The Galaxy

"How many of them are there? They took over half the galaxy in a matter of months. You know how big the galaxy is?!"

- Ordo

The New Republic, Galactic Empire, Zabrak Empire, New Alliance, and the Mandalorian Empire all occupied a single galaxy, known simply as the Galaxy.

Judging from the maps available, it appeared to be a galaxy of Sb type. According to some sources, the Galaxy was 120,000 light years across, or 37,000 Parsecs (a parsec is 3.258 light years) across. A black hole existed at the center of the galaxy.

There were approximately 400 billion stars and around half of these had planets that could support life. 10% of those developed life, while sentient life developed in 1/1000 of those (about 20 million). The Galaxy was populated by approximately 100 quadrillion different life forms.

Astrography
"The galaxy's not a small place, if you didn't notice, it's quite large"

- Solus Dalso

The Galaxy was divided into several regions. They are listed here in ascending order of distance from the core. These regions were further divided into various sectors, systems, and planets.

Deep Core
At the very heart of the Galaxy, the Deep Core (a.k.a. Core Systems) was a small region that hid unusual worlds. Due to the gravitational pull of the vast number of stars, local space-time was severely warped, making hyperspace travel difficult at best. The region was thought to be inaccessible until spacers found several safe hyperlanes into the region.

Core Worlds
An ancient region bordering the outlying areas of the Deep Core, the Core Worlds were some of the most prestigious, well-developed, well-known, and heavily populated planets in the Galaxy. The Core Worlds were the original areas of Human occupation. The Humans are supposed to originate from this region.

Colonies
The Colonies was the name given to a region of the Galaxy between the Core Worlds and the Inner Rim. It was among the first areas outside the Core to be colonized, and the worlds here are typically heavily populated and industrialized.

Inner Rim Territories
The Inner Rim was a region of the Galaxy between the Colonies and the Expansion Region. It was originally just called "The Rim", as it was expected to be the farthest extent of the Known Galaxy for centuries, but the Expanded Rim (later renamed the Expansion Region) was opened within a hundred years of the Inner Rim.

Expansion Region
The Expansion Region was an experiment in corporate-controlled worlds, with powerful corporations exploiting and profiting heavily from the planets for their raw materials, metals and ores. Inhabitants were oppressed while the corporations stripped entire stellar systems of all their resources. Eventually civil unrest spread from system to system. Expansion Region worlds continued to be producers of raw materials and ores.

Mid Rim
With fewer natural resources (and therefore a smaller population) than many neighboring regions, the Mid Rim was a territory where residents worked hard for everything they had. Several planets had built up impressive economies, and pirate raiders often hid in the relatively unexplored spaces far from major trade routes.

Outer Rim Territories
The Outer Rim Territories was the last widely settled expanse before Wild Space and the Unknown Regions. It was strewn with obscure worlds, and rugged, primitive frontier planets. During the Chiss War, a majority of the battles would take place in the Outer Rim due to the number of planets occupying the region. During the Force War, the Jeeno pushed the New Alliance to the Outer Rim.

Beyond the Outer Rim
There were several sectors beyond the Outer Rim, on various arms of the galaxy. It was believed that a turbulent energy field surrounded the galaxy and prevented inter-galactic travel.

Tingel Arm
The Tingel Arm was an exterior spiral arm of the Galaxy. It contained the Corporate Sector Authority, a political entity which was semi-independent of the New Republic and the Galactic Empire. Under the Galactic Empire, the sector expanded from a few hundred to thirty thousand systems.

Unknown Regions
The term "Unknown Regions" most commonly referred to the large, unexplored region (which some interpret to have been outside the plane of the galactic disk) between Bakura and the Imperial Remnant, which was largely dominated by the Chiss Ascendancy and the Venen Empire. The Unknown Regions comprised only a few billion stars, out of a galactic total of 400 billion. For reasons yet to be demonstrated there was a lack of reliable hyperspace routes through the region. The "Unknown Regions" designation included uncharted areas in dense nebulae, globular clusters, and the galactic halo.

Wild Space
Wild Space was the frontier of galactic society, separating the known parts of the Galaxy from the Unknown Regions. One of Palpatine's last acts was to open up much of the region to more extensive exploration. Wild Space differed from the Unknown Regions in that some of Wild Space has been explored, though not extensively; the Unknown Regions remained mysterious.

Traffic routes
Various established "ways" like hyperlanes passed through the sectors. These routes were explored and established by spacers known as hyperspace explorers. Astromech droids had the responsibility of guiding spaceships through these routes.


 * Rimma Trade Route
 * Perlemian Trade Route
 * Hydian Way
 * Corellian Run
 * Corellian Trade Spine
 * Kessel Run
 * Ison Trade Corridor
 * Sisar Run
 * Myto's Arrow
 * Daragon Trail

Government and politics
Various governments have ruled within the Galaxy over the millennia, the earliest known galaxy-spanning government being the New Republic. Other significant political powers within the Galaxy included:


 * Bothan Space
 * Chiss Ascendancy
 * Galactic Empire
 * Zabrak Empire
 * Venen Empire
 * Hutt Space
 * Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium
 * Tion Cluster
 * Tion Hegemony
 * Vagaari Empire

Economy
The galactic economy was a very complex and diverse economy. The main currency of the Galactic Republic was the credit, divided into ten decicreds.

Races and species
Life developed in 10% of the livable planets, while sentient life developed in 1/1000 of those (about 20 million sentient species). It was estimated that they together totaled 100 quadrillion beings.

In classical history, the dominating species have been Humans. Possibly originating from the Core Worlds, Humans had been the basis of the major governments. Sentients other than Humans (examples: Twi'leks, Hutts, Mon Calamari) were simply known as 'aliens'. Aliens were also distinguished as humanoid or not.

Although not considered a race for obvious reasons, droids formed a significant part, helping and coexisting with the population. On Naboo, higher level droids were considered equal as fellow sentients.

Speech
The lingua franca of the Galaxy was the Human language that evolved in the Galactic Basic Standard. Its origins must have been the vernacular speech of Humans and was partially derived from several ancient Human languages, like Olys Corellisi. Humans being the dominant species of the Galaxy, Basic has been adopted by many alien species as well.

The second most common language was Huttese, expanded through the criminal and financial activity of the Hutts, and has been as well adopted by other races that were in close cooperation with them through the ages, like the Rodians.

It was possible for droids to have fluency in millions of forms of communication, and based on them, could also understand and improvise in even more. Protocol droids were essential in interracial relations as translators and interpreters.