Sweet Sith, I think I've found hell...
—Corellian spacefarer, upon discovering the ruined Andaria
Andaria was a planet in a system in Wild Space, bordering on Hutt Space and influenced by the Hutt crime clans to a degree. In its heyday, it was known for weapons manufacture and a vein of governmental instability. After 71 BBY, it was known for being a barren wasteland, totally destroyed by its most famous son, the Sith Lord Tak Sakaros.
Landscape[]
Most of Andaria's landscape was covered by grassy plains. Nabooan shaaks had been introduced as herd animals with mixed success early in the planet's history, but the primarily unarable soil necessitated a healthy trade in foodstuffs from other worlds. Andaria's human population had originally made due with food sources in the cities, but as the cities themselves expanded this became infeasible.
Andaria's oceans were famous for being incredibly shallow, rarely more than 100 meters deep. As a result, sea creatures tended to be small and the introduction of exotic predators was strictly controlled by law. Early colonists attempted to create land bridges to link the various continents, with minimal success. As a result, a business of high-speed ferry passage across the oceans sprang up.
Cities[]
The capital of Andaria was Marinok City, named for the Bothan spacer who led the first colonizing mission, Ulu'uk Marinok. Marinok City was deliberately designed to mirror the architecture of Coruscant; it failed badly, leaving the city with a permanently antiqued appearance. The major spaceport of the planet was located in the capital, and as a result Hutt bribery of elected officials was rampant. Marinok City was connected to two of the planet's oceans by a river that flowed through it, east to west.
The second largest city, home to 8.36 million inhabitants at its peak, was Cresyl. Three nearby ore veins made the city prosper quickly, and only fifty years after settlement it had its own spaceport. Unlike most cities on Andaria, Cresyl had a very metropolized look and feel, and was a place in which it was easy to get lost. Tak Sakaros was born in Cresyl.
The few other major cities all became so due to being the sites of weapons plants or proximity to ore veins.
Economy[]
The economy of Andaria was based mostly around weapons and ore exports. Colonists settled the planet originally due to the presence of pink ores used in the manufacture of durasteel. Trace amounts of cortosis were mined within a year, but this rare metal made the initial settlers phenomenally rich and contributed to the long duration of Andaria's civilization. The presence of metal supplies led to the creation of in-system smelting vats, following by weapons factories. The weapons, in turn, drew investment from Hutt crime clans, which created a booming trade with several systems in Hutt Space.
History[]
Settlers first reached Andaria in 2,679 BBY, departing from Kothlis and Ando, with financial support from the king of Naboo. Mining expeditions set up camps in the vicinity of what would become Marinok City, quickly recognizing and tapping a nearby vein of cortosis. Funds from this initial discovery contributed to continental expansion and quick establishment of several peripheral colonies.
By 1,687 BBY, colonists had depleted most of the surface ore deposits and were seeking alternate investments. With approval from the planet's Potentate, weapons manufacturing plants were established in the major cities. Being far distant from the Core, Andaria had remained independent from the Republic, and as a result they turned to the Hutts for a weapons market. Hutt interest in Andaria's output led to large-scale corruption, beginning with spaceport and customs officials but eventually making its way up to the highest levels of government.
By the year 75 BBY, government had grown so hopelessly corrupt that there was no chance of peaceful or lawful recovery, and civil war broke out in the summer of that year. Offering enormous payoffs to "loyalists", government leaders significantly increased the size of the government forces in order to forcibly bring the dissenters under government control. Citizens were divided into "Nationalist" and "Rebel" camps; those who tried to remain neutral either had to flee the planet or were quickly swept aside.
As part of a campaign to "root out conspirators", the Nationalists ordered the extermination of a number of mid- and low-level bureaucrats. Among these was Nagarian Sakaros, who was slated for death along with his entire family. While Nagarian and his wife were murdered (by their Nationalist eldest son, Velian), the two younger children escaped to join the rebels. Four years later, the youngest child was murdered by a Nationalist soldier.
The only surviving Sakaros, Tak, was apprenticed to the Dark Lord of the Sith Khrado Ragnos six months later. As the first act of his apprenticeship, he led a Massassi attack squad against Nationalists and Rebels alike. The Andarians tried to rally behind a common flag against a common enemy, but Tak, filled with rage at the world that had destroyed everyone he loved, persuaded Ragnos to bombard the planet. Ignoring pleas and offers of surrender, the Sith destroyed all traces of civilization on the surface.
Following the Sith bombardment, Andaria was a ruined and toxic world. The Sith weaponry had released toxins in the soil into the atmosphere, rendering it unbreathable to most sentients. Destruction of offshore mining stations poisoned the oceans. Within two weeks, all life on the world had died, and Andaria was reduced to a disastrous state from which is never recovered. Much later, through use of elaborate breathing apparatuses, Sakaros would visit the planet occasionally to meditate on the dark side of the Force.