Coruscant

Coruscant (/ˈkɒrəsɑːnt/) is an ecumenopolis planet in the fictional universe of Star Wars. It was first described in Timothy Zahn's 1991 novel Heir to the Empire. The planet made its first on-screen appearance in a scene added to Return of the Jedi for its 1997 re-release. It has since become an important location in the Star Wars universe and appears frequently in Star Wars media.

In-universe, Coruscant is a politically and strategically important planet, serving as the capital and seat of government for the Republic and the Galactic Empire, as well as the headquarters of the Jedi Order. It is depicted as a bustling, yet highly stratified planet-spanning metropolis. Throughout the city's centuries-long development, new city blocks were built on top of old ones, forming levels. Coruscant has 5127 levels, with the top being the wealthiest and the lowest being the poorest.

Coruscant has four moons and is the sixth planet out of the eleven that make up the system of the same name. It lies within the Coruscant Subsector of the Corusca Sector, located in the Core Worlds galactic quadrant region. The sun, Coruscant Prime, is the zero coordinate of the Star Wars galaxy (as opposed to being its galactic center). In Legends, Coruscant was once referred to as Notron or Queen of the Core. It was renamed Imperial Center during the reign of the Galactic Empire (as depicted in the original films) and Yuuzhan'tar during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion (as depicted in the New Jedi Order novel series). Initially, the planet's capital city was Galactic City (built at least in 100,000 BBY, partially destroyed in 27 and 44 ABY). It was Imperial City under the Galactic Empire and was Republic City (or the City of Spires) under the Galactic Republic. The planet was code-named Triple Zero during the Clone Wars. The demonym and adjective form of the planet's name is Coruscanti.

Many native citizens of Coruscant speak with the Received Pronunciation accent (known in-universe as Coruscanti).

In the Star Wars universe, the planet Coruscant derives its name from a rare and valuable gemstone, the corusca gem (a fictional gem in Star Wars lore). The lights of the planet-wide city, as seen from space, were said to resemble the glittering of these gems.

In the real world, the word "coruscant" originates in the late 15th century from the Latin word coruscant, meaning "vibrating, glittering". It comes from the Latin verb coruscare, meaning "to glitter". The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines it as a poetic and literary adjective meaning "glittering; sparkling". In French, "coruscant" is also used as an adjective meaning "glittering; sparkling". As a literary adjective, the French term can be used to describe a decadent and overly complicated language, decorum, or community.

The concept of a city-planet in the Star Wars universe originated with the initial drafts of Star Wars when author George Lucas included a planet called Alderaan, a city-planet and the capital planet of the galaxy. In Lucas's 1975 draft, Adventures of the Starkiller as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars, the capital planet of Alderaan is described as a floating city in the clouds, "suspended in a sea of cirrus methane". This concept was illustrated in early sketches commissioned by Lucas from conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie, and the design very closely resembles Cloud City, the floating city featured in The Empire Strikes Back. In Lucas's third draft, the Imperial City of Alderaan became the homeworld of the Sith Lords, where Darth Vader held Princess Leia captive. Lucas continued to hone his script, aided by screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. By the fourth draft, scenes on the Imperial capital planet had been moved to a space station called the Death Star and the name of Alderaan was given to a peaceful world destroyed by the Empire. The Empire's homeworld, Had Abbadon, came up in early drafts of Return of the Jedi. The entire planet was to be a sprawling city. However, concluding that the realization of such a city was impossible at the time, the creators abandoned the idea. Later, in the graphic novel Legacy 29: Vector, Part 10 the name Had Abbadon was given to a lost mythic planet in the Had Abbadon System of the Deep Core. This mythic planet was covered by dry fields, linked to the birth of the Jedi, and the location of a planned assassination attempt by Cade Skywalker on Darth Krayt. It was also the home to an Imperial.

The Empire's homeworld first appeared in the Star Wars Expanded Universe and was called Coruscant for the first time in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire.