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Exegol seemed like quite the extreme planet. Full of force presence or quite some lightning strikes. The planet seemed quite devoid of life other than the emperor and devotees of the emperor. There was the monkey face guy that fixed Kylo's mask, the Sith crowd and a massive amount of battleships full of red storm troopers.

As Star Wars in the past has done a good job in world building, I have many questions about this world. It just seems not likely that people live there except robots and ghosts. So how did they manage (nutrition, entertainment, an outlook in life?) What did life there look like?

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  • There honestly isn't a lot there, but I think that a lot of what was there was "unnatural". It might be possible though that there was food/shelter on the Deathstar Destroyers and while Exegol might be be home base to hide everthing, it seems unlikely that other locations were not involved in bringing in engineers, scientists, and materials back and forth, but Wookieepedia does not have a lot of sources yet: starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Exegol – Darth Locke Dec 24 '19 at 13:56
  • There’s little evidence of life on Tattooine or Jakku and no evidence of agriculture; I’d say that's not an issue particular to Exogal. – jeffronicus Dec 27 '19 at 0:41
  • Well Tattooine is actually explored in quite some detail, there were bars, illegal sand racing, cute kids that were sadly enslaved, force sensitive mechanics with elephant noses that also enslaved mentioned children, also Luke's (non biological) care takers were farmers, but doing it underground. Also both Tatooine and Jakku have an important factor for food and outlook, the sun. Exegol seemed to be lit by lightning mostly and was very dark. Tatooine and Jakku were pretty well established worlds with clear ways how people lived there. – levilime Dec 27 '19 at 9:26
  • @levilime Watto wasn't Force sensitive, only resistant to mind tricks; and moisture farming doesn't really count as "agriculture". I had always assumed most of Tatooine's food was imported since it's economy seemed to be centered around the spaceport. Of course we only have a basis for this sort of speculation because Tatooine (along with most other worlds with any plot significance in the Original or Prequel Trilogies) sees considerable world-building in the film. – EldritchWarlord Jan 20 '20 at 21:20
  • Indeed, how did people manage to live in Mordor? :-) – EleventhDoctor Jan 24 '20 at 12:50
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It isn't 100% clear yet if any natural corporeal beings were living (for long periods of time) on Exegol.

With the help of the Star Wars Visual Dictionary we can surmise that many of the people involved with bringing The Emperor & The Sith back, were loyalists (Ochi), cultists (Sith Eternal), spirits of the Sith, and alchemist practitioners dabbling in a combination of genetic procedures and the dark side occult.

There is a character called Albrekh for instance, whose a Sith "Alchemist" that fixes Kylo Ren's helmet and The Knights of Ren, who seem to align with The Emperor in the end, are "mildly" force-sensitive. There is another character Rothgar Deng, whose face is distorted from "horrific procedures", and of course there were Snokes in tanks, implying "Snoke Clones".

As for the Sith Troopers, it unclear if they were all corporeal humanoid people and if they lived on Exegol or if they lived on the new Deathstar Destroyers? They were however, placed into legions that were numbered and named after legendary Sith.

The combination of factors may then imply that no one was really "living" on Exogal outside the spirits (wraiths?) and the remains of the Emperor and we might suppose that instead people like scientists, engineers, loyalists, occultists came and went from the planet and/or could temporarily live off of supplies (food, water, shelter, etc) in their vessels.

UPDATE:

In the underground launch bays beneath the surface of Exegol is the final stage of the First Order's long-gestating plan of conquest. the loyalists who have been toiling in secret to bring the return of their glorious Empire and to resurrect the Sith Order include engineers, shipwrights, and enslaved labor. Their efforts have created hundreds of warships and thousands of starfighters ready to launch. While the Sith monolith is the site of macabre rituals that plump the secrets of the Force*, the neighboring staging grounds represent pure military might, grounded in the imperial legacy of rule through technological supremacy."* -Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary Page 172

So now that I have my own copy of the Dictionary, I was able to find a passage that specifically tells us a bit more about Exegol.

Exegol had more than one staging ground, meaning that there has to be a separate site near the Sith ruins on the planet where the the children were raised/trained, the scientists and shipwrights came to work, and other slaved labor brought to the planet that we didn't get to see in the film.

But in addition to that the site seems integral for Sidious to be brought back and/or the Force was also on sight and perhaps played a role in other ways, including religious aspiration of the "Sith Eternal" Officers and Personal, who were the must dedicated to the overall cause. (And it appears they were all human).

It doesn't say anywhere if this "neighboring staging ground" is more habitable, than the monolith site, but it does reconfirm my suspicion that there were "ships" and scientists and such that were all working towards this goal and feasibly people could make temporary living structures and/or live on ships.

if I come across any more "credible" information, I will update this post with that information.

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    The whole crowd could have been holograms for all we can tell, though they fled like they were worried about being crushed by the collapsing temple. – jeffronicus Dec 27 '19 at 0:45
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    Some may have been The Sith Eternal, it's unclear, but Sidious does say that all of the Sith are with him and they are presented in a kind of ghostly manner. – Darth Locke Dec 27 '19 at 1:55
  • Snoke Clones... Snoklones... Snokones? – T.J.L. Jan 24 '20 at 14:28
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This cannot be answered within the context of the film directly, since none of that kind of stuff has been shown on screen.

Not even using the toilet.

This is kind of a trope that real life things are never shown and simply assumed to must have happened/existed, but they arn’t important to the story.

Assuming there were some females on the Death Star one can also conclude that there must have been schools and daycare centers..So Luke literally blew up children...but not many people like to talk about that kind of stuff or that The rebels could be seen as actual religious terrorists...but thats again, besides the point.

Keep in mind on Exegol a fleet of 10,000 destroyers were built underground. It seems obvious there was also hundreds of thousands or millions of beings employed underground and probably planet wide and planet deep.

Also keep in mind we only saw a single (local and tiny) part of the planet (and planets are usually huge) and as soon as Palpatine died the storm also stopped in that area. If you landed in the Sahara via spaceship, it would be a mistake to come to the conclusion the entire earth is a desert.

This kind of movie requires a specific amount of hand waving and suspension of disbelief in order for it to work.

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  • Thanks @morbo, I categorize your answer as a meta answer, it said my question couldn't be answered within the confines of the movie due to the format. I didn't notice the storm fading, also I do admit I haven't thought that critical about life on the death star which you have exposed me to now. I do think that there is a little bit more critique to give to Exegol compared to those locations. It seemed so vague... almost like it was a mirage, a dark side illusion, a trope used a lot in the star wars movies. It felt vague to the point that I couldn't suspend my disbelief, because it felt whatevs – levilime Dec 24 '19 at 14:17
  • @morbo Once again, in Star Wars case, many answers do come from other source materials, including novelizations of the film (and sometimes have an "expanded" version) or companions like The Visual Dictionaries. It is relevant to the film, because Star Wars has extensive mythology that has always explained how something is possible and you can't "fully" understand much of what's happening without it. This question is valid to anyone who wants to understand the context of Sith lore that is being used as the literal plot. – Darth Locke Dec 24 '19 at 17:50
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    Using source material outside of a film to explain a film is clearly a sign of bad writing. A film question must be answered with context from the film itself or the series it stems from, i clearly mentioned this and i refuse the idea that a viewer must read all extended content to understand a movie that cant stand on its own legs. – morbo Dec 24 '19 at 18:23
  • @Morbo, I agree with you that the world building for Exegol was really vague. It didn't seem mysterious, but whatevs. I think Star Wars(original trilogy) has been so highly regarded because the movies can stand on their own and are understandable. While also having amazing depth for viewers to fantasize about after the movies. Exegol seemed too vague to fantasize about, to be honest it felt quite shallow. – levilime Dec 24 '19 at 20:28
  • @morbo rather have a film that makes me use my brain, then one that overtly spoon feeds me everything and leaves nothing to the imagination. This is also the way Star Wars has been for long time, being something that is ever expanding and is apart of the deeper fan experience, even though, sure, it's not for everyone. – Darth Locke Dec 25 '19 at 23:53

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