Dantooine

"Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration. But don't worry—we will deal with your Rebel friends soon enough."

―Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin to Princess Leia Organa

Type: Terrestrial
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable)

Hydrosphere: Dry

Gravity: Standard
Terrain: Savannas, Mountains, Oceans
Length of Day: 25 standard hours
Length of Year: 378 local days
Physical Diameter: 9830 km
Sapient Species: Humans (Historic), Dantari (Modern)
Other Native Species: Kath Hound, Iriaz, Kinrath, Graul
Starport: ? (Historic) , Landing Field (Modern)
Points of interest: Jedi Enclave, Dantooine Dungeon, Khoonda Plains, The Warren, Rakatan Ruins, Imperial Outpost, Mining Outpost, Matale Estate, Sandral Estate, Crystal Cave
Population: 2 million (Historic), 1000 (Modern)
Planet Function: Abandonned Colony World
Official language: Basic (Historic), Dantarian (Modern)
Government: Tribal
Major cities: Garang and Khoonda (Capitals), Sulem
Tech Level: Space (Historic), Stone (Modern)
Major Exports: None
Major Imports: None
Affiliation: Infinite Empire, Galactic Republic, Sith Empire, Khoonda, Alliance to Restore the Republic, Galactic Empire, Pentastar Alignement, New Republic, Yuuzhan Vong Empire, Galactic Federation of Free Alliances
System: Dantooine
Sun: Dantooine
Moons: 2
Sector: Raioballo
Region of Space: Outer Rim Territories

Mostly an agricultural world, Dantooine was nonetheless an important colony in the Outer Rim. The Galactic Republic had no military protecting Dantooine so the task was given to the Jedi Order, who established a Jedi Enclave there. Many notable Jedi of the time trained at the Dantooine Enclave including Exar Kun, Revan and Malak.

History

Infinite Empire

The planet was one of the subject worlds of the Rakata, of the Infinite Empire. The Rakata built several structures on its surface; at least one of which housed a Star Map and several Rakata-made droids, and was still standing by the time of the Jedi Civil War.

A theory persisted that the native Dantari were descended from a colonization attempt during the earliest days of the Old Republic, but no studies bore this supposition out, and the Dantari were recorded as being present since the beginning of more recent settlements.

Old Sith Wars

The Jedi Enclave

"Even the Sith would think twice before attacking Dantooine. There are many Jedi here, including several of the most powerful masters of the order. There is great strength within this place."

―Bastila Shan[src]

During the Old Sith Wars, the Galactic Republic began a full-scale colonization campaign on Dantooine. While the Republic by itself had virtually no military on the planet, the settlers were protected by the Jedi Order.

By at least 3997 BBY, a Jedi training enclave was established by Master Vodo-Siosk Baas, although ruins of an even older Jedi structure could be found on the planet. Many great Jedi of the Great Sith War were trained on Dantooine. However, the Enclave on Dantooine was infamous for the number of its students who eventually fell to the dark side; among them were some of the greatest enemies of the Republic during that unstable period, such as Exar Kun, Revan, and Malak.

Forty years later, in 3956 BBY, the leading instructors at the Dantooine Jedi Enclave were Masters Vrook Lamar, Zhar, Vandar Tokare, and Dorak. When Bastila Shan brought a mentally dead Revan before the Dantooine council, they decided to give Revan another chance to redeem himself. Revan was trained there for a second time.

Just weeks after Revan completed his new training, the Enclave, along with many of Dantooine's other settlements, was destroyed by Darth Malak, who was obsessed with finding Revan and Bastila (Malak also took special care to bombard the ancient Rakatan temple to preserve the Star Forge's secrecy, but by then it was too late). This attack sent the Dantooine farming community into decay, as the Republic, weakened by the war, could not offer its support to the remote world. Until the collapse of the Sith Empire a year later, Dantooine was occupied by the Sith, who executed almost all local leaders.

From 3956 to 3951 BBY, the settlers, led by Administrator Terena Adare, began to rebuild their community by constructing the outpost of Khoonda. By then, Dantooine was populated by mercenaries and salvagers, the latter trying to make a living by finding Jedi relics from the ruined Enclave and selling them.

In 3951 BBY, the Republic nearly lost Dantooine to the Exchange, which planned to use the world as an outpost in the Outer Rim Territories. Exchange mercenaries under the leadership of Azkul, who where supported by Czerka Arms under the leadership of Jana Lorso, made trouble for the settlers, eventually culminating in the Battle of Dantooine. Thanks to the efforts of Master Vrook and Meetra Surik, the meager Khoonda militia prevailed over Azkul's mercenaries and subsequently exiled the Exchange and Czerka Arms from the planet, and Dantooine remained in the Republic. The Republic eventually sent some of its forces to protect the battered planet.

After the battle, the Enclave was rebuilt and briefly became the residence of the reformed Jedi Council (Master Vrook, Master Kavar, and Master Zez-Kai Ell), but it was abandoned shortly after, when the Council members were killed by Darth Traya.

Clone Wars

"Master Windu still fights on Dantooine."

―Palpatine

During the Clone Wars, Mace Windu won a widely publicized victory at the Battle of Dantooine. Although he was without his lightsaber for much of the battle, Windu and a large clone trooper force defeated an army of B2 super battle droids and a massive seismic tank.

Galactic Empire

"X1 had killed Falon Grey, our genetic father, and left me for dead."

―X2

At some time after the creation of the Empire, the Force-sensitive clone trooper X2 aided the escaped Jedi Knight Falon Grey in his battle against Imperial stormtroopers. While Grey fought with armed villagers, X2 moved around the Jedi enclave. The two met in a mountain hangar, but X2's older brother X1 arrived with his troops. Falon Grey defeated X1 in combat, but while at the lightsaber's edge, X1 killed the Jedi and incapacitated X2. X2 then lived on the planet for many years.

Galactic Civil War

"Our scout ships have reached Dantooine. They have found the remains of a Rebel base, but they estimate that it has been deserted for some time. They are now conducting an extensive search of the surrounding systems."

―Imperial officer

Years later, after the Corellian Treaty was signed, the Alliance to Restore the Republic established Dantooine as their headquarters, establishing a prefabricated base near the ruins of the old Jedi Enclave. Also it was used for a staging post for starfighter strikes—most famously, the Battle of Danuta, for the recovery of the Death Star plans.

In 2 BBY, the special operative Jan Ors directed the seventeen-year-old Tarrin Datch to pilot her freighter carrying a cargo of stolen Imperial fuel slugs to the sanctuary of the Dantooine base, the first command center of the Rebel Alliance. Once arriving there, Datch began training as a starfighter pilot and officially joined the Rebellion. In 1 BBY, Darth Vader was captured by the Rebel Alliance on Kamino and was taken hostage on Dantooine's Rebel base, unaware that Fett was pursuing the Rebels and their valuable hostage in his ship. Not long after, the Dantooine base was deserted after Ryle Torsyn discovered an Imperial homing beacon there, possibly placed by Boba Fett.

After the Alliance's relocation to Yavin 4, Princess Leia Organa tried to fool Grand Moff Tarkin into believing that the main Rebel base was still located on Dantooine, attempting to spare her homeworld of Alderaan from the destructive power of the Empire's newest weapon. Tarkin replied that Dantooine was too remote to use as an effective demonstration of the Death Star (the deciding factor here seemed to be a political and social impact rather than military necessity). Alderaan was destroyed and subsequently, Imperials did indeed discover the abandoned Rebel base. As Tarkin realized that Leia would lie to him even under the most dire circumstances, he ordered her execution.

The Empire took over the vacated Alliance base and discovered the Jedi cloning facility in the ruins, and resumed carrying out the research to develop rapid cloning procedures.[8] They also established an Imperial outpost and a mining outpost.

Ex-Imperial Officer Tycho Celchu also defected to the Rebel Alliance on this world. However, he was captured by the Imperial Storm Commando Corps. Before he was captured, he managed to send a panic-burst transmission to the orbiting members of Rogue Squadron who immediately began a rescue operation.

Luke Skywalker piloted a captured Imperial speeder bike to the landing zone, where he used several E-Web repeating blasters to stop an Imperial APC which Tycho had been stored upon.

After disabling the APC, Skywalker and Celchu used another two speeder bikes to escape from several waves of Probe droids, APCs, enemy speeders and TIE/sa starfighters. However, upon arriving at the rendezvous point with Sarkli, the Imperial forces had destroyed much of the Rebel task force, including several BTL Y-wing starfighters, leaving four T-65 X-wing starfighters, which the survivors used to escape. Upon reaching orbit, Celchu hemorrhaged information about trapped scientists on the planet Ralltiir.

At some point during the Galactic Civil War, a bounty hunter and kid faced off against a pirate in orbit. The kid tackled the pirate out of the airlock, forcing the bounty hunter to rescue him using an ablative heatshield and a parachute.

Post-Endor era

After the Battle of Endor, Dantooine came under New Republic control, and the elite unit known as Lando's Commandos made use of a cloaked stealth fighter housed in a "museum" on the planet—though given the lack of public infrastructure on the planet, and the secret nature of cloaking technology, this may have been a euphemistic description for a military storehouse.

In the turbulent years following the reborn clone Emperor Palpatine's resurrection, the New Republic relocated several refugees from Eol Sha to Dantooine. The colonist refugees did not have a chance to meet the native Dantari, since Admiral Daala dispatched an Imperial force that massacred all the refugees.

Two months after the start of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Mara Jade Skywalker had landed on Dantooine with Anakin Solo to try to give Mara some rest from the war to recover from her sickness. However, the Yuuzhan Vong soon caught up with them, and New Republic Forces who were fleeing from Dubrillion, including Leia Organa Solo, Jaina Solo and Gavin Darklighter, landed in another mess. Luke Skywalker and Jacen Solo had arrived just moments earlier, and had helped in fighting the battle on the planet that had helped the other refugees from Dubrillion escape. The population of the native Dantari were almost wiped out in the battle as the Yuuzhan Vong proceeded to conquer the planet. Kyp Durron later witnessed a two-kilometer-wide pit filled with the bones of those sacrificed to the Yuuzhan Vong gods.

The Galactic Alliance reclaimed Dantooine when the Yuuzhan Vong surrendered. However, at around 40 ABY, the planet had come under Imperial control once more.