Kashyyyk/Legends

"Well, it has big trees, in case your eyes don't work anymore."

- Canderous Ordo to Revan

Kashyyyk (see pronunciation), also known as Wookiee Planet C, Edean, G5-623, and Wookiee World, was a Mid Rim planet. It was the lush, wroshyr tree-filled home world of the Wookiees. It was a member of the Galactic Republic, endured enslavement under the Galactic Empire, and later joined the New Republic.

Geography
"This place is wild and untamed. It stirs the blood and makes one feel&hellip;alive."

- Juhani

With no axial tilt and a perfectly circular orbit, Kashyyyk experienced one continuous season. It was composed of a molten metallic core, rocky mantle, and a silicate rock crust. The planet had four continents, making up 40% of the surface, which were mostly covered in lush, wroshyr tree-filled forests, which were several kilometers high. The planet did have a small amount of desert region in the rain-shadow of its small mountain ranges as well as large plains including the Woolwarricca region. A tropical ocean belt contained archipelagos and long coral reefs. In addition, a few sandy beaches could be found along the shores of its oceans. The Kashyyyk coastlines were lined with a brownish-white sand and thick grasses. Kashyyyk's highest peak was Korrokrrayyo Mountain.

Much of the planet could be compared to a giant swamp&mdash;filled with wildlife and covered with wet soil and large amounts of water. The prevalent ecology could be politely described as a "layered deathtrap," as the dangers presented by local wildlife increased as one descended toward the forest floor. According to Wookiee culture, this vertical environment consisted of seven levels. The bulk of Wookiee civilization was located on the uppermost seventh level, and even the bravest Wookiees rarely ventured below the fourth level. Unlike most, Chewbacca was known to travel below this marking point for most Wookiees. The ground level was known as the Shadowlands and, sometimes, the "notherworld."

Flora
As previously stated, the wroshyr trees were the dominant flora. Wroshyr trees may have actually been one large connected organism, as when limbs of two tree limbs ran into each other, they would fuse together. The Wookiees inferred great symbolism in this. Jolee Bindo theorized that the species of wroshyr tree was in fact alien to the planet and was planted there by the Infinite Empire. This was based on information given by a Rakata computer left near one of their ancient Star Maps.

The forests of Kashyyyk were filled with a tremendous variety of plant life, many with some form of consciousness. The Wookiees learned to communicate with these plants and often came to an understanding about their use. One example of this was with the Orga plants, who allowed the Wookiees to harvest their older roots to use in Life Day ceremonies.

Most other flora was parasitic to the wroshyr trees, grew in dirt pockets in crevices of the trees, or was carnivorous. Chyntuck was a species of onion-like vegetable used by the Wookiees as food. The Kthysh was a vined plant used by the Wookiees to make bowcaster strings.

There were at least two types of large carnivorous plants in the lower levels. These included a carnivorous, spiked vine plant, and the infamous Syren plant, which played a crucial role in the coming of age rituals for various Wookiee tribes. Both of these plants were capable of consuming adolescent Wookiees or fully grown Humans.

Fauna
"Kashyyyk's ecology can best be described as a layered deathtrap."

- Gilad Pellaeon

Besides the primary sentient Wookiees, Kashyyyk was home to various species of banthas, a small population of terentateks, and a host of other species. Usually, the deeper into the jungle one went, the more dangerous the animals became. For instance, the tenacious and intelligent wyyyschokk&mdash;a giant red-pigmented spiderlike creature&mdash;could track prey for over a kilometer and coordinate with other weavers to organize an ambush. Additionally, many of the species that inhabited the deeper parts of the jungle were capable of bio-phosphorescence, since the deeper layers of the forest were in perpetual darkness.

Tho Yor
Around 36,453 BBY, a group of the native Wookiees entered a Tho Yor which visited the planet. This Tho Yor and those which visited other planets traveled to Tython, where the Je'daii Order, the earliest incarnation of the Jedi Order, was soon founded by the beings brought there by the Tho Yor. The Wookiees eventually moved off of Tython and settled the forest world of Ska Gora.

Infinite Empire
"The Wookiees have their legends that they were not always here, but it is more than that. The trees themselves are strangers."

- Jolee Bindo to Revan

At some point after the departure of the Tho Yor, Kashyyyk was taken over by the Rakatan Infinite Empire. Its surface was terraformed by the Rakata for agricultural purposes, but the collapse of their empire left their terraforming machines unattended, resulting in the planet's abnormally large foliage.

Czerka Corporation and slavery
In 4020 BBY, Kashyyyk was discovered by Czerka Corporation, which renamed the planet first G5-623 and then, after a poll of stockholders, Edean. They recognized the Wookiees' strength and began to enslave them. In 3993 BBY during the Great Hunt, the Jedi Guun Han Saresh died on the planet fighting a terentatek.

During the Mandalorian Wars, the Mandalorians considered conquering Kashyyyk, although they eventually decided against it; their plans for assault included burning down huge sections of forest and glassing entire continents in order to actually create a place to fight. Sometime after the Mandalorian Wars began, self-exiled Jedi Jolee Bindo made his home on the forest floor of Kashyyyk. In 3976 BBY, Zaalbar, a Wookiee who later aided Jedi Revan, had been banished from Kashyyyk and his brother, Chuundar, usurped the position of Chieftain from his father, Freyyr. Chuundar allowed the Czerka to take Wookiees as slaves in exchange for weapons. Freyyr went into self-exile to the Shadowlands of Kashyyyk. Czerka's control of "Edean" was disrupted when, in 3956 BBY, the enslaved Wookiee populace, led by Freyyr and Revan, overthrew the local corporate headquarters and drove all outsiders off the planet, save for the Ebon Hawk crew.

Old Republic
It was presumably some time after this that Kashyyyk decided to join the Galactic Republic. The Wookiees reverse-engineered the hyperdrive from a Trandoshan vessel. They were welcomed into the Republic through dealings with the Corellians, Verpine, and Alderaanians.

During the time of the Cold War, a proxy conflict between the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic, one of the oldest wroshyr trees on Kashyyyk&mdash;reportedly millennia old&mdash;was dying, and eventually someone was sent to examine its rings and learn more about the planet's history.

In 1,003 BBY during the New Sith Wars, the planet was conquered by the Brotherhood of Darkness.

Eventually, Kashyyyk was represented in the Galactic Senate, with Senator Yarua being the last Kashyyyk representative prior to the outbreak of the Clone Wars. The Wookiees colonized both of the major moons of Kashyyyk, as well as other worlds in the system such as Alaris Prime.

A few years after the Invasion of Naboo, the Wookiee Trade Guild attempted to tax the Trade Federation for goods passed through the Kashyyyk system. An army of B2 super battle droids, led by Count Dooku, arrived at the Wookiee Trade Guild's headquarters and disbanded it.

Clone Wars
"Good relations with the Wookiees, I have."

- Yoda

At the start of the Clone Wars, Kashyyyk remained non-aligned. During the Dark Reaper Project of 22 BBY, the Force Harvester found by Count Dooku on Raxus Prime was tested on the neighboring world of Alaris Prime, but all of the Separatists were forced off the moon afterward, ending the immediate Separatist threat to the system. A small attack on Kashyyyk itself occurred some time later, but this too was repelled, and Kashyyyk retained its non-aligned posture eighteen months into the Clone Wars.

The decision on what role the planet would play in the conflict was left in the hands of a number of Wookiee Royal Families, acting through a council dominated by King Grakchawwaa. He initially advocated neutrality, engaging in limited negotiations with both the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which wished to control hyperspace route planning and to use the Wookiees' secret trade routes to disrupt Republic trade and communication, giving them the advantage in the war.

However, in 21 BBY, General Grievous grew tired of waiting and ordered the Trade Federation officials to launch several probe droids to help 'persuade' Grakchawwaa to make the right decision. He was on the verge of agreeing to join the Confederacy out of self-preservation, when news came that his son, Prince Rikummee, had accidentally been killed by the droids. In anger he allied himself with the Republic, ultimately forcing the Separatists to mount a massive invasion in the closing stages of the war. In 19 BBY, a rescue mission led by Jedi General Etain Tur-Mukan and RC-1138, was in the process to rescue Chieftain Tarfful held captive by Trandoshans. The mission was carried out by Commandos of the Delta Squad, who found more separatist collaborationist among the neighboring Trandoshans than they thought, including General Grievous. In response, the Republic dispatched a task force led by Master Yoda and Clone Commander Gree to defend Kashyyyk. At the coastal city of Kachirho, a combined force of clone troopers and Wookiees fought against the Separatist droid invaders, with Yoda himself participating in the battle. Despite the overwhelming Separatist forces, the Republic and the Wookiees emerged victorious from the Battle of Kashyyyk, though taking very heavy casualties. Not long afterward, the secretly married Jedi couple of Kento and Mallie Marek took refuge on Kashyyyk, and the pregnant Mallie gave birth to Galen on Kashyyyk.

Galactic Empire and slavery
"I want every Wookiee flushed out of hiding, even if it means burning the forests to the ground!"

- Darth Vader

However, victory was short-lived for the Wookiees. With the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Jedi were branded enemies of the Republic/Empire as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine made himself Emperor and initiated Order 66. The clone troopers then took control of Kashyyyk, killing Luminara Unduli, sending Quinlan Vos into hiding, and forcing Yoda to kill Gree and discreetly escape from the battle on a Can-cell. Later Yoda escaped the planet, with the help of Tarfful and Chewbacca via a former Republic escape pod. The Empire was quick to suppress Kashyyyk by renaming it "Wookiee Planet C" (as it was the third orbit in its system) and placed it under martial law.

Several months later, a group of Jedi including Olee Starstone went to Kashyyyk to search for the other Jedi who had been there. The Empire, led by Darth Vader, tracked them and attacked the planet. In response, the Wookiees rebelled against their oppressors, but were ultimately unsuccessful. Clone troopers attempted to land, but many were shot down by abandoned Confederate weaponry utilized by the Wookiees. Darth Vader landed and killed two Jedi before being stopped by Master Roan Shryne, who also died at Vader's hand. The orbital fleet bombarded the planet, causing severe damage on the surface. Wookiees either escaped into the undergrowth or into space, where they were stopped by a Detainer CC-2200 interdictor cruiser. Starstone had slicer Filli Bitters slice into an abandoned CIS ship and crash it into the interdictor cruiser. Many refugees escaped, including Starstone and her Jedi friends, Filli and his smuggling group, and Chewbacca. The Empire occupied the planet, allowing then-Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, one of the Imperial commanders that participated in the battle, to capture and export Wookiees as slave labor to Despayre, in order to help construct the First Death Star.

In 18 BBY, Mallie Marek was killed by the remnant of the droids and Trandoshans from the battle a year prior. Almost immediately, her death caused Palpatine to sense Kento’s presence on Kashyyyk, thus he sent Vader to eliminate him. Vader and his troops met heavy resistance from the local Wookiee population, but ultimately the 501st Legion succeeded in crushing the uprising. During the battle, Vader bested and killed Kento Marek. Upon discovering his opponent's son Galen Marek, whom he found to be extremely powerful in the Force, Vader exterminated all witnesses, including the stormtrooper commander, and went on to train the boy as his secret apprentice.

During the occupation, Kashyyyk was opened by the Imperial authorities to slavers from neighboring Trandosha and Mytaranor. At the advice of the Trandoshans, the Empire began using the powerful Wookiees to carry out slave labor. Wookiee captives were used for countless Imperial projects, including the Maw Installation. However, because of their devotion to their homeworld, many Wookiees would evade the Imperial garrison there to revisit their beloved forests for important Wookiee holidays such as Life Day.

In 2 BBY, Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan was secretly sent by Emperor Palpatine to be held as a hostage on the planet, in order to keep her adoptive father from speaking out against the Empire. Leia was placed under custody of the local commander, Captain Ozzik Sturn, who used to hunt Wookiees for sport, and confined in her private quarters. Eventually, she was rescued by Galen Marek, himself on a mission by Jedi Master Rahm Kota to track down Bail Organa. Leia promised to reveal the location of her father, but only if Galen was able to destroy a skyhook, which was designed to transfer Wookiees offworld for slave labor. Galen headed to the construction site, slaying Captain Sturn and destroying the skyhook. According to Galen however, "the Empire would just rebuild it." Grateful for Galen's heroic deeds, Leia informed him that Bail had journeyed to Felucia, causing a chain of events that culminated in the signing of the Corellian Treaty.

Later, after Marek's death at the hands of Emperor Palpatine, Leia Organa met with Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, Garm Bel Iblis, Rahm Kota, Juno Eclipse and PROXY. In which they formed the Rebel Alliance. Leia picked a symbol for the Alliance, the symbol of the Marek family, in a tribute to Galen Marek, his family and his victories against the Empire. One year after the destruction of the first Death Star, Kashyyyk had been subjected to a long orbital blockade. Darth Vader ordered a door-to-door curfew in order to apprehend every Rebel, eventually hoping to get his hands on the crew of the Millennium Falcon. However, the Imperials were defeated by Lumpawaroo on Rwookrrorro, and subsequently, the Wookiees, along with the local Alliance members, celebrated Life Day.

Moff Hindane Darcc, the Imperial governor of Kashyyyk who ruled the planet from his private palace, forged a pact with the Trandoshan slaver Pekt, appointing him to oversee the entire slaving operation. They had finally installed Avatar Orbital Platform in orbit of the planet, to help further enslavement of the Wookiees.

The New Republic
After the Battle of Endor, the Wookiees were freed from slavery by the Alliance of Free Planets. The Nagai then attempted to enslave the species, but they were repulsed by the New Republic. However, the Wookiees' freedom was short-lived. The Empire, having licked its wounds, quickly reestablished a presence on Kashyyyk and enslaved the Wookiees once more. Around 5 ABY Han Solo and Chewbacca assisted in inciting a revolution among the populace, helped in part by Lando Calrissian, Rogue Squadron, and Admiral Gial Ackbar. Governor Darcc, Pekt and Grand Admiral Peccati Syn were killed during the battle.

Kashyyyk was represented in the New Republic Senate by Kerrithrarr, and the planet became a key signatory and member world of the Inner Council. The planet also welcomed trade, and its city of Thikkiiana became a major exporter of computer technology. However, this made it a target of the agents of the Second Imperium in 23 ABY. A task force under Zekk raided Thikkiiana's computer stores for use by the Second Imperium in its Post-Galactic Civil War against the New Republic.

Galactic Alliance
During the Yuuzhan Vong War, Kashyyyk would be an important member world of the New Republic and, later, the Galactic Alliance. After the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar at the end of the Yuuzhan Vong occupation, celebrations took place on Kashyyyk.

Second Galactic Civil War
It later refused to follow Chief of State Jacen Solo and sheltered the Jedi, who had declared themselves against Solo, so it was attacked by his fleet as a result. Solo's flagship, the Anakin Solo, began targeting the Kashyyyk forests with its long-range turbolasers, starting a firestorm that would claim the lives of many Wookiees and burn huge amounts of forest. The Confederation redirected fleets from the Battle of Kuat to help the Wookiees, resulting in the eventual defeat of the Galactic Alliance forces, although they managed to escape, due to a tactical blunder by the Confederation Fleet. As a result, Kashyyyk joined the Jedi Coalition, though it did not join the Confederation.

Second Imperial Civil War
Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire saw danger in Wookiees, but knew better than to enslave the entire species like the previous Galactic Empire did. Instead it cut them off from the rest of the galaxy by having Kashyyyk blockaded and all Wookiee spaceports and shipyards destroyed. No Wookiees were allowed to leave or visit Kashyyyk without an Imperial order and HoloNet transmissions to the planet were completely cut off. Supplies and traders still could come and go, after swearing under penalty of death not to provide Wookiees with information of the state of the rest of the galaxy, but the Wookiees themselves were completely isolated and largely left alone throughout the region.

Behind the scenes
The original drafts of Return of the Jedi called for the second Death Star to be built in orbit around Kashyyyk by Wookiee slave labor. It wasn't until later drafts that the setting and characters were changed to the forest moon of Endor and Ewoks.

The planet was introduced in 1978 in The Star Wars Holiday Special and was finally realized on the big screen in 2005 in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Phuket in Thailand and Guilin in China were the locations scouted for Revenge of the Sith, to capture plate photography for Kashyyyk backdrops. In the former, the planet when used as backgrounds was simply reused from the matte painting of Yavin Prime from Star Wars (as it was known at the time), albeit tinted green.

In The Wookiee Storybook, Attichitcuk tells Lumpawarrump that Wookiees are not Kashyyyk natives, that they immigrated to Kashyyyk from an unspecified planet centuries before. Later sources say that Wookiees are native to Kashyyyk. It's possible Attichitcuk was merely spinning an entertaining yarn for his grandson rather than stating something he believed to be factual.

When author Timothy Zahn included the Wookiee homeworld in his novel Heir to the Empire, he intended to name it "Rwookrrorro," unaware that it had already been named. Upon learning that it was named Kashyyyk, Zahn suggested "Rwookrrorro" could be the indigenous name for the planet, but this idea was rejected. Zahn used the name instead for a specific city on Kashyyyk.

Some believe there is a contradiction between the portrayal of Kashyyyk in the Expanded Universe and its portrayal in Revenge of the Sith. While the former (in pre-Revenge works) portrayed Kashyyyk as a planet with inhabitants living only in trees and never descending to the ground, the latter portrays the planet as having oceans and coasts, with its inhabitants living on the ground. This alleged contradiction could be easily explained in that Revenge of the Sith only showed a small part of the planet, and that it doesn't necessarily represent the layout of the entire planet. Additionally, Rebel Dawn mentions that Kashyyyk has coasts.

The PC game Star Wars: Rebellion mistakenly places Kashyyyk in the Sumitra sector of the Outer Rim.

Spelling
The 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special provides no spelling for the planet's name, though its shooting script spells it "Kazzook," and it is pronounced in the show as that spelling would suggest (see next section). In 1979, an untitled newspaper comic story arc (later dubbed The Kashyyyk Depths) that took place on this planet called it both "Kazhyyyk" and "Kazhyyk." Later that year, The Wookiee Storybook spelled the planet "Kashyyyk," which has been used ever since, with only a couple of exceptions, such as the Super Nintendo Super Star Wars games, where Chewbacca is listed to have come from "Kazhyyyk."

Pronunciation
"I don't remember the name&mdash;something with too many K's and Y's. Sounds like you're gargling ronto spit when you say it."

- Mira

Kashyyyk has been pronounced many different ways. In its first appearance in The Star Wars Holiday Special, it was pronounced /kəˈzuk/. In the video games Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Republic Commando, among others, it is pronounced /'kæʃɨk/. The G-canon pronunciation, heard in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, is /kəˈʃik/. This pronunciation is also heard in Star Wars: Empire at War. Star Wars: Battlefront II pronunciation is essentially a combination of the previous two, /kæˈʃik/, but this could be because of the troopers' accents.

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * Star Wars: Republic Commando: Order 66
 * LEGO Star Wars: Revenge of the Brick
 * Star Wars: Tiny Death Star
 * Star Wars: Tiny Death Star