The Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia

Preface

All facts and information contained in this encyclopedia are TM and copyright by Lucasfilm Ltd., except as noted. Information which has been copyrighted by LFL is not used with expressed permission, but is intended to help readers expand their knowledge of the Star Wars universe.

This document may not be redistributed with the consent of the author. I've worked too long and hard on this to have it pirated. E-mail me at bobvitas@nc.rr.com if you want to copy information from it.

Some Information on This Encyclopedia

This encyclopedia was created from all Lucasflim-licensed sources of Star Wars information. It was created without regard for what is "canon" what is not "canon" in the Star Wars universe. I have spoken with several respected members of the Star Wars community, both officially and unofficially, and many have grown to consider the Marvel tales as "myths and legends" within the Star Wars timeline. As such, they may or may not have happened exactly as retold in the Marvel comics. Think of it this way: when the United States Mens' Hockey Team won the Gold Medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, it was considered the "Miracle on Ice." The stories of the US players have been well-documented by the US press. Imagine, though, the stories of those hockey games as told through the eyes of the Russian players who lost in the semi-finals. They would tell a starkly different picture of the exact same events. I've come to think of the Marvel comics as retellings of events which occurred during the Galactic Civil War, from the perspective of those individuals who were in the background while the action was taking place.

It was first made available to friends in 1994, after about 2 ½ years of work. I had been compiling information in a few text files, since I hadn't read any of the West End Games material when Heir to the Empire came out. Thus, I was completely at a loss as to what a Lancer-class frigate was. As it grew, I realized that this was bigger than the text files I had started with, so I tried out WordPerfect. Once I got everything converted over, and started really getting it presentable, I printed out the First Edition.

I kept working on it, especially when I learned about the scope of the West End Games material and the width of Bantam Spectra's deal to produce new novels. My free time, as I knew it, would be forever changed!

When I got the HTML plug-in for WordPerfect, I knew it was time to "go public." That first HTML converter took about 14 hours to complete the entire encyclopedia (which was about 2 Megabytes in size as a WP60 file), and my AOL account could only handle about 15 letters of the alphabet. I am indebted to those readers who started visiting my website back then, and who clamored for more information. After trying a couple other converters in an effort to get that 14-hour time down, I gave up on WordPerfect and migrated to Word 97. (This was a tough choice, since I am not Bill Gates' biggest fan by any stretch of the imagination!) The HTML code converted in about 10 minutes, from a set of files which was now about 5 Megabytes in total. All this meant that I had more time to figure out how to make the encyclopedia presentable.

I moved my ISP from AOL to Mindspring, and was able to get the full encyclopedia uploaded. However, I was limited to 450 Megabytes of transfer per month, which at first was OK. But, as the prequels started getting headlines, I would hit that mark every once in a while. When the prequels were about a year away, I would hit it every month. It was at this time that MosEisley.com offered to host my encyclopedia. I hesitated, not sure if I should move. However, as the prequels approached and I starting hitting my limit by the 15^th of each month, I was getting as frustrated as my readers. So, I agreed to their offer and moved to their server. Thanks, Matt and Stan!

Of course, things always look greener across the fence, and I began to get a lot of notes from readers asking me to send them the files via e-mail. While the server was handling the HTML code pretty well, downloads were only completing about half the time. This was getting to be a hassle, as was the week where the site was down for an unknown reason. Also, space started to become an issue, prohibiting me from putting up lots of pictures and graphics. Thus, I took a sabbatical from MosEisley.com and started hunting for a new home. Amazingly, I found one almost immediately at TheForce.Net. They agreed to give me a ton of space and all the help I needed. While I had this before, I was now part of one of the largest Star Wars sites on the Internet. TheForce.Net had already recongized my encyclopedia as a cool site, and now it was on its way to become the Star Wars encyclopedia on the Internet.

Thanks to readers like you, I was transferring well over 4 Gigabytes of data each month! I'm also indebted to the readers who have written back, pointing out problems and offering suggestions, in an effort to make this the most complete and comprehensive encyclopedia available! I rally do enjoy reading your correspondences and answering your questions. Keep 'em coming!

Everything wasn't perfect, and the CUSWE experienced more growing pains. The good one was the creation of the back-end Access database for storing the CUSWE. Thanks and kudos go out to Anthony Baratta and Mike Spellacy for their help in getting it up and running, and pointing me to ASP programming resources. The database was crued at first, but kept getting better. Each change caused its own set of problems, not the least of which was the fact that I could store a lot of information on a topic that may or may not be displayed on a page. I kept it in the database for future expansion.

Around this time, I started hearing from the folks over at the Wookieepedia. They were looking to get some help getting started. I have to admit, I wasn't sure how the idea of a Star Wars wiki would work out. However, I started working with the team over there, and came to know them... at least in an on-line capacity. The two sites have grown tremendously since then, and together form the largest collection of information about the Star Wars universe... second only (and rightly so) to the official Holocron.

Any site expansion was curtailed in 2005, as the host site changed its format and went to a more center-column look. The outer columns were reserved for simple navigation and the ads and banners that supported the site. I tried to fit into this new format, but it was restrictive. I couldn't display the information the way I wanted to... or the way that readers had become accustomed to. So, I took the plunge and set up the CUSWE on its own site: http://www.cuswe.org. There was some grief and some flak over this, but I knew then that it was the right decision. The fact that you're here reading this only proves that I was correct. Thanks again, loyal readers, for keeping the CUSWE vital!

It is impossible to create a document like this from such a huge body of knowledge without finding some inconsistencies and errors. Every author who has written in the Star Wars universe has commented on it and dealt with it. Lucasfilm has final say on the material I drew from, and it makes no claim that the material is 100 percent compatible with George Lucas' vision of the Star Wars universe. So, if there are errors or inconsistencies, I have tried to note them as appropriate.

It is important to note that this massive work could not have been completed (like it will ever be complete!) without help from a number of sources. They are all noted in the Acknowledgements section. I just hope I didn't leave anyone out!

I have also tried to document the source of my encyclopedia entries at all times. The bibliography at the end of this encyclopedia is quite extensive, and I have tried to indicate with each entry which source it came from. If an entry is not sourced, it means that I could not remember where I found it. If you find an unsourced or inaccurately sourced entry, please e-mail me!. The source listed is the first reference to an entry. If there are multiple sources listed, then all sources listed contributed some information to the encyclopedia.

Notes on Encyclopedia Entries

All entries are listed alphabetically, with the assumption that numerals come after letters. There are many cross-references to other listings, and they should all refer to a full description somewhere in the encyclopedia.

The names of human characters are listed alphabetically by last name. Being a human from Earth, I used the standard American phonebook listing for all Star Wars humans. Thus, if you want to look up Han Solo, you need to search in the S section under Solo, Han. If a human only goes by a single name (i.e., Roa), then you simply look up that single name.

Non-human names, however, are listed alphabetically by the initial part of their name. This is because I chose not to impose Earth-bound human standards on Star Wars alien races. Thus, if you are trying to locate Momaw Nadon, you need to look under Momaw Nadon. As with single-named humans, aliens who one have one word to their names are listed by that name (eg., Garindan).

If a character's race is unknown, their name is listed as it appears in the source.

(For more information on Star Wars naming systems, you should check out the Names Gazetteer from The Chaos Crew RPG site.)

New entries, added in the current edition, are denoted by a blue font.
Modified entries, changed since the last edition, are denoted by a green font.

Entries from any source not licensed or authorized by LucasFilm are preceeded by an asterisk (*). There's at least one of them!

May the Force be with you...

***** Last updated May 4, 2007 *****

cuswe.org is not affiliated with Lucasfilm Limited or any of its subsidiaries, nor is it associated with any of its partners. All facts and information contained on this website are TM, ©, or ® by Lucasfilm Ltd., except as noted. Information which has been copyrighted by Lucasfilm Limited has not used with expressed permission, although no malicious intent was intended in the use of this information, nor is there any intention of making a profit from it. This is just a fan site, created by a fan, for the fans.