Aurebesh

Aurebesh chart from the 1996 West End Games accessory Star Wars Gamemaster Screen, Revised

## Aurebesh

“

> The Aurebesh is a lot like Boba Fett—it is a facet of the Star Wars phenomenon that had its origin as a cinematic aside, but which has come to be widely embraced, far out of proportion to its humble origins.
>
>
>

”

—Stephen Crane

**Aurebesh** is a fictional alphabet used to write Galactic Basic, the *Star Wars* universe's version of English.

## Aurebesh history

### Aurebesh alphabet

“

> The Star Wars alphabet that inspired the Aurebesh appears on screen for a span of mere seconds. That was enough time for me to notice them, though. As a graphic designer who worked (and still works) with fonts on a daily basis, I was intrigued by these glowing symbols on a Death Star readout.
>
>
>

”

—Stephen Crane, in October 2000

    Aurebesh characters first appeared in the 1983 movie *Star Wars*: Episode VI *Return of the Jedi*, where they could be seen on multiple data screens, such as the monitor on the second Death Star when Darth Vader's shuttle is scanned while approaching the battle station in the beginning of the movie.

This readout produces gibberish, merely consisting of lines of character repeats. Stephen Crane, an author and illustrator for West End Games (the publisher of *Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game* between 1987 and 1998), was the one who gave each character a name and a corresponding Roman letter or letter combination. While Crane was writing the 1994 rulebook *Star Wars Miniatures Battles Companion*, he decided to develop an alphabet for gamers to use and came up with "Aurebesh," a 34-letter alphabet. It was later expanded to include punctuation marks in *Imperial Entanglements*, a 1996 supplement to *Star Wars Miniatures Battles*.

    Crane's alphabet was subsequently adopted in many *Star Wars* works, and even made its way into the prequel trilogy. Most notably, a variant appeared in the 1999 film *Star Wars*: Episode I *The Phantom Menace*, on a readout screen of young Anakin Skywalker's starfighter. As Skywalker heads toward the battle, the screen reads: "Anakin turn the ship around and go back home right away." Since the 2004 DVD release of *Star Wars*: Episode IV *A New Hope*, the words on the tractor beam control on the Death Star are now in Aurebesh.

    Since April, 2014, most stories in which Aurebesh appeared are part of *Star Wars* Legends, previously known as the Expanded Universe, and are therefore not canon. However, as revealed in a "*Ghost* Crew Identification Card" available on the official site of Disney XD, the West End Games mapping of Aurebesh had been kept following the redefinition of canon, although the eight letters representing English digraphs were absent. However, the letters representing digraphs were later included in a mapping in the 2015 children's book *Star Wars Rebels: Battle Plans from Darth Vader* and have appeared in *Star Wars* media such as the films *Star Wars*: Episode VII *The Force Awakens* (on Dosmit Ræh's helmet, worn by Rey) and *Star Wars*: Episode VIII *The Last Jedi* (in the stolen stolen Star Yacht's catalog of starfighters for sale), the canon comic *Chewbacca* 1, and on Ketsu Onyo's helmet in the *Star Wars Rebels* episodes "Blood Sisters" and "The Forgotten Droid".

### Aurebesh punctuation

“

> When the next supplement was planned for *Star Wars Miniatures Battles*, I expanded the Aurebesh to include punctuation. Now it could be used to write whole sentences and paragraphs. The expanded Aurebesh appeared in *Imperial Entanglements* in 1996. Although it was primarily a scenario book for *Star Wars Miniatures Battles*, *Imperial Entanglements* included a Rules Upgrade section, and the revised alphabet fit right in.
>
>
>

”

—Stephen Crane, in October 2000

Aurebesh punctuation, originally created for the Legends game accessory *Star Wars Miniatures Battles*, is also used in *Star Wars* canon. For example, an apostrophe appears on the marquee outside Ziro's Palace in the animated film *Star Wars: The Clone Wars*, while an Aurebesh exclamation point can be seen in the inscription on the Republic gunship *Spaceward Ho!* in the *Star Wars: The Clone Wars* episodes "Storm Over Ryloth" and "Landing at Point Rain", and the animated film; in a Star Tours advertisement for Glee Anselm in "Lightsaber Lost", a sign for the Abafar Junior Dejarik Club in "Missing in Action", and on the poster *The Sport's Greatest Rivalry* in "The Rise of Clovis". In the *Star Wars: The Bad Batch* episode "The Crossing", a scan by Tech's visor results in a reading containing Aurebesh parentheses and slashes.

However, regular English punctuation, which does not match the one created by Stephen Crane, can also be seen in several episodes of *Star Wars:The Clone Wars* (such as full stops on the display on Cad Bane's security chip bomb in "Holocron Heist", the hologram projector in Lott Dod's library in "Senate Spy", Admiral Yularen's intelligence report in "Cat and Mouse", Ahsoka Tano's board in "The Academy", and the case files for Sifo-Dyas and his aide in "The Lost One") and *Star Wars Rebels* (such as full stops in an advertisement at Nixus Hub 218 in "Brothers of the Broken Horn", the dismantler droid's scopes in *Star Wars Rebels: Steps Into Shadow*, a set of blueprints aboard Tiber Saxon's Star Destroyer in *Star Wars Rebels: Heroes of Mandalore*, and a billboard in a cargo hold in "In the Name of the Rebellion"; while an English colon appears in the blueprint for the TIE/D Defender Elite in "Crawler Commandeers), as well as the aforementioned 2004 DVD release of *A New Hope* and all subsequent releases of the film.

Three stylized English exclamation points appear on the console of Freya Fenris' racing starfighter, the *Red Ace*, in the *Star Wars Resistance* episode "The Voxx Vortex 5000". In addition, when Kanan Jarrus breaks into Fenn Rau's *Fang* fighter in the *Star Wars Rebels* episode "The Protector of Concord Dawn," the monitor shows an Aurebesh exclamation point on top of an English one, and the aforementioned scan in *Star Wars: The Bad Batch* contains regular English colons and an English hyphen, even though the parentheses and slashes are all Aurebesh.

The ampersand (&) does not appear in any *Star Wars* mappings of Aurebesh; however, a fan-made ampersand, originally created for a fan-made font called Aurabesh, appears in the *Star Wars: The Bad Batch* episode "Faster", where one of the advertisements at the Safa Toma Speedway says "T&J REPAIR". The font was originally developed by Mike E. Webb in 1996 and can be downloaded online.

### Alternate numerical system

“

> I can't recall which came first, Stock Ships or Gamemaster Screen Revised, but I worked on both and both have that chart.
>
>
>

”

—Pablo Hidalgo on Twitter

    Stephen Crane never created numbers for the Aurebesh alphabet, because the Death Star monitors in *Star Wars*: Episode VI *Return of the Jedi* show regular Arabic numerals. However, an unrelated numerical system made up of dots and lines first appeared in the West End Games roleplaying sourcebook *Platt's Starport Guide*, which features a graphic called "Current transponder code profile", with the numerals along both axes of a graph. Unlike later appearances, numerals for 0 through 16 are represented. The same graphic is featured in the West End Games publication *Star Wars Gamemaster Screen, Revised*, and re-appeared in the West End Games sourcebook *Stock Ships*.

These numerals were digitized in a fan-made font known as New Aurabesh, which was created by Peter Schuster in 1998. and can be downloaded online. While the original West End Games sources represented numerals 0 through 16, later appearances of the numerals follow Schuster's designation, being limited to numerals 0 through 9.

Although most canon appearances of Aurebesh use Arabic numbers, the alternative West End Games numerals have also appeared in *Star Wars* media: *7189*, a wall mural in the Capital City of Lothal, uses these numerals and can be seen in the *Star Wars Rebels* and first appears in the *Star Wars Rebels* short "Entanglement". The 2015 reference book *Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary* contains pictures of the rank insignia of the First Order, with alternate Aurebesh numbers appearing in the insignia for sergeant ("Ro 8") and squad leader ("Hal 4"). The "Hal 4" insignia can be seen on Lank Paze in the 2017 movie *The Last Jedi*, while the "Ro 8" insignia can be seen on Armitage Hux's First Order monitor in the same film. In another scene in the film, the databank of the *Libertine*, which DJ gains access to after he steals the Star Yacht in Canto Bight, uses these numerals to list prices in the owner's catalog of starfighters for sale.

The 2017 reference book *Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia* presents an Aurebesh font which includes two examples of Aurebesh numbers; 3 and 7, both of which use West End Games' alternate font. During the raid on Kessel in the 2018 film *Solo: A Star Wars Story*, Qi'ra says, "They're in subsector four, coming up on gate X-3-7-1-K". The film then switches to a shot of Han Solo and Chewbacca coming out a door with a sign at the top, saying "D7 X371K", using the alternate numerals.

In *The Mandalorian*, the numbers numerals can be seen on the console aboard the *Razor Crest*, and first appear in "Chapter 2: The Child". As first seen in *The Book of Boba Fett* episode "Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian", the numbers 51 and 11 appear on a red monitor on the console of Din Djarin's N-1 starfighter, and on a small blue monitor on the opposite side of the console, which lists every number from 1 to 9. Curiously, the latter is upside-down. In *The Mandalorian* episode "Chapter 19: The Convert", the monitor on the control panel of a Six-O-Two Mitigator used by the New Republic Amnesty Program, lists every alternative numeral from 1 to 9, representing different voltage levels.

The numerals can also be seen on monitors in Daiyu spaceport in the *Obi-Wan Kenobi* episode "Part II" and on the blueprints of Fortress Inquisitorius in "Part IV". The numbers also appear in *Star Wars: The Bad Batch*. For example, the monitor in Riyo Chuchi's repulsorpod in the Imperial Senate in the *Star Wars: The Bad Batch* episode "Truth and Consequences" uses these numerals, although regular Aurebesh numbers are also seen. In the episode "The Crossing", Clone Force 99 member Tech uses a special visor to scan Cid's mine, resulting in "IPSIUM DETECTED", followed by a list of alternate numerals.

## Dishabesh and Domabesh

“

> It's called domabesh, and was made for Rogue One.
>
>
>

”

—Pablo Hidalgo

    For the 2016 film *Rogue One: A Star Wars Story*, two alternate Aurebesh fonts were created by the art department and were given the production names Dishabesh and Domabesh. The fonts were developed at the behest of director Gareth Edwards, who didn't want a *Star Wars* universe with just one form of text and mostly one font. Dishabesh was re-used for Enfys Nest's battle helmet in the film *Solo: A Star Wars Story*.

Domabesh can be seen in Jedha City, on a Rebel MP's uniform, and Red Twelve's flight helmet, in *Rogue One*. In 2021, when asked on Twitter, Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo referred to the script on Tam Posla's helmet (a character that was cut from the film, but appears in *Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide* and makes a cameo in *Solo*, albeit from far away) as "Domabesh," but it still has not been identified in any canon source. According to Hidalgo, Domabesh is thought to be an archaic script, not as ancient as Ur-Kittât, but older than Aurebesh.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Crane, Stephen (October 21, 2000). Aurebesh Soup: *Recipe for a Star Wars Font Phenomenon*. Echo Station. Archived from the original on May 20, 2016.
2. ↑ *Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia*, p. 124
3. ↑ What Does That Screen Say? The Discovery. Ericstormtrooper's Imperial Gallery (August 25, 2016).
4. ↑  The Legendary *Star Wars* Expanded Universe Turns a New Page on StarWars.com (April 25, 2014): “In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, *Star Wars* Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-*Return of the Jedi* Expanded Universe. While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new *Star Wars* entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in *Star Wars Rebels*. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s.”
5. ↑ Rebel Resistance Kit. Disney XD. Archived from the original on May 7, 2016.*Ghost* Crew Identification Card (PDF). Disney XD. Archived from the original on November 24, 2015. “Translate Aurebesh (official Lothal language) using the guide on the back side of the card”
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Aurabesh (free). Aurekfonts. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. @AurekFonts (AurekFonts) on X, formerly known as Twitter (July 24, 2020). "In 1996 Mike E Web created a fan font for Aurebesh, called "Aurabesh." https://aurekfonts.github.io/?font=Aurabesh Because this was created before the above punctuation was made, Web went ahead and added his own custom punctuation, including the first Aurebesh ampersand!" (backup link)
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2  @pabl0hidalgo (Pablo Hidalgo) on X, formerly known as Twitter (June 11, 2022). "I can't recall which came first, Stock Ships or Gamemaster Screen Revised, but I worked on both and both have that chart." (backup link)
8. ↑ "New Aurabesh": A Casual Interview with Peter Schuster. *Ko-fi* (May 19, 2020). Archived from the original on May 9, 2022.
9. ↑ New Aurabesh (free). *AurekFonts*. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2  @pabl0hidalgo (Pablo Hidalgo) on X, formerly known as Twitter (May 30, 2021). "It's called domabesh, and was made for Rogue One." (backup link)
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2  @glyn\_dillon (Glyn Dillon) on X, formerly known as Twitter (March 27, 2019). "The fonts were made at Gareth's request for R.O. he didn't want a universe with just one text (and mostly one font). They were designed by the art dept graphics team. I was able to use them in any designs that needed text. Dishabesh just seemed to suit Enfys more than the others." (backup link) *(Note: The tweet has been deleted and is only available through the back-up link)* @LelalMekha (Alban Leloup) on X, formerly known as Twitter (March 27, 2019). "Dishabesh, eh? That's the actual name they gave it? And the one in this picture is "Domabesh," right?" (backup link) @glyn\_dillon (Glyn Dillon) on X, formerly known as Twitter (March 27, 2019). "Correct" (backup link) *(Note: The tweet has been deleted and is only available through the back-up link)*
12. ↑  @pabl0hidalgo (Pablo Hidalgo) on X, formerly known as Twitter (June 21, 2021). "I don't know how that was decided; but I do know Domabesh is thought to be archaic, with its usage on Jedha. Not as ancient as the McQuarrie script, but much older than run-of-the-mill Aurebesh at least." (backup link)