Saleucami

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Climate:
  Hot

• Terrain:
  Desert and caldera oases

• 

From the Movies

A barren desert world marked with strange bulbous plant-life, Saleucami was a major battle site during the Outer Rim Sieges of the Clone Wars. The Republic was ultimately victorious there. Following the fall of Saleucami, General Quinlan Vos moved his troops to Boz Pity. A smaller contingent of Republic forces were left behind for mop up operations, commanded by the Jedi Master Stass Allie. The desert plains were strewn with battle debris, and carrion birds feasted on the fallen bodies of clone troopers.

When Order 66 was enacted, and the loyal clone troopers identified their Jedi generals as traitors to the Republic, Clone Commander Neyo opened fire on Allie, killing her.

From the Expanded Universe

Had the Separatist operation on Saleucami spread beyond its borders, the very nature of the Clone Wars could have been altered. The Outer Rim world became the secret base of a plot by the Confederacy of Independent Systems to create their own clone army.

Saleucami is a mostly desert world, making its name -- which translates into "Oasis" in the Wroonian tongue -- notably ironic. The name, though, comes from it being the only habitable planet within a stark system of dead worlds and random meteors. These wayward rocks would regularly cross paths with Saleucami's orbit, striking the planet with enough force to leave huge craters.

These impact points stirred up subterranean waters and minerals, turning the calderas into life-filled pockets on the planet's surface. These craters of arable soil heated by geothermal vents became the site of the first colonies erected on Saleucami, and the planet soon grew into a trading post in the Outer Rim. Though the planet boasts no native intelligent life, a mixture of offworld cultures, including Weequays, Gran, Wroonians and Twi'leks, came to call Saleucami home.

Though there are small scattered townships across the desert surface, Saleucami only has one real concentration of civilization that could be accurately called a city. It is the site of the planet's interstellar ports. Deep beneath this massive caldera is a network of magma streams and geothermal vents that power the city and provide sweltering warmth during the cold desert nights.

It's within these caverns that Separatists hatched their bold cloning program. Using accelerated cloning techniques, the Separatists engineered Morgukai clones trained by deadly Anzati assassins. This scheme was discovered by Jedi Master Tholme and Aayla Secura, and the Jedi Council made scuttling this new clone operation a priority. A multi-battalion taskforce led by Jedi Master Oppo Rancisis, with Quinlan Vos as second-in-command, journeyed to Saleucami to blockade the planet and prevent any of the Morgukai clones from getting offworld.

With the Separatists controlling the city, it was crucial that the Republic forces be well supplied. The Jedi and clone forces set up camp on the rim of the city's caldera, and fought their way inward. The siege lasted for five grueling months before the Separatist forces there were defeated.

Behind the Scenes

Saleucami was the last world added to Revenge of the Sith, but it was part of a montage of planets developed during pre-production when the early drafts of Episode III had the film open with an overview of the Clone Wars. The name Saleucami was given to a concept called "bridge planet," a world made up of arcing parabolic bridges with upside-down skylines extending from the curving frames. This planet was to be a major stronghold of the Techno Union, when the Clone Wars montage was to portray the engagement of the Confederacy founders on their respective homeworlds.

The bridge world concept evolved and became Cato Neimoidia in the finished film. The name Saleucami was reassigned to the planet where Stass Allie died. In the shooting script, Stass Allie (then identified as Adi Gallia) was to be gunned down by speeder bike-riding clone troopers on Felucia. She was instead transplanted to a new world.

After some initial paintings that described a windy world of sandstorms, Saleucami's landscape of bloated plants came from an unused design for Felucia. The concept had these bulbous plants ooze a strange form of antigravity gelatin that lined the skies of the world.