Terms, defined once

54 terms

A

ABY

After the Battle of Yavin. The standard dating convention for events following the destruction of the first Death Star in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The Battle of Endor is 4 ABY.

B

BBY

Before the Battle of Yavin. Counts backwards from the same fixed point, so 32 BBY is thirty-two years before A New Hope — the year The Phantom Menace is set.

Beskar

Mandalorian iron: a rare, extraordinarily tough metal that can turn a lightsaber blade. It is the material Mandalorian armour is forged from, and part of why Mandalorians were historically able to fight Jedi at all.

C

Canon

The single continuity Lucasfilm has maintained since April 2014 — the films, the television series, and every book and comic published from that point forward. Canon stories are meant to agree with each other.

Chiss

A blue-skinned, red-eyed near-human species from the Unknown Regions. Thrawn is the best-known example, and for decades was the only one most readers had met.

Chiss Ascendancy

The isolationist state that governs the Chiss from the world of Csilla, run as an oligarchy of Ruling Families. Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy (2020–2021) is set inside it and is largely about its politics.

Clone Wars

The three-year war between the Galactic Republic and the Separatists, fought by clone troopers against battle droids, running from 22 BBY to 19 BBY. It is the setting of Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith and the animated series.

Core Worlds

The oldest, richest and most densely settled region of the galaxy, closest to the galactic centre. Coruscant sits at its heart. Wealth and political power in this setting decrease steadily as you move outward.

D

Dark side

The aspect of the Force reached through anger, fear and desire rather than calm. It is faster and easier to use and it corrupts the user, which is the entire moral engine of the saga.

Darksaber

A unique black-bladed lightsaber with a beskar hilt, created by Tarre Vizsla, the first Mandalorian admitted to the Jedi Order. It has since functioned as a symbol of the right to rule Mandalore, which is why so many people keep fighting over it.

Del Rey

The Random House imprint that has published most adult Star Wars novels since 1999, taking over from Bantam Spectra. Recent titles carry the Random House Worlds imprint name instead.

E

Eras

Lucasfilm sorts the whole saga into nine official eras: Dawn of the Jedi, The Old Republic, The High Republic, Fall of the Jedi, Reign of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, The New Republic, Rise of the First Order, and New Jedi Order. This site covers all nine, and adds three editorial subdivisions of its own — the Rule of Two, the Clone Wars and the Legacy era — which are marked as such on their pages. Note that this site’s New Jedi Order page covers the 1999–2003 Legends novel series rather than Lucasfilm’s canon era of the same name.

Expanded Universe

The umbrella name, usually shortened to EU, for the novels, comics, games and reference books published outside the films between 1976 and 2014. In April 2014 nearly all of it was rebranded Legends.

F

First Order

The military regime built in the Unknown Regions by remnants of the Empire, and the antagonist of the sequel trilogy. It is the answer to the question of what happens to a defeated authoritarian state that is never fully dismantled.

The Force

The energy field described in the films as binding the galaxy together. Different traditions in the fiction understand it very differently, and the disagreement is what most of the good novels are actually about.

Force ghost

A Force user who retains a conscious identity after death and can appear to the living. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Anakin Skywalker all manage it; the technique is presented as rare, learned, and not automatic.

G

Galactic Empire

The autocratic regime Palpatine declares at the end of Revenge of the Sith, replacing the Republic. It runs from 19 BBY until the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, and then takes considerably longer than that to actually die.

Grand Admiral

The highest rank in the Imperial Navy, held by a very small number of officers. Thrawn is the only non-human ever to hold it, which the fiction treats as the significant fact about him.

Great Hyperspace Disaster

The catastrophe that opens The High Republic: a freighter called the Legacy Run breaks apart in hyperspace in 232 BBY, scattering lethal debris across inhabited systems. It was engineered by the Nihil leader Marchion Ro.

H

The High Republic

A cross-author publishing initiative launched in January 2021, set roughly two centuries before The Phantom Menace, when the Republic and the Jedi Order were at their confident height. It ran in three phases across adult, young adult, junior and audio releases.

Holocron

A crystalline device used by both Jedi and Sith to store knowledge, usually opened only by a Force user of the right tradition. Functionally a locked archive, and a very convenient plot object.

Hyperspace

The alternate dimension ships enter to travel faster than light. It is not empty: mass casts shadows into it, which is why ships need calculated routes rather than pointing themselves at a star.

Hyperspace lane

A charted, repeatedly surveyed route through hyperspace — the galaxy’s road network. The great lanes such as the Perlemian Trade Route, the Corellian Run and the Hydian Way determine where wealth and armies can actually go, which makes them a recurring plot engine.

I

Inquisitorius

The order of dark-side agents the Empire raises to hunt down surviving Jedi after Order 66. Its members are called Inquisitors and are led by the Grand Inquisitor; several are former Jedi themselves.

J

Jedi Council

The High Council, the twelve-member body that governs the Jedi Order from the Temple on Coruscant. Its judgement — and its blind spots — are the subject of a great deal of the prequel-era fiction.

Jedi Grand Master

The senior title in the Jedi Order, held by Yoda in the prequel era. There is normally only one at a time, and the role is closer to elder statesman than commander.

Jedi Knight

A fully trained Jedi who has passed the Trials and no longer serves as anyone’s apprentice. The default rank of a working Jedi.

Jedi Master

The rank above Knight, granted for exceptional achievement or for successfully training a Padawan to Knighthood. Not every Master sits on the Council, and the difference between those two things drives more than one novel.

K

Kyber crystal

The Force-attuned crystal at the heart of a lightsaber, which determines the colour of the blade. Larger kyber crystals are also what the Empire harvests to power the Death Star, which is the whole plot of Rogue One and Catalyst.

L

Legends

The imprint covering Expanded Universe material published before April 2014. Still in print, no longer part of the current continuity, and frequently excellent. The label is a continuity statement, not a quality judgement.

Lightsaber

A blade of contained plasma projected from a handheld hilt, focused by a kyber crystal. Building one is traditionally part of a Jedi’s training, which is why the weapon carries so much narrative weight.

M

Mandalorians

A warrior culture defined by adopted creed rather than by species, known for beskar armour and a long history of war with the Jedi. Mandalore is their homeworld and their politics are, reliably, a civil war waiting to happen.

Midi-chlorians

Microscopic organisms living inside cells that, in The Phantom Menace, allow a being to sense the Force — the higher the count, the stronger the potential. Introduced in 1999 and argued about ever since.

Moff

An Imperial regional governor, administering a sector. A Grand Moff outranks them and controls a larger priority region; Tarkin is the famous example, and the rank exists largely so the Empire can have bureaucrats with fleets.

N

New Jedi Order

Two things. In-universe, the Jedi Order Luke Skywalker rebuilds after the Empire. In publishing, a nineteen-novel Legends series from Del Rey (1999–2003) covering the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, and the most sustained long-form storytelling the Expanded Universe ever attempted.

New Republic

The government the Rebel Alliance becomes after the Battle of Endor. In current canon it is deliberately weak by design — a reaction against the Empire that leaves it unable to respond to the First Order.

Nightsisters

A clan of Force-using witches on the world of Dathomir, working through a magic tradition distinct from both Jedi and Sith practice. They appear in both continuities, most prominently in The Clone Wars.

The Nihil

The marauder movement that serves as the principal antagonist of The High Republic. Their advantage is hyperspace: Path engines let them jump in and out of systems in ways the Republic cannot predict or follow.

O

The Old Republic

The long stretch of Republic history before the High Republic era, thousands of years before the films. Best known through Legends comics and the BioWare games, and only lightly developed in current canon.

Operation: Cinder

Palpatine’s posthumous contingency: on his death, messenger droids deliver orders for the Empire to devastate a list of worlds, including his own homeworld of Naboo. It first appeared in the 2015 comic Star Wars: Shattered Empire, and it drove a great many Imperials to defect.

Order 66

The command issued in Revenge of the Sith that turns the clone troopers on their Jedi commanders, killing most of the Order in a single coordinated night. Everything in the Reign of the Empire era proceeds from it.

Outer Rim Territories

The sparsely settled outer band of the galaxy, far from Core-world law and money. Tatooine is out here. Most of the interesting crime, mining and frontier fiction is set here for exactly that reason.

P

Padawan

A Jedi apprentice, formally assigned to a single Knight or Master for training. The relationship is one-to-one and is the emotional centre of a large fraction of Jedi fiction.

R

Rebel Alliance

The Alliance to Restore the Republic: the coalition of dissident senators, planetary movements and defectors that fights the Empire in the original trilogy. Its founding is dramatised in Andor and in Leia, Princess of Alderaan.

Rule of Two

The Sith doctrine that there shall be only two at any time — a master to embody the power and an apprentice to crave it. Introduced by Darth Bane after concluding that a Sith order large enough to have factions is an order that destroys itself.

S

Separatists

The Confederacy of Independent Systems: the alliance of worlds and corporate interests that secedes from the Republic and fights the Clone Wars. Both sides of that war are being run by the same Sith Lord, which is the point.

Sith

The dark-side tradition that stands opposed to the Jedi, organised around the acquisition of power and the inheritance of it by force. Sith Lords take a name prefixed with Darth.

Sith Eternal

The secretive cult on the hidden world of Exegol that worships the dark side and sustains Palpatine, revealed in The Rise of Skywalker. They spend a generation building the Final Order fleet before losing it at the Battle of Exegol.

Starlight Beacon

The enormous Republic space station built to connect the Outer Rim to the Core during the High Republic era, and the symbol of everything that period believes about itself. Its destruction by the Nihil ends Phase I.

T

Tie-in fiction

Novels and comics published alongside a screen property. Used descriptively on this site, never as an insult.

U

Unknown Regions

A large, poorly charted portion of the galaxy outside Republic and Imperial authority, hard to navigate because its hyperspace routes are unmapped. It is where the Chiss live, where the First Order is built, and where the fiction puts anything it wants to keep mysterious.

W

The Whills

A concept from George Lucas’s earliest drafts, in which immortal observers recorded the story — the Journal of the Whills predates the Force as an idea. It survives as a framing device and, in Rogue One, as the Guardians of the Whills, monks who tend the Temple of the Kyber on Jedha.

Wild Space

The frontier band beyond the Outer Rim: technically charted, barely settled, and distinct from the wholly unmapped Unknown Regions beyond it.

Y

Yuuzhan Vong

An invading species from beyond the galaxy, using grown biotechnology rather than machines and existing outside the Force entirely. Their war is the subject of the nineteen-novel New Jedi Order series (1999–2003) and remains the darkest sustained storyline the franchise has published.

No term matches that.