The Great Rift

From TFC Galactopedia

The Great Rift is a spatial anomaly. One side of the Rift opens into the Imatia System; the other side opens into the Sullust system.

The Rift was opened in A.D. 2372 (1800 J.A.) in a scientific fluke when the crew of the USS FELIX activated a transwarp drive experiment while mapping the Imatia system. At the same time, Professor Arthur Sunrider and his scientists with the Rikta Base sect of the Rebel Remnant activated an experimental device that intersected with the wave sent out by the FELIX to form the Great Rift.

When the Rift was first created, it was highly unstable and opened and closed a number of times. Captain Marc Xavier was briefly trapped on the Sullustian side of the Rift, and an Imperial DEATH STAR and other Imperial vessels spent some time trapped on the Imatia side of the Rift during A.D. 2372 (1800 J.A.).

Within a month of its creation, the Great Rift stabilized and formed a permanent gateway between Imatia and Sullust. Peace accords signed by President David Vibe of the United Federation of Planets and Grand Moff Kobin Tarvik of the Galactic Empire established the permissions necessary for explorers from both sides of the Rift to be permitted to utilize the anomaly, leading to extragalactic trade in private sectors.

Attempted refugee travel from the Empire to the Alpha Quadrant created some political tension in A.D. 2372, 2373, and 2374 (1800-1802 J.A.). The Empire demanded that their fleeing citizens be returned to them, but the United Federation of Planets refused to comply with the Empire's demands that they return those seeking political asylum. Instead, the UFP began turning away refugee vessels which carried fewer refugees than they did members of the Rebellion that had been waging war against the Galactic Empire.

Force-sensitives in particular have been affected by the opening of the Great Rift. The Force itself has begun to expand through the Rift into the Alpha Quadrant, and as a result the space around the Rift on both sides has created a 'shadow' in the Force. Force users who do not share some sort of Force bond have been unable to detect the presence of one another within a radius of the Rift. Planets close to the Rift have also been affected by this phenomenon, and it is suspected that Jedi who survived the Jedi Purges may have begun to immigrate to the planets near the Rift in order to avoid detection by Jedi Hunters.

TFC Canon