Kashyyyk

Kashyyyk (pronounced ka-sheek), the home planet of the Wookiees, boasts one of the most unusual and lethal ecosystems in the galaxy. Awe-inspiring wroshyr trees cover its surface, stretching several miles from the sheltered surface to its wispy cloud layer.

    The many years of growth created what many have called a "layered death trap" amid Kashyyyk's wroshyrs. Visitors are generally safe as long as they remain among the highest of the interlaced branches, but the threat steadily increases as one descends toward the surface. Carnivorous syren planets, flesh-shredding katarns, poisonous webweavers, and smothering protoplasmic slugs are just a few of the known dangers. Below a certain level, sunlight can no longer penetrate the leafy canopy; toothy bioluminescent predators are the only visible things in the utter darkness. Very few have touched the soil of Kashyyyk and lived to tell about it. [Taken From Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons] 

"Secrets of Kashyyyk"

The homeworld of the Wookiee species, Kashyyyk, is a forest wonderland covered nearly from pole to pole by kilometers-high wroshyr trees. Although the Wookiees themselves were once subjugated by the Empire, their world is almost entirely untamed, and even the fierce Wookiees are hesitant to enter the lowest reaches of their forest home. Wookiee legends tell of gigantic monsters that prowl the deepest reaches of Kashyyyk's mighty forests, and the Wookiees know all too well that those legends are grounded in perilous truth.

First Glimpse of Kashyyyk

From space, Kashyyyk appears like any other forested planet: green with trees, blue with water, white with clouds. On closer approach, the cloud cover seems more like fog, with the tallest trees poking out here and there. This is merely an optical illusion; the oldest wroshyr trees stand several kilometers tall, their roots lost in the impenetrable gloom far, far below.

Cities are nowhere to be seen until one gets much closer. Then, tiny specks resolve into the haze of smoke, the network of towers and bridges, and the pale, flat discs of landing pads -- cut from single limbs of the titanic wroshyrs. Closer still, individual buildings, sometimes two or three stories tall, begin to stand out -- as do the wide, flat streets between them. The immensity of the physics becomes wondrously clear: each city is built on interwoven branches so large that a ship could land on the cross-section, so sturdy they stir only in the most devastating winds. Kashyyyk's cities are built in conjunction with nature -- not in spite of it -- and yet they are fully functional cities, not crude villages or simple structures. Technology and nature blend everywhere -- in the speeders cruising along limbs as wide as multi-lane highways, in the organic exhaust ports of the computer-component factories, and in the grand crystalline windows of the mansions, museums, and temples. Kashyyyk is far from primitive; it is simply natural.

Still, the visitor occasionally catches a glimpse of something dark far, far below, accompanied by a frightening flash of movement. Such visions serve to remind off-worlders that the cities of Kashyyyk are but tiny outposts of civilization in the forest. The depths are ruled by predators do terrible that even Wookiees shudder to think of them.

Geography and Climate

Offworld visitors tend to think of Kashyyyk as covered in wroshyr trees, but the surface of Kashyyyk is almost 40% water. Because the upper branches of the wroshyrs mesh so well, an object dropping from the heights is considerably more likely to come to rest on a tree limb than it is to strike water. Even on Kashyyyk's seas, there is a considerable amount of tree cover far, far above.

 The steamy temperatures in Kashyyyk's swamps and inland lakes cause a tremendous amount of evaporation. Most of it rarely rises more than a ½mile above the ground before it is trapped by foliage, where it condenses and falls back into the water table as dark, soil-rich rain. What evaporation occurs on the upper levels makes for light cloud cover and periodic light rainfall. Windstorms are infrequent, and usually not very strong -- certainly not strong enough to shake the treetops. Lightning is extremely unusual on Kashyyyk, as the wood of wroshyr trees is an insulator against negative electrical build-up.

Kashyyyk's geographical regions are broken down more by climate and terrain, and less by geopolitical boundaries. The most populous regions are the central northern and southern hemispheres, where the temperatures are comfortable for the heavily furred Wookiees. The population drops off as the temperature rises toward the equator and drops toward the poles. The seas are, of course, uninhabited by Wookiees, who are not comfortable that close to the surface -- dry land or not.

Each of Kashyyyk's four continents are at least partially inhabited with at least one major city per continent. The largest cities include Truvvhhurr, Kamarkiia, Hoorrkhukk, Maarwraawroo, and Rwookrrorro, all of which are built around manufacturing facilities that provide Kashyyyk with trade goods for offworld commerce. Smaller communities, such as Kroohhuhwoor, Orriorr, and Rarrhkrrorrho, tend to focus on agricultural goods sold on Kashyyyk itself.

Kashyyyk might be almost half water, but the rest is wroshyr trees. The wroshyr forests of the Wookiee homeworld extend many kilometers above  the surface -- so far that few Wookiees ever see the surface. Wookiee scientists calculate the diameter of the wroshyr trunks at several kilometers. They further suggest that Wookiee cities may not be built on the commingled branches of multiple trees, as is commonly believed, but rather on the widespread limbs of a single wroshyr tree. The upper reaches of the wroshyr trees, where Wookiees build the nurseries for their young, can measure half a kilometer thick.

The wroshyr forests blanket the planet, even hanging a half-dozen kilometers out over the seas, a few kilometers below. Kashyyyk's poles are also forested, though not as heavily as other regions. Only at the very tip of the poles and in the planet's few meager deserts are wroshyr trees completely absent. Land without tree growth account for only half a percent of Kashyyyk's surface.

The Wookiees divide the wroshyr forests into seven vertical levels. The top level is occupied by the Wookiees, and it is further subdivided into the highest level (the nursery ring, where Wookiee children are minded and educated while their parents work), the habitation level (where Wookiee families dwell and work), and the maintenance level (where most Wookiee public utilities are located, including sewage and power generation).

As one travels farther down, the levels become increasingly more dangerous. A few predators exist on the level directly below the Wookiees' level, but these are small and easily circumvented. On the third level down, carnivorous syren plants exist in massive numbers and sizes. They play a part in Wookiee "coming-of-age" rituals, though only the most reckless Wookiees dare to venture so far down to prove their courage.

Below this level, things swiftly turn lethal. The fourth level down is inhabited by deadly predators, to which a full-grown Wookiee warrior is little more than a passing challenge.

The next two levels are known as the Shadow Forest -- the part of the forest too far below the canopy for light to penetrate. This is the domain of the webweavers -- giant, spiderlike creatures capable of devouring the most powerful Wookiee in a single bite. The Shadow Forest is a colossal maze of adhesive webs, where the slightest tremor attracts the attention of at least one webweaver. Those few Wookiees who travel down this far below rarely return

Finally, the ground level is given over to swamps, inland lakes, and sluggish rivers. The fauna at this level is more strange than lethal (though there is a fair amount of the latter), and most of the creatures live in complete darkness broke only by the occasional patch of phosphorescent flora. A few creatures provide their own illumination -- which usually attracts the attention of ground-level predators, so these creatures are either prolific or extremely dangerous in their own right.                                                                                                     [Taken from the Star Wars Gamer magazine; issue 4; pgs 52-63]

©2006 Wild Wookiee World