Dalna was a small planet located in the Dalnan sector of the Outer Rim Territories. Known for its agriculture, Dalna was inhabited by a settler population known as the Dalnans, who distrusted outsiders and rarely traveled offworld. During the High Republic Era, it was home to the Path of the Open Hand cult, who believed that using the Force would cause death and destruction and therefore hated the Jedi Order. This eventually boiled over into a devastating large scale conflict with the Jedi on Dalna known as the Night of Sorrow, in which the Path, lead by Marda Ro of the Ro family, brutally attacked the Jedi at their compound on the planet. Many Dalnans joined the Jedi in the battle, resulting in many Dalnan deaths. After this conflict, the Dalnans adopted a culture focused on training for battle and the Jedi Order developed a small presence there in the form of a temple. However, Dalna was not a part of the Galactic Republic, and many Dalnans blamed the Jedi for the Night of Sorrow.
Around a century after the war, following the Great Hyperspace Disaster, Dalna considered entering into the Republic, with a Dalnan delegation sent aboard the cruiser Steady Wing to attend the dedication of the Starlight Beacon space station. The Steady Wing was sabotaged by members of the Nihil pirate organization who wished to prevent Dalna from joining the Republic, resulting in the deaths of most of the cruiser's passengers and the entire Dalnan delegation aside from Honesty Weft, son of Ambassador Weft. A sect of the Nihil led by Kara Xoo later established a presence on the planet, using it to kidnap children and raise them into the marauder's ideology. Eventually, the planet was completely devastated due to a seismic and volcanic event caused by experimentation done by the Nihil and one of their scientists, Zadina Mkampa. However, it eventually recovered and its waterfalls were visited by Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and his master Dooku.
Located in the Dalnan sector within the Outer Rim Territories, Dalna was a terrestrial planet. It orbited two suns and possessed temperate zones. The two suns generated a feeling of in those not used to living in such light. The planet also featured waterfalls. From space, Dalna appeared blue and white. It was a young planet that was, especially in the Bensha Fault region, very unstable.
The rainy season brought great rains and, at times, floods to Dalna. Once every couple of months, Dalna faced three full days of massive rainfalls, which set into motion a blooming season that farmers used to harvest crops. A small world that depended on its harvest for its overall economy, Dalna was known for its agriculture, with crops that included the summer melon. The gnostra bush that grew on Dalna was a natural resource that could be turned into gnostra fiber, as well as gnostra berry wine and gnostra berry juice. The planet's fauna included the flutterbug and the wisp spider.
The peace of Dalna was disturbed when "the Mother" began moving the Path of the Open hand to steal artifacts, catching the attention of the Jedi Order.
Dalna was repeatedly and haphazardly settled over its history, which mostly likely was because of its volcanic activity. The Path of the Open Hand cult called Dalna home for some time. Amongst its members were Marda Ro and Yana Ro. After the Children of the Cult stole the Rod of Seasons, the Jedi Order arrived on Dalna to investigate the Path. Both Jedi, Zallah Macri and Kevmo Zink, were killed when the Cult leader, "the Mother," unleashed a Nameless known as the Leveler. Having fallen in love with Zink despite the Path's different views on the Force, Marda swore to destroy the Jedi, believing that the Order had brainwashed Zink into an ideology that led to his demise. The Path quickly abandoned Dalna aboard the Gaze Electric starship. Afterward, Jedi Knight Azlin Rell and his droid, C-9, arrived in the abandoned Path compound to look for the missing Jedi, only to find their remains.
After the Path's operations on Jedha were destroyed with the Battle of Jedha, secretly orchestrated by the Mother herself, the Path returned to Dalna, where they prepared for a stand against the Jedi that erupted as the Battle of Dalna. Remembered as the Night of Sorrow, the incident ended up a massacre as Jedi, Path members, and anti-Path Dalnans fell in battle. Jedi Master Cohmac Vitus would later blame the deaths on the Jedi fighting battles for the Galactic Republic. Much like the incident on Jedha, "the faithful" among the Ro family came to remember the events on Dalna as proof that the Jedi were not leading the galaxy towards balance, but instead to destruction. Path little Tromak, who later became a leader of the Elders of the Path, crossed paths with the Grand Master Yoda on Dalna. The fighting on Dalna caused the resident Dalnan population to respond by becoming a culture that trained constantly for battle. Republic envoys to Dalna were often intimidated by the formidable show of strength that the Dalnans expressed, and the planet remained outside Republic control. Though the following century did not see any further war, battles did occur on the planet.
During the High Republic Era, the Jedi Order had a small presence on Dalna, operating a Jedi temple on the planet. Whilst most Dalnans were isolationist, distrustful of outsiders, and not fond of space travel, Dalna considered the possibility of joining the Republic around 232 BBY for the economic and security benefits joining the union would entail. In the time following the Great Hyperspace Disaster and amid the subsequent Emergences, a delegation from the Dalnan ambassadorial corps intended to travel to the Starlight Beacon, a space station of both the Republic and the Jedi, for its dedication, aboard the cruiser Steady Wing. The delegation, which included Ambassadors Weft, Janex, and Starstriker, as well as Weft's son, Honesty, boarded the Steady Wing on the nearby planet Haileap in order to travel to Starlight and then to Coruscant.
The destruction of the Steady Wing saw the deaths of most of a Dalnan delegation to the Republic.
However, the Nihil marauder organization, whose area of operations included the Dalnan sector, wished to prevent Dalna's entry into the Republic and the subsequent Republic presence in the sector. As the Steady Wing departed Haileap carrying the delegation, it was sabotaged by the Nihil pirates Klinith Da and Gwishi. The cruiser was destroyed, and a majority of those aboard killed. Honesty Weft was the only member of the Dalnan delegation to survive, escaping alongside Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh, Padawan Imri Cantaros, young inventor Avon Starros, and the droid J-6, to the nearby moon Wevo.
After the group captured the pirates who had been responsible on Wevo Starros sent several distress signals, including one to the temple on Dalna, while Weft sent a message to the Dalnan capital due to the current governor's experience with the Nihil. The group was eventually rescued from Wevo, and Weft intended to address the Galactic Senate as part of the Republic and Dalna's response to the attack. The Nihil Storm Kara Xoo, in response to the capture of the two saboteurs, Xoo planned to target schools on Dalna for recruiting.
A group of Nihil traveling with Eye of the Nihil Marchion Ro aboard his flagship, the Gaze Electric, intended to visit Dalna in the time after the Great Disaster, along with Jedha and the Trymant system. However, after learning of a new Emergence about to occur in the Trymant system, Ro had his forces change course to reach Trymant before the disaster struck. Around a year after the Great Disaster, Nihil in the Tempest of Xoo, a recently promoted Tempest Runner, carried out a run at Dalna. The marauder forces, led by an Ithorian Nihil, found the Republic waiting for them, suffering a loss of twenty starships. Ro questioned reports of the events at Dalna while meeting with the Tempest Runners, and while Xoo claimed it was just a Republic ploy to undermine Nihil victories, fellow Tempest Runner Lourna Dee noted the loss that Xoo's fleet had sustained. After learning who had been in charge of the run, Ro had the Ithorian killed.
While investigating the cause of the death of Jedi Master Loden Greatstorm at the Battle of Grizal, Master Stellan Gios looked into Ruusstha Vidyarvrikt, a late Jedi nursemaid from Dalna who used to sing a lullaby that had been found to be connected to Greatstorm's death. Gios found that some areas of the Jedi Archives regarding Dalna had been deleted, and his colleague, the Jedi investigator Emerick Caphtor, contemplated heading to Dalna to investigate further.
The Starlight Beacon was towed to Dalna by the Halcyon and numerous other ships.
Rwoh and Cantaros later found themselves on Dalna, where they worked with the local Jedi there, including Jedi Master Nyla Quinn, Jedi Knight and archivist Lyssa Votz, and Jedi Knight Yacek Sparkburn. Following a disaster on Dalna, the Republic and Jedi undertook a lifesaving mission that involved the Starlight Beacon being towed to the planet by the MPO-1400 Purgill-class star cruiser Halcyon and a number of other vessels, including Longbeam cruisers. The success at Dalna pushed the Republic, as well as the Jedi High Council, to replicate the response to further disasters; after a cyclone struck the planet Eiram, the Beacon was later towed back to the Eiram system. At some point prior to the station's move to Eiram, the Jedi acquired intelligence on Dalna that suggested that the Nihil had recently fortified their base, the Great Hall within No-Space, against attack.
Whilst some had feared the planet would be permanently lost after the disaster, with Tracer Lore claiming the entire planet would be covered in lava in as little as two weeks, Honesty Weft believed that scientists would find a way to stabilize the planet so that, after a few years, the Dalnans could return home. Having decided the planet did not feel like home after he lost his father, Weft did not intend to return with them. At some point after becoming the Padawan of the Jedi Master Dooku, Qui-Gon Jinn visited the waterfalls of Dalna with his master. Dooku himself recorded the events in his journal.
Honesty Weft, a young Dalnan
No sentient species had evolved on Dalna by the time of the High Republic Era. As such, the inhabitants of Dalna—known as Dalnans—were settlers, with resident species that included Aqualish, humans, Pantorans, Trandoshans, and Weequays. The planet was sparsely populated, however. The Ongree Ruusstha Vidyarvrikt also hailed from Dalna. The Dalnans rarely left the temperate zones of their planet and left Dalna entirely even less often, possessing a distrust of outsiders and a dislike for space travel, the latter of which was partially due to the presence of the Nihil pirates. There were not many droids on Dalna, with the settlers tending to rely on their own devices.
Happy there would be few distractions from their faith, the Path of the Open Hand made Dalna their home because of the world's peaceful status and small population. However, the Path would abandon the world in the wake of the Jedi Order's mission to investigate them on world. As a result of the war on Dalna a century before the Great Disaster, the culture of the Dalnans became oriented around training for conflict. When battle did occur, the Dalnans would keep their fights planetside rather than in space. The people of Dalna were suspicious of Jedi despite the fact that several were based on the planet. The small number of Jedi who resided on Dalna often kept to themselves, only stepping in when they were asked to. Dalnans maintained a mostly isolationist approach to the wider galaxy, even continuing to distrust outsiders and space-travel after they joined the Republic.
Young Dalnans would undergo Metamorphosis Trials to test the strengths that would be required in their pursued field later in life; for example, those joining the would have a Metamorphosis focused on hand-to-hand combat as well as defending oneself and surviving harsh conditions. Those who had not yet completed their Metamorphosis would not be seen as adults until they did.
Dalna possessed a capital city, which was overseen by a governor. A military compound also existed on the planet, with infantry training in and around the facility. Approximately one hundred schools were present on Dalna. The Jedi also operated a Jedi temple on Dalna during the High Republic Era.
Dalna was first mentioned in the 2019 audio drama Dooku: Jedi Lost, written by Cavan Scott. The spelling of its name was later confirmed by the script of the audio drama. Dalna made its first appearance in the twelfth issue of the Star Wars: The High Republic comic series, written by Cavan Scott, illustrated by Georges Jeanty, and published by Marvel Comics on December 12, 2021, having first been pictured in a StarWars.com preview for the comic on December 8, 2021.
Lucasfilm Publishing creative director Michael Siglain hinted that Dalna would play a key role in the overall Star Wars: The High Republic publishing initiative. The planet was mentioned in Justina Ireland's novel The High Republic: A Test of Courage on January 5, 2021, and featured in the junior novel The High Republic: Mission to Disaster, also written by Justina Ireland.