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- "No. They are not mythical. I wish they were. I hoped never to see one. The Emperor caused a few to be created. He gave them as rewards, to the cruelest and most loyal of his officers. Tokens, he called them. His "tokens"' were a greater gift than a natural world."
- ―Rillao, on the worldcraft
Worldcraft were artificial planetoids which resembled a terrestrial planet or moon that were capable of traveling through hyperspace and realspace.[1]
Characteristics
The mobile planetoid had real terrain including a forested surface with several small bodies of water including rivers and swamps, an unknown stretch of desert and a blue "sky".[1] The Worldcraft retained its atmosphere through the use of a force field while buried gravfield plates maintain the standard gravity of the worldcraft. The core of the Worldcraft was an immense reactor that powered the hyperdrive engines and the tractor beam, the latter used to hold a miniature "sun" in place. Due to its miniature size and its rapid rotation on its axis, days on the Worldcraft were much shorter than standard days on most other worlds.[1] Hethrir maintained a small compound on his Worldcraft which contained a "school" for children he had kidnapped, living quarters, a dinner house, training quarters and a control center for the planetoid. It appears the Worldcraft was largely automated and required no organic crew to pilot it.[1]
History
The only known manufacturer of this class of starships was the Galactic Empire. There were only a few vessels in existence, each commissioned by Emperor Palpatine himself as a gift to his most loyal and capable servants.[2] The Procurator of Justice Lord Hethrir was granted his Worldcraft by Emperor Palpatine after he committed genocide against his own species, the Firrerreo. Hethrir named his gift the Rebirth[3] and used it as a mobile base for his "Empire Reborn movement".[1] The warlord Ennix Devian, alongside Imperial Moff Ardus Kaine, were also intended to be recipients of a Worldcraft to each of them, although Palpatine had died before the worldcraft could be completed. Devian stole both (also being especially delighted to learn that Kaine was intended to be a recipient), and sent them to opposite parts of the galaxy, specifically to the Moddell Sector and to the Spawn Nebula.
Arguably, the two Death Stars, the imperial super-dreadnought Eye of Palpatine, and the Yuuzhan Vong's colossal Koros-Strona ships clould also be classed as worldcraft or worldships. Of these, the Death stars are closest to the actual worldcraft of the type described in the above article, being totally artificial planetoids (The Eye was just a large asteroid fitted with huge engines and myriad weapons). The worldcraft's similarities overall to the superweapons led Devian to create a fake Death Star from one of the unfinished worldcraft as part of a feint against the New Republic, which ultimately worked to distract them long enough to allow Devian's forces to raid various New Republic shipyards.
Appearances
- The Crystal Star (First appearance)
Sources
- The Essential Guide to Characters
- Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Chronology
- The New Essential Chronology (First pictured)
- Aliens in the Empire
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia