Tion Cluster/Legends

The Tion Cluster was a star cluster located within the Outer Rim region of the galaxy. An unremarkable part of the galaxy by the time of the Galactic Civil War, it was most famous for historically being the home of the short-lived empires of Xer VIII and his son Xim the Despot.

Geography
The Cluster was at the edge of one of the galaxy's spiral arms. Just Coreward of the Cluster was the Cron Drift and the former Jedi stronghold of Ossus. The Perlemian Trade Route passed close to the cluster at Lianna, and beyond the Tion became known as the Far Perlemian. Its western border was defined by the line of Kanaver, Jhantoria, Lianna, and Foran Tutha, while its southern rim was defined by a line from Foran Tutha through Saheelindeel to Dellalt. Its eastern fringe was defined by a line from Dellalt to Raxus Prime, and its northern border by a line from Raxus to Kanaver. The Indrexu Spiral was a prominent nebula running from the Indrexu sector in the north south through the Cluster.

In the Imperial Period, the Galactic Empire carved the Cluster into three sectors: the Tion Hegemony, the Cronese Mandate, and the Allied Tion. Surrounding sectors with Tionese influence included the Indrexu sector, the Keldrath sector, and the Thanium Worlds, and were known as the "Greater Tion".

The Tion Hegemony was divided into two quite different regions: the cluster of ancient, averagely-wealthy systems at the head of the Desevran Trace linking it to the Perlemian, known as the Livien Worlds for their connection to the Xim-era Livien League, and the string of systems beyond the Indrexu Spiral along the Tion Trade Route known as the Back Spiral, which were mostly poor and had little to do economically or culturally with the Livien Worlds. The Livien Worlds even lacked a hyperlane connecting them to the Back Spiral in their sector.

The Allied Tion had little historical identity, having been separated from the Tion Hegemony after the Clone Wars by the Empire. Traditionally, this area was a buffer between the Tion Hegemony and Cron, but by the time of the Galactic Alliance the Allied Tion was known for its manufacturing and trade: the Cadinth Run from the Perlemian saw a great deal of traffic, though little of that passed beyond the sector capital of Jaminere to the Indrexu Route and the Desevran Trace.

The Cronese Mandate was by far the largest of the Tion sectors, and having been the seat of Xer's Kingdom of Cron, was typically more outward-looking than the rest of the Cluster and typically looked on their neighbours as unsophisticated. Its principal worlds were along the Greater and Lesser Cronese Arcs; the Kismaano Bypass and the Indrexu Route connected it to the Allied Tion, while some traders followed the Arc to Saheelindeel and the worlds of the Tion Hegemony's Back Spiral.

The Cluster contained about 12,000 stars, orbited by almost 600 habitable planets. Of these 600, 464 were part of the Cronese Mandate. The other 136 were divided between the Tion Hegemony and the Allied Tion.

History
The Tion Cluster had inhabited Human settlements pre-dating both the Old Republic as well as several planets in the Core Worlds. The Humans were descended from a lost sleeper ship from Coruscant. They developed a mixed society with Rakata castoffs, and utilized some of their technology to create beam tubes circa 27,000 BBY, and eventually limited hyperdrives that relied upon fixed-position hyperspace beacons. Rakata Force-sensitive technology was also present in Xim's war-robots.

The limited technology prevented the Tionese from having contact with the Core, eventually forgetting their origins and remaining isolated from the rest of the galaxy. The Tion Cluster achieved galactic prominence in the century before the foundation of the Galactic Republic, when the pirate-king Xer VIII unified much of the cluster in the Cronese Sweeps, carving out the Kingdom of Cron ruled from Argai. His son, Xim the Despot, completed the conquest with the capture of the Livien League, then began a prolonged Expansionist Period that expanded his empire to the edge of the Radama Void. The Tionese, however, soon fell upon Hutt Space, resulting in a disastrous war that saw the death of Xim and shattered the region.

After Xim's death, much of the Cluster fell into infighting between various successor states, including the Kingdom of Cron, the Jaminere Marches, the Keldrath Alignment, the Indrexu Confederation, and the Thanium Worlds. The Tion Cluster united for one last time to form the Honorable Union of Desevro & Tion in 24,000 BBY to wage war against the expanding Galactic Republic, but after a century of fighting, the Cluster surrendered and joined the Galactic Republic in 23,900 BBY. Thereafter the Tion Cluster became an unremarkable collection of sectors in the Republic, its Xim-era colonies in the Kiirium Reaches devastated by the Hutts in an effort to create a buffer zone between them and the Republic.

In the Republic's final years, the Cluster's disparate states eventually joined up to form two dominions: the Tion Hegemony and the Kingdom of Cron. Both joined the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. Count Dooku used a communications center on Raxus Prime to broadcast Separatist propaganda prior to the conflict. During the Wars, Dooku built up a secret base on the world and hunted the Force Harvester superweapon on the planet. The Separatist Parliament, meanwhile, performed its duties on Raxus Secundus, a heavily fortified world in the same system.

In retaliation for the Cluster's Separatist allegiance, the Galactic Empire divided the area into new sectors after the war, renaming the Kingdom of Cron the Cronese Mandate and carving the Allied Tion, the Indrexu and the Keldrath sectors out of a shrunken Tion Hegemony. The Tion Hegemony was allowed a nominal independence, which was seen as humiliating.

Due to the strategic location of the Cluster's sectors, the Imperial Military increased its presence inside the cluster and attempted to use the nearby Calamari sector as a forward base to rapidly launch strikes at the Cluster from outside.

During the Galactic Civil War, several star systems inside the Tion Cluster became battlegrounds between the Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic, during Operation Strike Fear. Later, some of the Heroes of Yavin encountered the notorious bounty hunter Boba Fett on Panna Prime, as part of a trap devised by Darth Vader to track down the Rebel leadership. After the Battle of Endor, the entire Cluster was integrated in Zsinj's Empire. The three sectors stayed under Zsinj control until his death in 8 ABY, becoming independent again. The New Republic showed little interest in the region, and talks for re-unification were held in the years after Endor.

The Yuuzhan Vong raided the Cluster's border worlds during their invasion of the galaxy, but did substantial damage only to the planet Caluula.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Shadow of Revan
 * Darth Plagueis
 * Tempest Feud
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars video game
 * Jedi: Mace Windu
 * Jedi: Shaak Ti
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Han Solo and the Lost Legacy
 * The Story of the Faithful Wookiee
 * Mission to Lianna
 * Millennium Falcon
 * Mission to Lianna
 * Millennium Falcon