Name: Vjun
Region: Outer Rim Territories;
Sector: Nuiri sector
System: Vjun system
Grid coordinates: Q-6
Distance from Core: Salin Corridor
Climate: Acid rain
Primary terrain: Acid deserts
Points of interest: Bast Castle, Bay of Tears, Château Malreaux, River Weeping
Flora: Acid-beet
Fauna: Pirate gull, Vjun fox, Whip-smelt
Native species: Vjun
Immigrated species: Human
Primary language(s): None; Formerly: Galactic Basic Standard
Demonym: Vjunite
Major cities: Bitter End

Description: Vjun (or Vijjun) was a dark, almost lifeless planet in the Vjun system, known for its acidic rainfalls and resultant lack of plant life. It was also renowned for its expensive hand-woven tunics. It was the location of Bast Castle, a fortress used by Count Dooku, and later a place where Darth Vader studied the dark side of the Force.

After the fall of the Sith Empire, Vjun was one of the refuges for the Sith.

Around 4000 BBY, Viscountess Mireya of Vjun married into the Tapani nobility by wedding High Lord Tritum XI of House Mecetti. Mireya brought with her Sith teachings that corrupted the House's protector organization, the Mecrosa Order, turning it into a Sith cult.

Vjun was the homeworld of the Malreaux family, one of the oldest and wealthiest on the planet. The Viscount Malreaux performed experiments on midi-chlorians that drove the populace of Vjun insane, leading to their murder of each other in 29 BBY. One of the few survivors was the Viscountess Whirry Malreaux, who gave her son, Whie Malreaux, to the Jedi Order so he could escape the horrors of his birthworld. Whirry remained on Vjun with her Force familiar, the Vjun fox Miss Vix. Droids such as the FIII Footman droid and the R2-series astromech droid were used as the workhorses of the Vjun population as they were rather more resilient to the highly acidic climate.

During the Clone Wars, Vjun was located within Separatist space. In 20 BBY, Château Malreaux served as a hideout for Count Dooku in the Clone Wars. After taking over the château, he invited Jedi Master Yoda to come and save him from the dark side. In reality, Dooku had hoped to use the power of the dark side to destroy his former master. When Yoda arrived, he told Dooku to try and convert him to the dark side. Although Dooku told him of the wonders of the dark side, Yoda could not be turned and so Yoda tried to convert Dooku back to the light. This failed when Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker appeared and Dooku suspected treachery.


Bast Castle on the dreary surface of Vjun

The planet later served as the headquarters of dark-side Executor Sedriss QL and Emperor Palpatine's elite forces of Dark Jedi. Before this, it was where Darth Vader's personal fortress, Bast Castle, resided. It had concentrated acid rain and the fortress was well guarded by many of Vader's best troops, including the legendary Dark troopers.

During the later phases of the Galactic Civil War, the clone trooper-turned Jedi X2 led New Republic forces to Bast Castle in the Battle of Vjun in order to find his brother, X1, now a Sith Lord. Kam Solusar trained as a Dark Side Elite on Vjun before Luke Skywalker turned him to the light-side on Nespis VIII, six years after the Battle of Endor. Soon after, three Ysanna prisoners from Ossus were taken to Vjun to serve as raw material for creating new clone bodies of Emperor Palpatine. The Ysanna were frozen in carbonite to await the future construction of a clone laboratory within Bast Castle. However, Luke Skywalker and his Jedi trainees stormed the castle to defeat the Emperor's minions.

Kyle Katarn and Jaden Korr visited Bast Castle in order to stop the cult known as the Disciples of Ragnos from draining the Force energy there. They soon found that Kyle Katarn's missing pupil, Rosh Penin, had been turned to the dark side and was stealing the energy himself. After a battle with Jaden Korr, Desann's former apprentice, Tavion Axmis, eventually came forth as the leader of the Disciples of Ragnos. However, she escaped with Rosh.

Later, in 22 ABY, the Jedi historian Tionne Solusar discovered that Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber had been recovered by Vader and stored at Bast Castle. Since an information broker had sold this information to them, she feared that others may have gotten to it first. Thinking it was just a simple trip and time for training, Tionne allowed Anakin Solo, Tahiri Veila, Uldir Lochett, and Ikrit to accompany her. They left on her Jemlaat-class yacht Lore Seeker.

Having arrived at Bast Castle, they discovered another vessel and feared another group had reached it first. Tionne also discovered hssiss on Vjun, just like those on Ambria, suggesting the creatures had been bred on both worlds by the ancient Sith. Having survived the fortress's automated defense systems and booby traps, they discovered the lightsaber in a protected alcove. Unfortunately, a group of mercenaries and pirates under a cloaked man named Orloc arrived. Orloc wielded a lightsaber and claimed to be a mage who possessed great powers. His henchmen also stole Kenobi's lightsaber.

In response, the Jedi pursued Orloc and his henchmen on a chase through Bast Castle. During a confrontation, Orloc easily defeated Ikrit in lightsaber combat since the Kushiban had no lightsaber at all. He also deceived Uldir by claiming to train him in all the Force skills he desired. However, the other Jedi managed to rescue Uldir and escape Bast Castle, along with Kenobi's lightsaber and the holocron of the ancient Jedi Master Asli Krimsan.

The planet would come under the control of the Yuuzhan Vong during their invasion of the galaxy.

Points of interest
Bitter End
Bitter End was a city on the far side of the Bay of Tears on the planet Vjun. Bitter End had numbered some six hundred and sixty thousand citizens before plagues and madness had rendered it a shadow of its former glory a decade before the Clone Wars.

Bast Castle
Bast Castle was Darth Vader's private fortress on the acid rain-soaked planet of Vjun. It later became the headquarters of the Dark Side Elite.

The secret sanctuary of Darth Vader, Bast Castle was an immense black fortress located near a beach on Vjun. His personal home, Vader often retired to Bast when not on assignment for the Emperor. Very few sentients knew of its existence and it was here in solitude that Vader studied the dark side and attempted to learn what he needed to heal his broken body, frequently using his personal Meditation chamber located at the top of the castle. When not studying the dark side, Vader spent what time he had perfecting his lightsaber skills, using several variants of training droids to challenge himself. The castle also contained a droid workshop and private hangar where Vader would use his mechanical skills he picked from his time as a slave to privately work on his TIE Advanced X1 and to repair his sparring droids. Aside from Vader himself, the castle was occupied by a garrison of Stormtroopers who both stationed within the castle and the surrounding outposts. These troopers were assigned to protect Bast Castle while Vader was away on assignment for the Emperor. After the death of both Vader and the Emperor, the castle stood alone and forgotten for years.

After the Battle of Endor, the fallen clone trooper X1 decided to forge a new empire with himself on the throne. Declaring himself a Sith Lord, he sought to attain the power of the dark side. However, he lacked the knowledge of the Sith and thus traveled to the Vjun in order to acquire a holocron located at Bast Castle. His brother X2 traveled to Bast Castle in order to stop him but by the time he reached the surface, he learned that his clone brother had departed for Mustafar.

During Emperor Palpatine's resurgence in a clone body, Palpatine interrogated and tortured inexperienced Ysanna Jedi in Bast Castle under the gaze of a massive statue of Vader that had been erected by Sedriss QL. When Luke Skywalker and Kam Solusar attacked the castle to rescue the Ysanna, it was heavily damaged in the fighting, and Vader's statue was toppled.

In 14 ABY, Kyle Katarn and Jaden Korr visited Vjun and the castle in order to try and stop the Disciples of Ragnos from draining it of its Force energy. It was then that Rosh Penin revealed that he had turned to the dark side. Prior to the encounter with Penin, Korr came across the toppled statue of Vader and jokingly told himself that somebody really didn't like Vader. Korr eventually defeated Penin and killed the Kothos twins who accompanied Penin and empowered him with the Force.

Later, in 22 ABY, the Jedi historian Tionne Solusar discovered that Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber had been recovered by Vader and stored at Bast Castle. Since an information broker had sold this information to them, she feared that others may have gotten to it first. Thinking it was just a simple trip and time for training, Tionne allowed Anakin Solo, Tahiri Veila, Uldir Lochett, and Ikrit to accompany her. They left on her Jemlaat-class yacht Lore Seeker.

Having arrived at Bast Castle, they discovered another vessel and feared another group had reached it first. Having survived the fortress's automated defense systems and booby traps, they discovered the lightsaber in a secret alcove. Unfortunately, a cloaked man named Orloc arrived. Orloc stole Kenobi's lightsaber and claimed to be a mage who possessed great powers.

In response, the Jedi pursued Orloc and his henchmen on a chase through Bast Castle. They managed to defeat Orloc and escape Bast Castle, along with Kenobi's lightsaber and the holocron of the ancient Jedi Master Asli Krimsan.

After the death of Vader, Bast Castle became the stronghold of the Emperor's Dark Jedi. As a homage to the previous owner and Dark Lord of the Sith, the new Military Executor, Sedriss QL, erected a statue of the Dark Lord in the middle of Bast Castle. Carved from black stone, it stood about 6 meters tall. Palpatine ordered Sedriss to destroy the image of the traitor, but in an act of defiance, Sedriss overlooked the order because of his admiration for Vader's abilities.

Sedriss was eventually killed by Ood Bnar and the ownership of the castle fell to the new Executor, Xecr Nist. Palpatine ordered once again that the statue be removed, and wishing to avoid the fate of his predecessor, Nist promised that he would. However, before the deed could be done, a task force of Jedi including Luke Skywalker, Rayf Ysanna, Kam Solusar, and Empatojayos Brand attacked the stronghold. A vicious fight ensued between the four Jedi and the Dark Side Elite.

In an ironic twist, Skywalker defeated Nist and used the Force to push the enormous statue upon the remaining Dark Side Elite, killing them and winning the day for the Jedi. The statue lay broken in Bast Castle for years and the rubble was still present when Kyle Katarn and his student Jaden Korr visited the planet in an attempt to stop the Disciples of Ragnos from siphoning the Force energy. Anakin Solo and Tahiri also visited the castle during their training at the Jedi Praxeum and witnessed the remnants of the massive statue.

Defenses and garrison
Bast Castle was surrounded with a complex network of manned defenses that extended several kilometers into the surrounding ravines. It was also equipped with at least one turbolaser turret. The facility also contained a number of ASP-38 Droids that were tasked with eliminating intruders though many of these were eliminated by X2.

During Jaden Korr and Kyle Katarn's Mission to Vjun, a pair of TIE Bombers strafed a valley and entrance to the Castle. One starfighter hangar was located on the upper levels, housing two inactive TIE Fighters and Vader's own TIE Advanced. Later in the mission they encountered several locked doors that proved impervious to lightsabers. The two Jedi passed through the Castle's extensive shield generation facility, moving through several control rooms and causing the collapse of the power column room through which gap they were able to gain access to the Upper Castle.

The Castle appeared to have an extensive garrison of stormtroopers, many equipped as rocket troopers or hazard stormtroopers, in addition to many E-Web Emplacements. From ruins found by Jaden Korr, AT-ST walkers were most likely stationed at Bast Castle at some point in time.

Bay of Tears
The Bay of Tears was a deep water harbor on Vjun guarded by sudden shoals. The shores of the bay had a network of caves and tunnels, some of which exited into the cellars of Château Malreaux.

Château Malreaux
The Château Malreaux was the ancestral home of the Malreaux family on the planet Vjun. It was a dreary building with a cream-and-crimson color scheme, described as resembling dried blood and curdled milk, overlooking the Bay of Tears. It was also one of the most secure locations on the planet, having a very advanced security system and many secret passages. The security system was installed by the last Viscount Malreaux during his descent into madness and paranoia.

The security system consisted of arrangements of automated traps and automated defense lasers, the Château was also equipped with a sophisticated shield generators which was presumably deactivated by Count Dooku when he took residence there.

Dooku used it during the Clone Wars in a trap he set for Yoda. He called the Jedi Master to negotiate his defection to the Jedi Order there, but the mission was proven to be a ruse.

River Weeping
The River Weeping was a river which ran into the Bay of Tears. Through the years, it had hollowed out a fantastic labyrinth of caves through the coastal cliffs.