The High Republic: Quest for the Hidden City is a canon middle grade novel written by George Mann. It was published as part of Phase II of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project by Disney–Lucasfilm Press on November 1, 2022, alongside an audiobook version.
Publisher's summary
Centuries before the Clone Wars or the Empire, in the early days of the High Republic, it was an age of exploration in a galaxy far, far away….
Daring pilots chart new routes through hyperspace, while Pathfinder teams make contact with frontier worlds to invite them to join the Republic. When a Pathfinder team's communications droid is found drifting in space, damaged and bearing a cryptic message, Jedi Knight Silandra Sho and her Padawan, Rooper Nitani, are sent to find the missing team members. Their investigation leads them to the planet Gloam, a ravaged world said to be haunted by mythical monsters.
Can the Jedi find the missing Pathfinders and unravel the mystery of the monsters? The answers lie in a hidden city beneath the planet's surface….
Opening crawl
| STAR WARS THE HIGH REPUBLIC QUEST OF THE JEDI |
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Plot summary
Two communications Engineers Amos and Kam recover a damaged EX droid carrying a distress signal from Jedi Master Rok. The message reveals that he was ambushed and trapped on the mysterious planet Gloam. After seeing that their team has gone missing, they send the nearest Pathfinder team, Jedi Master Silandra Sho and her Padawan Rooper Nitani, to investigate. The team arrive at Gloam, a planet covered in smog, and its twin, Aubadas, where they try to establish contact with the local Katikoot species. With communications not working, her team descends down to the planet Aubadas looking for life.
Meanwhile, a young prospector named Dass Leffbruk returns to camp after looking for food and signs of civilization and reunites with his injured father Spence. During a quest to the mysterious Planet X with fellow prospector Sunshine Dobbs, they were betrayed by Dobbs and left to fend for themselves on Gloam. They eat cooked lizards to survive and each night are forced to return to a reinforced cave shelter they made to protect themselves from Gloam's monsters. Their only hope of escape is a distress beacon made of scavenged parts.
On Aubadas, while Silandra and Rooper search for the missing Katikoot city they spot a cloaked figure watching them. After confronting the creature, it reveals itself as Mittik, a member of the bat-like Katikoot. She explains that, despite attempting to help them, Jedi Master Rok had failed her people and disappeared on Gloam. Despite Mittik having given up on Republic assistance, Rooper convinces her to let them help and lead them to their hidden underground city, Diurna. There, the Pathfinder team see advanced technology and glowing rivers but learn that the city's prosperity is failing. The city's energy source is mined from the neighboring planet Gloam], but they had halted their operations due to a combination of monsters and lack of resources; years of mining had left Gloam a desolate place, stripped of resources. Rok Buran's team travelled to Gloam to investigate possibilities of helping the Katikook, but were attacked. Only their guide, Rillik, was able to escape and return to Aubadas.
Meanwhile, back on Gloam, Dass and Spence are terrorized by creatures that chase them into the cave, and they almost get eaten, until Spence uses an electrified pole he made to save them. After Spence falls asleep, Dass risks sneaking out to regain the distress beacon that he accidently left outside. After grabbing the beacon a monster lands on top of him and before it can move Spence manages to save him.
Silandra's team decide to go to Gloam and locate the missing pathfinder team, while the engineers, Amos and Kam, stay back to fix the comms interference. After a rough landing on Gloam, Rillik falls ill and reveals that he's afflicted with miner's curse, an illness that affects the lungs, and is a death sentence for those experiencing it. The team's medic, Obik and the droid, EX-9B, decide to stay on the ship, the Umberfall, and help Rillik, while the rest of the team proceed with their mission.
While travelling, Rooper convinces Silandra that she senses something. They split off on their own and discover Rok Buran's pathfinder ship, which appears deliberately detonated. The two are then attacked by a wandering herd of antlered beasts, and Silandra shows Rooper how to pacify them. Then Rooper finds the source of her strange force signal - the ruins of an ancient Jedi temple. There they find depictions of Katikoot Jedi from centuries ago battling a dark force. They also find Master Rok Buran hiding under a barricade. He recounts that he was ambushed by monsters and subsequently betrayed by Rillik, who sabotaged his ship. He reveals that he is the only survivor of his team.
Back on the Umberfall, Obik discovers that crystals detected in Rillik's lungs behave like a parasite. Unbeknownst to them, Rillik resents Republic assistance and believes that he is owed for his suffering. He plans to abandon the pathfinding team and steal crystals left behind on Gloam to sell (probably to the Eiram and E'ronoh War). He pretends to sleep and when the opportunity presents itself, he knocks Obik unconscious, ties him up, and disables EX-9B.
Meanwhile, the Umberfall's pilot, Dietrix, and Mittik detect a strange distress signal close to the abandoned city. When they investigate, they find Dass and Spence. The Leffbruks inform the team of the creatures terrorizing them, which match Katikoot legends. From there they decide to continue onward towards the city. They find that the city, built vertically into the cliff, was built for creatures that could fly. The team use an abandoned mining crane to ascend to a mine entrance where Mittik reveals that the city was abandoned when the miners vanished due to the monsters. They discover a series of tapestries in the ancient city, and Mittik realises that the Katikoot originated on Gloam, and that they used to be able to fly. This also prompts the realisation that the creatures, which look so much like the Katikoot, are most likely Katikoot themselves.
Rooper, Silandra, and Rok attempt to leave the Jedi Temple, but are attacked by the creatures. When they are struck, Rooper notices that the creatures don't bleed blood, but instead black crystals. The Jedi take this as a sign that although the creatures look like Katikoot, they are not, and realise that the black crystals must be linked to the miner's curse. The creatures, they realise, are what happens when the miner's curse is left to run its course.
As Dietrix, Mittik, Dass, and Spence explore the abandoned ancient city, they find a circular shaft with a spiral staircase around the edge. As they begin to descend, monsters surround them and the team is trapped in the central shaft until Rooper, Silandra, and Rok appear to rescue them. With the two teams reunited they manage to escape with the Leffbruks. Silandra, Rooper, and Rok begin to collapse the tunnel to seal the monsters away. On their way out of the shaft, Rooper recovers the lightsaber left behind by Maliq, Rok's fallen padawan.
As they return back to the ship, they find that Rillik is succumbing to the miner's curse and, as they watch, he starts to transform. However, before he fully succumbs, Rooper communicates with the little that's left of Rillik's mind, and he allows them to incapacitate him. Two days later, the group recovers in Diurna while Silandra informs Rooper that Rillik was too far along to save but that his samples allowed Obik to reverse the infection for many other Katikoot. They are also informed that while they were gone, Amos and Kamfound that Rillik had placed a device overiding the system to isolate Gloam and Aubadas from the Republic and thanks to Amos and Kam's hard work, Diurna are now able to communicate with the Republic. As they are preparing to escort Dass and Spence to the nearby planet of Batuu, they recieve news that the Eiram and E'ronoh War has ended and a peace treaty is being established. Rooper smiles with the now rescued Master Rok as she stares off into the sky.
Media
Editions
- ISBN 9781368080101; November 1, 2022; Disney–Lucasfilm Press; US hardcover[1]
- ISBN 9781368093903; November 1, 2022; Disney–Lucasfilm; US eBook[1]
- ISBN 9781761212086; January 4, 2023; Hardie Grant Publishing; US paperback[1]
Cover gallery
Appearances
| Characters | Organisms | Droid models | Events | Locations |
| Organizations and titles | Sentient species | Vehicles and vessels | Weapons and technology | Miscellanea |
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Organisms
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Droid models
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Events
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Locations
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Organizations and titles
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Sentient species
Vehicles and vessels
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Weapons and technology
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Miscellanea
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Sources
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09
Quest for the Hidden City on Disney Publishing Worldwide's official website (backup link)
- ↑ Star Wars: The High Republic Character Encyclopedia dates the events of The High Republic: Quest for the Hidden City to 382 BBY.
