Nar Shaddaa

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"Ah, the beautiful stench and decay of desperate living."

―Atton Rand —

Listen (file info)^[5]

Nar Shaddaa was the largest moon of Nal Hutta. More commonly known as the Vertical City, the Smugglers' Moon, Little Coruscant, or derisively as Little Slugland,^[6] and in shorthand slang as Narsh, Nar Shaddaa was similar to Coruscant in that its surface was entirely overgrown with city sprawl for millennia. But unlike Coruscant—which was only relatively rundown and dangerous on the lower and under levels of the world city—Nar Shaddaa was filthy, polluted, and infested with crime everywhere. Nevertheless Nar Shaddaa remained the most important financial and trading center of Hutt Space.

Description[]

Overview[]

"Never have I been to a place so alive with the Force, yet so dead to it. The contrast is like a blade."

―Visas Marr —

Listen (file info)^[5]

Nar Shaddaa was the largest moon of Nal Hutta, located within the Y'Toub system of Hutt Space on the borderline between the Mid Rim and Outer Rim Territories. The moon was about 4750 kilometres in diameter and served as the main spaceport for the Hutt Cartel on Nal Hutta.^[2]^[4]

Nar Shaddaa was tidally-locked to Nal Hutta, which resulted in the fact that only one side (the near side) of the moon always faced the parent planet, while the other side (the far side) was faced towards the empty space. Because of its tidal locking and orbit around Nal Hutta, both sides of the moon spent half of the year in daylight and the other half – in nighttime. Since Nar Shaddaa was close enough to its parent planet, its orbit was well inside Nal Hutta’s magnetic field, which gave the moon protection from stellar radiation and cosmic rays. The moon was also protected by planetary shields.^[7]

Nar Shaddaa had a relatively large and dense metallic core, which allowed the moon to have an almost near standard-type surface gravity like Coruscant despite only having a diameter of roughly 4800 kilometres. Its high density was explained by having large quantities of heavy elements like iron, nickel, neutronium, zersium, gold, plutonium and uranium in its core and crust. These elements contributed of having vast amounts of mining installations^[8] and durasteel production plants in the moon’s early history, allowing for a rapid and cheap industrialization of Nar Shaddaa’s surface. It is no wonder that many mines were still in operation during the Galactic Civil War. Ores from deep in the crust were loaded to a conveyor belt that emerged from the surface, and climbing a massive spiraling ramp, reached the loading docks high above.^[9]

Surface[]

"This place is different from Coruscant. Much more… lived in, less polished."

―Qwi Xux^[10]

Centuries of industrialization left Nar Shaddaa’s surface highly urbanized, which in turn forced the moon to become an ecumenopolis – a global wide cityscape. For administrative purposes the cityscape of Nar Shaddaa was divided into many sectors (Corellian Sector, Duros Sector etc.), which in turn were divided into smaller districts. Likewise similarly to Coruscant and Taris new layers of housing and entertainment buildings were built on top of older layers, which resulted in the construction of massive vertical cities reaching heights of up to three kilometres.^[4]^[11] Power plants and their massive exhaust pots, venting off the excessive heat, made the levels nearer to the moon's surface warmer and hotter, encouraging the residents to build structures further up.^[9] In total Nar Shaddaa had about 100 levels of urban layers, of which the lower half made up what is known as the moon’s Undercity.

Unlike Coruscant's ecumenopolis, on which the Upper City was usually safe, both the upper levels and the Undercity of Nar Shaddaa were extremely dangerous.^[4] The only difference between the upper levels and the Undercity was that the lower levels of Nar Shaddaa didn’t receive any sunlight whatsoever, being constantly illuminated by artificial lighting. Similarly to Coruscant the cityscape of Nar Shaddaa created its own microclimates, in which both the upper levels and the Undercity was profound to certain heat, wind and moisture patterns. Although, because of planetary engineering and constant maintenance from the local authorities, Nar Shaddaa's climate was moderately temperate^[3] with considerable air pollution getting worse by going lower towards the moon's surface.

The entire ecumenopolis was dominated by decaying urban landscape^[4] and congested, polluted areas, in contrast to the gleaming apartments and well-maintained skywalks that made up much of Coruscant. The urban surface of Nar Shaddaa consisted of several docking towers, landing bays, cargo warehouses, factories, residential buildings, promenades and trading plazas.^[4]^[12] The inconsistently-shaped buildings, some cylindrical, some polygonal, looked like trunks of some growing organism, and the population around them like symbiotes. The cityscape was anarchically constructed as anyone was able to build unregulated their own gantries, spires, bridges, platforms and signs anywhere that was convenient for them, creating navigational hazards. Some of the signs were deliberately deceptive, which would lead many into a trap where they would be mugged and/or killed.^[9]

History[]

Old Republic[]

Narshaddaa rgb-lg — The cityscape of Nar Shaddaa

When the Hutts left their homeworld of Varl, they displaced the Evocii, native to Nal Hutta, to Nar Shaddaa in 15,000 BBY and immediately destroyed the remaining Evocii agriculture. Eventually the moon was annexed by the Hutts, who started to force the Evocii into slave labor, completely changing the moon's unknown original natural terrain, by building spaceports and docking bays across its surface - some stretching out into orbit. Although the moon's urbanized construction had just started, it quickly began to prosper, along with Nal Hutta.^[3]

By 14,500 BBY, the moon was completely urbanized, and the Evocii were finally free since their work was complete. However most had died off during the construction and the few that remained, took refuge in the Undercity. Unfortunately the Evocii began to mutate into unwholesome savages due to various technologies practiced in the moon's undercity. For about eleven thousand years, it rivaled the galactic capital Coruscant as an important center of interstellar trade and continued to grow.^[3] In 4000 BBY when the trade lanes shifted, Nar Shaddaa and its planet became obsolete and were eventually abandoned by the Republic.^[2]

Nar Shaddaa became a criminal haven and gained a reputation of being the center of illegal operations in the galaxy, earning the moniker "The Smugglers' Moon". Now distant from most galactic trade centers, the moon was allowed to run its own affairs with little outside interference.^[3]

Sections of the urbanized moon's vertical city included the Duros Sector and the Corellian sector, which contained three bars popular with bounty hunters — The Burning Deck, The Slag Pit, and the Meltdown Café—as well as another corner tavern called the Orange Lady.

First Jedi Purge[]

In 3951 BBY, the moon was visited by the Jedi Exile in her search for Zez-Kai Ell, a Jedi Master who cast her out of the Jedi Order. After the Jedi Civil War ended, Nar Shaddaa became swarmed by thousands—if not millions—of refugees from destroyed worlds across the Galaxy, and still more ex-soldiers from both sides in the conflict choking up its spaces looking for work and / or new homes. Its refugee sector was one of the most crowded in the entire galaxy, and tightly controlled by the Exchange. The Exchange was exploiting the refugees to lure any remaining Jedi into their hands. The Exile attracted the Exchange's attention by persuading Saquesh, the "Overseer", to loosen his grip on the Refugee Sector, and rescuing locals from Exchange thugs. After she went to the Jekk'Jekk Tarr to meet with the Exchange member Visquis, G0-T0 intervened in Visquis' attempts to kill the Jedi and collected a misinterpreted "bounty". However, her companions rescued her and they succeeded in destroying G0-T0's yacht, the Visionary, destabilizing the Exchange and other criminal organizations throughout the entire sector for many years.

Cold War[]

NarShaddaaSkyline3 — The skyline of the moon during the Cold War.

During the Cold War, both Republic and the reconstituted Sith Empire were vying for alliances with the Hutt Cartel. Several criminal organizations, including the Exchange, continued to be active on the moon in this period, struggling against one another for control of the criminal underworld.

In 3653 BBY the Exchange suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Shadow Syndicate, even being driven out of the Corellian Sector.^[13]

During the occupation by the Eternal Empire, Nar Shaddaa was the site of a Star Fortress.^[14]

New Sith Wars[]

Around 1002 BBY, the Brotherhood of Darkness operated a Sith academy on the world that specialized in the training of Sith assassins. In 1000 BBY, after the Ruusan campaign, Set Harth and Bal Serinus dueled on the moon, but were both imprisoned by a Hutt crimelord.^[15]

The decline of the Republic[]

"Nar Shaddaa be nasty nasty so everyone make bets how long you last. And because this is Nar Shaddaa, everyone try to cheat. Make you die closest to time they pick. Then they win bombad monies!"

―Vilmarh Grahrk, to Quinlan Vos^[16]

Before her death in 32 BBY at the hands of Darth Maul, native-born Pa'lowick Aneesa Dym and her ship the Dusty Duck called the Smugglers' Moon home.^[17]

In 28 BBY, the Colicoids took over the spice processing on Nar Shaddaa, thanks to the efforts of Jedi Siri Tachi.^[18] Han Solo spent part of his early career as a smuggler on Nar Shaddaa. There, he learned the tricks of the smuggling trade from some of the galaxy's best smugglers such as Salla Zend, Shug Ninx and Roa. He had an apartment on the Smugglers' Moon, which was maintained by his old house-keeping droid ZeeZee, but after he decided to leave the moon for the Corporate Sector, it was left unused.

Galactic Empire[]

"Ah, the big city. Too bad there's no time to catch some night life. At least I'll blend in. Everyone's an alien in this place, and everyone's got something to hide. Me, I've got something to find."

―Kyle Katarn^[19]

After the rise of the Galactic Empire, Nar Shaddaa's citizenry celebrated for an entire month. They were overjoyed by the regime change not because of what it meant for the galaxy, but because the Empire was turning its attention inward and they hoped that that would give them more leeway for their illegal activities.^[20]

In 3 BBY, Galen Marek journeyed to Nar Shaddaa under the orders of Darth Vader to execute the Jedi Rahm Kota, who was attacking the critical Imperial shipyard in Nar Shaddaa's orbit. During the duel between the two Force-adepts in the control room, the controls were destroyed, causing the facility to fall toward the moon.

NarShaddaa-TFU — The *Rogue Shadow* arrives on Nar Shaddaa.

While it was falling, a blinded Kota fell out of a window, but was protected by the Force and made his way to the undercity of Nar Shaddaa and became an alcoholic. Rahm Kota was rescued by Bail Organa and Marek by Juno Eclipse. In 2 BBY, Marek returned to Nar Shaddaa, hoping to find Kota, whom he knew had not died in their duel. Although the Jedi had left Nar Shaddaa by the time Marek arrived, Marek was able to pick up Kota's trail, eventually tracking him to Bespin.

Jaxxon and Amaiza Foxtrain teamed up as smugglers, headquartered on the moon. Lando Calrissian also spent his early career on Nar Shaddaa. Prior to serving Raymus Antilles, C-3PO and R2-D2 traveled to the Smugglers' Moon in an attempt to apprehend the criminal, Olag Greck. The bounty hunter Greedo and his family lived in the moon's Corellian sector for several years, until an Imperial attack on a Rebel hideout resulted in the destruction and collapse of nearly twenty sector levels.

Following the Battle of Yavin, Rebel agent Kyle Katarn traveled to Nar Shaddaa in order to find Imperial navigational charts related to the Dark Trooper Project; the Imperials had already put a bounty on his head which resulted in a skirmish in the streets.

New Republic[]

"All right, say good-bye to this wretched hive of scum and villany."

―Lando Calrissian to Kyle Katarn^[21]

After the Battle of Endor the Empire lost its jurisdiction there, although arrogant Imperials continued to harrass citizens by pretending to have authority.^[11]

In 5 ABY Katarn caused havoc once more while chasing the information broker droid 8t88 that had his father's holodisc. When he found him, Kyle shot and severed the droid's arm, and had to descend into the sewers to find the disc before ascending and being picked up by Jan Ors.

In 10 ABY, Han Solo returned with his wife, Leia Organa Solo. During the trip, Leia met Purge survivor named Vima-Da-Boda, who gave her an ancient lightsaber. When he returned to his apartment, it was still being maintained by ZeeZee. Unfortunately, there was yet another surprise for him—the dreaded bounty hunter Boba Fett, waiting on Nar Shaddaa to capture Solo. After a chase through the streets of Nar Shaddaa, they escaped along with Solo's former comrades Salla Zend and Shug Ninx on the Millennium Falcon and the Starlight Intruder to Byss.

ShaddaaJK — The Vertical City around 5 ABY.

Later that year, while en route to New Alderaan, Han and Leia along with his smuggler friends returned to Nar Shaddaa. Upon arriving at the city moon, they discovered an Imperial presence in the form of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Invincible, which was under the command of the Dark Jedi Zasm Katth and Baddon Fass. During an adventure through Nar Shaddaa's broken-down cities, they encountered Gank bounty hunters, Boba Fett, Imperial troops, and deadly vrblthers. The Solos also met Vima again, and this time, took her with them. As they were leaving Nar Shaddaa, they were met with resistance from Mako Spince and the Invincible, though they also managed to escape. During the escape, the Invincible attempted to capture the Falcon, though unfortunately it dragged the skyscraper where Mako Spince was located. As a result, the Invincible crashed onto the surrounding cityscape, causing heavy damage to lives and property.

In 12 ABY while looking for Desann, Kyle Katarn once more returned to the city and looked for a Rodian crimelord Reelo Baruk. He freed Lando Calrissian from Baruk's hold and eventually found him; however the gangster managed to entrap him in a room full of turrets, but the Jedi escaped. Katarn and Calrissian managed to find Lady Luck and refuel her, using pipelines. When they were about to make their escape from Nar Shaddaa, Reelo attacked them with a handful of mercenaries. The criminal used a gun platform to hit the ship while his thugs boarded it, but Katarn leapt into the laser turret of the Lady Luck and shot down the gangster.^[21]

In 14 ABY, it was discovered that Lannik Racto was manufacturing assassin droids in a hidden facility on the moon and selling them on the Invisible Market, until Jaden Korr captured him at his headquarters on Coruscant, where Racto revealed the location of the factory. Shortly after that, New Republic Intelligence raided the facility and thwarted its operations.^[22]

Yuuzhan Vong Empire[]

"I'm quite mad and even I know that you don't want to lie down in an alley on Nar Shaddaa. The sort of diseases we have here won't bother killing you slowly. They'll just punch you in the face and steal your arms. Do you have any idea what price a disease can get for arms?"

―Dray, to Finn Galfridian^[23]

Invasion 5 Cover — Finn Galfridian on Nar Shaddaa during the time of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion

In 26 ABY, the cities of the Smugglers' Moon were destroyed in an orbital bombardment by the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong. Most of the inhabitants were killed and the entire urban moon was reduced to rubble.

The mutant Evocii had been among the few survivors since they were living at the very moon surface itself and were not caught in the orbital bombardment.

The entire Y'Toub system was surrounded by some of the Yuuzhan Vong's deadliest warships. Nar Shaddaa had several organic creations sent down to the remains of the surface for multiple purposes.

Different types of bacteria killed off all of the remaining inhabitants. All the Evocii among them thus the Evocii on Nar Shaddaa became extinct, living in the undercity since their civilized ancestors had taken refuge down there in 15,000 BBY. Then all the carcasses, Evocii or not, were buried and dissolved into the soil of the original surface of Ground Zero.

Next, all the rubble on the moon was broken down and absorbed into the soil. Thus Nar Shaddaa became a lifeless, barren world with no inhabitants. The surface of Nar Shaddaa was then Vongformed to suit the invaders.

Nar Shaddaa, along with Nal Hutta itself—and indeed all of the Y'Toub system—in the Yuuzhan Vong's grasps was used as a stronghold in Hutt Space. The entire Hutt Oversector was swallowed up by the Yuuzhan Vong empire and began to desolate Hutt Space.

Legacy[]

"Parts of Nar Shaddaa looked like Tandun III for a long time."

―Flitcher Poste relates a Vongformed planet's appearance to that of Nar Shaddaa during the Yuuzhan Vong War^[20]

In 29 ABY when the Yuuzhan Vong were defeated they abandoned the moon and Nal Hutta. Since Nar Shaddaa was Vongformed during the Yuuzhan Vong War, it did not yet return to the state of an ecumenopolis, though many small cities were built across the moon. It became a haven for smugglers once more in 29 ABY, and the Hutts eventually reclaimed Nar Shaddaa, rebuilding that which was destroyed.^[24] The moon, along with the planet, joined the Confederation in 40 ABY, although the Hutts themselves were relatively neutral during the Second Galactic Civil War. Later in the war, however, the Hutts eventually joined their fellow non-Hutt criminals in the great conflict.

By 43 ABY, much of the world's surface had been built over once more which again began to glimmer. Tobb Jadak, a former smuggler from the last days of the Galactic Republic, reflected on how similar Nar Shaddaa was to its original state years before the Vongforming. He also noticed that security on the world was much tighter than in the days of the Republic. The place where people went to quickly and easily disappear now required retinal and body scans to enter the moon's spaceport.^[20]

Inhabitants[]

Immigrated species[]

Historically Nar Shaddaa didn’t have any native inhabitants. The Evocii, who originally inhibited Evocar (Nal Hutta), were the first species, which around the year of 15,000 BBY were displaced on the moon’s surface by the Hutts after the later took over the former’s home world.^[2]^[8] Eventually the primitive Evocii were subjugated on the moon as well and used as cheap labour to build the global-wide cityscape of Nar Shaddaa. Centuries of harsh treatment and brutal working condition nearly eradicated the Evocii species, in which the remaining survivors mutated and continued to live in the lowest levels of Nar Shaddaa's Undercity.^[2] Alongside the Hutts and the Evocii, Nar Shaddaa was also inhibited by Vrblthers, reptilian-like humanoid predators, who patrolled the lower levels of the moon’s cityscape^[4] and were originally brought from the Hutt home world of Varl as pets and guard beasts.

Many types of beings, individuals and occupations could be seen on the streets: Wookiees, Twi'leks, Kubaz, Whiphids, Weequays, Bith sand artists, Ithorian herd merchants, Gamorrean guards, clone slaves, construction droids carrying individuals in sedans, Imperials and Imperial Commandoes acting as bodyguards.^[9]

Government and law enforcement[]

Vogga the Hutt was one of the crime lords, who ruled over Nar Shaddaa's Refugee Sector during the Old Republic era

Nar Shaddaa was governed by organized crime elements of the Hutt Cartel.^[2] The moon didn’t had a capital area with a centralized bureaucratic government, but instead was run by multiple Hutt crime lords, who oversaw their operations from cantinas and other accommodated places. Each sector of Nar Shaddaa's ecumenopolis was governed by a single Hutt crime lord, who was related to one of the kajidics on Nal Hutta. In general the crime lords of Nar Shaddaa were subordinate to the Grand Hutt Council on Nal Hutta, though it rarely interfered in the moon's internal activities. While the city sectors were controlled by the Hutts, each district was governed by their vassals – mostly Exchange related thugs and other criminal entities, who had the rights to collect tribute in the form of fees and tolls from their respective areas (also in the form of extortion) and were obliged to pay a proportion of their income to their Hutt overlords. There were no legal courts, in which disputes could be prosecuted – all disagreements were resolved by bribing or in other ways influencing the decisions made by the Hutts and their respective vassals.

Nar Shaddaa didn’t have any Planetary Security Forces, which could combat crime and ensure the safety of its local residents. The Hutt crime lords preferred a none-interventionist policy towards public safety, in which the local authorities could spend their credits on infrastructure, entertainment, smuggling operations and other illicit activities. However, the open market system provided the ability to hire bounty hunters for capturing wanted fugitives or other perpetrators. Those, who had the necessary credits, could also hire mercenaries for personal protection or engage in a voluntary militia by patrolling the surrounding streets of his or her own neighbourhood.

Economy[]

Anything illegal elsewhere could be bought and sold on Nar Shaddaa, and many young smugglers, pirates and criminals started their careers on the Smugglers' Moon. Various sections of Nar Shaddaa were controlled by the Hutts and other criminal organizations.

Despite the criminal activities on the Smugglers' Moon, it was known that many of the galaxy's most advanced technologies were actually developed on Nar Shaddaa. Corporations that wanted to avoid regulations that prohibited testing often developed such dangerous and even valuable technology within the lower levels of the city of the moon.

Behind the scenes[]

The galaxy map from Star Wars Insider 65 incorrectly identifies Nar Shaddaa as its own planet, while it is in fact the moon of Nal Hutta.^[25]

In Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, Nar Shaddaa is spelled as "Nar Shadaa" with only one "d".^[26]

Nar Shaddaa's first mention in the Dark Empire 3 endnotes identified Nar Shaddaa as the "Smugglers' Moon". This was repeated in Dark Empire 4 and the majority of later Star Wars Legends sources.