In the 1973 story synopsis, the Imperial capital world of Alderaan seems to have been essentially equivalent to the later city-planet Coruscant of the prequels.

However, the Alderaan seen in the 1974 rough draft was essentially a prototype of Cloud City: a floating metropolis hanging in the midst of a gaseous cloud expanse. The idea derives more or less straight from the Sky City of the Hawkmen in the original Flash Gordon Sunday comics.

In the second and third drafts from 1975, Alderaan remained a floating Cloud City and an Imperial prison, but it was no longer the capital of the Empire, merely a detention center. Still, the second draft does mention that the chief Sith Lord--then a separate character from the Emperor--had his residence on Alderaan.

The Alderaan of 1975 is evidently similar to Salusa Secundus in Dune: a secondary planet of the ruling House Corrino, where the Empire's greatest warriors are trained, though the Padishah Emperor currently has his capital on the planet Kaitain.

In Leigh Brackett's draft of ESB, the Imperial capital city-planet is known as Ton-Muund. This name, partly French in inspiration, suggests the phrase "tomb world" (or even "your world").

Had Abaddon, from the early drafts of ROTJ, has obvious Biblical connections--as does the name of "the Green Moon," Endor (or Jus-Endor, in some of the drafts).