A promotional tie-in for Solo: A Star Wars Story has introduced us to some great new characters we can expect to see, including the fantastically monickered Therm Scissorpunch, a crustacean-like alien with huge lobster claws for hands.

But despite being derided as the dumbest name in Star Wars, Therm Scissorpunch is actually quite in-keeping with tradition if you only look a little.

First up is everybody's favourite death stick dealer: Elan Sleazebaggano frequented the clubs of Coruscant before he left to rethink his life in Attack of the Clones. Although later retconned to Sel’Sabagno, Sleazebaggano is typical of the tongue-in-cheek naming convention we often see with background characters in Star Wars.

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Notluwiski Papanoida? This background character appears in Revenge of the Sith in the corridors of the theatre. The name Notluwiski isn't too bad until you realise who the actor is: it's a cameo by George Lucas.

Sith names also seem to be chosen for their thinly veiled meanings. Darth Maul was trained to be a weapon, and was named after one. Sidious has an unavoidable similarity to the word “insidious”, which means to act in a subtle but harmful way; much like how Palpatine chips away at the old Republic. Even Plagueis has connotations of ill intent.

In The Clone Wars animated series, Count Dooku takes a secret apprentice with the not too subtle name of Savage Opress. There are no prizes for guessing what his endgame is.

It would be easy to see these seemingly ridiculous names as a feature of modern Star Wars movies, but they are present in the classic Star Wars trilogy too.

Return of the Jedi is full of interesting characters, like the elephant-like Ephant Mon, Droopy McCool of the Max Reebo band, and let's not forget Jabba the Hutt’s jester Salacious B Crumb. And if individual characters aren't enough for you you could always speak to Admiral Akbar, a member of the aquatic Mon Calamari species.

Perhaps Starkiller was a bit too on-the-nose for the boy who destroys the Death Star, but these other names do make you wonder why they bothered to change it to Skywalker!

We eagerly await the release of Therm Scissorpunch: A Star Wars Story.

In the meantime, Solo: A Star Wars Story debuts on 25 May 2018 in the US and 24 May in the UK.

While wading through the treacherous universe of the Star Wars saga, you will inevitably have come across the word "canon", but just what does that mean?

What is Canon?

The short answer is that Star Wars Canon is the official story of the Star Wars universe.

The longer, more specific answer, is that the official canon consists of the Star Wars movies, The Clone Wars and Rebels animated TV shows, and any material published after 25th April 2014. 

There are a few exceptions to the above rule, and how we got here needs a little more explanation.

The Expanded Universe

Shortly after Disney acquired Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise, the Lucasfilm Story Group was created to redefine canon by decided which stories and events are officially recognised as being the true story of Star Wars. As a result, the vast majority of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (now known as Star Wars Legends) was stripped of it's canon status.

If you're not familiar with the Expanded Universe, it was a multi-layered monster of interconnected stories, some of which were more important than others. George Lucas and Lucasfilm did not originally set any standards when it came to canon, so by the early 1990s that job had been taken on by the publishing division, Lucas Licensing.

Unlike the equal status of the current canon, the Expanded Universe has several levels:

• G-canon (standing for George or Gospel, depending on who you ask) included the movies themselves, and any statements or explanation from George Lucas himself. Anything that contradicted the movies was definitely not canon.
• T-canon was created for The Clone Wars television series, and would have included other television projects, had they materialised.
• C-canon, or Continuity canon, formed the bulk of the Expanded Universe. Novels, comics, games, cartoons, and television movies usually fell into this category.
• S-canon is secondary canon, and was usually older material that predated efforts to ensure continuity. It was mainly used for reference where it wasn't contradicted by something higher up the list. Many older stories were promoted to C-canon.
• D-canon was used for material from the Star Wars Detours animated series.
• N-canon was not considered canon, such as the Infinities stories.

It's worth noting that George Lucas never considered the Expanded Universe to be part of his vision for Star Wars, and described the movies and the EU as being two separate worlds.

So there you have it, you are now fully armed to explore the Star Wars universe and know whether you are reading official canon or not!

For over a thousand years the Galactic Republic reigned unhindered, protected by Jedi Knights who swore to uphold peace and justice across the galaxy. But beneath the surface lay a shadowy faction bent on exacting their revenge.

Peace is a lie. There is only Passion.
Through Passion I gain Strength.
Through Strength I gain Power.
Through Power I gain Victory.
Through Victory my chains are Broken.
The Force shall free me.

The Code of the Sith

The Sith were an ancient order of dark-side wielding Force-users. They were once numerous, commanding armies against the Republic until an all-out war resulted in their extinction… or so the Jedi thought.

During a period that became known as the Hundred-Year-Darkness a former Jedi who was dissatisfied with the ways of the Jedi founded the Sith Order. The Sith believed in harnessing emotions such as anger to fuel their connection to the Force, and this drew them into conflict with their former brethren in the Force. The Sith were forced into exile by the Jedi, and settled on Moraband where they constructed huge temples and spread out, enslaving planets such as Malachor and Yavin 4.

During the Jedi-Sith war, the Sith succeeded in capturing the Republic capital world of Coruscant, along with the Jedi Temple itself, but the ultimate downfall of this age of the Sith would be their own greed, as they turned on each other in their quest for power.

Darth Bane

At the conclusion of the Jedi-Sith War Darth Bane stood as the sole survivor of the Sith Lords. He realised that infighting had sealed their fate and allowed the Jedi to gain the upper hand in the conflict. Only by limiting their own numbers could the Sith survive: operating in the shadows to avoid attracting the attention of the Jedi. He enacted the Rule of Two, proclaiming that there could be only two Dark Lords of the Sith at one time; a master and an apprentice. This way the Sith would master every aspect of the Force and pass on their knowledge until they had finally achieved the power of immortality.

They Jedi were fooled by this ploy, and believed that the oppression of the Sith had finally been vanquished.

Darth Plagueis

Centuries passed and the Sith Lords learnt much more about the Force. Darth Plagueis the Wise, as he would become known, mastered the secrets of manipulating the midichlorians to create life. This was a vital step in obtaining the immortality the Sith craved, and crucial to destroying the Jedi.

Darth Sidious

Once more the Sith will rule the galaxy, and we will have peace.

Darth Sidious

Plagueis’ own apprentice was well placed to further the Sith agenda. Darth Sidious, or Sheev Palpatine as he was known to the public, was born to a wealthy family from Naboo. With help from his master, Sidious rose through the political ranks to represent his homeworld in the Galactic Senate, where he saw it's corruption firsthand.

When Sidious was certain his position of power was secured he secretly acquired his own apprentice from the Nightsisters of Dathomir, and killed his master while he slept.

Using his political know-how he forced a conflict within the Republic while he played both sides: Sidious promised power to the greedy Trade Federation and orchestrated a blockage of his home planet of Naboo, while Palpatine gained favour in the Galactic Senate. His plan paid off and through his shrewd political dealings he positioned himself as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

The Jedi spent considerable effort trying to crack the mystery of the Sith, but such was Sidious’ skill with the dark side of the Force he was able to conceal his identity from Jedi Council members, including Yoda and Mace Windu.

By manipulating both sides of an escalating conflict, Sidious was able to gather more political support and stayed in power long past his term. When his identity was finally discovered and revealed, the Jedi rushed to stop him. Sidious proclaimed that this action was a Jedi plot to overthrow the Republic and declared that he would continue to serve the people as Emperor.

Sidious personally issued Order 66, which commanded the clone army of the Republic to turn on the Jedi. With their ranks devastated, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi engaged the Sith Lords but failed to topple them and were forced into exile leaving the Galactic Empire to rule the galaxy.

Darth Maul

At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.

Darth Maul

Sidious raised his first apprentice from infancy to be a blunt weapon to hurl against the Jedi. The Zabrak, Darth Maul was fearsome to behold and was a highly skilled assassin and lightsaber duellist.

When Jedi Knights whisked the Queen of Naboo away from danger during the Trade Federation blockade, Sidious sent Maul to track them down. The Sith revealed their existence and the Jedi were taken completely by surprise. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn fell to Maul's blade, but his padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi avenged his death, slicing Maul in half and sending him plummeting down a reactor shaft.

Maul wasn’t about to let a little thing like that stop him: clinging on to life through his rage, as he fell he used the Force to grab onto an air vent and escape death. After a decade of convalescence he formed his own criminal army known as the Shadow Collective, and in the chaos of the Clone War he conquered Mandalore. Unfortunately for Maul, his plans jeopardised those of his former master, and Darth Sidious confronted and defeated him.

After losing Mandalore, Maul became the head of the criminal syndicate known as Crimson Dawn, and plotted against his former master and successive apprentices until he was thwarted by the Jedi Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger.

Eventually, he would learn that Obi-Wan Kenobi had survived the Jedi Purge, and vowed to to destroy him for taking his true destiny from him, only this time Kenobi finished the job.

Darth Tyranus

To replace Maul, Sidious reached out to former Jedi Master Dooku, who had left the Jedi Order to reclaim his wealth and title of Count of Sorenno. Dooku had also seen the stagnation of the Republic and the arrogance of the Jedi. He became Darth Tyranus and helped his master orchestrate the secret creation of a clone army for the Republic, and oversaw a separatist movement to rise against the Republic.

Tyranus was highly skilled with both a lightsaber and the Force and managed to escape the Jedi at the Battle of Geonosis, an event that was used to ignite the war that Sidious needed to accelerate the Sith plot.

With Sidious leading the Galactic Republic and Tyranus leading the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the galaxy was soon embroiled in a civil war that spread the Jedi thin across the galaxy.

Hundreds of senators are now under the influence of a Sith Lord called Darth Sidious.

Darth Tyranus

Tyranus was wary of his master and secretly trained at least three apprentices of his own with the intention of overthrowing Sidious, and even tried to coax Obi-Wan Kenobi to his side.

During the last years of the Clone War, Sidious engineered the kidnapping of his alter ego Chancellor Palpatine, and pitted Tyranus against the young Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. Skywalker quickly overpowered the Sith Lord, and spurred on by Palpatine he killed Tyranus.

Darth Vader

When Qui-Gon Jinn discovered young Anakin Skywalker, he believed the boy to be the Chosen One of a Jedi prophecy that foretold the ultimate destruction of the Sith.

Sidious watched with interest as Skywalker grew in the Force, safely ensconced within the Jedi Order. It would take years of careful grooming to win him to his side, so in the guise of Chancellor Palpatine, Sidious became a friend and confidant to Skywalker, all the while sowing seeds of distrust of the Jedi in his mind.

Soon I will have a new apprentice. One far younger, and more powerful.

Darth Sidious

After the defeat of Count Dooku, Skywalker discovered that Palpatine was really the Sith Lord the Jedi had been looking for all along. Sidious claimed that only he could prevent Anakin’s wife from certain death, but despite this Anakin told Jedi Master Mace Windu, who then took a contingent of Jedi Knights to face the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Disobeying Windu’s order to remain at the Temple, Skywalker returned to the Chancellor's office to find Windu preparing to vanquish Palpatine. Sidious pleaded for Anakin to save him, convincing the him that this was all part of a plot to overthrow the Republic. Skywalker’s intervention lead to Windu’s death, and he took his place at Sidious’ side as Darth Vader.

Vader's first task was to take a unit of clone troopers to the Jedi Temple and slaughter the Jedi that remained there.

Vader was severely injured in his duel with his former master, Kenobi, but Sidious saved him and encased him in a specialised suit to preserve his life. He served as the Emperor's executor, operating mostly outside the Empire's regular chain of command, and hunting down Jedi who had slipped into hiding.

The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Darth Vader

Years later Vader found himself aboard the Empire’s new ultimate weapon, the Death Star, and faced and defeated Kenobi. A young man named Luke Skywalker gained fame amongst the rebel Alliance to Restore the Republic by rescuing rebel leader Princess Leia and destroying the Death Star. When Sidious and Vader learnt of “the son of Skywalker”, they vowed that he would be turned to the dark side or destroyed.

Vader attempted to turn Skywalker to the dark side, intending to overthrow Sidious and rule the galaxy with his son at his side, but ultimately Skywalker refused and escaped. Vader obsessed over relocating Skywalker, and spent considerable resources on this goal.

On Endor, as the Rebel Alliance mounted a mission to destroy the second Death Star, Vader was again confronted by Skywalker, who hoped to turn Vader back to the light side of the Force. Vader denied there was any conflict within him and turned Skywalker over to the Emperor as he had been ordered.

True to form, the Emperor goaded Skywalker into fighting his apprentice. When Vader lay defeated Sidious offered Skywalker a place at his side, but he refused to turn to the dark side. As Vader watched as Sidious tortured his son with deadly Force lightning, he recognised the light that remained within him and turned against his master; throwing him to his death, taking irreparable damage to his suit in the process.

With both master and apprentice perishing, the ancient line of the Sith Lords was finally broken and the Jedi prophecy fulfilled. Other dark side users would inevitably follow, but they could never claim to be a true Dark Lord of the Sith.

In a universe where a civilisation can span a galaxy, there needs to be a way to communicate clearly with friends (and enemies) across the stars. In the Star Wars universe this language is Galactic Basic, also known as Galactic Standard or simply 'Basic', which has it's own alphabet known as Aurebesh.

Basic is spoken across the galaxy and was the primary langauge of the old Republic and the Galactic Empire, although it is not the only common language; some factions have their own official languages, such as Huttese which is used by the Hutts and is common within their territories. Wookiees, among other species, are unable to speak Basic due to their differing physiology but can still learn to understand it.

You may have spotted some instances of the Aurebesh in the movies and other media and a lot of them, especially in newer media, can be translated. Luckily, the glyphs used in the aurebesh transliterate easily into English, as you can see in the images below.