Nar Shaddaa/Legends

Nar Shaddaa was the largest moon of Nal Hutta. More commonly known as the Vertical City, the Smuggler's Moon and Little Coruscant, Nar Shaddaa was similar to Coruscant in that its surface was entirely overgrown with city sprawl since 24,500 BBY But unlike Coruscant – which was only relatively dangerous on the lower levels of the world city – Nar Shaddaa was filthy, polluted, and infested with crime throughout.

Old Republic
When the Hutts left their homeworld of Varl, they displaced the Evocii, native to Nal Hutta, to Nar Shaddaa in 25,000 BBY and immediatly destroyed the remaining Evocii agriculture after the Evocii's eviction from their own homeworld. Eventually the moon was annexed by the Hutts, who started to force the Evocii into slave labor, building spaceports and docking bays acrossed its surface, some stretching out into orbit. Although the moon's urbanized construction had just started, it quickly began to prosper, along with Nal Hutta.

In 24,500 BBY the moon was completely urbanized, and the Evocii were finally free since their work was complete. It rivaled the galactic capital Coruscant as an important center of interstellar trade and continued to grow. Ancient refueling spires and loading docks reached out from the native soil and some built in the upper atmosphere. In between these ports, massive vertical cities grew. The urban areas on Nar Shaddaa were known as vertical cities since new layers of housing and entertainment buildings were built on top of older layers, like Coruscant and another urban world Taris.

In 24,000 BBY when the trade lanes shifted, Nar Shaddaa and its planet became obselete and were eventually abandoned by the Republic. It was also during this time that the Hutts relocated the Evocii in the undercity, since there was no longer any law enforcement by the Galactic Republic. The Evocii began to mutate into unwholesome savages due to various technologies practiced in the moon's undercity. However, the moon did not fall into disrepair entirely, since Nar Shaddaa and Nal Hutta allied itself with the Honorable Union of Desevro & Tion, thus some prosperity still remained. This new prosperity lasted all the way through the Tionese War, which lasted an entire century.

After the end of the Tionese War around 23,900 BBY, Nar Shaddaa became a criminal haven and gained a reputation of being the center of illegal operations in the galaxy, earning the moniker "The Smugglers' Moon". While much of Coruscant was filled with gleaming apartments and well-maintained skywalks, the entire moon that was Nar Shaddaa was dominated by decaying urban landscape and congested, polluted cities. Now distant from most galactic trade centers, the moon was allowed to run its own affairs with little outside interference.

The moon was protected by often malfunctioning planetary shields. Anything illegal elsewhere could be bought and sold on Nar Shaddaa, and many young smugglers, pirates and criminals started their careers on the Smugglers' Moon. Various sections of Nar Shaddaa were controlled by the Hutts and other criminal organizations.

Sections of the urbanized moon's vertical city included the Duros sector and the Corellian sector, which contained three bars popular with bounty hunters &mdash; the Burning Deck, the Slag Pit, and the Meltdown Café – as well as another corner tavern called the Orange Lady.



In 3,951 BBY, the moon was visited by the Jedi Exile in her search for Zez-Kai Ell, a Jedi Master who cast her out of the Jedi Order. After the Jedi Civil War ended, Nar Shaddaa became swarmed by thousands – if not millions – of refugees from destroyed worlds across the Galaxy, and still more ex-soldiers from both sides in the conflict choking up its spaces looking for work and / or new homes. Its refugee sector was one of the most crowded in the entire galaxy, and tightly controlled by the Exchange. The Exchange was exploiting the refugees to lure any remaining Jedi into their hands. The Exile did many things to hurt the Exchange – including killing Visquis, one of their criminal bosses – and eventually got captured by G0-T0. But her companions rescued her and they succeeded in destroying G0-T0's yacht, destabilizing the Exchange and other criminal organizations throughout the entire sector for many years.

Around 1,002 BBY, the Brotherhood of Darkness operated a Sith academy on the world that specialized in the training of Sith Assassins. In 1,000 BBY, after the Battle of Ruusan, Set Harth and Bal Serinus dueled on the moon, but were both imprisoned by a Hutt crimelord.

Before her death in 32 BBY at the hands of Darth Maul, native-born Pa'lowick Aneesa Dym and her ship the Dusty Duck called the Smugglers' Moon home.

In 28 BBY, the Colicoids took over the spice processing on Nar Shaddaa. Han Solo spent part of his early career as a smuggler on Nar Shaddaa. There, he learned the tricks of the smuggling trade from some of the galaxy's best smugglers such as Salla Zend, Shug Ninx and Roa. He had an apartment on the Smugglers' Moon, which was maintained by his old house-keeping droid ZeeZee, but after he decided to leave the moon for the Corporate Sector, it was left unused.

Galactic Empire


Jaxxon and Amaiza Foxtrain teamed up as smugglers, headquartered on the moon. Lando Calrissian also spent his early career on Nar Shaddaa. Prior to serving Raymus Antilles, C-3PO and R2-D2 traveled to the Smuggler's Moon in an attempt to apprehend the criminal, Olag Greck. The bounty hunter Greedo the Younger and his family lived in the moon's Corellian sector for several years, until an Imperial attack on a Rebel hideout resulted in the destruction and collapse of nearly twenty sector levels. Following the Battle of Yavin, Rebel agent Kyle Katarn traveled to Nar Shaddaa in order to find Imperial navigational charts related to the Dark Trooper Project; the Imperials had already put a bounty on his head which resulted in a skirmish in the streets.

New Republic


In 5 ABY Katarn caused havoc once more while chasing the information broker droid 8t88 that had his father's holodisc. When he found him, Kyle shot and severed the droid's arm, and had to descend into the sewers to find the disc before ascending and being picked up by Jan Ors.

In 10 ABY, Han Solo returned with his wife, Leia Organa Solo. During the trip, Leia met Purge survivor named Vima-Da-Boda, who gave her an ancient lightsaber. When, he returned to his apartment, it was still being maintained by ZeeZee. Unfortunately, there was yet another surprise for him – the dreaded bounty hunter Boba Fett, waiting on Nar Shaddaa to capture Solo. After a chase through the streets of Nar Shaddaa, they escaped along with Solo's former comrades Salla Zend and Shug Ninx on the Millennium Falcon and the Starlight Intruder to Byss.

Later that year, while en-route to New Alderaan, Han and Leia along with his smuggler friends returned to Nar Shaddaa. Upon arriving at the city moon, they discovered an Imperial presence in the form of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Invincible, which was under the command of the Dark Jedi Zasm Kath and Baddon Fass. During an adventure through Nar Shaddaa's broken-down cities, they encountered Gank bounty hunters, Boba Fett, Imperial troops, and deadly vrblthers. The Solos also met Vima again, and this time, took her with them. As they were leaving Nar Shaddaa, they were met with resistance from Mako Spince and the Invincible, though they also managed to escape. During the escape, the Invincible attempted to capture the Falcon, though unfortunately it dragged the skyscraper where Mako Spince was located. As a result, the Invincible crashed onto the surrounding cityscape, causing heavy damage to lives and property.



In 13 ABY while looking for Desann, Kyle Katarn once more returned to the city and looked for Rodian crimelord Reelo Baruk. He freed Lando Calrissian from Baruk's hold and eventually found him; however the gangster managed to entrap him in a room full of turrets, but the Jedi escaped. Katarn and Calrissian managed to find Lady Luck and refuel her, using pipelines. When they were about to make their escape from Nar Shaddaa, Reelo attacked them with a handful of mercenaries. The criminal used a gun platform to hit the ship while his thugs boarded the ship, but Katarn leapt into the laser turret of the Lady Luck and shot down the gangster.

In 14 ABY, Lannik Racto manufactured droids in a hidden facility on the moon and sold them on the Invisible Market, until Jaden Korr captured him at his headquarters on Coruscant, where Racto revealed the location of the factory.

Yuuzhan Vong Empire
In 26 ABY, the cities of the Smuggler's Moon were destroyed in a orbital bombardment by the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong. Most of the inhabitants were killed and the entire urban moon was reduced into rubble.

The mutant Evocii had been among the few survivors since they were living at the very moon surface itself and were not caught in the orbital bombardment.

The entire Y'Toub system was surrounded by some of the Yuuzhan Vong's deadliest warships. Nar Shaddaa had several organic creations sent down to the remains of the surface for multiple purposes.

Different types of bacteria killed off all of the remaining inhabitants. All the Evocii among them thus the Evocii on Nar Shaddaa became extinct, living in the undercity since their civilized ancestors were banished down in 24,000 BBY. Then all the carcases, Evocii or not, were buried and dissolved into the soil of the original surface of Ground Zero.

Next, all the rubble on the moon was broken down and absorbed into the soil. Thus Nar Shaddaa became a lifeless, barren world with no inhabitants. The surface of Nar Shaddaa was then Vongformed – to an unknown result – to suit the invaders.

Nar Shaddaa, along with Nal Hutta inself – and indeed all of the Y'Toub system – in the Yuuzhan Vong's grasps was used as a strong hold in Hutt Space. The entire Hutt Oversector was swallowed up by the Yuuzhan Vong Empire and began to desolate the Hutt Empire in 26 ABY. In 28 ABY the last remnant of the old Hutt Empire was desolated since the resistance movement was put down by the Yuuzhan Vong, forcing the Hutts to abandon Nal Hutta and take refuge on Tatooine.

Legacy
In 29 ABY when the Yuuzhan Vong were defeated they presumably abandoned the moon and Nal Hutta. Though Nar Shaddaa was Vongformed, after the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War, it again became a haven for smugglers in 29 ABY, although its unknown if the Hutts ever reclaimed the moon. These criminals, who were fortunate enough to have survived the Yuuzhan Vong War, were few. The moon, along with the planet, joined the Confederation in 40 ABY, although the Hutts themselves were relatively neutral during the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War. Later in the war, however, the Hutts eventually joined their fellow Non-Hutt criminals in the great conflict.

Behind the scenes
The galaxy map from Star Wars Insider #65 incorrectly identifies Nar Shaddaa as its own planet, while it is in fact the moon of Nal Hutta.

Notes and references
Nar Shaddaa Nar Shaddaa Нар Шаддаа