Hoth/Legends

"There isn't enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser!"

- Han Solo

Hoth was the sixth planet of the remote Hoth system and was desolate, ice-bound, and located in a rarely-visited sector of the Galaxy. It became famous as the one-time location of a Rebel Alliance base during the Galactic Civil War, and of the major battle there between Imperial and Rebel forces.

Geology, geography and ecology
"Sir, the Hoth system is supposed to be devoid of Human lifeforms."

- Captain Firmus Piett to Admiral Kendal Ozzel



Located on the fringe of the Ivax Nebula in the Anoat Sector of the Greater Javin, along the Ison Corridor, Hoth orbited the blue-white star Hoth on a wide elliptical orbit. Beyond Hoth was a large asteroid belt, known as the Hoth Asteroid Field, from which small asteroids regularly broke off, crashing onto Hoth's surface as meteorites.

The planet consisted of a molten metallic core with dichotomous crust. Its surface was entirely covered by a frozen ocean, except where volcanic fissures opened up steam vents, depositing rock and minerals in darker patches on the glacier planes. A few mountain ranges pierced the permanent ice shelves, some being geologically active. The tidal pull of Hoth's three nameless moons caused fissures in the ice-layers, sending jets of ocean water into the freezing Hoth air. The intense cold froze these jets into spires of ice, suspending primitive ocean algae within these tall columns and glaciers. Massive oceanic currents beneath the southern hemisphere caused regular seismic activity, resulting in a constantly shifting landscape of caves and tunnels. Buried deep in Hoth's equatorial region was a fissure, reaching hundreds of meters towards the core of the planet. In this area never exposed to Hoth's blue-white sun was a cache of lumni-spice, a rare fungal growth.

Its orbit and axial tilt resulted in consistently icy weather patterns. Daytime temperatures reached levels unbearable to most species and rarely rose above freezing, even in the planet's relatively mild equatorial regions. The gale force winds and intense snowstorms that regularly wracked the windswept surface magnified the extreme cold of Hoth.

The frigid biosphere included a minimal food chain: the predator wampas, the omnivore tauntauns, Hoth hogs, a few rodent species, iceworms, lichens, and Dragon Slugs.

The average planetary temperature was around -61ºC; however at Echo Base, located near the planet's equator in the northern hemisphere, daytime temperatures could reach -32ºC; however night-time temperatures got as low as -60.

History
"But a settler would have to be crazy to stake his claims on Hoth. This planet doesn't have a thing to offer anyone&mdash;except us."

- Luke Skywalker

Hoth was possibly named after the Jedi Hoth. The swamp wampas of Dromund Kaas were proven by scientists to be descended from the wampas of Hoth. It is possible that wampas were brought to Dromund Kaas during the New Sith Wars, though the truth remains a mystery.

Before its use by the Rebel Alliance, the planet was relatively unknown and unvisited. A few pirates and smugglers, such as Raskar, attempted to liberate the valuable lumni-spice, but were unsuccessful. Salmakk had a smuggling base on the planet in the caves that later became Echo Base. A group of failed stormtroopers attempted to start a hunting business there, but were all supposedly killed by a group of wampas.

The Empire must have had some knowledge of Hoth as Inquisitor Loam Redge threatens a stormtrooper with the prospect of being sent there, and Imperial Bioengineer Dusque Mistflier knew about tauntauns.

After the Battle of Yavin, the Habassa hinted the Rebel Alliance about the Hoth system as a candidate for their new base.



When Luke Skywalker accidentally discovered Hoth while fleeing Imperial forces shortly after the Battle of Yavin, he recommended the ice world to Alliance High Command as a location. The asteroid belt provided a difficult barrier, the remoteness and near unbearable temperatures made it an unlikely candidate for Imperial probing, and the ever shifting caverns meant that it would be easy to move the base within the planet. After defeating the forces of smuggler Salmakk, the Alliance established Echo Base on Hoth.

The base was built in the northern hemisphere on the only livable temperate band near the equator. However, it was not long before Darth Vader's Death Squadron discovered the Rebels and the Battle of Hoth ensued between Rebel and Imperial forces, with the Empire triumphing. The debris of the battlefield attracted the scavenger Arns Grimraker.



After the ground battle in 3 ABY, Hoth returned to a world of obscurity, visited mostly by poachers, smugglers, xenobiologists, and the occasional tourist. An Imperial prison was also located on Hoth at some point. The Empire captured numerous wampas and from their base stock bioengineered the cliff wampas which the Imperials used to guard their facilities on Gall. Kyle Katarn and Jaden Korr later located an Empire Reborn base on the planet. In 12 ABY Luke Skywalker and Callista Ming visited the planet to attempt to regain Callista's Force powers back. They encountered a group of smugglers who were hunting wampas for their valuable pelts. Luke happened to come across One-arm, the wampa that captured him prior to the Battle of Hoth. The two Jedi barely escaped from the savage wampas.

Due to overhunting, both the tauntaun and the wampa became endangered. Under the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, the Senate passed legislation protecting the wampa. Similar legislation was proposed for the tauntauns.

Behind the scenes

 * There is some controversy on how the Rebels discovered Hoth. One source (Iceworld) says that Luke found it by chance while escaping an Imperial pursuit, another (Star Wars 3-D) claims that Han knew the planet's location and suggested it to the Alliance and a third (Star Wars: X-wing) says that the Habassa aliens (who don't appear anywhere else outside the game) proposed its location to the Rebellion after they allied and the Rebels protected them against Imperial attacks.
 * It is supposed that the Habassa only proposed the system as a candidate location, and the planet itself was discovered by Luke, after the system was already known. The Star Wars 3-D version is not compatible with any of the others.
 * Some believe the planet Hoth was named after the "Hoth Group", a large armored group that made up the bulk of the forces in "Operation Winter Storm", the operation to rescue the surrounded German troops following the attack on Stalingrad 1942-43, which was led by the german Panzergeneral Hermann Hoth.
 * The real world locations for Hoth are in Finse, Norway.
 * Several sources mention tundras on Hoth, however one has never been depicted. Most depictions are of icy plains with no vegetation whatsoever. Tundras have many varieties of low vegetation such as grasses.
 * The PC game Star Wars: Rebellion mistakenly places Hoth in the Churba Sector, which is actually located in the Mid Rim.

Non-canon appearances

 * What They Called Me
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Star Wars Infinities: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Hunger Pains
 * Ghosts of Hoth
 * Star Wars 78: Hoth Stuff
 * The Secret Tales of Luke's Hand