Peridea

Far removed from the galaxy controlled by the New Republic, Peridea was a planet situated in the remote far galaxy. War-ravaged, its surface consisted of expansive wastelands featuring grasslands, plains, lakes, and meadows. The atmosphere was suitable for breathing by humans, Chiss, Togruta, and Dathomirian Zabraks. A massive ring of purrgil bones surrounded the planet, as these beings traveled there to die.

The Noti species considered Peridea their homeworld. These beings moved in mobile settlements to evade danger. The wastelands were inhabited by Howlers and a native species of small reptavian. Groups of bandits also roamed the surface, preying on isolated travelers.

Much of the planet's culture centered around the ancient Witch Kingdom of the Dathmiri. The landscape was dotted with towering statues of the planet's original inhabitants. Around 9 ABY, three witches identifying as the Great Mothers controlled a fortress that included above and underground henges and extensive catacombs.

Due to its extragalactic location, information about Peridea known to those in the main galaxy largely came from legends and stories. One such story was the Pathway to Peridea, a popular tale among the Younglings at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant while Baylan Skoll studied there. This tale described Peridea as a legendary planet beyond the main galaxy, reachable by following the Pathway originating on the planet Seatos in the Denab system. Skoll initially dismissed these stories as children's tales, but he later found the same legends in the Jedi Archives. There, Peridea was described as the final destination of the purrgils' migration route, where they went to die among their own kind in a vast planetary "graveyard" ring.

Another legend about Peridea existed among the Nightsisters of Dathomir. It described the planet as the original home of their people, who rode the purrgil to travel between galaxies. A star map illustrating the route from Seatos to Peridea was created long before the New Republic Era and hidden within the Nightsisters' Temple on Arcana. By combining this map with the reflex point on the henge temple on Seatos, a Witch could activate a holographic map with detailed instructions, including usable hyperspace coordinates, to reach Peridea.

At some point in the distant past, a large fortress was built on Peridea, bearing an inscription that celebrated the rule of Zeffo Sage Kujet and his reign. The inscription was written in the ancient Ur-Kittât language.

Eventually, Kujet's fortress became inhabited by the Dathomiri Nightsisters, with architect droid Huyang suggesting the planet had become the center of their Witch Kingdom. In time, all but three witches abandoned the fortress, and they became known as the Great Mothers. They entered a long period of slumber sometime after this. During their hibernation, a war occurred in the far galaxy, leaving both the galaxy and Peridea largely lifeless.

During the Galactic Civil War, Bokken Jedi Ezra Bridger joined the Phoenix Squadron of the Alliance to Restore the Republic and participated in a lengthy campaign to liberate his homeworld of Lothal. After encountering the purrgil in the Mining Guild's Asteroid Belt Gas Refinery and establishing a psychometric connection with them through the Force, Bridger requested their assistance during the Liberation of Lothal in 1 BBY. During a key battle against the forces led by Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn, the purrgil emerged from hyperspace and destroyed his blockade above the planet. A pod of purrgil, led by a Purrgil Ultra, then captured his flagship, the Chimaera, and carried it, along with Bridger and Thrawn, into hyperspace. Severely weakened by this effort, the purrgil arrived at Peridea, stranding the two with no means of return.

While exiled for over a decade, the two developed a close relationship with the local population, using them to advance their individual goals. Bridger fled to the planet's wastelands and became close to the Noti nomads, learning their language and residing in a mobile home within one of their mobile encampments. He gained their trust by helping them fight off the bandits that plagued them, and assisted them in creating defensive strategies to counter their attacks. He also deepened his connection to the Force during his time on Peridea.

Meanwhile, Thrawn found the Nightsister fortress and awakened its three inhabitants, the Nightsister Great Mothers. They discovered that their way of life had been destroyed during the war that left the far galaxy dead and abandoned. Carefully devising a plan to return to the galaxy from the depths of Peridea, Thrawn sought the help of the Great Mothers to contact one of his closest allies, fellow Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth, through her dreams and request her assistance in locating him. In exchange, Thrawn would free the Great Mothers from Peridea and take their precious cargo with them. His soldiers also adopted the name Night Troopers.

After the end of the Civil War and the establishment of the New Republic in place of the Galactic Empire, Morgan Elsbeth, having learned of Thrawn's fate through the Great Mothers' contact, began researching his potential location and actively working to bring him back. Around 9 ABY, her efforts attracted the attention of former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who tracked her to her hiding place in the village of Calodan on Corvus. With the help of Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin, Tano apprehended her and delivered her to New Republic custody. Unknown to Tano, Elsbeth's forces had already determined Thrawn's extragalactic location and begun constructing a massive hyperspace transport ring, the Eye of Sion, to retrieve the Grand Admiral from exile.

Elsbeth was quickly rescued from captivity by mercenaries Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati, and Hati obtained the Nightsister star map from Arcana. Elsbeth's Star Navigator droids then calculated the coordinates to Peridea. Following a brief skirmish with Tano, they successfully jumped through the intergalactic void to the legendary planet. Upon arrival, the Great Mothers greeted them in the temple, and they finally reunited with Thrawn after his decades in exile. Meanwhile, Tano's Padawan Sabine Wren, who had given the star map to Skoll in exchange for passage to Peridea, found Bridger living as a nomad among the native Noti and joined their clan.

Eventually, Tano, determined to rescue Wren and end Thrawn's threat before it could rise again, arrived at the planet as well, carried in the mouth of a purrgil. Having been alerted to her approach by the Great Mothers' magick, Thrawn ordered his Captain of the Guard Enoch to deploy an extensive field of space mines around the planet. These mines detonated upon the whales' arrival, severely injuring them and forcing them to abandon Tano and her ship. Hunted by Elsbeth's RP82 Fiend fighters, Ahsoka hid her shuttle in the graveyard ring, where she was attacked by the Eye of Sion's turbolasers after the Mothers detected her again. With nowhere else to go, Tano was forced to abandon her ship and companion Huyang and land on the surface. There, she encountered Baylan Skoll, who had abandoned his Padawan in search of a greater power he sensed on the planet. The two briefly dueled, but with both preoccupied with their own missions, the battle was cut short when Huyang bombed Skoll, allowing Tano to escape.

Meanwhile, Hati and a group of bandits located the Noti clan where Wren and Bridger were hiding. Accompanied by two squads of Night Troopers on board LAAT/le patrol gunships, they engaged the pair. Outnumbered, the two were quickly surrounded, but their execution was delayed when Ahsoka entered the battle, arriving just in time to witness her Padawan's peril. With most troopers killed in the skirmish, Thrawn ordered the survivors to return to the Chimaera, leaving the two Jedi and Sabine alone to celebrate their reunion.

While Tano, Wren, and Bridger were distracted, Thrawn's forces completed the transfer of coffins from the crypt beneath the Great Mothers' Fortress onto the Chimaera. Thrawn also sent a pair of TIE fighters to destroy the Jedi, who repelled the attack and stormed the Great Mothers' Fortress. Thrawn delayed the Jedi by deploying a contingent of Night Troopers resurrected by Nightsister magick. Tano also defeated Elsbeth in combat. In an attempt to kill the Jedi and Wren, Thrawn ordered the Chimaera to destroy the fortress. The Chimaera successfully docked with the Eye of Sion and returned to the main galaxy, leaving Tano and Wren stranded on Peridea.

Tano and Wren survived the bombardment and were rescued by Huyang. Despite Thrawn's efforts, Bridger boarded the Chimaera and reunited with General Hera Syndulla in the main galaxy. Following Thrawn's escape, Wren, Tano, and Huyang settled among the Noti. Meanwhile, Hati sought out the bandits, and Skoll sought the mysterious source of power on Peridea that seemed connected to the powerful Force wielders known as The Ones.

Peridea's original inhabitants included the Noti and the bandits. The Noti were a sentient species of small nomads with rock-like shells on their backs used for hiding. They lived in mobile pod-shaped homes and traveled the planet in tight-knit communities to avoid dangers. They were known for their peaceful nature, using only primitive weapons like slingshots.

The bandits were tall humanoids who rode native howlers, forming hunting parties to attack Noti communities. They were armed with a variant of blaster rifles and wore red armor, with hunting party leaders also wearing large decorated helmets.

The Dathomiri were also said to have lived on the planet, with three powerful witches still residing in the fortress by 9 ABY. Huyang believed they had established the Witch Kingdom of Dathomir as their capital on the planet. However, their way of life had been destroyed during the far galaxy war, and the Great Mothers desired to leave the now-barren Peridea with Thrawn.

Due to their forceful exile by the purrgil, a detachment of human stormtroopers calling themselves the Night Troopers were forced to survive on the planet for nearly a decade, their numbers dwindling over time. Additionally, the Jedi and rebel fugitive Ezra Bridger settled among a Noti clan and became their leader.

After being stranded on Peridea by Thrawn, the Jedi Ahsoka Tano, the Mandalorian Sabine Wren, and the architect droid Huyang settled among the Noti clan that Bridger had befriended.

Peridea made its first appearance in the Disney+ television series Ahsoka, which was released in 2023. Timothy Zahn confirmed in a Dragon Con 2018 interview that the destination to which Grand Admiral Thrawn was sent by the purrgil after "Family Reunion – and Farewell," the series finale of Star Wars Rebels, had already been determined. Establishing shots of the landscape surrounding the Great Mothers' Fortress on Peridea feature Loch Sionascaig, Fionn Loch, and neighboring lochans, as well as the mountains Suilven and Stac Pollaidh in Scotland's Assynt-Coigach National Scenic Area, located in the Northwest Highlands. Suilven serves as the basis for both the fortress itself and the Sculpture of the Ones.