The Galaxy



The Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, and New Republic all occupied a single galaxy, known simply as the Galaxy.

According to some sources, the Galaxy was 120,000 light years across.

There were approximately 400 billion stars and around half of these had planets that could support life. 10% of those developed life, while sentient life developed in 1/1000 of those (about 20 million).

Regions
[[Image:GalacticMap-Jedi-Archives.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Map of the Galaxy as seen in the [[Jedi Archives]]

The Galaxy was divided into several regions. They are listed here in ascending order of distance from the core. These regions were 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) was a small region that hid unusual worlds. Due to the gravitational pull of the vast number of stars, local space-time was 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 remained an Imperial stronghold almost twenty years after the Battle of Endor.

Core Worlds
An ancient region bordering the outlier areas of the Deep Core, the Core Worlds were 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 was 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 was 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, 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 return of Palpatine, 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. The Galactic Republic eventually 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.

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

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

Wild Space
Wild Space was 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 differed from the Unknown Regions in that some of Wild Space has been explored, though not extensively; the Unknown Regions remained mysterious.

Traffic Routes
Various established 'ways' passed through the sectors. These routes were explored and established by spacers known as hyperspace explorers (like Gav Daragon and Aitro Koornacht). Astromech droids had the responsibility of guiding spaceships through these routes.


 * Rimma Trade Route
 * Perlemian Trade Route
 * Hydian Way
 * Corellian Run
 * Corellian Trade Spine
 * Kessel Run
 * Ison Trade Corridor
 * Sisar Run
 * Myto's Arrow

Minor Political Influences

 * Bothan Space
 * Corporate Sector Authority
 * Hutt Space

Economy
The galactic economy was a very complex and diverse economy. The main currency of the Galactic Republic was the credit, divided into ten decicreds.

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

The dominating species was humans. Possibly originating from the Core Worlds, humans had been the basis of the major governments. Sentients other than humans (examples: Twi'leks, Hutts, Mon Calamari) were simply known as 'aliens'. Although not considered a race for obvious reasons, droids formed a significant part, helping and coexisting with the population.

Extragalactic aliens (species coming from another galaxy) is believed to have visited by unknown means the Galaxy in an unknown point in the past, for unknown reasons, and made contact with the galactic species. The best known were the Kwa and of course the Yuuzhan Vong who almost managed to destroy the galactic civilization, while just recovering from the Galactic Civil War.

Speech
The lingua franca of the Galaxy is the human language that evolved in 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 cooperatoin 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 imrpovise in even more. Protocol droids were essential in interracial relations as translators and interpreters.