The Free Cities were a disparate group of self-ruling Rakata city-states on Mure that lay on the archipelagos of the planet's equatorial Encircling Sea.
Founded during the Pax Rakata and golden age of the Infinite Empire, the Free Cities were unique among the planetary nations of Mure in that they were not subordinate to any larger state. Instead, due to possessing imperial immediacy, they enjoyed a fair degree of autonomy and were generally ruled by dedicated Predors or sub-Predors answerable only to the greater governor of Mure.
The Free Cities were the only planetary states on Mure to survive the fall of the Empire in 25,200 BBY[1][2] and subsequent slave rebellions,[3] in large part due to their isolated, heavily protected locations in the Encircling Sea. With the founding of the First Predorate by Osraa, the majority of the surviving Rakata population from Upper and Lower Mure withdrew to the Free Cities. Even in the millennia following the arrival of the Kûskûshnwûlanjattsisottoikut and the founding of the Second Predorate, the Free Cities constituted the primary residences of the Rakata Mure tribe.
Behind the scenes
The Free Cities and their imperial immediacy are both references to the free imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire, city-states independent of local rulers and answerable only the Emperor himself.
Bibliography
- Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- The Essential Atlas