Inner Rim Territories

Considered a part of the "inner planets," the Inner Rim represented a section of the galaxy. It formed a ring-like area positioned between the Colonies and the Expansion Region. The Western Reaches and the Inner Rim shared some overlapping territories.

For many centuries, the Inner Rim Territories served as the edge of galactic civilization. Originally, as colonizers expanded from the Core Worlds and Colonies, this area was simply called "the Rim." However, competition for resources drove expansion, leading to the development of regions such as the Mid Rim and the Outer Rim Territories. Despite this outward expansion, the Inner Rim maintained its prosperity. At an unspecified time, explorers from both Alderaan and Arkanis settled on the Inner Rim planet of Birren. A hereditary monarch, known as the Supreme governor, emerged on the planet, although the position had become largely ceremonial by the era of the New Republic.

Approximately one thousand years prior to the Battle of Yavin, the world of Jakku in the Inner Rim's Western Reaches was known to hold an object of great value to Sheev Palpatine, the Sith Lord also known as Darth Sidious. In 25 BBY, Palpatine, accompanied by his Adviser Yupe Tashu, visited 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 sensed significant potential. With Palpatine's assistance, Rax later 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 called Malevolence met its end by crashing on the Dead Moon of Antar in 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 later assassinated by Separatist agents acting under Dooku's orders.

The Inner Rim planet Quarzite served as the home of the warring Belugan and Kage species. In 20 BBY, the bounty hunters Asajj Ventress and Boba Fett took on a job from the Belugan dictator Otua Blank involving the delivery of a chest. However, after discovering that the chest contained a young Kage woman named Pluma Sodi, Ventress declined to continue the mission. When Fett insisted on completing the job, Ventress imprisoned him inside the chest and turned him over to Blank. She then freed Pluma and returned her to her brother Krismo Sodi.

In 20 BBY, the Galactic Republic dispatched a team including the Jedi Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, and Clone Captain Rex to Onderon. Their mission was to train a resistance movement to oppose the Separatist-backed King Sanjay Rash during the Onderonian Civil War. This resulted in the Republic establishing communication with Mina's son Lux Bonteri and the rebel leader Saw Gerrera. Following a sustained military effort, the Republic and their Onderonian allies successfully drove the Separatist forces from Onderon and reinstated Ramsis Dendup as King.

After the end of the Clone Wars and the establishment of the Galactic Empire, the Inner Rim became strategically important to the Empire, mirroring its significance to the Separatists before them. In 18 BBY, Imperial forces under Moff Wilhuff Tarkin conducted a brutal crackdown on the Inner Rim moon Antar 4, an event known as the Antar Atrocity. Thousands of Gotals and Koorivar, including those loyal to the Republic, were rounded up, imprisoned, and executed. Despite attempts by the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order to conceal the events, media coverage sparked outrage in the Core Worlds. Consequently, Emperor Palpatine reassigned Tarkin to the Western Reaches. In 14 BBY, two reporters, Anora Fair and Hask Taff, who had reported on the Antar Atrocity, later joined Berch Teller's rebel cell in a campaign against Tarkin.

In 11 BBY, Count Denetrius Vidian, an Imperial efficiency expert and industrialist, initiated a scheme to defraud the Empire by destroying Gorse's moon Cynda to exploit its thorilide deposits. 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 succeeded in exposing Vidian's conspiracy. Following Vidian's demise, his rival Baron Lero Danthe began surface mining operations on the sunward side of Gorse.

During the Imperial Era, the Empire was known to recruit a significant number of prospective Imperial cadets from the Inner Rim, favoring it over worlds previously aligned with the Separatists. 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 individuals, including Thane Kyrell, a former TIE fighter pilot, to join the Rebel Alliance.

After the events above Yavin, Caluan Ematt, a Lieutenant in the Rebel Alliance, was ambushed by Imperial forces on the Inner Rim world of Taanab. He managed to escape to the planet Cyrkon located 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 resources and manpower were exploited to support the Imperial war effort, causing significant hardship and impoverishment. Ransolm Casterfo, who would later become a New Republic Senator, grew up under Imperial rule and lost his parents to forced labor. This fueled his hatred for Darth Vader.

After Fleet Admiral Rax seized control of the Imperial fleets, he commanded his armadas to gather above Jakku for a final confrontation with the New Republic, the successor 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. The surface of Jakku became covered in the wreckage of numerous starships from both sides. Scavengers began to inhabit Jakku, searching through the debris for valuable items to sell. A month following the Battle of Jakku, the New Republic confined the Empire to sections of the Inner Rim and the Core Worlds, setting the stage for the Galactic Concordance.

At a young age, Rey was left on the desert planet Jakku under 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 with them above Jakku just as they left Rey on the planet, and he executed them both. However, instead of investigating Jakku, an intoxicated Ochi found Aki-Aki beads hidden on Miramir 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. Rey worked as a scavenger on Jakku, hoping for her family's return, even though she knew they would never come back.

By 28 ABY, the Inner Rim planet Riosa had become part of the New Republic. Senator Casterfo, representing the planet, aligned himself with the Centrists, a political group in the Galactic Senate that advocated for greater centralization and a stronger military. Riosa remained a minor manufacturing center, still struggling to recover from Imperial rule. Bastatha, a barren desert world independent of the Republic, hosted an Amaxine warriors' camp led by Arliz Hadrassian, a former Imperial and an agent of the First Order, a remnant of the old Empire.

Following the death of Mellowyn, the reigning Supreme governor of Birren, Leia Organa, a Populist Senator, and her son Ben Solo were named as the heirs to the supreme governorship. Since Leia and Ben had no interest in taking on the office, Organa agreed to support Lady Carise Sindian's campaign to inherit the supreme governorship of Birren. Sindian, however, was a First Order operative working undercover, and she used her position to uncover information about Organa's true lineage as the daughter of Darth Vader. The resulting scandal ruined Organa's political career. In response, Organa persuaded the Elder Houses to strip Sindian of all her royal titles.

In 34 ABY, Poe Dameron, a pilot for the Resistance, journeyed to Jakku in search of Lor San Tekka, who had acquired a map leading to the location of Luke Skywalker, a Jedi Master. First Order forces then attacked Tuanul village and massacred its inhabitants. Kylo Ren captured Dameron, but Dameron managed to hide the map inside his droid, BB-8. Dameron later escaped with the help of Finn, a disillusioned stormtrooper. After crashing their stolen TIE fighter, the two were separated, and Finn located BB-8 and Rey. The trio then fled a First Order assault on Niima Outpost and escaped into space aboard the Millennium Falcon.