Yo'gand's Core

The primary function of Yo'gand's Core was the swift and efficient annihilation of entire planetary bodies, eliminating the need for prolonged warfare. When used against unsuspecting foes, it allowed the tactician to remain hidden. Moreover, by strategically positioning the dovin basal or instructing it accordingly, the Yuuzhan Vong could ensure the satellite impacted a specific location on the planet, such as a city or an ocean, if desired. This ancient strategy also served as a potent terror tactic, instilling fear in its victims. Its use wasn't always separate from military engagements; the satellite could be brought down during a battle for tactical advantage, to assert Yuuzhan Vong dominance, or to eliminate unwanted objects, whether natural or artificial, from orbit. The gravitational disturbances caused by planetary destruction, along with potential radiation, could render entire systems inaccessible or uninhabitable.

Remarkably, Yo'gand's Core also facilitated the creation of new resources. Many planets contained valuable minerals beneath their surfaces that were difficult to access. The impact of a moon would generate immense forces, ultimately fracturing the planet. This resulted in an asteroid field rich in minerals that the Yuuzhan Vong could use to construct their organic starships. Fragments of destroyed worlds were given to younger ships to break down and assimilate. Shipwombs, the Yuuzhan Vong's version of shipyards, were ideally situated within the ruins of shattered planets, providing easy access to vast resources. Furthermore, Yo'gand's Core could be used to bring smaller meteorites containing valuable resources like water down to a planet's surface, making it a key component of Yuuzhan Vong terraforming.

Despite its destructive power, Yo'gand's Core could destroy a planet in a matter of days. The Yuuzhan Vong would deploy a powerful dovin basal onto the planet, sometimes within a crater they created themselves for secrecy or protection. In some cases, multiple dovin basals were deployed, though typically only one was used. Once in place, the dovin basal would use its gravitational manipulation to anchor itself to the planet's core while simultaneously attaching itself to a nearby satellite. While any object, such as floating cities or space stations, could theoretically be pulled onto the planet, a moon was typically targeted for complete planetary destruction. The dovin basal was considered expendable once the process was irreversible, and the Yuuzhan Vong rarely attempted retrieval, especially since evidence of the creatures would be lost with the planet. If attacked, however, the dovin basal could redirect its gravitational manipulation to burrow deeper underground.

Each time the moon passed over the dovin basal, its orbit would decay rapidly, bringing it closer to the planet. As the orbit decayed further, the orbital speed increased. As the moon approached, surface phenomena would begin to occur. Winds would intensify, becoming erratic and violent. Groundquakes and fissures would become common, causing the collapse of natural and artificial structures. If water was present, tidal patterns would be disrupted, leading to chaotic seas, floods, and tsunamis. Upon entering the atmosphere, the moon would experience immense compressive forces due to its mass, as well as frictional heating, resulting in a fiery trail. Once the moon entered the atmosphere, Yo'gand's Core became unstoppable. Massive ground upheavals became commonplace, and winds reached titanic speeds, capable of knocking spacecraft out of the sky and collapsing buildings. Debris would be picked up by the winds and hurled around, posing a lethal threat to any remaining inhabitants.

As the moon began its final, fiery descent, the extreme compression caused by its atmospheric entry would cause compounds like air to explode, triggering widespread firestorms. At the moment of impact, the atmosphere would essentially detonate, rendering the planet incapable of supporting atmospheric life. The impact would typically dislodge the planet from its orbit and create a massive cloud of planetary and satellite fragments. Once the planet was rendered uninhabitable, the other effects of the collision would manifest. The force of the impact would often cause the planet to break apart into large fragments, dispersing debris that could form an asteroid field. The loss of the planetary body would also destabilize the star system, causing gravitational fluctuations and disrupting hyperspace entry and exit points.

Around 15,000 years before their invasion of the galaxy, the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong were embroiled in a destructive internal conflict that threatened their species. The Cremlevian War raged for years between various Yuuzhan Vong tribes. The warrior Yo'gand, facing a rival domain on the planet Ygziir that was heavily defended and well-resourced, sought a new way to defeat his enemies. Utilizing a dovin basal, Yo'gand placed the creature on Ygziir and directed it to pull the planet's moon down onto the surface, specifically targeting the encampment of Warmaster Steng, his rival. The resulting impact destroyed Ygziir, eliminating all of Yo'gand's enemies on the planet except for Steng, whom Yo'gand defeated in single combat. This tactic is credited with unifying the Yuuzhan Vong, and the Battle of Ygziir became the turning point of the war. Due to the nature of the tactic and the dovin basal's connection to the planet's core, it became known as Yo'gand's Core. After the Cremlevian War, the unified Yuuzhan Vong began a war for galactic supremacy. Although they eventually found a way to counter the tactic with other dovin basals, it proliferated during the conquest of their galaxy and was later blamed for rendering it uninhabitable due to the destruction of numerous worlds. The destruction of their galaxy and their homeworld, Yuuzhan'tar, forced the Yuuzhan Vong to flee into the Intergalactic Void, where they wandered for millennia in search of a new home. Eventually, they set their sights on another galaxy, intending to conquer it completely. For millennia, the tactic of Yo'gand's Core remained unused, as the long journey through the Intergalactic Void provided no planets to conquer.

The tactic resurfaced only when the Yuuzhan Vong invasion was launched in 25 ABY against the inhabitants of a galaxy targeted by the Yuuzhan Vong. Its first application was against the planet Sernpidal in the Julevian system. After the Praetorite Vong, serving as the advance force for the main Yuuzhan Vong fleet, established their first base on the icy planet Helska IV, they began to plan their expansion. Prefect Da'Gara, the leader of the Praetorite Vong, believed that further expansion was too risky unless Sernpidal, a nearby world with significant communications and shipping traffic, was silenced. Unwilling to launch a full-scale assault due to the attention it would draw, Da'Gara sought advice from Executor Nom Anor. Anor agreed that Sernpidal was too well-connected to allow the invasion to go unnoticed, and together they considered ways to silence the planet without alerting the galaxy to their presence. Da'Gara eventually settled on using Yo'gand's Core, as the Sernpidalians and the rest of the New Republic would attribute the moon's descent to a natural phenomenon. Any New Republic warships sent to investigate could then be destroyed.

Prefect Da'Gara dispatched his agents to install a large dovin basal east of Sernpidal City, the planet's major population center. Sernpidal had two moons, one of which was Dobido—a small satellite twenty kilometers in diameter, ideal for the tactic. The dovin basal, secretly placed in a crater in an unpopulated area, latched onto Dobido and the planet's core, beginning the process of decaying the moon's orbit. The Yuuzhan Vong instructed the dovin basal to bring Dobido down directly on Sernpidal City. As Dobido orbited, its trajectory lowered with each pass over the dovin basal. The inhabitants of Sernpidal began to worship the moon as Tosi-karu, a Sernpidalian goddess they believed had arrived. Chaos and panic erupted in the city, and a mass exodus began as many realized what was happening. Elsewhere on the planet, settlements were destroyed by the natural disasters caused by the moon's descent. A coastal village south of Sernpidal City was leveled by a tsunami, while groundquakes demolished buildings and mountain ranges. The rising winds made evacuation difficult as fleeing ships were blown out of the sky. The arrival of the light freighter Millennium Falcon brought Jedi Anakin Solo, along with his father Han Solo and first mate Chewbacca. The crew studied Dobido's descent and realized its orbit was affected each time it passed over a specific location. With the Mayor of Sernpidal City, Anakin Solo investigated, discovered the dovin basal, and fired a [blaster](/article/blaster-legends] shot at the creature. By this point, Dobido's orbit was sufficiently decayed, and the impact was inevitable. The creature retreated further toward the planet's core but was ultimately killed when the mayor jumped into the crater with a thermal detonator and destroyed it.

The death of the dovin basal did not stop Dobido's descent; the moon, already in the atmosphere, began its final fall toward Sernpidal City, trailing flames and causing massive disasters. As the air burst due to the immense compressive forces, sweeping firestorms and winds caused chaos and destruction. In total, 20,000 people escaped, mainly due to the efforts of Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon. Millions perished in the impact as Dobido collided with Sernpidal, tearing away the atmosphere. Among the dead was the Wookiee Chewbacca, one of the Heroes of Yavin. Sernpidal was left uninhabitable. Dobido's impact tore away the atmosphere, dislodged a chunk of one hemisphere, and sent Sernpidal wobbling off its orbit. The planet fragmented over time, creating an asteroid field. The Yuuzhan Vong used the ruined planet to create a shipwomb—a shipyard—in which a new worldship could be constructed to house the young, infirm, and elderly. The fragments of Sernpidal were broken down and harvested for minerals. As a terror tactic, Sernpidal's destruction instilled fear in the New Republic, demonstrating the Yuuzhan Vong's destructive potential. The Yuuzhan Vong commander Shedao Shai later threatened Ithor with the same fate during negotiations with Jedi Knight Corran Horn, although Yo'gand's tactic was not used.

Ten months after Sernpidal's destruction, the Yuuzhan Vong used Yo'gand's tactic again, this time on Kalarba and its satellite, the Esseles-class Hosk Station. Part of Warmaster Tsavong Lah's campaign to cut off the Corellian Run trade route, the Battle of Kalarba was a New Republic loss that resulted in the planet's destruction. As with Sernpidal, the Yuuzhan Vong placed a dovin basal on the surface and directed it to pull Hosk Station, an ancient space station built onto the surface of one of Kalarba's moons, down onto the planet. This time, however, Yo'gand's Core was accompanied by military support. A Yuuzhan Vong fleet invaded the Kalarba system and attacked the New Republic presence once Hosk Station's descent began. Hosk Station suffered heavy damage from the Yuuzhan Vong vessels as it fell; its defenses were crippled, and it crashed onto Kalarba in ruins. The impact destroyed both Kalarba and Hosk Station, spreading radioactive material throughout the system, rendering it uninhabitable for centuries. The Yuuzhan Vong had no further use for the system and continued their advance on the Core Worlds.

At the Battle of Duro, shortly after the devastation of Kalarba, a variation of Yo'gand's Core was employed. In Duro's orbit were approximately twenty floating cities, housing the Duros population who had long since abandoned the polluted surface of their homeworld. The technology-hating Yuuzhan Vong viewed these cities as abominations and marked them for destruction. While some were rammed or destroyed by warships or creatures like the ychna, the rest were dragged to the surface by dovin basals, including Orr-Om and Bburru.

Later in the war, at Borleias, Supreme Commander Maal Lah placed a dovin basal on the planet's moon and used it to latch onto the orbital defenses protecting the world. To facilitate the assault, Lah intended for the dovin basal to sweep aside the defenses before the planetary invasion. However, the tactic was not used in this instance as Warmaster Tsavong Lah, directing his subordinate, decided that a different strategy was needed to quickly conquer the world. During the Yuuzhan Vong's restructuring of the Coruscant system following the conquest of Coruscant, to resemble their lost homeworld, Yuuzhan'tar, dovin basals were placed on the planet's surface to pull down meteorites containing water, bringing natural rain to Coruscant for the first time in millennia.

Yo'gand's Core was introduced in The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime, the first book in Del Rey's New Jedi Order series. The tactic was notable in Vector Prime because it resulted in the death of Chewbacca, who, while not the first movie character to die in the Expanded Universe, was the most famous. It allowed Del Rey to add tension to the novels, removing the "protective bubble" around the heroes. In her novel The New Jedi Order: Balance Point, released in 2000, Kathy Tyers used Yo'gand's Core in the opening sequence, where Jaina Solo fights the Yuuzhan Vong over Kalarba.

Chewbacca's death and other elements of the novel led to criticism of author R. A. Salvatore. Some criticized the science of the Yuuzhan Vong and deemed Yo'gand's Core unrealistic. Salvatore based the device on a 1950s science-fiction film. While unsure if gravitational manipulation was possible, Salvatore argued that other Star Wars elements, like the lightsaber, were never scientifically explained, so dovin basals shouldn't be unduly criticized.

Dobido's fiery descent onto Sernpidal and Chewbacca's defiance became a memorable Expanded Universe scene, featured in Abel G. Peña's article 20 Most Memorable Moments of the Expanded Universe and other online polls.

The tactic was incorrectly named Yo'Gand's Core in The New Jedi Order Sourcebook, and its creator was referred to as Yo'Gand. This error was repeated in 2009 with The Essential Atlas. As other sources use "Yo'gand," this article assumes that spelling is correct. Databank entries also state that multiple dovin basals were placed on Sernpidal; as Vector Prime mentions only one and states that the gravitational manipulation ended with its death, this article assumes the Databank entries are incorrect. The New Jedi Order Sourcebook states that several dovin basals are seeded on the planet, but this was not the case with Sernpidal.