Planet Description: Coruscant

[Hinata Riya]

Throughout the thousands of generations of galactic history, the entire surface of Coruscant has been covered over by sprawling skyscrapers and cities. The planet's oceans have all been drained and kept in vast underground caverns for future reuse. The only body of water visible is the Western Sea, a body of water left alone by the workers to be preserved for tourists and natives alike. The Western Sea has many artificially created islands floating on it, used by tourists on holidays. The only other piece of Coruscant's landmass that has been left untouched are the Manarai Mountains, twin peaks that stick up out of the ground near the famous Imperial Palace. Many floating restaurants revolve around the Mountains, giving patrons a unique view of the natural wonders.

Since there are no bodies of water available to feed and water its trillion inhabitants (despite the fact that it rains on Coruscant, as seen in Revenge of the Sith), Coruscant's architects along with many others from around the galaxy worked together to build a self-contained eco-system in the massive buildings set all over the planet. Engineers also developed a complex series of huge pipes through which polar ice is pumped through to the cities of Coruscant. Almost everything on the planet, from clothes to packaging and machinery is recyclable. Another problem for a world like Coruscant is the unimaginable amounts of carbon dioxide that its trillion being population generate each day, so atmospheric dampeners were put into place in orbit to remove it. Galactic Standard Time was developed on Coruscant and revolves around the hours Coruscant has in a single day, which is 24 hours, with 368 local days a year.

Galactic City is divided into several thousand quadrants, with each quadrant subdivided into numbered sectors. Some of these numbered sectors received colloquial names. For example, H-46 is also called Sah'c Town, named for the family that owns much of it. Some areas were specifically designated senatorial, governmental, financial (including banking zones), commercial, and residential. Larger areas of the planet were designated for industrial or manufacturing use only. The largest of these areas is known colloquially as "The Works". The Works had manufactured spacecraft parts, droids, and building materials at an astonishing rate for hundreds of years, but as construction in space became more efficient, The Works fell in disrepair. It has gained the reputation as a hub of high criminal activity and many locals stay away from it. The Works was the Sith meeting place of Darth Sidious and Count Dooku, Sidious's second apprentice and Confederate head of state and government in Attack of the Clones. Another area of Coruscant shown is Coco Town (short for "collective commerce"). Many diverse species live here and work in manufacturing. Coco Town is the site of Dex's Diner in Attack of the Clones.

[Anakin Skywalker]

HISTORY

Since 25,000 BBY, an ecumenopolis, or global city, has covered almost all of Coruscant's surface. New buildings were built on the old. As a result, there was virtually no exposed land. In the forgotten underlevels of the city, there was darkness, pollution and crime. Higher up, there were government offices and penthouses owned by the elite. Coruscant was most likely the homeworld of the Humans, who may have evolved from the proto-human Zhell, and the Taung species. The Zhell were dominant until the Taung conquered them. The Taung became known as the Dark Warriors, and in the middle of their epic battle against the Zhell, their efforts were helped by an erupting volcano that wiped out the major Zhell city. The Taung then systematically destroyed all remaining Zhell camps and took the name Dha Werda Verda, or in Basic, "Warriors of the Shadow." Eventually, the Taung were exiled from Coruscant to Mandalore, becoming the progenitors of the first Mandalorians.

During the Clone Wars, the Separatist armies invaded the city, causing severe damage to the old structures during the siege and the battle between republican and separatist armies. Also the Separatist Starfleet began a severe bombing against the city.

Under the Empire, Coruscant was renamed Imperial Center and Galactic City was also renamed Imperial City. Non-human species were also compelled to live in segregated parts (also known as "ethnic neighborhoods") of Imperial City, such as Invisec. The greedy Emperor Palpatine began to shape Coruscant with his own designs, and this included the installment of thousands of surveillance systems throughout the city world. Massive shield generators were placed all over Coruscant, and where they overlapped, severe storms took place, giving the planet a gothic look, which mirrored the utter desperation of many of its inhabitants as they choked under Emperor Palpatine's iron rule. The Emperor also had the Palace of the Republic rebuilt and renamed the Imperial Palace. The Imperial Palace was a massive pyramidal structure and was the largest construction project in Coruscant. The Emperor also commissioned top Imperial engineers to design and manufacture massive Construction Droids that were the size of skyscrapers. These gigantic automatons would "eat" an old, decrepit building by using its many smelters, conveyer belts and mechanical arms. From the recycled parts of that old building they would construct a new building.

Upon hearing of the death of the Emperor, there was an uprising among the population of Coruscant. Citizens celebrated the death of Palpatine with fireworks and by pulling down his statue. Authors of expanded universe works explained that this uprising was soon crushed by Imperial Stormtroopers operating under the orders of Ysanne Isard.

After the death of Palpatine, a series of the Emperor's warlords including Ysanne Isard ruled the Imperial Center. Isard's reign over the Imperial Center was plagued by the threat of rival warlords and the expanding New Republic. So before she left the Imperial Center, she contaminated the city's water supply with the deadly Krytos virus that only affected non-human species. Eventually the New Republic destroyed the virus and liberated Imperial Center, returning it to its original name of Coruscant. Isard used her hidden Super Star Destroyer Lusankya to escape, in the process killing millions; tearing off a large part of the cityscape and shooting down a skyhook, before finally jumping into hyperspace.

Eventually the New Republic rebuilt Galactic City and made Coruscant once again the ruling planet for their government. During those years, Leia Organa-Solo gave birth to her and Han's first two children, Jacen and Jaina Solo. However, Coruscant was again under attack by the dreaded Grand Admiral Thrawn who put twenty-seven cloaked asteroids in a decaying orbit above Coruscant in an attempt to create confusion among the New Republic and retake the Core for the Imperial Remnant. The Shield Generators put in place by the Empire were adequate in stopping the asteroids from raining down on the city-planet and there was enough food to hold out for months against the asteroids, but the siege was a great blow to New Republic morale. However, when Thrawn's fleet was defeated at the Imperial shipyards at Bilbringi, a device (called a crystal grav-trap) was captured by the New Republic that could detect the mass of the cloaked asteroids, allowing the siege to be lifted.

A year later the remaining members of the Imperial Inner Circle began massive attacks on Coruscant, detonating destructive bombs on its surface and committing suicide runs in capital ships. Little did they know that they were being manipulated by the reborn Palpatine, who was manipulating both his servants and the people of the Republic to achieve his everlasting rule over the galaxy. Coruscant was ruined in the attacks, with half of the Imperial Palace destroyed, many toppled buildings and with billions of deaths. The space around Coruscant was littered with countless starship wrecks that would not be cleared for years.

After Palpatine's final death, the New Republic retook the planet and made a massive effort to clean up the world and restore it to its original beauty. Billions more flocked to live at the bright center of the galaxy, replacing those that were lost in the bloodshed surrounding the horror of the reborn Emperor Palpatine. Imperial Admiral Daala also planned to crash one of her Star Destroyers into the planet in an attempt to rip it apart, but was stopped by Kyp Durron and the Sun Crusher.

In The New Jedi Order series, Coruscant is the capital world of the New Republic until Star by Star, in which the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong overwhelm the Republic defenses in three attack waves led by Warmaster Tsavong Lah and take over the planet. The Yuuzhan Vong designated it Yuuzhan'tar, after the name of their homeworld and their chief deity Yun Yuuzhan, and terraformed it to overwhelm the city covering its surface and restore a natural ecology. The vast majority of the planet's non-Yuuzhan Vong population was shipped off-world in massive refugee ships, though some people did stay behind in the substructure of the city. Two moons were pulverized to create the planetary rings called the Great Bridge. Additionally, water-rich asteroids were crashed into the planet, creating surface water. The Yuuzhan Vong also moved the planet closer to its sun. The Galactic Alliance eventually retook Coruscant back from the Yuuzhan Vong. After surrendering, the Yuuzhan Vong agreed to help the Alliance rebuild Coruscant. The new Coruscant is a combination of technology and organic life, to represent the peace between the Galactic Alliance and the Yuuzhan Vong.

The Galactic Alliance however, began to terraform the surface of Coruscant into bedrock so that they could return the planet to its glory days as capital of the Old Republic.

[Anakin Skywalker]

LOCATIONS

Dex's Diner
Dex's Diner is a small diner ran by Dexter Jettster.

The history of the diner is told in some of Jude Watson's Jedi Apprentice, Jedi Quest, and The Last of the Jedi books.

In The Last of the Jedi #3: Underworld, Dex's bar is found in ruins by the Jedi exile Ferus Olin. He discovers the Empire destoyed it, forcing Dexter to hide in the shadows fearing capture.

The Diner is featured in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, when Obi-Wan Kenobi needs help determining the origin of a toxic dart.

The Diner is also a location in Lego Star Wars: The Video Game as the portal where all levels are entered. No health can be lost in the Diner, and it serves little of a purpose in game progression.

Galactic Museum
The Galactic Museum is a vast repository of data, containing information and artifacts from almost every known planet in the galaxy, as well as information about the Sith. There are also some darker, obscure pieces of information to be found in the Galactic Museum, including the near-extinction of the Ewoks (caused by falling debris from the second Death Star). However, much of this information may simply be Imperial propaganda. The Galactic Museum was toured by several members of Rogue Squadron prior to the fall of Coruscant, and as such provided much insight into the Empire, especially the Empire's propaganda machine. The Galactic Museum was sabotaged by Darth Revan and his Sith when they deystroyed most of the Jedi on Coruscant and all of their other planets. it was rebuilt when the Republic came out of hiding.

Imperial Palace
The Imperial Palace was a large building constructed for Palpatine after he became Emperor of the Galactic Empire. It is in the shape of a huge pyramid with ghostly like statues around the Place. When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the capital, the New Republic leader, Borsk Fey'yla triggered a bomb which destroyed the palace and half of the Yuuzhan Vong troops and half of the New Republic civilians.

Jedi Archives
The Jedi Archives is a library comprised of knowledge and research dating back possibly thousands of years. The Archives Library was located in the Jedi Temple, under the control of Madame Jocasta Nu, a former Jedi Council member.

Jedi Temple
The Jedi Temple is a massive structure standing 1km high above the buildings of Galactic City, in an area where the Temple is largely unobstructed to sight. The Temple itself is the home to the Jedi, where they live for the first years of their apprenticeship, and where they learn of the ways of the Force and train in the traditions of the Jedi Order.

On his turning to the Dark Side, Anakin Skywalker, in his new capacity as Lord Vader and apprentice to Palpatine, led a massacre of the temple, killing all Jedi therein, including younglings.

Manarai Mountains
The Manarai Mountains were a park that contained the last exposed land on the otherwise completely industrialized planet. Polar ice caps that don't reach the ground and artificial lakes and seas built atop urban layers are sometimes mistaken for actual surface, although the Manarai are the only actual place where natural terrain is visible on the entire planet. A small cluster of mountaintops breaks through the vast urbanization to provide a small range, punctuated by two peaks. Countless millennia ago, as Coruscant was being heavily urbanized and more and more land was being developed, eventually it was realized that only land not settled or built-on was the Manarai Mountains, and even much of that chain was occupied, until finally a small patch of the mountains was set aside as a nature preserve (preserving the only nature left on Coruscant). The mountains themselves are a famous landmark and seeing them is a popular tourist attraction, although actually setting foot on the mountains is strictly prohibited to preserve them. The perimeter is guarded constantly by the Coruscant Guard, wary of anybody who would actually try to steal soil or rocks from the famous mountains.

Within sight of the Manarai Mountains is The Manarai, the most famous and exclusive restaurant on all of Coruscant. Sitting atop a tall tower in Monument Park, The Manarai is designed to provide a breathtaking view of the cityscape of Coruscant as well as the mountains themselves. Huge windows and domes provide panoramic views, with the very best chefs in the galaxy providing the finest cuisine (virtually any meal in the galaxy can be prepared with sufficient notice). In addition to the view and the quality, security is also paramount, as all visitors and especially employees received extensive background checks before being invited to come to The Manarai. The owners of The Manarai were kept secret during the reign of the Galactic Empire, but were rumored to include a Hutt clan lord, several Moffs and definitely Prince Xizor.

The Manarai Mountains were destroyed during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the planet.

Western Sea
The Western Sea is actually an artificially created sea and is Coruscant's only body of water. There are also many artificial islands that float on barges anchored to the bottom of this artificial sea.


Centax I
Centax I is the second moon of Coruscant. It was a major staging ground for the Grand Army of the Republic, and home to a military shipyard during the Clone Wars. It was also home to the garrison of Coruscant, some twenty thousand Clone Troopers as well as the 65th Homeworld Security Legion.

[Anakin Skywalker]

ETYMOLOGY AND NAMING

The name itself is Latin in origin (from the adjective "coruscus"), meaning "coruscating," "flashing" or "twinkling", and probably refers to the night side of the planetwide city. There is also the root word "core" in Coruscant, possibly referring to how it is at the center of the galaxy.

Originally the planet, which was then called "Alderaan", was to appear in A New Hope, but the budget wouldn't allow, so a lot of action on Alderaan was moved to the Death Star and Alderaan became the name of Princess Leia's home planet which is destroyed. The concept of seeing the Empire's home world, renamed "Had Abaddon", came up again in the Return of the Jedi, and the concept of the entire planet being a city came up for the first time. However, realizing such a city on screen was impossible at the time so the idea was abandoned.

The concept of a city covering an entire planet is not entirely new. The planet Trantor in Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels is probably the first fictional planet to be totally urbanized, but it was not the last. One famous 1983 fan-fiction "Episode III" draft by John L. Flynn names the Imperial City "Jhantor," in homage to Asimov's work. Trantor was entirely covered in city except for 100 square kilometers devoted to the gardens of the Imperial Palace; the same is stated to be true of Coruscant in Shadows of the Empire.

The planet first appeared in the Expanded Universe and was called "Coruscant" for the first time in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire. Coruscant was first seen on screen in the 1997 Special Edition release of Return of the Jedi, and the X-wing series of computer games. Coruscant was then seen in The Phantom Menace. There is a speeder chase through the skies of Coruscant in Attack of the Clones that eventually leads to a nightclub in the bowels of Coruscant's Uscru Entertainment District. Coruscant is seen yet again in Revenge of the Sith as part of the Battle of Coruscant near the end of the Clone Wars, where a large part of the plot centers on the Republic Senate and the Jedi Temple.

In various novels, characters aligned with the Empire refer to Coruscant as "Imperial Center". Within the stories, this is explained as an administrative renaming undertaken to emphasize the differences between the Old Republic and the Empire. The new name never resonated with the general population—it was only called Imperial Center in government documents. The name was abandoned when the New Republic retook Coruscant.

[Anakin Skywalker]

INCONSISTENCIES

In the large volume of material that exists relating to Coruscant, there are conflicting statements about the ecumenopolis.

The population is variously stated as 176 billion, 1 trillion, or 1 quadrillion. The smaller figures are illogical, but more often stated. However, the G-canon source, Inside the Worlds of Episode I states that Coruscant has a population of 1 trillion. Film estimates based on the apparent depth of the cityscape and its literally globe-spanning extent suggest a population density that, applied over the entire surface area of Coruscant would suggest a population probably in the several quadrillion (1e16–1e15) range and certainly no less than several hundred trillions (1e15–1e14). These estimates have been performed by Star Wars fan scholar Curtis Saxton, and other technical-minded fans on many separate occasions. It remains to be seen if later generations of official publications will reflect figures similar to those presented by the scale of Coruscant in the movies.

The assumption that Coruscant was made up of many layers of buildings on top of each other, supported by Expanded Universe works such as the Young Jedi Knights series, was not supported by the appearance of the planet in Attack of the Clones. The canonical interpretation was revised for The New Jedi Order. Now, Coruscant is essentially two planet-spanning cities: one on the surface and one underground. The underground city takes the status of "lower levels" from the retconned covered-over buildings. Incidentally, this new interpretation makes Coruscant much more like Trantor. It also explains why the surface seen in Attack of the Clones was not nearly as dismal as the lower levels in YJK: they were below the surface in the book.

However, the nightclub seen in Attack of the Clones is not at the actual surface of the planet. There are thousands of layers to the city and what may appear to be the "surface" is actually a lower level. The lowest levels of all - near the planetary surface - are the most dangerous and least hospitable of all. While on Coruscant in The Paradise Snare, Han Solo fled Imperial Stormtroopers by delving into the depths of Coruscant, witnessing its true horror firsthand.

Most sources, including all illustrations, show Coruscant as having negligible surface water. However, the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy states that Coruscant has two continents, a large one that contains Imperial City and a smaller one. More than half of this version of Coruscant is ocean. There are cliffs along the coast, contradicting the previous statement that the only place the bedrock was exposed to the surface was at the peaks of the Manarai Mountains, which are otherwise covered in buildings. This contradiction is because Michael P. Kube-McDowell, author of the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy, has publicly stated he has personal issues with the concept of a city covering an entire planet. He was apparently attempting to retcon Coruscant into being a more Earth-like world with a population of only a few billion. His version of Coruscant has been mostly ignored by later Expanded Universe books, as well as the movies, although some of the novels in the New Jedi Order maintain that a small artificial sea was constructed in the waning days of the Old Republic, and was still present during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion; effectively attempting to retcon Kube-McDowell's retcon.

It is said that Coruscant was naturally a cold planet, similar to Hoth, before terraforming millennia ago. It still has icecaps, according to the Young Jedi Knights and Rogue Squadron novels, but they are never visible in depictions of the planet from space. Supposedly, Coruscant was cold due to distance from its sun, but the sun appears large in the sky in The Phantom Menace. The climate is altered by orbital mirrors that focus the sun.