Terephon

"There was a coup attempt? We never hear anything on Terephon."

- Entora Zar

Terephon was a planet in the Hapes Cluster, located in the Transitory Mists. The Mists, which blocked all long-range and holocomm transmissions, ensured Terephon's isolation and helped shape its reputation as a backwater in the Consortium. Nevertheless, rising from the marshy plains of the planet were Hapan cities and mountain ranges; the world became popular for hunting, and wealthy nobles often built retreats on Terephon.

The planet offered little to the Hapes Cluster other than several of the amazon guards who protected the Hapan Royal Family. However, once Hapes and the New Republic began to interact with one another, Terephon became the occasional location of galactic intrigue. As with many Hapan worlds, it was presided over by a Ducha.

Description
Terephon was a world of contrasts. There were areas of the planet that were covered in hundreds if not thousands of kilometers of bogs and marshlands; great expansive moors which were corrugated with low hills. Much of these areas were inaccessible by land, and starships would later be used to move over the moors. The moorlands acted as the favorite retreats of politicians and the wealthy, and murgs, reptilian creatures native to Terephon that dwelt underground, were often tamed and used in hunting, a major past-time for the rich. There were areas from which cliffs arose, with cave warrens running through them, and the moorlands eventually gave way to mountains and mesas. Opulent Hapan cities were constructed on the drier parts of the planet, with lush gardens among their towering spires.

Hapan backwater
Terephon became known as the homeworld of many of the amazon guards who made up the Queen Mother's royal protectors, one of the most notable of these being Astarta, a close friend of Prince Isolder and his personal bodyguard. The planet was presided over by a Ducha, who looked over Terephon as a personal holding. Due to its location in the Transitory Mists, however, Terephon became a world secluded from the rest of the Hapes Consortium, and was seen as an isolated planet, as long-range and holocomm transmissions could not reach it. The Mists also acted as a haven for pirates and bandits, making flight around Terephon a risky business.

Yuuzhan Vong War
"I can assure you that Terephon will vote to render aid."

- Lol Miilarta

During the Yuuzhan Vong War Terephon, represented in the Hapes Consortium by Lol Miilarta, pledged its support to the New Republic when Ambassador Leia Organa Solo arrived to solicit aid in the struggle with the powerful invaders.

Second Galactic Civil War
In 40 ABY Terephon continued to remain a relative backwater in terms of the Hapes Cluster; the planetary militia still used outdated Z-95 Headhunters. Yet the conflict rapidly developing between Corellia and the Galactic Alliance came to Hapes, and would see Terephon caught up in its machinations. Queen Mother Tenel Ka had pledged her support, along with three battle fleets, to the Galactic Alliance. Many Hapan nobles joined together in their deep-rooted dislike of the Jedi and this growing lack of Hapan independence to form the Heritage Council, of whom Ducha Galney of Terephon, seen as one of Tenel Ka's most loyal supporters, was a member. Thus when Jedi Knights Jaina Solo and Zekk arrived at Terephon and came to realize that the Ducha was gathering her fleet long before she could have known about the plot to assassinate the Queen, Galney sent a squadron of Miy'tils to bomb her own hunting retreat, Villa Solis, and kill the Jedi. The attempt failed, and Galney was later defeated. Weeks later, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker cruised the Transitory Mists above Terephon following a call from the Force that the woman he hunted, Lumiya, was to be found there. They engaged in a dogfight over Terephon's surface before the Dark Lady of the Sith was forced down to land on a mesa overlooking a Terephonian city. There, Skywalker defeated and killed Lumiya in a duel.

Inhabitants
The Hapans who inhabited the planet were known as Terephonians, the majority of whom dwelt in the planet's classic Hapan cities. Hapans differed from baseline Human stock in a number of ways, most notably in that they possessed poor night vision and were considered to be, on average, more attractive than was the typical Human standard for beauty. Those who lived on Terephon, especially out in the moors, were accustomed to hear little of the galaxy or of the Consortium's affairs, and often regarded the world they lived on as a backwater.

Villa Solis
Ducha Galney of Terephon lived at times at the Villa Solis, (which in Latin means 'House of the Sun') remotely located in the Terephonian moorlands. It was constructed as her private hunting retreat, and was only accessible by air. The architecture was simple, and the villa was made up of a number of squat, domed round buildings, built from white gratenite. It had relatively high security, and a secret hangar built into the gratenite cliffs which rose up at the Villa's rear. The Ducha destroyed her villa in 40 ABY in an attempt to kill Jedi Knights Jaina Solo and Zekk, who had discovered evidence of Galney's treason.

Behind the scenes
Terephon was, until Tempest, a generic, unseen Hapan planet in the Consortium, notable as the homeworld of the amazon guards. It was mentioned again in James Luceno's Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse as one of the worlds which favored granting the New Republic aid, and was visited by the protagonists of Tempest, the novel in which it was first seen and described. It later served as the location of the duel between Luke Skywalker and Lumiya in Sacrifice, where on one occasion it was incorrectly spelled 'Tepheron'.

Appearances

 * The Courtship of Princess Leia
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Tempest
 * Sacrifice
 * Inferno
 * Invincible

Notes and references
Terephon