Sarapin was a volcanic world in the Sarapin system, between Neimoidia and the Treskov system. It had ashy soil, and was completely barren, with dormant volcanoes until an unnatural disaster struck the surface of the planet. The disaster destabilized the world and caused the eruption of the volcanoes on a planet-wide scale. Streams of lava started to continually flow across its surface.
History[]
The planet began life as an unstable and toxic world. The volcanoes and hot, viscous mantle layer, erupted and created massive lava fissures along the crust. The water and oxygen on the planet was replaced with acidic lakes and the atmosphere was composed of gases toxic to most humanoid life, like methane and carbon dioxide.
Near the time of its discovery by the Galactic Republic, the world had become barren, and the volcanoes were dormant. Ash and rock covered the planet, with no form of water or life, aside from the vaapad. The two satellites that orbited Sarapin harbored vaapad too.
The Republic implemented atmospheric purifiers across the planet to purify the atmospheric mix for settlements. Settlements such as Mount Corvast were created by corporations hoping to mine for precious minerals and metals. The settlements were quickly abandoned by the corporations due to their impatient practices when it came to mining, similar events occurred on Tatooine. Commonwealth Electric came to the system in search for a powerful and natural power source to help power the Core Worlds, they resettled Mount Corvast and set up a few large drills. They drilled into the crust and discovered a cheap and efficient power source.
Sarapin immediately became a major power provider for the Republic before becoming the primary energy supplier for them after 14 BBY, when its volcanoes became active again. An almost infinite power source sprung up and allowed the expansion of CE's production immediately. This event propelled CE to the status of largest energy corporation in the galaxy.
The Commonwealth expanded operations with the intention of harnessing the power of its many active volcanoes and lava flows. The energy was tapped by energy collectors and moved to an Energy Collection Repository, for eventual shipment off-world.
Features[]
Sarapin was a barren world, none of the life-giving planetary traits such as water, flora or oxygen were in plentiful supply. Only one species of fauna lived on Sarapin, the vaapad—a non-sentient predator that sucked the life from its victims. The world began life as a volcanically active planet. Nearly all of the world's volcanoes erupted continuously for thousands of years. All of the water was vaporized and the atmospheric mix of oxygen, methane, and other trace gases was replaced by heavy amounts of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane. Once many of the volcanoes became dormant, the lava floes hardened into black igneous rock, and covered the original sandstone formations.
Terrain[]
The terrain of the system was originally composed of sandstone and trace amounts of other rock formations. The planet was very mountainous, with only the oceanic valleys being relatively flat. It gradually became less mountainous once the volcanoes became active since the lava streams built up thousands of feet of igneous rock and powerful eruptions destroyed the summits of the volcanoes.
The active volcanoes destroyed the sea-life and vaporized the water supply across the planet. The ocean valleys became the hottest and coldest areas on the planet, with massive fissures and canyons forming from the wide temperature swings.
Weather[]
There was no weather nor seasons on Sarapin, the only temperature changes occurred when Sarapin faced its sun or away from its sun. The side that faced the sun was much warmer than the dark side. The lack of water on the planet prevented any form of rain. The planet's climate and weather was very similar to a desert planet.
Fauna and flora[]
Fauna[]
After the initial volcanic activity, 99% of the fauna and flora living on Sarapin was eradicated, the vaapad species was the only species to survive and they numbered in the thousands after the massive extinction event. The vaapad grew larger in size and population once the oxygen level was restored by the corporations that settled there. A species of blue bear was known to exist there and was assumed to have been the apex predator on the planet, just above the vaapad.
Flora[]
A species of wroshyr tree was known to have been present before the extinction event.
Behind the scenes[]
Sarapin's history is based partially on the history developed for it in the official Expanded Universe canon maintained by Del Rey and Lucasarts. Images of a Strombolian eruption, which is also used for the official Epic of the Star Wars universe logo, is used as another visual reference of the planet's instability. It also serves to show one of its many active volcanoes.