Coruscant History

The governmental capital of the galaxy for generations, Coruscant and its two moons orbit far from a small white sun in the Core Worlds. Located in the system of the same name near the Kaikielius and Metellos systems, Coruscant is known as the "Scintillant Planet" in old songs and was renamed Imperial Center during the reign of Emperor Palpatine. Coruscant's coordinates are zero-zero-zero on all standard navigational charts, a clear sign of its long history and galaxy-spanning influence. The planet's entire landmass is covered by an enormous, multileveled city (now called Imperial City) whose foundations have been in place since the beginning of the Old Republic, over a thousand generations ago. The oldest and densest population centers border the equator. Kilometer-high skyscrapers (some extending to the lower fringes of the atmosphere) and numerous spaceports cover Imperial City, and its sky is filled with the lights of arriving and departing air traffic. Kitelike hawk-bats make their homes in the artificial canyons, hunting granite slugs on the lower levels. The complex multileveled surface makes weather in Imperial City particularly difficult to predict. To the south of the city lie the snow-covered Manarai Mountains.

The pyramidal Imperial Palace, formerly known as the Presidential Palace, is constructed of gray-green rock and sparkling crystals, and is taller than all other structures on the planet including the neighboring Senate building. The Palace is said to be an impregnable fortress and is decorated with hanging gardens, marble pyramids, and crystal roofs, while some areas were decorated by the Emperor with patterns based on ancient Sith hieroglyphics. The Palace contains the Grand Corridor, which links the Council chamber with the assemblage auditorium, and which has a cross hallway lined with suites (including Leia Organa Solo's office) that leads to the Inner Council meeting room. The Grand Corridor, personally designed by Emperor Palpatine, features a high ceiling and cutglass windows, and is lined with greenish-purple, vibration-sensitive ch'hala trees (revealed to be part of an elaborate surveillance system). Above the Grand Corridor are cafes situated on promenade balconies, where diners can watch the busy foot traffic below. All residential floors in the Palace contain extensive libraries, and the old-fashioned President's Guests floor is done in hand- carved Fijisi wood. The building also contains a set of turbolifts in the rear and several hidden entrances, installed by Palpatine when he took control. Some residential areas are found in the section of the Palace known as the Tower, located on the edge of the building with windows overlooking the city. The personal quarters for the Chief of State are located deep within the Palace's core, and its "windows" are actually holographic screens showing panoramic views taken by outside cameras. The Emperor's throne room is a vast sunken auditorium crowned with a prismatic skylight, and the Emperor also kept a personal observation deck within the Palace's tallest spire. For public celebrations and speeches, Palpatine would sometimes appear on the Palatial Balcony. The lower floor of the Palace is entirely dedicated to military operations, and contains the offices of admirals Ackbar and Drayson and a blast-shielded war room in its center. Adjacent to the war room is the Crypt, a computer slicing and decoding center. The Palace's command floor contains offices for Sector Ordnance/Supply and Starfighter Command. One wing of the Palace is a medical area, while another has been specially modified to accommodate the water-loving Mon Calamari. The structures in this humid wing are designed to resemble a coral reef, and an enclosed pool containing protoplasmic glurpfish and other sealife circulates around the rooms. Other areas of the vast Palace include treasuries, pavilions, prisons, music rooms, cafes, and summer and winter quarters, and decks jutting out from its sides hold tourism information centers. The Imperial Information Center, an exhaustive storehouse of data, is located beneath the Palace.

Other attractions on Coruscant include the Grand Towers, the Skydome Botanical Gardens, the one- kilometer long Grand Reception Hall, the underground city of Dometown, the Grandis Mon theater, the Holographic Zoo of Extinct Animals, the Galactic Museum (which held ancient Sith artifacts four thousand years ago), the University of Coruscant, the Candreal Gardens Center, the Imperial Security Operations Building, and the Temple of the Circle. Celebrations and festivals included Carnival Week and New Year Fete Week, when Palpatine was known to hold public executions of his enemies. The traditional Imperial Fair, involving parades and exhibits, was held in the Pliada di am Imperium. During the Coruscant's ancient War Day celebration, laser cannons were fired off in ceremonial salute. Monument Plaza is a popular mall built around one of the peaks in the Manarai mountain range, where visitors can actually touch bare rock. For the last three hundred years the clock in the Central Gathering Hall has marked the hour by spreading a light across the sky, and every evening spectacular gray-green and red auroras flash throughout Coruscant's atmosphere. An Imperial interrogation facility was located deep within a shielded, reinforced section of one of Coruscant's many towers.

The lowest, darkest levels of Imperial City were abandoned long ago and are now home to discarded equipment, wrecked starships, mosses and lichens, spider-roaches and armored rats, duracrete worms and shadow-barnacles, wild gangs such as the Lost Ones, and nameless subhumans moving through the shadows. Due to the danger, the lowest forty or fifty levels are typically restricted from normal traffic. Many feral animal species (having escaped from former confinement) inhabit these levels, including the eyeless creatures called "corridor ghouls." A seedy tavern in this area is said to have not seen the sun in 90,000 years. At the age of two, Jacen and Jaina Solo had an encounter with a group of former bureaucrats in Coruscant's lowest levels, who had taken up residence there to escape Palpatine's inevitable anger over a filing error.

The snow-covered polar regions of Coruscant are home to turbo-ski resorts, and are continuously mined by ice-boring machines. Since the planet's inland seas and oceans have long since been drained, the melted ice is delivered by huge pipelines to the densely-populated metropolitan areas. The space surrounding Coruscant is defended by Golan III orbital battle stations and a low-orbit space-dock facility, while a powerful energy shield protects the planet itself. During the reign of the Empire, Coruscant was protected by a sophisticated double layer of energy fields-- arriving ships would pass through the outer shield, which would then close behind them before the inner shield could be opened. Many other spaceyards help build starships and gigantic habitation spheres, while kilometers-wide orbiting mirrors focus reflected sunlight onto Coruscant's northern and southern latitudes, raising the temperature slightly to make the cold regions more habitable. Certain raw materials are mined from a belt of asteroids located on the fringes of the Coruscant system.

Coruscant was the capital of the Old Republic for many prosperous generations, and the planet's metropolis was called Republic City. During the Great Droid Revolution on Coruscant millennia ago, Jedi Master Arca learned techniques for disabling machines through the use of the Force. During the Sith War nearly four thousand years ago, a force led by Ulic Qel-Droma, Aleema, and the masked warlord Mandalore made a deadly strike on Coruscant and Qel-Droma succeeded in capturing the Republic war room. But Aleema was anxious to capture power for herself and ordered their armies to retreat, abandoning Qel-Droma to capture, trial, and a certain death sentence. During his trial in the Republic Senate Hall, however, Qel- Droma was rescued by the Sith Lord Exar Kun. During the escape, the Jedi master Vodo Siosk-Baas and Netus, leader of the Senate, were both killed. After the rise of the Empire, the planet's metropolis was renamed Imperial City and Palpatine took up residence in the Imperial Palace. Among the Emperor's many actions was the placement of Coruscant's alien population into segregated districts. The Emperor's Court was composed of ambitious courtesans vying for power, and back-stabbing concubines each hoping to bear Palpatine's child. Leia Organa attended a reception for the Emperor at the age of eighteen, and Mon Mothma and Bail Organa met at Chatham House (Organa's home in Imperial City) to plan their organized rebellion against the Empire. Alima, an Imperial officer who ordered the brutal subjugation of Ithor, was a native of Coruscant. Just before the Battle of Yavin, the Alliance destroyed an Imperial repair dock near Coruscant in an attempt to set back the Death Star project. Following the Battle of Yavin, Alliance agent Kyle Katarn infiltrated the heavily-guarded Imperial Security Operations building and procured a decryption key needed to decode a stolen nava card. Katarn managed to escape with the key despite the intervention of the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Following the Battle of Hoth, the traitorous Admiral Zaarin attempted a coup d'etat at Coruscant. Zaarin's forces seized Palpatine's personal Star Destroyer, the Majestic, and placed the Emperor aboard a shuttle on its way to Zaarin's Star Destroyer Glory. The Emperor was saved by the timely arrival of loyal Imperial forces including Darth Vader, Vice Admiral Thrawn, and TIE pilot Maarek Stele, but Zaarin managed to escape.

After Palpatine's death during the Battle of Endor, control of the Empire was won by Internal Security Director Ysanne Isard, who moved into the Imperial Palace and ruled the gradually-shrinking Empire from Coruscant. Approximately three years after Endor, the planet was captured from the Empire by Alliance forces and named the capital of the New Republic. During the fighting the Imperial Palace was shelled and looted, and many members of the Emperor's Court were killed by Rebel partisans. Five years after Endor, Grand Admiral Thrawn attacked the New Republic on Coruscant and blockaded the planet using a group of cloaked asteroids.