Duro

Duro (also known as Duros) was the heavily polluted and depopulated homeworld of the Duros species. Located on theCorellian Trade Spine in the Core, the planet itself was mostly abandoned, mainly housing food processing plants. Most of the population lived in one of the twenty orbiting cities. Duro was also home to a large number of orbital shipyards. Duro was surveyed by the Columi in100,000 BBY, but the Columi were not impressed and passed it off as a primitive failure, little knowing that the inhabitants of the world, the Duros, would become a space-faring speciesin the years to come. Under theInfinite Empire, Duro was a slaveworld, and helped create the Star Forge 30,000 BBY. Following a plague that struck the Rakata, the Duros rebelled in 25,200 BBY. The Duros then formed a hereditary monarchy. It was based at Ranadaast, a city named after QueenRana Mas Trehalt, which fell into disrepair and was infested by criminals when the monarchy fell into decline. The monarchy declined due to the rise of corruption, and control by a merchant council. Several years after the fall of the monarchy, Duro became a member world of the Herglic Trade Empire, the most powerful government in the Core Worlds region at the time. Duros were interested in exploration and ventured off their homeworld to explore the galaxy at an early age. Hyperspace cannons linked Duro with Coruscant, Corellia, and other Core Worlds. Having reverse-engineered the hyperdrive independently of theCorellians, Duro entered a Golden Age as a Core Founder 25,053 BBY under Queen Rana Mas Trehalt at the formation of the Galactic Republic. The monarchy was eventually abolished in favor of a collection of ruling corporations. The Duros High House became the government/legislature, and the Chief Representative Officer became the planet's head of state. At the same time, the Herglic Trade Empirefell with the formation of the new galactic government. The Duros colonized Neimoidia during their earliest wave of expansion, though the Neimoidians were considered a separate culture by15,000 BBY. The Duros discoveredSneeve in the Kymoodon Era, Adnerin 5000 BBY, and Koboth (prior to 219 BBY). The following years the Duros abandoned the planet for space cities, and left food production and mining on the planet to automated systems; however overdevelopment caused mass extinctions and pollution on the world[2]. 3962 BBY, the planet itself was laid to near-total waste during theMandalorian Wars, when the Mandalorian invasion fleet advancing on the Colonies and Core regions destroyed much of the world using thousands of Basilisk war droids. Years of misery and rebuilding were ahead of the Duros people, merely the latest phase in the long series of Sith Wars. During the New Sith Wars, the Duros colony on Harporiwas wiped out by Kaox Krul 1002 BBY.Circa 220 BBY, during Duro's Industrial Age, the mining city ofTayana reached its height. In 200 BBY, the Tiercam Dam was built. During the Clone Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systemslaunched Operation Durge's Lance in 21 BBY, a coordinated and major campaign that led to the capture of Duro. During the battle,General Grievous ordered an orbital bombardment of the surface. This resulted in the pollutants from the numerous factories which covered Duro's surface to be released radioactively, and the surface being rendered the uninhabitable wasteland that it would remain until beingVongformed years later. The swift success of the campaign sent shockwaves throughout the Galactic Republic, and even neutral Corellia began to tighten its defenses. The Galactic Empire collected what was left of Duro's natural resources, and forced many Duros to move off the planet. In an attempt to stir up conflict between Duro and Corellia, the Empire declared Duro to be part of theCorellian sector. With the Trade Federation nationalized, the disgraced Neimoidians began to reintegrate themselves into mainstream Duros culture. At some point, Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller, was sent to Duro to dispose of a local despot who had grown too over-ambitious. While the precise details of the incident are unclear, All-Terrain Scout Transports were used against the darksider, earning his unending hatred of the walkers. The space city Pellezara station, located near the planet in the Duro system, served as a maintenance stop over for freighters en route to Duro.[3]In 1 BBY, the Rebels tried to free the planet but they were defeated at theBattle of Vnas. As of 5 ABY, the prisoner Triclops was being held on Duro, courtesy of Grand Moff Bertroff Hissa. Triclops escaped and saved his son Ken from Hissa. Although the New Republic managed to save Duros archaeologists from the Valley of Royalty, the Valley itself was flooded with toxic waste when the Tiercam Dam burst. The New Republic eventually liberated the planet, and put the system back in the Duro Sector. Ecosystem purification teams cleaned up the planet's atmosphere as best they could. 11 ABY, in Operation Shadow Hand, Duro was retaken by the Empire, but eventually freed. 13 ABY, CorDuro Shipping took control of the Pri-Andylan shipyards. 25 ABY, Jedi Tresina Lobi and Thrynni Vae discovered CorDuro Shipping's ties to the Peace Brigade, resulting in the Brigade murdering Thrynni. 26 ABY, the New Republic attempted to make Duro habitable and settle refugees there, though their efforts were sabotaged by the Yuuzhan Vongagent Nom Anor. The Yuuzhan Vong conquered Duro and destroyed nineteen of its twenty floating cities. During their occupation, they managed to reverse centuries of pollution in just two years with their biotechnology. It was laterraided by the New Republic, and again by the Galactic Alliance. After the war's end, Duro returned to its lush forested past being restored by the Yuuzhan Vong terraforming. During the Second Galactic Civil War Thrackan Sal-Solo had planned to conquer it to gain access to its baradium and cortosis. After the Battle of Caamas and the end of the Sith–Imperial War, a DurosAdmiral named Gar Stazi led the remnants of the Galactic Alliance Core Fleetagainst the newly established Galactic Empire. Duro itself was subjugated by the Empire and was subject to a pervasive Imperial presence. An Imperial Academy was established in the planet; in it the most talented Duros taught Imperial pilots and capital ship crewmen.[4]Eventually, due to millennia of pollution, the only remaining creature on Duro was the nonnative Fefze beetle, an aggressive mutation of the insectoid Fefze, a species recruited to work on Duro during the last decades of the Galactic Republic. Extinct creatures included the cannibal arachnids. When the Yuuzhan Vong arrived on Duro, they introduced many of their own creatures and creations onto the planet.