Coruscant/Legends

"Coruscant&hellip; the entire planet is one big city."

- Ric Olié

The Galactic Center of Coruscant was the political hub of the Galaxy for millennia. During the Empire's rule, it was also known as Imperial Center.

It was generally agreed that Coruscant was the most important world in the Galaxy. At various times, it was the capital of the Galactic Republic, the Galactic Empire, the New Republic, the Yuuzhan Vong occupation and the Galactic Alliance. A large number of the Galaxy's trade routes&mdash;including the Perlemian Trade Route, the Corellian Run, the Metellos Trade Route, the Koros Trunk Line, and the Leisure Corridor&mdash;went through Coruscant, making it one of the richest worlds in the Galaxy. Tellingly, the planet's hyperspace coordinates were (0,0,0).

The actual planet-wide city of Coruscant was known as Galactic City or Republic City under the Galactic Republic, Imperial City or Coruscant City during the rule of the Galactic Empire, and New Republic City under the New Republic.

Planetary features


The entire surface of Coruscant had been covered over throughout the thousands of generations of galactic history by sprawling skyscrapers and cities. These skyscrapers dwarfed all the original natural features including mountains and now dry bodies of oceans which once covered a large proportion of Coruscant's surface. All natural bodies of water had been drained and stored in vast caverns beneath the city as a result of years of overpopulation. The only body of water visible was the artificial Western Sea, with many artificially-created islands floating on it, used by tourists on holidays. One of the few pieces of Coruscant's landmass that were left untouched were the Manarai Mountains, twin peaks that stuck up out of the ground near the famous Imperial Palace. Many floating restaurants revolved around the Mountains, giving patrons a unique view of the natural wonders. Below the skyscrapers was Coruscant's undercity, where sunlight never reached. Artificial lighting illuminated these lower levels and advertisement holograms could be seen everywhere. There were numerous establishments for entertainment, catering to a myriad of alien species. The lowest levels were abandoned to mutants and scavengers, such as the cannibalistic Cthons.



With no bodies of water available to feed and water its trillion inhabitants, Coruscant's architects, along with many others from around the Galaxy, worked together to build a self-contained eco-system in the massive buildings set all over the planet. Polar cap stations also melted ice and distributed water throughout the planetwide city through a complex series of pipes. Almost everything on the planet, from clothes to packaging and machinery, was recyclable. Another problem for a world like Coruscant was the unimaginable amounts of carbon dioxide and heat energy that its trillion-being population generated each day, so thousands of carbon dioxide reactive atmospheric dampeners were put into place in the upper atmosphere to prevent atmospheric degeneration. Galactic Standard Time was developed on Coruscant and revolved around the hours Coruscant had in a single day, which was 24 hours, with 368 local days a year.



Coruscant also orbited relatively far from its tiny star Coruscant Prime, ranging from 207 million to 251 million km. Thus, Coruscant did not naturally have a climate suitable for Humans. Coruscant's Humans countered this by erecting a series of orbital mirrors that reflected the sun's warmth and light.



Galactic City was divided into several thousand quadrants, with each quadrant subdivided into numbered sectors. Some of these numbered sectors received colloquial names. For example, H-46 was also called Sah'c Town, named for the family that owned much of it. Some areas were specifically designated senatorial, governmental, financial (including banking zones), commercial, and residential. Larger areas of the planet were designated for industrial or manufacturing use only. The largest of these areas was known colloquially as "The Works". The Works had manufactured spacecraft parts, droids, and building materials at an astonishing rate for hundreds of years, but as construction in space became more efficient, The Works fell in disrepair. It gained the reputation as a hub of high criminal activity and many locals stayed away from it. Another area of Coruscant was CoCo Town (short for "collective commerce"). Many diverse species lived there and worked in manufacturing.

Fauna
"I've never been to Coruscant before&hellip;It looks so vibrant, so full of life."

- Odan-Urr


 * Conduit worm
 * Coruscanti ogre
 * Cthon
 * Duracrete slug
 * Gartro
 * Granite slug
 * Hawk-bat
 * Stratt
 * Ringed moon shadowmoth
 * Spider-roach
 * Bot flies
 * Armored rat
 * Floater flea
 * Thranticill
 * Glowflies
 * Garbage worm
 * Spire falcon
 * Shadow barnacle
 * Dianoga
 * Grate toad
 * Scrap mouse
 * Mutant Rat

Pre-Republic
Coruscant was considered by many to be the Human homeworld. Millennia ago, the Architects could have removed Humans from Coruscant with which to populate Corellia.

Around 200,000 BBY, the near-Human Taungs attempted to conquer the 13 baseline Human nations of the Battalions of Zhell. A volcano decimated the Zhell, the ash filling the skies for two years, so the Taungs adopted the name Dha Werda Verda (Warriors of Shadow) for themselves. The Human Zhell eventually recovered and drove the Taungs offworld&mdash;the Taungs fled to Roon.

One hundred millennia later, Coruscant was surveyed by the Columi, who dismissed the planet as a primitive disappointment, despite the planet-spanning ecumenopolis of Galactic City. New buildings were built on the old. As a result, there was virtually no exposed land. In the forgotten underlevels of the city, there was darkness, pollution and crime. Higher up, there were government offices and penthouses owned by the elite. The lower 50 levels of the ecumenopolis last saw sunlight around 95,000 BBY.

Coruscant was one of many worlds conquered by the Infinite Empire of the Rakata, who used human slaves to build the Star Forge in 30,000 BBY. Under Rakatan domination, the humans of Coruscant's colonization attempts were limited to sleeper ships, which ended up on Alderaan, in the Tion Cluster, Seoul 5, Kuat, Alsakan, Axum, Anaxes, Atrisia, Metellos, Corulag, and many other worlds. The Rakata were eventually decimated by a massive plague, leading to slave revolutions on Coruscant and other subjected worlds.

Over the next two centuries, Coruscant was linked to other Core Worlds, including Corellia and Duro, by hyperspace cannons. It was during this time that the Coruscant government peacefully absorbed the nearby Azure Imperium. During these pre-Republic years, the languages of Coruscant and its neighbors meshed to become Old Galactic Standard.

Early Republic
In 25,000 BBY, the Corellians and Duros invented the hyperdrive proper, allowing Coruscant to become the capital of a democratic union&mdash;the Galactic Republic. The planet remained the Republic's capital for twenty five thousand years. Shortly after the formation of the Republic, the Perlemian Trade Route was mapped, linking Coruscant to Ossus and bringing the Jedi Knights into the Republic. Over the next millennium, the Corellian Run was mapped, linking Coruscant to Corellia and beyond. Blasters were also invented on Coruscant around this time, and the famous Galactic Museum was constructed in 12,000 BBY.

From the very beginning, Coruscant, as the Republic's capital, was the primary objective in several wars. The earliest among these was the Tionese War with the Honorable Union of Desevro and Tion in 24,000 BBY, in which Coruscant was bombarded with Tionese pressure bombs. Other early battles included the Alsakan Conflicts, the Duinuogwuin Contention, the Great Hyperspace War, the Third Great Schism, the Great Droid Revolution, and the Great Sith War.

Following the devastation of Ossus, the Jedi Council took up residence in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, to which many Jedi relics from Ossus were taken. The Temple was greatly expanded, including the building of the original Jedi Council Chamber. The Temple was repeatedly expanded including in 3,519 BBY, 2,519 BBY (when the Jedi Archives were built), 2,019 BBY, and 1,000 BBY (when the Temple spires were built).

In 2,973 BBY, the Senate Rotunda was founded, replacing the previous assembly place. The exterior of this massive structure would survive the planet's transformation into the new Yuuzhan'tar.

End of the Republic
In 31 BBY, Coruscant was almost destroyed by Ashaar Khorda using the Infant of Shaa. Jango Fett, Zam Wesell, and Yarael Poof saved Coruscant, although Poof sacrificed himself to do so.

In 23 BBY, near the end of the Separatist Crisis, the Confederacy of Independent Systems began to become a significant threat against the Republic, causing several systems to secede, including Ando and Sy Myrth, resulting in a mass exodus of Aqualish and Sy Myrthians from Coruscant.

During most of the Clone Wars, Coruscant was subject to frequent Separatist terrorist acts and assassinations of leading Republic figures. These included the holding of Senator Meena Tills hostage by Korunnai terrorists in 22 BBY (actually cover for an attempt to turn the Corporate Sector against the Republic). 21 BBY saw a wave of such disasters, including the Coruscant Insurrection and the assassinations of Finis Valorum and Senator Viento. Such incidents prompted the Republic to implement numerous changes on Coruscant in the name of increased security. Huge stretches of the cityscape were transformed into military staging areas, and clone troopers were seen everywhere. The fanatical pro-human COMPOR was founded, the local SAGroup led by Nenevanth Tion marching in a patriotism parade. COMPOR pressured Tannon Praji into deporting from the capital all members of species whose homeworld had joined the Confederacy. Vice-Admiral Terrinald Screed was placed in charge of Coruscant Planetary Defense.

Yet in 19 BBY, the Confederacy of Independent Systems succeeded in making a raid on Coruscant. Using secret hyperspace routes through the Deep Core provided by Darth Sidious, a Separatist fleet under the command of the dreaded General Grievous made a raid on the city planet. While the Separatist fleet engaged the Republic fleet, an army of battle droids landed on Galactic City. The invasion distracted the defending Jedi and clone forces while General Grievous and a squad of his elite MagnaGuards captured the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. However, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi succeeded in rescuing the Supreme Chancellor from the infamous Separatist flagship Invisible Hand. The Second Battle of Coruscant eventually turned to the Republic's favor and the Separatist's armada was forced into a full retreat. Near the end of the Clone Wars, Coruscant was transformed into Imperial Center following Chancellor Palpatine's Declaration of a New Order, reorganizing the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire.

Galactic Empire
"Imperial Center was a world with enough diversions for just about anyone."

- Mara Jade Skywalker

During the reign of Emperor Palpatine, the official name of Coruscant was Imperial Center, or occasionally just Center. While the name was officially changed, most denizens of the Empire continued to call the planet-city by its old name. As part of the Humanocentric policies of the Galaxy, non-Human species were also compelled to live in segregated parts (also known as "ethnic neighborhoods") of Imperial City, such as Invisec.

During Imperial times, a proclamation by Palpatine made Imperial Center the only planet in the Galaxy where political science students could do postgraduate work. The reason was twofold: foremost was the hope that the future politicians and technocrats of the Galaxy would be more likely to accept the values and rule of the New Order; second was that the brightest of them could be detained, either voluntarily or by force, on Center to assist in the running of the Empire.

Emperor Palpatine also began to shape Coruscant with his own designs, and this included the installment of thousands of surveillance systems throughout the ecumenopolis. Massive shield generators were placed all over Coruscant, and where they overlapped, powerful storms took place, giving the planet a gothic look, which mirrored the utter desperation of many of its inhabitants as they choked under Palpatine's iron rule. The Emperor also arranged for the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Lusankya to be buried beneath the Manarai Mountains district. Later, the massive battleship was used as a private prison by Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard.

The Emperor also had the Palace of the Republic rebuilt and renamed the Imperial Palace. The Imperial Palace was a massive pyramidal structure and was the largest construction project in Coruscant. Other distinctive structures of the Galactic Republic, such as the Galactic Senate and the Jedi Temple, were either destroyed or eclipsed by newer buildings.

During the Dark trooper project, Coruscant was visited by Kyle Katarn who raided the ISB.

Following the death of Palpatine at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, an uprising took place on Coruscant. Billions of Coruscanti revelled in their new-found freedom, and an armed uprising sprang out from the non-Human-dominated sectors. Imperial patrols were attacked in the streets, statues of Palpatine were toppled and other Imperial symbols were desecrated.

In the midst of all the celebrating and rioting, Imperial authorities ordered a massive crackdown on the rebellious elements in the city-planet's population and gave full power to the local military force to end the uprising and restore order to the system. The military retaliation was horrendous and the death-tolls rose as the Empire struck down the insurrectionists and brought the populace back under its control.

Following that, the Grand Vizier Sate Pestage assumed control of Imperial Center. Unfortunately, he was opposed by Palpatine's former advisors who formed the Inner Circle. Ysanne Isard operated as a neutral intermediary between the two opposing factions. Unfortunately for them, she had been secretly pitting them against each other so that she could become Empress though neither sides realized her true plans until it was far too late. She eventually assumed control of Imperial Center in 5 ABY though her reign was plagued by the threat of rival warlords and the expanding New Republic. Thus, she had a team of scientists including Evir Derricote create an artificial virus known as the Krytos virus which only affected alien species and then contaminated the city planet's water supply with it.

Later, in 7 ABY, the famous New Republic starfighter squadron Rogue Squadron under their leader Wedge Antilles were sent undercover to inflitrate Coruscant and sabotage the planet's powerful shield generator. To do this, they hijacked a construction droid and used it to transport them to a command center where they used one of the planet's orbital mirrors to condense a large amount of reservoir water, thus creating a powerful electrical storm which brought down the shields. This allowed a New Republic fleet under the famed Admiral Ackbar to enter the Coruscant system and capture the galactic capital.

However, within days of the victory, millions of Coruscant's alien population were being killed by the Krytos virus. Since only Humans were immune to the virus, this drove a wedge between the New Republic's member species. Worse, Ysanne Isard used the Lusankya to escape Coruscant and flee into hyperspace to the planet Thyferra despite the efforts of Rogue Squadron. In the process, the Lusankya caused devastation over 100 square miles (259 km²) of the planet surface, killing millions instantly. It then blasted its way through the two planetary shield levels, pausing to exchange fire with an orbiting Golan III Space Defense NovaGun before jettisoning the lift cradle and departing the Coruscant system. Later, New Republic scientists developed a cure for the Krytos virus by mixing bacta with a rare grade of the spice ryll known as kor. This prevented further loss of life though interspecies relationship remained volatile for a while.

New Republic
Controlling Coruscant was the key to the Galactic Civil War for the New Republic. Imperial City was renamed New Republic City and the former official name Imperial Center was abandoned. After Isard's loss of Coruscant and her retreat to Thyferra, fragmentation within the Empire deepened as the Imperials lost faith in their leaders and the survivors of the Imperial Inner Circle were found once again providing a tenuous central authority for the Empire. They supported the Chiss Grand Admiral Thrawn as Supreme Commander—mistakenly believing that as an alien, and with no standing in their rarified political world, he would necessarily remain beholden to their patronage and government.

In 8 ABY, Coruscant was visited by the Hapan Consortium which surrounded the planet with a fleet of Hapan Battle Dragons, marking the first time in millennia that the insular society had made significant contact with the rest of the galaxy since the Consortium sealed its borders around 3,100 BBY. At the Grand Reception Hall, the Hapan delegates presented the New Republic with many magnificent gifts including several captured Imperial Star Destroyers.

However, the final gift would be the most shocking of them all. The Hapan Queen Mother's son and heir Isolder presented himself to Councilor Leia Organa as a marriage suitor. Despite realizing the benefits of an arranged marriage between the two factions, she was still romantically attached to Han Solo. Following an adventure on Dathomir and the defeat of the Imperial warlord Zsinj at the hands of the Hapan fleet, Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo married during a wedding ceremony at the Alderaanian consulate on Coruscant. This was attended by hundreds of friends and officials and view on holovid by billions across the galaxy.

In 9 ABY, during the Thrawn Crisis, Thrawn's fleet sieged the galactic capital. Since his forces were outnumbered by the New Republic defenses of Coruscant, he used cloaking technology to create an effective siege weapon. To do this, he fitted 22 asteroids with cloaking devices and placed them onboard his Star Destroyers. During the battle, Thrawn placed the asteroids in low orbit, then retreated into hyperspace, in other words creating an invisible hazard field around the galactic capital.

As a result, the New Republic was faced with two major problems: they couldn't drop the energy shield around the planet in case an asteroid hit the heavily populated cityscape nor could they allow space traffic near the planet in case of collision. This left the Coruscant effectively blockaded. After Thrawn died at the Battle of Bilbringi, the blockade was lifted and Coruscant was free again.



In 10 ABY, the Imperial Inner Circle, encouraged by what Thrawn had accomplished with so little in such a short amount of time, agreed to organize an attack on Coruscant and other key New Republic worlds in the Core. This forced Chief of State Mon Mothma to consider a last-minute plan for the defense of the galactic capital Coruscant. However, she never got a chance since the combined Imperial armada began bombarding Coruscant's energy shield from orbit, causing extensive damage to the heavily populated cityscape below. Mon Mothma then ordered a general evacuation of the entire population of the capital. Thus, the Empire had retaken its Center and the New Republic resorted to guerilla fighting.

However, after Coruscant had been retaken, the Council decided that it was time to elect a new Galactic Emperor. The various admirals, generals, moffs, Inquisitorius, COMPNOR and Imperial Security Bureau officials disagreed, and an armed conflict (the "Imperial Civil War") soon broke out amongst the various Imperial factions on Coruscant. The city planet was devastated during the conflict with much of the planetwide metropolis devastated by the fighting and the deaths of billions. The space around Coruscant was littered with the wreckage of starships which would not be cleared for years.

After Palpatine's final death in 11 ABY at the Battle of Onderon, the New Republic retook the planet and used EVS Construction Droids to clear the rubble and create new gleaming, skyscrapers. However, much of Coruscant's population had fled as result of the fighting and the planet's population during the New Republic era may have been lower. Thus, many of New Republic City's midlevel aparments were unoccupied but still serviceable. However, the shadowy lower levels remained unaffected by the reconstruction programmed and would still remain the haunt of various crime syndicates. Many still struggled to survive in the lower forty or fifty levels.

In 17 ABY, following the Black Fleet Crisis, while Leia Organa Solo was preparing for a speech, the Senate Building was attacked and severely damaged by Brakiss and Dolph, forcing a nearly complete renovation.

In 19 ABY, following the signing of the Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty by Imperial Remnant Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon and New Republic Chief of State Ponc Gavrisom on the Chimaera, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade Skywalker married on Coruscant. However, during the wedding ceremony, a group of Imperial partisans attempted to sabotage it inlcuding infiltrating the event site and hiring a swoop gang to disrupt the wedding.

The wedding started with a bachelor party in the lower levels before attending a private Jedi ceremony in the renovated Jedi Temple. The public ceremony at Coruscant's Reflection Gardens remained largely peaceful because Booster Terrik and several others kept the swoop gang at bay. Lastly, when the final Imperial partisan attempted to unleash a computer virus, Luke persuaded him to surrender and to join the party.

In 22 ABY, the Second Imperium infiltrated the Coruscant system by using the cloaked Shadow Academy to remain in orbit above the planet, invisible to the eyes of the New Republic military presence and Coruscant Planetary Defense Force. A Second Imperium force consisting of the former TIE pilot Qorl's assault shuttle and several modified TIE fighters also boarded the bulk cruiser Adamant and fled into hyperspace with its valuable cargo of starship hyperdrives.

The Imperium also sent three Nightsisters named Tamith Kai, Garowyn and Vilas to infiltrate the lower levels and recruit more followers for their cause including the street gang Lost Ones and Zekk. Those discovered to be Force-sensitive became Dark Jedi while others became Stormtroopers and TIE pilots. However, Jedi trainees Jaina, Jacen Solo, Tenel Ka and Lowbacca used several solar mirrors to burn out the Shadow Academy's cloaking systems, exposing it to the New Republic fleet. However, the station powered its hyperdrive and escaped into hyperspace. Luckily, the Imperium would later be defeated during a skirmish at Yavin IV.

Yuuzhan'tar
"You can see things have changed."

- Admiral Traest Kre'fey



Coruscant's darkest hour was at the peak of the Yuuzhan Vong War. During the Fall of Coruscant, the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong overwhelmed the Republic defenses in three attack waves and conquered the planet. Coruscant, which had been completely covered in city sprawl for millennia, was devastated during the assault. Billions of lives were also lost during the battle.

Also, many of the landmarks that made Coruscant unique either met their end or were altered to suit the invaders needs. The Imperial Palace was destroyed when Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya detonated a suicide bomb in his office; the Manarai Mountains, the last part of the planet untouched by cityscape, were blasted into giant craters; the Western Sea, the planet's sole body of water, was turned into a giant Succession Pool; the Senate Building became the location of the World Brain, which was in charge of the terraforming of the planet.



The Yuuzhan Vong designated it Yuuzhan'tar, after their homeworld, the name of their species, and their chief deity Yun-Yuuzhan, and terraformed it to overwhelm the city covering its surface and restore a natural ecology. In order to get Coruscant to match their homeworld, large dovin basals pulled the planet closer to Coruscant Prime and biological processes were set forth to create the jungle including increasing the temperature and releasing more moisture into the atmosphere. Soon, nearly the entire planetwide city was covered beneath vegetation while rivers filled canyons where airspeeders had once roamed before. The lower levels were the domain of wildlife brought in from the Yuuzhan Vong galaxy and was where most of the outcast Shamed Ones lived.

Coruscant's three smaller moons were dragged from their original orbits by dovin basals while its largest moon was destroyed by tidal stress created by pulses from other yammosk-linked dovin basals. A similar technique dragged the resulting expanse of dust, rock and hardening magma into a wide spreading asteroid belt known as the "Rainbow Bridge", that they were familiar with. The Rainbow Bridge orbited Coruscant around at an angle of 17 degrees from the ecliptic. The vast majority of the planet's non-Yuuzhan Vong population was shipped offworld in massive refugee ships, though some people did stay behind in the substructure of the city; they called the "new" Coruscant Necropolis.

When the living planet Zonama Sekot suddenly arrived in the system, it collapsed the Rainbow Bridge, caused another of Coruscant's moons to be "slingshotted" out of orbit, and pulled Coruscant closer to its original orbit, causing volcanic eruptions and groundquakes for the first time in two thousand years. The Galactic Alliance eventually retook Coruscant from the Yuuzhan Vong during the Liberation of Coruscant.

Galactic Alliance
The Galactic Alliance and the Yuuzhan Vong then signed a peace treaty, thus ending the Yuuzhan Vong War. It was decided that Coruscant would be rebuilt as the capital of the Galactic Alliance, returning to the ecumenopolis-style whenever possible while leaving the Yuuzhan Vong terraforming wherever it was as yet unfeasible to change. The World Brain would still remain in the Senate Building, as there was as yet no way to remove it without causing further damage to the planet. A New Jedi Temple was also constructed. A large park called Unity Green was also constructed to symbolize the treaty between the Yuuzhan Vong and the Galactic Alliance. As the government transfered back to the world from Denon, additional new buildings were constructed, such as the new Senate building, Executive building, and Defense Force headquarters.

New Empire
As of 130 ABY, control of Coruscant had been wrested from the grip of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, and was now in the hands of the resurgent Empire, under the command of Emperor Roan Fel. The planet became the new Imperial throneworld. Coruscant began to appear as bustling and thriving as it once did during the Old Republic with the effects of the Yuuzhan Vong War still a reminder, from the growth on skyscrapers, to the altered night sky. Air traffic in skylanes was still the primary mode of transportation.

Defenses
As of the Battle of Coruscant during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Coruscant had a four tier defense system. The first and "uppermost" tier was a series of mines. These were deactivated during the Battle of Coruscant at the behest of Lando Calrissian because he believed that they would do more harm than good, only to be reactivated by Calrissian later when the attacking Vong fleet was in the midst of it, thus trapping many more foes. The second tier was a series of Golan Defense Platforms, mostly Golan II types. The command platform was dubbed "Orbital Defense One" and was larger than its cousins. Most of these were destroyed when the Vong broke through New Republic lines, including Orbital Defense One. The third tier was a massive planetary shield, controlled by a series of relays on the surface of Coruscant. The shield seems to have worked by some kind of dispersion of energy released onto the shield. The Vong employed a tactic which employed waves of kamikaze ships crashing into the shield, overloading the relays, and effectively bringing it down. The fourth and last tier was an array of rooftop turbolasers, akin to the point-defense systems on some capital ships. Some were operated automatically, others by human gunners and astromech droids. Also counted was the proton bomb in the Chief of State's office, which was detonated when Vong soldiers occupied the Imperial Palace. The explosion destroyed the building housing the office, and the data towers on Coruscant.

It is unknown as to whether the Galactic Alliance incorporated these same defenses during the rebuilding of Coruscant.

Behind the scenes
Coruscant first appeared in the Expanded Universe and was called such for the first time in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire. Coruscant wasn't seen on screen until the 1997 Special Edition release of Return of the Jedi, and then later appeared in The Phantom Menace. Coruscant is therefore one of the few EU elements that made its way in to the films.

The name "Coruscant" comes from the English word "coruscate" meaning "to sparkle" or "to glitter", probably referring to the night side of the planetwide city. Traditionally pronounced with a hard 'c' – ko'-rus-kant' – the word is pronounced Ko'-ru-sant in the Star Wars Universe, but only after the "real-world" introduction of The Phantom Menace. Beforehand, audiobooks, dramatizations, and the like used the hard 'c' pronunciation.

Originally the planet, which was then called "Alderaan", was to appear in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but the budget wouldn't allow, so a lot of action on Alderaan was moved to the Death Star and Alderaan became the name of Leia Organa's home planet, which is destroyed in the film. The concept of seeing the Empire's home world, renamed "Had Abbadon", came up again in Return of the Jedi, and the concept of the entire planet being a city came up for the first time. However, it was realized that such a city on screen would be impossible given the technical limitations at the time, and so the idea was abandoned.

In various novels, characters aligned with the Empire refer to Coruscant as "Imperial Center". Within the stories, this is explained as an administrative renaming undertaken to emphasize the differences between the Old Republic and the Empire.

Some fans, despite the use of the words "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" in the opening of each Star Wars film, have imagined that the Star Wars saga takes place in the far future, and speculated that Coruscant is a futuristic Earth. However, Coruscant has four moons to Earth's one, and is the sixth planet rather than the third from its sun. Moreover, Earth is much farther from the core of the Milky Way galaxy than Coruscant is supposed to be (25,000 to 28,000 light years to Coruscant's 10,000 light years). The question of how Humans ended up in the Star Wars galaxy has never really been asked or answered in any canonical source.

Inconsistencies
In the large volume of material that exists relating to Coruscant, there are conflicting statements about the ecumenopolis.

Most sources, including all illustrations, show Coruscant as having negligible surface water, save for the ice caps. However, the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy states that Coruscant has two continents, a large one that contains Imperial City and a smaller one. More than half of this version of Coruscant is ocean. No other source follows this version (although The Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook does refer to distinct continents), and the discrepancy is usually solved by referring to the "ocean" as the artificial Western Sea.

The intro of the 1994 game Star Wars: TIE Fighter shows an orbital view of Coruscant, very faithful to the appearance of the planet in the prequel movies as will be seen five years later. However the Collector's edition, which features a remade intro, shows an Earth-like Coruscant, blue with clouds.

Population
One of the most notable inconsistencies concerns the planet's population. Most recent Expanded Universe sources, such as the novel Traitor and the sourcebooks Inside the Worlds of The Phantom Menace and Coruscant and the Core Worlds, have stated a population of 1 trillion for Coruscant; other canon sources have given widely divergent, but typically much lower, figures, such as 5 billion, 10 billion, 176 billion and 650 billion: quite apart from the discrepancy between them, all these figures have been criticised by some fans as vastly underestimating the population-density of a planet-wide city. The Star Wars Technical Commentaries website, for instance, argues for a population "at least of the order of several quadrillion (>1,000,000,000,000,000), and certainly no less than several hundred trillion". 

Inspiration
The concept of a city covering an entire planet is not entirely new. The planet Trantor in Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels is probably the first fictional planet to be totally urbanized, but it was not the last. Indeed, one of the draft names of Coruscant was Jhantor, in homage to Asimov's work. Later, Expanded Universe sources even used the name Trantor for a planet much like Coruscant.

It has also been speculated that certain aspects of Coruscant were inspired from the look of 2019 Los Angeles in the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner, including the gigantic pyramid of Tyrell Corporation.

There is also skepticism that the Coruscant chase scene in Attack of the Clones was heavily inspired by or even blatantly copied from Luc Besson's The Fifth Element.

Theme song
The theme song of Coruscant, known as Imperial City, can be heard on the Shadows of the Empire soundtrack.

Adjective of Coruscant
The adjective form of "Coruscant", including the word used for a Coruscant inhabitant is Coruscanti.

Coruscant chosen for the movies
Regarding Coruscant appearing in the prequels, Timothy Zahn had this to say at Celebration III:


 * "Just to make it clear, I did not invent the planet...George Lucas had invented the planet-wide city a long time ago. When I was starting the Thrawn Trilogy, they told me to coordinate with the West End Games source material, and they had it listed as the Imperial Planet. Well nobody names a planet 'Imperial Planet,' so I thought it needed a name, so I picked the word that means glittering: 'Coruscant.' Apparently, when it came time to choose a name [for the films], people persuaded George to go with Coruscant and be done with it. So I felt very vindicated -- the tail wagging the dog. It was an honor to be slipped into the movies this way."

Appearances

 * Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Freedon Nadd Uprising
 * Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
 * Cloak of Deception
 * Coruscant Nights: Jedi Twilight
 * Coruscant Nights: Chiascuro
 * Coruscant Nights: Patterns of Force
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars: Episode I Jedi Power Battles
 * Star Wars Republic: Outlander
 * Star Wars Republic: Emissaries to Malastare
 * Star Wars Republic: Twilight
 * Star Wars Republic: Infinity's End
 * Star Wars Republic: The Hunt for Aurra Sing
 * Star Wars Republic: Darkness
 * HoloNet News
 * Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
 * Outbound Flight
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Honor Bound
 * Republic Commando: Hard Contact
 * Shatterpoint
 * Star Wars: Clone Wars
 * "Chapter 1"
 * "Chapter 21"
 * "Chapter 22"
 * "Chapter 23"
 * "Chapter 24"
 * "Chapter 25"
 * The Cestus Deception
 * Republic Commando: Triple Zero
 * Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
 * Obsession
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * The Last of the Jedi: Underworld
 * The Last of the Jedi: Death on Naboo
 * The Paradise Snare
 * Evasive Action: Recruitment
 * Empire at War
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Star Wars Empire 14: The Savage Heart
 * Star Wars Republic 78: Loyalties
 * Star Wars: TIE Fighter
 * Shadows of the Empire
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand
 * Heir to the Empire
 * Dark Force Rising
 * The Last Command
 * Dark Empire
 * Jedi Search
 * Dark Apprentice
 * Champions of the Force
 * I, Jedi
 * Darksaber
 * Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
 * The New Rebellion
 * Before the Storm
 * Shield of Lies
 * Tyrant's Test
 * Union
 * New Jedi Order
 * Mission to Myrkr
 * The Joiner King
 * The Unseen Queen
 * Betrayal
 * Legacy: Broken
 * Force Commander