Acrolis

I am art. I am music. I am war. I am death. I am Acrolis.
—Inscription upon the Colossus of Acrolia
**Acrolis** (/æˈkrɑːˌlɪs/; *a-KRAH-lihs*)—known as **Acroa** during the Pax Rakata—was a small terrestrial waterworld, fortress world, and sole planet of the Acrolis system, a star system situated in the Acrolis subsector of the Outer Rim's Sanbra sector. An insignificant backwater for most of its recorded history, Acrolis was most notable for serving as a minor member world of the Infinite Empire, the ancestral throneworld of the Mandalorian Clan Ziratae, and the homeworld of such figures of galactic significance as Drewika Ziratae and Draevus Ziratae.

Acrolis was populated by the native Acrolians, a near-Human species characterized by onyx skin and Mosciive-like red sclerae. Though the Acrolians were a highly xenophobic species possessed of a distinct martial bent, their culture was highly refined and placed particular significance on the cultivation of the arts. The Acrolians shared their homeworld with the Acrolian Humans, a Human diaspora descended from both the Mandalorians of Clan Ziratae who had conquered Acrolis during the Old Sith Wars era and colonists of Corellian and Royal Naboo heritage. The Acrolians together prohibited outsiders from visiting their homeworld without sponsorship and restricted potential tourists to the planet's moon.

Discovered by the greater galactic community around 3000 BBY, Acrolis remained independent of major governments until the Clone Wars, when a failed Separatist invasion compelled the Acrolians to align with the Galactic Republic. Though forcibly coerced to join the Galactic Empire during the Imperial Period, Acrolis quietly asserted its independence and withdrew from the galactic stage in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor. The planet rose to galactic prominence in later centuries when its Acrolian Star Empire expanded out of its traditional holdings to rule a considerable swathe of the southern galaxy after the conclusion of the Second Imperial Civil War.

## Description

### Uranography

 *Main articles: Acrolis subsector, Acrolis system, Acrolis Prime, Acrolis Moon, and Acrolis Mure*
Acrolis was the sole planet of the system of the same name, a remote star system that lay in the Sanbra sector of the Outer Rim Territories. The Acrolis system sat nestled deep within the titular Acrolis subsector, a subsector of the Sanbra sector several parsecs wide that served to denote the bounds of the sparsely populated stellar association to which the system belonged. The Acrolis system and its subsector lay roughly halfway between the De'etta and Rugosa systems and both rimward and spinward of the Enarc system. The closest major hyperlane was the Triellus Trade Run to the galactic north, though as with nearby Rugosa, Acrolis could also be reached by experienced spacers via the Balmorra Run.

Acrolis shared Acrolis Prime, an unspectacular yellow G-type main-sequence star, with an outlying asteroid belt of cosmic dust and detrius called the Acrolis Mure. The celestial bodies of this outlying cloud, which likewise orbited Acrolis Prime, existed in various stable orbital resonance ratios with Acrolis and rarely threatened collision with the planet. Acrolis itself was directly orbited by Acrolis Moon, a hydrostatically equilibrious moon that served as Acrolis's sole natural satellite. Acrolis rotated on its axis every twenty-four standard hours and orbited Acrolis Prime every three hundred and fifty standard days on average.

### Geology

Despite being significantly smaller than many conventional terrestrial worlds, Acrolis exhibited standard gravity, defined as the surface gravity of a standard-sized terrestrial planet, on account of the unusually high density and uncommon chemical composition of its inner core. While most terrestrial worlds found throughout the galaxy possessed iron(II) sulfide metallic cores primarily composed of iron with trace amounts of sulfur and nickel, Acrolis possessed an inner core that included above-average percentages of denser metals like tungsten, cobalt, platinum, and gold that contributed to a higher density.

Acrolis's outer core was composed primarily of molten, highly conducive iron with small percentages of the aforementioned dense metals. The electric convection currents produced by this layer were responsible for generating the planet's magnetic field and magnetosphere. Sitting atop the core, Acrolis's mantle was primarily composed of high-iron silicate rocks rich in magnesium like olivine in addition to smaller percentages of pyroxene and calcium oxide and aluminum oxide minerals like plagioclase, spinel, and garnet. The planet's crust primarily consisted of dense sodium potassium-aluminum rocks like granite.

### Geography

Like many terrestrial worlds suitable for life, Acrolis possessed a standard Type I atmosphere composed primarily of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and trace amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, helium, methane, and xenon. However, unlike other worlds, Acrolis's atmosphere exhibited slightly higher percentages of oxygen than the usual twenty percent, leading to an atypical abundance of megafauna and megaflora in the planetary biosphere. Furthermore, on account of the expansive planetary oceans that covered eighty-seven percent of the planet's surface, Acrolis's atmosphere likewise evidenced higher percentages of water vapor than typically encountered on similar terrestrial worlds in the greater galaxy.

Acrolis's topography was primarily dominated by a series of liquid water oceans kept warm by both heat emanating from the mantle and planetary plate tectonics. The portion of the continental crust above sea level that constituted the planet's primary landmasses was primarily composed of fourteen continent-sized islands and a number of smaller archipelagos scattered across the planet's surface. Though the interiors of Acrolis's island continents were highly elevated, heavily mountainous, and home to dense patches of montane forests, their coastal regions were typically verdant and arable on account of the planet's unique system of air and ocean currents.

### Biota

 *Main articles: Shemblewood, Ximfoil, Witherclaw, and Flower of Lehon*
A species of megaflora that occupied a sacred position in Acrolian society was the shemblewood, a large species of sequoioideae found in the interiors of Acrolis's continents whose members were characterized by birch-like silver bark, twisted and gnarled branches, and leaves of a rich golden hue. Trees of this species, named in relation to the shemble-berries of the Tionese planet of Raxus Secundus believed to grant increased lifespans, were found exclusively in the interiors of Acrolis's continents, frequently growing to heights of hundreds of standard meters and living for millennia. Like the Wroshyr trees of Kashyyyk, the shemblewoods of Acrolis hosted isolated platform cities nestled high in their branches that were home to the most isolationist of native Acrolians.

Lying at the feet of the giant shemblewoods, a number of unique grass species that were likewise adapted for survival on Acrolis could be found obscured in the dark of the forest floor. Ximfoil, so named for an ancient Tionese conqueror who greatly expanded upon his father's empire over the course of a short reign, was a species of tall tussock grass that managed to spread in a variety of conditions and could be found from Acrolis's montane forests to lower-elevation plains and prairies. Ximfoil was a hardy invasive species, notable for its ability to run rampant over unsown farms and usurp arable land intended for agriculture. Though generally considered a weed, the leaves of Ximfoil were found to produce a smell pleasant to many humanoid species when crushed, leading to their use as tea leaves.

One of the more distinctive non-sentient megafauna of Acrolis was the witherclaw, a large keystone species of feline smilodon that hunted with the Force in a manner reminiscent of the canine vornskrs of Myrkr. Though the witherclaw's eyesight and sense of smell were undeveloped in comparison to other feline species, its use of the Force enabled to overcome these physical weaknesses, allowing it to "smell" its prey's Force aura even when concealed at a distance. A noctural persistence hunter that frequently hunted in packs, the Acrolian witherclaw frequently stalked the mountainous inlands of Acrolis's island continents, skulking in the dark of the montane forests and occasionally venturing down to the coastlands.

Megafauna like the Acrolian witherclaw were not the only lifeforms on Acrolis that employed the Force in some capacity. The planet's forests were likewise home to Forceful flora like the Flower of Lehon, a species of carnivorous plant capable of drawing unwary prey to its pincer arms and mandibles by means of a mild and unrefined version of the mind trick. The Acrolians eventually discovered that the poison glands the Flower used to incapacitate unwary prey could be applied to the development of neuropoisons and hallucinogenic recreational drugs, giving birth to a lucrative industry. The Flower likewise saw use as an interrogation tool, as the Acrolians discovered that the Force whisperings of multiple plants placed around a restrained prisoner were often enough to break even the most strong-minded of individuals.

## History

### Preantiquity

#### Origins of the Acrolis system

Moving down on the sequence, you'll find your G- and K-type dwarfs. These live for billions of years, which is a lot of time for life to emerge. Manda Prime's a main-sequence G; odds are your sun is a G or K too.
—Crix Q5 Baobab in a lecture at the Baobab Merchant Marine Academy[src]
As with most terrestrial garden worlds, Acrolis was born from the gravitational accretion of materials drawn from its parent star's protoplanetary disc in the earliest days of the Acrolis system's existence, billions of years prior to the Battle of Yavin. Unlike most pre-garden worlds, however, the planet's inner core exhibited a slightly higher concentration of heavy metals like tungsten, cobalt, platinum, and gold than were typically found in the cores of young planets or the accretion discs of most young stars, the presence of which was directly responsible for Acrolis's uncommonly high density. Most Acrolian astronomers who studied the formation of the system attributed the planet's metal-rich composition to the unique chemical characteristics of the portion of the giant molecular cloud from which the Acrolis subsector's stellar association had been born and from which the Acrolis system's protoplanetary disc drew much of its own material.

Nebular star clusters were typically formed from the gravitational collapse of certain portions of the molecular clouds to which they belonged due to disruptions in the prevailing mechanical equilibrium of their respective regions. Acrolian astronomers believed that the embedded star cluster in which their system accreted formed when an outlying portion of a molecular cloud lying in the region of space that would become the Hook Nebula collapsed due to shock waves generated by supernovae elsewhere in the cloud. As the collapsing region underwent hierarchical fragmentation into increasingly smaller concentrations of gas, infrared dark clouds played host to protracted periods of heavy starburst as pockets of gas began to accrete into protostars, among which was a small yellow dwarf that would become Acrolis Prime.

The hottest and brightest of the protostars born during this period were the OB stars, short-lived, blue-white giants that emitted enough ultraviolet radiation to ionize the young embedded cluster into an H II region. The stellar winds, shock waves, and radiation pressure generated by these large protostars, coupled with the Type II core-collapse supernovae that signalled the end of their short lives, expelled much of the unaccreted gas from the cluster and brought its star-forming period to an end. However, this simultaneously saturated the surviving circumstellar discs of smaller, longer-lived stars like Acrolis Prime with a variety of heavy metals like tungsten, cobalt, platinum, and gold fused in the explosions by supernova nucleosynthesis and blown into the vicinity of these nascent systems by the stellar winds.

#### Formation of Acrolis

The loss of mass caused by the ejection of the cluster's remaining gas drastically altered the energy of the closed system and the gravitational balance of the region. With the surviving stars no longer separated and spaced apart at regular distances by the thick, primordial soup of unaccreted gas, close gravitational encounters between stars came the norm, leading to the decay of the star-forming embedded cluster and the dispersion of its young surviving stars into the galactic field. In the chaos of such gravitational interactions, some stars lost all or part of their nascent protoplanetary discs or exoplanets in the process of being flung away from the erstwhile embedded cluster. Acrolis Prime was one such star; in the process of its expulsion into the region of space that would become the Sanbra sector in subsequent eons, it was speculated to have lost four potential gas giant or terrestrial-type worlds and only managed to retain the yet-unformed core of its innermost protoplanet.

The general consensus held that the inner core of Acrolis, the only survivor of its system's tempestuous early history, accreted in a particularly metal-rich portion of its parent star's protoplanetary disc, and due to stellar winds and shock waves, was unable to naturally cultivate lighter elements like carbon, oxygen, phosphorus, and hydrogen necessary for conventional terrestrial atmospheres. The protoplanet was only able to obtain such elements from subsequent impact events that occurred during the period of stellar upheaval caused by gravitational interactions between Acrolis Prime and nearby stars. As such interactions disrupted the mechanical equalibrium of the system's celestial bodies, Acrolis was frequently pelted with asteroids and planetesimals from the outlying asteroid belt, many of which, having accreted from lighter elements blown to the edges of the protoplanetary disc by stellar winds, brought with them the ingredients necessary for life.

#### Birth of Acrolis Moon

At some point towards the end of this period of upheaval, a particularly large planetesimal, commonly assumed to be a dwarf planet, collided with Acrolis, expelling a significant degree of matter into space that settled to form a debris disc around the recovering planet. In addition to bringing frozen water to Acrolis, expanding the size of its inner core, and giving the planet the axial tilt responsible for its seasons, this planetesimal's remains coalesced over time to form Acrolis Moon, a hydrostatically equilibrious planetary-mass moon that served as the sole natural satellite of Acrolis. The moon settled into a stable tidally locked orbit with its planet, with one of its faces permanently oriented towards Acrolis and the other facing away.

Like its planet, Acrolis Moon was a dense celestial body, significantly denser than most moons sharing its mass and chemical profile. Comparisons made by Acrolian astrogeographers of the modal magnesium oxide to iron(II) oxide ratios (defined as `MgO / (MgO + FeO)`) and titanium isotope ratios (defined as 50Ti/47Ti) in both bodies' mantles and crusts indicated that Acrolis Moon shared a close chemical profile with its planet, suggesting that the original planetesimal likely accreted from the same metal-rich portion of the primordial cloud as Acrolis. Despite its high density, Acrolis Moon's inner core was significantly less dense than that of its parent planet and composed of higher quantities of iron rather than heavier metals. As such, the moon's surface gravity was a fraction of Acrolis's, necessitating the installation of artificial gravity generators in lunar settlements.

### Antiquity

#### Discovery and colonization

 *Main article: Acroan*
Possessing all the ingredients for life and orbiting a suitable star in its habitable zone, Acrolis slowly began its evolution into a garden world over a span of eons. The planet gradually developed a verdant biosphere and rich ecosystem that exhibited a burgeoning connection to the Force, though one without endemic sentient life of its own. Though the Acrolians, a species of near-Humans characterized by matte black skin and Mosciive-like red sclerae, were commonly considered to be the planet's native residents, their genetic progenitors originated elsewhere in the galaxy and were not the first intelligent species to colonize and inhabit Acrolis in the pre-Republic era.

The planet was first discovered around 28,000 BBY by Force Hound slaves of the Rakata, a dark-sided species of Force-sensitives from the Unknown Regions whose Infinite Empire was among the galaxy's earliest pan-galactic civilizations. On account of its status as a verdant world in the process of developing into a potent Force nexus, Acrolis was readily targeted by the Force-powered hyperdrives of the Rakata and subsequent colonized by Rakata from nearby Rugosa during Predor Soa's campaign of outward expansion. These Rakata hastened Acrolis's development into a garden world via the application of their terraformation engine, an immense space station of the same caliber as the Star Forge and Foundry that was capable of xenoforming entire worlds. In an effort to make the planet more closely resemble their homeworld of Lehon, the Rakata shaped Acrolis—known as Acroa during the Pax Rakata—into a tropical island waterworld exhibiting a number of continent-sized islands.

The Rakata commonly dispersed defeated sentient peoples across their Empire, a practice which saw the Core Worlds seeded with Human life and Wookiees, Selonians, and Selkath resettled in the Unknown Regions. In keeping with this practice of penal transportation, the Rakata settlers of Acrolis imported a population of Tionese Humans from the Livien League, the oldest of Tion Cluster civilizations and the birthplace of the Tionese language and alphabet, to serve as slaves in the construction of Rakata building projects on Acrolis. According to the earliest traditions of the Acrolian species, these Humans, known retronymically as the Acroans, were the progenitors and immediate antecedents of the Acrolians, and over time, their Tionese language fused with the Rakata language of their masters to form the earliest incarnation of the High Acrolian language.

#### Rakatan Civil War

 *Main article: Acroliad*
Acrolis was colonized during the twilight years of the Infinite Empire, a period of Rakata history in which the Empire began to fracture and manifest signs of internal decay. The defeat of Rakata invasion forces first at Korriban in 27,700 BBY and again at Tython in 25,793 BBY bore testament to the Rakata species's gradual loss of control over the Force and the decline of the military machine that had once subdued the Celestials, Kwa, and Gree in bygone millennia and brought the galaxy under the uncontested control of Lehon. The gradual decay and decline of the Rakata ultimately culminated in 25,200 BBY with the transmission of an Empire-wide Force plague that targeted the Rakata and stripped them of their fading connection to the Force. With the Rakata left unable to employ their Force-based technology, the Empire was plunged into a period of internal conflict characterized by slave revolts and civil war between rival Rakata warlords.

Acrolis did not escape involvement in the Rakata Civil War. Despite their best attempts to suppress knowledge of their loss of Force sensitivity, the Rakata were unable to prevent the spread of news brought to the Acroans from offworld. Bereft of both their Forceful technology and military support from the fracturing Empire, the planet's population of Rakata were unable to answer to increasing numbers of Acroan slave revolts. As individual rebel cells became consolidated under the banner of a Force-sensitive Acroan slave-turned-resistance leader named Acrolia, the Acroan revolts became more organized than previous rebellions, coordinating multi-prong attacks on isolated Rakata settlements and taking no prisoners.

The presiding Predor of Acrolis, a Rakata named Bala'zar, decided to cut his losses and risk a return to Lehon, and began making preparations for a withdrawal from Acrolis. As the Rakata required many slaves and prisoners to fuel their starships' Force-powered hyperdrives for the duration of the voyage, Bala'zar recalled the planet's remaining Rakata garrisons to the Acrolis Rakata temple and consolidated his hold on the region surrounding the Rakata capital of Disan, known to the Acroans as Disanopolis. Systematically putting down the local rebellions, the Rakata extracted what able-bodied Acroan slaves they could, executing those who were too sickly or aged to serve as suitable fuel sources.

Within weeks, Acrolia and her followers converged on the island of Teloria and began a systematic advance towards Disanopolis, intent on enacting revenge. Coordinating an extensive nighttime invasion of the Rakata capital, the Acroans carved their way through the city's automated defenses and encircled the Temple itself. Personally fighting her way through the startled defenders, Acrolia engaged the Predor Bala'zar in single combat and slew him and his chief officers upon the steps of the Temple, though not before suffering a mortal wound from the Predor's Forcesaber. Their morale shattered, the remaining Rakata scattered in fear and were systematically hunted down by the Acroans over the next few days. The remaining Rakata in orbit elected to withdraw from the system and attempt the perilous journey to Lehon with the slaves they had. Determined to prevent the Acroans from claiming a victory and in keeping with conventional Rakata military doctrine, the retreating fleet coordinated an extensive orbital bombardment intended to destroy the planet's biosphere.

Though they were successful in driving the last vestiges of the Infinite Empire from their system, the Acroans had paid dearly for their victory. Acrolis's ecosystem had sustained heavy damage during the bombardment, converting much of the planet's formerly lush terrain into charred lifeless plains that extended across continents. With few sustainable regions unaffected by the attack, many Acroans died out, leaving only the hardiest of survivors to repopulate the world.

## Inhabitants

### Citizens

 *Main article: Acrolian (disambiguation)*
### Government and politics

 *Main articles: Acrolian Star Republic and Acrolian Star Empire*
### Law enforcement

 *Main article: Acrolian Star Defense Force*

## Behind the scenes

### 2010-2011 version

So they're Romans...in space...but with James Bond?
—A college friend of the author's on Acrolis, 2011
### 2017-2024 version

I am not on board with this name change! >:O
—I'm the Chosen One on the name changes introduced in the 2017 rewrite, 12/25/2017
## Appearances

* *Star Wars: Rising Force*
* *Star Wars: Coruscant Vice*

## Sources

* *Saga Expanded* on *Star Wars* Fanon, the *Star Wars* Wiki of fan invention (First appearance)

## Notes and references

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.36 1.37 1.38 1.39 1.40 1.41 1.42 1.43 1.44 1.45 1.46 1.47 1.48 Retained from  2011 revision on *Star Wars* Fanon, the *Star Wars* Wiki of fan invention
2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 2.29 2.30 2.31 2.32 2.33 2.34 2.35 2.36 2.37  *Saga Expanded* fanon continuity on *Star Wars* Fanon, the *Star Wars* Wiki of fan invention
3. ↑ *The Essential Atlas*, p. 151
4. ↑  *Star Wars: The Essential Atlas* Online Companion on StarWars.com
5. ↑ "Composition and temperature of Earth's inner core"—*Journal of Geological Research: Solid Earth*
6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `SWFA`
7. ↑ "Planet Core Question" on Worldbuilding SE
8. ↑ "The Bulk-Moon MgO/FeO Ratio: A Highlands Perspective" from University of California, Los Angeles
9. ↑ "The proto-Earth as a significant source of lunar material" from *Template:W*
10. ↑ "Phase diagrams of the FeO-MgO-SiO2 system and the structure of the mantle discontinuities" from *Physics and Chemistry of Minerals*
11. ↑ "Are the Earth and the Moon compositionally alike? Inferences on lunar composition and implications for lunar origin and evolution from geophysical modeling" from *Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets*
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Template:TORcite
13. ↑ Template:Hyperspace
14. ↑ *Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia*, p. 270
15. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `GatORW139`
16. ↑  *Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare* Author's Cut—The Celestials on StarWars.com

## See also

* Acrolis (disambiguation) on *Star Wars* Fanon, the *Star Wars* Wiki of fan invention