What Is Doonium?

Star Wars

Apr 10

Doonium is one of the most significant materials in the Star Wars galaxy and has played a significant role in several stories even if fans haven’t realized it or have sadly missed the related narratives. Today, CultureSlate explores this essential metal and its far-reaching impact!

Doonium is a dense metal used in the construction of starships in the Star Wars universe, with rich deposits on many planets and asteroid fields across the galaxy. However, the material remained valuable despite this commonality due to its role in such an essential industry for a space-faring universe.

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But the most significant use of doonium was during the Skywalker Saga for the construction of the first Death Star (and undoubtedly the second though we have less information on this). This quest for doonium to fuel such a fearsome project, alongside countless ships of the Imperial Navy, put a huge burden on the galactic economy and drove the Empire to seek the resource out wherever it could be found. We see in The Bad Batch that the Empire had opened a new doonium refinery on the planet Ryloth to provide jobs, but also to begin intensively harvesting the world's veins of the mineral with military oversight. Elsewhere, the world of Umbara as seen in The Clone Wars was also known for its veins of doonium. After they defected to the Separatists and subsequent defeat, the Umbarans undoubtedly saw immense quotas imposed on them by the newly risen Galactic Empire. The Empire later took direct control of the planet’s mining industry.

In 2017’s Thrawn, we see that Lothal also has doonium mines though they are smaller operations compared to what comes later. Arihnda Pryce was forced to sell her family’s operation to the Empire after manipulations by her planet’s Senator, then entering into service within his office on Coruscant. Several years later, as a much more jaded woman who then served as the governor of Lothal, she only expanded the Empire’s mining efforts on her homeworld to the significant detriment of the environment and the will of the people. Farmers found their land confiscated on the flimsiest of pretenses and themselves either forced to work in the new industrial facilities on the world or arrested for seeking to resist these illegal seizures.

The Sumar family from Star Wars Rebels suffered this fate, losing their land, being arrested, and almost taken to jail, ultimately escaping. But, despite that experience, Mr. Sumar was forced to work in a factory as the only employment left open to him. Elsewhere, the hunger of the Empire even caused them to restrict independent mining operations on Lothal to ensure they alone were receiving resources from the world. Lando Calrissian seemingly successfully set up an operation under their noses with the help of the Ghost Crew, though its exact fate is unclear post-Season 1 of Rebels.

But to return to Thrawn himself, at the same time as Arihnda’s struggles, he began to see the ghost of the Empire’s most secret project, mainly due to events surrounding doonium. Another who had also seen this pattern was a man named Nevil Cygni, who adopted the alias of Nightswan and began a silent crusade to prevent the Empire’s acquisition of so much of the material. Thrawn foiled several of his schemes, and Nevil ultimately lost his life on the world of Batonn as the result of Governor Pryce’s meddling in Thrawn’s military operation there.

Despite his death, Nightswan’s efforts were successful in slowing the Empire’s pace of resource acquisition, while others within the Empire itself began to object to so many resources being diverted to the Death Star and had their own plans to slow the flow of supplies. Even a fellow Grand Admiral to Thrawn, Savit, turned against the Empire because he felt the Death Star was siphoning key resources away from the navy. Undoubtedly, doonium was one of these resources.

Across shows like The Bad Batch and Rebels, and in numerous other important novels or comics, like Thrawn, doonium has appeared and played a major role in storytelling. It will undoubtedly remain significant to Star Wars lore in the coming years, and hopefully, this look back shows just how important materials like doonium have been to storytelling in the galaxy far, far away.

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