F'tral

F'tral, the name of which meant "Water" in the language of its native Iyra species, was a large planet located in the F'tral system, a part of the Calaron sector within the Slice portion of the Outer Rim Territories. It orbited the blue-white star F'la Ren. Ninety-three percent of the planet's surface was covered by oceans of clear freshwater that reached a depth of eleven kilometers in some areas while effectively being an expansive, shallow tidal pool elsewhere.

F'tral was a tectonically active world, with volcanoes that were located both undersea and above water contributing sulfurous fumes to the planet's thin oxygen-and-carbon dioxide atmosphere. In the regions where F'tral's tectonic plates collided, chains of volcanic islands rose that were covered in marshes and swamplands and featured lush flora.

The soil on the islands was poor in organic enzymes, leading to most F'tral land plants to adopt a predatory or parasitic lifestyle in order to obtain the necessary proteins and other nutrients. Such flora included the fisher plant, which captured aquatic animals by trapping them in tendrils trailing off the island shores; the seducer plant, which used a sweet smelling nectar to attract prey that it subsequently strangled using its vines and stems; and several types of cannibal plant, which were capable of moving to stationary plants and then either consuming them or feeding on nutrients drawn from their root systems.

Due to the fierce competition for nutrients among F'tral's plants, the most complex animal life on land were insects and reptiles—including snakes—although fish also lived in inland waters and the planet's swamp regions were home to the small five-limbed aquatic creature known as the sensor star. On F'tral, mammals never evolved at all, and instead the ecological niche usually occupied by advanced vertebrates was filled by muscular, warm-blooded cephalopods, including a species that eventually gave rise to the sentient Iyra. Cephalopods rapidly established themselves as the dominant creatures in F'tral's oceans, with the Iyra in turn eventually becoming the dominant form of cephalopods.

The Iyra sentientologist Tem Eliss was born on F'tral at some point at least several decades prior to 1 ABY. Although Eliss did spend a portion of his youth on his homeworld—later narrating some of his experiences from that time period to his students at the University of Sanbra—the Iyra was ultimately raised offworld as opposed to on F'tral. As a result, Eliss was not immersed in Iyra culture and came to form friendships with many members of other species, for which he was in turn disliked by the rest of the Iyra society.

During the reign of the Galactic Empire, Iyra individuals were among the members of several aquatic species that sought refuge from that government on the Mon Calamari Space asylum moon Krinemonen III. The sentientologist Obo Rin at some point included F'tral and the Iyra in the Catalog of Intelligent Life in the Galaxy. In that work, Rin described the sentient species that he considered to be the most important in the galaxy and of the most interest to the Empire. F'tral was also mentioned in an entry of a holobrochure for the Tagge Holographic Museum of Chandrila dedicated to sensor stars.

F'tral was the homeworld of the sentient Iyra species. Boneless and sporting at least five tentacles as well as a corresponding number of eyes, the Iyra were the dominant form of cephalopods on F'tral and lived underwater, although they could also breathe and move outside of water. Their society was organized into a rigid system of castes based on the number of an individual Iyra's tentacles.

The Iyra used the heat of F'tral's undersea volcanoes to smelt ores, which eventually allowed them to develop various advanced technologies, including those necessary for interstellar travel. In order to maintain a hydrosphere aboard the starships they constructed—but not simply fill them with water as that would render the vessels' weight prohibitively high for leaving planetary gravity wells—the Iyra filled the ships' cabins with a special mixture of gases rich in water vapor. The vapor allowed the gas mixture to freely transfer through the epidermal cells of the on-board Iyra. In addition, since the stresses caused by the extreme accelerations during spaceflight were dangerous to the boneless bodies of the Iyra, they outfitted their starships with sophisticated gravity manipulation systems that allowed the vessels to maintain a constant gravitational acceleration and compensate any inertial disturbances.

The Iyra became widespread interstellar traders who preferred traveling to planets that offered marine docking facilities. By the time shortly following the Battle of Yavin, the wider galaxy had come to highly value the corrosion-resistant alloys and hydraulic, magnetic, and nuclear fusion technologies the Iyra had developed. However, due to the Iyra's traditional disdain for beings with less than five limbs, they eventually came to be seen by other species as arrogant and pompous.

The Iyra of F'tral lived in expansive cities located on the bottom of the planet's oceans and maintained facilities for the construction of starships. Twice a year, males and females of the same Iyra caste carried out mating rituals at a location known as the breeding grounds.

F'tral was first mentioned in Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races, a 1989 sourcebook authored by Troy Denning for use with West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How I Wonder Where We Are," a 1990 roleplaying game source article published in Voyages SF 13, misspelled the planet's name as "F'Tral" and placed it in the Tau Sekar sector. Since that article was released outside of the Lucas Licensing process, its canonicity within the Star Wars Legends continuity was never confirmed.

David Plunkett provided the first illustration of F'tral in the 1994 sourcebook Creatures of the Galaxy, while the first full appearance of the planet came in the 1998 video game Star Wars: Rebellion. In the latter work, the image used to depict F'tral was also used to illustrate ten other worlds. The 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas subsequently placed the F'tral system, and therefore the planet itself, in grid square T-9, and the StarWars.com Online Companion to the book later overrode the Voyages SF placement by establishing that the system was instead located in the Calaron sector.

• Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races
• "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How I Wonder Where We Are" — Voyages SF 13
• Creatures of the Galaxy
• Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races, Second Edition
• Galaxy Guide 12: Aliens — Enemies and Allies
• "Alien Encounters" — Star Wars Adventure Journal 14
• Star Wars: Rebellion: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• Alien Encounters
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• Star Wars: Build the Millennium Falcon 18