Dantooine
Dantooine is a
fictional planet from the
Star Wars universe.
Dantooine (Dan-too-een) was mentioned only once in the
Star Wars films. In
A New Hope,
Princess Leia tries to fool
Grand Moff Tarkin into believing that the
Rebel base is located there. Tarkin replies that Dantooine is "too remote" to use the
Death Star on (the deciding factor here seems to be a political and social impact rather than military necessity.) Eventually, the Empire finds the remains of a rebel base on Dantooine, but it was deserted.
What we know about Dantooine comes from various spin-off novels and media based on the films known as the
Expanded Universe. It is a pleasant world of grasslands, rivers and lakes, very much like the
savanna of
Africa. It hosts a small population spread amongst single-family settlements and small communities with large land holdings. Native creatures include the kath hound, the iriaz, the fabool and the sentient
Dantari people. Dantooine is the opposite of its counterpart,
Tatooine, because the former is a grassland with rivers and lakes, while the latter is almost completely covered by
desert.
Dantooine was one of the subject worlds of the
Infinite Empire; a Star Map containing data about the
Star Forge could be found in an underground structure there. Dantooine also boasts the complex in which the ancient
Jedi Knights carried on mysterious
cloning experiments.
A Jedi training enclave established by Master
Vodo-Siosk Baas was in operation on Dantooine during
the Great Sith War. After
Darth Revan was captured by the Jedi, the Dantooine Jedi Council decided to give Revan a new personality — one of a simple
Republic soldier — and use him as a weapon against his former apprentice,
Darth Malak. Revan was eventually retrained in the ways of the Jedi; when, together with
Bastila Shan, a
Padawan assigned by the Council to watch him, they discovered the incomplete Star Map, the Council told them to investigate planets shown on it — namely,
Tatooine,
Kashyyyk,
Manaan and
Korriban — and find other Star Maps.
|
The Jedi Enclave after Darth Malak's assault on Dantooine. |
Unfortunately, Malak destroyed the Enclave, along with many of the planet's other settlements. After the end of the
Jedi Civil War, the remaining inhabitants formed a government known as
Khoonda; its residence was almost completely defenseless, however, protected only by a few malfunctioning turrets and droids, as well as some
militia.
The
Jedi Exile later returned to Dantooine to find
Vrook, one of the Jedi Masters in hiding. It is the player's choice to either defend Khoonda against the
mercenaries seeking control of Dantooine, or help the invaders.
Finally, the Jedi Enclave was rebuilt; the three remaining Jedi Masters — Vrook,
Kavar and
Zez-Kai Ell — gathered inside, only to be slain by either
Darth Traya, or the Jedi Exile (the player), depending on the player's alignment.
In the true
Star Wars history, Vrook, Kavar and
Zez-Kai Ell gathered inside were slain by
Darth Traya.
The planet is seen in the animated
microseries Star Wars: Clone Wars, where
Mace Windu defeats a
Separatist army poised to reinforce the Confederacy on nearby
Muunilinst. It is here that occurred the
Battle of Dantooine.
In modern times, civilization can only be found on a few isolated ranches on the planet's surface.
The
Rebel Alliance established its base on the planet before evacuating to
Yavin 4.
In the "Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine" novel, there was a mission to retrieve a holocron with a list of rebel spies before it could fall into the hands of the Galactic Empire. The holocron was found in the abandoned Jedi Enclave.
In the
Jedi Academy trilogy, Dantooine was used as a refuge for the survivors of Eol Sha, home of one of
Luke Skywalker's first students,
Gantoris, before the Dantooine refuge was destroyed by
Admiral Daala.
In the
New Jedi Order, the
Yuuzhan Vong captured and overran Dantooine, and later seeded it to produce more of their own organic
technology.
Kath Hounds are creatures indigenous to the planet. They are about the size of a large dog or small horse. They are generally not very hostile unless provoked. When Darth Revan was being retrained as a Jedi, one of the tasks Dantooine's Jedi academy council ordered him to complete was to remove a
dark side taint, which has made the Kath hounds more violent. There is also a larger variation of the Kath hound called a horned Kath hound, which has two horns very much like oxen, in that they are fairly broad and curve more sharply toward the tip. The Albino Kath Hound, a white Horned Kath Hound, is a very rare form of Kath Hound. It is also very fast and dangerous, and seems to have regenerative abilities.
Kinrath are spider-like creatures that can also be found on the
Wookiee planet of
Kashyyyk. They normally take residence in caves or other dark places and are also attracted to the heat given off by lightsaber crystals, which is why many of the crystal caves on Dantooine have been overrun by Kinrath. Since they are blind, they rely on the scent given off from a rectal gland to tell each other apart from potential prey. This gland can be extracted and used to prevent personal Kinrath attack.
Kinrath seem to have become a large problem after the Sith Occupation of Dantooine when Darth Malak invaded and destroyed the Jedi Enclave. They have been venturing out of the caves and overrunning the plains, which has been extremely detrimental to the residents of the plains. Some Kinrath have been known to stop and destroy swoop bikes, something that Kinrath shouldn't be able to achieve. The Khoonda Militia, hoping to solve the problem, planted explosives at their cave entrance, which sealed the cave off. But this only made the Kinrath angrier, and they dug a new cave even closer to the Khoonda installation. When the Jedi Exile visited Dantooine to find Jedi Master Vrook, the Exile was told of the Kinrath problem and so ventured into the caves to find the Kinrath Matriarch, the source of the increased Kinrath population. The Exile was able to kill it, which succeeded in declining the abundance of Kinrath on the plains.
