The Alaris Prime colonists were a group, mostly made up of Wookiees from the planet Kashyyyk, who between 39 and 36 BBY colonized the moon Alaris Prime. The Wookiees were aided by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn in the colony, and also had to battle the Trade Federation for the rights to the moon.
The Wookiee colonists of Alaris Prime, a moon of the gas giant Alaris, included workers and warriors. The workers used various pieces of technology to gather the natural resources of the moon, and constructed different building types for various purposes. The warriors included infantry such as bowcaster troopers, and the Wookiees built up their military capabilities to include mechs, heavy weapons, and ships. On Alaris Prime, the Wookiees domesticated the native maru as pack animals and war mounts. The Wookiees colonized the other seven moons of Alaris, with settlements that used the middle-period Krorral archtectural style.
Chewbacca and Shoran were among the first Wookiees to set foot on Alaris Prime.
Between 59 BBY and 56 BBY, Alaris Prime, which had been hidden from galactic view by the gas giant and was thus untouched by civilization, was discovered by Wookiee explorers from the planet Kashyyyk in the same star system. The explorers petitioned the Galactic Republic Senate on behalf of Kashyyyk, represented by the Chieftain Attichitcuk. After twenty years of debate, including opposition from the Trade Federation, the colonization rights were finally awarded to the Wookiees. Attichitcuk was granted leadership of the colonists for his role in securing the rights. The colonists departed for Alaris Prime aboard four colony ships, including the Thalmussen, between 39 BBY and 36 BBY. Among the colonists was Chewbacca, Attichitcuk's son, and Chewbacca's cousin Shoran. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn was also assigned by the Jedi High Council to advise the Wookiees in their efforts at colonization.
Attichitcuk was the first Wookiee to disembark the colony ships, he established a camp and left markers behind so other Wookiees to follow him. Shoran followed, also leaving markers, but stopped when he encountered a damaged power core, unaware that it had been left by the Trade Federation, who had commenced an illegal colonization effort but had been driven from that area by gundarks, a predatory species found on Alaris Prime. Chewbacca left the ships next, and followed the markers with Jinn's help until he found Shoran. On the Jedi's recommendation the two destroyed the power core with their bowcasters. Afterwards they proceeded until they found Attichitcuk's camp, and the three Wookiees had to quickly defend it from an attack by gundarks.
Subsequently, more Wookiees departed their transports and began learning how to gather resources with Jinn's help. At a command center three Wookiee workers began gathering food from muja fruit bushes, and two more later joined them and also caught fish from the nearby river. Jinn had the Wookiees practice a drill in case of a gundark attack, which involved the Wookiees entering the command center for safety and using its autoturret for protection. After doing so, the Wookiees started gathering carbon from trees, and Chewbacca arrived at the command center. At that time, four gundarks attacked the command center, and the workers garrisoned inside the command center and Chewbacca helped kill the gundarks. Chewbacca then found stockpiles of nova crystals and ore, from which the workers began gathering. After gathering a set threshold of resources, including nova crystals and ore the command center was able to sustain itself.
The encounter with the Trade Federation changed the course of the Wookiees' work on Alaris Prime.
Jinn decided that the gundarks needed to be eliminated, and at another base run by Chewbacca he set three workers to gather food and carbon. They also constructed prefab shelters to allow more Wookiees to join them and Chewbacca found several nerfs which the Wookiees were able to keep in an animal nursery. Once Chewbacca had trained at least ten bowcaster troopers, they marched northward to the gundark nest, only to find it already under attack by Battle Droid Beta Versions of the Trade Federation, who had blamed the gundarks for the destruction of the power core. After all the gundarks were dead, the battle droids turned on the Wookiees, who were able to fight them off. Jinn congratulated the Wookiees for their performance, realizing that his lessons to them would take a dramatically different turn.
Chewbacca trained warriors to fight the Trade Federation.
Attichitcuk and two other Wookiees undertook a scouting mission to learn more about the Trade Federation's presence, while Chewbacca and seven other Wookiees worked on upgrading the worker's armor, gathering food, and improving their technology level. After gathering enough food to advance their technology, Attichitcuk headed back to the base, but he was ambushed by Battle Droid Beta Versions commanded by DRN-38. The droids killed his companions while Attichitcuk was left on the brink of death, with Jinn sensing his survival through the Force. Jinn instructed the Wookiees to train bowcaster troopers and assemble a medical droid so that they could rescue their chieftain.
With at least ten troopers ready, Chewbacca gathered them at the markers at the edge of the base before proceeding into the forests of Alaris Prime to rescue Attichitcuk. They destroyed several battle droids on their path before finding him and using the medical droid to heal him well enough to make the return journey to the base. Multiple bowcaster troopers were trained at the base and followed the path of Chewbacca's party, allowing them to make a two pronged attack on the droids as they returned with Attichitcuk. At the base, Attichitcuk entered its command center, and DRN-38 sent three droidekas to attack them, however, Chewbacca and the bowcaster troopers were able to hold them off. Chewbacca took leadership of the colonists while Attichitcuk took time to recover from his wounds.
The attack on the Trade Federation outpost
The Wookiees built another base in proximity to an outpost Chewbacca hoped to attack to delay the Trade Federation's production of battle droids. Chewbacca and two other Wookiees recruited twelve further workers to the base, they helped to expand it by building power cores, prefab shelters, and eventually a Food processing center and a troop center. Chewbacca explored the surrounding area while two bowcaster troopers were trained. The Wookiees also built a shipyard on the river and built a utility trawler there to gather fish, followed by a sentry post and processing centers for storing carbon, nova, and ore. The utility trawler built an AquaHarvester to gather more fish, and then the Wookiees built a mech factory, which they used to assemble two HummBike speeders.
Two Wookiees used the HummBikes to explore the forests surrounding the base, and the absence of Trade Federation forces there led Jinn to correctly theorize that the outpost was on the other side of the river. The Wookiees built an aquatic transport ship to ferry the speeder riders across the river, where they found the outpost. Jinn ordered Chewbacca to gather an army of twelve Wookiees, including bowcaster troopers, dragon troopers, and thermal detonator troopers. The group sailed across the river and approached the outpost, where the dragon troopers and grenade troopers commenced the attack by destroying the light outer wall. Five B1-Series battle droids commanded by GWC-04 fired back at the Wookiees but were destroyed by Chewbacca and the bowcaster troopers. The Wookiees were able to break through the wall and destroy the outpost.
Chewbacca led an attack on the Trade Federation's listening array.
Chewbacca established another camp south of a camp run by Shoran, although he was not immediately aware of the latter camp's exact location. He resided there with two bowcaster troopers, a dragon trooper, seven Wookiee workers, and two nerfs. Jinn instructed the Wookiees to gather resources while he lectured on the benefits of having allies. The Wookiees constructed a spaceport, from which they were able to use HoloNet technology to locate Shoran's camp and then build Corellian HoverFreighters to exchange resources. After Shoran found a Jedi holocron inside his camp, Jinn requested and received permission from the Jedi Council to build a temple at Chewbacca's camp where the holocron should be stored. Upon the construction of the temple, Jinn sent his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi to retrieve the holocron. Around that time, Shoran warned Chewbacca that the droid commander LUH-989 had sent three beetle droids and six Battle Droid Beta Versions to Chewbacca's camp.
Jinn suggested that the Wookiee workers take refuge inside the camp's command center while a group of between five and six Wookiees defended the camp and destroyed the droids. Chewbacca donated nova crystals to Shoran to help him recover from the attack. Kenobi returned to the camp with the holocron, and scouts from Shoran's camps uncovered a nearby Trade Federation listening array, also commanded by LUH-989. The Wookiees and Jinn agreed to destroy the array, and Chewbacca gathered between eight and thirty Wookiees to lead the attack. A heavy bowcaster trooper from Shoran's camp arrived at the array first and attacked its sentry posts, but was killed by the battle droids before the other Wookiees arrived. Once Chewbacca's forces and Shoran arrived they destroyed the transmitters and B1 battle droids and droidekas.
The Battle for Alaris Prime saw the Wookiees drive the Trade Federation off their new world.
The Wookiees located the Trade Federation's main base on Alaris Prime and established a new base, with Shoran constructing the defensive walls. Chewbacca and a fully recuperated Attichitcuk were at the base, along with eight workers, seven bowcaster troopers, two HummBike speeder scouts, and two dragon troopers. Jinn received permission from the Jedi Council to participate in the final offensive against the Trade Federation, which was given on the condition that the Wookiees construct a fortress. The workers began to gather resources to upgrade their technology and filled the holes in the walls while Trade Federation commander SRAM-13 sent battle droids to attack Wookiee sentry posts. When the Wookiees eventually built their fortress Jinn arrived at the base, after which SRAM-13 sent three droid starfighters to scout the base. Jinn warned the Wookiees to prepare for an attack, but the starfighters did not initiate any violence.
The Wookiees built turrets and an airbase, which they used to build ten Agr starfighters, three Heavy Blade bombers. They also built a heavy weapons factory where they assembled three energy pummels, and a mech factory to build five Sentinels. Together with five bowcaster troopers, the vehicles, Wookiee leadership and Jinn marched towards the Trade Federation base. They destroyed the turrets on the path towards it, and the bombers destroyed the walls and turrets while the fighters picked off any droids they could find. With the path cleared for the ground forces, the Wookiee infantry entered the base and used the pummels to destroy the Trade Federation's fortress, ending their presence on Alaris Prime. Afterward, Alaris Prime became a thriving technological hub for the Wookiees and the Republic, and gained economic success through Chewbacca's leadership.
Even with the victory on Alaris Prime, the Trade Federation continued to attack the colony worlds of Kashyyyk in the decades prior to the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which began in 22 BBY. In the first month of the war, the Wookiees on Alaris Prime were targeted by the Confederacy, whose Head of State, Count Dooku, wanted to test an ancient superweapon called the Force Harvester on a world where its devastating effects would not be noticed by the wider galaxy. When setting up a testing site to contain the Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker, the smuggler Bera Kazan, and several captive Wookiees, Dooku ordered his henchman Cydon Prax to exterminate any remaining Wookiees on Alaris Prime to conceal the existence of the Force Harvester.
Skywalker used the Force to escape the Force Harvester, freeing Kazan and the Wookiee prisoners. In the battle on Alaris, Skywalker fought back against the Seperatists and repelled them from the moon. Shortly after the Alaris Prime Wookiees recovered from their enslavement, they were attacked again by the Seperatist General Sev'rance Tann, who need activation codes for stolen Decimators.
The colonists of Alaris Prime were first mentioned in Prima Games' strategy guide by Steven L. Kent—released on November 7, 2001—for the LucasArts video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, released on November 11, 2001. In the game, the player controls them throughout the tutorial campaign, learning how to gather resources and build armies.
In the 2002 video game Star Wars: The Clone Wars, several missions take place on a location called the Kashyyyk moon. The moon was suggested to be Alaris Prime on the LucasArts website, which mentioned the moon's previous appearance in Galactic Battlegrounds, and it was more explicitly confirmed in The New Essential Chronology in 2005.
The 2015 Core Rulebook for the roleplaying game Star Wars: Force and Destiny stated that Alaris Prime was terraformed by Wookiee colonists to resemble Kashyyyk over millennia. This contradicts the portrayal of Alaris Prime as a previously unknown world shown in Galactic Battlegrounds, The Official Star Wars Fact File 42, and The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.
- Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
- The New Essential Chronology
- "Han Solo: The Early Years" — Star Wars Insider 106
- The Essential Atlas
- The Unknown Regions
- Star Wars: Force and Destiny Core Rulebook