The Galaxy
From the Encyclopedia of Speculative Fiction - http://encyclopedia.wizards.pro
- You may also be looking for Star Wars Galaxy Magazine
The Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, and New Republic all occupied a single galaxy, known simply as "The Galaxy" .
Judging from the maps available, it appears to be a galaxy of SBa type. According to some sources, the Galaxy was 120,000 light years across.
There were approximately 400 billion stars and around half of these had planets that could support life. 10% of those developed life, while sentient life developed in 1/1000 of those (about 40 million).
Contents |
Galactic History
Main article: History of The Galaxy & Timeline
Before recorded history, the first known galaxy-spanning political entity was the cruel Rakatan Empire, which ended long before the forming the official so-called "galactic civilization". The Galaxy as an official entity began to exist millennia later, with the discovery of hyperspace travel: When several worlds and species came to know each other, they formed a loose affiliation that accepted common laws and currency, and the Republic became the 'official' galactic government. The smaller Sith Empire rivaled the Republic, and the beginnings of that rival were religious: the understanding of the Force. The Sith was defeated and re-emerged several times. Finally, after a millennia of hiding, the Sith managed to restore their Empire, after dissolving the Republic and replacing it with the short lived Galactic Empire. The Empire lasted for some decades of cruelty, but eventually the Republic was restored. Despite this, the remnants of the Empire would continue to resist the new government though they were eventually defeated. Not long after that, an extragalactic species known as the Yuuzhan Vong launched an invasion of the galaxy. Their invasion devastated much of the galaxy, including Coruscant, though they were also defeated.
Regions
The Galaxy was divided into several regions. They are listed here in ascending order of distance from the core. These regions were further divided into various Sectors, Systems, and Planets.
Deep Core
At the very heart of the Galaxy, the Deep Core (a.k.a. Core Systems) was a small region that hid unusual worlds. Due to the gravitational pull of the vast number of stars, local space-time was severely warped, making hyperspace travel difficult at best. The region was thought to be inaccessible until Emperor Palpatine found several safe hyperlanes into the region. The area remained an Imperial stronghold almost twenty years after the Battle of Endor.
Core Worlds
An ancient region bordering the outlier areas of the Deep Core, the Core Worlds were some of the most prestigious, well-developed, well-known, and heavily populated planets in the Galaxy. The Core Worlds were the original areas of human occupation. The Galactic Republic and subsequently all Galaxy-wide governments were born in the Core Worlds and spread out over the Galaxy. The Humans are supposed to originate from this region.
Colonies
The Colonies was the name given to a region of the Galaxy between the Core Worlds and the Inner Rim. It was among the first areas outside the Core to be colonized, and the worlds here are typically heavily populated and industrialized.
During its reign, the Galactic Empire was very forceful in controlling the Colonies, and as a result, the New Republic gained support quickly there.
Inner Rim
The Inner Rim was a region of the Galaxy between the Colonies and the Expansion Region. It was originally just called "The Rim," as it was expected to be the farthest extent of the Known Galaxy for centuries, but the Expanded Rim (later renamed the Expansion Region) was opened within a hundred years of the Inner Rim.
During the reign of Palpatine, the Galactic Empire ruthlessly controlled the Inner Rim. Rather than rebel, many residents chose to flee to the Outer Rim Territories.
After the Battle of Endor, Empire, despite its unpopularity, held the region far longer than expected; many later resented the New Republic's sluggishness in liberating the region. Many worlds, despite joining the New Republic, were openly afraid that the government was not strong enough to maintain power. Their concerns were borne following the return of Palpatine, when the Empire reclaimed most of the Inner Rim.
Expansion Region
The Expansion Region was an experiment in corporate-controlled worlds, with powerful corporations exploiting and profiting heavily from the planets for their raw materials, metals and ores. Inhabitants were oppressed while the corporations stripped entire stellar systems of all their resources. Eventually civil unrest spread from system to system. The Galactic Republic eventually took control of the system due to mounting pressure from its denizens by limiting or evicting corporate interests. Expansion Region worlds are still producers of raw materials and ores. However, most natural resources have been exhausted.
Mid Rim
With fewer natural resources (and therefore a smaller population) than many neighboring regions, the Mid Rim is a territory where residents work hard for everything they have. Several planets have built up impressive economies, and pirate raiders often hide in the relatively unexplored spaces far from major trade routes.
Outer Rim
The Outer Rim Territories was the last widely settled expanse before Wild Space and the Unknown Regions. It was strewn with obscure worlds, and rugged, primitive frontier planets. Due to its distance from the Core, the region was home to many supporters of the Rebel Alliance. The Empire's Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin was assigned the difficult task of bringing the entire Outer Rim in line.
Beyond the Outer Rim
There were several sectors beyond the Outer Rim, on various arms of the galaxy.
Tingel Arm
The Tingel Arm was an exterior spiral arm of the Galaxy. It contained the Corporate Sector Authority, a political entity which was semi-independent of the Galactic Republic and the Galactic Empire. Under the Galactic Empire, the sector expanded from a few hundred to thirty thousand systems.
Unknown Regions
The term "Unknown Regions" most commonly referred to the large, unexplored region (which some interpret to have been outside the plane of the galactic disk) between Bakura and the Imperial Remnant, which was largely dominated by the Chiss Ascendancy. The Unknown Regions comprised only a few billion stars, out of a galactic total of 400 billion. For reasons yet to be demonstrated there was a lack of reliable hyperspace routes through the region. The "Unknown Regions" designation included uncharted areas in dense nebulae, globular clusters, and the galactic halo.
Wild Space
Wild Space was the frontier of galactic society, separating the known parts of the Galaxy from the Unknown Regions. One of Palpatine's last acts was to open up much of the region to more extensive exploration. Wild Space differed from the Unknown Regions in that some of Wild Space has been explored, though not extensively; the Unknown Regions remained mysterious.
Traffic Routes
Various established 'ways' passed through the sectors. These routes were explored and established by spacers known as hyperspace explorers (like Gav Daragon and Aitro Koornacht). Astromech droids had the responsibility of guiding spaceships through these routes.
- Rimma Trade Route
- Perlemian Trade Route
- Hydian Way
- Corellian Run
- Corellian Trade Spine
- Kessel Run
- Ison Trade Corridor
- Sisar Run
Minor Political Influences
- Bothan Space
- The Centrality
- Chiss Ascendancy
- Corporate Sector Authority
- Cronese Mandate
- Empire of the Hand
- Expansion Region
- Hapes Cluster
- Hutt Space
- Imperial Remnant
- Juvex Sector
- Senex Sector
- Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium
- Tion Cluster
- Tion Hegemony
- Vagaari Hegemony
Races and species
Life developed in 10% of the livable planets, while sentient life developed in 1/1000 of those (about 40 million sentient species).
The dominating species was humans. Possibly originating from the Core Worlds, humans had been the basis of the major governments. Sentients other than humans (examples: Twi'leks, Hutts, Mon Calamari) were simply known as 'aliens'. Although not considered a race for obvious reasons, droids formed a significant part, helping and coexisting with the population.
Extragalactic aliens (species coming from another galaxy) made contact with the galactic species. The best known were the Yuuzhan Vong who almost managed to destroy the galactic civilization, while just recovering from the Galactic Civil War.
See also
Behind the scenes
Among fans, the Galaxy is referred to as The Star Wars Galaxy or The Galaxy far, far away (the GFFA for short).
At the end of The Empire Strikes Back, an object is seen that many have interpreted to be the Galaxy as seen from several hundred thousand light years away. Some sources have said that the Rebel fleet spent some time hiding outside the galactic disk, probably intending to refer to this scene.
Others interpret the object to be a protostellar disk or some other type of nebula, pointing to it's visible rotation as proof that it could not be a galaxy, as it would be physically impossible for something that size to rotate so fast. Some sources have apparently also mentioned a "spiral nebula" as existing within the Galaxy. In Attack of the Clones, a map of the Galaxy was visible with two smaller "satellite galaxies" at its outer regions. One of them was called "the Rishi Maze". It is quite possible that what the Millennium Falcon flew into was one of them. Attack of the Clones also introduces an organization called the "InterGalactic Banking Clan", further evidence that the Galaxy's civilization may have incorporated these other galaxies.
The Galaxy was said to contain a "type 3" civilization (in the Kardashev scale — whereas Earth is home to a "type 0.7" civilization). This scale takes into account the level of integration and civilization between peoples (albeit this integration also involves different species, rather than just racial variations of only one sentient species, as it is on a sole planet), which in essence form one single "galactic civilization", given the political unification (despite the few separatisms) and the integration of the worlds in spite of the considerable distances (with effective means of transportation).