Through the Original Trilogy, we got to see the massive battle station, the Death Star, under the control of the Empire. But in the end, the Rebels destroyed it not once, but twice. Then, in the Sequels, we’re introduced to a new and even more terrifying superweapon, the Starkiller Base.
Later on, we learn that Starkiller Base wasn’t just built from scratch, but was actually carved out of the planet Ilum. That revelation raises a fascinating question: how did the First Order manage such a massive construction project? What kind of excavation or engineering methods could possibly turn an entire planet into a weapon capable of wiping out star systems?
The First Order Just Continued the Work from the Empire
We might think that the First Order simply turned Ilum into Starkiller Base using their own advanced technology, right? But that’s not exactly the case. They didn’t build it from nothing — they just continued the work the Empire had already started, constructing their superweapon right into the planet itself instead of creating a separate battle station.
To be clear, Ilum had already been under Imperial control for years. The Empire mined the planet’s kyber crystals to power the Death Star’s superlaser. By the time the Empire fell, Ilum was already scarred and hollowed out. So when the First Order rose from its ashes, they didn’t start from scratch — they simply picked up where the Empire left off, expanding the excavation and turning Ilum’s natural kyber core into the heart of their new weapon.
According to The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary, “The First Order continued its excavations and gradually transformed Ilum — a revered Jedi world since antiquity — into an instrument of unfathomable destruction.”
In short, Starkiller Base wasn’t a new creation — it was the Empire’s mining operation taken to its most terrifying extreme. What began as resource extraction under the Tarkin Initiative ultimately became a weapon capable of wiping out entire star systems.
And if you want a visual confirmation of this transformation, look no further than Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. In the game, when Cal Kestis first travels to Ilum, the planet still appears largely intact — a cold, desolate world scarred by mining but not yet completely transformed. However, when the player returns to Ilum later in the story, its surface has changed dramatically. Massive trenches and excavation zones now cut across the landscape, clearly resembling the beginnings of Starkiller Base. By this point, the Empire has fully taken control of Ilum, and we can literally see the first steps of its conversion into the superweapon that the First Order would one day complete.
How the Empire’s Mining on Ilum Began
As we now know, the look of Ilum — and eventually Starkiller Base — began with the Empire. But what kind of methods did they use to strip the planet of its kyber crystals?
It was nothing short of brutal. The Empire drilled deep into the planet’s crust, tearing apart sacred Jedi caverns and ripping out every crystal they could find. The Jedi: Fallen Order databank describes it clearly: “Imperial mining operations scour sites once considered sacred by the Jedi, devouring the planet’s resources for their own corrupt, secret agenda.”
Their mining machines were powered by geothermal energy drawn straight from Ilum’s core — energy that kept their massive facilities running but left the planet scarred and dying. As the databank continues, “The process results in harmful byproducts and is highly destructive to the pristine ecosystem.”
The Ahsoka novel paints an even more emotional picture of what this destruction meant to the galaxy:
“Ahsoka felt a swell of fury, which she had to work hard to pin down. They dared to invade Ilum, to spoil such a beautiful place, and for what? To carve out rock and dirt in the hopes of finding a few shards of crystal that none of them would be able to see?”
That single passage says it all — the Empire wasn’t just mining; they were desecrating a holy world of the Jedi. And decades later, those wounds they left behind would serve as the very foundation for the First Order’s ultimate weapon: Starkiller Base.