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- "This is Palmo One. We are under siege. We're being slaughtered. The Imperial murder of Ghorman has begun. There are hundreds of bodies this moment. As I say these words, hundreds of murdered Ghormans lay dead in Palmo Plaza. Thousands more on the streets. More every minute. We're being destroyed! This is Ghorman reaching for any open channel that can hear me! If you can... If you can hear me... If you believe in truth, if you have any faith left in truth, please, please mark this message and pass it forward. This is murder! The Empire built this fire. They made this fire and led us to the slaughter. Now they expect us to die without knowing why. The conspiracy we've feared is real! It's here today!"
- ―Dreena
The Ghorman Massacre, also known as the massacre on Ghorman or the Imperial murder of Ghorman, was a pivotal moment in the Imperial Era that occurred in 2 BBY when Imperial Army forces violently suppressed and opened fire on peaceful protests on the planet Ghorman. The massacre, which killed hundreds if not thousands of protestors according to the Imperial Archives, was part of the Galactic Empire's escalating crackdown on rebel activity in the galaxy, and was the inciting moment for the Galactic Civil War.
In response to the massacre, Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila publicly blamed Emperor Sheev Palpatine for the deaths on Ghorman, branding him a "lying executioner." Declared a traitor and hunted by the Imperial Security Bureau, Mothma went into exile and delivered the Declaration of the Rebel Alliance. This speech unified the fragmented rebel cells and solidified the Rebel Alliance, with Mothma as its leader, escalating the fight against the Empire. The massacre convinced many with rebel leanings that peaceful opposition to the Empire was no longer possible, fueling the war that ultimately led to the Empire's downfall. Such was the extent of the mobilization caused by the massacre that, in his the history book The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, the historian Beaumont Kin would later call the event "a miscalculation" on the part of Imperial officials. The Memorial to the Missing of Ghorman was later established to honor the victims, many of whom would remain unknown to history given the sheer death toll brought about by the Empire's actions during the Imperial Era.
Prelude
The Tarkin Massacre
In 19 BBY,[10] shortly after the proclamation of the Galactic Empire,[3] protests emerged on the planet Ghorman, in the capital city of Palmo. During the unrest, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin attempted to land his cruiser on a landing pad, only to be met by protestors flooding the area in the hopes of preventing his arrival. Tarkin brought the ship directly down upon the protestors,[11] killing five-hundred of them in an event that became known as the Tarkin Massacre. A memorial, the Monument to the Fallen, was built to commemorate the casualties of Tarkin's actions.[10]
Early Resistance
- "There will be a fact-finding commission put in place this session. And it will prove that this is a boot to the throats of all Ghormans who've done nothing more than request their basic rights."
- ―Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila, speaking on behalf of the people of Ghorman
Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila, speaking before the Imperial Senate during the Ghorman Debates
In the years that followed, local militias and insurgencies—including the Ghorman Front[13]— cropped up to oppose the Empire's galactic rule.[14] To counter the emerging rebellion, the Imperial Security Bureau was tasked with hunting down and eliminating insurgent threats.[15] The Imperial Senate, meanwhile, had become largely ineffective in curtailing Imperial overreach, although some senators, such as Mon Mothma of Chandrila,[16] nonetheless tried to wield their influence to support those in need, including the people of Ghorman who had requested that the Empire honor their basic rights[12] during the Senate's Ghorman Debates.[9] Senator Mothma worked in secret with other like-minded individuals, such as Luthen Rael[15] and Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan,[17] to fund and organize a network of various rebel cells and insurgent movements in the hopes of growing their influence and effectiveness against the Empire.[16] The Ghorman Front also became known to early rebels like Rael and Saw Gerrera of the Partisans.[13]
A Secret Meeting
In 4 BBY, Director Orson Krennic of the Imperial Military Department of Advanced Weapons Research held a meeting with high ranking imperial officers at the Maltheen Divide. During the meeting, Krennic outlined a plan to gouge mine Ghorman for the precious and rare mineral kalkite, which was needed for the Galactic Emperor's "Energy Project".[18]
During the meeting, Krennic questioned ISB supervisor Dedra Meero about how she would approach the project, to which she suggested instigating an anti-Imperial insurgency on Ghorman, so that the Empire would gain a legitimate reason to suppress any resistance on the planet. Impressed by the suggestion, Krennic subsequently placed Meero in charge of the project. Despite being reluctant at first, Meero eventually agreed to run the project at the persuasion of major Lio Partagaz.[18]
The Ghorman program
Around 3 BBY Syril Karn, who was secretly partners with Dedra Meero, was reassigned from Coruscant to Ghorman to lead the local division of the Imperial Bureau of Standards. In fact, he became by that moment an undercover ISB operative with a task to make contact with Ghorman Front. He helped them — with ISB approval — to procure weapons and proofs of hostile Imperial activity on the planet. However, Karn wasn't aware of the real aim of the Ghorman operation as he had thought that he was to catch the outside agitators.[1]
The Ghorman Massacre
Bad luck Ghorman
- "There is, apparently, no suitable replacement or synthetic alternative for the Ghorman substrate material."
"I see."
"It's not for lack of effort. Krennic's had the lab in Eadu working overtime all year. I don't know the science, but… it's bad luck Ghorman. We need what's in the ground, and when we're done, there won't be much left to call 'home.'" - ―Lio Partagaz and Dedra Meero
By 2 BBY,[3] during the early days of the Galactic Civil War,[19] the fledgling rebel network had drawn the attention of the Imperial Security Bureau with operations on worlds such as Aldhani,[12] Ferrix,[20] and Lothal.[21] That year, peaceful protests on Ghorman would quickly escalate into large crowds of Ghormans facing off with Imperial forces.[22] More pressingly, the Ghorman Front had procured a large number of Imperial weapons. Secretly however, the ISB had manipulated the front's actions to radicalize the ghorman people to justify imperial presence, which could eventually lead to the silencing of the planet and allow mining of the planet.[18]
Major Partagaz informed Meero that mining on Ghorman was to proceed
On the day after an alleged firebombing of the Imperial Naval Terminal in Palmo, ISB major Lio Partagaz informed the now Ghorman Project head Dedra Meero that the "energy project"'s lab on Eadu had failed to find alternatives to Kalkite for the project, so Ghorman mining was to proceed. To assure that the situation was properly dealt with to facilitate imperial mining of the planet, Dedra was given permission to declare martial law and stroke a conflict on Ghorman. To assist in these efforts, army captain Kaido, a crisis specialist, was sent to Ghorman assume tactical command of imperial forces located there.[1]
Gambol dum Ghor
- "We are the Ghor! The galaxy is watching!"
- ―Ghorman protest chant
Following Kaido's arrival, a fleet including mining ships arrived in the Ghorman system to begin gouge mining Ghorman. The Empire began landing mining rigs and droids at Ghorman locations such as Leequa and Jel-Novi to mine kalkite deposits. Rumors quickly spread across the planet, and following Kaido's suggestions, the Empire removed riot barriers at Palmo Plaza, the site of the planet's Imperial office complex, to lure in the Ghor. The next morning, Imperial forces, anticipating a protest, shut down comms and ordered Imperial employees to the office complex. Simultaneously, Palmo's residents, having heard the rumors, began marching to the plaza, chanting on the way there. The Ghorman Front's leader, Carro Rylanz, suspecting a trap, attempted to stop the protesters, but his efforts were in vain. After seeing Syril Karn in the crowd, Rylanz yanked him aside and attempted to question him about the presence of Imperial mining equipment on the planet, though Karn was also unaware of it, dismissing it as a rumor and stating that he was only there to stop outside agitators, before rejoining the crowd.[4]
Imperial troops surrounded the now filled plaza, trapping the protesters
Soon after, the plaza began to fill with protesters, and they continued to chant and wave flags. Simultaneously, Karn entered the Imperial office complex and questioned his parter and Ghroman project head, Dedra Meero. After learning the truth from her, Karn furiously left the building and reentered the crowd. Shortly after, Imperial troops surrounded the plaza, trapping the protesters in, as a set of TIE fighters took to the skies of Palmo.[4]
An Imperial brig
- "Patrol, sir? Within the crowd?"
"Was that not my order?"
"They're green, sir. They're useless."
"I see Imperial uniforms, Sergeant. I see a barricade lane to the Memorial that I need kept open. You will march them out there immediately and secure the area. Or you can all finish your days in an Imperial brig." - ―Bloy and Kaido
Believing the shot came from protesters, imperial troops opened fire on protesters after a riot squad member was shot as part of a false flag operation
Soon, Ghorman Front member Lezine began to sing the Ghorman National Anthem, with the rest of the crowd joining in. Simultaneously, Kaido ordered a riot squad lead by Sergeant Bloy to maintain a barricaded route from the office complex to the Monument to the Fallen. Unbeknownst to Bloy however, Kaido had devised a plan to have an Imperial sniper take out a member of the squad. Despite Bloy's protests, the riot squad marched out into the plaza as the protesters continued to sing. As the squad inched further, they faced resistance from the crowd, who punched and threw various items at the squad. Dedra Meero then gave permission for a massacre to begin, and Kaido ordered the sniper to fire. Bloy, having witnessed the death of one of his men, thinking that the shot had come from a protester, ordered his men to open fire on the masses, with Imperial troops surrounding and in the plaza quickly joining in.[4]
Imperial troops fired indiscriminately on protesters, forcing many to attempt to flee
As the gunfire from imperial troops began to indiscriminately rain down on the protesters, protesters rushed for the exits only to find the exits blocked. Simultaneously, members of the Ghorman Front who had joined the protest began returning fire at some troops, with one group of front members attempting to clear an exit of imperial troops. As the killing continued, Captain Kaido, calmly observing the slaughter from the IOC building, gave the order to release KX-series security droids into the plaza, one of which quickly dispatched of Front member Enza Rylanz, scaring most remaining Front members into fleeing. As a group of stormtroopers moved to a position close the Plaza's hotel, Thela, a hotel bellhop and secret member of the Ghorman Front, threw a C-25 fragmentation grenade at the stormtrooper's position, blowing up the troops close to the hotel.[4]
Syril Karn witnessed the chaos of the Ghorman Massacre that he unknowingly helped create
Syril Karn, witnessing the aftermath of chaos that he had help create, spotted Axis network operative Cassian Andor, who had arrived to assassinate Dedra Meero. Karn attacked Cassian, tackling into the nearby cafhouse and preventing the rebel from firing at Meero. In the resulting brawl, Karn nearly killed Andor, though after learning the rebel had no idea who he was, he froze in shock before being shot by Carro Rylanz.
Following the brawl, Andor fled along with his accomplice Wilmon Paak alongside many protesters. The security droids soon proceeded out of the plaza as well, chasing and killing protesters across the streets of Palmo. As one security droid cornered Cassian Andor and some protestors, it was rammed and disabled by a hijacked repulsorcraft driven by Front Member Samm. Andor then had the KX droid’s remains put on the repulsorcraft, and fled Palmo. Simultaneously, Ghorman Front member Dreena and Wilmon Paak, sent broadcasts reporting the massacre unfolding in Palmo, and requesting and help.[4] By the end of the Massacre, thousands of Ghormans had been slaughtered by Imperial forces,[9] with hundreds dead in Palmo Plaza alone.[4] After the massacre, the Empire began mining the planet's kalkite deposits.[6][23]
Aftermath
Political fallout
In the wake of the massacre, the Imperial-aligned media was quick to paint the Ghormans as the aggressors,[2] just as an on the ground reporter had suggested and the pre-massacre planning had prepared for. Further, the news praised the Imperials who died as fallen patriots.[4] All the same, the massacre exposed some journalists to the lies told by the Empire. Among them were Corwi Selgrothe, who defected from her position at HoloNet News in response to the massacre and went on to gain fame as a journalist for the Alliance to Restore the Republic.[9] Nonetheless, the vast majority of Imperial News reinforced the anti-Ghorman narrative, which was also espoused by the majority of the Senate. In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, stormtroopers marched into the Senate Building and arrested Ghorman senator Dasi Oran, who recieved no help from those watching on.[2]
Senator Mothma, meanwhile, publicly condemned the Empire's actions as a genocide and put the blame for the massacre on Emperor Sheev Palpatine himself, whom she labeled a monster. After giving her denouncement speech in the Senate, Mothma fled from the Empire.[2] Mothma's words came as a shock to the Senate[7] and recieved rage from her fellow senators.[2]
Rebel response
- "This is Senator Mon Mothma, I have been called a traitor for speaking out against a corrupt Galactic Senate. A Senate manipulated by the sinister tactics of the Emperor. For too long I have watched the heavy hand of the Empire strangle our liberties, stifling our freedoms in the name of ensuring our safety. No longer! Despite Imperial threats, despite the Emperor himself, I have no fear as I take new action. For I am not alone. Beginning today we stand together as allies. I hereby resign from the Senate to fight for you, not from the distant hall of politics but from the front lines. We will not rest until we bring an end to the Empire, until we restore our Republic! Are you with me?"
- ―Mon Mothma to the various rebel cells
Following the massacre, Magva Yarro, who had taken part in the protests, survived what happened on Ghorman and joined the Partisans.[24] Reports of the massacre reached Senator Tynnra Pamlo, who worked closely with Rebel Alliance Intelligence Service.[5] The artist Mevera Starros smuggled a few cases of the beverage Sacha-Lo from Ghorman after the massacre and kept a few bottles for herself.[25]
After her initial speech in the senate and her escape from the Empire,[2] Mothma delivered a further speech[26] where she decried Palpatine as a "lying executioner."[7] Her public actions prompted an Imperial Security Bureau investigation, and she was labeled a traitor to the Empire.[27] She was picked up by the rebel group known as the Spectres, led by Phoenix Leader Hera Syndulla,[7] under orders from Senator Organa. The resulting skirmish with the Empire, in what became known as Operation Handoff,[27] saw the Spectres and the rebel Gold Squadron bring Mothma to safety after a battle with pursuing Imperial forces in the Archeon Nebula.[7]
Mon Mothma, with the Spectres, gives the speech that became known as the Declaration of the Rebel Alliance.
Mothma's rebel saviors brought her to Dantooine,[7] where a rebel base would be established.[28] Mothma broadcast a speech, which became known as the Declaration of the Rebel Alliance,[27] in which she resigned from the Imperial Senate, called out the Emperor's manipulative tactics, and decried the Empire's assault on freedom and liberty in the name of safety. She called on allies to stand together and begin taking the fight against the Empire to the front lines and restore the Republic. The broadcast, watched across the galaxy, inspired a rebel fleet to arrive at Dantooine.[7] This event marked the formation of the Rebel Alliance,[17] which kept documents pertaining to the massacre from Alliance leaders in The Rebel Files.[27] The Rebel Alliance ultimately went on to topple the Empire[29] and establish the New Republic, with Mothma as its first chancellor.[30]
Imperial response and analysis
- "This attempt to crush dissent may have been a serious miscalculation by the Imperial officials who orchestrated it. Rather than terrify the wider civilian population into accepting Imperial rule, it showed many with rebel leanings that if even peaceful protest would be greeted with death, then there could be no political solution or compromise. If people were going to die regardless of how they resisted, then it may as well become an armed resistance."
- ―Historian Beaumont Kin in The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire
The Imperial response to the massacre included an insistence on law and order.[9] Pollux Hax, the Minister of Information for the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order,[31] stated in a broadcast on Imperial HoloVision after the massacre that "acceptance of Imperial law is the only way in which ordinary citizens can protect themselves from the dangers and violence of disorder." Historian Beaumont Kin later noted in[9] his[32] book, The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, that the attempt to crush dissent on Ghorman may have been a miscalculation by Imperial officials, who believed it would frighten civilians into acceptance of Imperial rule.[9]
Kin noted that, rather than succeeding, the Empire's actions—and the Empire's inability to discern between the peaceful tactics of protestors and the armed resistance of groups like the Partisans—prompted those with rebel leanings to realize that if peaceful protests would be greeted in the same way as violent action, there were no political solutions to be found and armed resistance was needed to combat Imperial rule. These actions, like the Declaration of the Rebel Alliance, became consequential contributions to the Galactic Civil War.[9] By the time The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire was published in 35 ABY,[33] the Memorial to the Missing of Ghorman had been established to honor those killed on Ghorman during the Imperial Era, including those lost during the Ghorman Massacre. Kin noted in his book that, because of the sheer death toll during the Empire's reign, information about many of Ghorman's casualties might never be known.[9]
Behind the scenes
Development
- "Both sides are using this event for their own purposes. Krennic is obviously using it in a fascistic way to create a narrative in which the fear and the danger of radicals/anarchists needs to be crushed and stamped out at any cost—needs to be destroyed. Luthen understands that when you have 95% of the sentient beings of the universe who are not committed in any way to the struggle that's going on—they've decided for whatever reason that they're going to live with it and go along with it—Luthen realizes that he needs an event in which a line that's crossed is so egregious and so undemocratic and so morally wrong on its surface that people will be called to arms."
- ―Dan Gilroy, on the Ghorman Massacre serving as the "fulcrum" of Andor
Palmo Plaza, before and after the addition of visual effects
The Ghorman Massacre was first mentioned in the current Star Wars canon in Forged in Battle, a 2016 sourcebook for Fantasy Flight Games.[35] The event originated in the Star Wars Legends continuity, where it was first mentioned in The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook by Paul Murphy, released in 1990.[36] Murphy took influence from the real-world Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 when the British Indian Army surrounded and fired at hundreds of peaceful protestors at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in Punjab, India.[37] Instead of the canon date of 2 BBY,[3] the original Legends event occurred early into the Imperial Era in c. 19 BBY.[38] It also notably featured Wilhuff Tarkin landing his starship on a group of protesters blocking its landing pad.[39] The event inspired Senator Bail Organa to join Senator Mon Mothma in plotting a rebellion against the Empire.[36] In the second season of the live-action Disney+ television series Andor,[4] the Legends version of the event is confirmed to still have occurred in 19 BBY as a separate event named the Tarkin Massacre,[40] though it is not the canon Ghorman Massacre that was depicted later in the season.[4]
The event made its first ever on-screen appearance in "Who Are You?," the eighth episode of the second season of the television series Andor,[4] released on May 6, 2025.[41] Showrunner Tony Gilroy had previously affirmed in 2022 that he knew of the event and how it was on the horizon for Mothma.[42] It was first shown in a short teaser released on November 12, 2024[43] and was first properly identified as such in an interview with Gilroy released on March 10, 2025. Gilroy stated that the event's appearance in the series, told over the course of five episodes, will have "straightened out that story" as there had been "a lot of confusion within canon" about the Ghorman Massacre.[44]
The depiction of the Ghorman Massacre in Andor Season 2 was one of the challenges tackled by supervising sound editor and ADR supervisor Margit Pfeiffer of Skywalker Sound. She was tasked with finding and conducting crowd noises that spoke in the Ghor language invented for the series. As the events on Ghorman intensified, she created the sound to intensify and escale in its energy, complete with singing, callouts, and panicked cries, with chants continuing throughout the events that were designed to weave in and out of the sound design for the battle before crescendoing into the singing of the Ghorman National Anthem. The season's musical composer, Nicholas Britell, worked with Gilroy to develop the Ghorman National Anthem before the second season filmed, with their goal being to create something that felt like a timeless, authentic, and emotional rallying cry.[22] Indeed, "the galaxy is watching" cry was chosen by Gilroy because it echoed the real world "the whole world is watching" protest phrase, which has seen use since the 1950s and thus, in Gilroy's words, was "universal enough" to be borrowed by the show.[45] Eugene Lin, who portrayed an Imperial security trooper in the Ghorman Massacre, compared its events to the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.[46]
Contradictions and retcons
- "I'm really confident that the really deep, passionate Star Wars community will appreciate how we've straightened out that story."
- ―Tony Gilroy on the Ghorman Massacre's depiction in the second season of Andor
The book The Mighty Chewbacca in the Forest of Fear! mentions when Cassian Andor stole K-2SO,[47] which at the time would have been a reference to the mission to Wecacoe from Rogue One - Cassian & K-2SO Special 1.[48] However the Andor episode "Who Are You?" featured an alternate backstory where Andor stole K2 during the Ghorman Massacre.[4] As Andor is intended to override the comic,[49] meaning the reference to the theft of K2 in The Mighty Chewbacca retroactively is a reference to the Ghorman Massacre.
Appearances
Star Wars: Andor — "Who Are You?" (First appearance) (First identified as Imperial murder of Ghorman)- Star Wars: Andor — "Welcome to the Rebellion" (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars Rebels — "Secret Cargo" (Mentioned only)
- The Mighty Chewbacca in the Forest of Fear! (and audiobook) (Indirect mention only) (Retcon)
- Sana Starros 2 (Indirect mention only)
