Ghorman, a planet of the Colonies, was situated along the Rimma Trade Route. During the Clone Wars, its sector, the Sern sector, had Senator Fang Zar representing it in the Galactic Senate of the Galactic Republic. Under the Galactic Empire's oppressive rule, the Imperial Senate debated the fate of Ghorman and its people, with figures like Sly Moore and Ars Dangor severing the world's vital shipping routes. By approximately 5 BBY, the anti-Imperial group known as the Ghorman Front was actively operating. A peaceful protest against Imperial oppression in 2 BBY tragically culminated in Imperial troops slaughtering the demonstrators.
A terrestrial planet, Ghorman resided in a star system within the Sern sector, positioned at the intersection of the Interior and [Colonies](/article/colonies] regions. Its location at coordinates L-13 on the Standard Galactic Grid placed it along the Rimma Trade Route super-hyperroute, nestled between the worlds of Thyferra and Giju. The world shared its name with the textiles Ghorman silk and Ghorman velvet.
During the Clone Wars, a galactic conflict spanning from 22 BBY between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Senator Fang Zar represented the Sern sector, including Ghorman, in the Galactic Senate. Ghorman, along with other planets in Zar's sector such as Albrae-Don, were viewed as rebellious. As the war neared its conclusion, Zar joined approximately two thousand legislators in signing the Petition of 2,000, a formal protest urging Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine of the Republic to relinquish his emergency powers and initiate peace negotiations with the Separatists. This petition was presented during the final full Senate meeting before the Clone Wars concluded in 19 BBY.
The Clone Wars' end saw the Republic transform into the Galactic Empire under Emperor Palpatine, accompanied by the Jedi Order's destruction, branding all Jedi as enemies of the Republic, and subsequently the Empire. A day after the Empire's establishment, sixty-three senators, including Zar, who had signed the Petition of 2,000, were accused of conspiring with a supposed Jedi insurgency and were consequently arrested. HoloNet News, the Empire's officially sanctioned news agency, released a report shortly thereafter, including a partial list of those detained, among them Zar. Senators who declared their allegiance to the Empire were subsequently released.
Under Imperial rule, Ghorman faced oppression. The Ghorman Front, an anti-Imperial organization, became active. By 5 BBY, Imperial policy concerning Ghorman and its Ghorman residents became a subject of debate in the Imperial Senate, with some advocating for control over Ghorman affairs. That year, Imperial officials, including Sly Moore and Ars Dangor, blockaded the planet's shipping lanes, impacting the food supply for the Ghormans living there.
The day following the decision, Dangor and Moore were scheduled to attend a dinner at the residence of Senator Mon Mothma, invited by Mothma's husband, Perrin Fertha. Mothma, deeply opposed to the Ghorman shipping lane decisions, argued with Fertha about inviting Dangor and Moore, sarcastically suggesting they invite Ghorman guests as well. Shortly thereafter, Senator Dhow proposed a commission to investigate Imperial policy regarding the Ghormans. Mothma supported the proposal with her own bill during a senate session, hoping to challenge the Empire's treatment of Ghorman's people, but news of a major heist interrupted her.
In 2 BBY, the people of Ghorman staged a peaceful demonstration to protest Imperial oppression. However, Imperial authorities responded with violence, ordering Imperial troops to massacre the protesters, resulting in hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilian deaths. This event became known as the Ghorman Massacre.
Following this atrocity, Senator Mothma addressed the Imperial Senate, openly condemning Palpatine for ordering the Ghorman Massacre and denouncing his tyrannical governance. After her statement, she left the session with her aides and went into hiding. Mothma, now a fugitive, went on to found the Rebel Alliance against the Empire, uniting various rebel cells that had been operating under her informal network.
As a result of the massacre, Corwi Selgrothe, a journalist, resigned from HoloNet News to join the Alliance. Pollux Hax, the Empire's Minister of Information, stated that obeying Imperial law was the only way for citizens to protect themselves from the dangers of disorder.
After the Alliance's formation, Mothma's speech, the Declaration of Rebellion, was spread via the HoloNet and posters, one of which appeared on Ghorman. Tynnra Pamlo, a secret member of the Alliance, served as their Minister of Education, encountering evidence of the Empire's atrocities on Ghorman and other planets while collaborating with the Alliance's intelligence branch. Following the Ghorman Massacre, Mevera Starros, an artist, smuggled several cases of the Sacha-Lo beverage from Ghorman, keeping some for herself.
Around 3 ABY, Andressa Divo, an Agent of the Imperial Security Bureau, reported on the search for the Alliance's latest base, noting that civilian deaths on populated worlds like Ghorman and Garel had driven the Alliance to seek out uninhabited planets for their operations.
The Memorial to the Missing of Ghorman was eventually erected to commemorate those killed by the Empire on Ghorman. The Empire maintained a section on Ghorman in their Imperial Archives, including a file on "Reprisal Activities" detailing the Ghorman Massacre. After reading this file, Beaumont Kin, a historian, discussed the Ghorman Massacre and its consequences in his 35 ABY book, The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire. In the book, he described the atrocity on Ghorman and its aftermath, arguing that it convinced those sympathetic to the rebellion that no political compromise with the Empire was possible. He also mentioned the Memorial to the Missing of Ghorman alongside similar monuments, reminding readers that so many died under the Empire that no information remained on many victims.
The people of Ghorman shared the same name as their planet. Magva Yarro, a human Ghorman idealist, participated in the protests that led to the Ghorman Massacre. Surviving the atrocity, she joined the extremist rebel group known as the Partisans. Similarly, Fennro Drogan, a human Ghorman, was a member of the Ghorman Front before serving with the Alliance's Bitter Pill Company.
Ghorman entered Star Wars canon through a map in the fifty-second issue of De Agostini's magazine series Star Wars: Build the Millennium Falcon, released around December 30, 2015. The planet Ghorman was originally part of Star Wars Legends continuity, first mentioned in The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, a Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game supplement by West End Games in 1990. Ghorman's debut in Legends was in the 1993 LucasArts video game Star Wars: X-Wing.