A planet in the Koobi system, Nelvaan was a primitive world with low gravity. During the last year of the Clone Wars, it experienced an artificial ice age caused by a siphon generator set up on the world by the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Three moons orbited the world. It was in close proximity to Tythe. A world without much gravity, it was home to several massive life forms, including the vicious Horax.
Nelvaan was dominated by a landscape of precarious mesas that would have fallen in standard gravity worlds. These mesas were home to the primitive Nelvaanians—blue-furred lupine humanoids. Lacking a planetary government and holding no allegiance to either the Separatists or Republic, it was a rarely visited world useful only to Bothans, who regularly siphoned water from the glacial fields, a practice that did not concern the Nelvaanians.
The landscape of Nelvaan, frozen through the acts of the CIS.
In the days of the Old Republic, Nelvaan was still a primitive world. Some time around the Treaty of Coruscant in 3,653 BBY, and the Great Galactic War, it was the only planet in the Koobi system that was not under control of the Sith Empire. However, some time after the Treaty of Coruscant, records say that due to the primitiveness of the planet, Imperials planned to take over Nelvaan diplomatically rather than spend resources on an army.
During the Clone Wars, it was home to a Techno Unionlaboratory that experimented on the warriors of the Nelvaanian tribes, unhappy with the progress of the Confederacy droid army and in awe of the prowess of GeneralGrievous. Their experiments, based around a siphon generator that drained thermal energy from the surrounding area, resulted in the endless winter experienced all over the planet. The base was destroyed by Anakin Skywalker, who freed the mutated Nelvaanian warriors and ended the artificial winter in the Battle of Nelvaan.
It was also on this planet that Anakin Skywalker experienced visions inside a cave, symbolically depicting his corruption by the dark side ofthe Force. These visions came true as Darth Sidious transformed Anakin into his new apprentice, Darth Vader.
The planet gets its name from Nelvana, the animation company that made the animated segment in The Star Wars Holiday Special, and produced the Ewoks and Droids animated series.[7] The Star Wars mythos also pays homage to the company's animation predecessors in the form of the planet's dog-like inhabitants, who resemble characters from Rock & Rule, the studio's first film.[8]