Many years ago, Lord Ecclessis Figg constructed the first floating settlement on Bespin near the planet's equator-- the Floating Home. At the time, it was the only outpost built on a gas giant to last more than a decade. Ten years after its founding, expansion began which would eventually turn the outpost into the vast metropolis of Cloud City. The construction materials for this expansion were mined from Miser, the innermost planet of the Bespin system. Cloud City is over sixteen kilometers in diameter and houses almost five and a half million inhabitants. The highest levels house casinos and nightclubs, while the lowest generally house factories and production plants. The seedy, corrupt environs of Port Town are found on the middle levels. Hotels in the upper plaza include the Yerith Bespin, the Stratosphere, and the Holiday Towers (formerly owned by Jabba the Hutt). Some of the many casinos include the Royal, the Pair O'Dice, and the Trest. Besides gambling, the many diversions for this level’s wealthy tourists include watching the monthly “sky rodeo” performed by the thranta herd and its alien riders, or boarding a floating health spa to breathe cloud vapor (which is rumored to have therapeutic value). Due to Bespin’s rapid rotation, visitors can enjoy two sunrises and sunsets every “standard” day.

The three branches of Cloud City's government are the Exex group of business administrators, the Parliament of Guilds, and the single Baron-Administrator. The massive repulsorlift generators keeping the city afloat also draw spin-sealed tibanna gas from the lowest levels of the planet's atmosphere. The gas is sent into the city's refineries, where it is pressurized, purified, and frozen into carbonite blocks for storage and sale. Ostensibly, Figg & Associates, Ltd. manufactures tibanna gas for use as a hyperdrive coolant-- in reality, the company sells spin-sealed gas to weapons manufacturers not affiliated with the Empire. The city is small enough to avoid the official notice of the Mining Guild, but an annual payment was typically made to Guild leaders to keep them from organizing Cloud City's workers. Though the city's primary industry is tibanna gas production, other profitable Cloud City companies include Bespin Motors. Before the destruction of Alderaan, Bespin participated in a lucrative trade triangle with the Alderaan and Corellian systems, and Cloud City still receives much of its shipping from the nearby Corellian Trade Spine. Most of the city's industrial work is handled by a large population of Ugnaughts (originally from nearby Gentes) belonging to the Irden, Botrut, and Isced tribes. The Storm Guard weather watch keeps an eye on Bespin's atmosphere from Kerros' Tower (the highest point on Cloud City), and security is handled by the city's Wing Guard. A hollow wind tunnel runs through the center of the city.

Another floating city, Tibannopolis, was once a prosperous boomtown but is now an abandoned ghost town, picked clean of valuables and drifting at an angle due to its malfunctioning repulsors. Many other refineries, waystations, and resorts drift through Bespin’s sky, including independent prospectors searching for elusive tibanna gas strikes.

Years ago the Jedi Master Djinn Altis instructed his students, including Geith and Callista, from a Jedi training platform hidden in Bespin's clouds. The smuggler Lando Calrissian managed to become Baron- Administrator of Cloud City after winning the rights from Baron Raynor in a sabacc game. During his tenure Calrissian made the droid EV-9D9 his security chief, and the psychotic robot destroyed one quarter of Cloud City's droid population before being discovered and escaping aboard the hijacked Mining Guild cutter "Iopene Princess." Calrissian also established a new group of Commando-pilots to be used for Cloud City's defense. Later, the city was used by Darth Vader in a vain attempt to trap Luke Skywalker. Calrissian helped his friends escape Vader's ambush, and the city was subsequently seized by the Empire. Rogue Squadron pilot Rhysati Ynr, a native of Bespin, was forced to flee Cloud City with her family when Imperial forces arrived. Six years later, the Imperial garrison at Bespin was used by Grand Admiral Thrawn in his war effort against the New Republic. Two years later, Luke Skywalker returned to Bespin to recruit Streen, an independent prospector who used the Force to sense gaseous eruptions from the lower cloud levels, into his new Jedi Academy. One year later, one of the false charges filed against Cray Mingla by the Eye of Palpatine's central computer concerned retina prints and holograms provided by the government of Bespin.

Corellian Trade Route
Also known as the Corellian Trade Spine, the Spine is located near the Ison Corridor and scattered throughout with Duros maintenance depots.

Drudonna
One of the two largest moons orbiting the planet Bespin. Drudonna and its larger sister moon H'gaard are known together as The Twins. The moon is only two and a half kilometers in diameter. Both are unremarkable ice satellites, and appear as large green spheres in Bespin's night sky. Shirmar Base, a staging area and processing center for Ugnaught expeditions into Velser's Ring, is located on Drudonna.

H`gaard
One of the two largest moons orbiting the planet Bespin. H'gaard and its smaller sister moon Drudonna are known together as The Twins. The moon is only five kilometers in diameter. Both are unremarkable ice satellites, and appear as large green spheres in Bespin's night sky.

Ison Corridor
The Ison Corridor, containing the Ison system, is located next to the Corellian Trade Spine. It is lightly populated and considered a backwater, and almost all freight traffic skips the Corridor in favor of the nearby Trade Spine.

Miser
The innermost planet of the Bespin system, Miser is a small world lacking atmosphere but rich in valuable metals. The planet's powerful magnetic field interferes with most electronic equipment. Miser was heavily mined for raw materials during the construction of Bespin's Cloud City, and deep craters from the operation can still be seen on its surface. The inhospitable temperature extremes made the mining hazardous, and hardy Ugnaughts were needed to staff the operation. The mines have since been abandoned, and are now infested with mynocks. The desolate planet has frequently been used over the centuries as a hideout for smugglers and pirates. Lord Ecclessis Figg, the founder of Cloud City, once proposed a rolling mining center that could stay permanently on the cooler, shadow side of Miser. It was never built, but it provided the inspiration for Lando Calrissian's Nomad City mining operation on Nkllon.

Orin
A volcanic world, Orin occupies the second-planet position in the Bespin system. The planet has an elliptical orbit, passing through the asteroids of the nearby Velser's Ring twice during its year. Its black surface is rocked by frequent earthquakes and covered with rivers of lava and erupting volcanos. Orin's surface temperature is unbearably high and its atmosphere is choked with thick soot.

Velser's Ring
A band of asteroids occupying the third-planet position within the Bespin system. The Ring is believed to be the debris of an unstable gas giant which exploded many millennia ago. Most of the asteroids are composed of frozen gasses and liquids, and the entire Ring can refract light in a rainbow pattern if seen from the proper angle. Ugnaught teams frequently visit the Ring to obtain valuable raw materials for Bespin's Cloud City.