Name: Ghorman
Type: Terrestrial
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (Breathable)
Hydrosphere: Moderate
Gravity: Standard
Terrain: Canyons, caves, cliffs, forests, hills, jungles, mountains, rivers, swamps, waterfalls, valleys, urban
Length of Day: —
Length of Year: —
Sapient Species: Human (Ghorman)
Starport: Imperial
Population: 1.5 million
Planet Function: Industrial
Government: Republic / Imperial
Tech Level: Space
Trade Routes: Rimma Trade Route
Major Exports: Industrial Goods
Major Imports: Raw Materials
Settlements: Ghorman City
Points of Interest: Imperial Base, Ghorman Massacre Monument
Flora: —
Fauna: —
Background: Ghorman was a terrestrial planet located in the Ghorman System in the Sern sector within an intersecting portion of the Interior and the Colonies regions. Situated at the coordinates L-13 on the Standard Galactic Grid, the world fell along the Rimma Trade Route super-hyperroute between Giju and Thyferra. Ghorman shared its name with the Ghorman velvet and Ghorman silk materials.
During the Clone Wars, a galactic war between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems that began in 22 BBY, the Sern sector, and therefore Ghorman, was represented by Senator Fang Zar in the Galactic Senate. Ghorman and other worlds in Zar’s sector, like Albrae-Don, were considered rebellious. Towards the war’s end, Zar joined around two thousand legislators known as the Delegation of 2,000 in signing the Petition of 2,000, a formal protest that called for the Republic Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine to give up his emergency powers and begin cease-fire talks with the Separatists. The petition was presented during the last full Senate session before the Clone Wars ended in 19 BBY.
The end of the Clone Wars saw the Republic’s transition into the Galactic Empire under Emperor Palpatine and the destruction of the Jedi Order, with all Jedi becoming enemies of the Republic and, subsequently, the Empire. A day after the founding of the Empire, sixty-three senators that had signed the Petition of 2,000, including Zar, were accused of colluding with an alleged Jedi insurgency and arrested as a result. The HoloNet News, the Empire’s official state-sanctioned news agency, reported the incident shortly after, releasing a partial list of those taken into custody, including Zar. Any senator who professed their loyalty to the Empire was freed from custody thereafter.
During the reign of the Empire, Ghorman fell under Imperial rule and oppression. The anti-imperial group, the Ghorman Front, eventually became active. Imperial policy around Ghorman and its resident Ghormans also became the subject of the Ghorman Debates in the Imperial Senate by 5 BBY, some calling for decree over Ghorman matters. That year, Imperial officials, including Ars Dangor and Sly Moore, cut off the planet’s shipping lanes, affecting the food supply of the resident Ghormans.
The day after the decision, Dangor and Moore were expected at a dinner at the residence of Senator Mon Mothma of the Imperial Senate, having been invited by Mothma’s husband, Perrin Fertha. Mothma despised the decisions on the Ghorman shipping lanes and argued with Fertha about his decision to bring Dangor and Moore, sarcastically asking whether they should also find some Ghorman guests for the dinner. Shortly after, Senator Dhow proposed a fact-finding commission into the Imperial policy regarding the Ghormans. Mothma backed the proposal with her bill in a senate session in hopes of it being able to assail the Empire’s treatment of Ghorman’s people, but she was interrupted by news spreading about a major heist.
In 2 BBY, residents of Ghorman carried out a peaceful demonstration in protest against the Imperial oppression on their world. However, Imperial officials responded to the dissent by having Imperial troops start massacring protesters, leading to a civilian death toll reported between hundreds to thousands. The incident became known as the Ghorman Massacre.
In the wake of the atrocity, Senator Mothma went before the Imperial Senate and spoke out against Palpatine, naming him for ordering the Ghorman Massacre and denouncing his tyrannical leadership. At the end of the statement, she promptly left the session with her aides and went into hiding. The fugitive Mothma went on to found the Rebel Alliance against the Empire shortly afterward, uniting many rebel cells that had been operating under her unofficial network for some time.
In response to the massacre on Ghorman, journalist Corwi Selgrothe left her position at HoloNet News to join the Alliance. Pollux Hax , the Empire’s Minister of Information, spoke in the aftermath of the atrocity, declaring that accepting Imperial law was the only way for citizens to protect themselves from the dangers of disorder.
After the Alliance’s establishment, a speech made by Mothma known as the Declaration of Rebellion circulated on the HoloNet channel and through posters, one such being found on Ghorman. Secretly part of the Alliance, Senator Tynnra Pamlo served as their Minister of Education, being exposed to evidence of the Empire’s atrocities on Ghorman and other worlds while working with the Alliance’s intelligence branch. After the Ghorman Massacre, the artist Mevera Starros smuggled a few cases of the Sacha-Lo beverage from Ghorman, keeping a few bottles for herself.
Around 3 ABY, the Imperial Security Bureau Agent Andressa Divo made a report regarding the search for the Alliance’s most recent base, commenting that civilian deaths on populated planets like Ghorman and Garel had prompted the Alliance to seek out unsettled worlds to establish their operations.
The Memorial to the Missing of Ghorman was eventually established to remember those who had been killed on Ghorman by the Empire during its reign. The Empire kept a section on Ghorman in their Imperial Archives, which included a file on the “Reprisal Activities” that contained information on the Ghorman Massacre. Reading that file, the historian Beaumont Kin discussed the Ghorman Massacre and its consequences in his 35 ABY book The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire. In the text, he described the atrocity on Ghorman. He discussed the aftermath, arguing that it only taught those with rebel sympathies that there was no political compromise with the Empire. He also mentioned the Memorial to the Missing of Ghorman alongside similar structures to remind readers that so many had died under the Empire that no information remained on many victims.
Appearances: Andor