Ahch-To

Ahch-To , known by many names in ancient legends, was a planet mostly covered in water, with numerous rocky islands blanketed with green trees located in the Unknown Regions. It was the birthplace of the Jedi Order and held the ancient Jedi texts. During the New Republic Era, it served as the home of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker who went into exile seeking the first Jedi Temple after his temple and his Jedi students were destroyed by Kylo Ren. After the Resistance pieced together two map fragments to reveal Skywalker's location, Rey traveled to Ahch-To in the Millennium Falcon accompanied by R2-D2 and Chewbacca, in search of him.
==Description==
===Astrography and atmosphere===
Ahch-To was an uncharted world, located in the Ahch-To system within the Unknown Regions of the galaxy, positioned at the coordinates F-13 on the Standard Galactic Grid.Star Wars: Rogue One: Rebel Dossier Ahch-To orbited twin stars, including the second sun. In turn, the planet was orbited by one moon. The planet supported a breathable atmosphere. The world shared a mysterious time-related quality with such locales as Mortis and Dagobah.
Due to the the planet's great distance relative to its twin suns, Ahch-To supported a temperate and damp, but volatile climate that frequently caused salt spray, cold winds, and violent storms, unlike the desert world of Tatooine. Ahch-To also experienced summers, autumns, and winters.
===Geography===
The surface of the planet was nothing but deep blue oceans. Dotting the oceans, however, were volcanic island archipelagos formed of black rock that were covered with few green treesThe Force Awakens: Rey's Story and grass.
===Flora and fauna===
Ahch-To's islands' rugged cliffs were home to moss, grass, and ferns. An algae flourished in the seashore pools. Two Force-sensitive plants, the uneti trees—native to Ahch-ToThe Star Wars Book—and uneti shrubs, were found on the planet. Fragrant flowers, nightkelps, reed, and the seaweed also grew on the planet.
Ahch-To was the homeworld of the Lanai, an avian sentient species, and of a large variety of creatures, such as birds, fish, sea mammals, and great leviathans of the deep, with gulls and frondtrailers among them. Small, flighted porgs nested in colonies along the cliffs, feeding their young with regurtiated fish and Ahch-Tonian grubs. A species of chirping sticklike insects inhabited the hardy grasses, while others flew in the air.
Several species of fish inhabited Ahch-To, the edible ones such as fingerlip garpon, twinfin hyacander, and spetan channelfish, coppergrin, billfish, needlegawp, while others included tytahuso fish and an unidentified fish.
There were larger creatures, such as the pallaskean sea-serpents that inhabited the oceans, the wharlithans, and the thala-sirens that nursed their young on the rocky shores, providing a dairy source for other island residents.
==History==
===Early history===
The Jedi Order was founded on planet Ahch-To by the Prime Jedi around 25,025 BBY.Star Wars: Timelines The Lanais' secret songs recalled long period in which there were no outside visitors, and brief stretches in which a group of outsiders dwelled on the Temple Island together. Some of them were kind, and others were mad—songs recalled years of fire and ruin that had forced the Lanais from their homes until things resumed their proper course. Due to its many secrets, the location of Ahch-To had been hidden from the galaxy.
Before the Great Jedi Purge and the Age of the Empire, Jedi scholars argued that a number of locations could be considered the birthplace of the Order. The scholars argued that Coruscant, Jedha, and Ossus as well as worlds shrouded in myth, such as Tython and Ahch-To could all be considered candidate worlds for the Order's birth and the location of the first Jedi temple. Despite such deliberation,Star Wars: Complete Locations however, the location of the first Jedi temple was a mystery by the time the Galactic Civil War came to a close.
===Imperial Era===
In 3 ABY, Jedi-in-training Luke Skywalker visited the living planet Gazian in search of knowledge of the Jedi. After landing on a platform, Skywalker fell into the mushrooms of the Living Sea while attempting to venture out, losing his breathing mask. Inhaling the hallucinogenic spores, he saw an imprint of the planet Ahch-To and spoke to an imprint of the High Republic Era Jedi Master Elzar Mann. After their conversation, Skywalker received a sacred Jedi text from a skeleton of a dead Jedi.Star Wars (2020) 20
===Rediscovery===
Following the Battle of Jakku, Luke Skywalker dedicated much of these years to finding the site of the first Jedi Temple. He uncovered many tantalizing clues that hinted at the origins of the Jedi, but the precise location was a mystery. He made use of the Jedi star compass he had discovered in the Emperor's Observatory on Pillio. With a plasma-encased supraluminite lodestone at its center, the compass functioned much like the ancient wayfinders and was attuned to specific points in hyperspace. Through studying the compass, Skywalker uncovered a path to Ahch-To, the site of Temple Island and the first Jedi temple.Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary
Lieutenant Shara Bey of the Rebel Alliance assisted Skywalker in recovering two small uneti trees from Vetine, the only remains of the Great Tree that once grew within the training ground of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.Shattered Empire 4 The key to finding the island itself was his study of the spread of the Force-sensitive uneti saplings. With the help of Lor San Tekka, Skywalker finally put together the many clues and learned the location of the temple, keeping this information to himself.
===Exile of Luke Skywalker===
Following the destruction of his temple and the students of his Jedi Order in 28 ABY,Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary states that the Jedi Temple of Luke Skywalker was destroyed six years before the Starkiller Incident, which Star Wars: Galactic Atlas dates to 34 ABY. Therefore, the destruction must have taken place in 28 ABY. Skywalker withdrew from the galactic events, going into hiding and cutting himself off from the Force. Taking his X-wing starfighter of the T-65B line and many lost Jedi relics, Skywalker sought out the first Jedi temple on the world of Ahch-To and landed his X-wing starfighter in a shallow inlet, residing on an island with stone ruins. He had pledged to protect the hidden world and its many secrets. At some point, Skywalker amended the Rammahgon with an insert connecting Ahch-To to the book's route to Exegol.
Among the relics Luke had collected and brought into his exile were the sacred Jedi texts and the Jedi Crusader pendant. Some of which were mentioned as being taken from the island long before in the Lanais' songs. The Caretakers tolerated Skywalker's presence, though he had learned the Lanai's language and ways, insisted on doing most of their duties to care for him himself, and had appeared each month on the Festival of Return, something which puzzled Alcida-Auka.
Prior to Rey's arrival on the planet, Luke Skywalker had a dream while sleeping in his hut. In his dream, he saw the life he would never have, one in which he never left Tatooine and remained in the moisture farming business with his uncle, marrying Camie Marstrap and allowing the Galactic Empire to shatter the Rebel Alliance and destroy more planets with the Death Star. Luke eventually awoke, trying to shake away his dream, and left his hut. He was still astonished at the oceans of Ahch-To, which he attributed to growing up in the deserts of Tatooine. As he reached a meadow overlooking the sea, he was still unable to shake the dream away, believing it wasn't an ordinary dream, but the Force at work. He also reflected that his efforts to block the Force out were impossible as it always demanded to be heard. In that moment, the old Jedi Master felt that someone had found him.The Last Jedi Adaptation 1
===Search for Skywalker===
As the Resistance began its fight against the First Order, General Leia Organa, Skywalker's sister, hoped to find her brother and bring him back into the fight against the dark side of the Force. She sent Commander Poe Dameron to Jakku, where he retrieved a partial map held by Lor San Tekka that gave part of the direction to Ahch-To, which he stored in his astromech droid, BB-8. Later, after the partial map was given to the Resistance, Skywalker's astromech droid, R2-D2, who had been in low power mode since Skywalker's exile, returned to full power and provided the rest of the map to Ahch-To. R2-D2 unknowingly had the map in his databanks for many years, having found it in the network of the Galactic Empire aboard the Death Star during the Galactic Civil War. 
After landing on one of the planet's small islands, Rey ventured throughout the Temple Island's ancient ruins. At the top, she found the old Jedi Master in seclusion. Rey thought she was meant to come to this planet, and compared it to something plucked from a dream unlike Jakku. Skywalker said nothing as Rey handed him his father's lightsaber.
Upon offering Skywalker his old lightsaber, Rey was shocked to see him discard the weapon after briefly examining it, and immediately leave the saddle. The entire way down, Rey followed Luke to his hut and desperately tried to recruit Skywalker to help the remaining members of the Resistance, but he blatantly refused. After recovering the lightsaber from some porgs, Rey discovered Skywalker's X-wing starfighter within a shallow bay and learned that he had stranded himself on the planet. She continued to follow him across the island, despite being ordered to leave.
Eventually, she heard a hum of energy calling her to the old tree containing the sacred Jedi texts dating back to the dawn of the Jedi Order, emanating from the books. She claimed the location was familiar to her, and that she has seen it in her dreams. Intrigued, Skywalker asked Rey to elaborate, but she continued to press him to come out of hiding and help fight the First Order. Skywalker once more refused, explaining that he did not come to the planet to hide but to die where the Jedi Order first started. Afterward, the old Jedi Master pressed Rey for her true motives for coming to Ahch-To. Rey explained that she had a power inside of her that she did not understand and was frightened of; she also sought a mentor to help her discover her place in the galaxy.
The next night, the former Jedi Master slipped into the Millennium Falcon and recalled the adventures he had experienced. While aboard, Skywalker reunited with R2 who, after he insisted that he could not be convinced to help, replayed Leia's holographic message to Kenobi. Although Skywalker grumbled that the tactic "was a cheap move" on the droid's part, it nevertheless inspired Skywalker to agree to give Rey some basic initiation training as a Jedi, explaining the basic foundations of the Force. That night, Rey woke to see Skywalker staring at her; he agreed to give Rey no more than three lessons of the Jedi Order and that they would start at dawn.
===Training ground of Rey===
====Rey's first lesson====
On the first day of her training with Skywalker, Rey awoke to find Kylo Ren sitting across from her. She instinctively aimed her blaster at him and fired, only to blow a hole through her stone hut. She could not harm him, yet neither could Ren use his powers to reach into her mind due to the actual distance between them. Rey was both terrified and infuriated to see the dark warlord, but decided to keep this new development between them from Skywalker, fearing that she would lose the Jedi Master's trust if he mistook her and Ren's newfound connection as a betrayal.
She followed him to the meditation ledge outside the first Jedi Temple where he described the Force as an energy that bound everything together, including the light and the darkness. After some miscommunication, Rey reached out into the Force with her senses, and had seen the image of the Temple Island that was identical to her dreams back on Jakku. She also speculated that the Jedi explorers who found Ahch-To were drawn to a powerful resonance in the Force and had performed Force-assisted hyperspace navigation, trusting it to find the hyperspace routes through the Unknown Regions. She was also drawn to a cavern immersed in dark side energy. Having been effortlessly drawn to the darkness despite Skywalker's warnings, Skywalker backed away in fear as Rey's raw strength in the Force reminded him of another gifted prodigy—his nephew and fallen apprentice, Ben Solo. At the same time, Rey sensed nothing from the Jedi exile and came to realize that Skywalker had blocked himself off from the Force.
During her training, Rey used the Force to hold rocks in place; she expressed annoyance at the task. Skywalker responded by saying it was for something bigger. Rey then acted aggressively, using her Force powers to levitate two of the Caretakers. Skywalker told her that was enough, and she gently put them down, apologizing. Skywalker told her the training can't be rushed, and Rey stormed off, telling the Jedi Master that she thought he would be different. She then used the Force to push a large rock; in doing so, she accidentally disturbed the nest of a pallaskean. She distracted it while Skywalker and Chewbacca pushed the rock back into place over the eggs. Rey then replied that she would learn the lesson about rushing off, and that Luke Skywalker still dashed into danger to save his friends.
====Rey's second lesson====
For the second lesson, Rey was made to listen to Skywalker's interpretation of the history of the Jedi Order, which he saw as an example of hubris and failure. He further credited his former mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, as the Jedi Master responsible for the training of Darth Vader and also blamed the Jedi for failing to stop Darth Sidious' rise to power. In spite of his arguments, Rey was adamant that the return of the Jedi Order was the galaxy's last hope against the rising power of the First Order. She also countered Skywalker's views by exclaiming how it was Skywalker himself who saw the light in Vader and fought to redeem him. Yet despite her assertions to the contrary, Skywalker felt responsible for his nephew's fall to the dark side, lamenting how he had once hoped to pass on his lessons to Solo and a new generation of Jedi. It was then that Rey learned about the night of Solo's betrayal as explained from Skywalker's point of view.
====Rey's third lesson====
The lesson was interrupted as Rey heard a bell and observed the Visitors traveling to the festival. Skywalker joined her, stating the group was a tribe from a neighboring island who every month came to raid and plunder the Caretaker village. Rey, aghast, began running, stating that they had to stop it, only for Skywalker to state that a true Jedi would do nothing. If she were to respond with force, then the raiding party would be back in greater numbers the next month and that the sacred Jedi texts would advise her to ignore her anger and only act when she could maintain balance.
Rey, however, refused to accept this, thinking of other atrocities she had been helpless to stop, such as the Hosnian Cataclysm. She made her way to the village, teeth bared and raising her lightsaber, only to discover a party atmosphere. Realizing her mistake in time, she twirled the lightsaber in a ceremonial fashion and was warmly welcomed. She spotted Chewbacca with a mug of some beverage, resting a fist on the dome of the astromech droid R2-D2. As she furiously stared out at the planet's moon-lit ocean, Skywalker joined her and she after a lengthy pause, she questioned his terminology, "raid and plunder." He responded that it was true "in a way," but when she asked if it was a joke, he sheepishly responded that he did not think that she would run so fast. As they talked, a group of Lanai musicians began playing a tune and Skywalker held out his hand for Rey to dance. Rey admitted that she had never before danced and Skywalker pointed out that she had also never before singlehandedly fought a Bonthian raiding party. The two danced for a time before returning to their conversation, Rey stating that she was just trying to do something. Skywalker responded that this was exactly what the Resistance she was trying to help needed, rather than a "failed husk of a religion" like the Jedi Order, asking if she understood. Rey, however, remained unconvinced, stating that what she understood was that their friends were dying and that she had believed in the legend of Luke Skywalker he hated so much. With that, she left him alone.
After he had taught Rey three lessons, Skywalker decided to reconnect with the Force on the meditation ledge outside the temple. Behind him, as he regained his Force abilities which were suppressed for years after he cut himself off, the still surface of the water in the ancient font with the mosaic of the Prime Jedi began to ripple and dance. During the meditation, Luke called out to his sister from across the galaxy, who had heard the call. Having realized how dire the situation was, he decided to end his exile and return with Rey.
====The cave====
As her training with Skywalker continued, her connection with Ren became stronger and resulted in more frequent interactions between them. At first, Rey was inconvenienced by the fact that she was bonded with a man whom she regarded as a murderer and a monster. To her surprise, however, Ren no longer tried to hide his feelings of pain and misery from Rey. At one point she inquired—while distracted by the sight of Ren stripped to the waist—as to how he could kill his own father, to which Ren replied by comparing Rey's experience with abandonment to his own. His knowledge of Rey's parents confounded her, as well as reminded her that the first contact between their minds had allowed them to access each other's memories. Ren then took the opportunity to share his recollection of the night he destroyed his uncle's temple, revealing to Rey that Skywalker had made an attempt on his life while he slept. She wanted to believe that Ren was lying, but her feelings told her that he was telling the truth.
Determined to see her parents once again after so many years, Rey followed the pull to the dark side which led her to a cave filled with numerous mirror versions of herself. Staring into a clouded mirror of polished stone, she beseeched the Force to reveal her parents but was only met by her own reflection. Having failed to find the answers she sought, either with her parents or Skywalker, Rey began to despair as years of isolation began to weigh upon her. As a result, she turned to the one person whom she felt could relate to her sense of solitude and loss: Kylo Ren. The dark warrior listened intently as Rey recalled her experience in the cave, and he insisted she was not alone despite her sense of loneliness. Rey returned his gesture, in kind, and came to hope that it was not too late for him to return to the light.
====Revelations====
By then, their bond had reached an unprecedented level in strength and raw power to the extent that Rey compared it to touching a live wire. She tentatively raised her hand to touch him, although she expected their hands to simply pass through each other. When their fingers actually touched, Rey gasped and grasped Ren's hand. At that moment, however, Skywalker—now reconnected with the Force and planning to return with her—witnessed their bond with his own eyes and interrupted the connection, thinking that they were in league. Luke had gestured at the walls and the ceiling of the hut, and all the stone blocks were shot outward from the hut's center, scattering them around the bench. Having decided that Rey could not be trusted anymore, Skywalker ordered her to leave the island.
Confronting the Jedi Master, Rey demanded to know if he tried to murder Ren. The two fought until Skywalker admitted that he had contemplated killing his nephew in a flash of instinct after sensing the darkness within him. Rey did not believe that Ren was fully committed to the dark side as there was still much conflict within him, convinced by the vision of the future she saw when they touched hands. She therefore set out to confront him, in spite of Skywalker's warnings, under the belief that Ben Solo's redemption was the key to saving the galaxy. Unknown to Skywalker, Rey took the sacred Jedi texts with her aboard the Falcon before leaving Ahch-To. Upon returning to the beleaguered Resistance fleet, Rey ordered Chewbacca to launch her from an escape pod toward Snoke's flagship, the Mega-class Star Dreadnought Supremacy, where Ren awaited her arrival.
===A larger world===
The following night, Skywalker tried to burn down what few Jedi artifacts and writings were left in hopes that it would rid the galaxy of the Jedi once and for all, who, through him, had failed. Luke was surprised by the sudden appearance of Master Yoda as a Force spirit, who not only didn't seem to mind the ancient scripts burning up, but was the one to actually start the fire by causing lightning to strike the tree. In fact, unbeknownst to Luke, Rey had already taken the sacred Jedi texts when she left. During their meeting, Yoda pointed out that mistakes and failure were important lessons, if not the most important lesson, for a Jedi Master. Ultimately, Yoda helped Skywalker come to terms with his failed training of Ben Solo, and to realize that despite his fear of failing another student he could still be what Rey needed, inspiring Luke to face his past and forgive himself.
Meanwhile on the Supremacy, the Supreme Leader Snoke commanded Rey to reveal Skywalker's location. When she refused, he tortuously probed her mind to discover Skywalker's whereabouts. A memory of her waking up during the sunset of Jakku's sun after she experienced a dream of the Ahch-To's Temple Island in a gray sea came back to Rey. After obtaining the knowledge he sought and contemptuously dropping the girl, Snoke laughed and mused that Skywalker had been "so wise" to hide from him. He decided that once the Resistance was destroyed, he would command his forces to Ahch-To and obliterate the entire Temple Island, so Skywalker and the Jedi Order could be given the death he desired.
Following his meeting with Yoda, Skywalker decided to confront his fallen pupil Kylo Ren. Assisted by the power of the vergence at the site, Luke projected himself to Crait to buy the Resistance time to escape. Projecting himself required a massive amount of Force energy and ultimately led to his demise, although Luke found inner peace and purpose in his final moments as he gazed upon Ahch-To's binary sunset and became one with the Force.
===Later history===
After Rey's departure and Skywalker's death, the Clan Matron Alcida-Auka did not pay them much heed, instead turning her mind towards the many things that needed fixing in their aftermath. In addition to their daily chores and the gathering of supplies for winter, the ancient uneti tree had been destroyed by a lightning strike, Rey's hut needed rebuilding and Luke's required a new lightning rod. In regards to Skywalker, she had her fellow Caretakers gather up his possessions, including his lightsaber, and place them into a repository of other such items left by visitors. After ensuring these things were done, the matron took a moment to reflect on the history and duties of the Caretakers, recalling previous outside visitors who either lived alongside the Lanais or treated them cruelly and wondering if Luke would be the last. After this moment of reflection, Alcida-Auka decided it did not matter but if anyone did come, they would find everything in order for them because the Caretakers would do their duty, as always.
One year later, following her confrontation against Ren and the revelation that the resurrected Darth Sidious was her grandfather, Rey fled to Ahch-To in Kylo Ren's TIE whisper and intended to live out the rest of her days there in self-imposed exile as Skywalker had previously done, fearing that she would fall to the dark side of the Force. However, Skywalker's spirit appeared to her and encouraged Rey to not give up like he did and to realize that her blood would not define her legacy nor her actions. He gave her Leia's lightsaber, which he had kept hidden in his hut during his exile. Since Rey had purposely crashed the TIE whisper, Skywalker lifted his old X-wing out of the water for her to fly to Exegol. With Skywalker's starfighter and Organa's blade, she helped lead the Resistance and Citizens' Fleet to victory against the Sith Eternal in the Battle of Exegol.
==Inhabitants==
Ahch-To was the homeworld of the mysterious Lanai, an avian sentient species. The species of Lanai evolved from the same evolutionary stock of seabirds, that produced unintelligent porgs. They were distinguished by their gray skin and bird-like skinny feet. Innate watershedding ability of their skin, hair and plumage afforded by natural oils allowed Lanais to withstand intense oceans of their planet. They possessed salt glands, that helped to extract sea salt from their food and drink, and extra membranes that enabled sharp underwater vision. They inhabited many islands and their cultures differed significantly on each.
The females of the species, who inhabited the Temple Island for thousands of years, led simple, unassuming lives and wore white robes with matching headdresses; they took the role of Caretakers and considered it their religious duty to maintain the temple island's ancient structures whose existence they kept a secret including the first Jedi Temple and the huts of the Jedi village and to provide care for those who traveled to their isolated world seeking truth—while the males were known as the Visitors, who spent their time at sea as hunter-gatherers using hand-crafted boats to sail along the rough seas, they came back to shore monthly with a large enough haul to keep them fed until the next gathering of food and resources. They interacted together only during this monthly gathering event, this multi-day reunion became a festival, with music, dance and food, known as the Festival of Return.
To keep rhythm during their repetitive chores, their culture was intrinsically musical. Lanai-song was a mix of whistles and guttural oscillations that echo from their village and worksites. The Lanais' technology was solely derived from fish, useful skins and skeletons were gathered during their fishing in bountiful oceans of their homeworld. Lanais spoke a non-Basic language of the same name, which was combination of spoken words and hand motions. Written language, which consisted of cuneiform marks based on the shape of their feet, was rare, and fire signals were preferred for long-range communications.
==Locations==
===Temple Island===
The Temple Island was an island on Ahch-To where the Jedi Order was founded over a thousand generations before the fall of the Galactic Republic. A Jedi village was founded there to house the first members of the Order and the eponymous first Jedi Temple was built. The island was where Jedi Master Luke Skywalker chose to spend the rest of his life in self-imposed exile after his nephew, Ben Solo, destroyed the new generation of Jedi. He was discovered on Temple Island by Rey, a Force prodigy. Skywalker died on the island after projecting his appearance into the Battle of Crait.
==Behind the scenes==
The planet Ahch-To first appeared in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. The planet is identified as Ahch-To in the film's script.
Ahch-To was filmed on site at the 6th-century monastic settlement of UNESCO World Heritage Site Skellig Michael, an island located off the southern coast of Ireland.
For the 2017 film Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, Lucasfilm built a replica of the monastic "beehive" huts atop the Ceann Sibéal headland in the nearby village of Ballyferriter in County Kerry, Ireland.
Aerial footage of Skellig Michael was used for the establishing shot of Ahch-To in Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker. The same film features scenes between Rey and Luke Skywalker on Ahch-To, which were filmed on a prop set of the island.
==Appearances==
===Non-canon appearances===
*LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
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*LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
==Sources==
===Non-canon sources===
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==Notes and references==
Category:Jedi planets
Category:Rocky planets
Category:Unknown Regions planets
Category:Waterworlds