Blockade of Dathomir

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The title of this article is conjectural.

Although this article is based on official information from the Star Wars Legends continuity, the actual name of this subject is pure conjecture.

For other uses, see Battle of Dathomir (disambiguation).

"The planet's name is Dathomir. It seems the planet holds many Force users of great power. However, the Emperor found it first - he's blockaded the planet and placed a nightcloak generator system in orbit."
―Urai Fen[6]

During the Galactic Civil War, the Imperial Navy established a blockade of the planet Dathomir to prevent the powerful Witches of Dathomir to escape their planet.

History

"I believe the Emperor himself was afraid of the Nightsisters. That's why he interdicted this planet. Years ago, he started a nice little penal colony here, not knowing about the Nightsisters. When he learned about them, he blew the planet's airfield from orbit and stranded hundreds of his own people here, along with the prisoners, rather than risk letting Gethzerion escape. That's how frightened he was of Gethzerion."
"Those warships up above us were put there to keep people on this rock as much as to keep them fenced out. And now that Zsinj is in charge of this sector, he's still afraid. The Imperials who got stranded at the prison might still be able to cobble some kind of a ship together, and Zsinj has to watch out for that."
―Leia Organa and Augwynne Djo, to Han Solo[5]

Around the time of the Battle of Yavin, the Galactic Empire established a presence on the remote planet Dathomir. While Emperor Palpatine was aware of the presence of the Force-sensitive Witches of Dathomir, he allowed the construction of a prison on the planet.[1] However, it was not long before the Nightsisters, a sect of evil Dathomiri Witches, corrupted the Imperial troops using the dark side of the Force and turned them against their officers.[8]

File:DathomirStation.jpg
Dathomir Station controlled access to the planet.

As the Emperor realized that the Nightsisters and their leader Gethzerion were more powerful than what he expected, he ordered the Witches to be confined on their planet.[9] Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, the Emperor tasked Captain Zsinj to prevent the Nightsisters to escape Dathomir using the Imperial starships parked at the prison. Zsinj therefore bombarded the Imperial prison from orbit, destroying every vessels[10] and communication equipment present on the planet.[8] All Imperial forces at the surface were abandoned, they eventually became the slaves for the Nightsisters.[1] Zsinj established a blockade of the planet Dathomir[4] and the Emperor ordered that at least two Star Destroyers guarded the planet at all times.[7] Imperial ships were assigned to perform orbital scans periodically to ensure that the Nightsisters were still confined, with strict orders to never land on the planet.[9] In addition, orbital nightcloaks were deployed in orbit.[6] In the next years, the Dathomir system remained under the control of Zsinj[10] as the latter was promoted Grand Moff of the Quelii Oversector.[4]

Zsinj blockaded Dathomir for almost a decade.

Despite the Imperial blockade, the Dathomir system attracted a great deal of attention at the height of the Galactic Civil War, being the site of numerous skirmishes between Imperial and Rebel forces.[11] During this period, Tyber Zann, the leader of the Zann Consortium, dispatched a defiler to disable an orbital sensor array in order to be able to access Dathomir. Along with his lieutenant Urai Fen, he landed on the planet where he recruited Silri and a group of Nightsisters to his service.[6] By 1 ABY,[12] the blockade had been quite loosened, being focused in one quadrant of Dathomir space. Intrepid spacers frequently managed to lure the Imperial Dathomir Station and get through the blockade to land at one of the two outposts present on Dathomir.[2]

After the death of the Emperor at the Battle of Endor, Zsinj became a warlord and created its own empire from the Quelii Oversector. As Zsinj waged a war against the New Republic, the warlord was not eager to waste warships in guarding Dathomir anymore. However, when rich deposits of minerals were discovered on Dathomir's moon of Koratas, Zsinj ordered the construction of massive shipbuilding facilities in orbit of Dathomir: Rancor Base. Since a number of Star Destroyers were assigned to the defense of the shipyard, they were tasked to maintain the blockade of the planet as well.[7]

A large Hapan fleet attacked Dathomir in 8 ABY, destroying Rancor Base, most of Zsinj's fleet and the orbital nightcloaks. Warlord Zsinj was killed during the battle when his flagship, the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Iron Fist, was destroyed.[5] The blockade was broken as all remaining Imperial forces quickly fled the system and the united Witch clans requested membership into the New Republic.[7]

Appearances

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 File:SWG logo sm.png Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed
  3. ↑ The Essential Atlas
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 StarWars.com The Imperial Warlords: Despoilers of an Empire, Part 1 on StarWars.com (article) (backup link not verified!)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 The Courtship of Princess Leia
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Cracken's Threat Dossier
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Who's Who in Star Wars Galaxies" – Star Wars Insider 65
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Dark Side Sourcebook
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 The New Essential Guide to Characters
  11. ↑ File:Gal-icon.jpg Dathomir System on the official Star Wars Galaxies website (content now obsolete; backup link)
  12. ↑ According to its opening crawl, Star Wars Galaxies was set sometime after Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The only precise time indication in the game was given by the character Ruwan Tokai, who referenced the destruction of the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin as occurring one year earlier, placing the game sometime around 1 ABY. Later, multiple elements confirmed the placement of the game storyline in 1 ABY. First, The Essential Reader's Companion established that the tie-in novel Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine took place in 1 ABY. Furthermore, the game expansion Star Wars Galaxies: Rage of the Wookiees was set during the Blockade of Kashyyyk, one year after the Battle of Yavin according to The Star Wars Holiday Special. Additionally, the main scenario of The Nightsister's Revenge from the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game was set over a year before the Battle of Hoth (3 ABY), so around 1.5 ABY. Finally, the reference book Strongholds of Resistance placed the events of Star Wars Galaxies's Chapter 9: "The Fury of Exar Kun" one year after the Battle of Yavin. Of note, Galaxies's Chapter 11: "The Battle of Echo Base" introduced the Battle of Hoth in the game. However, the developers were quite clear that this was only intended to be a completely isolated "Star Wars Moment" without any effect on continuity for the rest of the game.
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