Mustafar
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- "I am sending you to the Mustafar system in the Outer Rim. It is a volcanic planet. You will be safe there."
- ―General Grievous to the Separatist Council
Mustafar was a small planet located in the Mustafar system of the Outer Rim Territories, coreward of Rutan, between the Hydian Way and the Ninth Quadrant.
The tiny world of Mustafar was a fiery volcanic world where lava was mined like a precious natural resource. It was on this very planet that Darth Maul began his Sith training. It was also the last capital of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the site of the Separatists' downfall, an event that shaped galactic history. It was the site of a climactic duel in which Darth Vader dueled his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and was forced to wear dark armor for the rest of his life.
Mustafar was a very young and volatile world, torn apart by opposing gravitational forces of the gas giants Jestefad and Lefrani, with the former being the closer of the two. Astride thick-skinned lava fleas, the natives leapt across the lava fields to mine the planet's deadly natural resources. Mustafarians oversaw the smelting facilities constructed by the Separatists on Mustafar.
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History
- "It's obvious that civilizations have been present here for thousands of years. Strangely enough though, apart from the last few hundred years, there are no records at all of who was here or where they are now."
- ―Epo Qetora
Early history
Once a lush green world, Mustafar was home to a Jedi Enclave built around 5,300 BBY. Jedi Master Chu-Gon Dar, an individual whose mastery of physical Force was unmatched, also lived there.<ref name="TEA" /> He created a unique Force-sensitive object while on the planet known as the Chu-Gon Dar cube which was used to both channel and manipulate the physical Force to alter the physical properties of an item placed inside it. However, in 3,996 BBY, the resurgent Sith wished to exterminate the Jedi, and so a climactic battle took place on the planet. This battle was so intense that one of the nearby gas giants was pulled into its current location by the Force, starting the gravitational tug-of-war. The environmental hazards caused by this forced the Jedi to abandon their temples on the planet.<ref name="TEA" /> This caused all knowledge of Chu-Gon's cube to be lost. Mustafar would also be the home of the force organization the Blackguard.
Mustafar was home to two variants of sentient Mustafarians—the northern Mustafarians, who were tall and thin, and the southern Mustafarians, who were short and squat. Centuries ago, a cataclysmic eruption destroyed all Mustafarian settlements except for Fralideja.
Clone Wars
- "Master Kenobi, we have Miss Padmé on board. Yes, please. Please hurry. We should leave this dreadful place!"
- ―C-3PO to Obi-Wan Kenobi
At the time of the Clone Wars, the Techno Union had owned Mustafar since c. 300 BBY,<ref name="TEA" /> harvesting minerals and energy from the 800-degree-hot lava.<ref name="db" /> It was comparatively cool compared to most other lava due to the unusual mineral allotropes that became molten at a lower temperature. Regardless, the lava could only safely be mined when a repulsor field was placed to repress any eruptions and deflect heat away from those harvesting it.
But the Techno Union wasn't the only corporate power interested in Mustafar. Before the Clone Wars started, Damask Holdings maintained a facility on the planet. There, the Nightbrother child who would become Darth Maul was trained by Darth Sidious so that he could serve the purpose of the Sith Lord and his secret Master, Darth Plagueis.<ref name="Darth Plagueis" /> <ref name="Wrath">Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul</ref><ref name="Restraint">Restraint</ref>
The main Separatist stronghold was located in a massive industrial complex located on a fiery cliff bracketed by two huge lava flows. Collection arms mined lava from the area, while durable industrial droids worked further afield. Within this facility lay a Separatist command center, one of the most secure bunkers in the galaxy.
During the early years of the war, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, in his guise as Darth Sidious, tasked the Duros bounty hunter Cad Bane with kidnapping Force-sensitive children and taking them to the Damask Holdings facility on the planet, where he could turn them into a cadre of Force–wielding spies for the Galactic Empire. The plot was scuttled by Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano.<ref name="CotF">Template:TCW</ref> Toward the end of the Clone Wars, Palpatine would continue to have a vested interest in the planet, ordering General Grievous to move the Separatist Council there near the end of the war, apparently for their own safety, but in reality to gather them together so that Skywalker, newly anointed as Darth Vader, Palpatine's new apprentice, could kill them all, and deactivate the droid armies, bringing about the end of the war. Shortly afterwards, a duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader would also take place on the lava planet. During the duel, the controls to the mining complex were destroyed and the repulsor fields dropped, allowing the violent lava eruptions to overwhelm the complex.<ref name="ep3">Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith</ref>
Vader suffered grievous injuries, including the loss of his remaining limbs, and the searing of his lungs, when he attempted to jump to higher ground from a platform on the lava river, only to be immobilized by Kenobi. He was later rescued by Emperor Palpatine, who brought him back to Coruscant, where he was rebuilt into the feared cyborg executor of the Emperor at the Emperor Palpatine Surgical Reconstruction Center. It was also on this planet, immediately prior to the Kenobi/Vader confrontation, that Lord Vader, who, unbeknownst to Padmé Amidala, was no longer the man she had married, Force choked the pregnant Senator of Naboo into unconsciousness. This would eventually contribute to the causes of her death, alongside the loss of will she suffered, as well as her broken heart.<ref name="ep3" />
Imperial era
After the destruction of the Separatist Council and the Imperialization of the Techno Union, Mustafar was largely forgotten,<ref name="db" /> until a Separatist stalwart, the fugitive Geonosian Gizor Dellso, holed up on Mustafar during the early days of the Galactic Empire and re-activated an independent battle droid factory, intending to rebuild the Confederacy's previous military strength. In 12 BBY, he constructed a small droid army and a flotilla of warships above the planet, and got the support of several fellow Geonosians. One year later, the situation had been required by the attention of the loyal 501st Legion of stormtroopers to storm the planet. At the battle's end, with the droid schematics destroyed and Dellso eliminated, the base was annihilated in a massive orbital strike from Imperial I-class Star Destroyers, which resulted in the fall of the Geonosian Industries, along with the fragmentation of the Separatist holdouts.<ref name="bf2" />
Post-Endor
Behind the scenes
Mustafar was originally known as "Mufasta" in early drafts of Revenge of the Sith.
The concept of a lava duel dates back to early versions of Return of the Jedi, in which Luke Skywalker battles Darth Vader over a lava lake in Palpatine's throne room in the lowest levels of the Imperial homeworld. Even back then, it was rumored that Anakin suffered his grievous injuries at the hands of Obi-Wan during a battle over a lava pit, and the concept became an almost mythical tale among Star Wars fans until finally realized on film over twenty years later. Joe Johnston envisaged the environment that would ultimately become Mustafar in a series of drawings designed to show Darth Vader's home.
The novelization of Return of the Jedi previously stated that the duel between Vader and Obi-Wan, which resulted in Vader's terrible injuries, happened on a volcanic planet. The battle was stated in some sources predating the prequel trilogy to be on Sullust, also a volcanic world.
Mustafar was originally designed to look like George Lucas's vision of hell<ref>Revealed in a Lucas interview on CBS's 60 Minutes. Transcript March 13, 2005</ref>. In Revenge of the Sith, while Darth Vader and Obi-Wan are fighting on the fallen arm, the lava flows backwards (as can be seen by looking at the lava "waterfall").
