Tatoo system

"There's a battle going on—right here in our system!"

―Luke Skywalker^[9]

The Tatoo system, also known as the Tatooine system, and formerly known as the tri-planetary system J11.9, contained the planet Tatooine, which orbited its twin suns, Tatoo I and Tatoo II. It was located in the Arkanis sector.

Description

Tatoo system was a binary star system located at the crossroads of the Triellus Trade Route and the Old Corellian Run in the Arkanis sector of the Slice's Outer Rim segment. The system formed around the G-type stars Tatoo I and Tatoo II, and contained Tatooine, its moons Ghomrassen, Guermessa and Chenini, the gas giants Ohann and Adriana, and their seven moons.^[7]

The twin suns of the Tatoo system caused premature aging in Humans on Tatooine.^[10]

History

Early history

Some early explorers thought the first planet of the system to be a third star, because of it blazing light reflected by its sodium-rich deserts.^[11]

Tatooine had a strong presence in the Force, which led the Infinite Empire of the Rakata to the Tatoo system.^[12] The collapse of their empire in 25,200 BBY caused the system to be left alone for some millennia.^[7]

The Galactic Republic explored the segment of the Slice wherein this system was located during the Great Manifest Period and the Indecta Era. By 1004 BBY, the nearby region belonged to the Brotherhood of Darkness, including Hutt Space, a large region of the known galaxy controlled by the Hutt species. After the Seventh Battle of Ruusan in 1000 BBY, the system remained in Hutt control until the reign of the Galactic Empire.^[7]

Galactic Civil War

"I doubt if the Empire would even fight to keep this system."

―Laze Loneozner^[11]

In 0 BBY during the Galactic Civil War, Senator Leia Organa acquired the plans of the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station, simply known as the Death Star. In the Tatoo system, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Devastator captured the CR90 corvette Tantive IV, which was carrying the plans to the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Princess Organa placed the plans in an R2-series astromech droid and ordered him to carry them to former Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi. R2-D2 rode a Class-6 escape pod with the protocol droid C-3PO to the planet Tatooine. After being captured by a clan of the native junk-trader Jawas, and bought by the moisture farmer Owen Lars, the droids met with Kenobi. Meanwhile, the stormtroopers of the Desert Sands tracked the droids and killed the Jawas and the Larses. Luke Skywalker, orphaned nephew of Lars, joined Kenobi in his quest to carry the plans to Alderaan. In Mos Eisley, they hired Captain Han Solo and Chewbacca, crew of the YT-1300 light freighter Millennium Falcon. This ship breached the blockade of Tatooine and left for Alderaan with the plans.^[13]

In 1 ABY, a Moff put the Tatoo system under Imperial curfew. Ackmena, the bartender of Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine, received the message and reluctantly reponded by singing to her patrons to leave.

During the Galactic Civil War the system changed hands several times: its region was taken from the New Republic by the Empire during the Thrawn campaign, but was left after the Grand Admiral's death.^[7]

Legacy era

Later the space around the Tatoo system was controlled by the Galactic Alliance, until the Sith–Imperial War 127–130 ABY, when the Fel Empire conquered much of the known galaxy, but was quickly replaced by Darth Krayt's Sith Empire.^[7]

Inhabitants

Main article: Kumumgah

Main article: Tusken Raider

Main article: Jawa

Behind the scenes

The Tatoo system was first mentioned in the novelization of A New Hope, ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and published in 1976.

Despite the twin suns appearing nearly identical in size in many sources, others show one star as being significantly larger than the other.

The game Star Wars: Rebel Assault shows an asteroid field right outside or near Tatooine, and Star Wars Galaxies shows an asteroid field near Tatooine. This field appears in no other official sources.

The planet Kepler-16b has been informally referred to as Tatooine on numerous occasions.