Felucia

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Affiliation:
  Contested; Separatist stronghold during the Clone Wars

• Climate:
  Hot and humid

• Terrain:
  Fungus jungles

• 

Felucia is one of the most distinctive planets in Star Wars, making a powerful impression despite its extremely brief screen time in its introductory appearance in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith (2005).

Near the end of the Clone Wars, Felucia was one of the key contested worlds during the Outer Rim Sieges. Jedi Knight Aayla Secura and Clone Commander Bly led the Star Corps of clone trooper infantry through the wild underbrush of the planet, searching out Separatists forces that lay in wait. It was not the Separatists that would seal Secura's fate, however. When Order 66 was enacted, Bly and his soldiers killed their Jedi leader as an enemy of Republic.

The world was revisited multiple times in the expanded universe, particularly in the medium of video games, where its exotic visuals translated into challenging and memorable gaming environments. It also serves as a setting in the second season of The Clone Wars animated series (2009-2010).

Planetary Development

Felucia was developed for Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. During pre-production, as George Lucas was refining the script to the final chapter of the Star Wars saga, he tasked the Art Department to develop a series of seven planets to serve as a montage of the Clone Wars at their height. Originally, Episode III was to open with a travelogue of sorts, a rapid overview of many worlds of the Confederacy under assault by the clone forces of the Republic. First painted in October of 2002, the strange organic planet of then-nameless Felucia depicted sun-catching pod-like plants of enormous height, with an AT-TE walker lumbering in the underbrush.

Other early art for this bizarre world depicted a kelp planet, and a world of enormous bulbous plans that seeped antigravitic goo into the skies. This latter design evolved along a separate path to become the planet Saleucami. Meanwhile, Felucia's alien vistas were expanded to include huge pitcher plants with a translucent sheen. Elements from all these explorations were ultimately combined to form Felucia's final look. By this point in the story, the Clone Wars montage had transformed into the Order 66 montage -- the tragic sequence in Episode III when the clones turn on their Jedi generals. In the script, Aayla Secura was stationed on Felucia, alongside fellow Jedi Knights Adi Gallia and Barriss Offee. This would further evolve throughout production so that only Aayla appeared on screen in the final movie.

To guide the look and feel of Felucia, the concept artists of the ILM Model Shop created a detailed table-top model of the environment, to study textures, shadows, and the way light penetrated the gooey canopy. For a bit of fun, a Hasbro action figure of Aayla Secura was included in this concept diorama. From these studies, Industrial Light & Magic digital artists began to model Felucia as a computer-generated environment. A key visual attribute of Felucia was the presence of "gummi"-like lifeforms -- see-through beetles, grubs, birds and plants -- that changed the color of the sunlight as it passed through. ILM's renders used cutting edge subsurface scattering techniques to emulate the effect of light passing through such materials.

Exploring Felucia

Star Wars: The Essential Atlas, by Daniel Wallace and Jason Fry (2009, Del Rey Books) places Felucia in Thanium sector of the Outer Rim Territories at map coordinates R-6. It is the fourth planet in orbit around the star Felix. Other planets in the system include Coccia, Brembo, Albata Ing, Farasu, Yamime, Tsutai and Imei. Felucia is orbited by two moons.

The Atlas establishes that Felucia was colonized by the Gossam species in 27,000 BBY. This follows the lead of the original Episode III presentation of Felucia, when it was to be depicted as a key Separatist world aligned with the Commerce Guild. When the StarWars.com Databank first elaborated on Felucia in 2005, author Pablo Hidalgo wrote the following summary: The Gossams had colonized Felucia early in their interplanetary history, before moving onto larger and more lucrative exploits. Deemed too wild to support massive Gossam colonies, Felucia eventually became an exotic retreat for the wealthy and the poorly paid citizens that supported their extravagant whims. Felucia was a challenging world to colonize. Many of the indigenous plants aggressively defend themselves. Sharp barbs, shooting spores, and poisonous defenses scuttled early attempts at agriculture.

Author Paul Ens wrote of several Felucian colonies in his 2005 webstrip, Evasive Action: Reversal of Fortune. These included Kway Teow (where Shu Mai maintained as a remote office and private retreat), Har Gau and Niango. Before the Clone Wars, the Commerce Guild firmly held these population centers. What little corporate independence there was huddled in a few scattered townships founded by escaped workers and fugitive union organizers.

Still, the Gossam colonists carved out a few footholds on the planet, exploiting its porous crust and expansive arterial network of underground and surface water circulating around the planet. This allowed modern water processing to be concentrated in several key locations, efficiently scrubbing the waters and ridding it of harmful, naturally occurring impurities.

The native Felucians were not established until the development of The Force Unleashed video game, released by LucasArts in 2008. They have been presented as tribal savages whose number, society and habits remain mysteries too dangerous for close examination.

Events Of Evasive Action

Felucia's importance to the Separatists was restated in the 2005 Del Rey Books novel Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno, where Supreme Chancellor Palpatine publicly lumps Felucia alongside Mygeeto and Saleucami as part of the "Triad of Evil." In the 2005 webstrip Evasive Action: Reversal of Fortune written by Paul Ens and illustrated Thomas Hodges, Felucia was a key locale as one of the first Separatist sites targeted by Republic crosshairs. A medical facility in Niango was found to be the source of biomolecules used in military nerve toxins. An elite team of ARC troopers destroyed the facility, but the demands of the war prevented an occupational force from staying on Felucia. Thus, the Guild still held possession of the planet after these initial stabs, though many of the cities showed signs of combat -- destroyed and damaged structures, frightened citizens and limited supplies. Shu Mai found that her retreat was no longer peaceful. Still, her stubbornness refused to let go of Felucia... not without having the Republic pay a dear price.

She engineered a spiteful contingency plan should Felucia ever fall. Natural toxins, harvested from Felucia's untamed wilderness, were refined and loaded into secret pumps in key locations in the water network. If released, they would quickly course through the water ways to poison all the cities of Felucia and the surrounding areas, making the planet a costly and deadly "prize" for the Republic.

During the Outer Rim Sieges, as Castell fell to the Republic, Shu Mai fled to Felucia. As a leader of the Separatists, she was targeted by the Republic, who were concentrating on taking down the Confederacy leadership. On Felucia, Jedi warriors Barriss Offee and Zonder went undercover, posing as relief workers. They failed to capture Mai, as they were discovered and imprisoned by Commerce Guild guards. The two Jedi were sent to the state-of-the-art Nigkoe detention facility.

Jedi General Aayla Secura and the 327th Star Corps of clone troopers were reassigned to rescue Offee. Secura's forces aboard the Venator Star Destroyer Intrepid stormed the world, cutting through its Separatist defenses. They liberated Offee, but the hunt for Shu Mai was still on. Little did the Jedi know that Shu Mai was not on the planet. They nonetheless carried out their mission, even though reports from Coruscant trickled in that the capital was under attack.

Prior to her departure, Shu Mai executed her contingency plan, releasing toxins into Felucia's far-reaching water table. The Jedi computer prodigy Ekria calculated that they stood a chance to stop the spread if they targeted the key pumping facilities in Har Gau, Jiaozi and Niango, so the Jedi teams separated to march overland through the dense underbrush to reach these heavily guarded sites.

It was during this mission the call came from Coruscant to execute Order 66. Clone Commander Bly carried out the order, ruthlessly killing Secura. Lieutenant Galle gave the order to open fire on Barriss Offee, killing her. The Padawans Ekria, Zonder and Drake Lo'gaan managed to escape the initial slaughter.

In The Clone Wars

Chronologically prior to its role in Episode III is Felucia's appearance in The Clone Wars animated series. In between season one and season two, at Comic-Con International in San Diego, the Star Wars Spectacular Hall H presentation included a live reading by the voice actors from the series. Supervising Director Dave Filoni penned a script that included the following line of dialogue from Yoda to Anakin Skywalker:

"Grievous. Attacked Felucia he has. Heavy are the losses. In need of your leadership the clones are."

This was meant as an lead-in to the action that begins "Holocron Heist," the second season premiere of The Clone Wars, written by Paul Dini and directed by Justin Ridge. In the episode, we see Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan and Plo Koon in action against the droid forces amid the colorful jungles of the planet.

Gaming on Felucia

The primordial jungles of Felucia invited much adventure and exploration in the form of several LucasArts video games. In Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005, LucasArts) the 182nd Legion and the 501st Legion of clone troopers are dispatched to rid the world of a Separatist army. The game set players into the thick of the Felucian underbrush, where they faced off against aggressive acklays that ran wild. The acklay, having previously been established as a native of Vendaxa, is presumably a creature that has somehow been transplanted to this world.

Felucia was a major setting in The Force Unleashed, the game which populated the planet with native Force-sensitive savages, the Felucians. These beings rode enormous domesticated rancors -- also presumably transplanted to the planet from their native Dathomir at some point. Using Episode III as a springboard, The Force Unleashed allowed for a greater exploration of Felucian environments, including underground caverns, a rancor graveyard, and the site of an enormous Sarlacc. In the story, Felucia serves as a haven for the Jedi fugitive Shaak Ti, who is training her apprentice Maris Brood. The game's central character, Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice (aka Starkiller), confronts Shaak Ti in a pivotal lightsaber duel.

Felucia also served as a locale in Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption (LucasArts, 2006)

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Additional Expanded Universe Planetological Information
Diameter: 9,100 kilometers
Length of Day: 34 standard hours
Length of Year: 231 local days
Population: 8.5 million
Sentient Species: Felucians
Species Mix: Gossams (90 %); other (10 %); Unknown number of Felucians
Languages: Basic, Felucian, Gossam
Government: Corporate
Major Exports: Exotic botanicals
Major Imports: Foodstuffs, high technology, fuel