The Darkknell system was situated within the Grumani sector of the galaxy, specifically in the Outer Rim Territories and Western Reaches regions. Its location was identified as grid square M-17 on the Standard Galactic Grid, and this star system was linked to the Hydian Way super-hyperroute. Furthermore, another hyperspace route connected it to the planet Sanrafsix. The primary astronomical feature of this star system was the celestial body known as Darkknell.
In the year 231 BBY, Pan Eyta, a former Tempest Runner of the Nihil, mounted an attack on the Galactic Republic correctional vessel named Restitution. This assault occurred after Eyta learned that his adversary, the Tempest Runner Lourna Dee, was being imprisoned aboard the vessel. During the conflict, Dee released Sestin Blin, a fellow inmate whom she had befriended, from the Restitution via an escape pod. The confrontation concluded with Dee killing Eyta, re-establishing her Tempest, and seizing the Restitution to serve as her new flagship. Subsequently, the Republic Defense Coalition patrol ship Moonseeker discovered the escape pod within the Darkknell system, having tracked its distress beacon.
The initial reference to the Darkknell system within established Star Wars canon appeared on a galactic map featured in the StarWars.com article "Where in the Galaxy Are the Worlds of Star Wars: The Force Awakens?" by Mark Newbold, published on January 29, 2016. Its formal debut occurred in the 2021 audio drama The High Republic: Tempest Runner, authored by Cavan Scott as part of Phase I of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia initiative. This work also verified that the location was, in fact, a star system.
Within the Star Wars Legends continuity, the Darkknell system was first introduced in the novella "Interlude at Darkknell," a collaboration between Timothy Zahn and Michael A. Stackpole that appeared in the 1999 anthology Tales from the New Republic. Subsequently, it was designated as the Knel'char system in Essential Atlas Extra: The Knight Errant Gazetteer, a 2010 StarWars.com article co-written by Daniel Wallace, Jason Fry, and John Jackson Miller as a supplement to the 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas. The system received its first visual representation in the third issue of the Deluge story arc from the Star Wars: Knight Errant comic book series, penned by Miller, illustrated by Iban Coello, and released by Dark Horse Comics on October 19, 2011.