Unknown Regions

"Everything is rough in the Unknown Regions."

- General Leia Organa

The Unknown Regions, also referred to as Unknown Space and the Unknown Territories, was a region of the galaxy located in the galactic west beyond the Outer Rim. Largely unexplored throughout galactic history, it remained a mystery to space travelers and served as a source of tales and wonders.

Description
At the time of the Galactic Civil War, the Unknown Regions was regarded as an unexplored region that was separated from the galaxy by a labyrinth of solar storms, rogue magnetospheres, black holes, gravity wells, and things far stranger. Strange creatures were known to inhabit the void. This maze was considered impassable and many exploration ships and probe droids were lost trying to breach it. By the time of the Battle of Jakku, Imperial computers at the Jakku Observatory had found a safe route through this maze which involved taking multiple short hyperspace jumps through the maze. This journey took several months.

The Ilum system, the Dassal system, the Deep, Rakata Prime, the Chiss Ascendancy and the Chiss homeworld of Csilla, as well as the origin point of Starkiller Base, were located in the Unknown Regions. The watery world of Ahch-To, the site of the First Jedi Temple, was located in the Unknown Regions. The Queluhan Nebula was also located within the Region.

According to the Z7 series construction droid Zeta, there were few service centers, mechanics and factories for replacement parts in the Unknown Regions and no self respecting droid ever ventured there.

Ancient history
Dating as far back as the Old Republic, the Jedi Order was known to utilize the planet Ilum as a source of kyber crystals, which were important in the construction of a Jedi's lightsaber. At a young age, Jedi younglings were sent to Ilum to retrieve these crystals, traveling into the Unknown Regions aboard a ship known as the Crucible.

Galactic Empire
"These aren't civilian targets. They're Imperial installations staffed by people who have bought into the Emperor's sick vision of the future&mdash;for you, your queen, me, and everyone between here and the Unknown Regions."

- Berch Teller

During the early years of the Galactic Empire, some dissidents, such as Berch Teller, believed that the Empire would extend all the way to the Unknown Regions. The existence of "evil threats" in the Unknown Regions led the Chiss Ascendancy to send the future Grand Admiral Thrawn to forge an alliance with the Galactic Empire. Thrawn made first contact with the Empire by posing as an exile. He eventually gained the trust of Emperor Palpatine and Colonel Wullf Yularen. Following the Batonn insurgency, Thrawn sent his friend Commander Eli Vanto to serve as an Imperial liaison with the Chiss Ascendancy.

During the Age of the Empire, the Emperor sent several explorers into the Unknown Regions. Many of these explorers were killed while trying to breach the maze that lay to the west of Jakku. Others went mad from isolation. Palpatine's efforts to map the Unknown Regions were aided by the Chiss Admiral Thrawn, a native of the Unknown Regions. For decades, Palpatine had been seeding the Unknown Regions with storehouses, shipyards, and laboratories. Thrawn served as Palpatine's chief adviser concerning matters within the Unknown Regions. Following the Battle of Atollon, Palpatine sensed a disturbance in the Force coming from the edge of a region centered on Batuu and sent Thrawn and Darth Vader to investigate. This disturbance led the Empire into a conflict with the war-like Grysk species.

Following the Battle of Endor, Palpatine's former adviser Yupe Tashu advocated that the Empire venture into the Unknown Regions to seek out the source of the dark side of the Force.

After the Battle of Jakku, an Imperial remnant retreated to the Queluhan Nebula.

Palpatine had installed a secret Observatory on the planet Jakku which contained powerful ancient computers that generated a computerized three-dimensional map of the Unknown Regions, a critical part of Palpatine's Contingency plan. The Observatory's computers dispatched numerous probe droids to test the routes that the computers had generated. Shortly before the Emperor's death at the Battle of Endor, the computers finished their calculations and found a safe path into the Unknown Regions. As a result, the Emperor's flagship Eclipse was dispatched into the new frontier. Following the Battle of Jakku, which saw the death of Counselor to the Empire Gallius Rax, Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, Brendol Hux, his son Armitage Hux, and other Imperials used these coordinates to travel through the Unknown Regions and rendezvous with the Eclipse. This movement of Imperial loyalists eventually gave rise to the First Order, a military junta which sought to recapture the lost Imperial legacy and cause.

First Order
Following the signing of the Galactic Concordance, the Galactic Empire disbanded and became a rump state that existed through a post war remnant and several provisional governments. A separate Imperial remnant emerged, however, which was made up of hardliners that rejected the terms of the Galactic Concordance, ushering in a cold war with the New Republic. These hardliners eventually withdrew from Republic politics and relocated to the Unknown Regions to join with the secretive First Order, giving it more political legitimacy.

Shipyards, weapons factories, and base installations were established within the Unknown Regions.

The First Order maintained a space station known as Station Theta Black to mine and process dedlanite to make blasters within the Unknown Regions.

In 34 ABY, Starkiller Base served as a major base for the First Order. The First Order later used its phantom energy to destroy the Hosnian system, which hosted Hosnian Prime, the capital of the New Republic. The First Order then attempted to use Starkiller Base to destroy the Resistance base on D'Qar in the Ileenium system in the Outer Rim Territories. However, the Resistance destroyed Starkiller Base, dealing a serious blow to the First Order.

Following the destruction of Starkiller Base, Rey traveled to the Unknown Regions world of Ahch-To to seek out Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. A greatly reluctant Skywalker agreed to train her in the Jedi ways. After Rey returned to the wider galaxy in an attempt to redeem Kylo Ren, Skywalker decided to aid the Resistance by using a Force projection to distract Ren during the Battle of Crait so that the Resistance could escape offworld aboard the Millennium Falcon with Rey and Chewbacca. The stress created by the Force projection proved too great and Skywalker became one with the Force.

The Unknown Regions were used by the First Order to hide the Supremacy before the Battle of Crait.

Governance
In the Unknown Regions, the Chiss Ascendancy, a great but very secretive power that was ruled by the Aristocra, a grouping of royal families that formed the ruling class of the Ascendancy, presided over an interconnection of sovereignties. The Grysk Hegemony, a rival power, was an empire that was was described as nomadic with no one fixed home. The location of the Hegemony's area of influence and control brought them into conflict with the Chiss Ascendancy.

For decades, the Galactic Empire undertook the colonization of the Unknown Regions and established a number of storehouses, shipyards, and laboratories on distant moons and asteroids beyond known space, with survey teams and droids having previously been sent to explore the Unknown Regions. Emerging after the fall of the Empire, these colonies, with the aid of Imperial exiles, transformed into the First Order, a militaristic hermit state.

Behind the scenes
The Unknown Regions were originally introduced in the Heir to the Empire Sourcebook, which was an accompaniment to the Legends novel Heir to the Empire. It was brought into canon when the planet Ilum was introduced in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "The Gathering".

Pablo Hidalgo explained in Rebels Recon that the borders of the Unknown Regions were known (and therefore should be visible on the map of the galaxy) but what were within the regions were unknown. This would be in contrast with Wild Space, which was outside the known map of the galaxy (in other words, 'off the edge of the map').

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens