Zeitooine was a jungle planet that was located in the Inner Rim and was ruled by a monarchy. During the High Republic Era, it was the site of a mission carried out by members of the Jedi Order, including Jedi Knight Dez Rydan. The mission helped manage some of the unrest the planet was experiencing, but the effect of the Jedi presence stalled over time. Centuries later, the planet was part of the Galactic Empire and was visited by Imperial defector Thane Kyrell, who hoped to buy a power cell for the light freighter Mighty Oak Apocalypse but failed because he was distracted by the arresting of a local family.
In 232 BBY, during the High Republic Era, the Jedi Order carried out a mission on Zeitooine, to which Jedi Knight Dez Rydan was assigned. During his time on the planet, Rydan learned much about poisons, which were used regularly by the various houses of Zeit royalty. The knowledge he gained on the mission later allowed him to recognize the symptoms suffered by pilot Affie Hollow after she was scraped by a poisonous vine during a skirmish aboard the Amaxine Station.
The Jedi mission was able to quell some of the unrest on the planet, but within a few months, Rydan and the others were no longer doing anything of significance. Instead, they spent their time dealing with plotting and bickering without any real action. Rydan eventually requested a transfer from Zeitooine to the Starlight Beacon space station, both in order to find more excitement and because he secretly feared he was in danger of giving in to his anger if he stayed any longer. After the Zeitooine mission, Rydan's former master, Jora Malli, told her new Padawan, Reath Silas, that she had helped both of her students to find balance. However, Malli noted mentally that after hearing about Rydan's exploits on Zeitooine and the planet Christophsis, she was no longer sure her statement was true. The mission to Zeitooine was later mentioned in Chronicles of the Jedi, a book written by the Jedi Master Harli Cogra in 229 BBY.
Thane Kyrell visited Zeitooine while working aboard the Mighty Oak Apocalypse.
Zeitooine became part of the Galactic Empire at some point by seven months after the Battle of Yavin, when Thane Kyrell, a former TIE fighter pilot and deserter from the Empire, visited the planet while working as a navigator and co-pilot aboard the light freighter Mighty Oak Apocalypse. During the journey there, Kyrell noted to his captain, the Wookiee Lohgarra, that the power cell for the ship's aft sensor array could only be charged up to sixty percent of its capacity and suggested buying a better one on Zeitooine. Lohgarra reminded Kyrell that the crew had few available funds but did eventually grant him a budget to buy a new power cell, albeit not without noting that such an item could be expensive on Zeitooine. Kyrell agreed, stating that higher prices were ordinary in Zeitooine's area of space and that products in the Outer Rim Territories would be much cheaper.
The spaceport at which the freighter had landed was located at the edge of a Zeit city. When Kyrell stepped off the Mighty Oak Apocalypse onto Zeitooine's surface, his breath formed clouds in the cool air. At the same time, he felt uneasy about being on Zeitooine as he felt it had too heavy an Imperial presence because of its location in the Inner Rim. He was reminded by Lohgarra, however, that because there were few cities on the planet and it was not an active trading center, he was unlikely to be caught. While the rest of the crew delivered several constructor droids, Kyrell searched for a seller of secondhand parts. Although he learned that the nearest seller was a ten minutes' walk away—farther than he had hoped—he decided to go there anyway.
On the way, Kyrell reached the city square, where a large crowd was watching Imperial stormtroopers arrest a local family for violating a prohibition on independent publications. Horrified, Kyrell returned to the freighter, claiming that he had found nothing within his price range. Afterwards, the Mighty Oak Apocalypse and its crew left the planet.
Zeitooine's inhabitants were known as Zeit. The Zeit were ruled by a royalty that was composed of multiple opposing houses, members of which regularly backstabbed and attempted to assassinate one another. Assassination methods were elaborate and included adding powders to wineglasses and smearing venom on pillowcases.
A small number of Zeit cities dotted Zeitooine's surface, including one that contained the spaceport visited by Thane Kyrell and the Mighty Oak Apocalypse.
Zeitooine first appeared in the 2015 novel Lost Stars, written by Claudia Gray.
- Star Wars: The High Republic: Chronicles of the Jedi
- Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire