Parnassos

Parnassos was a planet in the Unknown Regions that was once a lush and enjoyable world, at least as portrayed by Con Star Mining Corporation in their advertising and training programs. It had mountains, greenery, and crystal blue oceans. The oceans were so clear that the sandy bottoms were visible. Some valleys were rich in greenery and nature's bounty.

However, a nuclear disaster at Calliope Station caused a dramatic change in the planet's environment. The oceans became dark, cold, forbidding, and teeming with hungry beasts. Much of the greenery was turned into a large desert with purple sand. Due to the nuclear disaster, the planet's oceans continued to rise, acid rain was a common occurrence, and most of the food animals were killed off.

Parnassos was home to several continents. The landmass that Phasma inhabited was largely covered in mountains and deserts. The Scyre territory, from which Phasma came, had black spires of rock along with caves and cliffs, including the Nautilus, a cave that served as the home of the Scyre clan. The Scyre territory bordered a plateau that the Claw territory was located on. The Scyre and Claw territories were located high above the continent's surface.

Phasma's continent was the site of Terpsichore Station, Con Star's largest mining station on the planet. It was situated in a formerly lush valley that was a short tram ride away from the Siren Sea, which used to be a tourist destination. This continent was also home to Arratu Station, a former Con Star outpost that had developed into a city. Farther away from Arratu Station lay the dead lands, a radioactive wasteland surrounding a former nuclear plant that had malfunctioned, causing a cataclysmic nuclear reaction. There was also another station called Calliope Station, which had a medbay.

The planet also had several other landmasses, which had grasslands, forests, and a few settlements. One such landmass that lay across the ocean was home to Cleo Station, an abandoned Con Star factory used to produce mining equipment. A famine killed off much of its population, even though the surrounding area was much more fertile than most other locations on Parnassos.

Parnassos was home to a toxic species of lichen which could be used to coat blades. Notable animals indigenous to Parnassos included venomous gold beetles, sea urchins, snails, skinwolves, squeeps, and large lizards that were used to draw sleds. The planet's oceans were also home to hungry, teeming creatures, including large creatures with meter-long teeth.

Parnassos was settled during the Republic Era by Con Star Mining Corporation, which wanted to exploit the planet for its metals and minerals. Con Star also established several settlements throughout the planet with laboratories, factories, mines, and houses for the colonists, including Terpsichore, Arratu, Calliope, and Cleo Stations for various purposes. Con Star also built a powerful automated orbital defense system around the planet.

Approximately a hundred years before the Cold War, a poorly maintained reactor at an unidentified Con Star station malfunctioned, causing a nuclear reaction that devastated the planet's environment. The building housing the reactor, as well as the surrounding buildings, were destroyed while the surrounding land was reduced to a radioactive wasteland called the "dead lands." Much of the surrounding continent was reduced to a barren desert.

Overnight, Con Star abandoned Parnassos, erasing it from official files. The few remaining records listed the planet as uninhabited. Later observers such as First Order General Brendol Hux speculated the disaster was the result of either Con Star's malfeasance or sabotage by a rival company.

The planet's abandoned population was reduced to a primitive existence. Some, like the Scyre and Claw clans, became hunter-gatherer societies consisting of small bands that fought for territory and resources. Since the devastation killed off many of the food animals and plants, some clans, like the Scyre, used machines called detraxors to extract nutrients and minerals from fallen sentient beings and animals to create a nutritious paste.

In the absence of their sentient supervisors, the droids at Terpsichore Station became self-aware and yearned for the return of their "creators." Meanwhile, Arratu Station became a lush, green city inhabited by a wealthy elite and an impoverished commoner class. The city's rulers, known as Arratu, staged gladiatorial fights in order to keep the masses entertained. Across the ocean, the inhabitants of Cleo Station, a former factory settlement, survived due to bountiful fields of grain.

The woman who would become Phasma and her family inhabited a cave called the Nautilus. Despising what she termed as her parents' "weak and indecisive" leadership, Phasma conspired with the Scyre clan to kill her own family, with the exception of her older brother Keldo, whom she wounded in the leg. Phasma and Keldo subsequently joined the Scyre.

After the Scyre leader Egil was murdered by the young upstart Porr, Phasma defeated him in combat while Keldo hobbled him. Keldo and Phasma then became the co-leaders of the Scyre, the former serving as a political leader and Phasma as a military leader. Due to the high infant mortality rate, the Scyres only produced one child, a girl named Frey. Following a failed Claw attempt to kidnap Frey, Keldo negotiated a truce with the Claws' leader Balder, a Dug. However, his truce earned him the enmity of the militaristic Phasma.

During the Cold War, General Hux traveled to Parnassos while on a mission to recruit warriors for the First Order, a remnant of the Old Empire seeking to overthrow the New Republic. While approaching the planet, Hux's ship was shot down by Parnassos' orbital defense system. The ship crash-landed in the "dead lands" while Hux and three stormtroopers—PT-2445 ("Pete"), LE-2003 ("Elli"), and HF-0518 ("Huff")—landed in an escape pod near the Claw territory.

Hux and his fellow survivors were captured by Balder. Hux related his predicament to the Claws and offered them a life of wealth and comfort if they joined the First Order. Before the Claws could consider Hux's offer, Phasma assassinated Balder and convinced Hux and his troopers to accept her help. Following a fight with the Claws, the Scyre and Hux's party managed to escape back to the Nautilus.

Unable to convince Keldo to support the expedition, Phasma and her most loyal warriors (Siv, Torben, Gosta, and Carr) left the Nautilus with Hux and his men. They also stole the Scyre's supplies, including their two detraxors. Traveling through Parnassos' inhospitable deserts and a mountain, Phasma and Hux's party braved venomous beetles (which claimed the life of Carr), marauders riding large lizards, and a pack of mutated skinwolves.

After Hux was bitten by a skinwolf, the group sought shelter at Terpsichore Station, which was inhabited by self-aware droids. While Hux sought treatment, Phasma and the others were forced to work as indentured miners to pay off Hux's medical bills. Working together, the group managed to breach the control room and disable the droids. The group then departed on a ground assault vehicle and several speeder bikes.

While traveling towards Arratu Station, Hux and Phasma's party were ambushed and captured by the locals. They were brought to Arratu Station, where they were forced to fight in the arena. Working with Torben and Siv, Phasma managed to kill the Arratu champion, Wranderous, and the ruling Arratu, leaving the city in a state of anarchy. The group then fled Arratu, continuing their quest to Hux's ship.

Hux and Phasma's group then traveled to the "dead lands" but were pursued by Keldo and the combined Scyre and Claw forces. Following a fierce battle outside Hux's ship, Phasma managed to kill Keldo. Despite the destruction of the enemy forces, Hux's stormtroopers and most of Phasma's followers, except Siv, were killed. Meanwhile, Hux managed to contact the First Order for an evacuation.

General Hux's son, Armitage Hux, soon arrived with a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer and an Atmospheric Assault Lander. Phasma and the orphaned Frey, who had accompanied Keldo's party, boarded the shuttle with Hux. However, Phasma barred Siv from joining them for disobeying her order to kill Wranderous. Before departing Parnassos, General Hux orbitally bombarded the Nautilus and Arratu Station as a demonstration of the First Order's power.

A year after joining the First Order, Phasma returned to the site of Hux's crashed ship. She removed the ship's chromium plating and then flew on her TIE/sf space superiority fighter to Cleo Station across the ocean. There, she discovered that the population had starved to death due to a famine afflicting their grain crops. Phasma used the station's armory to forge the chromium plates into her unique armor.

Despite being abandoned to die in the "dead lands," Siv sought shelter at Calliope Station, where she was treated for radiation sickness. After recovering, Siv later gave birth to a daughter named Torbi. Ten years later, Siv encountered the Resistance spy and operative Vi Moradi, to whom she recounted Phasma's biography prior to joining the First Order. After escaping the First Order Star Destroyer Absolution, Vi traveled with the wounded stormtrooper, Captain Cardinal, to Parnassos to honor her promise to bring Siv and Torbi offworld.

Parnassos first appeared in the 2017 novel Phasma, written by Delilah S. Dawson.

When asked about her description of Parnassos during an interview with StarWars.com, Dawson described Parnassos as the Earth after a nuclear disaster, where the rain is poison, the food animals are dead, and the land is barren and rocky, with an angry ocean a la Mad Max: Fury Road, a 2015 film which inspired Dawson during the writing of Phasma.

• Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary
• Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, New Edition
• Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy
• Star Wars Bust Collection 29
• Star Wars: How Not to Get Eaten by Ewoks and Other Galactic Survival Skills
• Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition
• Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: Traveler's Guide to Batuu
• The Star Wars Book
• Star Wars Droids Guide to a Galaxy Far, Far Away
• Star Wars Galaxy Map
• Star Wars 100 Objects
• Star Wars: Timelines
• Star Wars: The Ultimate Cookbook