Rokrul

"Master..." "Yes, Anakin, I know. There are only women and children."

- Skywalker and Kenobi upon arrival in Rokrul

Rokrul was a village on the planet Nelvaan of the Koobi system in the Outer Rim Territories. It was built within an indention on the side of a cliff and was populated by the local Nelvaanians. During the Clone Wars, a galaxy-spanning conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Techno Union, a founding member of the Confederacy, captured all the adult males from the village and began experiments on them in hopes of creating a super-Nelvaanian army. Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi landed on the planet and came in contact with the remaining villagers, who informed the two of their plight. Skywalker was then revealed to be the answer to a prophecy that stated the Holt Kazed, or "Ghost Hand," would free the captive men, due to his prosthetic hand. Skywalker located the Techno Union base and was able to destroy it, freeing all the Nelvaanian males that survived the battle. Skywalker returned to the village with the men and reunited them with their families.

Description
Rokrul was a small village on the Outer Rim planet Nelvaan in the Koobi system. The village's buildings were carved out of the rock within an indention on the side of a cliff. The structures were mostly giant hollowed-out stalagmites growing from the floor, of which there were at least fifteen. The village was populated by at least eighty-five to one hundred Nelvaanians. These Nelvaanians belonged to several tribes, and the village was a result of a loose affiliation among the tribes created for protection and assistance. The culture of the village necessitated that the men be warriors and scouts, responsible for hunting and protection, while the women stay in the village and do the building, gathering, and most important of all, raising of the children, as motherhood was sacred in Nelvaanian tradition. The villagers regarded their homeworld as the "Great Mother," and whenever something tragic happened in nature, they felt as if the Great Mother had been hurt. Village clothing was different for males, females, and children. Women wore long brown, gray, and red gowns while the men wore pants and loin cloths with no top. Children wore robe-like garments that were often brown in color. During celebrations, the villagers would also wear giant masks and gauntlets while dancing around a bonfire. These fires were occasionally used to speak to the "Spirit of the Fire," a spiritual figure in Nelvaanian tradition.

History
"You've done a great thing for these people. Well done, Anakin."

- Kenobi to Skywalker

Sometime prior to 19 BBY, the villagers of Rokrul discovered that an elixir used to repel the vicious horax beasts in the area could be made using the tail scales from one of the creatures. One scale could be used to make a perimeter around the village that would last an entire year. It eventually became a rite of passage for young Nelvaanian boys to venture out at the start of the year and bring back a scale from the tail of a horax.

During the Clone Wars, a galaxy-spanning conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Techno Union, a Confederate-allied corporation, created a laboratory on Nelvaan. The Union base functioned off a Siphon generator that drained thermal energy from the surrounding area, plunging the nearby village of Rokrul into an endless winter. Though the village's shaman Orvos had predicted a coming ice age, the intensity and abruptness of the cold took the village by surprise. The villagers, not knowing what caused the winter, believed that the "Great Mother" was ill, and that she must be healed in order for the warm weather to return. To discover what caused the Mother's illness, the village sent its male scouts and warriors out. All of the males, including a warrior named Harvos, were captured by the Techno Union and mutated into cyborgs for the war effort.

Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi were taken to the village after interfering with a young Nelvaanian boy's initiation process. The young boy happened to be Chieftain Tuzes-Adaz's son. Upon arriving at the village, Tuzes-Adaz told Kenobi and Skywalker of the legendary Holt Kazed, or "Ghost Hand," and why all the males of the community had vanished. Orvos, the local shaman, covered Skywalker's body with bruise-leech crawlers during a ritualistic practice. Afterward, Kenobi stated that this would be Anakin's final Trial, the Trial of Spirit, and the villagers sent Anakin to rescue the Nelvaanian males. After infiltrating and successfully destroying the Techno Union base, the mutated males were welcomed back into Rokrul village, and the females and children learned to accept them once again.

Behind the scenes
Rokrul first appeared in the twenty-third chapter of the 2003 animated show Star Wars: Clone Wars, which aired on March 23, 2005. The village was first named in the Databank entry for Nelvaan on StarWars.com. Rokrul's name is similar in pronunciation to the title of "Rock & Rule," an animated film by Canadian animation studio Nelvana. The film was an influence on the character design of the Nelvaanians. Influences on the culture of the village included The Star Wars Holiday Special, The Dark Crystal, and Native American mythos.