Star Wars Cities

[Robbie]

This is were the cities of Star Wars will be posted.

[Robbie]

Mos Eisley

From the Movies
Known to many as a pirate city, Mos Eisley is one of the largest spaceports on Tatooine. Its architecture is typical of the Tatooine style -- blockhouses largely sunken into the sand, providing some respite from the relentless desert suns. The city is arranged in a wheel formation, with the central power and water distribution plants at its hub. Circular docking bays and landing pads dot the city, and the sky is busy with interstellar traffic.
Overrun by criminal transients on the lam, Mos Eisley has been described as a wretched hive of scum and villainy. It was at Mos Eisley that Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi secured transit off Tatooine. The two hired the services of Han Solo and Chewbacca, smugglers they met at the Mos Eisley Cantina.


From the Expanded Universe
Early in Tatooine's modern colonization, the starship Dowager Queen crashed into the desert flats. From this crash-site, a community developed, and Mos Eisley grew in a radial formation from the burned out remains. In the decades of growth that followed, a water and power distribution plant became the new city center, and the dusty remains of the Dowager Queen are little more than a place for vagrants and crackpot preachers to convene.
Mos Eisley Spaceport began as an alternative to the then-bustling Anchorhead port, which many residents found too expensive. Rodian refugees helped in the construction of the city's many docking bays. Though their hard work did indeed build a city, their corrupt pasts also brought vice and crime to the port.

When the popularity of Podracing began to wane, so too did neighboring Mos Espa's prominence in Tatooine's trade and tourism. Mos Eisley became the de facto (though unofficial) capital, as crime lord Jabba the Hutt moved some of his operations to a townhouse in the downtown area.

When the Empire came to power, the local governor installed an Imperial Prefect in Mos Eisley, as well as a contingent of stormtroopers specially equipped for the desert environments. At the time of the Battle of Yavin, the Prefect was a lazy man named Orun Depp. He died in an assassin droid "incident," and was promptly replaced with Prefect Eugene Talmont.

Mos Eisley is divided into a "New Quarter" and an "Old Quarter." The Old Quarter contains the Dowager Queen wreckage and attracts the shadiest characters. It is here that Jabba maintained a residence and it is also home to the infamous Mos Eisley Cantina owned by Chalmun the Wookiee. The New Quarter, conversely, is more brochure-friendly, offering a legitimate merchant district and places for tourists to relax. But, the gray and black markets can be found a mere scratch beneath this sham surface.


Anchorhead

Anchorhead was one of the first settlements on Tatooine. Abandoned and resettled many times, it lost significance until it was only a minor outpost for several nearby moisture farms where youths such as Luke Skywalker and his friends spent much of their free time.[1] The Jawas often referred to Anchorhead as "Old City New". Anchorhead was part of the Great Chott Salt Flat region.

History


Anchorhead was one of the oldest settlements on the planet Tatooine. It was established in 4,200 BBY. Located nearly 800 kilometers from Mos Eisley, it was originally a mining outpost. It was abandoned and resettled many times, as each mining company came to discover the poor quality of the ore located there. The most notable of the mining operations was carried out by Czerka Corporation in 3,956 BBY.

The companies would abandon their equipment each time, due to the prohibitive costs of transporting it off-world. The indigenous Jawas would take this abandoned equipment as their own. This gave rise to the use of Sandcrawlers—mobile smelting machines—as mobile homes for the Jawas.

Old Republic

The Jedi Revan and his companions landed at Anchorhead in 3,956 BBY. They hoped to locate a hidden Star Map, a technological remnant of the Infinite Empire, which would help them find the Star Forge. At the time, Czerka Corporation's mining operations were going poorly, as the ore was substandard and word was getting out. Though Motta the Hutt established a Swoop racing track and the Ithorian Fazza Utral built a hunting lodge, attracting other forms of business to fill company coffers wasn't working, either. Worst of all, ore shipments were being intercepted and destroyed by frequent Sandpeople attacks. Revan offered his assistance, and was able to earn the Tusken Raiders' trust, enough to negotiate with them. They would not agree to stop the attacks, but the Sandpeople did agree to reduce them, and to free some of their prisoners, including several Jawas and Mission Vao's brother, Griff Vao.[2]

Czerka pulled out soon afterward, and Anchorhead was abandoned. By the rise of the Galactic Empire, it had been resettled, but cities like Mos Eisley and Mos Espa had been built, and stripped the settlement of its preeminence.

Galactic Empire

By the time of the Galactic Empire, Anchorhead, along with other settlements on Tatooine, had become populated again. It could be found a few miles east of the Lars' Homestead, south of the now-bustling spaceport of Mos Eisley. Anchorhead itself primarily consisted of moisture farmers. It was governed by the Anchorhead Municipal Council.

Anchorhead itself contained a dozen pourstone stores, two cantinas (including The Weary Traveler), a market, and Tosche Station on the outskirts of town.

During the Galactic Civil war, Anchorhead Base served as a base for rebel operatives assigned to purchase black market weapons from nearby cities.

Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo stopped there to evade the Empire on their quest to find a piece of Alderaan art, Killik Twilight.

[steven]

"The prejudice, the rich spoiling themselves while the poor are crushed beneath them—not a pretty picture."
¯Carth Onasi[src]




Taris was an urban planet in the Outer Rim Territories. Its ecumenopolis quickly developing over a century of prosperity, the planet suffered from massive overpopulation. Once a galactic nexus, Taris' importance declined with the introduction of improved trade routes, and the planet rapidly fell into decay. The remainder of the planet's history was wrought with civil disorder and social unrest. As it turned to industry as a means of compensation for its economic troubles, its oceans became polluted, eliminating the planet's main food source. Famine spread among the lower classes while the rich hoarded what few supplies remained. The resulting strife led to the Tarisian Civil War, the start of lasting prejudices between the Humanocentric Tarisian nobles and the largely alien underclass. The city became segmented, and the lower classes were banned from living in the upper levels of Taris.

During the Mandalorian Wars, Taris served as a crucial rallying point for dissident Jedi who had decided to fight against the invading Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders. As the lower classes were crushed beneath the rich, crime became rampant, and the Tarisian government did little in response. This caused Lhosan Industries, a mining company which employed half of the planet's lower class in its operation, to leave Taris. The millions left unemployed rioted against the government, kidnapping the planet's senator in the Galactic Senate as well as the local constable. This caused the local Jedi to leave Taris as well, leaving the planet in a state of anarchy, as the war raged on around it.

By the time of the Jedi Civil War, order had been restored, but swoop gangs and crime still held sway over the Lower City. During the war, Taris was conquered by the Sith Empire, which quarantined the planet in an attempt to capture Jedi Bastila Shan. As the search continued fruitlessly, the Sith leader Darth Malak, ordered the bombardment of Taris, killing countless civilians. This act had huge political repercussions for the Sith and changed the tone of the rest of the war, showing Malak and the Sith's true colors, the desire to achieve victory at any cost.

Over the next few millennia the planet managed to rebuild and recover from its devastation, though never reaching the extent of its former glory. Similar to other ecumenopoleis like Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa, the upper levels were safe and secure, inhabited by the wealthy, while the lower levels were frequently plagued by gang warfare and inhabited by thugs and the poor.

"Taris? The planet's all one big city..."
¯Carth Onasi[src]

Taris was a ecumenopolis, at least in that all its landmasses were covered in a large city. However, unlike other ecumenopoleis, Taris had an ocean that covered a large part of the planet's surface. The ocean once possessed massive kelp farms that were used to sustain the planet's immense population. However, these farms were poisoned by pollution, leading to food shortages in the city.[1]


Taris, as seen from the Endar Spire.The city itself was formed over a century of prosperity,[1] a remarkable feat considering other ecumenopoleis such as Nar Shaddaa took many centuries[11], even millennia, to form. The towers of the city were tall and gleaming, possessing a unique, universally-rounded appearance not found on other ecumenopoleis. However, beneath the planet's initial pristine exterior lay the result of many years of lawlessness and oppression. In the Lower City of Taris, the largely non-human population lived in total poverty and desperation, prevented from entering the safer Upper City, which was almost exclusively inhabited by rich Humans. Following the bombardment of Taris at the hands of the Sith Empire, the city was left in ruins. Although much of the city would be rebuilt in the following centuries, many ruins remained.[1]






Being an ecumenopolis[1], Taris had relatively little animal or plant life. There were however several important species.[1][10]


In the upper levels of Taris there were feathered dogs used almost exclusively as pets. These unique creatures could be seen on leashes as their owners took them out on walks through the promenades of Taris. There were also large lizards that were domesticated and used to pull refuse through the Lower City.[10]

One of the only species of wild animals on Taris was the simian Tach. The Tach possessed a unique gland in their heads that, when powdered, could be used to make Tarisian ale, a major export of Taris.[1]

The rakghoul, the fiercest and most terrifying species on Taris, inhabited the Undercity. They were mutated humans that ruthlessly attacked anything outside of the protective gates of the Undercity. Contact with the rakghouls caused a sentient to contract the rakghoul disease, a terrible affliction that would cause the victim to turn into a rakghoul.[1]

The oceans of Taris once hosted a variety of kelp and marine life that were harvested as food for the Tarisians.[1] These were later destroyed by pollution from Taris' many industries.[1]