Kalevala/Legends

Kalevala was a planet located in the Mandalore sector of the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories, where it occupied the fourth orbit of the cognominal Mandalore system. A neighbor of the Mandalorians' traditional homeworld of Mandalore, Kalevala's terrain was primarily comprised of a toxic desertscape. The planet was host to members of the pacifistic New Mandalorian political faction, and even spawned a royal lineage from whence came the Duchess Satine Kryze and Prince Tal Merrik just prior to the Clone Wars. Represented in the Galactic Senate of the Republic by Merrik in the early years of the Clone Wars, and those leading up to the galaxy-spanning conflict, Kalevala was the sight of a terrorist bombing by the violent Death Watch group that claimed the life of the New Mandalorian Deputy Minister, Jerec.

Description
Kalevala occupied the fourth orbit of the Mandalore sector's Mandalore system, making it a neighbor of the planet Tracyn and the traditional Mandalorian homeworld of Mandalore. Circling around the star system's sun, also known as Mandalore, Kalevala was a world blanketed in toxic desert. Following the rise of the New Mandalorian faction circa 738 BBY, Kalevala became home to a number of New Mandalorians, with recognized titles such as duchess and prince. On Kalevala, expensive wine and rich fabrics were produced, and even at least one unique hairstyle evolved on the Outer Rim world. The shipwrights of Kalevala Spaceworks also made the planet their home.

History
"Sadly, Deputy Minister Jerec perished this morning, in a Death Watch bombing on Kalevala. Let us ensure that his death was not in vain."

- Supreme Chancellor Palpatine

After the Taung forces of Mandalore the First journeyed from Roon to conquer the planet that became Mandalore, the newly renamed Mandalorians spread out to conquer the planets of the surrounding system, including Kalevala.

In the years following the Galactic Republic's defeat of the New Sith Empire's Brotherhood of Darkness at Ruusan, and the subsequent Republic reformation that marked the end of the New Sith Wars, the Mandalorians on Mandalore began to remake themselves into a more technologically adept and more rigid, militant society. The rise in Mandalore's militancy so soon after the devastating war with the Sith alarmed both the Republic and its Jedi protectors. Unwilling to suffer through a second Mandalorian War, the Jedi led a Republic strike force in a brief and targeted conflict with the Mandalorians in 730 BBY that brought devastation to the worlds of the Mandalore sector. Out of this disaster arose a pacifist sect calling themselves the New Mandalorians; the reformist political faction renounced violence and the warrior codes of the Mandalorians' past, instead preaching peace, neutrality, and tolerance. The New Mandalorians formed a new society separate from the Mandalorian warrior clans, in the white-sand deserts of Mandalore. At some point in the galaxy's history, the New Mandalorians established a presence on the nearby world of Kalevala.

In the late years of the Galactic Republic, Kalevala became the birthplace of Satine Kryze and Tal Merrik. Kryze was a duchess, who later relocated to Mandalore and became the leader of the New Mandalorian people, while Merrik was a prince, who came to represent Kalevala and the surrounding Mandalore system as a senator in the Republic senate. Kalevala's premier starship manufacturer, Kalevala Spaceworks, constructed Kryze's personal transport, the luxurious Coronet starliner. In 22 BBY, the second year of the galaxy-spanning Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatist Confederacy of Independent Systems, Kalevala's senator was killed when it was revealed that Tal Merrik was in league with the Death Watch, a radically violent Mandalorian splinter faction returning to the galactic stage after years in hiding. Soon after, the Death Watch orchestrated a terrorist bombing on Kalevala that resulted in the death of the New Mandalorians' Deputy Minister, Jerec.

Behind the scenes
"Obi-Wan Kenobi was reunited with an old friend: the Duchess Satine of Kalevala."

- News reel narrator

Kalevala was first mentioned in the 2008 reference book, The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. During the news reel opening of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series' second season episode, Voyage of Temptation, Kalevala was mentioned as the homeworld of Duchess Satine Kryze, and the planet was again mentioned by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in the following episode, Duchess of Mandalore. With these two television appearances, the planet's name has been pronounced in two distinctly different ways. In the news reel of the episode Voyage of Temptation, the show's narrator pronounced the planet's name as "Kale-vah-lah", while Palpatine pronounces the name of the world as "Kah-lay-vah-lah" in the subsequent episode, Duchess of Mandalore.

Information on Kalevala and it's place in the Mandalore system was provided by a brief inclusion in The Essential Atlas, a 2009 reference book authored by Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace. Kalevala's inclusion in the atlas came after Wallace had already written the entry on Mandalore and its star system, at a time when the Mandalore system's fourth orbit had been planned for a world known as "Tal'tar". At the behest of Lucasfilm Ltd., Kalevala was included in place of Tal'tar, and the previous world's attributes including its orbital position and geography, were reassigned to Kalevala.

The planet Kalevala shares its name with the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala.