Forum:SH:Custom Canon Galaxy Map

The galaxy map presented is a heavily modified version of W.R. van Hage's galaxy map with a total of 41 new planets from Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TV series), Star Wars Rebels, comics, and other sources. Information on the creation of the original map can be found on W.R. van Hage's website. A detailed description on the creation of this version of the map can be found below.

This map should not be considered canon, nor should it be referenced in any Wookieepedia article. It is intended to be used as a mere "interesting" thing to look at, not an "exact" representation of the Star Wars galaxy, although I tried to make it as accurate as possible. It will hopefully make the canon Star Wars galaxy less confusing to viewers/editors, and organize several canon sources under a single roof.

This post was partly inspired by Brandon Rhea's Timeline of Star Wars Rebels Events.

Why did you make this map?
The real reason I made this map was so I could salivate over the Star Wars galaxy while listening to the cantina band song on repeat. I was also inspired by an existing lack of Star Wars galaxy maps online with all the canon planets. Many online maps I found only showed the "big planets" from the new movies, got the locations of the movie planets wrong, or forget some movie planets altogether. While the locations of the planets have been given in several official sources, no single source puts all the planets on the same page. Additionally, most official maps do not write the name of the planet on the map, but instead put down a number, such as "26." So then you'd have to search the legend to find what "26" was supposed to be, find the nearest planet, look at its legend, and only then figure out what planet "26" is supposed to be near to.

This was too much of a chore. Having a huge amount of Star Wars books and knowledge, I decided that I should make the galaxy map I searched for but could not find online.

I wanted to make the map easy to use and understand. Easy enough that a kid could look and it and know what's going on. I also wanted it to be faithful to the existing canon, and of course as accurate as I could get in the placement of planets. Hopefully, I have succeeded in all of these ventures.

Why didn't you use [X] map instead?
I initially planned on using the galaxy map from The Essential Atlas, but quickly realized that the map, while very beautiful, used too many special fonts, symbols, textures, and that any attempt to edit it would be obvious and ugly. Secondly, many new "Disney-Era" planets are portrayed in maps that do not use the Standard Galactic Grid, therefore placing a planet in, say, H-13, would be inaccurate in the sense that we do not know that said planet is in H-13, only that it is in the area of H-13.

Other maps I looked at didn't appeal to me personally, whether that be because they didn't look aesthetically pleasing, were severely outdated, or didn't put the galactic north at the top of the page, like the map provided in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Beginner Game.

I settled on W.R. van Hage's map primarily due to the fact that it not only looked good and placed the galactic north at the top of the page (well, almost), but also because it was insanely high quality. It also was easy to edit and manipulate, and new planets and locations could be added in a way that visually blended in with the existing visual aesthetic.

Wait a minute, you used The Essential Atlas? That isn't Canon! This map isn't Canon then. Is it?
For all intents and purposes The Essential Atlas, its online companion, and the form and shape of the legends galaxy in general is canon. This is made especially clear if one is following the re-introduction of legends planets into canon, seeing how several authors, designers, and the folks at the Lucasfilm Story Group are very keen on preserving and adapting legends to fit into the new canon timeframe. For example, reintroducing Thrawn, basically every background character in the movies, ships, companies, and etc. I have had the enormous pleasure of meeting Leeland Chee personally, and when I asked him if they were going to keep the galaxy in The Essential Atlas canon, he responded by saying, "oh yeah. We're not doing that again." Seeing how all canon portrayals of the galaxy, whether that be in the form of the Galactic Atlas, or FFG's Force Awakens Beginner Game, the canon Star Wars galaxy is for all intents and purposes the same as in legends. This fits in with the "it's the same unless we say it isn't" philosophy, best expounded in by Chee. Additionally, since this map technically isn't supposed to be "canon" in the first place, but merely be used as a "rough guide," it shouldn't matter in the long run. Although I do understand the want to make sure that what you see is "official" and not "unofficial."

Are all planets in this map canon?
While not all planet's in this map have yet been officially re-introduced into canon, I myself was surprised at how many of them already were. With that in mind, you can be fairly confident that what you see in this map is for all intents and purposes "actually there."

What's up with the grid?
Since this map is portrayed in an isolinear fashion, true galactic north is achieved by tilting your head slightly to the right. For whatever reason, the original map's grid lines do not correlate with the Standard Galactic Grid used in The Essential Atlas and other Star Wars media. Therefore, I removed the numbers and letters on the edges of the map associated with this so as to not confuse anyone. I also kept the "parsecs to lightyears" conversion on the map. While I do not know where the original author got his numbers from, one grid equals a little under 5000 light years across. By counting the grid across the diameter of the galaxy, it comes out as a little above 100,000 light years. This matches with current canon sources which place the galactic diameter at above 100,000 light years. Therefore, I decided to keep the conversion. Now, at least, the grid provided has more purpose than just another way to visually look at the galaxy.

How did you place planets/sectors/astronomical objects?
Very carefully. Okay! okay! But seriously, making sure that what appeared on the map was as accurate as possible was very important to me. I did not want to mislead, or in my impatience, make a crucial error and thus make a terrible mistake. As I have listed in the sources section, I utilized a variety of sources and cross-referenced all of them to both each other and to the planet's official Wookieepedia page to see if any irregularities, errors, or slight differences existed. I did not "guess" or "fudge" any planets on the map. All planets took me roughly twenty minutes of double-checking my work to ensure that I had accounted for every possible scenario and circumstance.

Let me give you an example. On the map, I included the planet of Bardotta. Bardotta was first introduced in the Clone Wars 3D animated TV show. The first thing I did was check both the canon and legends version of its Wookieepedia page to see if any differences in grid location, region, sector, and system existed. I also checked the "behind the scenes" section and the article's talk page for any word of confusion/contradictions regarding the planet in general (For example, Aleen was once in the Inner Rim, but the Clone Wars TV show put it in the Mid Rim. Thus, Jason Fry stated the old Aleen was actually Aleen Minor and the new Aleen was the "real" Aleen. A fact which I have included in my version of the map).

After finding that Bardotta was placed by The Essential Atlas Online Companion on its legends page at grid J-13, and then checking the Essential Atlas Online Companion index to see if this was truly the case, I then looked at the galaxy in The Essential Atlas, looked at J-13, and saw it was placed in a fairly empty square, with the only other planet being Phu. Since Bardotta is in the Colonies, I checked the Online Companion to see if a map of the sectors of the Colonies had been provided. Unfortunately, the Online Companion only provides maps of the Outer Rim, Mid Rim, and Expansion Region (which I did factor into consideration when placing all planets in those regions, and determining the shape and size of the Lothal sector). If I had a sector map of Bardotta, I would have used what I know&mdash;that Bardotta is in the Colonies at J-13 in the Shasos sector, then looked at The Essential Atlas map, then factored all those variables in, including the shape of the Shasos sector and thus where the planet must be in J-13 based on the sector's shape, then utilized the locations of nearby planets that are provided in both The Essential Atlas version and W.R. van Hage's version of the map, then triangulated the planet's position based off of several other planets to place the planet in the most accurate position. Since I did not have a sector map of Bardotta, I had to use my best estimate of Bardotta's position based on what information I had been given. I ultimately decided to place Bardotta slightly to the left of Phu in the colonies, as Phu in The Essential Atlas is literally sitting on the eastern edge of sector J-13, thus there is an extremely high chance that Bardotta must be slightly to its left.

If what I said confused you or you lost me halfway through, hopefully you'll take away the fact that I took the placement of planets very seriously.

Why aren't planets from X included?
I only included planets that are given actual locations in official maps. So since Andelm IV, introduced in Star Wars: Chewbacca, was given an actual location in the galactic map provided with Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia, I included it on the map. I did not include Kaddak, introduced in Star Wars: Poe Dameron, not because we don't know where it is (it's in the Outer Rim), but because we don't know where in the Outer Rim it is because it hasn't been given a placement on an official map. I do not "guess." That is why many canon planets are not currently placed on this map. If new sources come out with new canon placements, I will update the map accordingly.

How long did it take you to make this map?
In total, between updating the map, correcting small errors in the existing map, and cross-checking all my planet placements, it took me roughly one and a half weeks to see this map from conception and completion. Of course none of this would be possible without W.R. van Hage's original map, and of course George Lucas, to whom we are all indebted to.

Hopefully this map is useful to the Wookieepedia community and Star Wars fans in general who want to learn more about the Star Wars galaxy but do not have the books/resources needed to fully enjoy and appreciate it.

May the Force be with you. - Commander Boots 02:14, September 15, 2017 (UTC)