Wobegon

"Planet Wobegon. All the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

- Ric Olié

Wobegon was a planet near Dubrillion, colonized by Humans several hundred years after the Great War. During the era of the Old Republic, Wobegon was known for the simple lifestyles led by the inhabitants, who kept together in small villages and lived in close communities. Wobegon's inhabitants were independent, but regulated by community perception and small-town gossip. Most of the colonists on Wobegon were connected to the agricultural trade.

Though the planetary population climbed to a billion by the time of the Clone Wars, a typical "city" on Wobegon consisted of 300 to 25,000 people. The only city that exceeded 50,000 inhabitants was its capital, an underground complex originally built by the large native Keillor moles, a semi-sentient race that was eventually driven to near-extinction by the popular Wobegon pastime of hunting.

Geography
Wobegon's geography and climate was diverse, with lakes, plains, and canyons. The tectonic plates had been stable for about a billion years by the time the colonists arrived, so there were few mountain ranges, and most of the geographic formations were caused by erosion. There was a region near the capital that was carved by a river for millions of years, making ornate canyons and mesas, where some of the inhabitants built cliff dwellings. Wobegon's terrain tended to consist of vast plains toward the north and south and become rougher as one approaches the equator.

Wobegon had no oceans, but instead had many great lakes. Because of periodic ice ages and glacial advances that reach down close to the tropics, there are an estimated 10 billion standing bodies of water on the planet. The people of Wobegon boast that their planet is the "world of 10 billion lakes," though in fact most of these bodies of water are actually ponds.

Early history
Wobegon was first colonized circa 3500 BBY, by Humans who had been left as refugees for several generations following the Great War. The settling of the planet was in part due to the colonist-encouraging homestead acts passed by the Republic, which were meant to populate territory worlds that had no native sentient life forms (partly, some skeptics say, to increase the amount of votes in the Senate for Human sympathizers). The colonists mainly came from the Yarron system, which had been affected greatly during the Great War. The colonists of Wobegon led simple lives, with limited contact with the rest of the galaxy. Life didn't change much over this time; as the culture of Wobegon encouraged adhering to traditional values.

During the millennia between the first settling and the Clone Wars, the population steadily grew, though the population density kept fairly constant. In other words, as the number of people increased, the cities became more sparse. Wobegon had a large amount of people leave the planet, so despite the large families of the traditional Yarron small-town culture, Wobegon stayed sparsely populated for millennia.

Clone Wars
In early 20 BBY, the Corporate Alliance and the InterGalactic Banking Clan invaded the planet with a small force. The locals were divided on their loyalty to the Republic, with almost exactly 50% supporting the Confederacy. Because the inhabitants were divided, the Confederacy of Independent Systems took the planet without fighting.

A year later, a small task force led by Sa'Madhi Tatthya arrived at Wobegon to push back the Separatists. Sa'Madhi, who was known for rallying resistance groups and connecting with locals, was chosen for the mission because of the delicate divisiveness among the inhabitants of Wobegon.

Though it took several months to do so, Sa'Madhi and her apprentice managed to rally a considerable resistance force among the locals, and they fought a long, hard campaign to drive back the Separatist Battle Droids. The battle was nearing its climax during Order 66, and the successive deactivation of the Battle Droids. The only Clone Trooper unit on the planet had defected to Sa'Madhi and the other Jedi, so there was no forceful purging of the Battle Droids by the Republic or its later incarnation as the Empire.

Imperial Era
As a territory of the Empire, and not an official world with representation in the Senate, the inhabitants started to protest the limitations the Empire imposed on them. Though the protests were generally peaceful, the regional Governor decided in 16 BBY to demonstrate the might of the Empire with some new weapons developed on Dubrillion, and destroyed the capital with a superlaser that had been equipped to an Imperial Star Destroyer. The Empire proceeded to occupy the planet with a modest amount of troops, but this proved to be ineffective because the villages were small and the Empire had to stretch supply lines to quarter its troops all over the planet. Eventually, word of the difficulty in this supposedly minor system got to the ears of the Emperor, who ordered the immediate bombardment of the planet. A fleet of ten Star Destroyers went to wipe out life on the planet.

However, word of the mission got to the 1337 N00B5 via a network of anti-Imperial intelligence and propaganda that the pirate gang had helped set up. They petitioned the Zann Consortium and Black Sun to assist in defending Wobegon, but both parties turned on the 1337 N00B5. With few ships, Ilmar Grmek and her fleet jumped to the system just before the Imperial Star Destroyers got in range of the planet. The 1337 N00B5 used corvettes to land boarding parties on the Imperial Star Destroyers, and used the heavy turbolasers on their Venators and the YT-1300 bombers to damage some of the Star Destroyers. This was only a diversion, and it mostly worked; the 1337 N00B5 helped millions get off the planet in time in fast transports. The fleeing inhabitants also drew the fire of the Star Destroyers, and eventually the Empire gave up, having lost three Star Destroyers to the pirates. The limited bombardment that did take place did not even come close to wiping out all life on the planet. The Emperor attributed the humiliation to pirates, covered up the details of the story. Thanks in part to the Governor of Dubrillion, who was eager to test his new technology, the Emperor cut off the planet from the rest of the Empire, and the galaxy, by setting up prototype gravity well generators around the planet along with new subspace jammers; rendering it impossible for anything to enter or leave the system.

After over a decade, the people of Wobegon had partially rebuilt their capital, and also erected a makeshift planetary shield generator and an anti-orbital cannon, which they planned to use to discreetly destroy the orbiting gravity well generators and subspace jammers. Because the subspace jammers also prevented communications through hyperspace, and the gravity well generators made it unnecessary to enter the system, it would take the Empire a long time to realize that Wobegon had broken off its chains. After using their cannon to destroy the satellites one by one, they sent a spy out into the galaxy to learn of the Empire's potential weaknesses. It happened that Luke Skywalker had blown up the Death Star several months previously, and the Rebel Alliance was gaining influence.

Wobegon eventually joined the Rebellion, providing a significant increase in manpower and a strong tactical position. The Empire tried, one more time, to destroy Wobegon, but the 1337 N00B5, which by then had joined the Rebellion and increased its power greatly, managed to defend the planet one final time.

When the New Republic declared victory over the Imperial Remnant, Wobegon quietly seceded from the new galactic government and lived as an independent planetary state, resuming its idealistic small-town culture. It is unknown if Wobegon survived the Yuuzhan Vong War.

Architecture
Though nearly everyone from Wobegon was blond, blue-eyed, connected to the agricultural trade, and living in a small town or countryside, the different towns showed great diversity. Near the capital, buildings were usually made from stone, though farther north most dwellings were made from wood. There were also some floating cities, where the villagers lived on partially mobile home-boats that cruised the Great Lakes. Just south of the capital, there were cliff dwellings that were started by the native Keillor moles.

Behind the scenes
Wobegon gets its name, and many of its characteristics, from the fictitious Lake Wobegon from Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion.