Rhinnal

"I'm afraid there's no place on Esseles that's prepared to heal a Jedi.''" "''Wait! There's a Jedi chapter house on the planet Rhinnal. Rhinnal is famous for its expertise in medicine and it's in the Darpa Sector. We can get Master Adi there in no time!"

- Noro Zak and Obi-Wan Kenobi

Rhinnal was a planet in the star system of the same name in the Darpa sector of the Core Worlds. Orbited by two moons and located in the Ringali Shell, the region of space along the Perlemian Trade Route near the Ringali Nebula, Rhinnal possessed almost no axial tilt and a near-circular orbit, giving the planet very little seasonal variatons. Encased in a planet-wide ice age tens of thousands of years before the Galactic Republic's collapse, Rhinnal had begun to thaw by the time it was one of the Core Founders of the Republic in 25,053 BBY, having been settled by Humans from Notron. A colony of nearby Esseles for much of its history, Rhinnal soon gained a reputation as a medical wonderworld, with a Jedi chapter house and the Rhinnal State Medical Academy in the capital of Rhire producing some of the galaxy's best doctors.

Renowned for its beauty and pristine environment, Rhinnal also developed a textile industry in addition to its pharmaceutical and cybernetics industry, and the native Rhinnalians were known for their fierce loyalty to their clans. Freed from Esseles' control with the rise of the Galactic Empire, Rhinnal eventually overthrew its governor Phadreas Kole in 7 ABY and joined the New Republic, supplying its doctors and medical expertise to help halt crises such as the outbreak of the Krytos virus and the Death Seed plague. Rhinnal willingly accepted thousands of refugees during the war with the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong species, though transports full of some of those same refugees were used as ammunition against the capital of Coruscant's shields by the Yuuzhan Vong during their capture of Coruscant.

Description
"It was many years ago, during the expansion of the Jedi chapter house. Building materials had to be delivered because so much of the planet's surface was still covered by ice.''" "''You'll find Rhinnal hasn't changed much. Terraforming has created new forests, but it's still colder than a mynock's wingtips."

- Qui-Gon Jinn and Bama Vook

The fourth planet in orbit around the star Rhinnal in the Rhinnal system, Rhinnal was located in the region of the Core Worlds known as the Ringali Shell, a string of star systems along the Perlemian Trade Route that were near the violet-colored Ringali Nebula and whose night skies were lit up by the same nebula. Situated along the Perlemian between the planets Esseles and Ralltiir, Rhinnal was located in the Darpa sector, and it was orbited by two moons. The terrestrial planet's diameter was 12,900 kilometers, and it had a 27-hour day and a 357-day year, with standard gravity, a breathable atmosphere, and a climate that ranged from chilly temperate to arctic. Tens of thousands of years before the fall of the Galactic Republic, Rhinnal was experiencing a planet-wide ice age that slowly faded over the course of centuries, with the glaciers exposing the planet's landmasses and leaving behind mountains, valleys, and crystal-clear lakes as they retreated.

Rhinnal's rocky continents were marked by the narrow finger-like bays that split the high cliffs along their coasts, giving the shorelines a fringed appearance when viewed from above. The planet experienced virtually no axial tilt and had a particularly circular orbit, resulting in very insignificant seasonal variations, and much of the planet was covered by glaciers, tundras, and frozen rivers. The equatorial regions of Rhinnal were home to mossy slopes and evergeen forests, and the planet's ambient temperature was significantly lower than other worlds to the point where every visitor was advised to bring a jacket. Snow fell frequently during the night on Rhinnal, but the reduced amounts near the equator typically melted by morning. Rhinnal was also prone to electromagnetic storms that swept across the equatorial regions several times a year, and engineers had begun to use terraforming to increase the planet's self-sufficiency by the time of the Galactic Empire, since all attempts to farm share crops on any part of the planet never succeeded. The wooly gabal, the rare snow falcon, the limbed fish known as fireheads, and the fireheads' predators, the tenticulons, were among the creatures native to the world.

Early history
"The Jedi enclave on Rhinnal has been destroyed, along with the Republic patrol frigate Toron Voq."

- Satele Shan

Tens of thousands of years before the rise of the Galactic Empire, Rhinnal reached the end of a planetary ice age; by the time sleeper ships carrying Human colonists from the planet Notron reached the Ringali Shell sometime after 27,000 BBY, the planet's glaciers had retreated from the equatorial regions, leaving Rhinnal habitable. Sometime before the Galactic Republic's founding in 25,053 BBY, a warship from the planet Dellalt crashed near the planet's southern pole, and it became buried in the ice over the following millennia. Rhinnal was one of the Core Founders of the Republic, but for much of the planet's history, it was a colony of the Esselian Empire and ruled by a governor from its neighbor Esseles.

When Rhinnal's capital of Rhire was still only a supply outpost on the banks of the Frieste River for hyperspace explorers heading out along the Perlemian, the Jedi Order established a chapter house to the west of the city, a simple, spired structure that could hold almost a hundred patients. By the time of the Cold War between the Republic and the Sith Empire, Rhinnal's native snow falcon was on the verge of extinction, and hunting the birds was a crime that was punishable with life imprisonment. The planet also had a thriving textile industry by that point, though a transport carrying Ayelixe Fabrico textiles once exploded in the atmosphere over the planet and scattered its cargo for kilometers.

However, during the Cold War, the Sith Lord Darth Ikoral returned to the larger galaxy and embarked on a series of attacks against both the Empire and the Republic, viewing neither of the governments as acceptable due to his extreme belief that the Sith pureblood species was superior. Ikoral's flagship, the Red Reaper, attacked the planet and destroyed a enclave of the Jedi Order on Rhinnal. The enclave's destruction was sensed by Grand Master Satele Shan all the way on Tython in the Deep Core, and the Republic patrol frigate Toron Voq was destroyed by the Red Reaper when it was sent to investigate Rhinnal.

The Jedi chapter house was expanded decades before Clone Wars between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and Qui-Gon Jinn was one of the Jedi who delivered building materials to the chapter house because none could be procured from Rhinnal's ice-covered surface. The Corellian Zahara Cody was one of many who attended the Rhinnal State Medical Academy in Rhire, and the diagnostic database of the 2-1B surgical droid model was programmed by a team of surgical experts from the Academy.

In 33 BBY, the Jedi Master Adi Gallia was grievously injured on Esseles, and the Jedi Knights Vel Ardox and Noro Zak brought Gallia to Rhinnal for treatment. The Knights arrived at Rhinnal just after an electromagnetic storm had knocked out Rhire's power grid and all of the planet's communications satellites, preventing the Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi from making contact with Rhinnal over any of the standard channels, so his Master Qui-Gon Jinn decided to travel to Rhinnal to investigate. The Talz pilot Bama Vook brought the pair to the Rhinnal system, but when the chapter house did not respond to their hails, the two Jedi descended to the complex. However, when they learned of the storm, the two were also prevented from leaving, as another storm was due in three hours.

In 22 BBY, the Allied Tion Historical Society's "Cradle of the Galaxy" exhibit of pre-Republic artifacts began a tour of the Core Worlds on 13:4:1 on Ralltiir, and it arrived on Rhinnal five months later on 13:9:1. The exhibit was showcased in the Rhire Concourse of Humanity and History for five months before it moved on to Esseles on 14:2:3. Two weeks after the tour's announcement on 13:3:14, the State Medical Academy released their findings on the status of air pollution in the middle-class districts of the galactic capital of Coruscant, and two months later, the Academy's staff were among those health officials who criticized the high-gravity planet of Columus's marketing campaign towards the severely overweight.

The Empire and beyond
"With all those refugee convoys disappearing from Ralltiir and Rhinnal, this is more than just quiet."

- Mara Jade Skywalker, during the Yuuzhan Vong War

The Clone Wars ran from 22 BBY to 19 BBY, and at their end, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine reformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire and eradicated the Jedi Order. However, because of the planet's reputation, the chapter house on Rhinnal was spared from destruction unlike the other chapter houses across the galaxy, and it was taken over by Rhinnal's doctors. Under the Empire, Rhinnal was granted marginal independence, as the Esselian Empire had collapsed shortly before the Clone Wars due to financial difficulties. The Moff of the Darpa sector, Jander Graffe, reined in Esseles' power and overturned Rhinnal's classification as an Esselian colony, installing Phadreas Kole as an Imperial governor.

Kole was largely off-hands in his leadership, leading Rhinnalian opposition to the Empire to be muted until 4 ABY: six months after the Alliance to Restore the Republic killed Palpatine at the Battle of Endor, the newly-formed New Republic captured the nearby planet of Brentaal IV, rattled Rhinnal's citizens. An organized resistance movement soon formed and succeeded in overthrowing Kole in 7 ABY, and the planet became a valued member of the New Republic, sending its best doctors to combat the virulent Krytos virus that was ravaging Coruscant at the time. Six years later, they once again contributed their medical aid when the Death Seed plague threatened to spread across the galaxy, and when the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong species invaded the galaxy in 25 ABY, Rhinnal took in thousands of refugees from the Outer Rim Territories.

After the planet received ten thousand refugees from Ord Mantell, Governor-General Amer Tariq was forced to reroute two thousand more to the Ruan system, and he turned down Ambassador Leia Organa Solo's request to land more refugees, but sent her in the direction of Ruan. The Yuuzhan Vong began to capture refugees around Rhinnal during the months before their attack on Coruscant in 27 ABY, during which they used transports carrying refugees to bombard the capital's shields.

Inhabitants
"Rhinnal cannot possibly accept additional refugees at this time, even on a temporary basis.''" "Amer, if this is about funds&hellip;" "''Don't confuse Rhinnal with Ralltiir, my dear. It's simply that the ten thousand refugees we received from Ord Mantell have strained our resources to the breaking point."

- Amer Tariq and Leia Organa Solo

Rhinnalians, as the inhabitants of Rhinnal were known, were primarily Human, with Humans making up 92% of the population of 55 million. The planet's cities were centers of healing and business, producing doctors of great skill and renown, and Rhinnal was also a player in the textile industry, though the planet's Rhinnalian rugs were considered more of a luxury due to their high cost. The planet had a reputation among the Core Worlds of having an atmosphere of exclusivity, one which was reflected in manners, clothing, and decor, and Rhinnalians were considered experts in passive aggression, routinely snubbing off-worlders and aliens. Rhinnalian industry was also centered on cybernetics and pharmaceuticals in addition to their medical expertise.

Rhinnallians were markedly different to other Core Worlders, as they were fiercely loyal to their ethnic clans and major governmental decisions were made by the heads of those same clans. Rhinnalians were also fond of elaborate ceremonies; a total of eighty-four days of the planet's calendar were set aside for celebrations and holidays. Native Rhinnalians typically wore colorful, patterned clothing that had been hand-woven from the wool of the gabal. Rhinnal's medical community was more cosmopolitan, with most graduates of the Medical Academy being offworlders. Rhinnalian culture valued honor and style, traits that inspired their fascination with ceremony.

Locations
As much of the planet was still covered by glaciers, the inhabitants of Rhinnal mostly inhabited the world's more temperate equatorial regions. Rhinnal's capital city of Rhire, with over seven million inhabitants, lay along the north banks of the Frieste River in the southern fringes of the equatorial band, and it was home to both the Jedi chapter house and the Rhinnal State Medical Academy. Street traffic in the city was largely light, as most of the residents used the underground shuttle network known as the Circulation Network to get around Rhire, and hydroelectric energy plants along the banks of the Frieste powered the city.

The State Medical Academy covered many square kilometers in the heart of Rhire, with three working hospitals and dozens of classrooms, clinics, and laboratories. The three hospitals each catered to a different group: one specialized in treating Humans, a second humanoid aliens, and a third treated aliens whose biology was radically different than humanoids. To the north of Rhire was the Zirfan glacier and the Sennes Mountains, where native Rhinnalian clans hunted the wild gabals for their wool and schools of fireheads lived in the ice of the glacier. V-Fin submersible ice breakers were frequently used by recreational tourists to tour the planet's oceans and poles, though cheaper submersibles were used when exploring the less dangerous riverbeds and submerged caves of Rhinnal's waterways. The clan village of Austogie was located to the south of Rhire in the territory of the Kieger clan.

Behind the scenes
Rhinnal was first mentioned in the Into the Core Worlds segment of Star Wars Adventure Journal 7, published in 1995, which gave an overview of the planets in the Ringali Shell. It continued to receive mentions in a number of sources and materials, but the planet's first actual appearance was in Episode I Adventures 3: The Fury of Darth Maul, which was released in 1999. The 2003 roleplaying guide Coruscant and the Core Worlds mistakenly used its picture of Rhinnal for the planet Ralltiir, a mistake that was repeated in the 2008The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * Episode I Adventures 1: Search for the Lost Jedi
 * Episode I Adventures 2: The Bartokk Assassins
 * Episode I Adventures 3: The Fury of Darth Maul
 * Episode I Adventures 4: Jedi Emergency
 * Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth
 * Death Troopers
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Star by Star
 * Millennium Falcon
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Star by Star
 * Millennium Falcon