Ralltiir/Legends

"What do you know about Ralltiir?''" "''It's a neutral world, and the only planet in the Darpa Sector that has maintained independence from the political control of Esseles. Ralltiir's financial institutions have an intergalactic reputation for their security and confidentiality."

- Darth Maul questions his C-3PX droid companion

Ralltiir was a planet in the Ralltiir system of the Darpa sector in the Core Worlds. The second planet in orbit of the star Rallt, Ralltiir had twenty-eight moons and three continents that wrapped around the planet. A major financial center in the galactic economy, Ralltiir was a member world of the Galactic Republic but remained largely neutral in galactic politics to ensure that the finances of its inhabitants remained safe from political influences and war. Located in the Ringali Shell, a string of planets along the Perlemian Trade Route that lay near the Ringali Nebula, Ralltiir was one of the only planets in the Darpa sector to remain independent from the Esselian Empire. Besides its financial services, Ralltiir was also a major source of marble, as the planet's mountain ranges featured large deposits of marble and were riddled with quarries, and its population of 10 billion sentients was almost entirely Humans.

During the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Emperor Palpatine decided to make an example of Ralltiir and dispatched Lord Tion with an Imperial fleet to the Ralltiir system in 0 BBY. Tion's bombardment and subsequent invasion of the planet, coupled with a blockade of the Ralltiir system that choked off the Perlemian Trade Route, lasted almost four years. Governor Dennix Graeber's corrupt rule of the shattered planet was finally ended when the Ralltiiri resistance brought down the planet's shields and allowed the forces of the New Republic to liberate the world.

Ralltiir rebuilt its broken economy over the next several decades, and although the planet was briefly captured by a resurgent Empire in 10 ABY, it was once again thriving by the time of the Yuuzhan Vong War in 25 ABY. However, the Ralltiiri's fear of economic instability led them to refuse asylum to refugees fleeing from the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong species&mdash;but the planet was taken by the Yuuzhan Vong nonetheless. By 137 ABY, Ralltiir was a major financial center of the Galactic Empire under the Sith Lord Darth Krayt, and it was the site of a pivotal battle between Krayt's Empire, the Empire-in-exile, and the Galactic Alliance Remnant during the Second Imperial Civil War.

Description
"And as I'm sure you're aware, what happens on Ralltiir affects market response all along the Perlemian Trade Route."

- Minister Shirka

Ralltiir was the second planet in the Ralltiir system, a star system that was located in the Darpa sector of the Core Worlds. Ralltiir orbited its star Rallt in an orbital period of 255 standard days and had a local day of 19 hours, and Ralltiir was itself orbited by twenty-eight moons. A major financial center of the galaxy, Ralltiir lay along the Perlemian Trade Route in the Ringali Shell&mdash;a string of systems along the Perlemian that were situated closest to the Perlemian's intersection with the Hydian Way hyperlane. The Shell, which included the planets Esseles, Rhinnal, Brentaal IV, Chandrila, and Corulag, took its name from the Ringali Nebula, a violet-colored nebula that threaded through the region and lit up the nighttime skies of every planet in the Shell. Ralltiir was situated approximately thirty-one hours away from Rhinnal, the next planet along the Perlemian if one was traveling south along the hyperlane, and Ralltiir lay on the very edge of the boundary separating the Core Worlds from the Colonies region.

A terrestrial and temperate world that measured 13,449 kilometers in diameter, Ralltiir possessed a standard atmosphere, a moderate hydrosphere, and standard gravity. Ralltiir possessed three main continents, with one located at the southern pole, a second wrapping around the equator, and a third wrapping around the planet near the northern pole. The three continents all featured prominent mountain ranges and undeveloped coastal regions with large expanses of marshes and wetlands. Much of the available land was dominated by Ralltiir's numerous cities. The climate and topography of Ralltiir's mountains varied greatly; the mountain ranges that were located at extreme latitudes featured glaciers, while the High Ontis&mdash;the central mountain range at the planet's equator&mdash;was arid and dotted with desert scrub. Ralltiir's oceans were unique in that they experienced "balanced" tidal forces, as the gravitational pull of Ralltiir's twenty-eight moons largely counteracted each other and therefore did not cause extreme tidal activity. However, the Tas Sea was a particularly turbulent body of water on Ralltiir, and it was dotted by a number of granite outcroppings&mdash;some of which were large enough to build entire fortresses upon.

Ralltiir's primary exports were its financial services and marble, as the planet featured significant deposits of marble. A number of marble quarries were located in the High Ontis, though they had been largely stripped of any valuable marble by the time of the Galactic Empire's rise to power. Ralltiir had a well-earned reputation as a stable economic center and a haven for safe investment; most of the planet's financial institutions were politically neutral so as to protect their finances from the political maneuverings and uprisings that affected market stability. Ralltiir was also home to a species of predatory birds known as casting hawks as well as a creature known as the Ralltiiri glowmite, and a type of fish known as the ralltiirieel was native to the planet's oceans. The Ralltiir tiger was a well-known and fierce carnivore native to Ralltiir's mountains, and the tigers often experienced fits of blood madness in which they would attempt to kill everything around them.

Early history
"With Mandalorians knocking on the planetary door, Ralltiir is Taris all over again. Only this time, it's better."

- Marn Heirogryph

The region of the galaxy which included Ralltiir was widely explored by Humans from the planets Coruscant, Corellia, Kuat, Alderaan, and Alsakan between 27,500–25,000 BBY. When the modern hyperdrive was developed in 25,000 BBY, Ralltiir was one of the planets which the newly-blazed Perlemian Trade Route linked together. By that time, the region of space that would become the Darpa sector was under the control of the Esselian Empire, but Ralltiir remained staunchly independent from that Esseles-based government, relying on its extensive interstellar banking system to maintain its independence. Client worlds and corporations would help guarantee Ralltiir's neutrality to protect their assets. Ralltiir's own currency, the Ralltiiri Colonial, was approximately equal in worth to the Galactic Credit Standard.

Despite Ralltiir's reputation as a secure center of the galactic economy, it also had another reputation in the decades before the Mandalorian Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Mandalorian warrior culture: it was considered the place where individuals came to make poor purchasing decisions. Galactic fads such as blasters with reversible handles and sing-along holograms originated on Ralltiir in the years before 3963 BBY, and Ralltiir's influence led the Republic Navy to assign a battlegroup to guard the world even before the Mandalorians reached the Mid Rim. Ralltiir also received an influx of refugees fleeing the Mandalorian advance in the Outer Rim Territories. By that year, the Muun Dremullar Obohn di Garthos was serving as the curator of the Obohn Gallery of the Industrial Aesthetic on Ralltiir, and his brother-in-law was the Ralltiiri police constable.

The Snivvian Marn Hierogryph and his accomplice, the failed Jedi Padawan Zayne Carrick, attempted to scam Obohn into buying fake statuary, and though their scam fell apart initially, the pair ultimately succeeded in scamming Obohn for a large sum of credits. They later left Ralltiir aboard the stolen freighter Little Bivoli, though they were forced to join part of the Republic battlegroup when the convoy departed the Ralltiir system. During the Great Galactic War between the Republic and the Sith Empire, Agent Marcus Trant of the Republic Strategic Information Service&mdash;the Republic's intelligence agency&mdash;participated in a covert operation on Ralltiir. The Human Archiban Kimble was born on Ralltiir in 3668 BBY, and the planet was represented by Senator Wain Andrell in the Galactic Senate of the Galactic Republic during the Cold War between the Republic and the Sith Empire.

Rise of the Empire
"It is unlikely that the Bartokks believe they can hide from us on Ralltiir. If they suspect they are being followed, there is a high probability they landed on the planet to prepare a trap."

- C-3PX

During the final decades of the Republic, Alexi Garyn, the leader of the Black Sun criminal syndicate, maintained a fortress in the Tas Sea as his base of operations. In 33 BBY, the Sith Lord Darth Maul was sent to assassinate Garyn and dismantle Black Sun's leadership. Maul stormed Garyn's fortress and eliminated all of the Black Sun forces present before killing the criminal leader himself. Also during that year, Maul eliminated an entire hive of the Bartokk species in a remote region of Ralltiir, around thirty-eight kilometers south of the city of Grallia. Several criminal organizations, including the Wookiee organization Kalmec, were headquartered on Ralltiir by the time of the Separatist Crisis, when hundreds of star systems were departing the Republic and joining the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

In 22 BBY, during the Separatist Crisis, Ralltiir sponsored Team Ralltiir as the planet's limmie team in the Galactic Cup of Limmie, and Team Ralltiir defeated Team Tralus in an upset match with a single score in the opening round of the Cup. That same year, the Cradle of the Galaxy exhibit&mdash;a display of Pre-Republic era artifacts collected by the Allied Tion Historical Society&mdash;began its year-long tour on 13:4:1 when it opened at the Cambriele Exploration Auditorium, and the exhibit stayed there for roughly six months before it continued its tour of the Ringali Shell worlds along the Perlemian by heading to Rhinnal on 13:9:1. After the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Confederacy ended in 19 BBY, the Republic was transformed into the Galactic Empire under Emperor Palpatine.

The financial center of Muunilinst, a rival of Ralltiir, had supported the Confederacy during the war and had been largely destroyed, leaving Ralltiir with greater financial influence. Ralltiir's reputation as a safe haven soon began to draw supporters of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and Ralltiir was known to be the site of Rebel activity by the year 1 BBY, when the Alliance dispatched intelligence units to Ralltiir and uncovered evidence that the Empire was constructing a superweapon. However, Imperial supporters infiltrated the planet's fiscal records and altered them in the spirit of the Empire's humanocentric policies. The accounts of both Rebel sympathizers and non-Human investors were wiped clean, but the Ralltiiri High Council denounced the sabotage and worked to reverse the attacks in order to maintain Ralltiir's reputation of neutrality and financial safety&mdash;actions that were influenced by Rebel sympathizers within the Ralltiiri government. Ralltiir received further scrutiny when its citizens protested against the Empire's recent brutal campaign in the Tion Hegemony.

Imperial occupation
"I heard that Ralltiir was under martial law&mdash;that Darth Vader himself was on the scene."

- Mia Ikova

Ralltiir's Senator at the time pandered and deferred to Emperor Palpatine's authority throughout the entire affair, but late in the year, Palpatine decided to make an example of the planet and dispatched Lord Tion with an Imperial fleet to Ralltiir. Tion's forces arrived in the month 35:2 and bombarded Ralltiir's surface with his Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Devastator. The Griffon Flight Wing, a Rebel squadron, attempted to attack the Devastator, but their efforts were in vain. The bombardment was followed by an invasion of the planet's surface, and the High Council was disbanded and its members arrested.

Imperial soldiers occupied Ralltiir's cities and martial law was declared; the population was herded into concentration camps and suspected Rebel sympathizers were executed. The entire Ralltiir system was sealed off in a blockade, and Tion refused to allow even relief organizations entry to the system in the weeks that followed the invasion. Amid Tion's "purification campaign," Senator Leia Organa of Alderaan arrived in the Ralltiir system aboard her starship Tantive IV, claiming to be on a diplomatic mission to deliver relief supplies to the High Council. Organa was permitted to land, but Tion met her at the landing pad and informed her of the High Council's dissolution. Their conversation was interrupted when a group of Rebels launched a diversionary attack on Tion's forces, and Tion sent Organa back to her ship. A wounded Rebel named Basso was able to inform Organa that Tion's forces had a surveillance system set up in the city's administrative center. Organa was accosted by the Sith Lord Darth Vader, Palpatine's right hand, who tried to search her vessel, but Organa manipulated Lord Tion's feelings for her in order to ensure that she could leave the planet safely.

In the early weeks of the occupation, Commander Akobi of the Imperial Army ordered an attack on what he thought was a Rebel munitions depot&mdash;but because the Rebels were blocking his communications, the target was actually a small town called Ettam. By its second month, the Imperial blockade began to negatively affect Ralltiir's economy, as Grallia Spaceport had been shut down and the Perlemian Trade Route was effectively cut off. Tion quickly installed a corrupt Imperial governor named Dennix Graeber at the head of a military tribunal, and despite Tion's death on Alderaan a few weeks after the start of the occupation, Imperial forces retained military control over the planet for the next few years. Graeber grew wealthy by orchestrating a complex network of "corrupt" inspection officials, smugglers, and contacts that moved contraband military supplies to Rebel cells on Ralltiir, and he used the armed status of the cells to justify further crackdowns on the populace.

In 0 ABY, in the months after the Battle of Yavin in which the Alliance won a powerful victory against the Empire, the Empire became aware that two Rebel scientists were hiding on Ralltiir, and dispatched two additional Star Destroyers to bombard the planet until the two surrendered. However, the Alliance's Red Squadron were sent to Ralltiir in order to extract the scientists, who were trapped under a DSS-02 shield generator surrounding the capital of Cambriele with a force of AT-AT walkers searching the nearby region for them. Commander Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, and Lieutenant Sarkli were sent to defend the city with T-47 airspeeders and ensure that the scientists escaped. The Rebel pilots destroyed the three bridges around the city in order to halt the AT-ATs' advance, but Sarkli's defection to the Empire alerted Skywalker and Antilles to the fact that the battle was a trap. Skywalker, Antilles, and a number of Rebel troopers under the command of Captain Bren Derlin were forced to fight their way through Cambriele and escort the scientists off planet, successfully bypassing the Imperial blockade.

Graeber was still in power in late 1 ABY, when authorities launched a raid three weeks in the planning against a secret Rebel armory in the commercial sector of Salibury in the early morning of 37:2:11. The raid resulted in the capture of thirty-five Rebels and over 300 tons of weaponry. It was not until 4 ABY, several months after the death of Emperor Palpatine at the Battle of Endor, that the planet was liberated; the Ralltiir underground succeeded in knocking out Ralltiir's planetary shields, allowing a fleet of six Mon Calamari Star Cruisers sent by the New Republic&mdash;the Alliance's successor state&mdash;to attack the planet. Ralltiir began to rapidly rebuild its shattered economy, which had been forced to rely on the planet's still-plentiful marble reverses during the Imperial occupation. However, the Imperial invasion of the Core Worlds during Operation Shadow Hand in 10 ABY sent the markets into recession again when nearly all of Ralltiir was evacuated, and was conquered by the Empire. Fortunately for Ralltiir's economy, the reborn Emperor Palpatine was defeated shortly afterward and the Imperial offensive collapsed in the Core, allowing Ralltiir to resume its role as a major financial center.

Later history
"The Ralltiiri Secretariat has vetoed the proposal that would have allowed us to accept any displaced peoples.''" "I thought so. And just what am I supposed to do with the six thousand refugees who were promised temporary shelter on Ralltiir?" "I'm afraid that's not for me to decide." "But the Secretariat agreed to this last week. What could have changed since then?" "''It's rather complicated. But to be concise, the idea of accepting refugees didn't sit well with several of our more influential off-world investors. That, of course, led the central banks to pressure the Ministry of Finance, and&hellip;"

- Minister Shirka and Leia Organa

In 25 ABY, as the intergalactic Yuuzhan Vong species invaded the galaxy, Ralltiir was represented in the New Republic Senate by Ab'el Bogen. Later that year, as more and more systems fell to the Yuuzhan Vong, the Ralltiiri Secretariat agreed to provide temporary shelter to almost six thousands refugees. However, by the time Ambassador Leia Organa Solo arrived with the refugees at Ralltiir, the Secretariat had vetoed the proposal, as several of the planet's investors had objected and caused the banks to pressure the Ralltiir Ministry of Finance and so on until the Secretariat had been forced to revise the decision. Solo and the refugees were denied landing privileges at Grallia Spaceport, and despite Solo's attempts to convince Minister Shirka to change the decision, the refugees were force to go to the agriworld Ruan. By 27 ABY, Ralltiir had been conquered by the Yuuzhan Vong, and transports containing Ralltiiri refugees were used as missiles by the Yuuzhan Vong to destroy Coruscant's shields during their attack on the New Republic's capital.

Syal Antilles, the daughter of the famous New Republic pilot Wedge Antilles, changed her name to Lysa Dunton in a Ralltiiri courtyard that had a reputation for being horribly disorganized sometime before 40 ABY. By 137 ABY, Ralltiir had come under the control of the Galactic Empire under the Sith Lord Darth Krayt, and the Coruscant Third Fleet under Admiral Peto Kelsan was stationed in the Ralltiir system in addition to the planetary defenses set up on Ralltiir's moons. That year, the forces of the Galactic Alliance Remnant under Admiral Gar Stazi entered the Ralltiir system and attacked the Third Fleet, wiping out part of the planetary defense network and inflicting damage on the Third Fleet in the early stages of the battle.

Not long into the fighting, the Bastion Second Fleet of the Empire-in-exile, the Empire under Emperor Roan Fel, arrived to support Stazi as part of his new alliance with Emperor Fel. The Second Fleet's Admiral Edouard Fenel called upon the Third Fleet's personnel to honor their loyalty to the Emperor Fel, the true Emperor, and most of the Third Fleet accepted Fenel's demands and surrendered. However, Captain Vaclen Tor of the Third Fleet frigate Steadfast refused to surrender, and his resistance inspired Admiral Kelsan to take back his previous surrender. Kelsan ordered his ships to set their self-destructs and to launch escape pods, but Fenel's promise to destroy the escape pods led Admiral Stazi to place the Alliance fleet between the Bastion and Coruscant fleets as a shield. The resultant standoff ended when Emperor Fel himself ordered Fenel to stand down, and Stazi left the still-intact Steadfast on Ralltiir as a gift for Fel.

Inhabitants
"Regardless of who gained what, is it Ralltiir's intention to remain neutral in the coming storm to avoid disturbing the privileged lives of its wealthy residents and investors?"

- Leia Organa

Ralltiir was primarily inhabited by Humans, with Humans making up 96% percent of the planet's population of 10 billion inhabitants. Ithorians, Wookiees, and Quarren were among the various alien species who also made Ralltiir their home. Ralltiirians or Ralltiiri, as the natives of Ralltiir were most commonly known, were considered to be cultured and dedicated to the financial industry, though their society was split by pro-Imperial and pro-Rebel factions during the Galactic Civil War. Almost all professionally-employed Ralltiiri were involved in finance, and the few who were not were involved in crime or worked as artisans or laborers in the marble-mining industry. The large number of Humans on Ralltiir led to a cultural tendency for the planet's elite to adopt the current culture and dress of Coruscant, and the tendency was particularly strong during the reign of the Empire. A number of corporations controlled Ralltiir's mining industry, including Xwizi Marble and the Imperial-subsidized Ralltiir Consolidated Marble. The Regency Spires Imperial Trust was one of the few companies to survive the Imperial occupation largely intact, as it primarily served Imperial officers and officials. The Trel family was an influential family of investors native to both Ralltiir and Coruscant.

Locations
"The next item up for auction is number seventy-one-dash-zero-zero in the catalog-a chandelier from the principal dining room of Ralltiir's Darpa Hotel. Made of electrum, the piece has undergone substantial restoration but is fully provenanced."

- An auctioneer in 43 ABY

Ralltiir's capital was the city of Cambriele, which was the site of the famous Cambriele Exploration Auditorium and the Dusky Sky Café as well as the home of the power cell-manufacturing Cambriele SolidState Corporation. Salibury was a substantial city-state and one of Ralltiir's major population centers along with the city of Grallia, which sat across the idyllic Lake Grallia from the sprawling Grallia Spaceport. The University Faculty Medical Center was also located on the shores of Lake Grallia. Ralltiiri architecture was rather varied in style; numerous styles and types of buildings were mixed throughout the planet's cities, with old and new buildings side by side. Unlike some other Core Worlds, the buildings of Ralltiir's cities were not segregated economically. Demilla City was another city on Ralltiir, and the Darpa Hotel was a famous hotel that had existed on Ralltiir sometime before 43 ABY.

Behind the scenes
Ralltiir was first mentioned in the Star Wars radio drama in 1981, and the Empire's subjugation of the planet has been mentioned in a number of sources over the following decades. Ralltiir has been occasionally misspelled as both Raltiir and Ralltir in different publications, such as the thirteenth issue of the Knights of the Old Republic comic series and the Star Wars: Rebellion: Prima's Official Strategy Guide. The video game Star Wars: Rebellion mistakenly places Ralltiir in the Fakir sector of the Galactic Core, though the Fakir sector is actually in the Inner Rim. The roleplaying guide Coruscant and the Core Worlds and mistakenly used the image of the planet Rhinnal in its entries for both Rhinnal and Ralltiir, and The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide repeated the mistake by using Rhinnal's picture for Ralltiir. Ralltiir was was cut from the 2006 video game Star Wars: Empire at War before the game was released, though images of the planet remained in the game's files.