Dantooine/Legends

"Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration. But don't worry – we will deal with your rebel friends soon enough."

- Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin to Princess Leia Organa

Dantooine was a pleasant world of grasslands, rivers and lakes. The planet was located in the Raioballo sector of the Outer Rim at an endpoint of Myto's Arrow, the other endpoint of which was in the Obtrexta sector, though Dantooine itself was still far removed from most galactic traffic. It hosted a small population spread amongst single-family settlements and small communities with large land holdings. Its sentient population consisted primarily of simple Human farmers, though Dantooine was also home to the primitive Dantari race. Native wildlife included the kath hound, the iriaz, the kinrath, and the graul. The planet had no industrial settlements or advanced technology by the time of the Galactic Civil War.

Planetary data
"I mean, look at this planet – majestic fields, rolling plains, wide open terra firma. Elbow room – that's what people want."

- Crattis Yurkal

A normal day on Dantooine lasted twenty-five standard hours, and a local year lasted 378 local days.

Dantooine had several continents. There was an equatorial one that was connected to a larger northern one and a south polar one by slender land bridges, as well as a disconnected north-eastern continent.

An olive, blue, and brown colored world, Dantooine was far removed from the bustle of the galactic trade routes. Two moons floated in the skies above the savannahs of lavender and yellow grasses.

Separated by forests of spiky blba trees, colonists maintained individual family estates largely isolated from each other.

One of the major continents of Dantooine was identified by its various geographical regions. To the southeast, there were the Rielig Steppes, with the Burad Hills at their southeastern corner. The Northeast section was identified as the Fields of Banir, which held the ruins of an ancient Jedi temple. To the Northwest, there were the Arrissi Plains, with the Mosa Rishin Taikaha Hills connecting this region to the southwestern Darjani Plains.

Infinite Empire
The planet was one of the subject worlds of the Infinite Empire. The Rakata built several structures on its surface; at least one of which housed a Star Map and several Rakata-made droids, were still standing by the time of the Jedi Civil War.

A theory persists that the native Dantari are descended from a colonization attempt during the earliest days of the Old Republic, but no studies have borne this supposition out, and the Dantari have been recorded as being present since the beginning of more recent settlements.

Old Sith Wars
"Even the Sith would think twice before attacking Dantooine. There are many Jedi here, including several of the most powerful masters of the order. There is great strength within this place."

- Bastila Shan

During the Old Sith Wars, the Galactic Republic began a full-scale colonization campaign on Dantooine. While the Republic by itself had virtually no military on the planet, the settlers were protected by the Jedi Order.

By at least 3,997 BBY, a Jedi training enclave was established by Master Vodo-Siosk Baas, although ruins of an even older Jedi structure could be found on the planet. Many great Jedi of the Great Sith War were trained on Dantooine. However, the Enclave on Dantooine was infamous for the number of its students who eventually fell to the dark side; among them were some of the greatest enemies of the Republic during that unstable period, such as Exar Kun, Revan, and Malak.



Forty years later, in 3,956 BBY, the leading instructors at the Dantooine Jedi Enclave were Masters Vrook Lamar, Zhar, Vandar Tokare, and Dorak. When Bastila Shan brought a mentally dead Revan before the Dantooine council, they decided to give Revan another chance to redeem himself. Revan was trained there for a second time.

Just weeks after Revan completed his new training, the Enclave, along with many of Dantooine's other settlements, was destroyed by Darth Malak, who was obsessed with finding Revan and Bastila (Malak also took special care to bombard the ancient Rakatan temple to preserve the Star Forge's secrecy, but by then it was too late). This attack sent the Dantooine farming community into decay, as the Republic, weakened by the war, could not offer its support to the remote world. Until the collapse of the Sith Empire a year later, Dantooine was occupied by the Sith, who executed almost all local leaders.

From 3,956 to 3,951 BBY, the settlers, led by Administrator Terena Adare, began to rebuild their community by constructing the outpost of Khoonda. By then, Dantooine was populated by mercenaries and salvagers, the latter trying to make a living by finding Jedi relics from the ruined Enclave and selling them.



In 3,951, the Republic nearly lost Dantooine to the Exchange, which planned to use the world as an outpost in the Outer Rim Territories. Exchange mercenaries under the leadership of Azkul made trouble for the settlers, eventually culminating in the First Battle of Dantooine. Thanks to the efforts of Master Vrook and the Jedi Exile, the meager Khoonda militia prevailed over Azkul's forces, and Dantooine remained in the Republic. The Republic eventually sent some of its forces to protect the battered planet.

After the battle, the Enclave was rebuilt and briefly became the residence of the reformed Jedi Council (Master Vrook, Master Kavar, and Master Zez-Kai Ell), but it was abandoned shortly after, when the Council members were killed by Darth Traya. Buried beneath the deserted Enclave was a hidden facility in which the ancient Jedi Knights carried on mysterious cloning experiments.

Clone Wars


"Master Windu still fights on Dantooine."

- Palpatine

During the Clone Wars, Mace Windu won a widely publicized victory at the Battle of Dantooine. He and hundreds of other clone troopers defeated an army of B2 super battle droids and a massive seismic tank without his lightsaber for much of the battle, despite the near-total destruction of the clone forces in the battle.

Galactic Civil War
"Our scout ships have reached Dantooine. They have found the remains of a Rebel base, but they estimate that it has been deserted for some time. They are now conducting an extensive search of the surrounding systems."

- Imperial officer

Years later, the Alliance to Restore the Republic established Dantooine as their headquarters, establishing a prefabricated base in the ruins of the old Jedi Enclave and using the planet as a staging post for starfighter strikes&mdash;most famously, the Battle of Danuta, for the recovery of the Death Star plans.

In 2 BBY, the special operative Jan Ors directed the seventeen-year-old Tarrin Datch to pilot her freighter carrying a cargo of stolen Imperial fuel slugs to the sanctuary of the Dantooine base, the first command centre of the Rebel Alliance. Once arriving there, Datch began training as a starfighter pilot and officially joined the Rebellion. In 1 BBY, the Dantooine base was deserted after Ryle Torsyn discovered an Imperial homing beacon there.

After the Alliance's relocation to Yavin 4, Princess Leia Organa tried to fool Grand Moff Tarkin into believing that the main Rebel base was still located on Dantooine, attempting to spare her homeworld of Alderaan from the destructive power of the Empire's newest weapon. Tarkin replied that Dantooine was too remote to use as an effective demonstration of the Death Star (the deciding factor here seemed to be a political and social impact rather than military necessity). Alderaan was destroyed and subsequently, Imperials did indeed discover the abandoned Rebel base. As Tarkin realized that Leia would lie to him even under the most dire circumstances, he ordered her execution.

The Empire took over the vacated Alliance base and discovered the Jedi cloning facility in the ruins, and resumed carrying out the research to develop rapid cloning procedures. They also established an Imperial outpost and a mining outpost.

Ex-Imperial Officer Tycho Celchu also defected to the Rebel Alliance on this world. However, he was captured by the Imperial Storm Commando Corps. Before he was captured, he managed to send a panic-burst transmission to the orbiting members of Rogue Squadron who immediately began a rescue operation.

Luke Skywalker piloted a captured Imperial speeder bike to the landing zone, where he used several E-Web repeating blasters to stop an Imperial APC which Tycho had been stored upon.

After disabling the APC, Skywalker and Celchu used another two speeder bikes to escape from several waves of Probe droids, APCs, enemy speeders and TIE/sa starfighters. However, upon arriving at the rendezvous point with Sarkli, the Imperial forces had destroyed much of the Rebel task force, including several BTL Y-wing starfighters, leaving four T-65 X-wing starfighters, which the survivors used to escape. Upon reaching orbit, Celchu hemmoraged information about trapped scientists on the planet Ralltir.

Post-Endor era
After the Battle of Endor, Dantooine came under New Republic control, and the elite unit known as Lando's Commandos made use of a cloaked stealth fighter housed in a "museum" on the planet&mdash;though given the lack of public infrastructure on the planet, and the secret nature of cloaking technology, this may have been a euphemistic description for a military storehouse.



In the turbulent years following the reborn clone Emperor Palpatine's resurrection, the New Republic relocated several refugees from Eol Sha to Dantooine. The colonist refugees did not have a chance to meet the native Dantari, since Admiral Daala dispatched an Imperial force that massacred all the refugees.

Two months after the start of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, New Republic forces, including Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, Jacen and Anakin Solo, landed on Dantooine to try to escape the invading Yuuzhan Vong. Eventually, though, the Yuuzhan Vong caught them in a deadlock, blocking their escape from the world. Many refugees and New Republic soldiers were killed before Admiral Traest Kre'fey's fleet arrived and rescued them. The Yuuzhan Vong quickly conquered Dantooine, nearly destroying the native Dantari population. Kyp Durron later witnessed a two-kilometer-wide pit filled with the bones of those sacrificed to the Yuuzhan Vong gods.

It is assumed that the Galactic Alliance reclaimed Dantooine when the Yuuzhan Vong surrendered.

Fauna

 * Bol
 * Brith
 * Carnivorous snail
 * Fabool
 * Graul
 * Huurton
 * Iriaz
 * Kath hound
 * Kinrath
 * Laigrek
 * Piket longhorn
 * Quenker
 * Sickle-back mantis
 * Thune
 * Voritor lizard

Flora

 * Blba tree

Behind the scenes
The PC game Star Wars: Rebellion mistakenly places Dantooine in the Mayagil Sector.

Notes and references
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