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Coruscant (pronounced //) is the name of a fictional planet in the Star Wars universe. An ecumenopolis, it was renamed Imperial Center during the reign of the Galactic Empire and Yuuzhan'tar during the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion. The adjective form of the planet name is Coruscanti. Coruscant was the capital of the Old Republic, the Galactic Empire, the New Republic, the Yuuzhan Vong Empire and the Galactic Alliance at various times. It is generally agreed that Coruscant is the most important world in the galaxy, evidenced by the fact that its hyperspace coordinates are (0,0,0). The galaxy's main trade routes—Rimma Trade Route, Perlemian Trade Route, Hydian Way, Corellian Run and Corellian Trade Spine—go through Coruscant, making it the richest and most influential world in the Star Wars galaxy.
Overview Geologically, the planet comprises a molten core with rocky mantle and silicate rock crust. Throughout the thousands of generations of galactic history, the entire surface of Coruscant has been covered over by sprawling skyscrapers and cities. The planet's oceans have all been drained and kept in vast underground caverns for future reuse. The only body of water visible is the Western Sea, a body of water left alone by the workers to be preserved for tourists and natives alike. The Western Sea has many artificially created islands floating on it, used by tourists on holidays. The only other piece of Coruscant's landmass that has been left untouched are the Manarai Mountains, twin peaks that stick up out of the ground near the famous Imperial Palace. Many floating restaurants revolve around the Mountains, giving patrons a unique view of the natural wonders. Since there are no bodies of water available to feed and water its trillion inhabitants (despite the fact that it rains on Coruscant, as seen in Revenge of the Sith), Coruscant's architects along with many others from around the galaxy worked together to build a self-contained eco-system in the massive buildings set all over the planet. Engineers also developed a complex series of huge pipes through which polar ice is pumped through to the cities of Coruscant. Almost everything on the planet, from clothes to packaging and machinery is recyclable. Another problem for a world like Coruscant is the unimaginable amounts of carbon dioxide that its trillion being population generates each day, so atmospheric scrubbers were put into place in orbit to remove it. Galactic Standard Time was developed on Coruscant and revolves around the hours Coruscant has in a single day, which is 24 hours, with 368 local days a year. Coruscant produces 1 trillion tons of garbage every 30 seconds. When it is picked up it is brought to a vast factory-like place that launches the garbage into space. Galactic City is divided into several thousand regions, with each region subdivided into numbered sectors. Some of these numbered sectors received colloquial names. For example, H-46 is also called Sah'c Town, named for the family that owns much of it. Some areas were specifically designated senatorial, governmental, financial (including banking zones), commercial, and residential. Larger areas of the planet were designated for industrial or manufacturing use only. The largest of these areas is known colloquially as "The Works". The Works had manufactured spacecraft parts, droids, and building materials at an astonishing rate for centuries, but as construction in space became more efficient, The Works fell in disrepair. It has gained the reputation as a hub of high criminal activity and many locals stay away from it. The Works was the Sith meeting place of Darth Sidious and Darth Tyranus, Sidious's second apprentice and Confederate head of state and government in Attack of the Clones. Another area of Coruscant shown is Coco Town (short for "collective commerce"). Many diverse species live here and work in manufacturing. Coco Town is the site of Dex's Diner in Attack of the Clones. In the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi is described as speaking with a Coruscanti accent, implying that it is equivalent to a British accent. History
Dexs Diner Dex's Diner is a small diner run by Dexter Jettster. The history of the diner is told in some of Jude Watson's Jedi Apprentice, Jedi Quest, and The Last of the Jedi books. In The Last of the Jedi The Diner is featured in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, when Obi-Wan Kenobi needs help determining the origin of a toxic dart. The Diner is also a location in Lego Star Wars: The Video Game as the portal where all levels are entered. No studs can be lost in the Diner, and it serves little of a purpose in game progression. Galactic Museum The Galactic Museum , also known as the Galactic Archives, is a vast repository of data, containing information and artifacts from almost every known planet in the galaxy, as well as information about the infamous cult, the Sith. Visitors can find information regarding the founding of the Galactic Senate, the drafting of the Galactic Constitution, all the way back to the invention of the repulsolift system. There are also some darker, obscure pieces of information to be found in the Galactic Museum, including the near-extinction of the Ewoks (caused by falling debris from the second Death Star). However, much of this information may simply be Imperial propaganda. The Galactic Museum was toured by several members of Rogue Squadron prior to the fall of Coruscant, and as such provided much insight into the Empire, especially the Empire's propaganda machine. Imperial Palace The Imperial Palace was a large building constructed as the prime residence for Palpatine after he became sovereign Emperor of his new Galactic Empire. It is in the shape of a huge pyramid with ghost statues around the Palace. Covering a surface area nearly as large as Coruscant's Financial District, the grounds of the Imperial Palace are dotted with hundreds of thousands of buildings to house the diplomats of the Galactic Empire. The outer facade of the monolith is a cast of steel, the inner facade is of steel and a black lusterous stone. With a labrynth of ballrooms, imperial suites, and thronerooms; the Imperial Palace is the largest single structure ever constructed in the history of the galaxy, and is rumoured to incorporate over 20, 000 rooms. When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the capital, the New Republic leader, Borsk Fey'yla triggered a bomb which destroyed the palace and 25,000 Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Imperial Security Bureau The ISB Central Office was a mammoth complex in Imperial City. All communication and coordination was handled through the Central Office. The ISB also was responsible for wiping out any memories of the Jedi Order. They destroyed the collection of Jedi antiquities on Obroa-skai. During one mission on the Darktrooper project, Kyle Katarn infiltrated the Central Office to decode the Navacard he confiscated and decode it to reveal data chips used for additional information. This is where Boba Fett and Katarn faced off. Jedi Archives The Jedi Archives is a library comprised of knowledge and research dating back possibly thousands of years. The Archives Library was located in the Jedi Temple, under the control of Madame Jocasta Nu, a former Jedi Council member. Jedi Temple The Jedi Temple is a massive structure standing 1km high above the buildings of Galactic City, in an area where the Temple is largely unobstructed to sight. The Temple itself is the home to the Jedi, where they live for the first years of their apprenticeship, and where they learn of the ways of the Force and train in the traditions of the Jedi Order. Upon his turning to the Dark Side, Anakin Skywalker, in his new identity as Sith Lord Darth Vader and apprentice to Palpatine, led a massive attack on the temple. Vader and the 501st legion of clonetroopers killed all Jedi therein, including younglings. Order 66 was therefore put into action. The Great Jedi Purge had begun. The Jedi Temple, although still standing after the massacre, was heavily damaged, many portions blasted or obliterated by fire. Manarai Mountains The Manarai Mountains were a park that contained the last exposed land on the otherwise completely urbanised planet. Polar ice caps that don't reach the ground and artificial lakes and seas built atop urban layers are sometimes mistaken for actual surface, although the Manarai are the only actual place where natural terrain is visible on the entire planet. A small cluster of mountaintops breaks through the vast urbanization to provide a small range, punctuated by two peaks. Countless millennia ago, as Coruscant was being heavily urbanized and more and more land was being developed, eventually it was realized that only land not settled or built-on was the Manarai Mountains, and even much of that chain was occupied, until finally a small patch of the mountains was set aside as a nature preserve (preserving the only nature left on Coruscant). The mountains themselves are a famous landmark and seeing them is a popular tourist attraction, although actually setting foot on the mountains is strictly prohibited to preserve them. The perimeter is guarded constantly by the Coruscant Guard, wary of anybody who would actually try to steal soil or rocks from the famous mountains. Within sight of the Manarai Mountains is The Manarai, the most famous and exclusive restaurant on all of Coruscant. Sitting atop a tall tower in Monument Park, The Manarai is designed to provide a breathtaking view of the cityscape of Coruscant as well as the mountains themselves. Huge windows and domes provide panoramic views, with the very best chefs in the galaxy providing the finest cuisine (virtually any meal in the galaxy can be prepared with sufficient notice). In addition to the view and the quality, security is also paramount, as all visitors and especially employees received extensive background checks before being invited to come to The Manarai. The owners of The Manarai were kept secret during the reign of the Galactic Empire, but were rumored to include a Hutt clan lord, several Moffs and definitely Prince Xizor. The escape of the Lusankya heavily damaged the district. Western Sea The Western Sea is actually an artificially created sea and is Coruscant's only body of water. There are also many artificial islands that float on barges anchored to the bottom of this artificial sea. Centax I Centax I is the second moon of Coruscant. It was a major staging ground for the Grand Army of the Republic, and home to a military shipyard during the Clone Wars. It was also home to the garrison of Coruscant, some twenty thousand Clone Troopers as well as the 65th Homeworld Security Legion. Etymology and naming The name itself is Latin in origin (from the adjective "coruscus"), meaning "coruscating," "flashing" or "twinkling", and probably refers to the night side of the planetwide city. There is also the root word "core" in Coruscant, possibly referring to how it is the capital planet of the galaxy. Originally the planet, which was then called "Alderaan", was to appear in A New Hope, but the budget wouldn't allow, so a lot of action on Alderaan was moved to the Death Star and Alderaan became the name of Princess Leia's home planet which is destroyed. The concept of seeing the Empire's home world, renamed "Had Abaddon", came up again in the , and the concept of the entire planet being a city came up for the first time. However, realizing such a city on screen was impossible at the time, the creators abandoned the idea. The concept of a city covering an entire planet is not entirely new. The planet Trantor in Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels is probably the first fictional planet to be totally urbanized, but it was not the last. One famous 1983 fan-fiction "Episode III" draft by John L. Flynn names the Imperial City "Jhantor," in homage to Asimov's work. The entire land-area of Trantor surface was entirely covered in city domes, except for 100 square kilometers devoted to the gardens of the Imperial Palace. The planet first appeared in the Expanded Universe and was called "Coruscant" for the first time in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire. Coruscant was first seen on screen in the 1997 Special Edition release of Return of the Jedi, and the X-wing series of computer games. Coruscant was then seen in The Phantom Menace. There is a speeder chase through the skies of Coruscant in Attack of the Clones that eventually leads to a nightclub in the bowels of Coruscant's Uscru Entertainment District. Coruscant is seen yet again in Revenge of the Sith as part of the Battle of Coruscant near the end of the Clone Wars, where a large part of the plot centers on the Republic Senate and the Jedi Temple. In various novels, characters aligned with the Empire refer to Coruscant as "Imperial Center". Within the stories, this is explained as an administrative renaming undertaken to emphasize the differences between the Old Republic and the Empire. The new name never resonated with the general population—it was only called Imperial Center in government documents. The name was abandoned when the New Republic retook Coruscant. Inconsistencies In the large volume of material that exists relating to Coruscant, there are conflicting statements about the ecumenopolis. The population is variously stated as 176 billion, 1 trillion, or 1 quadrillion. The smallest figure is illogical, but more often stated. However, the G-canon source, Inside the Worlds of Episode I states that Coruscant has a population of 1 trillion. Film estimates based on the apparent depth of the cityscape and its literally globe-spanning extent suggest a population density that, applied over the entire surface area of Coruscant would suggest a population probably in the several quadrillion (1e16–1e15) range and certainly no less than several hundred trillions (1e15–1e14). These estimates have been performed by Star Wars fan scholar Curtis Saxton, and other technical-minded fans on many separate occasions. It remains to be seen if later generations of official publications will reflect figures similar to those presented by the scale of Coruscant in the movies. The assumption that Coruscant was made up of many layers of buildings on top of each other, supported by Expanded Universe works such as the Young Jedi Knights series, was not supported by the appearance of the planet in Attack of the Clones. The canonical interpretation was revised for The New Jedi Order. Now, Coruscant is essentially two planet-spanning cities: one on the surface and one underground. The underground city takes the status of "lower levels" from the retconned covered-over buildings. It is similar to New New York and Old New York in the TV series Futurama; the New city is built over the old one. Incidentally, this new interpretation makes Coruscant much more like Trantor. It also explains why the surface seen in Attack of the Clones was not nearly as dismal as the lower levels in YJK: they were below the surface in the book. However, the nightclub seen in Attack of the Clones is not at the actual surface of the planet. There are thousands of layers to the city and what may appear to be the "surface" is actually a lower level. The lowest levels of all — near the planetary surface — are the most dangerous and least hospitable of all. While on Coruscant in The Paradise Snare, Han Solo fled Imperial Stormtroopers by delving into the depths of Coruscant, witnessing its true horror firsthand. Most sources, including all illustrations, show Coruscant as having negligible surface water. However, the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy states that Coruscant has two continents, a large one that contains Imperial City and a smaller one. More than half of this version of Coruscant is ocean. There are cliffs along the coast, contradicting the previous statement that the only place the bedrock was exposed to the surface was at the peaks of the Manarai Mountains, which are otherwise covered in buildings. This contradiction is because Michael P. Kube-McDowell, author of the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy, has publicly stated he has personal issues with the concept of a city covering an entire planet. He was apparently attempting to retcon Coruscant into being a more Earth-like world with a population of only a few billion. His version of Coruscant has been mostly ignored by later Expanded Universe books, as well as the movies, although some of the novels in the New Jedi Order maintain that a small artificial sea was constructed in the waning days of the Old Republic, and was still present during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion; effectively attempting to retcon Kube-McDowell's retcon. It is said that Coruscant was naturally a cold planet, similar to Hoth, before terraforming millennia ago. It still has icecaps, according to the Young Jedi Knights and Rogue Squadron novels, but they are never visible in depictions of the planet from space. Supposedly, Coruscant was cold due to distance from its sun, but the sun appears large in the sky in The Phantom Menace. The climate is altered by orbital mirrors that focus the sun.• | ||||||||||
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