Duro

Duro is one of three planets—alongside Coruscant and Corellia—credited with the aggressive exploration that secured the Republic's future during its formative centuries.

Grid Location: M-11
Region: Core Worlds
Terrain: Historic: wasteland; current: jungle
Diameter: 12,765 km
Length of Day: 33 standard hours
Length of Year: 420 standard days
Population: 18.5 billion
Sentient Species: Duros
Species Mix: Duros (53%), humans (36%), other (11%)
Languages: Durese, Basic
Government: Corporate
Major Exports: Starships, starship parts, high-tech goods
Major Imports: Foodstuffs, ore, labor
System/Star: Duro/Duro

Planets in the System:

Planets	Type	Moons
Lors	Scaring rock	1
Duro	Terrestrial	0
Koli	Frozen rock	2

"Duro is one of three planets—alongside Coruscant and Corellia—credited with the aggressive exploration that secured the Republic's future during its formative centuries..."

Detailed History

The lanky, bald-headed Duros are gregarious, with a wanderlust that has always led them to the stars. In the pre-Republic era, Duro fell under the sway of the Rakatan Infinite Empire. Many Duros tolerated slavery for the chance to learn more about their overlord's interstellar engines, and they quickly reverse-engineered the drives after the Infinite Empire's collapse.

Independently of the Corellians, the Duros built the earliest hyperspace cannons; for more than two centuries the two societies cooperatively blazed the first leg of what would become the Corellian Trade Spine. The cannon networks, which required the construction of a second cannon at the exit point if a ship hoped to ever return home, necessitated a certain bravado—which the two societies had in abundance. The development of the modern hyperdrive in 25,000 BBY led to a wave of Duros colonization under the blessing of Queen Rana, resulting in a scattering of daughter worlds (including Neimoidia). The Duros moved into space cities, abandoning their homeworld to automated food production and mining. Eventually, overdevelopment reached critical levels, triggering mass extinctions and unchecked pollution capped by a Separatist bombardment that released massive amounts of toxins into the atmosphere.

Duro's chokehold on local trade routes made it a target of conquest, notably during the Mandalorian Wars (3960 BBY), the New Sith Wars (1000 BBY), the Clone Wars (20 BBY), and Operation Shadow Hand (10 ABY). During Palpatine's reign, the Empire chose not to subjugate Duro, and instead minimized its influence by redrawing borders to make it part of the Corellian sector.

During the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Senate Select Committee for Refugees (SELCORE) relocated civilian evacuees to Duro, sheltering them in environment domes while attempting to terraform the planet's poisoned surface. A Yuuzhan Vong attack annihilated the refuges and destroyed most of Duro's space cities. Ironically, the Vong's own terraforming effort succeeded. Duro is now a green, welcoming world, a look it hadn't worn for nearly four millennia.