Jakku

"Here we have the desert world of Jakku—worthless on its own but soon to live forever in history as the place where the Empire defeated the Rebellion once and for all."

- Grand Moff Randd

Jakku was a desert planet located in a remote section of the Western Reaches. Though considered by many within the galaxy to be distant and relatively worthless, the planet became home to important events that would shape galactic history.

Description
"You brought your family here?''" "I did. Wanted to take them as far away from the fighting as I could. A place where the war will never find us. The farthest-flung nowhere rock I could find on a star map." "''Well, you found it, buddy. You don't get more nowhere than here. War ain't got no reason to roll up on this rock."

- Ergel and Corwin Ballast

Jakku was an isolated desert world in the Western Reaches of the galaxy. It hosted the Wheel Races in the north and mining operations dotted the planet. Buttes were located in the south in which lichen could be scraped off of to create the alcoholic beverage Knockback Nectar. One could become an anchorite if certain vows were taken, while scavengers often used luggabeasts to carry supplies across the desert. Tuanul, Reestkii and Cratertown were settlements on the planet, while the trading post Niima Outpost was considered the only major settlement on the planet, and was guarded by the humorless Constable Zuvio and his Niima Outpost Militia. Lacking a communications grid, spacers seeking to escape debts, create a new life or simply see the galaxy often wound up at Niima Outpost, owing to it having the only navigational beacon. Not all residents were scavengers however, with the isolated villagers of Tuanul worshiping the Church of the Force, an underground faith of Jedi worshipers hiding from first the Old Empire and then the growing First Order.

Owing to the planet's distance from populated space, it served as a jumping-off point for warships heading into the Unknown Regions in the final years of the Galactic Civil War. Nearby worlds to Jakku included Ponemah Terminal and Ogem.

History
About 1,000 Standard years before the Battle of Yavin, an object, that Sheev Palpatine would later state was "significant a thousand years ago" and would become significant once again, was buried on the Plaintive Hand plateau.

At some point during the Age of the Empire, the Galactic Empire established a secret research base and weapons facility on the planet.

In the months following the Battle of Endor, war refugee Corwin Ballast headed to Jakku believing it to be a worthless rock floating in space and thus of little importance to the galaxy-wide conflict between the New Republic and Empire. If there was any place to escape the war, he believed Jakku to be it.

One year and four days after the Battle of Endor, a battle broke out between the New Republic and the Galactic Empire on Jakku. The battle would serve as the last major stand of the Galactic Empire and last major battle of the Galactic Civil War. With the battle going badly for the Empire, the Imperials locked tractor beams onto the ships of the New Republic Starfleet, crashing them into the surface below. The battle would ultimately end when knowledge of the Galactic Concordance's signing reached the belligerents.

Twenty-nine years after the Battle of Jakku, wreckage from the battle would still be strewn across the desert in the aptly named Starship Graveyard, with Niima the Hutt establishing Niima Outpost sometime earlier in an effort to scavenge leftover wreckage from the destructive battle. The up and coming First Order would deploy its Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Finalizer to Jakku in an effort to recover a BB unit. This unit, BB-8, possessed a fragment of a map to Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, who had gone into self-imposed exile following a failed attempt at resurrecting the Jedi Order. This attempt would see the desertion of stormtrooper FN-2187 and the escape of Resistance pilot Poe Dameron in a stolen TIE/sf space superiority fighter, along with the eventual use of the neglected starship the Millennium Falcon in an attempt to escape the planet with an unknowingly Force-sensitive girl named Rey.

Behind the scenes
Jakku is the desert planet where the characters Finn, Rey, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, BB-8, and many supporting/minor characters are introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Non-canon appearances

 * Jakku Spy
 * Disney Infinity 3.0
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
 * Hyperspace Mountain