- "…the Javin's got plenty of places to hide…"
- ―Solomahal
The Greater Javin was a relatively backwater region of space in the Western Reaches of the Outer Rim Territories. Formally organized as the Javin regional sector, it comprised three subsectors: Javin, Anoat, and Yarith. The Greater Javin opened to the wider galaxy some five hundred years before the Battle of Yavin, thanks to the efforts of entrepreneur Ecclessis Figg, whose scout ships blazed new, lucrative trade routes through the region, which turned the Greater Javin into an economic powerhouse. The Corellian Trade Spine ran directly through the region, and its economy was heavily influenced by the interests of the Figg family.
Description[]
The Greater Javin comprised the three sectors of Javin, Anoat, and Yarith. The Javin sector, with its capital at Javin on the Corellian Trade Spine, comprised the eleven worlds that had been part of Mugaari Space before the Galactic Republic annexed the region. By the time of the Galactic Civil War, many former Mugaari colonies such as High Chunah and Kumru had become prosperous, industrialised factory worlds.[1]
The Anoat and Yarith sectors were defined by the Twin Nebulae Kiax and Ivax. An ancient supernova created the nebulae (though strictly speaking the Twin Nebulae was in fact a single irregular nebula), as well as the Ring, a black dwarf near Gerrenthum in the Anoat sector. The Twin Nebulae complicated navigation through the Greater Javin for centuries until Ecclessis Figg blazed new hyperlanes through the region.[1]
The Anoat sector had its capital at Gerrenthum, the crossroads of the Corellian Trade Spine, the Lutrillian Cross, and the Nothoiin Corridor, making it a megaworld that was the headquarters of the Figg conglomerate. The Anoat sector also comprised the industrialised Mining Worlds of Burnin Konn, Allyuen, Tokmia, and (after the Galactic Civil War) Isis, which could be reached from Ione on the Trade Spine. The Ison Corridor was a bypass of the Corellian Trade Spine that ran through the sector, and linked the Spine to the Tibanna gas mining colony of Bespin, the Anoat system containing the Ugnaught homeworld of Gentes and Anoat itself, and the ice world of Hoth.[1] The Yarith sector had its capital at Isde Naha, another heavily-industrialised tradeworld that was at the crossroads of the Trade Spine and the Lipsec Run and hosted numerous Figg interests. Lutrillia was another influential world at the hub of the Lutrillian Cross.[1]
Because the Greater Javin had been opened up to the galactic community largely by the efforts of Lord Ecclessis Figg, the Figg family held considerable economic power in the region through businesses like the Outer Javin Company, Figg & Associates, and Figg Excavations. Hoping to check ambitions in the Greater Javin, the Galactic Republic deliberately drew a zigzagging border between the Anoat and Yarith sectors to cut off neighboring worlds politically and blunt local power.[1] However, largely thanks to the efforts of Lord Figg himself, the native Lutrillians, Nothoiins, and (to a lesser extent) Mugaari all held considerably economic power as well.[2]
History[]
The New Sith Wars[]
Around 1000 BBY, the planet Javin on the edge of the Mid Rim marked the dividing line between the civilised galaxy and Wild Space. The Corellian Trade Spine Rimward of Yag'Dhul was lightly settled, and beyond Javin were the Mugaari, Lutrillian, and Nothoiin civilisations that could only be accessed by slow routes that had to detour around the dangerous Twin Nebulae. The Mugaari maintained a small empire in the region that had influence as far Rimward as Gentes, where they subjected the Ugnaughts to slavery.[1]
During the New Sith Wars, the region fell under the control of the Brotherhood of Darkness, and Sith-affiliated pirates based at Gentes raided up the Corellian Trade Spine. The pirates were defeated by the Jedi Knight Rohlan of Kaal in a battle at Hoth, who earned the title of Lord Hoth for his victory. Lord Hoth went on to defeat the Brotherhood of Darkness at the Seventh Battle of Ruusan.[1][3]
Lord Figg's expeditions[]
The Galactic Republic forcibly annexed the eleven worlds of Mugaari Space after a brief war roughly one thousand years before the Clone Wars, establishing the sprawling Javin subsector. However, it was not until around 500 BBY that scout ships owned by Lord Ecclessis Figg began finding safe routes through the region.[1] A Corellian who had married into Alderaanian nobility, Figg discovered Tibanna gas, a valuable hyperdrive coolant and blaster gas, in the atmosphere of the gas giant Bespin. Using his wife's family's money to make the initial investment, Figg established the first mining colony on Bespin with the help of the Ugnaughts of nearby Gentes.[2]
Operating from Gerrenthum, Figg also established the Outer Javin Company, which found routes through the Twin Nebulae. This spurred a trade boom in the Greater Javin that made Figg extremely rich.[2][1] To avoid inter-species conflict that might interfere with his business operations, as well as to avoid scrutiny from the Republic, Figg also ensured that the native Lutrillians and Nothoiins benefited from the increased wealth.[2]
In the last year of his life, Figg presided over a ceremony that inaugurated a new subsector in the booming region. Figg had pressed for the name "Ecclessis", after himself, but the Republic named the new subsector the Anoat sector after an ancient surveying note.[1]
The fall of the Republic[]
Generations after Figg's death, the Republic partitioned the Anoat sector in an effort to check ambitions in the region. The new border was deliberately zigzagging in order to cut off neighboring worlds and blunt their power. Though they failed to prevent the move, the Figg family did see the new sector named the Yarith sector, after Ecclessis Figg's wife.[1]
During the Clone Wars, the Greater Javin was part of the Javin Oversector, the area of operations of the Grand Army of the Republic's Nineteenth Army.[3] Gentes was invaded by Separatist forces under General Grievous during the Clone Wars, destroying much of the planet's infrastructure and seeing many Ugnaughts taken off into slavery.[4]
The Galactic Civil War[]
Government control was historically light in a region so far from the Core Worlds, and the Galactic Empire largely left the Greater Javin to its own devices. The Alliance to Restore the Republic secretly maintained the planet Isis as a safe world, but was forced to abandon it just after the Battle of Yavin.[5] In 0 ABY, Luke Skywalker rediscovered the planet Hoth in the Anoat sector while returning from a mission on Aridus. Luke recommended the isolated planet to Alliance High Command as the potential site for a new base of operations, and in 1 ABY the Alliance Corps of Engineers established Echo Base on Hoth.[1]
The planet seemed like a superb find for the Alliance: Hoth was situated on the Ison Corridor, a decaying hyperspace bypass of the Corellian Trade Spine whose only common destination was Bespin. The difficulties of traversing the Ivax Nebula and the debris field of the Ison system Rimward meant that ships invariably reached Bespin from the Coreward end of the Corridor from Indellian. Very few ships passed beyond Bespin to Anoat, Hoth, or Ison itself. Hoth was therefore secluded, largely unknown, but gave the Alliance quick access to the Corellian Trade Spine for raiding.[1] Nevertheless, the base commander, General Carlist Rieekan, demanded a permanent state of readiness to evacuate should Echo Base be discovered.[3]
approaching Imperial AT-ATs during the Battle of Hoth]]
Echo Base was ultimately discovered in 3 ABY by the Imperial Navy's Death Squadron, led by Lord Darth Vader. Rebel supplies captured in a convoy ambush at Derra IV allowed the Empire to narrow its search to the Western Reaches, and thousands of probe droids were dispatched throughout the region.[3] Two of Death Squadron's Star Destroyers, Avenger and Stalker, were detached to the Ione system, where they deployed Viper probe droids to the Allyuen, Tokmia, and Hoth systems. The probe deployed to Hoth located Echo Base shortly afterwards and relayed the information to Death Squadron, based in the Qeimet system.[1] The Battle of Hoth commenced shortly afterwards, a violent defeat that nearly crippled the Rebellion, with only thirteen of thirty escaping Rebel transports surviving the blockade. Pursued by Death Squadron, the Millennium Falcon fled through the Hoth system's asteroid field via the Anoat system to Cloud City on Bespin. Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian was forced to surrender the Rebels to Darth Vader, but he helped them escape after the Empire reneged on its deal and occupied Bespin.[6]
Bespin was the site of several raids and battles over the next year before the Galactic Empire's defeat at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY. In the aftermath of Emperor Palpatine's death, the Anoat sector was one of the first regions to throw off the Empire and declare for the Alliance of Free Planets, later the New Republic.[7] One month after Endor, Lando's Commandos, led by Calrissian, now a New Republic General, liberated Bespin from Imperial rule. The New Republic First Fleet then advanced through the Greater Javin from Saijo to engage Warlords Prentioch and Delvardus.[3][1]
Inhabitants[]
Lutrillians[]
Native to the cold, waterless world of Lutrillia in the Yarith sector, the Lutrillians were short, somewhat porcine humanoids readily adapted to cold conditions.[8] On their homeworld, they lived a nomadic lifestyle that had developed from migrating between the planet's oases. They had adapted this to modern technology with the development of wheeled platform-cities: more than a hundred such cities rolled across the planet's equatorial zone, attended by vehicles carrying travellers and freight.[1]
The Lutrillians were considered natural entrepreneurs, and the Figg routes, in particular the Lutrillian Cross, made the species rich. Lutrillian merchant colonies were established throughout the region, including on Kirtarkin, Gerrenthum, and Ione.[2] The Lutrillians were considered an economic power in the region and generally maintained good relations with the Nothoiins and immigrated Humans.[1]
Mugaari[]
The heavy-browed, lantern-jawed Mugaari had ruled a small empire of eleven worlds from their homeworld Mugaar centuries before Figg's expeditions. The Galactic Republic had forcibly annexed Mugaari Space, leading many Mugaari to resent Humans as invaders and occupiers. The Mugaari also tended to look down on the Lutrillians and Nothoiin as collaborators.[1]
The Mugaari held somewhat less economic power in the Greater Javin than the Nothoiins and Lutrillians.[1] A resistance group known as the Mugaari pirates allied with the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War.[9]
Nothoiins[]
The Nothoiins were golden-skinned humanoids with high craniums native to Nothoiin. They had traded valuable ur-diamonds with the Republic for centuries before Ecclessis Figg opened up the region's hyperspace routes, and the Nothoiins benefited from the increased trade.[2] Their homeworld was a grassy planet known for the giant wildfires that had raged across its rolling plains since before the Clone Wars, and consequently the planet's spaceports were surrounded by kilometers-wide burn rings for protection.[1]
Their planet's ash-choked atmosphere caused many Nothoiins to seek their fortune offworld, and Nothoiin colonies could be found on Bavva, Kirtarkin, Gerrenthum, Ione and Polmanar.[8] Council was the seat of the Nothoiin government, and served as a meeting place for colony representatives.[1]
Ugnaughts[]
The Ugnaughts were a hardy, porcine species native to Gentes in the Anoat system. The Ugnaughts were favored as workers, and had been enslaved by the Mugaari for centuries before the Republic annexed the region.[1] Republic control gave the Ugnaughts a measure of protection, and the species was recruited by Lord Figg to assist in the construction of Cloud City on Bespin.[2]
Gentes and its moon Belsus began to thrive as industrial worlds, but both were devastated by the Separatist invasion during the Clone Wars.[4] Many Ugnaughts abandoned the planet soon afterwards, though by the close of the Galactic Civil War, they formally controlled Bespin's Cloud City.[1]
Appearances[]
- Star Wars: TIE Fighter
- X-Wing Rogue Squadron Special (In flashback(s))
- X-Wing Rogue Squadron 21 (In flashback(s))
- X-Wing Rogue Squadron 25 (In flashback(s))
Sources[]
- TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide (Picture only)
- TIE Fighter Collector's CD-ROM: The Official Strategy Guide (Picture only)
- Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds (First mentioned) (Indirect mention only)
- "Galactic Gazetteer: Hoth and the Greater Javin" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link) (First identified as Greater Javin)
- "Rough and Tundra" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. II ("Javin sector")
- The Essential Atlas
- Star Wars: The Essential Atlas Online Companion on StarWars.com (article) (backup link)
- The Essential Guide to Warfare (Picture only)
- Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook
- Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.36 1.37 1.38 The Essential Atlas
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "Galactic Gazetteer: Hoth and the Greater Javin" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 The Essential Guide to Warfare
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Star Wars: General Grievous
- ↑ The Isis Coordinates
- ↑ Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back
- ↑ Rebellion Era Campaign Guide
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds
- ↑ Star Wars: TIE Fighter