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Coruscant
System: CoruscantLocated at galactic coordinates (0,0,0), this planet in the Core Worlds was considered the centrer of the galaxy by virtually every government that controlled it, from the Old Republic to the Empire and the New Republic. Despite its designation as (0,0,0), Coruscant was not actually the center of the galaxy, being located just outside the Deep Core. According to Rebellion, Coruscant is located in Sesswenna Sector. However, politically and socially, it was the heart of everything that happened in the galaxy. Most xenoarchaeologists believed that the human race evolved on Coruscant, which was also the homeworld of the Taung and the Zell races. It was the center of all the Old Republic's activities, and helped describe Galactic Standard time. The standard hour and year were marked by Coruscant's local hour and year. The normal Coruscant day was divided into 24 hours, and its year lasted 368 local days. It was renamed Imperial Center by Emperor Palpatine after the formation of the Galactic Empire, but was renamed to Coruscant after the New Republic assumed control of the galaxy.
Located some 10,000 light-years from the actual galactic core, Coruscant measured some 12,240 kilometers in diamater, had four moons and orbited a small blue-white sun. The planet's entire landmass had been covered - over the thousands of generations spanning galactic history - by multiple levels of the buildings that make up Imperial City. The oceans that once covered part of the planet's surface had been drained and stored in vast, underground caverns for eventual reuse. Several of these immense skyscrapers reach over 6,000 meters into the atmosphere. This meant that there was little land available for growing food, and no natural rivers or lakes to provide water. To solve the dilemma of feeding and watering millions of inhabitants, many of Coruscant's architects build self-contained ecosystems into their buildings. Engineers have developed a series of huge pipes through which polar ice water was pumped to the cities. Nearly everything on the planet was recyclable, from clothing to packaging and machinery.
One problem with a cityworld like Coruscant was that its organic population - which was rumored to have been around three three trillion at the time of the Clone Wars - generated incredible amounts of carbon dioxide, so atmosphereic dampeners were placed in orbit to reactively remove it. Because there was little to no natural ground cover, the planet's weather patterns were virtually non-existent. The required the formation of the Coruscant Weather Control Network, also known as the WeatherNet, to regulate the weather and ensure the continued processing of the water cycle. Clouds and rains were created as needed, to keep the atmosphere clean and allow the planet's inhabitants to experience a regular progression of seasons.
Because Coruscant was the politcal center of the galaxy, the Galactic Senate - and later, the Imperial Senate - was convened there. When Palpatine assumed control of the Senate and the rest of the government, he established that Coruscant would remain the center of his Empire. He began a massive work effort to shape Coruscant to his desires, including renaming the planet as Imperial Center and installing a large number of surveillance systems. Following the Battle of Endor, Mon Mothma moved the New Republic onto Coruscant and again re-established the center of the Republic there. This came after the planet was liberated from Ysanne Isard, and the New Republic overcame the threat of the Krytos virus. Unbeknownst to all, Isard's infamous Lusankya prison facility was hidden in the Super-class Star Destroyer Lusankya, which was buried beneath Imperial City.
Following the death of Grand Admiral Thrawn, the Imperial Inner Circle began attacking Coruscant in an effort to regain the center of the galaxy for the Empire. This attack was driven back just before the Emperor was reborn as a clone, but the damage to the planet's resources was horrendous. Also, the immediate space surrounding the planet was littered with starship wreckage for many years to follow. Once the reborn Emperor was destroyed, the New Republic began cleaning up the planet to make it more presentable as the center of the galaxy.
During the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the galaxy, Coruscant's defenses were augmented by the addition of a shell of orbital space mines. While these protected the planet, they forced all traffic to follow a handful of travel bands, causing massive traffic jams in the space over the planet. This ring of mines failed to stop the Yuuzhan Vong, some two years after their initial invasion, when the aliens used suicide bombers to eliminate the mines before launching an all-out attack on the planet. Borsk Fey'lya was forced to cede control of Coruscant to the Yuuzhan Vong, and the New Republic fled the system in disarray. When the Republic's forces were finally defeated, some three years after the Yuuzhan Vong invasion had begun, the city lights of Coruscant went out for the first time in many millennia.
The Yuuzhan Vong then destroyed much of the planet's surface, using dovin basals to drag skyhooks and orbital satellites down and crashing them into the planet. This served two purposes: it eliminated much of the orbital technology, and it caused a widespread psychological fear into the planet's survivors. Within weeks, much of Coruscant was overgrown with fungus and algae. Those New Republic citizens who survived the initial attacks were faced several bleak alternatives: dying of starvation, as much of the food production system was destroyed; dying of thirst, since no open water sources were to be found; being killed over a cache of food or water; or dying at the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong. Within months, a large portion of the population was dead or dying, and massive Vongforming efforts were under way.
The planet's largest moon was destroyed so that it's debris could assist in the reformation of the planet's surface. Immense dovin basals were used to drag Coruscant into a tighter orbit around its star, creating a more tropical atmopshere. Other dovin basals moved the remaining three moons into a new, complex orbit. Vast amounts of material, displaced during the destruction of the cities, was thrown into nearspace and allowed to form a ring, assisted by the tidal pull of the three moons. This ring of debris resembled a braided rainbow when seen from the surface, and was known to the Yuuzhan Vong as The Bridge. A dhuryam World Brain was installed deep in the planet's crust, and speciallized mosses and lichens were used to break down duracrete and other building materials. The Yuuzhan Vong had remade Courscant in the image of their long-lost homeworld, Yuuzhan'tar. However, Jacen Solo's relationship with the dhuryam that controlled the planet and its reformation was seemingly stronger than any relationship the dhuryam had to a Yuuzhan Vong, for it agreed to help him cause all manner of trouble with the completion of Coruscant's transformation.
Eventually, this forced Supreme Overlord Shimrra to command a huge sacrifice be made to the gods, to show them that the planet - and the galaxy - was ready for conquering. This ceremony was thwarted by the Shamed Ones who rallied behind the message of the Prophet, Yu'shaa. Shortly afterward, the Yuuzhan Vong on the planet awoke to find that the living planet of Zonama Sekot had traveled from across the galaxy into a position between Coruscant and Muscave. Zonama Sekot destroying the Rainbow Bridge which had been created in orbit around the planet, and scattered the one of the remaining three moons into a new location. This set off a number of seismic events that rocked the planet to its core, damaging or destroying the work of the Yuuzhan Vong. The sudden appearance of the planet forced the Yuuzhan Vong military leaders to break off their attack on Mon Calamari and return to the Core, as countless storms and environmental changes threatened to undo all the worldshaping that had been done.
To this, Supreme Overlord Shimrra added several wildfires, started by the dhuryam which controlled the planet, as a way of destroying the planet in case it fell into the hands of the Galactic Alliance. However, despite the efforts of Shimrra, his familiar Onimi, and the warriors arrayed in orbit, the Yuuzhan Vong were eventually forced to surrender to the combined forces of Zonama Sekot and the Galactic Alliance. In the wake of Coruscant's recapture, it was estimated that some 365 trillion beings throughout the galaxy had lost their lives during the war. As the Yuuzhan Vong prepared to leave the Core on Zonama Sekot, their Shapers worked with Jacen Solo to convince the dhuryam that it needed to help with the rebuilding of Coruscant for the Galactic Alliance. This new world would symbolize the new unity between the Yuuzhan Vong and the peoples of the galaxy.
Source Abbreviations Listing - HTTE, DE1, JS, HTSB, ISU, WG, KT, REB, IWE1, DMSH, SWRPG, SES, SBS, DJ, EL1, EL2, T, PH, UF, E3N, CN1
For more information, please read or view the following material(s):
Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight, by Michael Reaves, copyright 2008, from Del Rey Books
Dark Empire, by Tom Veitch, copyright 1991, 1992, from Dark Horse Comics
Dark Journey, by Elaine Cunningham, copyright 2002, from Del Rey Books
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, by Michael Reaves, copyright 2001, from Del Rey Books
Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream, by Aaron Allston, copyright 2002, from Del Rey Books
Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand, by Aaron Allston, copyright 2002, from Del Rey Books
Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn, copyright 1991, from Bantam Spectra Books
Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Episode I, by Kristin Lund, copyright 2000, from DK Publishing, Incorporated
Jedi Search, by Kevin Anderson, copyright 1994, from Bantam Spectra Books
Planet Hoppers, by Morrie Mullins, Cory J. Herndon, and Rodney Thompson, copyright 2003, 2005, from Wizards of the Coast
Rebellion, copyright 1997, from LucasArts Entertainment Company
Shadows of the Empire Soundtrack, by John McNeely, copyright 1996, from Varese Sarabande Records
Star By Star, by Troy Denning, copyright 2001, from Del Rey Books
Star Wars Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, by Andy Collins, et al., copyright 2000, from Wizards of the Coast
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, by Matthew Stover, copyright 2005, from Del Rey Books
The Heir to the Empire Sourcebook, by Bill Slavicsek, copyright 1992, from West End Games
The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, by art Ralph McQuarrie and text Kevin J. Anderson, copyright 1995, from Bantam Spectra Books
The Unifying Force, by James Luceno, copyright 2003, from Del Rey Books
Traitor, by Matthew Stover, copyright 2002, from Del Rey Books
X-Wing: The Krytos Trap, by Mike Stackpole, copyright 1996, from Bantam Spectra Books
X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble, by Mike Stackpole, copyright 1996, from Bantam Spectra Books
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