Starkiller Base

Starkiller Base, also known as the Starkiller, was a series of First Order military installations and bases built into and on the ice planet of Ilum in the Unknown Regions. The installations were commanded by an unofficial triumvirate of General Armitage Hux, Kylo Ren, and Captain Phasma, and as such the installation was considered the unofficial capital of the First Order.

The base's main installation was a powerful superweapon, capable of destroying entire star systems halfway across the galaxy using hyperspace tunneling powered by Dark matter quintessence, a substance originally researched as part of Project Celestial Power, a Galactic Empire project that had ultimately lead to the creation of other superweapons, known as 'Death Stars'. despite this, the First Order viewed the weapon as an evolution of the planet-destroying capabilities of the Galactic Empire's Death Star designs.

The base and planet were ultimately destroyed by a Resistance attack due to a weak point exploited by pilot Poe Dameron, causing the implosion of the entire planet as the superweapon was firing upon the Resistance base on D'Qar. The stored stellar energy then expanded, causing the planet to turn into a star.

The superweapon housed in the base bore some similarities to the DS-1 Death Star Mobile Battle Station and the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station, the two planet-destroying battle stations built by the Galactic Empire, but it possessed far more power than its predecessors and was more than twice the size, as it was built into a planet. Starkiller Base represented a technological step forward in power, as the First Order believed that they needed to become more powerful than the fallen Galactic Empire if they were to succeed in enacting their goals. Starkiller Base drew its power from the energy of stars, a possible reason for its name.

Text and facts from the “Starkiller Base” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.