Little Kessel/Legends
- "Kessel is so beautiful—!"
- ―Mira Volz, to Luke Skywalker
Little Kessel was a planet located in the Kessel sector of the Outer Rim Territories.
Description
- "Wow! Are these towers trees, Mira—?"
"No, Luke… gigantic fungus! The thickest, wildest forest on Kessel—!" - ―Luke Skywalker and Mira Volz
Little Kessel was the lush, verdant homeworld of the peaceful Kesselians. It housed a titanic mushroom patch called the Giant Fungi Forest.[4] Contrarily to Tatooine, Little Kessel was considered to be a beautiful planet by its inhabitants.[3]
By 0 ABY, Little Kessel was geologically stable and had not experienced a groundquake in so many eons that its inhabitants did not even know what one was. When the Galactic Empire attacked the planet with the Ionic Ring, the superweapon created groundquakes that caused the formation of volcanoes.[3]
History
Cold War
During the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, Little Kessel was ruled by Xim'tahal the Defaced, a fierce Kaleesh warlord.[5]
Galactic Civil War
During the Galactic Civil War, Little Kessel was home to hundreds of Rebels. In 0 ABY, Captain Bzorn traveled to Little Kessel aboard the Ionic Ring and demanded that all Rebels on the planet be surrendered. When the government of Little Kessel refused, the Galactic Empire tormented the planet with groundquakes and cyclones.[3]
Professor Renn Volz, the creator of the ship, eventually refused to help Bzorn continue the devastation of the planet, despite the fact that his daughter, Mira Volz, was supposedly being held hostage. In reality, Mira had escaped from the Empire and recruited the help of Han Solo, Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker. The three Rebels infiltrated the Ionic Ring and rescued the professor, who reversed the flow of the ship's ion units, causing a meltdown that destroyed the superweapon.[3]
Behind the scenes
Little Kessel first appeared in the newstrip comic The Second Kessel Run by Russ Manning, later reprinted in Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures 6. It was identified at the time as Kessel. This interpretation of Kessel was ignored by later authors, who identified Kessel as a barren, rocky world resembling an asteroid. This discrepancy remained unaddressed until The Essential Atlas, where a second planet, Little Kessel, was identified in close proximity to Kessel. Jason Fry later confirmed in the Jedi Council Forums that Little Kessel was created to retcon the two different interpretations of Kessel, and that Little Kessel was the lush version found in The Second Kessel Run.[6]
Appearances
- The Second Kessel Run (First appearance) (As Kessel)
Sources
"The Unseen Planets of Star Wars" – Star Wars Insider 36 (Indirect mention only)- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. II ("Ionic Ring") (As Kessel)
- The Essential Atlas (First identified as Little Kessel)
- Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3
Star Wars: The Essential Atlas Online Companion on StarWars.com (article) (backup link not verified!)
- ↑ The Essential Atlas
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 The Second Kessel Run
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "The Unseen Planets of Star Wars" – Star Wars Insider 36
- ↑ Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia, p. 95
- ↑
The Essential Atlas and Galactic Cartography: Official Discussion on the Jedi Council Forums (Literature board; posted by jasonfry on 8/20/09 5:45am; accessed February 10, 2013): "Yes. A bit of a "Hoth Stuff" style retcon, perhaps, but I thought it worked OK." (backup link)