Myrkr

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
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  IV
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  VI
  CW

• Climate:
  Temperate

• Terrain:
  Forests, low mountains, plains

• 

From the Expanded Universe

Despite being well within the borders of the Old Republic, and having been on official registries for more than 300 years, the planet Myrkr has been steadfastly avoided by the Jedi Knights. The reason for this distance nearly sealed the fate of the New Republic when exploited by the Imperial mastermind, Grand Admiral Thrawn.

It was not the high metal content of the trees that kept the Jedi away, though that characteristic does have notable advantages. The teeming forests of Myrkr obscure sensor readings, making it an ideal hiding place for those on the run from the law. The natural predators that roam these forests aren't the reason either, though the sleek and agile vornskrs exhibit a predisposition to attack Force-sensitives.

The reason lies in the small sessile salamander-like creatures that live in trees. The native ysalamiri have the singular ability to push back the Force. Their presence creates a bubble wherein the Force doesn't exist. A Jedi trapped in an ysalamiri's presence cannot tap the mystical energy field that defines her abilities.

The presence of these creatures is not what drew smuggler chief Talon Karrde to Myrkr; not entirely, anyhow. He genuinely grew to admire Myrkr as a home for his growing smuggler operation, an organization that survived and prospered despite the underworld shakedown that followed Jabba the Hutt's death. Though the ysalamiri were ultimately peripheral to his business ventures, he did profit from his knowledge of the esoteric creatures when the Empire suddenly showed up on Myrkr five years after the Battle of Endor.

Grand Admiral Thrawn, a cunning Imperial mastermind, devised a brilliant strategy to retake the Core Worlds. The ysalamiri would be used for two major purposes -- to help recruit and control the insane Dark Jedi Joruus C'baoth into the Imperial ranks, and to facilitate the construction of a new Imperial army, overcoming the limitations of accelerated Spaarti-cylinder based cloning.

Eventually, Karrde was forced to pick sides in the growing conflict between the New Republic and the Empire. His decision forced him to flee Myrkr, and the planet was largely forgotten after the failure of Thrawn's campaign. Its unobtrusive port town of Hyllyard City remained a haven for smugglers and malcontents, at least until the Yuuzhan Vong arrived.

The alien incursion into the galaxy left many worlds sundered in its wake. Myrkr was just one of many planets conquered by the Yuuzhan Vong, who developed a voxyn cloning facility in the system.

Behind the Scenes

Myrkr, and its native ysalamiri creatures, were pivotal new elements introduced into the Star Wars Expanded Universe by novelist Timothy Zahn in his Thrawn Trilogy of books.