Yavin

Planet

As seen in Star Wars, the Yavin planet is an especially large red gas giant, with a diameter of around 123,000 Miles (198,000 kilometers).

Fictional history

The Super Star Destroyer Knight Hammer was destroyed here when it was diverted towards the planet's core after a collision with a Rebel vessel.

Moons - Yavin IV

Yavin 4 or Yavin IV is one of Yavin's many moons. It was home to the Rebel Alliance's main military base in Star Wars.

Filming

In Star Wars, the scenes featuring the scenery of Yavin 4 were filmed in Tikal, Guatemala.

In the cinematic series

The Rebels established their base in the ancient Massassi ruins found in the lush jungles of Yavin 4 following the abandonment of their previous base on the planet Dantooine.

Jyn Erso was brought to Yavin 4 upon her liberation from an Imperial prison on Wobani. There she was asked to make contact with Saw Gerrera on the moon of Jedha, in an effort to find out the location of her father. Galen Erso had for many years been forced to work on the Empire's latest super-weapon, the Death Star, until he smuggled out a message via a defecting pilot. The leadership of the Rebel Alliance, including Senator Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Generals Dodonna, Merrick and Draven and Admiral Raddus, later met to debate Erso's proposed attack on Scarif in an attempt to locate the plans to the Death Star. Divided, the council voted the measure down, only to reverse their position once the successful infiltration was underway.

The Empire sought to use the Death Star to destroy the small jungle moon and crush the Rebellion after being led to it by a tracker placed aboard the Millennium Falcon. A force of twenty-two X-wing and eight Y-wing starfighters were sent to destroy the battle station. With seconds remaining before the moon was to be destroyed, Luke Skywalker, thanks to Galen Erso's intentional Death Star design flaws, the timely assistance of his friend Han Solo and the ghostly advice of Obi-Wan Kenobi to use The Force, was able to fire proton torpedoes into a small thermal exhaust port along the Death Star's trench, thereby destroying the station and saving Yavin 4 from destruction.

All but three Rebel Alliance craft were destroyed in the attack, the only survivors being Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, and an unnamed Y-wing pilot. Following the Death Star's destruction a ceremony was held, during which Leia Organa presented medals of honor to Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.

This battle became known as the Battle of Yavin, and its date is used as a place-marker for events in the expanded Star Wars universe. Events before the Battle of Yavin are marked by BBY ("Before the Battle of Yavin"), and events that occur after are marked by ABY ("After the Battle of Yavin").

The Yavin 4 moon was also the site of giant Massassi Temples built ages ago by the Massassi to worship Naga Sadow, a Sith Lord who had enslaved and mutated the Massassi using Sith Alchemy. The Temple later housed the Rebel Alliance, who used it for shelter and camouflage during their stay on Yavin 4. The Alliance built tall observation towers to monitor entries and exits from their hidden base.

Yavin 4 has also been established as the birthplace of Resistance X Wing pilot Poe Dameron.

Legends

With the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film Star Wars were rebranded as Star Wars Legends and declared non-canon to the franchise in April 2014.

In Tales of the Jedi, it is stated that Yavin 4 was where Naga Sadow hid from the Republic in 5,000 BBY and was discovered several hundred years later by the fallen Jedi Freedon Nadd. According to the comic series, the Massassi warriors who built the ruins used by the Rebels were brought to the planet by the Sith Order in its early years.

In the Jedi Academy Trilogy, Kevin J. Anderson suggested that Exar Kun had the temples built. Enveloped in the dark side, Kun elevated himself to the stature of a god. He enslaved the Massassi and forced them to construct an intricate complex of massive temples that were used for arcane Sith ceremonies and rites as foci for the dark side.

In the young reader novel The Lost City of the Jedi, it is discovered, as the title suggests, that the ancient Jedi built a lost city on Yavin 4.

In the animated micro-series Star Wars: Clone Wars, Yavin 4 was the site where Anakin Skywalker had a fierce battle with Asajj Ventress, a follower of Count Dooku. Anakin defeated Asajj, sending her falling down a dark abyss.

Yavin 4 was the base of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum, where he personally trained the next generation of Jedi Knights. Once Skywalker had trained enough Jedi, this duty was taken up by the married Jedi Masters, Battlemaster Kam Solusar and his wife Chief Librarian Tionne Solusar, as well as another former apprentice of Skywalker's, Streen. The Praxeum was destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong, during their invasion of the moon in 26 ABY. The Praxeum was eventually relocated to the ancient Jedi homeworld, Ossus. The original Praxeum was the main setting of the Young Jedi Knights series, based on Skywalker's teenage niece and nephew, Jaina and Jacen Solo.

Yavin 4 appears in the downloadable content for the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Yavin 4 has also been added in the latest expansion (December 2014) of the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic. Titled "Shadow of Revan", the expansion establishes a connection with the previous game.

According to the Keeper of the Holocron, Leland Chee, Yavin 4 (Yavin Four in dialogue) is the correct spelling, not Yavin IV (which may be suggested by the analogy with a real world Jovian system).