Caamas/Legends

Caamas was a highly populated and marsh-covered Core World in the Cirius system, the second planet orbiting the star Cirius. It was notable for the devastation it suffered during an Imperial orbital bombardment which destroyed its ecosystem and nearly wiped out the native Caamasi.

Geographic features
Caamas was once a temperate, hospitable world of jungles, marshes, steppes, and rolling hills. Its dense rainforests and jungles teemed with life. After the Imperial bombardment, nearly all flora and fauna either disappeared or were mutated beyond recognition. Caamas became a barren waste, and without vegetation to release oxygen, the atmosphere became toxic and unbreathable. Bombardment kicked up smoke and dust into the air, and the surface became wracked by dust storms and falling soot, eroding the surface and sending dirt and mud into the oceans. The waters, once teeming with sea life, became muddy, polluted, stagnant, and lifeless.

History


Caamas was the homeworld of behemoths and the sentient Caamasi people. Around 30,000 BBY during the Pre-Republic era, Caamas was ruled by the space-faring Rakata. Using Force-based hyperdrives, they traveled to many worlds around the galaxy that possessed significant signatures in the Force, uniting them to form the Rakatan Infinite Empire. After five thousand years of galactic dominance, the Rakata retreated to their homeworld.

In 25,053 BBY, Caamas was one of the Core Founders of the Galactic Republic. Some legends claimed that the early Jedi learned morality from the Caamasi, whose name came to mean 'friend from afar' or 'stranger to be trusted' in various languages used throughout the galaxy. Despite these legends, few Caamasi ever learned the ways of the Force under the Jedi. There was, however, a Jedi Temple established there for contemplation, learning, and teaching proper moral judgment, and at least one Caamasi did become a Jedi, Ylenic It'kla, who served during the Clone Wars.

The planet was represented in the Galactic Senate by Eeshrin Ot'Hyne, who opposed the Military Creation Act. Despite this, Caamas remained loyal to the Republic during the Clone Wars that followed. Pacifistic by nature, the Caamasi found war distasteful, possessing a deep empathy and respect for other beings, including their enemies.

Destruction
Although Palpatine appreciated the loyalty of Caamas, he found their adherence to the principles and values of the Old Republic intolerable. The Empire had the planet subjected to a planetary bombardment in 19 BBY shortly after the Clone Wars, after the powerful and heavily guarded planetary shields were infiltrated and lowered by Bothan agents. The Jedi Temple on Caamas was ruined, suffering many direct hits at Palpatine's direction. Many survivors fled to other worlds including, ironically, Alderaan. It was here that one of the largest communities of the Caamasi Remnant settled, hoping to find sanctuary, only to die when that planet too was destroyed by the first Death Star. The Royal Library on Alderaan contained a great deal of information on the attack. In later years other communities of Caamasi survivors were formed on Kerilt and Susevfi.

Several years after the destruction of Caamas, a meteor hit the planet and carved a massive crater in its surface.

Under the New Republic, a few Caamasi founded Refuge City on Caamas, from which they hoped to decontaminate and rescue their blighted world. They were aided by the Ithorians, who were naturally drawn to such projects, as they were with the reconstruction of Telos IV many centuries prior. Some of the Ithorians, however, arrived when their herdship crashed on Caamas under mysterious circumstances, and the xenological jungle it contained took root on Caamas' smallest continent in the southern hemisphere. The existence of this herdship was known only to a few Ithorians. The ruined Jedi Temple was located in this impenetrable alien jungle.

Just south of Refuge City lay a crater that had been caused by a meteor strike shortly after the devastation. The Bothans paid Caamas 50,000 credits a year to use this location as a waste dump. The funds went directly to decontamination efforts. It was virtually unknown that Bothan Debris, Inc., who rented the location, was a front for the Bothan Spynet, run by an agent named Kursk Te'tell.

Bothan Complicity
In order to devastate the surface of Caamas, Palpatine had to ensure the planetary shield generators were deactivated. To that end, he hired a group of Bothan operatives, an action that did not come to light until the Caamas Document was uncovered from the remains of Mount Tantiss in 19 ABY, prompting a major crisis in the New Republic. To add to the confusion, a copy of the document was altered shortly after its discovery by Grodin Tierce to implicate Bothan clans who had had no involvement in the operation, a copy which was given to Lando Calrissian by a fake Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Later history
In 130 ABY, it was the site of the final battle of the Sith-Imperial War. The choice of the system hints that it may have been one of the planets terraformed during the Ossus Project.

Appearances



 * Elusion Illusion
 * Hero of Cartao
 * Republic HoloNet News Special Inaugural Edition 16:5:24
 * Coruscant Nights II: Street of Shadows
 * Coruscant Nights III: Patterns of Force
 * Rebel Dawn
 * I, Jedi
 * Specter of the Past
 * Vision of the Future
 * Star Wars: Legacy 8: Allies
 * Star Wars: Legacy 9: Trust Issues, Part 1
 * Star Wars: Legacy 20: Indomitable, Part 1
 * Star Wars: Legacy 36: Renegade
 * Star Wars: Legacy 47: The Fate of Dac
 * Star Wars: Legacy 36: Renegade
 * Star Wars: Legacy 47: The Fate of Dac

Notes and references
Caamas Caamas