The Galaxy

Sw1 galaxy large — Map of the Galaxy, as of 17 ABY by Rtufo, with new additions from Danik

The Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, and New Republic all occupied a single galaxy, known simply as the Galaxy. According to some sources, the Galaxy is 120,000 light-years across.

There are approximately 400 billion stars and around half of these have planets that can support life. 10% of those developed life, while sentient life developed on 1/1000th of those (about 20 million).

Regions[]

The Galaxy is divided into several regions. They are listed here in ascending order of distance from the core. These regions are 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) is a small region that hid unusual worlds. Due to the gravitational pull of the vast number of stars, local space-time is 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 still remains a strong Imperial stronghold in the galaxy.

Core Worlds[]

An ancient region bordering the outlier areas of the Deep Core, the Core Worlds are 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 is 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 is 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, the 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 rise of Bacharan Valak, 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 and the Galactic Republic finally took control of the system due to mounting pressure from its denizens by limiting or evicting corporate interests. Expansion Region worlds continued to be producers of raw materials and ores. However, most natural resources were exhausted by the Imperial era.

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.

Many astronomic features, such as nebulae, asteroid fields, gas clouds, and singularities exist in this region. For this reason, this swath of the galaxy has far greater ratio of uninhabitable planets to populated planets. All along the Mid Rim, a good number of star systems have banded together into independent principalities, such as the Bothan Federation, the Hapes Consortium, and the Caspian Democratic Union.

Outer Rim[]

The Outer Rim Territories was the last widely settled expanse before Wild Space and the Unknown Regions. It is 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 are several sectors beyond the Outer Rim, on various arms of the galaxy.

Tingel Arm[]

The Tingel Arm is an exterior spiral arm of the Galaxy. It contains the Corporate Sector Authority, a political entity which is 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 refers to the large, unexplored region (which some interpret to be outside the plane of the galactic disk) between Bakura and Bastion, which is largely dominated by the Chiss Ascendancy. The Unknown Regions comprises only a few billion stars, out of a galactic total of 400 billion. For reasons yet to be demonstrated there is a lack of reliable hyperspace routes through the region. The "Unknown Regions" designation includes uncharted areas in dense nebulae, globular clusters, and the galactic halo.

Wild Space[]

Wild Space is 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 differs from the Unknown Regions in that some of Wild Space has been explored, though not extensively; the Unknown Regions remains mysterious.

Traffic Routes[]

Various established 'ways' pass through the sectors. These routes have been explored and established by spacers known as hyperspace explorers. Astromech droids and Astrogators have the responsibility of guiding spaceships through these routes.

Minor Political Influences[]

Economy[]

The galactic economy is very complex and diverse. The main currency of the Galactic Republic was the credit, divided into ten decicreds. It remains the most common currency in use today.

Races and Species[]

Life developed on 10% of the livable planets, while sentient life developed on 1/1000th of those (about 40 million sentient species).

Humans are the dominant and most common species. Possibly originating from the Core Worlds, humans have been the basis of the major governments. Sentients other than humans (examples: Twi'leks, Hutts, Mon Calamari) are commonly known as 'aliens'. Although not considered a race for obvious reasons, Droids form a significant demographic, helping and coexisting with the organic population.

Speech[]

The lingua franca of the Galaxy is the human language that evolved into the Galactic Basic Standard. Its origins must have been the vernacular speech of humans and is partially derived from several ancient human languages like Olys Corellisi. Humans being the dominant species of the Galaxy, Basic has been adopted by many alien species as well.

The second most common language is Huttese, expanded through the criminal and financial activity of the Hutts, and has been as well adopted by other races that were in close cooperation with them through the ages, like the Rodians.

It was possible for droids to have fluency in millions of forms of communication, and based on them, could also understand and improvise in even more. Protocol droids were essential in interracial relations as translators and interpreters.