Difference between revisions of "Yavin4 (Planet)"

Description

Yavin 4 was composed of a molten metallic core with a thick, immobile low-relief silicate crust. The surface was made up of four continents which accounted for sixty-seven percent of the moon's surface. These continents were mostly covered in large sprawling tropical jungles with tall canopies though there were also a few mountain ridges dominated by volcanoes.

Yavin also had six interconnected oceans which covered the remaining thirty-three percent of the moon. There was also a large landlocked sea on the moon. As a relatively young world, the tiny jungle moon experienced a considerable amount of geothermal activity. Large rivers flowed dramatically from volcanic heights and then followed a more meandering pace through the jungles.

When scouts from Wetyin's Colony on Setor discovered the moon decades before the current era, the colonists dubbed these continents the names of Starloft, Swivven, Koos and Wetyin though the scouts eventually left the moon.

History

The ancient Jedi built an underground city on the moon around the year 10,000 BBY and used it to modify the climate of the moon into a jungle state. The Jedi eventually left Yavin, losing track of this Lost City of the Jedi, though in later years at least one individual still knew its location, as the "Jedi prince" Ken was hidden there by a brown-robed Jedi master. The city was eventually rediscovered by Luke Skywalker, who trapped the imposter Kadann, Supreme Prophet of the Prophets of the Dark Side, there.

In 5,000 BBY, the Sith Lord Naga Sadow fled to Yavin 4 on his flagship along with an army of Massassi warriors following the defeat of his Sith forces during the Great Hyperspace War by the Galactic Republic. He then conducted Sith alchemic experiments on his Massassi warriors, causing them to mutate from red-skinned humanoids into fearsome, savage, hunchbacked predators. Despite these abuses, his Massassi slaves treated him like a god, building huge Massassi temples, filled with treasure, to honor their Sith Lord.

Sadow also encased himself in a Sith sarcophagus where he remained in a coma-like trance for centuries, waiting for someone to call upon his power and continue the history of the Sith. He remained in suspended animation until 4,400 BBY, when a fallen Jedi named Freedon Nadd arrived on Yavin 4. By then, the descendants of the Massassi had evolved into a primitive hunter-warrior society. At first, the Massassi attacked him though his use of the Force amazed them, who recalled the Golden Age of the Sith. They then showed him where the Dark Lord rested, waiting for other Dark Jedi. Nadd then awoke Naga Sadow, who taught him in the ways of the Sith, until, as was the Sith's nature, Nadd killed him, becoming Dark Lord himself.

Centuries later, in 3,997 BBY, the fallen Jedi Exar Kun went to Yavin 4 at the advice of the dark side spirit of Freedon Nadd. There he discovered the Massassi, who tried to sacrifice him to a monstrous beast of alchemical origins beneath their main temple. However, using his dark powers, he managed to save himself. The dark side manifestation of Freedon Nadd appeared, delighted with Kun's actions and claiming him as his ally - though Exar Kun would hear none of this and instead used his newly-found Sith powers to destroy Nadd.

As the new Dark Lord of the Sith, he enslaved the Massassi and took over Yavin 4. He then used his Massassi slaves to construct new Sith temples and palaces, based on Sith architecture and designed to focus dark powers. His slaves also discovered the flagship of Naga Sadow beneath the ruins of an ancient Massassi temple. He also created vicious Sithspawn including the battle hydras, terentateks, Night Beast. The Sith Lord also imprisoned the souls of the children of the Massassi in a malevolent Dark Side device known as the Golden Globe.

Later, Kun allied himself with the Krath - another group of dark-siders based in the Empress Teta system under the leadership of Aleema Keto and another fallen Jedi Ulic Qel-Droma. He then went to the Jedi world of Ossus and recruited twenty Jedi to his cause, thus starting the Brotherhood of the Sith. In 3,996 BBY, Exar Kun along with his Krath and Mandalorian allies waged war on the Republic and the Jedi. The Jedi eventually prevailed and gathered their forces for an assault on Yavin 4. However, as the orbiting Jedi fleet launched a wall of light side power which bombarded the jungle moon, Kun gathered his Massassi followers into the Great Temple and drained their life energies in order to free his spirit from his body and invest it into the surrounding structures where he would remain for millennia.

The Jedi attack obliterated much of the jungles and scorched the temple complex to the extent that nothing could survive. The Massassi were exterminated as a result though some may have escaped the moon in spaceships. Other tribes may have survived until the Galactic Civil War, hidden deep in the jungles. During the Great Hunt, the moon was cleansed of terentateks by the Jedi.

About four hundred years before the Battle of Yavin, the Kushiban Jedi Master Ikrit came to the moon and discovered the Golden Globe within the Palace of the Woolamander. Unable to break the curse and free the countless trapped Massassi children, he waited until someone came along who could.

The Wolhanian expedition of archaeologists studied the Massassi ruins. They uncovered a bas-relief depicting Jedi and Sith battling in the Great Hyperspace War as well as a Sith chalice. Both of these items ended up in the art collection of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

During the time of the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker tracked Asajj Ventress to Yavin 4 following her attack on Republic starfighters at the Battle of Muunilinst. It was here that she destroyed Anakin's customized Jedi Starfighter, the Azure Angel, as well as killing the clone troopers that Anakin took with him. Anakin and Asajj had their first duel through the thick jungles and the Massassi ruins until Anakin bested her and knocked her off of one of the temples. She was presumed dead and he took off in her Ginivex-class starfighter.

In 0 BBY, Sullustan pilot Dr'uun Unnh scouted the moon as a potential base for the Rebellion. The moon was home to the Rebel Alliance's main military base, Massassi Station, built from the Great Temple of the Massassi, prior to and during the Battle of Yavin. The Rebels established this base in following the abandonment of their previous base on the planet Dantooine. The Galactic Empire sought to use its new space station superweapon, the Death Star I, to destroy the small jungle moon and crush the Rebellion. Following the Destruction of Alderaan, the Empire sent a legion of stormtroopers to confirm Rebel presence on the moon. They discovered the rebels, and established a monitoring outpost at the Massassi Arena. Following the skirmish, a small force of X-wing and Y-wing starfighters were sent to destroy the Death Star, but most were killed in the attack. With the timely assistance of his friend Han Solo, Luke Skywalker was able to fire a proton torpedo into a small thermal exhaust port in a small trench near the northern pole, thus destroying the station and saving Yavin 4. A great ceremony was held following the Death Star's destruction, where Princess Leia bestowed medals of honor upon Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, along with his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca.

This battle became known as the Battle of Yavin, and its date is used galaxy wide for marking events. Events before the Battle of Yavin are marked by BBY, and events that occur after are marked by ABY.

A few days after the battle, Solo and Chewbacca stole the ancient Sith treasure from the temples, and sold it, to finance replacements for the devastating Rebel losses against the Death Star. The Rebels remained on the moon for 6 months afterwards, until finally escaping the Imperial blockade. Yavin IV requested the assistance of Defiance in order to protect their evacuating ships in space. General Jan Dodonna remained behind, blowing up a temple to damage the Imperial forces. Under the secret observation of Mara Jade, Darth Vader wiped out the remaining ground troops and captured the injured Dodonna, whom Vader interrogated until Dodonna revealed the Rebel presence on Reytha. Dodonna was then imprisoned aboard the Lusankya, although most Rebels, and even Mara Jade, mistakenly believed him dead. The Empire then occupied the moon.

The Empire maintained a military base, a labor outpost, and a mining outpost on the planet. In response, the Rebel set up a new base on the planet to harass the Imperials, but in a place other than the earlier Massassi Station. The Imperials were forced to construct a new base after the original was captured by Rebels.

Planet Info

Astrogeographical
System:	Outer Rim Territories
Sector:	Gordian Reach
Region:	Yavin system
Distance from Core:	Light Years
Suns:
Moons:
Rotation Period:	24 hours
Physical
Class:	Terrestrial
Diameter:	10,200km
Surface Water:	8%
Population:	1000

Related Tags

Cities

• Imperial Base
• Labor Outpost
• Mining Outpost
• Rebel Base

Planet Map

Planetary map of Yavin4

Points Of Interest

• The Blueleaf Temple
• The Temple of Exar Kun
• Woolamander Palace

Planet POI Map

POI map of Yavin4

Sights To See

Wild Life

Star Wars Lore

From the Wookiepedia.