LUKE SKYWALKER   Luke Skywalker is a Tatooine farm boy who went on to become a Rebel hero and a Jedi Knight. When Luke's Uncle Owen bought a pair of droids from a group of Jaw Merchants, Luke became wrapped up in the smaller droid's quest. R2-D2 had come to Tatooine to locate Obi-Wan Kenobi and present him with and important message. That message propelled Luke on a journey to rescue Princess Leia and learn the skills of the Jedi Knights. Obi-Wan Kenobi explained to Luke that his father had been a Jedi Knight who had been betrayed and murdered by Kenobi's student, Darth Vader. He gave Luke his father's lightsaber and promised to teach him the ways of the force. Luke became a prominent member of the Rebel Alliance. He achieved the rank of Commander and took charge of the X-Wing Rogue Squadron. Luke fired the shot which destroyed the Death Star to end the Battle of Yavin. After the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi, at the hands of Darth Vader, Luke was led by a vision of Kenobi to the swamp planet Dagobah, where he was to find a Jedi Master to complete his training as a Jedi Knight.

HAN SOLO   Han Solo is a starship pilot and smuggler who became involved in the Galactic Civil War when he took on a simple transport job in a cantina in Tatooine's Mos Eisley Spaceport. After jettisoning Jabba the Hutt's cargo of spice to avoid an Imperial Blockade, Han needed to raise enough credits to reimburse the crime lord. For seventeen thousand credits he agreed to ferry Ben Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and two droids to Alderaan in his stocklight freighter, the Millenium Falcon (which he won from Lando Calrissian in a high stakes sabacc game). The adventures that followed saw Solo help rescue Princess Leia Organa from the depths of the Death Star, provide covering fire for Luke's shot which destroyed the huge battle station and saw him become one of the heroes of Yavin. Solo received more than enough credits from Princess Leia to pay off Jabba, but he and his longtime partner, Chewbacca the Wookiee, got drawn into the Rebellion and the debt to Jabba remained unpaid.

CHEWBACCA   Chewbacca is a 2 metre tall Wookiee who comes from the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk and serves as first mate and co-pilot on the Millenium Falcon. Over 200 years old, Chewbacca has spent his last few decades at the side of Han Solo. Like all Wookiees, Chewbacca is covered in shaggy fur and communicates in a series of grunts, growls and terrifying roars. He is extremely strong, even for a Wookiee. His deep friendship with Han Solo (who fondly calls him 'Chewy') has only intensified over the years and either would gladly die for the other. His weapon of choice is either his massive fists or his bowcaster.

C-3P0   C-3P0 is a protocol droid with specialised programming in droid/human relations and language translation and interpretation. He is bipedal and among his standard equipment are visual, auditory, olfactory and sensory receptors, a broadband antenna for receiving droid transmissions and a speech vocabulator being fluent in over 6 million galactic languages. Design specifications for this model droid call for limited creativity circuits to keep embellishment to a minimum.

R2-D2   The astromech droid R2-D2 hooked up with Luke Skywalker at the beginning of the events that led to the battle of Yavin and has been at his side ever since. Like other astromech droids, R2D2 is a starship utility droid. His domed head can rotate a full 360 degrees and his short, squat, cylindrical body is full of instruments, sensors and devices designed to help him perform his primary functions. R2D2 and his counterpart C-3PO were aboard Princess Leia's consular when it was overtaken and boarded by Imperial forces. The Princess placed the techincal readouts for the Death Star in R2D2's memory banks and then ordered him to find Obi-Wan Kenobi. Since that time, R2-D2 has served as Luke's companion and aide, assisting from his socket in Luke's X-Wing, accompanying him to Dagobah and helping to save the day on Endor's forest moon. R2-D2 understands BASIC, but commuicates in his own expressive language of beeps and whistles, which C-3PO often has to translate for their human (and Wookiee) companions.

BEN (OBI-WAN) KENOBI   As a young "apprentice" Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi accompanied his mentor, Qui-Gon Jinn to Naboo. Although he had a steadfast loyalty to his mentor, he agreed with The Jedi Council in their assessment of Anakin Skywalker. Kenobi was a hermit and recluse who lived by the Western Dune on the planet Tatooine. Ben Kenobi once went by the name of Obi-Wan and served the old Republic as a Jedi Knight. Kenobi studied under the Jedi Master Yoda, learning the ways of the Force. When the Clone Wars eruped, Kenobi became a General, fighting alongside Bail Organa of Alderaan and the young pilot Anakin Skywalker. Obi-Wan and Anakin became good friends as they battled to protect the Galaxy. Kenobi recognised Anakin's natural Force talents and decided to train him to be a Jedi. But Kenobi wasn't experienced as a teacher and Anakin was lured to the dark side. Much to Kenobi's horror, his friend and pupil was so corrupted by the dark side of the Force that he became essentially a new person - the Dark Lord Darth Vader. When Kenobi saw what had become of Anakin, he tried to dissuade him and draw him back from the dark side. The two fought fiercely and it ended when the man who had been Anakin Skywalker fell into a pit of molten lava. After that, Kenobi helped hid Anakin's children to protect them from the Emperor and Vader. Kenobi sacrificed his life to help Luke and to advance the cause of the Rebellion, but his sacrifice was not the end. He became one with the Force, a being of light who was much more than the crude matter of flesh and bone. He continued to guide Luke even in death, giving him support in despeate times, leading him to further training with Yoda and helping him to prepeare for his final confrontation with Vader.

YODA The Jedi Master Yoda lived to be approximately 900 years old before he finally died. For most of those years, Yoda served as mentor and teacher to Jedi Knights. A member of an as-yet-unidentified alien species, Yoda spent his last years in seclusion, hiding from the eyes of the Emperor on the swamp planet Dagobah. Two of his best students were Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker.

PRINCESS LEIA   Leia Organa, Princess and Senator from the planet Alderaan, became involved with the Rebel Alliance and soon was one of it most populr and influential cell leaders. While Leia has some memories of her natural mother, the parents she knew best were the Organas, the foster parents who took her into their family while she was still and infant. As she grew older, she becme a political leader on Alderaan, eventually winning a seat on the Imperial Senate at a young age. But while she fought for reforms on the Senate floor, she also went to work for the Alliance to restore the Republic. It was while on a two-fold mission for the Alliance and her foster father that she became involved in the events that would lead her into the company of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. At Basil Organa's insistence, Leia was heading for Tatooine to find General Obi-Wan Kenobi and recruit him for the Rebellion. On the way, she received plans for the Death Star battle station, which had been stolen by Rebel spies and transmitted to her ship. Before she could reach Obi-Wan, her consular ship, Tantive IV, was intercepted by and Imperial Star Destroyer under the command of Lord Darth Vader. She barely had time to hide the plans in the memory banks of and astromech droid and order it to find Obi-Wan Kenobi before she was captured. As a prisoner of Vader, Leia underwent terrible interrogation as the Imperials sought to discover the location of the main Rebel base as well as the whereabouts of the stolen technical plans. Leia was rescued by Luke Skywalker and Han Solo who took her and the technical plans to the real Rebel base on Yavin Four. Due to Leia's efforts and the help of her new companions, the first Death Star was eventually destroyed. When Han Solo was captured, Leia was among the small team that went to bring him back. She pretended to be the Ubese bounty hunter Boushh in order to get into Jabba the Hutt's stronghold. Her identity was discovered and Leia had to endure the humiliation of being Jabba's slave for a time, but she paid back the crime lord when she strangled him with the very chain that held her captive. Leia was part of the strike force that went to the forest moon at the start of the Battle of Endor and her diplomatic skills helped convince the native Ewoks to aid the Rebellion, thus bringing and end to the Galactic Civil War.

ANAKIN SKYWALKER Anakin Skywalker is an eight year old boy who will become the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader. Overseeing Imperial operations at the side of Emperor Palpatine, he will bring a reign of tyranny to the galaxy unlike which has ever been seen before. In Episode 1, Anakin is a slave working in Watto's Junkyard. A natural mechanic, he has a keen intuition with equipment and machinery and has a strong understanding of mechanical things. Due to his extraordinary abilities, he is the only human on Tatoonie that can fly a Pod. The Force is strong with nine-year old Anakin Skywalker. Though he lives the life of a slave, he dreams of great adventures. Living in a very humble home, Anakin dreams of becoming a starpilot and longs for a world of adventure. Anakin's life as a slave has left him with much anger and fear. When he is brought before the Jedi Council, they sense his emotions and refuse to allow Qui-Gon to train him. Later, Anakin is trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi and eventually Senator/Emperor Palpatine lures Anakin to the dark side of the force, making him turn against the Jedi, including Obi-Wan.

DARTH VADER   Darth Vader epitomized the Emperor's New Order. Standing 2 metres tall and dressed in flowing black robes and black body armour, Vader was a tangible evil and symbol of the Emperor's doctrine of rule through fear and terror. He was the servant and emissary of the Emperor and later commanded the vast fleet charged with finding and destroying the Rebel Alliance. Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, expert pilot, hero of the Clone Wars and disciple of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Learning to used the Force by Kenobi's methods was too slow for the impatient Anakin. He wanted a quicker, less difficult path to the vast power he sensed all around him. Emperor Palpatine offered him such a path - the dark side. All Anakin had to do was give in to his anger, fear and aggression. Ambitious and headstrong, he stepped into the dark side's embrace and became Darth Vader. Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, helped the Emperor hunt down and exterminate the Jedi Knights during the last days of the old Republic and the opening moments of the Empire. Later, he was sent to help Governor Tarkin develop the original Death Star battle station. Once the Rebellion demonstrated that it posed a significant threat to the New Order, Lord Vader was put in charge of the Imperial fleet assigned to find and destroy the Alliance leaders. The mission took on a personal significance when Vader discovered that the Rebel's newest ally was his own son, Luke Skywalker. Both the Emperor and Vader wanted to convert the young Skywalker to the dark side, but Vader had his own agenda. He wanted himself and Luke to rule the galaxy side by side as father and son. The first time Vader and Luke met was on Cloud City. Luke rejected Vader's claims and offers, electing to fight him, but Vader was too powerful for the still developing young Jedi. Luke barely escaped with his life, though his lost his right hand to his father's lightsaber. Vader was confronted by his son a second time at Endor. This time Luke did not arrive as a half-trained apprentice Jedi, but as a fully-fledged Jedi Knight. Luke's faith in his father's innate goodness won the day, bringing Anakin out of the darkness of Darth Vader and back into the light. He saved Luke and destroyed the Emperor, but at the cost of his own life. Vader's final act - as Anakin and not as the Dark Lord of the Sith, was to look upon his son and tell him that he was right.

EMPEROR PALPATINE   The Emperor Palpatine ruled the galaxy as the malevolent dictator of the Empire. He carved his Empire from the dying corpse of the Old Republic, using guile, fraud, astute, political manipulations and the dark side of the Force to forge his New Order. From the moment the Emperor learned of young Skywalker's existence, he knew he had to bring the young man into his fold. Like the father before him, Luke possessed nearly unlimited strength in the Force. The Emperor wanted that strength in his camp, under his control. He wanted Luke turned to the dark side. In fact, the massive trap the Emperor set up in the Endor system was designed to finally acheive his desires concerning young Skywalker. That he also planned to destroy the Rebellion was a distant second. The Emperor craved power and Luke Skywalker was a power for good that could not be allowed to remain free. Either Skywalker's power had to be turned to evil, like his father's power before him, or he had to be destroyed. In the end, however, it was the Emperor who was destroyed. He died refusing to believe that good could actually find a way to triumph over evil.

JABBA THE HUTT Jabba the Hutt was a notorious crime lord who ran his organisation from the planet Tatooine. His organisation was into a wide variety of illegal activities such as smuggling, spice dealing, slave trading, murder loan sharking and protection. JAbba was a legless, sluglike being with reptilian eyes and gross mannerisms. Approximately four metres long, Jabba was huge even among his own kind. His desert palace on Tatooine was full of all kinds of decadent luxuries, an army of alien and human criminals, droid slaves and fawning servants. Among Jabba's most prized possession wer the rancor and sail barge. Every smuggler, bounty hunter, pirate and thief in the Outer Rim Territories eventually took on a job for Jabba, including Han Solo and his partner Chewbacca.

BOBA FETT Boba Fett is an infamous bounty hunter whose exploits are known throughout the galaxy. He wears Bandalore battle armour - the same used by a group of evil warriors who were defeated by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars - but his connection to the Mandalore warriors remains a mystery. Fett's armour is full of nasty surprises. It is a weapon-covered spacesuit whose armaments include wrist laser, a jet pack, rocket darts, a grappling lanyard and a miniature flame projector. The bounty hunter has worked for whoever could pay his exorbitant rates, including Jabba the Hutt and Darth Vader, agreeing to hunt downand capture Han Solo after the smuggler escaped from the Hoth system. He succeeded in tracking Solo to Bespin's Cloud City, where Vader had the smuggler encased in carbonite. Then Fett had the frozen Solo placed aboard his ship, Slave 1, for transport to Jabba's headquarters on Tatooine, where he was rescued by Luke Skywalker.

DARTH MAUL   Completely embracing the dark side of the Force, Darth Maul is a fearsome Sith apprentice. His constant training, both in combat techniques and in the dark powers of the Force, makes him a formidable figure and a power to be reckoned with. His horned head, face tattoos and gleaming yellow eyes strike terror in the heart of all but the most focused opponents. Darth Maul is a loyal servant to Darth Sidious and is sent to hunt down the Queen and her Jedi friends. Maul eventually finds Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and kills Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan, in a tremendous fit of rage strikes Maul down.

QUI-GON JINN An accomplished Jedi Master, Qui-Gon Jinn travels the galaxy to protect the citizens of the Republic and uphold justice from system to system. Other Jedi Masters often use Jinn's focused sensitivity to the Force as an example for their pupils. Qui-Gon Jinn's own apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, is always at his side, and learns from his wisdom and experience. Qui-Gon Jinn is a powerful Jedi Knight and a mentor to Obi-Wan Kenobi, however not a member of the Jedi Council. He is sent by the Supreme Chancellor to Naboo in an attempt to pacify a tense situation involving the Trade Federation. Along the way he discovers Anakin Skywalker and comes to believe that Anakin in the one referred to in the Jedi Prophecy, "The one who will bring balance to the Force." Against the Jedi Council's wishes, Qui-Gon begins to train Anakin in the ways of the Jedi. Qui-Gon is involved in many fierce duels with the Sith Lord, Darth Maul and in one of the movie's final scenes both Qui-Gon and Darth Maul are killed. Jedi Master Jinn possesses strong features and a piercing gaze. Powerfully built and speaking in a grave and determined voice, he has a very intimidating presence. He wears his long hair tied back so as not to obstruct his peripheral vision. Although a little past his prime, he remains a powerful warrior and a very active Jedi Knight. Qui-Gon Jinn is closely attuned to the Force, and has a strong empathy toward all life forms. His focus is in the moment, and he follows his instincts even when others may consider them reckless.

QUEEN AMIDALA At fourteen, Queen Amidala rules over the Naboo people with the freshness of her young years and the efficiency of a true leader. Through her rigorous training, Amidala has demonstrated her dedication to the well-being of Naboo, and she has quickly earned the trust and loyalty of the people who elected her. The Queen attends her world’s needs and addresses the concerns of her subjects, ruling from her palace in the capital city of Theed. However, Amidala’s regal presence is sometimes required at offworld political gatherings. In such occasions, it is customary for the Queen’s handmaidens to follow their monarch and assist her, as well as for Captain Panaka to provide additional protection with a team of guards specially trained for offworld duty. A recently elected 14 year-old Queen of the planet Naboo, she is extremely loyal to her people and when her planet is threatened by a Trade Federation invasion force, she requests the help of the Jedi Knights. During the invasion, the Queen assumes the alias "Padmé Naberrie" for her own protection against her capture. She is persuaded by Senator Palpatine to help in ousting Chancellor Valorum, therefore assuring Palatine the ultimate seat of power. Eventually she falls in love with Anakin and the two marry. She becomes the mother of Luke and Leia and gives up her children in order to save them from the dark side and Darth Vader. The Naboo people’s faith in their leader is justified, for Amidala’s heart is true, and her determination unwavering. But the threat looming ahead might very well put the Queen’s abilities to the ultimate test.

JAR JAR BINKS Jar-jar is a Gungan, an underwater species whose homeworld is Naboo. Because of his clumsiness, Jar-Jar has been banished from the Gungan society. He befriends Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon upon their arrival on Naboo and also (unsuccessfully) tries to solicit the help of Gungan Leader Boss Nass in fighting the Federation invasion.

WATTO Watto is a junkyard owner and also slave owner of Anakin and Shmi Skywalker. He ends up wagering Anakin's freedom with Qui-Gon Jinn in the Pod race. Although he tries to back out of the deal, Qui-Gon "convinces" him to live up to his part of the bargain.

DARTH SIDIOUS Cloaked in flowing robes and shrouded in evil, Darth Sidious is the mysterious power behind the Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo. Sidious is the last of the Sith, an ancient race that manipulates the dark side of the Force.

Extracts taken from 'A Guide to the Star Wars Universe' by Bill Slavicsek, Published by Boxtree Limited.