The Keitum system existed within the Ariarch sector of the Mid Rim, encompassing the planet of Keitum. Leading up to the Separatist Crisis, it was allied through the Keitumite Mutual Military Treaty with seven other star systems. This alliance was a component of a broader network of forty systems, interconnected by various alliances and treaties, with the unassuming planet Ansion as its focal point.
In 22 BBY, as members of the Keitumite Mutual Military Treaty contemplated withdrawing from the Galactic Republic, the Confederacy of the Independent Systems aimed to facilitate the secession of the entire network of systems linked to Ansion. This Separatist scheme was thwarted by a Jedi mission to Ansion, ensuring the planet and its associated systems remained loyal to the Republic. Following the ensuing Clone Wars, the Keitum system was successively incorporated into the Galactic Empire, the New Republic, and the Imperial Remnant.
Located in the New Territories section of the Mid Rim, the Keitum system was part of the Ariarch sector. It was situated at the termination point of the hyperlane called the Rago Run, which connected it to the Ansion system within the Churba sector. The planet Keitum was located within the system.
The Keitum system was located in space that was explored sometime between 3000 BBY and 1000 BBY. By 22 BBY, the Keitum system was a member of the Galactic Republic and a signatory of the Keitumite Mutual Military Treaty, which was never invoked. This treaty placed it in a network of mutual affiliations with seven other systems: the Dorin and Mondress systems of the Expansion Region; the Eeropha system in the Colonies; and the Ansion, Glom Tho, Lonnaw, and Malari systems in the Mid Rim. Furthermore, Keitum, its partner systems, and the Malarian Alliance—which was also linked to the planet Ansion—had their own treaties with other worlds, which resulted in the seemingly insignificant Ansion being at the core of a network of around forty politically connected star systems. During the Separatist Crisis, systems that were signatories of both the Malarian Alliance and the Keitumite Mutual Military Treaty were individually considering leaving the Republic.
The Confederacy of Independent Systems planned to facilitate Ansion's secession from the Republic, anticipating that this would trigger a chain reaction of secession by all systems linked to the planet through its treaties. Presidente Shu Mai of the Commerce Guild outlined the Separatist plan to Tam Uliss, a Corellian industrialist, and his Twi'lek companion, during a meeting with Ansion's Senator [Mousul] in a private chamber on Coruscant, a Core Worlds planet that served as the Republic's capital, in 22 BBY. Mai also highlighted the member systems of the Keitumite Mutual Military Treaty for the group using a holographic projection of the galaxy. However, a mission to Ansion, carried out by members of the Jedi Order on behalf of the Republic, ultimately ensured that Ansion and its partners remained loyal to the galactic government, thus foiling the Separatist plans.
During the initial campaigns of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY, the Republic's Seventh Sector Army was charged with defending the vicinity of the Keitum system against the military forces of the Confederacy. Shortly after the Commerce Guild's acquisition of the planet Ukio during that conflict, the Keitum system was displayed on a galactic map on a viewscreen at a facility operated by Passel Argente, the Magistrate of the Corporate Alliance.
Sometime after the establishment of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, the newly appointed Imperial Moff of the Mid Rim's Churnis sector declared all existing treaties and alliances involving Ansion to be invalid. By 17 BBY, the Keitum system was located within the territory controlled by the Empire. Between 12 ABY and 17 ABY, the Keitum system was within the borders of the [New Republic](/article/new_republic-legends], but control of the system had been transferred to the Imperial Remnant by 40 ABY.
The Keitumites originated from Keitum, and the Keitum system's population around 25 ABY was between one hundred million and five hundred million.
The Approaching Storm, a 2002 novel written by Alan Dean Foster, featured a holographic depiction of several unnamed star systems linked to the planet Ansion via the Keitumite Mutual Military Treaty. The 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas, authored by Daniel Wallace and Jason Fry, later identified one of those systems as the Keitum system and placed it in grid square J-6.