The galaxy/Legends

"Galaxy upon galaxy. Vast, unexplored realms of space. It is a wild, untamed universe we live in. There is much danger here and therefore much need for armies, generals, and soldiers. But along with those who wage war there is also much need for those who explore new worlds and make possible the exchange of knowledge and goods&hellip;who bring civilization."

- Mungo Baobab

The galaxy was one of the quadrillions of galaxies that existed in the universe. This galaxy was particularly important since it was the setting of the histories of the Galactic Republic, the Galactic Civil War, the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Jedi and the Sith.

According to some sources, the galaxy was 120,000 light years across, or 37,000 Parsecs (a parsec is 3.258 light years), and approximately 13 billion years old. A black hole existed at the center of the galaxy. The galaxy was orbited by seven satellite galaxies: Companion Aurek (also known as the Rishi Maze), Firefist, and Companions Cresh through Grek. However, most of the Companions were described as having ancient, metal-poor stars and not much life. There was also a Hyperspace disturbance beyond the edge of the galaxy that prevented hyperspace routes outside the disk. The galaxy had nearly two hundred globular clusters.

There were approximately 400 billion stars and around half of these had planets that could support life. Ten percent of those planets developed life, while sentient life developed in 1/1,000 of those (about 20 million). The galaxy was populated by approximately 100 quadrillion different life forms.

History
"&hellip;there's very little in this universe that rises above the mean and petty. Maybe the stars themselves."

- Princess Leia Organa



Before recorded history, the first known galaxy-spanning political entity was the Infinite Empire of the Rakata, which ended long before the forming of the official so-called "galactic civilization".

The galaxy as an official entity began to exist millennia later, when Humans discovered hyperspace travel and met other sentient races. When several worlds and species came to know each other, they formed a loose affiliation that accepted common laws and currency, and the Galactic Republic became the "official" galactic government. The smaller Sith Empire rivaled the Republic, and the beginnings of that rivalry were religious&mdash;the understanding of the Force. The Sith were defeated and reemerged several times.

Finally, after a millennium of hiding, the Sith managed to restore their Empire, after dissolving the Republic and replacing it with the short lived Galactic Empire. The Empire lasted for two decades of tyranny, but after the Galactic Civil War, eventually the Republic was restored. Despite this, the remnants of the Empire would continue to resist the new government for over a decade before finally signing a peace treaty.

Not long after that, an extragalactic species known as the Yuuzhan Vong launched an invasion of the galaxy. Their invasion devastated much of the galaxy, including Coruscant, though they were eventually defeated.

Some of the Yuuzhan Vong were incorporated in the galactic community, and in the course of 1.5 centuries several governments alternated, including the restoration of the Empire, although not dark side-oriented. This Galactic Empire warred against the new Sith Order who were reformed.

Astrography
"I've flown from one end of this galaxy to the other, and I've seen a lot of strange stuff."

- Han Solo

The galaxy was divided into ten main regions. They are listed here in ascending order of distance from the core to the fringe. These regions were further divided into various sectors, systems, planets and possibly moons.

Deep Core
At the very heart of the galaxy, the Deep Core (a.k.a. Core Systems) was a small region that hid unusual worlds. Due to the gravitational pull of the vast number of stars, local space-time was severely warped, making hyperspace travel difficult at best with a black hole in the center. The region was thought to be almost inaccessible until Emperor Palpatine found several safe hyperlanes into the region. The area remained an Imperial stronghold almost twenty years after the Battle of Endor.

Core Worlds
An ancient region bordering the outlying areas of the Deep Core, the Core Worlds were some of the most prestigious, well-developed, well-known, and heavily populated planets in the galaxy. The Galactic Republic and subsequently all galaxywide governments were born in the Core Worlds and spread out over the galaxy. During both the time of the Republic and Empire, Coruscant, a major core world, was the Galactic Capital. The Humans are supposed to have originated from this region.

Colonies
The Colonies was the name given to a region of the galaxy between the Core Worlds and the Inner Rim. It was among the first areas outside the Core to be colonized, and the worlds here were typically heavily populated, industrialized, and cultured.

During its reign, the Galactic Empire was very forceful in controlling the Colonies, and as a result, the New Republic gained support quickly there.

Inner Rim
The Inner Rim was a region of the galaxy between the Colonies and the Expansion Region. It was originally just called "The Rim", as it was expected to be the farthest extent of the Known Galaxy for centuries, but the Expanded Rim (later renamed the Expansion Region) was opened within a hundred years of the Inner Rim.

During the reign of Palpatine, the Galactic Empire ruthlessly controlled the Inner Rim. Rather than rebel, many residents chose to flee to the Outer Rim Territories.

After the Battle of Endor, the Empire, despite its unpopularity, held the region far longer than expected; many later resented the New Republic's sluggishness in liberating the region. Many worlds, despite joining the New Republic, were openly afraid that the government was not strong enough to maintain power. Their concerns were born following the return of Palpatine, when the Empire reclaimed most of the Inner Rim.

Expansion Region
The Expansion Region was an experiment in corporate-controlled worlds, with powerful corporations exploiting and profiting heavily from the planets for their raw materials, metals and ores. Inhabitants were oppressed while the corporations stripped entire stellar systems of all their resources. Eventually civil unrest spread from system to system. The Galactic Republic eventually took control of the system due to mounting pressure from its denizens by limiting or evicting corporate interests. Expansion Region worlds continued to be producers of raw materials and ores. However, most natural resources were exhausted by the Imperial era.

Mid Rim
With fewer natural resources (and therefore a smaller population) than many neighboring regions, the Mid Rim was a territory where residents worked hard for everything they had. Several planets had built up impressive economies, and pirate raiders often hid in the relatively unexplored spaces far from major trade routes.

Outer Rim Territories
The Outer Rim Territories was the last widely settled expanse before Wild Space and the Unknown Regions. It was the birth place of the Dark Lord Revan, and was also where the Mandalorians began their crusades in the hope of provoking the Galactic Republic into war. The Jedi Exile was also known to have grown up on Dantooine, which was one of the Outer Rim worlds. It was strewn with obscure worlds, and rugged, primitive frontier planets. Due to its distance from the Core, the region was home to many supporters of the Rebel Alliance. The Empire's Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin was assigned the difficult task of bringing the entire Outer Rim, a Rebel alliance supporter, in line.

Tingel Arm
The Tingel Arm was an exterior spiral arm of the galaxy. It contained the Corporate Sector Authority, a political entity which was partially-independent of the Galactic Republic and the Galactic Empire. Under the Galactic Empire, the sector expanded from a few hundred to thirty thousand systems.

Wild Space
Wild Space was the frontier of galactic society, separating the known parts of the galaxy from the Unknown Regions. One of Palpatine's last acts was to open up much of the region to more extensive exploration. Wild Space differed from the Unknown Regions in that some of Wild Space has been explored, though not extensively; the Unknown Regions remained mysterious.

Unknown Regions
The term "Unknown Regions" most commonly referred to the large, unexplored region (which some interpret to have been outside the plane of the galactic disk) between Bakura and the Imperial Remnant, which was largely dominated by the Chiss Ascendancy. The Unknown Regions comprised only a few billion stars, out of a galactic total of 400 billion. For reasons yet to be demonstrated there was a lack of reliable hyperspace routes through the region. The "Unknown Regions" designation included uncharted areas in dense nebulae, globular clusters, and the galactic halo. The Galactic Empire launched many expeditions to discover and conquer Unknown Region sectors. Past the region’s outer edge, was the hyperspace disturbance beyond the edge of the galaxy.

Traffic routes
Various established "ways" like hyperlanes passed through the sectors. These routes were explored and established by spacers known as hyperspace explorers (like Gav Daragon and Aitro Koornacht). Astromech droids had the responsibility of guiding spaceships through these routes.


 * Rimma Trade Route
 * Perlemian Trade Route
 * Hydian Way
 * Corellian Run
 * Corellian Trade Spine
 * Kessel Run
 * Ison Trade Corridor
 * Sisar Run
 * Myto's Arrow
 * Daragon Trail

Government and politics
Various governments have ruled within the galaxy over the millennia, the earliest known galaxy-spanning government being the Infinite Empire. Other significant political powers within the galaxy included:


 * Bothan Space
 * The Centrality
 * Chiss Ascendancy
 * Confederacy of Independent Systems
 * Confederation
 * Corporate Sector Authority
 * Cronese Mandate
 * Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire
 * Empire of the Hand
 * Expansion Region
 * Fel Empire
 * Galactic Alliance
 * Galactic Empire
 * Galactic Republic
 * Hapes Cluster
 * Hutt Space
 * Imperial Remnant
 * Juvex Sector
 * Mandalorian Space
 * Senex Sector
 * Sith Empire
 * Sith Empire (Jedi Civil War)
 * Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium
 * Tion Cluster
 * Tion Hegemony
 * Vagaari Empire
 * Yuuzhan Vong Empire

Economy
The galactic economy was very complex and diverse. The main currency of the Galactic Republic was the credit, divided into ten decicreds.

Races and species


Life developed in 10% of the habitable planets, while sentient life developed in 1/1,000 of those (about 20 million sentient species). It was estimated that they together totaled 100 quadrillion beings.

In classical history, the dominating species have been Humans. Possibly originating from the Core Worlds, Humans had been the basis of the major governments. Sentients other than Humans (examples: Twi'leks, Hutts, Mon Calamari) were simply known as "aliens". Aliens were also distinguished as humanoid or not.

Although not considered a race for obvious reasons, droids formed a significant part, helping and coexisting with the population. On Naboo, higher level droids were considered equal as fellow sentients.

Extragalactic interaction
Extragalactic aliens (species coming from another galaxy) were believed to have visited, by unknown means, the galaxy in an unknown point in the past for unknown reasons, and made contact with the galactic species.

Extragalactic travel was difficult due to a Hyperspace disturbance beyond the edge of the galaxy that prevented hyperspace routes very far outside the disk. However, by the time of the Clone Wars, contact had been established with the two small galaxies orbiting the Galaxy: Rishi Maze (also known as Companion Aurek) and Firefist (also known as Companion Besh). The Intergalactic Banking Clan had influence as far as these locations.

The Extragalactic Society was an organization devoted to the search for life outside the galaxy. During the last days of the Republic and according to Republic HoloNet News Special Inaugural Edition 16:5:241, the Brodo Asogi leader, Senator Grebleips sent an expedition to another galaxy but all information about the outcome of this endeavor is unknown.

The best known Extragalactic aliens were the Abominor, Silentium, and the invaders Yuuzhan Vong who almost managed to destroy the galactic civilization, while it was just recovering from the Galactic Civil War.

Speech
The lingua franca of the galaxy was the Human language that evolved in the Galactic Basic Standard. Its origins must have been the vernacular speech of Humans and was partially derived from several ancient Human languages, like Olys Corellisi. Humans being the dominant species of the galaxy, Intergalactic Basic has been adopted by many alien species as well.

The second most common language was Huttese, expanded through the criminal and financial activity of the Hutts, and has been as well adopted by other races that were in close cooperation with them through the ages, like the Rodians.

It was possible for droids to have fluency in millions of forms of communication, and based on them, could also understand and improvise in even more. Protocol droids were essential in interracial relations as translators and interpreters.

Behind the scenes


Among fans, the galaxy is referred to as "the Star Wars Galaxy" or "the galaxy far, far away"(GFFA for short). The Galactic Federation of Free Alliances was actually named after this acronym.

The galaxy was said to contain a "type 3" civilization (in the Kardashev scale — whereas Earth is home to a "type 0.7" civilization). This scale takes into account the level of integration and civilization between peoples (albeit this integration also involves different species, rather than just racial variations of only one sentient species, as it is on a sole planet), which in essence form one single "galactic civilization", given the political unification (despite the few separatisms) and the integration of the worlds in spite of the considerable distances (with effective means of transportation).

Nothing connects the Star Wars galaxy with ours (the Milky Way), other than that Humans have developed in both, but this coincidence has never been implied to be anything other than independent evolutionary processes. However, if we are to consider a crossover between Star Wars and E.T. based on the mention of Brodo Asogi and its extra-galactic expedition, we can infer the following: the Brodo Asogi Senator, Grebleips, sent an expedition to another galaxy. This may have been our galaxy, and we can assume that is how E.T. ended up on Earth. The movie says that E.T. is a being three million light years from home (our galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years wide and its closest neighbor (Andromeda) is approximately 2.5 million light years away), so his home planet has to be in another galaxy other than the Milky Way or Andromeda, perhaps the Star Wars galaxy. E.T.'s home galaxy would therefore be part of the Local Group and the Virgo Supercluster at approximately a megaparsec away from us. However, this would mean, E.T.'s home galaxy (and, possibly, the Star Wars galaxy) would not be, on a universal scale, a galaxy far, far away but one of approximately forty galaxies that are our "neighbors". In any case, the fictional Star Wars galaxy is (at least theoretically) on the same plane of existence as ours, as it is a supposedly finite distance of "far, far away" from the Milky Way.

Andromeda however is one of the few galaxies moving towards the Milky Way, due to the gravitational attraction between the two galaxies overcoming the metric expansion of space. As the Star Wars saga took place "a long, long time ago", it can be hypothesised that a Brodo Asogi expedetion left Andromeda when the two galaxies were at a distance closer to 3 million light years. A candidate that is currently closer to this distance from the Milky Way is the Triangulum galaxy, however it is only estimated to be 50,000ly in diameter. It is also possible that the Galaxy is Pinwheel Galaxy, which is located 25 million light-years away, however it is 170,000 light years across, as opposed to 120,000 light years, mentioned in canon.

The Empire Strikes Back debate


At the end of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, a celestial object is seen that many fans have interpreted to be the galaxy as seen from several hundred thousand light years away. Other fans have said that it rotates too fast to be a galaxy and at that distance a galaxy would not emit as much light as is portrayed in the film. Telescopes create the deceiving effect of increasing the brightness of distant objects while magnifying them, creating the perception that extremely distant objects are brighter than in reality. In reality, the galaxy should be very dim, barely perceptible even, at such a distance.

Some sources have said that the Rebel fleet spent some time hiding outside the galactic disk, probably intending to refer to this scene. According to Tales of the Bounty Hunters' story Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM, the object in the film is the galaxy, and the Rebel fleet had journeyed to a point in space well-removed from the galactic plane. This point was not outside of the galactic plane, per se, but rather above the galactic plane.

The film's director, Irvin Kershner, refers to the object as "a galaxy" on the Audio Commentary feature of the 2004 DVD release. The Complete Star Wars Trilogy Scrapbook identifies the object as a spinning star formation.

In Attack of the Clones, a map of the galaxy was visible with two smaller "satellite galaxies" at its outer regions. One of them was called "the Rishi Maze", while the other was unnamed. It is possible that what the Millennium Falcon flew towards was one of them. Attack of the Clones also introduces an organization called the "InterGalactic Banking Clan", further evidence that the galaxy's civilization may have incorporated these other galaxies. The Episode II DVD-ROM Exclusive Content states that the cluster known as the Rishi Maze may be the bright object that Luke and Leia stare at at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.

However, in 2003 Leland Chee confirmed on the StarWars.com Message Boards that the object seen in Episode V is indeed the Star Wars galaxy.

The nameless galaxy
So far, no serious attempt has been made to give the galaxy an official name, or how its inhabitants name or refer to it with an astronomical name (the way we refer to our galaxy as the "Milky Way").

However, the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies comprises several computer servers to accommodate the player population, each representing parallel "galaxies". Each of these "galaxies" is named after famous starships, and while none of these names should really be considered as possible names, it is the closest any official material has come to naming the Star Wars galaxy. These names are: Ahazi, Bloodfin, Bria, Chilastra, Chimaera, Corbantis, Eclipse, FarStar, Flurry, Gorath, Harla, Infinity, Intrepid, Katana, Kauri, Kettemoor, Lowca, Naritus, Radiant, Scylla, Shadowfire, Starsider, Sunrunner, Tarquinas, Valcyn, and Wanderhome.

According to The Essential Atlas, the Nagai of Firefist refer to the main galaxy as Skyriver.

History of published maps
There have been several publications which were released containing maps of the galaxy. Some of these would be the novels in the New Jedi Order series. The recently released The Essential Atlas contains numerous maps of different sections of the galaxy as well as a complete galactic map.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
 * Star Wars Battlefront
 * Star Wars Battlefront II
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: Empire at War
 * Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars 38: Riders in the Void
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
 * Star Wars: TIE Fighter
 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
 * The Last Command
 * Balance Point
 * Balance Point