The Kesselians were Humans settlers on Little Kessel, a planet located in the Kessel sector of the Outer Rim Territories. The term also referred to the inhabitants of Kessel.
During the Galactic Civil War, the Kesselians of Little Kessel lived peacefully on their lush, verdant homeworld. Professor Renn Volz and his daughter Mira Volz were both Kesselians from Little Kessel who worked for the Galactic Empire. In 0 ABY, the Galactic Empire was aware that their planet was home to hundreds of Rebels. As a result, Captain Bzorn traveled to Little Kessel aboard the Ionic Ring and demanded that all Rebels on the planet be surrendered. When the government of Little Kessel refused, the Galactic Empire tormented the planet with groundquakes and cyclones. By that time, Little Kessel had not experienced a groundquake in so many eons that the Kesselians did not even know what one was.
In 4 ABY, several Kesselian blockade runners from Kessel were part of the Rebel fleet that gathered near Sullust for the upcoming Battle of Endor. Captain Tessa Manchisco was surprised to find such vessels in the fleet upon arriving in the Sullust system. She had expected to see Corellians, Calamarians and Alderaanians in the Alliance Fleet, but she had not expected to see Kessel represented. Manchisco assumed these blockade runners were from independents still fighting the Imperial government on the prison world.
In 5 ABY, C-3PO and R2-D2 were sent on a mission to the Kessendra Stadium on Kessel to spy the Kessendra Coronation. Because C-3PO and R2-D2 had become so recognizable, they were respectively disguised as a and as a Kesselian spice-mining droid to ensure their anonymity on the mission.
In the second draft of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, Grande Mouff Tarkin was a thin, bird-like commander of the outland Kesselian Dragoons.
- The Truce at Bakura Sourcebook
- "The Unseen Planets of Star Wars" — Star Wars Insider 36