Sometimes know as the jewel of the Core Worlds, Coruscant is essentially a single, enormous multilevel city. The foundation of the huge city have been in place since the earliest days of the Old Republic. The largest building can reach staggering heights and may be several blocks wide. All of the buildings are completely climate controlled and have windows designed to reflect sunlight. Coruscant droids work at all hours of the day and night repairing structures or creating new structures. Refuse and other debris are rare, but Coruscant is know for producing abnormally high density of pollutants. Virtually every area of the planet is inhabited, although the largest population centers borders the equator. Most of the population must wear coats, goggles, and helmets as protection from the pollution in the atmosphere. Numerous spaceports can be found on the world, and Coruscant’s sky is fillers with traffic during all hours. Wealthy residents of Coruscant once built huge, personal skyhooks in low orbit around the planet in order to escape the mammoth metropolis. These skyhooks were eventually grounded for safety reasons by the New Republic.

While Coruscant is dominated by buildings, a few animal species manage to survive on the world. Kitelike hawk-bats make their homes in artificial canyons, hunting granite slugs throughout Coruscant’s lower levels. Rapacious, four-legged corridor ghouls also stalk the depths of Coruscant, where moss and lichen, spider-roaches, armored rats, duracrete worms, and a variety of other life-forms can be encountered.

Aside from Imperial City, other attractions on Coruscant include the grand towers Skydome Botanical Gardens, the underground city of Dometown, the Holographic Zoo of Extinct Animals, and the Galactic Museum, which holds ancient Sith artifacts from 4,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. Monument Plaza is a popular mall built around one of the peaks in the Manarai mountain range, where visitors can actually touch bare rock. For at least 300 years before the Battle of Endor, the clock in the Central Gathering Hall has marked the hours by spreading a light across the sky, and every evening spectacular gray-green and red auroras flash throughout Coruscant’s atmosphere. The snow covered polar regions of Coruscant are home to the turbo-ski resorts and are continuously mined by ice-boring machines. Because the planet’s inland seas and oceans have long since been drained, the melted ice is delivered by huge pipelines to the densely populated metropolitan areas.

Coruscant is defended by Golan III orbital battle station and a low-orbit space-dock facility, while a powerful energy shield protects the planet itself. During the Emperor’s reign, the planet was renamed Imperial Center, but it has since regained the original name. The New Republic has yet to rename the capital, which remains Imperial City.

After Palpatine’s death at the Battle of Endor, Coruscant endure a succession of rulers who tried to maintain the Empire. However, the New Republic realize that the planet represented the center of Power in the galaxy. Before a full attack could be launched, the New Republic sent members of the Rogue Squadron to gather intelligence about the planet’s defenses. The New Republic also freed Black Sun criminals imprisoned on Kessel and allowed these dangerous criminals to conduct sabotage missions on Coruscant. Eventually, the New Republic circumvented Coruscant’s shields and the New Republic fleet, led Admiral Ackbar, invaded and claimed the planet. After a few small conflicts, the fledging government established the world as the capital of the new democracy. Coruscant later endured attacks by Grand Admiral Thrawn and the reborn Emperor, and the New Republic was even briefly exiled from the planet.

Under the New Republic, Coruscant has regained some of its former glory. Admiral Ackbar and Admiral Drayson have homes today near small body of water called Victory Lake. Nearby is the New Republic defense Force headquarters, which includes an exercise track running through hilly wooded terrain. An inland reservoir west of Imperial City has a narrow beach bordered by a short cliff. The shoreline is a holiday spot and a playground, marked by resorts. Phosphorescent animals lived in the reservoir, and long-winged sea shrikes inhabit the coast.

Darth Vader once owned a private retreat on Coruscant, but the citadel was destroyed by a B-wing fighter during the New Republic’s recapture of the planet. Twelve years after the Battle of Endor, Luke Skywalker returned to build his own hidden retreat, using stones of Darth Vader’s Former home.