Atollias was a remote world deep within Wild Space. Hidden inside of a nebula, the world was unremarkable, a barren rocky orb like millions of others within the galaxy. With only the barest wisps of atmosphere there, a thin mix of methane, nitrogen, and hydrogen, the world was generally inhospitable to life. However, hidden beneath the surface and a powerful concealing Force illusion, Atollias held a Force nexus.
Geography and biology[]
A barren rocky world cloistered within a gassy nebula, Atollias lay in the desolate space between the Corellian Run and the Llanic Spice Run at the edges of the Outer Rim. It orbited a small A-type star, young and white-shot. The planet was bathed in enough ambient radiation to fry most forms of life and only had a thin atmosphere of methane, nitrogen, and hydrogen, with average atmospheric pressure at surface of 10KPa. The planet was small, with an equatorial radius of 2,817 kilometers. Lacking moons or atmosphere, the planet's surface was riddled with crater impacts. Igneous rock and hardened lava flows from inactive volcanoes comprised most of the surface. The planet had no native life forms. the entire surface was one monolithic continent, as tectonic forces had yet to push the plates apart. The planet had one distinction though: fused within its crust were millions of crystals that could be attuned to the Force.[1]
History[]
For much of its existence, Atollias was like millions of other inhospitable, desolate orbs of rock. It formed as a fiery ball of rock amidst tumultuous volcanic eruptions. Those eventually cooled and hardened, leaving a cold world constantly bathed in stellar radiation from the nebula whence it came. Atollias was remarkable only for the potential of its crystal-embedded crust, which had the potential to be focused and used as a powerful Force nexus. However, without a potent Force-user or group of Force-users to harness its potential, Atollias lay dormant for millennia.[1]
The Force-wielding Rakata found Atollias around 28,000 BBY and used it as one of their furthest outposts, a distant jumping-off point that served as a hidden redoubt and surveillance station. The world was too distant and inhospitable to support a larger presence, but the Rakata at least set up a Force-powered atmospheric generator and built a small temple here where Rakatan masters would channel their Force-energies into the crystals. When the Rakatan Infinite Empire fell, the world was abandoned and forgotten.[1]
It was not until 3500 BBY that the last followers of a group called the Order of Revan re-discovered the planet, naming it Atollias after their leader. Driven into hiding by persecution from the Jedi over the decades, the Order of Revan collected countless artifacts related to their namesake, the legendary Jedi-turned-Sith-turned-Jedi-turned-Sith known as Revan.[1] Atollias was a mystic who sought to communicate with those beyond death, who had become one with the Force. He had learned of a legend of portals where the Force congregated, making it possible to do so.[1] They brought the artifacts they found to Atollias where they found the Rakatan temple still intact. Using his mastery of the Force, Atollias created a Force illusion that contained breathable atmosphere produced by the Rakatan generator in an area around the temple, as well as hid the ancient site. His disciples found and excavated a large focusing crystal used and with their aid, Atollias attempted to channel their Force powers through the crystal and into the artifacts and relics. While he was successful in reaching out and binding the essences of Revan and his closest companions to the world of Atollias, the power they focused was too much for them to bear and they perished in the endeavor. Only whispers of memories were left behind, save for one prophecy recorded by a Revanite shortly before he perished:[2]
Five from the sky, five from five places. Five there will be: A leader, warrior, healer, thinker, seer. Five young will learn from twelve old to take their new roles. They must take up the light against the long night of fear, gathering the children of the Force to refuge.
—Unknown Revanite
Atollias sat deserted for centuries. It wasn't until 16 BBY when a freighter making a blind jump through hyperspace arrived at Atollias, bearing an injured Jedi Knight named Selu Kraen and four companions. They set down to make repairs and stumbled into a tunnel that led to the old Rakatan temple, where the spirits of Revan and his companions greeted them. The Jedi apparitions told them of the prophecy and healed Selu. The five travelers agreed to unlock a crystal which will imbue them with some of the gathered Force potential of Atollias, allowing them to undertake a quest to unify and protect a number of Force-using groups from the oppressive regime of the Empire. The five trained their newly-found skills for some time before leaving. They were successful in founding a hidden refuge for light side Force-users on the remote world of Yanibar, leaving Atollias quiet once more.[2] The five kept the location of Atollias a closely-guarded secret known only at the highest level of the government and defense force, as they were aware of its power. Only select teams of Force-users traveled there, to quietly meditate or possibly to seek lightsaber crystals. The temple itself was completely restricted to only the highest ranks of Force-users.[1]
Almost two decades later, one of the five, the ex-ARC trooper Spectre Kraen, later returned to Atollias to seek answers to his diminishing Force-sensitivity. Revan's apparition was able to help him by suggesting that his difficulty was caused by fighting other clones of Jango Fett, whose identical presence in the Force was disrupting his concentration.[3] Atolias remained a quiet retreat for years afterward, as Selu Kraen was unwilling to try and harness Atollias's power further for fear of the same fate as the Revanites befalling any users. Selu had seen what the grasp of power had done to other Jedi in times before and chose not to try and challenge the Empire with Atollias.[1]
During the Yuuzhan Vong War, Atollias was marked as a site for protection by the Yanibar Guard to prevent it from falling into Yuuzhan Vong hands. A single gunship was dispatched to lay mines around the world. However, a Force-user from Yanibar named Ariada Cerulaen, learned enough about Atollias that when she fell to the dark side, she gave its location to a group of Dark Jedi, who attempted to seize it for themselves. One of the original five freighter crew, Sarth Kraen, was on Atollias overseeing the minelaying operation and barely escaped, though he left his personal assistant droid J7-A0 behind to trigger the mines. The Dark Jedi were denied access to Atollias as the mines cut off hyperspace around the world, but the Yanibar Guard lost its use as well.[4]
Culture[]
The Rakata operated Atollias as a military outpost. It was considered a backwater due to its lack of other resources and proximity to inhabited worlds to conquer, as well as its sheer distance from their homeworld. Once they abandoned it, the Order of Revan, a group of mystics devoted to the legendary Force-user arrived. Their tenure on Atollias was short-lived, and while they were organized in a hierarchy reminiscent of the Jedi and Sith, their numbers were small enough that their leader Atollias was able to single-handedly lead them on the quest that ultimately was their demise. They left a few relics and writings of their own behind at the time of their perishing, but little else of theirs survived. After the Revanites, there were no further permanent inhabitants of Atollias prior to the world's loss.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
Atarumaster88 created the world of Atollias for Force Exile III: Liberator in 2008 as a way to imbue the five crewmembers of the Hawk-bat with Force-sensitivity as well as connect the characters to the ancient Jedi of the Knights of the Old Republic series. After later canonical elaborations on the fate of Revan and his companions, Atarumaster88 later revised the entire encounter and backstory significantly in a 2014 rewrite of Liberator. Atollias was featured briefly in two sequels, Force Exile IV: Guardian and Force Exile V: Warrior, but access to the world was cut off in Warrior. Atarumaster88 did not actually name the world until 2020, when writing the Essential Guide to Force Exile entry for the planet. Previously, it was simply referenced in the novels as "Revan's world." The name was inspired by the countries of Sounis and Attolia from the Queen's Thief series of novels.
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 The Essential Guide to Force Exile exclusive Atollias content
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Force Exile III: Liberator
- ↑ Force Exile IV: Guardian
- ↑ Force Exile V: Warrior