Byss
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| Distance from Core | ~5,000 light years |
|---|---|
| Region | Deep Core |
| Oversector | Deep Core |
| Sector/System | Byss/Beshqek |
| Number of suns | 2 |
| Number of moons | 5 |
| Diameter | 7184 km |
| Orbital period | 207 days |
| Rotation period | 31 hours |
| Axial tilt | 13° |
| Major species | Humans |
| Population | 19.7 billion |
| Official language | Basic |
| Primary terrain | Oceans, Lakes, Plains |
| Surface water | 71 % |
| Points of Interest | Imperial Citadel, Imperial Freight Complex, Gauntlet Scanner Stations, numerous Resorts & recreational facilities. |
| Affiliation | Galactic Empire |
Byss is a planet in the Deep Core Region of the fictional Star Wars galaxy, that served as the personal resort world, sanctuary, and laboratory for the Emperor Palpatine. During the peak of the Empire, Byss was a mythical world, reputed to be a peaceful and beautiful paradise that the citizens of the Empire yearned to live on. It was central to the plot of the Dark Empire comic series, but has been mentioned and shown in many other places in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
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[edit] Physical characteristics, settlements and defenses
It orbits a binary system of a blue giant and a blue dwarf, and the planet itself has five small moons, and is the fifth planet from its sun. The blue sunlight the planet receives makes algae and plankton in the lakes and rivers of the planet fluoresce. The planet has a very mild and temperate climate overall, and has no volcanoes and virtually no seismic activity, and the small moons also provide very little in the way of tides. The planet also has no indigenous intelligent life, and most of the life on the planet has yet to evolve beyond simple plants. What little animal life exists is relatively harmless and nocturnal. In terms of mineral wealth, Byss lacks many strategic metals and other compounds, making it useless for mining. It was, however, ideal as a resort or sanctuary. The difficulties of navigating the Deep Core also meant it was very defensible and difficult to reach by the typical galactic denizen.
Palpatine took it upon himself to turn Byss into a world he hoped to one day rule the Empire from, leaving Coruscant behind. He had entire cities built on Byss to the specifications of master architects given carte blanche and unlimited budgets: lavish and elegant cities that were as much art as they were centers of civilization, filled with ornate towers and elegant spires carved of blue-grey stone under a bluish-purple sky. The Emperor himself ruled from a black spire known as the Imperial Citadel that rose for several kilometers into the sky, which had three entire legions of Stormtroopers and 400 members of the Royal Guard as guards. The entire system was covered in a massive security network, a large sensor network known as the Gauntlet Scanners searched for any intruders, as well as any sign of forged transponder and identification codes. Warning broadcasts throughout the system warned incoming spacecraft that absolutely no trespassing was allowed, and these threats were backed up with a local fleet of Star Destroyers.
[edit] Plans for a Dark Empire
Rumors and legends of a blissful and idyllic world were planted throughout the Empire, and the attitude that Byss was a distant paradise was cultivated over years. Eventually, the Imperial Intelligence begin to sort through the files on the citizens of the Empire. A tiny fraction of those who applied for visas to emigrate to Byss were permitted to do so. Many millions of the most loyal and upstanding citizens of the Empire were allowed to live lives of luxury on a distant world, all working at administrative and bureaucratic occupations that directly managed the Empire. They spent their time relaxing at vast resorts and enjoying truly extensive recreational facilities, visiting menageries of creatures from throughout the galaxy, and reading vast libraries of ideologically approved books. Eventually, the population of Byss climbed as high as 19.7 billion, all living in surreally tranquil surroundings. Communications offworld were heavily censored to help preserve the mystique of Byss. Those not approved to live on Byss were not permitted to land on the planet. Trusted cargo ships used a complex set of space stations, skyhooks and cargo yards above the planet, allowing the vast supplies required to keep such a planetary civilization running to be transferred without the need for spaceports on the planet itself, or for the unpleasantness of refineries and mines to be required on Byss itself.
The real reason for this blissful life was far more sinister than it seemed (as one would likely expect). Palpatine envisioned one day moving beyond a need for a vast military to enforce his Empire. He dreamed of having such skill with the Dark Side of the Force that he could control the galaxy with no need for physical force. His Prophets of the Dark Side would serve as his new Imperial courtiers, while the descendants of Anakin Skywalker would be his new nobility, and his Dark Jedi "Inquisitors" would be Knights in his service. He would live forever by transferring his essence into a new cloned body every time he was near death. He sought, in no uncertain terms, to turn the entire Galaxy into a Dark Side theocracy, with the planet Byss as its capitol and prototype. He had already discovered how to subtly siphon the life force of the inhabitants of Byss to boost his own power in the Force, while rendering his subjects on the planet even more docile and apathetic, and was anticipating expanding his techniques far beyond just one world.
[edit] The Emperor reborn
Palpatine's plans for Byss and the rest of the Galaxy suffered a serious delay when Darth Vader betrayed him and killed him at the Battle of Endor. Palpatine barely managed to transfer his essence to a new body, and the shock of having to transfer himself across the entire Galaxy, from Endor into his Emperor's Hand agent Jeng Droga, and from there to a clone body on Byss greatly strained the Emperor. It took him several years to recover from the strain, and by the time he did, his Empire was in ruins. Masterfully planning a return, he slowly gathered forces still loyal to him and staged a bold campaign to reforge the Empire anew in 10 ABY. The planet Byss became home to Palpatine's new superweapons, the Eclipse Star Destroyer and later the Galaxy Gun.
Palpatine's first major target was the young Jedi Knight who was responsible for his death 6 years earlier, Luke Skywalker. Palpatine used a powerful wormhole created through the Force to abduct Luke and attempt to seduce him to his service. Leia, Han Solo, and some of Han's old friends went there to rescue Luke, only to learn that he was trying to learn about the Dark Side, and why his father went over to it. In the process, he gave his droid, R2-D2, the plans to the Empire's latest weapon, called the World Devastators, and override codes required to deactivate them.
The planet was later reduced to a lifeless rock by the Galaxy Gun; however, the ruins of Byss still served as a strong Dark Side focus point across the galaxy. In the Star Wars PC game, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, its dark force energy is drained along with other dark force energy areas during an attempted plan to destroy the New Jedi Order.
[edit] The Outer Rim Byss
Byss was also the name of a much more obscure and less documented world in the Outer Rim Territories in the Byss/Abyss system that is home to the Abyssin species elsewhere in the Star Wars setting. [1]
[edit] References
[edit] Publications
- Veitch, Tom & Kennedy, Cam (1995). Dark Empire. Milwauke, OR: Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 1-56971-073-2.
- Horne, Michael Allen (1993). The Dark Empire Sourcebook. Honesdale, PA: West End Games. ISBN 0-87431-194-2.
- Denning, Troy (1989). Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races. Honesdale, PA: West End Games. ISBN 0-87431-137-3.
[edit] External links
| Planets and moons of Star Wars | |
|---|---|
| Major planets | |
| Alderaan | Almas | Anoth | Bespin | Byss | Caamas | Chandrila | Corellia | Coruscant | Dagobah | Dantooine | Dellalt | Dxun | Geonosis | Hoth | Ithor | Kamino | Kashyyyk Korriban | Malachor V | Manaan | Mon Calamari | Mustafar | Myrkr | Naboo | Onderon | Ossus | Taris | Tatooine | Telos |
|
| Planet list | |
| A-B | C-D | E-G | H-J | K-L | M-N | O-Q | R-S | T-V | W-Z | Destroyed planets | |
| Moons | |
| Dxun | Endor | Nar Shaddaa | Yavin IV List of Star Wars moons |
|
| Other | |
| List of Star Wars sectors | List of Star Wars systems | Star Wars galaxy |
