THE GALAXY
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and- ' villainy. We must be cautious."
' -Ben Kenobi
T
he Star Wars galaxy is a vast and wondrous place,
with myriad species, spectacular worlds, interstel-
lar hazards, and more. While the average galactic
citizen may never stray too far from his home world,
the adventurous, the daring, and the ambitious can
find endless opportunities, legitimate or. otherwise.
How a traveler feels about the galaxy at large, or in-
dividual planets or regions, largely depends on the
lens through which he views it. An Imperial politician
regards galactic events far differently than a Rebel, an
outcast, or just the average citizen. And smugglers?
They view every trip as a new opportunity. Every new
world is a chance to beat the odds and strike it rich
—or at least break even and live to see another run.The first thing most travelers need to realize is how
enormous the galaxy truly is. There are an estimated
four hundred billion stars in the galaxy. Most are unin-
habitable, and not every star system has only a single
star. Affer a great deal of research, galactic cartogra-
phers and astronomers place the number of habitable
systems at 3.2 billion. Of those, only 69 million or so
.have sufficient population for Imperial membership,
and, finally, only about 1.75 million planets are fully
represented and integrated into the Galactic Empire.
The next thing-travelers should know is that.only
about twenty five percent of the galaxy has been for-
mally surveyed. While there are large regions of unex-
plored space—such as the Unknown Regions and the
ever-shifting Wild Space areas, there are still vast, divid-
ed areas within Known Space that may have never had
more than a single survey droid pass through in centu-
ries. Of course, the stars have been mapped from afar,
even if not explored properly. Still, isolated pockets of
unexplored space can be found throughout the galaxy,
especially around star systems that are expected to be •
uninhabitable, or isolated by natural interstellar features.Millions of habitable planets means a mind-bdgglingly
huge number of species exists in the galaxy. More than
five million intelligent species are logged in Imperial da-
tabases. The vast majority have likely never engaged in
interstellar travel or colonization on a large scale. How-
ever, given the availability of interstellar travel, and the
multitudes using it, it is quite possible to regularly meet
species one has never seen before.