Following the failure of the Emperor's attempt to destroy the Jedi enclave on Belsavis, several designers of the Eye of Palpatine were reassigned to punitive duty at Kessel. The Kessel system is adjacent to a cluster of black holes known as the Maw, which makes navigating to the planet difficult and helped glamorize the smugglers' "Kessel Run." While Kessel was under control by the Empire it was a common smuggling destination for those dealing in spice, and Han Solo once boasted he had made the Kessel Run in "less than 12 parsecs" by flying dangerously close to the Maw. Solo's life was also saved on one Kessel run by his old associate Badure. Prior to the Battle of Yavin, a bold Alliance rescue operation freed a group of Rebel POWs during a prisoner transfer operation. During the chaos surrounding the Battle of Endor, a Rybet prison official named Moruth Doole (who had secretly been supplying glitterstim to smugglers) staged a prison revolt and took control of the planet from the Empire. Several years later, after Doole's operation was dismantled, the administration of the mines was taken over by Lando Calrissian. Kessel's moon, which once held an Imperial garrison and Doole's ragtag defensive fleet (which was decimated in a battle with Admiral Daala's Star Destroyers), was utterly destroyed by a Death Star prototype from Maw Installation. Lujayne Forge, a member of the famed Rogue Squadron, was from Kessel, daughter of a man who had taught inmates under an Old Republic social program.

Mantra VI
The gunman Gallandro, hired by Odumin to bring down the Malorm family, killed the group after luring them to Matra VI. This earned Gallandro the wrath of the Assassins Guild, who claimed to have an exclusive contract on the Malorm family.

Maw
The Maw is a cluster of black holes near the planet Kessel, visible due to the ionized gasses that are drawn into them. The Maw is destined to swallow the Kessel system itself in another thousand years. The existence of a black hole cluster has led to several theories about its origin, including the idea that the Maw was constructed by an ancient and powerful alien race. Hidden in the center of the Maw is the secret Imperial weapons-research base known as Maw Installation, established by Grand Moff Tarkin and guarded by Admiral Daala's four Star Destroyers. The scientists at Maw Installation developed both a prototype Death Star and the feared Sun Crusher, though both weapons and the installation itself were destroyed during a battle with New Republic forces.

Maw Installation
A cluster of planetoids crammed together at a gravitational island at the center of a black-hole cluster near Kessel, it was created as a top secret weapons development facility by Grand Moff Tarkin. Immense bridges and bands held the asteroids in place. Access tubes and transit rails connected the cluster of drifting rocks. The asteroids' interiors were hollowed out into living quarters, labs, assembly bays, and meeting halls. The super secret think-tank was an ideal place for Tarkin to isolate the most brilliant scientists and theoreticians, under orders to develop new weapons for the Emperor such as the Death Star, World Devastators, and the Sun Crusher. The installation was destroyed during a battle with New Republic forces.

Varonat
Located in the backwater Ison Corridor, Varonat is an isolated, sparsely-populated world of jungles, plains, and mountains. A few thousand colonists live in two main settlements: Tropis-on-Varonat among the pale yellow trees of the Great Jungle, and Edgefields-on-Varonat on the wide plains at the jungle's edge. About 50,000 Morodins-- intelligent, fifteen meter-long lizard-slugs-- inhabit the Great Jungle. The Morodins' bodies produce a nutrient slime that, when spread over crops, encourages growth and produces new strains of plant life. Morodins leave their slime trails in a complex, maze-like pattern.

One thousand years before the formation of the Old Republic, a group of Morodins arrived on Varonat to start an agricultural colony. They transformed a vast section of plains into the Great Jungle, and used immense organic starships to transport food back to their home planet. When an ecological disaster befell their homeworld, the Morodins on Varonat were stranded and forgotten. 250 years ago, Adarian Tropis and a group his idealistic followers left Salliche to colonize Varonat. They planted their crops in the Great Jungle, but when the Morodins began leaving slime trails over the crops the colonists drove the creatures off as pests. After the Battle of Endor, a Krish named Gamgalon arrived in Tropis-on-Varonat and began running private Morodin-hunting safaris. These safaris were actually a cover for the harvesting of Yagaran aleudrupe plants, whose berries (when fertilized by Morodin nutrient slime) act as a catalyst for boosting blaster firepower-- much like the spin-sealed tibanna gas of Bespin. The local Imperial governor allowed the illegal safaris to continue since Gamgalon provided him with a share of the profits. Mara Jade, under the name Celina Marniss, worked as hyperdrive mechanic in Gamgalon's organization before joining up with the smuggler Talon Karrde in an adventure on Varonat.