Alpinn

"It's a shame you didn't find any true kybers."
"I know. Even so, I hope the Empire will be gentle with Alpinn. It really deserves Legacy status."

―Orson Callan Krennic and Lyra Erso^[1]

Alpinn was a planet located in the Outer Rim Territories where Lyra Erso searched for kyber crystals. Alpinn reflected light in realspace due to the remnants of ancient mineral seas. When these seas dried up eons before the Imperial Era, they left extensive areas of sedimentary rock and crystallized elements, which covered much of the planet's primary landmass in white.^[1]

History

At some point much earlier than the formation of the Galactic Empire, a group of spacers discovered the ruins of an ancient civilization, including large structures such as statues, temples, and obelisks that had been worn down by wind and seasonal rain. Archaeological excavations had gone on for nearly a standard century^[1] by 21 BBY to 17 BBY.^[5] Before the election of Sheev Palpatine as Supreme Chancellor, the Galactic Republic funded the establishment of a permanent camp consisting of prefab dwellings, wind turbines, a desalination plant, and a research center. In the Imperial Era, a team of scientists petitioned for Alpinn to be designated as a Legacy world, which would restrict development, visitation, and resource extraction, and the surveying and mapping conducted by Lyra Erso and Nari were part of the resource estimation process for the petition. Archaeologists surmised that the discovery of kyber crystals on the planet would guarantee the planet's protection from corporate exploitation. Erso and Nari's expedition failed to find kybers, however, instead uncovering ranite, a similar mineral, but one that never occurred together with kyber crystals.^[1]