Han Solo , the famed Rebel Alliance General ; and Solo ' s friend and co - pilot Chewbacca . After being given the final piece of the map from the droid R2 - D2 , Rey followed the map to Ahch - To where she found the fabled Jedi Master . Prelude . In the years following the Battle of Endor and the defeat of the Galactic Empire at the Battle of Jakku , Luke Skywalker set out to restore the Jedi Order . Skywalker , the last Jedi Knight , had help from Lor San Tekka , a member of the Church of the Force who helped Skywalker find Jedi sites and lore that the Empire tried to suppress after the fall of the Jedi Order . Skywalker began training a new generation of Jedi , but his attempt to restore the Order was thwarted when one of his apprentices , his nephew Ben , turned to the dark side of the Force and destroyed the Jedi . After Ben ' s betrayal , and his adoption of the name Kylo Ren , Skywalker felt responsible and went into exile . Those closest to him believed that he went in search of the first Jedi Temple . Unbeknownst to most , Tekka had a fragment of the map that could lead to Ahch - To , the world in which the ancient temple was located . Years later , the First Order emerged from the Unknown Regions as a successor to the old Galactic Empire . After the New Republic failed to take the threat of the First Order seriously , Leia Organa — a member of the Galactic Senate , twin sister of Luke Skywalker , and mother of Kylo Ren — formed the Resistance to combat the emerging threat . She hoped to bring her brother out of hiding so he could help in the fight against the dark side once more , but she did not know his location . After Commander Poe Dameron , a Resistance pilot , led a that resulted in the theft of the " Hevurion Grace " , a ship that belonged to a First Order collaborator and Republic senator named Erudo Ro - Kiintor , the Resistance learned that the First Order was attempting to locate Skywalker ; Snoke , the Supreme Leader of the First Order , feared that if Skywalker was to re - emerge it would bring about the return of the Jedi and threaten his plans . Hoping to find Tekka before the First Order , General Organa assigned Dameron the mission to discover his whereabouts . She hoped that , because the First Order was unaware that Tekka was alive , it would give the Resistance the advantage they needed to find Tekka and Skywalker in time . Organa gave Dameron broad authority to execute the mission however he deemed fit , and he put together a team of other pilots that included Captain Karé Kun , L ' ulo L ' ampar , Jessika Pava , and Captain Temmin " Snap " Wexley . Dameron also flew with his personal astromech droid , BB - 8 . Together , they formed Black Squadron and left the Resistance base on D ' Qar to execute their mission . The search . Encounter with the Crèche . The search brought Black Squadron to Ovanis , a planet filled with vast canyons . The squadron surveyed the area after they arrived , with Dameron piloting his personal X - wing , " Black One " , deep into the canyons . He flew through an underground cave system and set down inside , where he encountered a group of people called the Crèche . The Crèche greeted him with suspicion , believing him to be a potential threat to the spiritual egg that they were protecting ; the Crèche believed that the egg , which they would guard until it hatched , was essential to the fate of the galaxy . Dameron soon learned from a Crèche elder that Tekka had once lived with the Crèche , so the pilot hoped the Crèche would tell him what they knew about the one they called " the explorer . " Although the Crèche had once told Tekka their secrets , that was after he had lived with them for a long time and he earned their trust . Dameron was still an outsider . Having briefly lost contact with Dameron , Black Squadron was finally able to reestablish communications with Black Leader and he informed them that he was safe inside the dangerous cavern system . BB - 8 , who had detected a signal earlier , realized that there was a homing beacon on " Black One " . The Crèche mistook the beacon that Dameron held as a detonator and nearly started a firefight in the cavern , but the fighting came to an end when Dameron explained what the device truly was and the Crèche worried that a fight would harm the egg . Because of the tracker , Dameron was concerned that the First Order would find them on the planet , but Black Squadron discovered that the First Order had already arrived and was amassing troop s . Dameron plead with the Crèche to trust him — whatever their reservations were about him , he said that the First Order would not hesitate to destroy what they had worked for . Shortly later , First Order forces led by Agent Terex arrived above the Cave of the Crèche . Poe instructed his fellow pilots to give him " leverage " while he hid in the Cave . Terex and his stormtroopers forced their way into the Cave . The First Order agent demanded to know Poe ' s location but the Crèche elder feigned ignorance . When a stormtrooper picked up Poe ' s tracker , Terex threatened to torch their giant egg . Unwilling to see innocents suffer , Poe surrendered himself and told Terex that they had a stalemate ; referring to his squadron ' s activities . Black Squadron attacked Terex ' s TIE fighters and First Order platform . Unperturbed , Terex ordered his flametrooper s to torch the Crèche egg and revealed that he had brought reinforcements including the Maxima - A class heavy cruiser " Ravenous " and more TIE fighters . While Poe and Terex haggled , the Crèche egg hatched , releasing a giant blue winged creature , which proceeded to attack the Crèche and Terex ' s stormtroopers . Meanwhile , Temmin Wexley convinced his fellow pilots to fly into the canyons and caves in an attempt to lose their First Order pursuers . When that did not worked , Black Squadron regrouped for a head - on attack . Back in the Cave , Poe with BB - 8 ' s help managed to steal Terex ' s blaster . Poe tried to force Terex to call off the attack . The blue winged creature was then attacked by a black winged creature , which killed the former . Meanwhile , Poe managed to disarm Terex a second time and forced him to call off his attack . While the Crèche cultists restrained Terex and his men , Poe and his fellow pilots refueled their starfighters . Unwilling to provoke a war between the New Republic and the First Order , Poe released Terex . The Crèche cultists then departed on the back of the black winged creature , which they regarded as their savior . Before leaving , the Crèche elder revealed more information about Lor San Tekka to Poe . After leaving , Poe and his fellow pilots radioed for Terex ' s cruiser to pick up the defeated First Order agent and his surviving men . Rescuing Grakkus . After returning to the Resistance base on D ' Qar , Poe and Black Squadron traveled to Megalox prison on the planet Megalox Beta . Megalox Beta was a high gravity world and the prison was surrounded by a gravity field created by an orbiting space station . From the Crèche elder , Poe had learnt that Lor San Tekka had met someone named Grakkus the Hutt , who collected various objects related to the Jedi . With General Organa ' s help , Black Squadron managed to bribe the prison ' s Warden Luta into granting them access to the prison . However , the First Order had learnt about Poe ' s mission and dispatched Agent Terex to obtain the information from Grakkus . Terex bribed Luta into abandoning Black Squadron in the dangerous prison . Despite Terex ' s machinations , Black Squadron managed to fight their way into Grakkus ' fortress . Seeking to escape the prison , Grakkus offered to reveal the information to whoever helped him escape the prison first . To gain leverage over Terex , Poe instructed BB - 8 and the other astromech droid s to sabotage the prison ' s gravity field generator . Despite encountering the prison guards , BB - 8 and his team managed to access the control chamber . Meanwhile , Terex convinced the gangsters Kan Be , Papa Toren , and Isin to storm Grakkus ' compound in return for helping them escape . Terex wanted to kill Poe , his fellow pilots , and Grakkus after he had extracted the necessary information . Meanwhile , a security droid attacked the astromech team and destroyed Jessika Pava ' s astromech droid . Despite this opposition , BB - 8 managed to disable the security droid , allowing the droids to proceed with their mission . With the gravity field disabled , Terex and his criminal allies were overwhelmed by the high gravity . Donning gravity belt s , Poe and his team rescued Grakkus . They then convinced Warden Luta to let them leave the prison with Grakkus in return for restoring the gravity shield . Returning to the space station , Black Squadron reunited with their droids with the exception of Jess ' astromech . Black Squadron then escorted Grakkus ' shuttle into space . Before they could jump into hyperspace , a vengeful Terex attacked the Megalox space station , disabling the gravity shield for good . When Terex attacked the escape pods and shuttles , Temmin convinced the squadron to turn around and engage Terex ' s ship " Carrion Spike " . After returning to the Resistance base , Grakkus provided information on the worlds that Lor San Tekka had visited . Before Poe could proceed with the mission , General Organa tasked Poe with investigating whether the First Order had a spy within their ranks . Retrieving the map . Dameron and the Resistance eventually learned that Tekka was living in the village of Tuanul on the desert world of Jakku , where he had retired and dwelled with a number of other adherents to the once - forbidden Church of the Force . Dameron and BB - 8 traveled there and found Tekka , who gave Dameron the partial map to Ahch - To . Tekka said that giving the Resistance the map would begin to help make things right for a despairing galaxy , and that he believed there could be no balance in the Force without the Jedi . As the two spoke , the First Order arrived to claim the map for themselves . Dameron fled with the map just as First Order stormtroopers began attacking the village . He attempted to retreat in his X - wing , but the craft was damaged so he gave the map to BB - 8 and sent the droid away from the village . As BB - 8 fled with the map , Kylo Ren arrived on the scene of the battle . Tekka was brought before him , and Ren demanded that the old man hand over the map . Tekka , who knew the dark warrior when he was still known as Ben , refused to give him the map . For his reticence , Ren struck the retired explorer down with his lightsaber . Dameron used his blaster rifle to fire on Ren , but the dark warrior used the Force to freeze the blaster bolt mid - air . Dameron was brought before him and Ren realized that Tekka gave the map to the pilot , so Ren had Dameron taken aboard his shuttle to be returned to his Star Destroyer , the " Finalizer " . Before leaving , Ren ordered the stormtroopers to kill the remaining villagers . The stormtroopers , with the exception of FN - 2187 , complied with the order . Aftermath . BB - 8 ventured across Jakku before finding and meeting Rey , a scavenger with whom he took refuge . Dameron , meanwhile , was interrogated aboard the " Finalizer " before escaping with the help of FN - 2187 , who defected from the First Order . Dameron and FN - 2187 , whom Dameron nicknamed Finn , crash - landed on Jakku . Finn believed that Dameron died during the crash — the pilot actually survived and was able to return to the Resistance — and eventually met Rey and BB - 8 . Together , they escaped from the First Order forces on Jakku aboard the " Millennium Falcon " , which was soon rediscovered by the famed smuggler s and Rebel Alliance war heroes Han Solo and Chewbacca after they lost the ship years earlier . This began a journey that culminated in the map being returned to the Resistance base , where the astromech droid R2 - D2 soon discovered that he had the rest of the map in his possession . Rey , who had come into the possession of the lightsaber that once belonged to Luke Skywalker and his father , Anakin Skywalker , followed the map to Ahch - To . There , she discovered Skywalker in exile and presented him with his old lightsaber as a symbol of hope for the galaxy . Behind the scenes . The discovery of Lor San Tekka and his map on Jakku were depicted in the opening scene of the 2015 film . The backstory was first depicted in the 2015 novel " Before the Awakening " by Greg Rucka , while the search for Lor San Tekka itself forms the basis of the ongoing Marvel comic book series " " . The series is written by Charles Soule , with art by Phil Noto .