Inner Rim Territories

A part of the "inner planets," the Inner Rim was a sector of the galaxy. It formed a ring-like area positioned between the Colonies and the Expansion Region. Certain areas of the Inner Rim had overlapping territories with the Western Reaches.

For numerous centuries, the Inner Rim Territories stood as the edge of galactic civilization. Initially settled by colonizers venturing from the Core Worlds and Colonies, this zone was simply called "the Rim." However, resource competition prompted expansion, and the known galaxy extended into regions like the Mid Rim and the Outer Rim Territories. Despite this outward spread of colonization, the Inner Rim sustained its prosperity. At an undetermined time, the Inner Rim planet Birren was inhabited by both Alderaanian and Arkanisian explorers. The planet established a hereditary monarch, the Supreme governor, whose role had become purely ceremonial by the era of the New Republic.

Approximately one thousand years prior to the Battle of Yavin, the Inner Rim world of Jakku, situated in the Western Reaches, was recognized as the location of an object of significance to Sheev Palpatine, the Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious. In 25 BBY, Palpatine, accompanied by his Adviser Yupe Tashu, journeyed to Jakku to oversee an archaeological excavation at the Plaintive Hand plateau, where the object was rumored to be buried. During this visit, Palpatine first encountered Gallius Rax, a local slave in whom he detected substantial potential. With Palpatine's assistance, Rax subsequently ascended to the rank of Fleet Admiral within the Galactic Empire.

During the Clone Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systems recognized the strategic importance of the Inner Rim. The Separatist Subjugator-class heavy cruiser Malevolence met its end by crashing onto the Dead Moon of Antar within the Inner Rim during the Battle of the Kaliida Nebula. Later, the Inner Rim world of Onderon aligned itself with Count Dooku's Confederacy. Mina Bonteri represented the planet in the Separatist Senate, but she was subsequently assassinated by Separatist agents under Dooku's command.

Quarzite, an Inner Rim planet, served as the home of the warring Belugan and Kage species. In 20 BBY, the bounty hunters Asajj Ventress and Boba Fett accepted a job from the Belugan dictator Otua Blank to deliver a chest. Upon discovering that the chest contained a young Kage woman named Pluma Sodi, Ventress declined to proceed with the mission. When Fett insisted on completing the job, Ventress placed him inside the chest and delivered him to Blank. She then liberated Pluma and returned her to her brother, Krismo Sodi.

In 20 BBY, the Galactic Republic dispatched a team to Onderon, comprised of the Jedi Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, and Clone Captain Rex, with the task of training a resistance movement to oppose the Separatist-supported King Sanjay Rash during the Onderonian Civil War. As a consequence, the Republic established contact with Mina's son, Lux Bonteri, and the rebel leader, Saw Gerrera. Following a prolonged military engagement, the Republic and their Onderonian allies successfully drove the Separatist forces from Onderon and reinstated Ramsis Dendup as King.

Following the end of the Clone Wars and the establishment of the Galactic Empire, the Inner Rim gained strategic importance for the Empire, mirroring its significance to the Separatists previously. Imperial forces under Moff Wilhuff Tarkin initiated a severe crackdown on the Inner Rim moon Antar 4, an event known as the Antar Atrocity in 18 BBY. Thousands of Gotals and Koorivar, including Republic loyalists, were captured, imprisoned, and executed. Despite efforts by the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order to conceal these events, media coverage sparked outrage in the Core Worlds. Emperor Palpatine was then compelled to reassign Tarkin to the Western Reaches. In 14 BBY, two reporters, Anora Fair and Hask Taff, who reported on the Antar Atrocity, subsequently joined Berch Teller's rebel cell in a campaign against Tarkin.

In 11 BBY, Count Denetrius Vidian, an Imperial efficiency expert and industrialist, hatched a plan to defraud the Empire by destroying Gorse's moon, Cynda, to exploit its thorilide reserves. This brought him into conflict with Hera Syndulla, a Twi'lek rebel operative, and Kanan Jarrus, a former Padawan. With the unexpected assistance of Imperial Captain Rae Sloane, Syndulla's team successfully exposed Vidian's conspiracy. Following Vidian's demise, his rival, Baron Lero Danthe, initiated surface mining operations on Gorse's sunward side.

During the Imperial Era, the Empire was known to recruit a substantial number of prospective Imperial cadets from the Inner Rim, favoring it over former Separatist worlds. Seven months after the Battle of Yavin, Imperial forces launched a crackdown on Zeitooine, an icy planet in the Inner Rim, leading to the arrest of a local family. Imperial atrocities on Zeitooine and other planets motivated more individuals, including Thane Kyrell, a former TIE fighter pilot, to join the Rebel Alliance.

Following the events above Yavin, Caluan Ematt, a Rebel Alliance Lieutenant, was ambushed by Imperial forces on the Inner Rim world of Taanab, but he managed to escape to the planet Cyrkon in Hutt Space. The Empire also annexed the planet Riosa, conscripting its population and resources to construct both the first and second Death Stars. Riosa's manpower and resources were exploited to fuel the Imperial war effort, causing significant hardship and impoverishment to the planet. Ransolm Casterfo, the future New Republic Senator, grew up during Imperial rule and lost his parents to forced labor, leading him to develop a hatred for Darth Vader.

After Fleet Admiral Rax assumed control of the Imperial fleets, he commanded his armadas to gather above Jakku for a final confrontation with the New Republic, the successor government to the Rebel Alliance. The resulting Battle of Jakku was a devastating conflict that concluded the Galactic Civil War in favor of the New Republic. As a consequence of the battle, Jakku's surface was covered in the wreckage of numerous starships from both sides. Jakku became a haven for scavengers who searched through the debris for valuable items to sell. One month after the Battle of Jakku, the Empire was confined by the New Republic to areas of the Inner Rim and the Core Worlds as a prelude to the Galactic Concordance.

At a young age, Rey was abandoned on the desert planet Jakku in the care of Unkar Plutt, a junk boss, by her parents, Dathan and Miramir, as they were being chased by Ochi of Bestoon, Sidious's Sith assassin. Ochi caught up to them over Jakku and executed both just as they left Rey on the planet. Instead of investigating Jakku, however, an inebriated Ochi found a few Aki-Aki beads Miramir had hidden on her person as a trick: assuming the planet Pasaana in the Expansion Region was Rey's hiding place, Ochi left for the planet and died in its Forbidden Valley. On Jakku, Rey worked as a scavenger and hoped her family would one day return even though, deep down, she knew they would never return.

By 28 ABY, the New Republic included the Inner Rim planet Riosa. Casterfo, the planet's senator, aligned with the Centrists, a political group in the Galactic Senate that advocated for greater centralization and a stronger military. Riosa remained a remote manufacturing hub that had not fully recovered from Imperial rule. Bastatha, an independent, barren desert planet outside the Republic, housed a camp for Amaxine warriors' led by Arliz Hadrassian, a former Imperial agent working for the First Order, a remnant of the Old Empire.

Following the death of Birren's reigning Supreme governor Mellowyn, the Populist Senator Leia Organa and her son Ben Solo were designated as the heirs to the supreme governorship. Since Leia and Ben were not interested in assuming that office, Organa agreed to support Lady Carise Sindian's bid to inherit the supreme governorship of Birren. However, Sindian was an undercover First Order agent who used her position to discover information about Organa's true parentage as the daughter of Darth Vader. The ensuing scandal destroyed Organa's political career. In retaliation, Organa convinced the Elder Houses to strip Sindian of all her royal titles.

In 34 ABY, Poe Dameron, a pilot for the Resistance, journeyed to Jakku to locate Lor San Tekka, who possessed a map leading to the location of Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Master. Subsequently, First Order forces attacked the village of Tuanul, massacring its inhabitants. Kylo Ren captured Dameron, but Dameron managed to conceal the map within his droid, BB-8. Later, Dameron escaped with the assistance of Finn, a disillusioned stormtrooper. After crashing their stolen TIE fighter, the two were separated and Finn managed to find BB-8 and Rey. The trio then fled a First Order attack on Niima Outpost and escaped on the Millennium Falcon into space.