Geonosis, referred to as Geonosia by some natives, is a rocky planet home of the Geonosian race, The planet served as the first CIS capital and two major droid foundries in the Star Wars universe. The construction of the first Death Star started there. Due to a number of delays that took place during the Death Star's construction the project was moved to a different location. In order to prevent word of the battle station from spreading, the Imperial weapons division led by Director Orson Krennic sterilized the planet's population using hazardous chemicals and killed almost all of the one hundred billion inhabitants.
The Geonosians that inhabited the planet were human-sized insectoids that lived in hives. The Geonosians were themselves divided into castes including winged warriors and wingless workers. The planet was governed by the combined might of the Geonosian queen, Karina the Great and her advisor, Archduke Poggle the Lesser. Karina governed the planet through the use of Brain Worms that were connected to her via hive-mind. As such her control of the planet and her people was absolute; indeed her mind control was so strong that the Geonosians infected with her Brain Worms were able to continue functioning even after they had died.
During the Clone Wars, Geonosis was a part of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and was the supplier for most of the Confederacy's Battle Droids as well as the original mastermind for the creation of the Death Star. It was the site of several battles during the war, and due to Queen Karina's power, had to be taken twice in order to successfully be neutralized as a threat. After Karina's death at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, Poggle took control as Geonosis' de-facto leader. When the Galactic Empire rose and Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, Poggle the Lesser was killed personally by Vader on Mustafar with the other Separatist leaders. Afterwards, the Empire first utilized the Geonosians as slaves and then sterilized Geonosis with an orbital bombardment after moving the Death Star away to a new location, wiping out all but one queen to keep the construction of the Death Star above the planet a secret.
It was later discovered by the crew of the Ghost that a Geonosian worker did survive; a worker named Klik-Klak. Klik-Klak had remained hidden from the Empire by remaining below ground, guarding the last Geonosian queen egg in existence; the last hope for his species. Ezra, Kanan, Sabine and Saw Gerrera stumbled upon Klik-Klak in the subterranean passages of the planet. The Geonosian tried to inform them of what the Empire had been building above Geonosis, but the meaning his words were not understood. Eventually, after being chased by the Empire, Klik-Klak is safely returned to Geonosis, where he goes deeper underground to protect the queen egg and prepare to rebuild his race.
Vader would later encounter this same queen, now hatched, who labelled herself as the new Karina the Great, on a secret mission to the planet and take her BX Droid Commandos for his own personal use. As she was supposedly the last of her kind and unable to beget offspring due to the Empire's genocide leaving her sterile, Vader left her alive as punishment and to remind her that she was completely alone.
Places of Interest
Geonosis Droid Foundries
The Geonosis Droid Foundries was a massive subterranean droid factories located on the planet. Most were destroyed save for one found by Darth Vader, which he took for his own personal use to create BX Droid Commandos.
Geonosian Arena
The Petranaki Arena (or Arena of Justice) is a large arena on Geonosis and is a place where they use deadly beasts in combat and for the executions. Such beasts used in the arena included the Acklay, Nexu, and Reek among others.
