902 BBY, or 902 before the Battle of Yavin, marks a specific year within the Great Peace of the Republic era. This time frame, which commenced nearly a century prior, saw the Galactic Republic establishing settlements in previously uncharted sectors of the Outer Rim Territories. It was around this time, specifically 902 BBY, that the Barabel War, a conflict spanning millennia and characterized by bloodshed over hunting territories, reached a critical point, engulfing the entire Barabel population of the planet Barab I. The arrival and intervention of Jedi Knight Noga-ta ultimately brought this protracted dispute to a close.
The Barabel War, a bloody internecine struggle stemming from conflicts over prime hunting grounds, initially erupted around 4500 BBY on Barab I, the homeworld of the Barabel species. This conflict persisted for thousands of years, until a passing Jedi intervention resulted in a peace settlement circa 902 BBY. Circa 1000 BBY, the New Sith Wars, waged between the Jedi and the Sith, concluded. Subsequently, then-Supreme Chancellor Tarsus Valorum restructured the Galactic Senate via the Ruusan Reformations, and the Jedi Order was incorporated into the Republic's Judicial Department.
Furthermore, 902 BBY is also identified as 2,751 ATC (After the Treaty of Coruscant), which was the peace accord concluding the Great Galactic War in 3653 BBY. Additionally, 902 BBY occurred 98 years following the Ruusan Reformation, and 867 years preceding the Great ReSynchronization (BrS), a year-notation system implemented in 35 BBY. By the time 902 BBY arrived, the Great Peace of the Republic, which began with the Ruusan Reformation, had been ongoing for almost a century. The Republic continued its expansion into the galactic Deep Core and the largely unexplored Wild Space regions, which were later reorganized to form the Outer Rim Territories.
As the Barabel War neared its end around 902 BBY, the population of Barab I found itself split into two factions, each supporting the hunters from two major clans vying for control over specific, valuable hunting grounds. This dispute threatened to escalate into widespread violence, potentially drawing the entire species into the conflict. The clans mobilized two armies, each determined to annihilate the other, but before the final confrontation, a group of traveling Jedi Knights intervened. These Jedi, including the Ithorian Jedi explorer Noga-ta, listened to both sides and rendered an impartial judgment. The Jedi decreed that clans must share hunting territories and that the largest kill of the night from one clan must be gifted to the leader of another. This ruling led to a peace agreement, effectively ending the Barabel War.
The Republic's expansion continued, and the Great Peace of the Republic endured for nearly nine more centuries. Later in this era, economic forces started to exert influence on the Republic, with corporations acquiring Tingel Arm star systems to create the Corporate Sector. Because the Jedi explorers did not record Barab I in the galactic registry, it remained unmapped until scouts from Planetary Safaris Inc., an Imperial corporation specializing in organizing exotic hunting expeditions, discovered the Barabels.
The Barabels never forgot the Jedi's decree and never again engaged in conflict over hunting grounds. They developed an elaborate mythology surrounding the "great warriors from beyond the clouds," although the details varied, sometimes depicting a group of Jedi and other times a lone Jedi with companions. Noga-ta was immortalized in pottery and wall carvings discovered by researchers centuries later, although some Barabels—who believed that outsider's meddling into the sacred past would rouse the spirits of the dead—obstructed their efforts.
When the first Imperial scouts arrived on the planet, the Barabels treated them with respect, believing that the Jedi heroes of their legends had returned "from beyond the clouds." Even under the Galactic Empire's rule and facing persecution, many Barabels refused to denounce the Jedi or the Force. They often cited the legend of the Barabel War, recalling how the Jedi had ended a thousand years of bloodshed. From that point forward, the Barabels held the Jedi in high regard and accepted their judgment in any dispute, large or small.
The year 902 BBY was only mentioned indirectly in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, which stated that Noga-ta settled the dispute among the Barabels "about 900 years before the Galactic Civil War." Given that the Galactic Civil War commenced in 2 BBY, this article uses this description as the basis for the year. The end of the Barabel War had been mentioned in various earlier source materials describing the Barabels, but these sources provided no exact time frame for the event. In 2006, The New Essential Guide to Alien Species was the first to provide a date for the event by stating that a civil war erupted on Barab I around 4500 BBY, and Jedi "mediated a truce that is never broken." However, in 2008, The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia placed the event around 902 BBY. In 2009, the Galaxy at War roleplaying sourcebook resolved the discrepancy by stating that the civil war lasted for millennia and was settled "centuries before the Empire."
- Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races, Second Edition (First mentioned) (Indirect mention only) (Retcon)
- The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons (Indirect mention only) (Retcon)
- The Essential Guide to Alien Species (Indirect mention only) (Retcon)
- Alien Anthology (Indirect mention only) (Retcon)
- Ultimate Alien Anthology (Indirect mention only) (Retcon)
- Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds (Indirect mention only) (Retcon)
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia (Indirect mention only)
- Galaxy at War (Indirect mention only)