Balnab

"According to the positional system coordinates, this is Balnab, a stellar remnant in its emerging stages of organic development."

―C-3PO^[4]

Balnab was a temperate planet located in the Bright Jewel sector of the Mid Rim, near Patitite Pattuna. During the Clone Wars, it served as a home to a group of alien castaways.

Description

BalnabLandscape-ND — The landscape of Balnab

Balnab was a planet^[5] located in the Balnab system in the Bright Jewel sector of the Mid Rim^[3] near Patitite Pattuna. At the time of the Clone Wars, the planet was still in its early stages of development, made by a stellar remnant, and was covered in swamps and rocky canyons. Balnab's temperate climate was the home to hesten, small, four-armed primates^[5] who lived in troops in the native umbrella trees.^[7]

History

At some point prior to the Clone Wars, an alien cruiser crashed on Balnab, and the surviving crew became the lone intelligence on the primitive world. The Balnab denizens were tricked into serving a group of pit droids who took the holographic persona of "Albee Dewaw." During the war, C-3PO and R2-D2 inadvertently visited Balnab, where they revealed the truth about the self-appointed dictator.^[4]

In 10 BBY,^[8] the Hidden Path was rumored to have an established presence on Balnab. This was due to a transmission that was intercepted by the Empire regarding communications of a secret network. Initially, the network was disregarded as a lie, but safehouses in two other systems were identified.^[9]

Following the Battle of Yavin and the Cyrkon Extraction, Han Solo and Chewbacca camped out on Balnab aboard the Millennium Falcon. They counted their reward money while planning their next venture, but were convinced by Luke Skywalker to undertake a mission to deliver crates to Calumdarian. Solo reluctantly agreed, and took the Falcon to Balnab Spaceport where he became embroiled in a bar fight between members of the Rebellion and the smuggler Akko and his gang. Han helped his old smuggling friends ship spice off Balnab, and departed that night for Troiken.^[6]

Behind the scenes

Balnab first appeared in "Nomad Droids,"^[4] the sixth episode of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars' fourth season, which originally aired on October 14, 2011.^[10]