2nd | Top Star Wars planets |
3rd | Top fictional planets by medium |
Distance from Core | < 5000 light years |
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Region | Core Worlds |
Sector | Alderaan Sector |
System | Alderaan system |
Number of suns | 1 |
Number of moons | 0 |
Diameter | 12500 km |
Length Of Year | 364 standard days |
Length of Day | 24 standard hours rotation retrograde |
Axial tilt | 23° |
Major species | Humans, Killiks (c. 1000 BBY) |
Population | 1.97 billion (before its destruction; 60,000 residents not on the planet at the time of its destruction) |
Official language | Basic |
Primary terrain | Mountains, Seas, Forests, Plains |
Surface water | 70% |
Points of interest | Aldera (capital), Crevasse City, Castle Lands |
Government | Constitutional Monarchy |
Affiliation | Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance |
Alderaan is a fictional planet in the fictional universe of Star Wars. Within the story, it is the home of the fictional characters Princess Leia, Bail Organa and also, in 4000 BBY, Ulic Qel Droma who fought in the Great Sith War.
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There are three contradictory descriptions or depictions of Alderaan:
The Alderaanian people highly valued education, arts, architecture, poetry, the performing arts, and diplomacy. They placed high value in their participation in the Galactic (later Imperial) Senate. Though largely a democratic society, Alderaan was headed by a hereditary constitutional monarchy, under the historic Royal House of Antillies, and later through marriage the House of Organa presiding over the High Court and legislative High Council of Alderaan. Its monarchs have variously borne the King or Queen of Alderaan. The ruler of Alderaan from the end of Revenge of the Sith to A New Hope was Queen Breha Antilles-Organa. Queen Breha was married to Bail Organa, who served a term as Senator during the events depicted in Revenge of the Sith, later serving as First Chairman and Viceroy of Alderaan. Traditionally, the heir of the Alderaan throne also serves in the legislative High Council of Alderaan and a term as Senator of Alderaan. Queen Breha and Bail's heir and (secretly adopted) daughter was Princess Leia who was serving as Senator of Alderaan in the Imperial Senate during the events depicted in A New Hope.
After the Clone Wars, Alderaan's massive war machine was dismantled and the weapons were placed aboard an armory warship called Another Chance. The ship was programmed to continually jump through hyperspace until called home by the Alderaanian Council.
Alderaan became home to the majority of the remaining Caamasi when their homeworld of Caamas was devastated by the Galactic Empire, as told in I, Jedi by Michael Stackpole.
Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star in Episode IV: A New Hope at Grand Moff Tarkin's order as a demonstration of its power to the galaxy. (Despite Princess Leia's protests of Alderaan being a peaceful world with no weapons, the film's novelization states that the planet had armaments as strong as any planet in the Empire.) Approximately 60,000 natives survived because they were off-world, and many of them relocated to the planet of New Alderaan, hoping to recreate the beauty that had been Alderaan.
Alderaan was destroyed by order of Tarkin and the Emperor Palpatine. Tarkin felt the Rebels were growing bolder, and only a very public demonstration of the Death Star's power against a Rebel target would succeed in frightening the Alliance into submission. Palpatine approved in advance of the destruction of the planet, but publicly adopted a benevolent persona, announcing that he was saddened by the loss of such a noble world. He added that, had Alderaan entrusted itself to Imperial protection, it would still be thriving. In other words, the destruction of Alderaan might not have been necessary had Bail Organa simply bowed before the emperor. He then made an apparently magnanimous offer to resettle the sixty thousand surviving Alderaanians who were away when their homeworld was destroyed, on his "private resort world."
The planet's destruction was not without detrimental effects to the Empire, however. Once word of the world's fate got out, thousands of Alderaanians who had been off-planet joined the Rebel Alliance. Alderaan's survivors became among the most dedicated soldiers of the Alliance, vowing never again to let the Empire destroy another world. Most Imperial military members from Alderaan immediately defected to the Rebellion. A few of the Alderaanian survivors became supporters of the Empire, blaming the inept and traitorous Bail Organa and the rebellion for opposing the Emperor and thereby destroying everything they had, even their loved ones. Princess Leia met one such supporter, an Imperial military officer, on the planet Bakura during a temporary truce between the Alliance and one section of the Empire.
Survivors of Alderaan and their descendants practiced a ritual of "returning" to the Alderaan system. Returners would fill memorial capsules with gifts for departed relatives and friends and jettison them into the asteroid field (known as the Graveyard), which was all that remained of the planet after its destruction. Some survivors, such as Tycho Celchu, had made known their desires to be buried amongst the remains of their former homeworld after their deaths.
With Alderaan destroyed, some council members led the people to New Alderaan, which was founded after the Galactic Civil War died down somewhat. The Royal House of Alderaan, in the person of Leia Organa-Solo and her children, continue to hold sovereignty of both New Alderaan and the Alderaan system. The government on New Alderaan administers both systems.
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Alderaan is a fictional planet found in the Star Wars series of films created by George Lucas. It is the home of the characters Princess Leia Organa and Senator Bail Organa. The surface of Alderaan is only seen for a short time at the end of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). The entire planet is destroyed in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) when the Death Star fires a laser beam at the planet, which then explodes, killing everyone on it.
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