Taris/Legends

"Wipe this pathetic planet from the face of the galaxy!"

- Darth Malak

"To be honest, Mission, Taris would rate pretty low. The prejudice, the rich spoiling themselves while the poor are crushed beneath them. Not a pretty picture."

- Carth Onasi

Taris was a planet in the Outer Rim, the place of several key events in the Jedi Civil War, including the Battle of Taris, and the target of a massive planetary bombardment which severely damaged the reputation of Darth Malak's Sith Empire. The planet recovered by 3 ABY.

Description
Taris was once situated on a hyperspace transport hub not far from the Perlemian Trade Route, and was called the "Coruscant of the Outer Rim". It was a city world, whose grandeur was once said to rival the galactic capital Coruscant itself. However, the planet's landmass was not completely covered with an urban sprawl, and some surface water was present, so, from space, Taris looked quite different from both Coruscant and another ecumenopolis, Nar Shaddaa.

In 4,156 BBY, the planet suffered a civil war. The war resulted in non-humans being banished from the Upper City of Taris. It was believed the swoop bikes first originated on Taris, where swoop racing captured the imagination of the galaxy circa 4,000 BBY. Using an intricate system of hyperspace beacons, Taris race organizers would broadcast the results of the swoop races throughout the galaxy which eventually gave rise to a huge and profitable gambling operation. Taris remained a hub for swoop racing for decades, despite opposition from the Hutts and other criminal organizations.

Around the year 3,964 BBY, during the Mandalorian Wars, Captain Saul Karath commanded the Republic fleet that protected Taris. Formerly an important galactic presence, at the time of the close of the Jedi Civil War (3,956 BBY), the world was decaying rapidly, with much of the once-magnificent metropolis having fallen into ruin and disrepair.

Infrastructure and business
The city of Taris was usually divided into three levels: the Upper City, the Lower City and the Undercity.

The Upper City


The Upper City was a beautiful area inhabited by rich and powerful people, dwelling in the highest reaches of the towering skyscrapers that dominated the planet's landscape. Here, the privileged classes surrounded themselves with the trappings of prosperity, oblivious to the suffering and oppression of those forced to dwell far below them. Access to the Upper City was restricted to non-humans, although notable non-humans found in the Upper City included a Twi'lek droid merchant Janice Nall, Ajuur the Hutt, and a Rodian duellist named Twitch.

At some point prior to or during the Mandalorian Wars, the Jedi Order established a satellite training academy on Taris, ostensibly as a means of preparing its students for the more rigorous duties of patrolling the Outer Rim. Such was the mutually beneficial relationship between the Jedi and the Tarisian authorities that the planetary constabulary sought in vain for even more Jedi to be stationed there. The pressing threat of the Mandalorians, however, rendered this wish untenable, with all enclave graduates earmarked for front-line combat duty. It is presumed that the academy&mdash;under the leadership of headmaster Lucien Draay&mdash;was either destroyed or abandoned at some point during or after the year 3,964 BBY, before the later Sith occupation.

The Upper City featured a cantina famous for its dueling ring owned by Ajuur the Hutt, and Zelka Forn's medical facility, which possessed a reputation for being able to heal all diseases but the infamous Rakghoul plague. During the Second Sith War, a Sith military base was also established in the Upper City, and its roads were heavily patrolled by Sith troopers.

The Lower City
The Lower City was home for poor people not born into the privileged classes of society, and non-humans were common there, especially in Javyar's cantina. Another Hutt, Zax, placed bounties and rewarded successful bounty hunters on behalf of his de facto boss, Davik Kang. Control over the Lower City streets was the subject of rivalry between swoop gangs&mdash;gangs whose pilots competed in swoop racing, a popular kind of sport on Taris and some other planets, among them Tatooine and Manaan. The most notable swoop gangs were the Hidden Beks, led by Gadon Thek, and the Black Vulkars, led by Gadon's adopted son Brejik, who was characterized by Mission Vao as a traitor because he was a former Hidden Bek. Mission and Gadon believed Brejik to be responsible for the ongoing street war between the Beks and the Vulkars. Descending into the slums of the Lower City, the signs of urban decay became undeniable. Filth and refuse littered the streets, and burned out vehicles and shattered windows served as stark reminders of the violent wars of the swoop gangs fighting for control. Denizens of the Lower City struggled to survive amidst the urban wasteland.

For those living beneath the planet's surface&mdash;the Outcasts&mdash;life was even harder. Those driven into the dark and sunless world of the Undercity had to band together in small villages in a wretched, never-ending struggle to survive.

The Under City
The Undercity, a village on the ground level beneath the immense skyscrapers of Taris, was a dark, wild area inhabited by the Outcasts&mdash;people whose predecessors were banished from the city for their crimes. The Outcasts never saw the sky in their miserable life, and nobody hoped that their life would ever turn for the better&hellip;except Rukil, an old man who was considered crazy by the rest of the village because of his stories about the Promised Land, a self-sufficient colony built long before the foundation of the Undercity. Nobody believed in these stories, and most villagers considered them tales created with the purpose to give people false hope. Many died from starvation and disease, and the rakghouls killed even more.

The wilderness around the Undercity village was extremely dangerous because of rakghouls, semi-humanoid beasts that could infect humans with the rakghoul disease. The Outcasts had to keep infected people isolated from the rest of the society because they would inevitably mutate into rakghouls.

Taris was a base of smuggling operations for the Exchange and its representative, the local crimelord Davik Kang. Davik was quick to send his personal bounty hunters&mdash;among them such notable figures as Calo Nord and Canderous Ordo&mdash;to deal with those who could not pay what they owed him. The bounty hunters, the only ones permitted to meet with Davik himself, kept Taris in terror.

During the Jedi Civil War


Though Taris held a Republic military presence, it had not been viewed with any military importance since the first Battle of Taris (It was also around this time that the Jedi Temple on Taris was abandoned. This changed when the Republic ship Endar Spire arrived above the planet.

On board the Endar Spire were several important members of the Republic; Carth Onasi, Bastila Shan and a mind-wiped Revan (whose true identity was unknown to himself and everyone on the ship except Bastila). Their intention in arriving at Taris was unknown, but the ship was soon ambushed and boarded by Sith forces. Bastila was forced to leave in an escape pod; Carth Onasi and Revan followed her some time later, moments before the ship exploded.



Bastila's pod landed outside the Undercity; the Black Vulkars were the first to reach her, capturing her (at least they thought so) and putting her as a slave and a prize for the swoop racing champion. Revan and Carth landed in the Upper City; cooperating with Mission Vao and her Wookiee friend Zaalbar, they managed to discover what happened to Bastila. Revan participated in the swoop race, and a prototype engine accelerator developed by the Hidden Beks allowed him to win. Brejik, however, accused Revan of cheating and refused to release Bastila, but she easily broke out of her cell herself, using the Force, and helped Revan to eliminate Brejik and his Vulkar guards.

Seeking a way to escape the planet, Revan met with Canderous Ordo (Canderous had asked for the meeting, because he wanted off the planet), who came with a plan to infiltrate the Sith base and steal the launch codes which could allow a ship to safely bypass the military blockade. Revan was able to accomplish this using Janice Nall's newest utility droid, T3-M4, to break through the base security gates.

Meanwhile, Darth Malak, Dark Lord of the Sith, concerned about the search for Bastila taking too long and fearing that she could escape Taris, ordered Admiral Saul Karath to "wipe this pathetic planet from the face of the galaxy". The Sith fleet was regrouped and began massive artillery bombardment of the planet's surface.

Canderous led Revan to Davik Kang's secret estate, where the crimelord kept his ship, the Ebon Hawk. To get to the ship, Revan and Canderous had to kill Davik and severely injure Calo Nord, who was left for dead. The Ebon Hawk left the hangar just before Davik's estate was destroyed with the rest of the Taris city.

Shortly after their escape, Taris's surface was completely annihilated during the Sith's Base Delta Zero operation. Though it's believed the Outcasts in the Undercity might have somehow survived the orbital bombardment, everyone on the world's surface was killed, save for Revan, his comrades, and the notorious bounty hunter Calo Nord.

Rehabilitation
Many millennia following the planet's devastation, Taris was finally resettled by human colonizers. These settlers were famed for their ship-building. The settlers rebuilt some of the planet's former cities, though much of the surface was left in ruins. Historians attempted to excavate ruins across the planet, looking for proof that the swoop bike originated on Taris. By 3 ABY, much of the planet had been rebuilt, but the scar left on the planet by Darth Malak would never go away.

Appearances

 * Shadows and Light (vision)
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Commencement
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Empire at War