Sanyassa IV, also known simply as Sanyassa, was a stormy, terrestrial planet occupying the fourth orbital position of the Outer Moddell systems' Sanyassa system in the Moddell sector, one of the subsectors making up the Inner Zuma Region within the Outer Rim Territories' Zuma sector. It lay on the hyperlane known as the Bakura Trace, which connected it to the Endor and Ast Kikorie systems.
Sanyassa IV had a Type I breathable atmosphere and standard gravity, and its climate was temperate. The planet's terrain included forests, mountains, rocky plains, and savannas, and it had 24-hour long local days and 389-day long years.
The history of the native Sanyassan species went back millennia and hinted at a time when their society was more advanced than what it came to be: a lawless world where those who were strong came to power. The kleptocratic government existed during the times of the Old Republic, the Rebellion, and the New Republic. However, by 3963 BBY, at least one Sanyassan, Bar'injar, had made his way beyond Sanyassa IV and into the Core Worlds.
Although the Sanyassans occasionally pursued farming and limited trade on their home planet, they were more accustomed to war with blades and blasters. The world was fought over by the Sanyassans who lived there. A group of Sanyassans known as the Marauders became shipwrecked on the Forest Moon of Endor at least one century before 3 ABY. The xenobiologists of the New Republic would later debate over the origin of Endor's Marauders.
Terak, one of the Sanyassans native to Sanyassa IV
Sanyassa was populated by one billion Sanyassans—a species of leathery-skinned humanoid warriors—was governed by clans, and had no major imports or exports. The native Sanyassans included Terak, Yavid, and Maygo. The latter left Sanyassa as a youth. Some of the Ayrou species theorized that the Sanyassans had been particularly susceptible to the Din supernova of 5000 BBY, which caused radiation that they never recovered from. The Sanyassans spoke a language of the same name, and they used technology that was mostly on a primitive, feudal level, although they did possess some space technology that they had stolen from others.
The Sanyassans enjoyed using their newfound secrets of spaceflight to prey on the peaceful Ewoks of Endor, who were quite frightened by the Marauders. Indeed, the Sanyassans used scavenged starships to attack anyone they wished in the Moddell sector, stealing new technology all the while. They were also hired out as thugs and bodyguards by those who wished to take advantage of the Sanyassans' barbarous nature.
The Sanyassans had been causing trouble in the Outer Moddell systems for nearly as long as the neighboring Zorbians, another band of pirates native to the nearby planet Zorbia II. The Sanyassans were famous for their strength, temper, and lack of deep thought. Most of the Sanyassans on the planet longed to visit the stars.
Sanyassa IV was first mentioned in the ninth issue of the Star Wars Gamer magazine in two articles simultaneously: "Endor and the Moddell Sector" and "Race for the Tessent," both authored by Craig Robert Carey, Daniel Wallace, and Jason Fry. The magazine was published on February 22, 2002. The 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas placed the planet in grid square H-16.
- "Endor and the Moddell Sector" — Star Wars Gamer 9
- Ultimate Alien Anthology
- Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. III
- "Warriors of Endor" — Star Wars Insider 110
- The Essential Atlas