The following listing of planets has been compiled in accordance with either being related
to Jedi history or of some personal importance to myself.
There are however, many other influential planets (or moons) that have been
of great importance to the Jedi and these can be found by following the
"Planet Listing" communications link at the Navigational Computer.
Alderaan
Alderaan, which once shared the Alderaan system with its sister planet Delaya, was a beautiful, peaceful, moonless planet and one of the
foremost worlds of the inner systems. Its sweeping steppes and gentle hills were covered with rich grasslands, and weather patterns were
predictable and pleasant. Though the planet lacked oceans, Alderaan had many shallow lake chains and one ice-rimmed polar sea. The
various species of grasses covering the plains numbered more than 8000, and colorful flowers (including arallutes, T'iil, and Alderaan
flame-lilies) were even more numerous. In late summer as the grasses dried, their seeds would be swept up by the winds in impressive
"seedstorms," which were sometimes thick enough to prevent air travel. Alderaanian rainbow wood was a popular planetary export. Animal
life on the world included huge saillike thrantas-- docile lighter-than-air beasts which were used as mounts and airborne taxis by Alderaan's
inhabitants. Other animals included stilt-legged flightless birds and armored caterpillars, which metamorphosed into furry moths after a dozen
years of living underground. Domesticated grazers and nerfs were raised as food sources, and every year lowly nerf herders would travel into
the cities to sell their animals' meat. The Alderaanians culled the wildlife herds on the continent of Thonn to remove those animals too sick to
survive the winter.
Some of the galaxy's greatest artists and thinkers came from Alderaan, and the world was often considered the center of galactic culture.
Certain artists used Alderaan's wide grasslands as their canvases, planting seeds in intricate patterns and displaying their art as it grew and
blossomed. One of the world's greatest holidays was the "Silver Flow," celebrated each spring when thousands of hatching glimmerfish
choked the waterways. Points of interest on Alderaan included the oro woods, which covered a dozen small islands in the planet's largest
inland sea. The woods, dubbed a planetary treasure by Alderaan's government, were filled with trees hundreds of meters tall covered with
brightly-colored lichens, and harbored gold-striped red deer and white cairoka birds. Elsewhere, on the northern steppes at the edge of
Alderaan's great plains, lay the ancient and mysterious ruins collectively known as the Castle Lands. The ruins, former colony hives built by
the long-vanished insectoid Killik race, were concentrated in eighteen groupings, each unique in appearance and each constructed during a
different age. While Alderaan's human inhabitants chose to leave the Castle Lands intact, many artists often traveled there to seek creative
inspiration. In other areas of the planet, some particularly clear, deep lakes were used as aquatic preserves where tourists could observe
underwater mud castles built by crustacean colonies. The low-grade, blue quella gem is found only on Alderaan and Delaya.
Out of their respect for life, the Alderaanian colonists refused to build their cities in the grasses of the fields. Instead, organic-looking cities
and industries were built into the sides of deep cracks in the surface, on top of sandstone hills, under the polar ice, or on stilts in the planet's
shallow seas. Terrarium City, also known as the City Under Glass, was built by first excavating an enormous bowl and filling it with a liquid
polymer. The polymer was then shaped and hardened with lasers according to an intricate, pre-programmed city layout. When all eighteen
levels of Terrarium City were completed, the bowl was capped with a transparent sheet and needlelike towers were extended above, so its
residents could travel up to view the countryside. Crevasse City was built directly into the walls of a canyon network, and was nearly
invisible from the air. Aldera, the capital city of Alderaan, was located on an island in the center of a circular lake. It was home to the famous
Alderaan University, established generations ago by the great philosopher Collus. The university was one of the most prestigious learning
institutions in the galaxy, and had recently been a center for dissent against Palpatine's New Order. The airy, organic architecture used
everywhere on Alderaan inspired many imitators; Bespin's Cloud City, for instance, incorporates many elements of Alderaanian design.
Millennia ago, the first human colonists came to Alderaan and discovered the remnants of the lost Killik civilization. The early colonists
included miners, but most were retired businessmen or wealthy dignitaries searching for a beautiful world on which to spend their lives. Four
thousand years ago, the Jedi knights Ulic and Cay Qel-Droma were born on Alderaan into a great warrior family. Following the chaos of the
Clone Wars, the Alderaanians made a radical decision-- vowing to never again have weapons or standing armies on their world. The planet
became a model of peaceful coexistence, and the people were known for their pursuit of knowledge and art. The Alderaanian government
became a democracy at some point in its past, yet retained a Royal House of Alderaan for its symbolic value. In 11/70, Pre-Empire date, the
Jedi Jorus C'baoth helped to resolve the Alderaan ascendancy contention, ruling in favor of Bail Organa's family line. The Organa royal family
lived in Aldera, and included Senator Leia Organa, her adoptive father Senator Bail Organa (Viceroy and First Chairman of the Alderaan
system), and her adoptive mother (Minister of Education). Other members of House Organa included Leia's aunts Celly, Tia, and Rouge, and
her cousin Nial. Daughters of Alderaanian nobility were schooled at the Alderaan Select Academy for Young Ladies, then typically presented
to the Emperor's Court on Coruscant to win a suitable marriage partner. Bail Organa was one of the original founders of the Rebel Alliance,
making Alderaan a center for opposition and dissent and arousing the attention of the Empire. Alderaan is now famous as the planet utterly
destroyed by the first Death Star as an example of Imperial power-- a scattered asteroid field is now all that remains of the once-lovely
world. After the planet's destruction, the Empire initially claimed that Alderaan had torn itself apart due to the explosion of several secret
underground superweapons. When actual footage of the Death Star's action (recorded by a satellite orbiting Delaya) was released to the
media, the Empire admitted responsibility, but claimed it was necessary to prevent Bail Organa from completing a deadly biowar virus
program. The surviving Alderaanians who were offworld at the time were invited by Emperor Palpatine to relocate to his private resort world
of Byss. A hydroponics facility on the planet Borleias, producing Alderaanian foodstuffs, became extremely profitable after the destruction of
the world increased demand for now-scarce Alderaanian goods. Besides the Organa family, other notable Alderaanians include Rogue
Squadron member Tycho Celchu and the famous poet Hari Seldona.
Ambria
The ringed, desert planet Ambria is located in the Stenness system, at the heart of the
Stenness node. Animal life on Ambria includes herds of staga, small lizards called neeks,
and strange, evil creatures from Lake Natth, a place strong with the Dark Side of the Force.
Thon, a Jedi master who lived four thousand years ago, made his home on Ambria and
instructed several Jedi including Nomi Sunrider and the Vultan Oss Wilum. During the Sith
War, Oss Wilum returned to Ambria and tried to slay Master Thon by controlling the evil
beasts from Lake Natth. He was defeated by Thon with the help of Nomi Sunrider and Sylvar
the Cathar.
Byss
Formerly located in the heart of the Deep Galactic Core, the now-destroyed planet Byss
was Emperor Palpatine's private world and the center of his reborn Empire six years after
the Battle of Endor. The secret planet was accessible only through certain encoded routes,
due to the near-impossibility of navigating through the dense mass of stars found in the
Deep Core. Byss and its five moons were in a binary system and orbited both a blue star and
blue dwarf star. Tectonically stable, with almost no axial tilt, it was an extremely pleasant
world of plateaus and canyons seldom bothered by storms, earthquakes, or other violent
phenomena. Microscopic life in the many lakes and rivers was nourished by the blue-green
sunlight. The planet's flora was dominated by lichens and ferns, while its fauna was
primarily nocturnal and mostly harmless. While Byss had no native intelligent species, the
planet contained several ruins dating from before the Expansion Era.
Years ago, Emperor Palpatine chose the world as his private retreat, and Imperial architects
and engineers were commissioned to build him an opulent palace. Several million humans per
month, lured by the rumors of a paradise planet, were allowed to emigrate to Byss-- where
the Emperor and his Dark Side Adepts began feeding off their life energies. The planet's
population reached almost 20 billion, and all outgoing communications were censored by
security agents. Byss was well-guarded against attack with powerful planetary shields,
hunter-killer probots, and the Imperial Hyperspace Security Net, and contained orbital
drydocks for the massive World Devastators and the more recent Galaxy Gun. The Imperial
control sector covered most of one continent, and Palpatine's kilometers-high Imperial
Citadel could be found at its center. The vast Citadel contained gardens, museums, the
Emperor's Clone Labs, barracks for Imperial troopers, and a fully-equipped dungeon; it was
guarded by advanced turbolasers and dangerous monsters called "Chrysalides" or Chrysalis
Beasts. Certain freight haulers were specially licensed to ship to the protected Deep Core,
where they delivered their cargoes to the heavily-defended Imperial Freight Complex. The
Freight Complex, on the outskirts of the Emperor's ruling city, was three kilometers wide,
nearly 168 kilometers high, and was tethered to an orbital satellite for added stability. It
contained a popular spacers' hangout known as the Byss Bistro.
Following the Battle of Endor, Grand Vizier Sate Pestage was impeached and stripped of
authority by those who feared he might claim the title of Emperor for himself. Pestage
retreated to Byss, where he prepared for Palpatine's expected return. The Emperor did
indeed manage to survive his "death" at Endor, and his spirit returned to Byss to inhabit a
new clone body. Weakened by the difficult journey, Palpatine convalesced on Byss for years
before finally taking his revenge against the New Republic six years after the Battle of
Endor. During this period, Luke Skywalker attempted to learn the secrets of the Dark Side as
the Emperor's apprentice after a Mandalorian prison ship delivered him to Byss. Later that
year, Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles led an unsuccessful attack on the Imperial
Citadel using a cargo of hijacked Viper Automadon battle droids. Soon after, in a battle near
Onderon, Han Solo and a team of commandos hijacked the Emperor's flagship Eclipse II and
brought it through hyperspace to Byss. R2-D2 steered the Eclipse II on a collision course
with the Galaxy Gun, which accidentally fired a planet-destroying missile into Byss' core,
utterly destroying the Emperor's throneworld.
Calamari
Calamari (sometimes called Mons Calamari) is a tectonically stable world almost entirely
covered with water, and is home to both the peaceful Mon Calamari and the cautious
Quarren-- over 27 billion inhabitants in all. The surface of the planet is covered with small
marshy islands and enormous floating cities that house both species, with the Quarren
inhabiting the lowest, darkest levels. These attractive constructions include Reef Home,
Coral Depths, Kee-Piru, Coral City, Heurkea, and Foamwander City. The architecture and
design of the Mon Calamari have organic appearances, with rounded edges and irregular
surfaces that show their love for the natural beauty of their world. Raw ores used in
construction are mined by the Quarren (who can breathe both air and water) from domed
cities on the ocean floor. A permanent history of every event on Calamari is maintained by a
community of meter-long, bivalve mollusks, who are extremely intelligent and will
communicate their knowledge with those who ask. The Calamarian seas are also home to the
dangerous predators known as krakanas-- sharklike animals with twin pincer tentacles. The
rare ultima-pearl can be found in Calamari's seabeds.
The Mon Calamari had already constructed enormous starships and begun traveling space
when their planet was discovered by the Empire. The Imperials planned to enslave Calamari
and, after meeting with resistance from its natives, destroyed three of its floating cities. A
Quarren, Seggor Tels, is believed to have deliberately lowered Calamari's defenses to allow
the Empire's attack; this has heightened tensions between the Mon Calamari and the
Quarren ever since. After the Empire showed its true colors, Calamarian starships were
converted into warships and the shipbuilding docks in orbit around Calamari and its single
moon became an important resource for the Alliance. Many Calamarians were taken as
slaves by the Empire including the famous Ackbar, who was forced to be the personal
servant of Grand Moff Tarkin. Ackbar was later rescued from slavery by an Alliance force
and named Admiral of the Rebel fleet. Six years after the Battle of Endor, the reborn
Emperor used his World Devastators to attack Calamari's southern territorial zone,
destroying most of the cities Kee-Piru and Heurkea. The port city of Hikahi was also
damaged, harming the planet's starship-building capability. One year after that, Leia Organa
Solo visited Admiral Ackbar at his home in the seatree forest in an attempt to bring him out
of his self-imposed exile. A subsequent attack by Admiral Daala's Star Destroyers resulted
in the destruction of Reef Home City. In ancient times Calamari was home to a now-extinct,
ten-legged crustacean known as the mammoth krabbex.
Corellia
Corellia, located in the Corellian sector and system, orbits the star Corell with four other
habitable planets. The inhabited worlds are called the Five Brothers, and Corellia is often
referred to as the Elder Brother. Corellia is an attractive world, with farms and small towns
located between rolling hills, fields, and pockets of razor grass. Animal life includes the
Corellian sea ray and the Corellian sand panther, a dangerous predator with poisoned claws.
Points of interest include the Gold Beaches, the mid-size town of Bela Vistal, and the
capital city of Coronet, located on the coast. Unlike many cities, Coronet has many wide
open spaces-- small buildings and trading stalls separated by parks and plazas. The center
of government in Coronet is the twenty-story Corona House, formerly inhabited by sector
Governor-General Micamberlecto.
Treasure Ship Row in Coronet, adjacent to Meteor Way and Starline Avenue, was formerly
an eclectic bazaar catering to species from every corner of the galaxy. The galactic civil w ar
and the Corellians' increasing isolation, however, caused a sharp decline in the trading
industry, and Treasure Ship Row and other areas like it are now deserted. Although all three
Corellian species (human, Selonian, and Drall) mingle freely in Coronet, the collapse of the
Empire's central authority has led to separatist sentiment and anti-alien factions like the
Human League. Beneath the surface of Corellia lies a vast network of tunnels built over
thousands of years and home to many Selonians. Archeological excavation has recently
begun on a series of underground chambers dating from pre-Republic days. Within this
ancient complex is a vast planetary repulsor, once used to move the planet to its current
orbit from an unknown location. Corellia was formerly ruled by a royal family, but became a
republic three centuries ago after Berethon e Solo introduced democracy to the system.
Three years after the Battle of Endor, the main Imperial battle fleets garrisoned key worlds,
including Corellia and Kuat, due to their valuable shipyards. Fourteen years after Endor, a
riot in the Selonian enclave of Bela Vistal touched off widespread chaos and triggered the
takeover of Corellia's government by Thrackan Sal-Solo and the Human League. The Human
League was defeated, and Sal-Solo captured, by the intervention of the New Republic and a
Bakuran task force.
Coruscant
The governmental capital of the galaxy for generations, Coruscant and its two moons orbit
far from a small white sun in the Core Worlds. Located in the system of the same name near
the Kaikielius and Metellos systems, Coruscant is known as the "Scintillant Planet" in old
songs and was renamed Imperial Center during the reign of Emperor Palpatine. Coruscant's
coordinates are zero-zero-zero on all standard navigational charts, a clear sign of its long
history and galaxy-spanning influence. The planet's entire landmass is covered by an
enormous, multileveled city (now called Imperial City) whose foundations have been in place
since the beginning of the Old Republic, over a thousand generations ago. The oldest and
densest population centers border the equator. Kilometer-high skyscrapers (some extending
to the lower fringes of the atmosphere) and numerous spaceports cover Imperial City, and its
sky is filled with the lights of arriving and departing air traffic. Kitelike hawk-bats make
their homes in the artificial canyons, hunting granite slugs on the lower levels. The complex
multileveled surface makes weather in Imperial City particularly difficult to predict. To the
south of the city lie the snow-covered Manarai Mountains.
The pyramidal Imperial Palace, formerly known as the Presidential Palace, is constructed of
gray-green rock and sparkling crystals, and is taller than all other structures on the planet
including the neighboring Senate building. The Palace is said to be an impregnable fortress
and is decorated with hanging gardens, marble pyramids, and crystal roofs, while some areas
were decorated by the Emperor with patterns based on ancient Sith hieroglyphics. The
Palace contains the Grand Corridor, which links the Council chamber with the assemblage
auditorium, and which has a cross hallway lined with suites (including Leia Organa Solo's
office) that leads to the Inner Council meeting room. The Grand Corridor, personally
designed by Emperor Palpatine, features a high ceiling and cutglass windows, and is lined
with greenish-purple, vibration-sensitive ch'hala trees (revealed to be part of an elaborate
surveillance system). Above the Grand Corridor are cafes situated on promenade balconies,
where diners can watch the busy foot traffic below. All residential floors in the Palace
contain extensive libraries, and the old-fashioned President's Guests floor is done in hand-
carved Fijisi wood. The building also contains a set of turbolifts in the rear and several
hidden entrances, installed by Palpatine when he took control. Some residential areas are
found in the section of the Palace known as the Tower, located on the edge of the building
with windows overlooking the city. The personal quarters for the Chief of State are located
deep within the Palace's core, and its "windows" are actually holographic screens showing
panoramic views taken by outside cameras. The Emperor's throne room is a vast sunken
auditorium crowned with a prismatic skylight, and the Emperor also kept a personal
observation deck within the Palace's tallest spire. For public celebrations and speeches,
Palpatine would sometimes appear on the Palatial Balcony. The lower floor of the Palace is
entirely dedicated to military operations, and contains the offices of admirals Ackbar and
Drayson and a blast-shielded war room in its center. Adjacent to the war room is the Crypt,
a computer slicing and decoding center. The Palace's command floor contains offices for
Sector Ordnance/Supply and Starfighter Command. One wing of the Palace is a medical area,
while another has been specially modified to accommodate the water-loving Mon Calamari.
The structures in this humid wing are designed to resemble a coral reef, and an enclosed pool
containing protoplasmic glurpfish and other sealife circulates around the rooms. Other areas
of the vast Palace include treasuries, pavilions, prisons, music rooms, cafes, and summer
and winter quarters, and decks jutting out from its sides hold tourism information centers.
The Imperial Information Center, an exhaustive storehouse of data, is located beneath the
Palace.
Other attractions on Coruscant include the Grand Towers, the Skydome Botanical Gardens,
the one- kilometer long Grand Reception Hall, the underground city of Dometown, the
Grandis Mon theater, the Holographic Zoo of Extinct Animals, the Galactic Museum (which
held ancient Sith artifacts four thousand years ago), the University of Coruscant, the
Candreal Gardens Center, the Imperial Security Operations Building, and the Temple of the
Circle. Celebrations and festivals included Carnival Week and New Year Fete Week, when
Palpatine was known to hold public executions of his enemies. The traditional Imperial Fair,
involving parades and exhibits, was held in the Pliada di am Imperium. During the
Coruscant's ancient War Day celebration, laser cannons were fired off in ceremonial salute.
Monument Plaza is a popular mall built around one of the peaks in the Manarai mountain
range, where visitors can actually touch bare rock. For the last three hundred years the clock
in the Central Gathering Hall has marked the hour by spreading a light across the sky, and
every evening spectacular gray-green and red auroras flash throughout Coruscant's
atmosphere. An Imperial interrogation facility was located deep within a shielded, reinforced
section of one of Coruscant's many towers.
The lowest, darkest levels of Imperial City were abandoned long ago and are now home to
discarded equipment, wrecked starships, mosses and lichens, spider-roaches and armored
rats, duracrete worms and shadow-barnacles, wild gangs such as the Lost Ones, and
nameless subhumans moving through the shadows. Due to the danger, the lowest forty or
fifty levels are typically restricted from normal traffic. Many feral animal species (having
escaped from former confinement) inhabit these levels, including the eyeless creatures
called "corridor ghouls." A seedy tavern in this area is said to have not seen the sun in
90,000 years. At the age of two, Jacen and Jaina Solo had an encounter with a group of
former bureaucrats in Coruscant's lowest levels, who had taken up residence there to
escape Palpatine's inevitable anger over a filing error.
The snow-covered polar regions of Coruscant are home to turbo-ski resorts, and are
continuously mined by ice-boring machines. Since the planet's inland seas and oceans have
long since been drained, the melted ice is delivered by huge pipelines to the
densely-populated metropolitan areas. The space surrounding Coruscant is defended by
Golan III orbital battle stations and a low-orbit space-dock facility, while a powerful energy
shield protects the planet itself. During the reign of the Empire, Coruscant was protected by
a sophisticated double layer of energy fields-- arriving ships would pass through the outer
shield, which would then close behind them before the inner shield could be opened. Many
other spaceyards help build starships and gigantic habitation spheres, while kilometers-wide
orbiting mirrors focus reflected sunlight onto Coruscant's northern and southern latitudes,
raising the temperature slightly to make the cold regions more habitable. Certain raw
materials are mined from a belt of asteroids located on the fringes of the Coruscant system.
Coruscant was the capital of the Old Republic for many prosperous generations, and the
planet's metropolis was called Republic City. During the Great Droid Revolution on
Coruscant millennia ago, Jedi Master Arca learned techniques for disabling machines
through the use of the Force. During the Sith War nearly four thousand years ago, a force led
by Ulic Qel-Droma, Aleema, and the masked warlord Mandalore made a deadly strike on
Coruscant and Qel-Droma succeeded in capturing the Republic war room. But Aleema was
anxious to capture power for herself and ordered their armies to retreat, abandoning
Qel-Droma to capture, trial, and a certain death sentence. During his trial in the Republic
Senate Hall, however, Qel- Droma was rescued by the Sith Lord Exar Kun. During the
escape, the Jedi master Vodo Siosk-Baas and Netus, leader of the Senate, were both killed.
After the rise of the Empire, the planet's metropolis was renamed Imperial City and
Palpatine took up residence in the Imperial Palace. Among the Emperor's many actions was
the placement of Coruscant's alien population into segregated districts. The Emperor's
Court was composed of ambitious courtesans vying for power, and back-stabbing
concubines each hoping to bear Palpatine's child. Leia Organa attended a reception for the
Emperor at the age of eighteen, and Mon Mothma and Bail Organa met at Chatham House
(Organa's home in Imperial City) to plan their organized rebellion against the Empire. Alima,
an Imperial officer who ordered the brutal subjugation of Ithor, was a native of Coruscant.
Just before the Battle of Yavin, the Alliance destroyed an Imperial repair dock near
Coruscant in an attempt to set back the Death Star project. Following the Battle of Yavin,
Alliance agent Kyle Katarn infiltrated the heavily-guarded Imperial Security Operations
building and procured a decryption key needed to decode a stolen nava card. Katarn managed
to escape with the key despite the intervention of the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Following the
Battle of Hoth, the traitorous Admiral Zaarin attempted a coup d'etat at Coruscant. Zaarin's
forces seized Palpatine's personal Star Destroyer, the Majestic, and placed the Emperor
aboard a shuttle on its way to Zaarin's Star Destroyer Glory. The Emperor was saved by the
timely arrival of loyal Imperial forces including Darth Vader, Vice Admiral Thrawn, and TIE
pilot Maarek Stele, but Zaarin managed to escape.
After Palpatine's death during the Battle of Endor, control of the Empire was won by Internal
Security Director Ysanne Isard, who moved into the Imperial Palace and ruled the
gradually-shrinking Empire from Coruscant. Approximately three years after Endor, the
planet was captured from the Empire by Alliance forces and named the capital of the New
Republic. During the fighting the Imperial Palace was shelled and looted, and many members
of the Emperor's Court were killed by Rebel partisans. Five years after Endor, Grand
Admiral Thrawn attacked the New Republic on Coruscant and blockaded the planet using a
group of cloaked asteroids. Six years after Endor, following the rebirth of the Emperor,
vicious Imperial attacks forced the New Republic to evacuate the planet. The victorious
Imperial factions (primarily the Emperor's Ruling Circle and the military) then began to fight
amongst themselves, devastating much of Imperial City and filling Coruscant's orbit with
wrecked starships. Following the downfall of the resurrected Emperor, the New Republic
recaptured Coruscant and set to work repairing the extensive damage with the help of 40-
story construction droids. Seven years after Endor, Imperial Admiral Daala planned to
cripple the planet with a suicide Star Destroyer strike, but was unable to implement her plan.
Eight years after Endor, Durga the Hutt managed to infiltrate the Imperial Information Center
and retrieve the top-secret Death Star plans. Nineteen years after Endor, the Second
Imperium's Shadow Academy moved to Coruscant and attacked arriving supply convoys
while hiding behind its cloak. The station was revealed when Jaina Solo overwhelmed the
cloaking device with a light beam from one of Coruscant's orbiting mirrors.
Dagobah
A mysterious, mist-shrouded swamp planet in the Dagobah system and the Sluis sector,
Dagobah contains no cities or advanced technology yet teems with a wide variety of life.
Some of this world's exotic lifeforms include giant swamp slugs, dragonsnakes, nightbats,
carnivorous fungi, bioluminescent spotlight sloths, and butcherbugs, who spin their slicing
wirewebs between adjacent gnarltrees. Colorful Jubba birds whistle a highly soothing song,
which may be caused by a slight manipulation of the Force. The petrified gnarltree forests
can be found throughout the swamp, and the trees have a unique life cycle-- at the
appropriate time a knobby white "spider" will break off from its parent tree, roam the swamp
hunting and feeding on animals, and eventually take root in a clear spot to grow into a new
gnarltree. Other Dagobah plants include flower- fruits, mushrooms that explode if exposed
to light, and prismatic vine-flowers that grow above the dense tree canopy, where reptilian
flying creatures can also be seen hunting small scurrying rodents. The thick cloud layer
surrounding the planet cannot be penetrated by standard sensors. Dagobah was home to the
legendary Jedi Master Yoda, who instructed both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker
before his death before the Battle of Endor at the age of 900.
During the fall of the Old Republic, an eight-man research team led by Halka Four-Den
scouted Dagobah but was lost, presumably killed off by some of the planet's lethal lifeforms.
Around twenty-five years before the Battle of Yavin, a Dark Jedi from Bpfassh created
trouble throughout his sector before being stopped on Dagobah, presumably by Yoda. A dark
cave near Yoda's home could be a vestige of this Dark Jedi's power, and it may have served
to hide Yoda's presence during the Emperor's Jedi purge. Luke Skywalker returned to
Dagobah five years after Yoda's death and discovered a ship's beckon call, that could have
belonged to the Bpfasshi Dark Jedi. Skywalker returned three years later with the Jedi knight
Callista, to help Callista regain her lost Force ability.
Endor
Located in the Moddell sector and the remote Endor system, Endor is a silvery gas giant
orbited by nine moons. Its largest moon is the size of a small planet, and is variously known
as the Forest Moon, the Sanctuary Moon, or often simply as Endor. The Endor system is
very difficult to reach, since the uncharted territory and massive gravitational shadow of the
gas giant require several complicated hyperspace jumps. Therefore, over the years many star
travelers have crashed and become stranded on the habitable Forest Moon of Endor. Endor
is a temperate moon of forests, savannas, and mountains, with a relatively light gravity. The
world's low axial tilt and the regular orbit of its gas giant primary helps ensure a comfortable
climate suitable for its many native lifeforms, including the Endorian pony, the Endoran
vethiraptor, boar- wolves, glowing sprites called Wisties, fast mischie vous teeks, winged
condor dragons, gunlabirds, predatory Yootaks, and stump-dwelling tempters that lure prey
with their camouflaged, articulated tongues. The most common sentient species on Endor
are the primitive, furry Ewoks, who make their communal dwellings high in the trees. Called
"lifetrees" by the Ewoks, the trees can reach heights of 1000 meters and are considered the
spiritual guardians of the Ewok species. Music plays an important role in Ewok culture,
which is made up of a rigid clan system. Ewoks are skilled engineers (among their inventions
are gliders and catapults), and each tribe has a shaman who interprets mystical signs. A
natural enemy of the Ewoks are the 30-meter high humanoid creatures called Gorax, who
search the trees for Ewok dwellings low enough to grab. Gorax inhabit the rocky highlands of
the barren Desert of Salma, which lies beyond the Yawari Cliffs north of the dense forest.
The Desert is also marked by acid pools and dry lakes, and large rearing spiders are known
to live in the bottoms of the Gorax caves. West of the forest are vast grassland plains
known as the Dragon's Pelt, which are dotted with jutting lava rocks. In the distance lies a
range of snow-capped mountains called the Dragon's Spine. Stilt-legged yuzzums inhabit
the savanna, hunting small rodents called ruggers. A colony of off-planet alien marauders
have built a stone castle on the Dragon's Pelt, and use the two-legged, slow-witted blurrgs
as beasts of burden for their raids into the forest to attack Ewok villages.
Almost a century ago, the humanoid marauders crash-landed on Endor with the Dathomirian
Nightsister Charal. Following the orders of their leader Terak, the long-lived aliens built a
castle and searched for a power source to repair their disabled starship. Much later, a
starship belonging to the Towani family crashed on the forest moon. A giant Gorax captured
both parents and imprisoned them in his mountain fortress in the Desert of Salma. Mace and
Cindel (the Towani children) managed to rescue their parents from the Gorax with the help
of Wicket the Ewok and the other members of his tribe. Later, the marauders, led by Terak
and Charal, killed the entire Towani family except for Cindel. With the help of the Ewoks and
the stranded human Noa, the marauders were eventually defeated and Cindel and Noa were
able to leave the forest moon. Soon after, the Empire selected Endor as the construction site
for the second Death Star, and established an Imperial base on the surface to generate a
protective shield for the orbiting battle station. A Rebel strike force, including Han Solo and
Leia Organa, was able to destroy the shield generator with the help of Wicket's Ewok tribe.
The Death Star and much of the Imperial fleet were subsequently destroyed in what is now
known as the Battle of Endor. A cloud of Darkside energy (a residual effect of the
Emperor's first death) is now located in Endor's orbit at the site of this destruction. Throm
Loro, a leader of the resistance on Cilpar, helped liberate an Imperial base on Endor, where
he saved the life of a Wookiee prisoner.
Hoth
Hoth, the sixth planet in the system of the same name, is an icy, unpopulated world covered with glacier fields, circling a blue-white sun. The
isolated world is not even recorded on some standard navigational charts. Hoth is orbited by three moons, and receives a great deal of meteor
activity. The planet's daylight temperature averages -32 degrees centigrade even in the temperate equatorial zone, and can plunge another
20-30 degrees at night. Hoth's native lifeforms include the common tauntaun and its natural predator, the Wampa ice creature. The many
species of tauntauns eat fungus growing in cave grottoes and beneath the snow layer, and cluster together in caves during Hoth's bitter night
to keep from freezing. Sights on Hoth include spectacular frozen ice geysers, and a 1000-kilometer long chasm in the planet's southern
hemisphere. The bottom of this chasm is filled with water, kept in its liquid state due to the immense pressure of the two opposing cliff faces.
Several glaciers, slowly sliding into the chasm's depths, harbor algae and burrowing, algae-feeding ice worms.
Following the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker crashed on Hoth in an effort to escape pursuing TIE fighters. He encountered two lifelike
androids, programmed to look and act like an Imperial governor and his daughter, who had been hiding on Hoth in order to escape from the
Empire. Later, the pirate Raskar captured Skywalker and Han Solo above Hoth, and Solo flew the group to a deep chasm on the planet's
equator. There they discovered a hidden cave filled with rare lumni-spice lichens guarded by a fire- breathing dragon-slug, and barely
escaped with their lives. After the Alliance fully evacuated from Yavin 4, they established their main base on Hoth (in a series of ice caves at
the northern edge of the temperate zone), christening it Echo Base. The Alliance encountered trouble adapting their equipment to Hoth's
extreme temperatures, and were also attacked by the Wampa ice creatures. The base was later discovered by an Imperial probe droid, leading
to the defeat of the Rebels by Darth Vader's forces in the engagement now known as the Battle of Hoth. Eight years after the Battle of
Endor, a big-game hunting expedition traveled to Hoth, intending to hunt Wampas for their valuable pelts. When the Wampas destroyed the
party's landing ship, the group took shelter in the abandoned Echo Base. Luke Skywalker and Callista attempted to rescue the hunters, but
the entire expedition was killed by the ice creatures, and Skywalker and Callista barely escaped with their lives.
Kessel
Kessel is a potato-shaped planet with one large moon located somewhat near Fwillsving
and Honoghr. It is home to the city of Kessendra, is the only source of the
telepathy-inducing glitterstim spice, and was the former site of a brutal Imperial prison and
spice mining operation. Kessel's surface is covered with crumbled salt flats and
atmosphere-producing factories, which make the air breathable when filtering breath masks
are used. Kessel is too small to hold this artificial atmosphere, however, so much of it trails
off behind the planet in the wake of its orbit. Beneath the surface of the planet live energy
spiders, which spin glitterstim webs as a method of catching their prey (primarily the
luminous "bogey").
Following the failure of the Emperor's attempt to destroy the Jedi enclave on Belsavis,
several designers of the Eye of Palpatine were reassigned to punitive duty at Kessel. The
Kessel system is adjacent to a cluster of black holes known as the Maw, which makes
navigating to the planet difficult and helped glamorize the smugglers' "Kessel Run." While
Kessel was under control by the Empire it was a common smuggling destination for those
dealing in spice, and Han Solo once boasted he had made the Kessel Run in "less than 12
parsecs" by flying dangerously close to the Maw. Solo's life was also saved on one Kessel
run by his old associate Badure. Prior to the Battle of Yavin, a bold Alliance rescue operation
freed a group of Rebel POWs during a prisoner transfer operation. During the chaos
surrounding the Battle of Endor, a Rybet prison official named Moruth Doole (who had
secretly been supplying glitterstim to smugglers) staged a prison revolt and took control of
the planet from the Empire. Several years later, after Doole's operation was dismantled, the
administration of the mines was taken over by Lando Calrissian. Kessel's moon, which once
held an Imperial garrison and Doole's ragtag defensive fleet (which was decimated in a
battle with Admiral Daala's Star Destroyers), was utterly destroyed by a Death Star
prototype from Maw Installation. Lujayne Forge, a member of the famed Rogue Squadron,
was from Kessel, daughter of a man who had taught inmates under an Old Republic social
program.
Ossus
Ossus, located in the Adega system (one of the six remaining Auril systems in the Auril
sector), orbits the twin Adegan suns in a figure-eight trajectory. It was an important Jedi
stronghold and learning center in ancient times, and there is some speculation that the Order
of Jedi Knights began on this planet. Ossus was once covered with many cities and ground
defenses, and the Knossa spaceport was located near a range of rocky mountains. Points of
interest on the Jedi world once included the Great Jedi Library and the peaceful Gardens of
Talla. The steep canyon walls are still covered with elaborate murals, and the planet's
atmosphere is charged with occasional electrical storms. Although Ossus' golden age is
long past, some of the ancient buildings that still stand include the library and a Jedi
meditation chamber.
Nearly 4000 years ago during the Great Sith War, the fallen Jedi Exar Kun visited Ossus to
recruit twenty Jedi knights into the Sith cause. Before he departed, Kun killed Master
Odan-Urr and stole a Sith holocron from the Jedi Library. Later, an Ossan Jedi fleet was
dispatched to the nearby Cron Cluster to defend the besieged station Kemplex Nine. The
fleet was destroyed when the Cluster went nova, and the resulting shockwave threatened to
devastate Ossus. An evacuation of the planet was immediately ordered, and as many
ancient relics as possible were loaded onto transports. At the same time, however, Exar Kun
and Ulic Qel-Droma appeared with their armies to loot the world of its valuables before the
shockwave arrived. Kun battled the Neti Jedi master Ood Bnar, who turned into a unyielding
tree to protect a trove of the earliest known lightsabers. Meanwhile, Ulic confronted and
killed his brother Cay, and was seized with horror and regret over what he had done. The Jedi
(with the notable exception of Ood Bnar) left the planet just ahead of the shockwave, which
scorched and nearly wiped clean Ossus surface. Some Jedi survived, however, after hiding
their families in Ossus' great caverns, and their descendants grew into the Ysanna, a tribe
of warrior-shamans who use the Force to guide their primitive weapons. A 10,000 year-old
lightsaber, given to Leia Organa Solo by Vima-Da-Boda, surfaced 800 years ago in an
archaeological dig on Ossus. Six years after the Battle of Endor, Luke Skywalker visited an
arid, sandy portion of the planet and discovered the Ysanna tribe. Skywalker and Kam
Solusar also fought the forces of Darkside Executor Sedriss and unearthed the vault of
lightsabers long hidden beneath the roots of Master Ood, who bravely sacrificed his own life
to end Sedriss'. At the time of Skywalker's departure, the New Republic was planning to
send in excavation teams to explore Ossus' ruins. Soon after, several of the Emperor's
warriors came to Ossus and captured three Ysanna leaders, whose bodies were to be used
as raw material to create new clones for Palpatine. Skywalker and his Jedi trainees followed
the darkside kidnappers and defeated them on Vjun, but were unable to free the captured
Ysanna from their carbonite imprisonment. While on an undercover mission to Borgo Prime
thirteen years later, Skywalker and Tenel Ka claimed that they needed Corusca gems to
open a sealed treasure vault located on Ossus.
Yavin 4
The fourth moon of the planet Yavin houses the temples and ruined buildings of the
now-vanished Massassi race, and once served as the primary base for the Rebel Alliance.
A hot jungle world, Yavin 4 has four main continents separated by six oceans, and contains
one landlocked sea. (A scouting report for Wetyin's Colony tentatively named the four
continents Koos, Starloft, Swivven, and Wetyin.) Volcanic mountain ranges and wide rivers
can be found amid the thick jungles and towering, purple-barked Massassi trees. The moon
has both a wet and dry season, and violent, unpredictable storms whip across its surface
every few months. Beautiful rainbow storms sometimes occur when the sun rises past the
limb of the gas giant Yavin and its light refracts against prismatic ice crystals high in the
atmosphere. Yavin 4's flora includes sense-enhancing blueleaf shrub, climbing fern, feather
fern, colorful nebula orchids, blistering touch-not shrub, and explosive grenade fungi.
Indigenous life in Yavin 4's jungles includes semi-intelligent simians called woolamanders,
stubborn Yavinian runyips, mucous salamanders, purple jumping spiders, lizard crabs,
swimming crabs, whisper birds, reptile birds, stinger lizards, crystal snakes, armored eels,
stump lizards, crawlfish, ravenous stintaril rodents, a six-legged, tusked beast with
tentacled eyes, tree ticks, spiderlike anglers, piranha beetles, and flying, two-headed
reptiles created during the time of the Sith Lord Exar Kun. Several of the ancient Massassi
ruins have been given names, including the Great Temple, the Palace of the Woolamander,
and the Temple of the Blueleaf Cluster, and almost all of the ruins are connected via an
extensive network of underground tunnels. The pyramidal Great Temple lies next to a broad,
branching river. The top of the Temple houses an observation deck, and below that is the
vast grand audience chamber. Below the chamber are housing levels, and the ground level
contains the Communications Center, common rooms, and the Alliance's former War Room.
The Temple's hangars are located underground.
Over four thousand years ago the Sith magician Naga Sadow, under a death sentence from
the current Sith Lord, fled to Yavin 4 with his followers where he could practice his Dark
Side alchemy in peace. Sadow hid his starship and his alchemic equipment beneath the Sith
Temple of Fire. Sadow's alchemy helped create many monsters, including a warrior species
called the Massassi designed to guard Sadow's Yavin 4 legacy. The Massassi, the mutated
descendants of the ancient Sith, gradually devolved into a primitive but dangerous people,
using the Dark Side to augment their archaic weapons. When the Dark Jedi Exar Kun arrived
on Yavin 4, he enslaved the Massassi and forced them to construct new temples as focal
points for Sith power. One temple dedicated to Kun s greatness was built deep in the jungle
in the center of a still lake, and featured glittering Corusca gems and a towering obsidian
statue of the dark lord. During the Sith War, Kun brought twenty Jedi knights to Yavin 4,
where he infected them with the evil spirits of the ancient Sith. Ordering them to go out and
slay their Jedi masters, a terrible Jedi holocaust descended on the galaxy. Soon, however, a
united group of thousands of Jedi, led to the jungle moon by the repentant Ulic Qel- Droma,
arrived to stop Kun. The Dark Lord ordered the Massassi Night Beast into an isolation
chamber as a surprise for his enemies, and began putting his final plans into effect. Knowing
he could not defeat the Jedi fleet, Kun sacrificed thousands of Massassi lives to trap his
own spirit within the walls of the temples. The Jedi attackers mistakenly ignited the moon's
jungles, devastating its surface and causing the deaths of the remaining Massassi, but the
Great Sith War had finally ended. Before his defeat, Exar Kun had trapped the children of the
Massassi within a strange golden globe, and several desperate Massassi traveled to Yavin
8 to seek assistance from the Melodie people. Four hundred years ago, the Jedi master Ikrit
discovered the golden sphere containing the Massassi children located beneath the Palace
of the Woolamander, and stayed beneath it to await someone who could break its curse.
Centuries later, the Rebel Alliance constructed its primary base within the abandoned
temples after they evacuated their installation on Dantooine. Under the command of General
Jan Dodonna, Alliance engineers cleared out the ancient structures and made them fit for
habitation once more, and also installed a turbolift and erected high lookou t towers. Dodonna
sealed off the nearby Temple of the Blueleaf Cluster when an eerie power crystal, containing
what appeared to be trapped spirits, was found inside its main audience chamber. The
Sullustan naturalist Dr'uun Unnh took time out from his Alliance duties to begin the first
modern-day studies of the jungle moon, cataloguing many of its plant and animal species.
Not long after, the first Imperial Death Star discovered the secret base and moved into firing
position as the Rebels counterattacked with snubfighters. The battle station was completely
destroyed by Luke Skywalker (in what is now referred to as the Battle of Yavin) as it
attempted to shatter Yavin 4 with its superlaser. During the fighting, an Imperial pilot named
Qorl crashed his damaged TIE in the moon's jungles and fruitlessly awaited rescue, while
another crashing TIE killed Dr'uun Unnh.
In the aftermath of the battle, the Empire blockaded the moon and periodically attacked the
Rebel base with TIE fighters. During one such attack, a TIE bomber crashed in the jungle
and awakened the Massassi Night Beast, which had lain dormant for thousands of years in
its suspended animation capsule. According to the capsule's records, the Massassi left the
creature behind to guard their temples while they fled the system to escape a war. The Night
Beast (which could use the Force to shield itself from energy weapons) laid waste to much
of the Rebel base until calmed by Luke Skywalker. The creature then took an Alliance ship
and left the moon, intending to search for its former masters among the stars. The Alliance
eventually evacuated Yavin 4, and much of their food supply was destroyed in the process,
which necessitated negotiations with Overlord Ghorin of the Greater Plooriod Cluster. Soon
after the Alliance's evacuation, the Empire gave a permit to the Fernandin Scouting
Expedition to investigate Yavin 4 as a possible homeworld for the displaced Wetyin's
Colony. Eleven years later (seven years after the Battle of Endor), the Great Temple was
used as the location of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy, and the long-trapped spirit of Exar
Kun reasserted itself. After nearly killing Skywalker, Kun s ghost was finally vanquished by
the efforts of the new Jedi trainees. Eight years after Endor, the Jedi Academy was targeted
for attack by Admiral Daala's fleet. After a long, destructive battle, Daala's forces were
defeated and her Super Star Destroyer Knight Hammer was demolished. Eighteen years
after Endor, Anakin Solo visited the Jedi Academy and discovered a mysterious golden
sphere hidden beneath the Palace of the Woolamander. One year later, Jacen and Jaina Solo
visited the Academy and were held prisoner by the TIE pilot Qorl, still living in the moon's
deep jungles.
